Cause of teen`s death determined

11759069.qxp
1/5/2012
10:40 PM
Page 1
Volume CXXXIII - No. 5
www.rocketminer.com
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
75¢
YOUR LOCAL NEWS SOURCE SINCE 1881
Cause of
teen’s death
determined
ROCK SPRINGS — Hypothermia caused the death of
a Rock Springs man whose
body was found about 17 miles
north of Green River on Dec.
31.
Sweetwater County Sheriff
Rich Haskell and County
Coroner Dale Majhanovich
said the finding was the result
of an autopsy performed on
Jan. 3 in Loveland, Colo., on
the body of 18-year-old Vernon
Johnson.
Accompanied by two 17year-old girls, Johnson rolled
the 1994 Oldsmobile he was
driving on the 14-Mile Road
near Alkali Creek late on the
night of Dec. 30.
The three left the vehicle
and attempted to walk out of
the area throughout the night
and early the next morning.
Officials said one of the girls
had a coat, and the others had
none.
After walking about 3.5
miles in the dark, they took
what shelter they could in a
draw not far from the intersection of the 14-Mile Road and
the Blue Rim Road. The two
girls slept briefly while Johnson watched over them. Later,
Johnson slept and was awakened by the teens around sunrise. They were able to help
him to his feet, but he collapsed and could not be revived.
The two girls returned to the
road were picked up by a passing driver, who notified authorities. A search was initiated and Johnson’s body was
found in the draw about threefourths of a mile from the intersection of the Blue Rim and
14-Mile roads around 10 a.m.
Foul play is not suspected in
Johnson’s death, nor is alcohol
believed to have been a factor.
Majhanovich noted that the
temperature in the area
dropped to below 20 degrees
Fahrenheit that night.
Haskell said the cause of the
crash continues to be investigated.
URA: Downtown
events receive
mixed reactions
Carlo Harryman/Rocket-Miner
Warn The Neighbors
ROCK SPRINGS: Rock Springs police officers work to alert the occupants of homes threatened by flames from a fire at 417 Pine St. on Thursday
night. Fire came from the window near a swamp cooler and loud popping noises could be heard emanating from the structure. Neighbors on
scene described the home as a foreclosed rental property. As of press time, no further details were available.
Internet and telephone fraud
growing in number and variety
PAUL MURRAY
Rocket-Miner Staff Reporter
JOEL GALLOB
Rocket-Miner Staff Reporter
ROCK SPRINGS — Discussion at the Rock Springs Urban Renewal Agency Promotions Committee meeting on
Wednesday focused on how
the organization can assist
downtown merchants beyond
occasional events.
Committee member David
Jensen said some downtown
merchants see themselves as
deriving no clear benefit from
events such as Rods and Rails.
During events that draw massive numbers of people downtown, Jensen said some merchants have said they are
forced to close during the
event, or if they do stay open,
they have too many people
asking only to use the store
restrooms.
Following these events, merchants must clean up mounds
of downtown trash in order to
reopen their stores.
In addition, committee
SEE URA, PAGE 3A
The Broadway Theater is illuminated by a large neon sign
on Thursday night. The project
is nearing completion as the
finishing touches are put on
the building. Meanwhile, the
Urban Renewal Agency has received mixed feedback on
hosting events that draw people downtown.
YOUR GUIDE TO INSIDE
UW wrestling team
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ROCK SPRINGS — Law enforcement is losing the battle
against Internet and related fraud,
a Green River police officer said.
“We are losing this war,” Green
River Police Department Public
Information Officer Fred Moczulski said. “Last year, in Green River, we’ve seen more than
$100,000 in scams.”
He said he expected the number to increase in 2012.
Moczulski said there have been
studies indicating as many as 1.7
million instances of Internet fraud
in the United States in one year.
“But those are just the reports.
We don’t know how many are never reported,” he said. “It could be
really 3 (million) or 4 million, we
don’t know. People don’t want to
admit being scammed, and so
they don’t report it.”
He gave the example of a Green
River resident who attempted to
buy an outboard motor from Ohio.
“The Green River guy sends
him a check for $5,000, and the
seller kept putting him off saying
it’s being sent, it’s being sent. It
went on for months, and Detective Tom Jarvie was able to trace
the e-mail to the address, and it
was a legitimate address in Ohio.
Working through the city attorney’s office there, they got a warrant for the guy, and then called
the local sheriff’s office, and they
picked him up. It would have cost
that county more to extradite the
seller back here, but the guy became cooperative and sent the
$5,000 back.”
However, Moczulski said that
does not happen very often. Big
city police are often flooded with
The Internet age has given people access to huge amounts of information, entertainment and friends, but law enforcement warned there is
a dark side to the Internet which offers criminals opportunities to scam
people out of their money.
more serious crimes, and if the
money goes overseas, he said,
“You won’t see it again.”
He said all of this makes it important for people to be aware of
scams and know the signals an offer is a fraud.
RELATIONSHIP SCAMS
For example, there is the relationship scam. In one version, victims get involved in online dating
services and are convinced to
send money to a would-be valentine. “We had one woman mortgage her house for the same guy
for about $180,000 a few years
ago,” Moczulski said.
He said many people use dating
services for the intended purpose,
“but there are snakes in that
grass.”
Another relationship scam fo-
cuses on familial bond, such as the
grandchild in emergency con.
“A person calls someone and
claims to be grandchild or lawyer
for a grandchild and says, ‘I’m in
France and I need to get home.
Can you send money immediately through Western Union or by
MoneyGram?’ The person calls
and says, ‘Hi this is your favorite
grandson, and the grandma will
says, ‘Bobby is that you?’ And
there it is. The scammer has got
the name,” Moczulski said
Dick Blust of the Sweetwater
County Sheriff’s Office said smart
thinking can block potential fraud.
“We had an e-mail scam in
Pinedale where an elderly male
got an e-mail saying this is your
grandson, and I am in jail in Canada, please send money. There was
nowhere to wire money in
Pinedale, and the man drove to
Wal-Mart. But at the same time,
his son saw one of our advisories
on scams, and he called the grandfather and headed the older guy
off before he could wire the money. It was $1,500.”
This scam sees a wide set of
variations.
“Sometimes the scammer calls
and says he is under arrest in
Mexico or Canada, those are the
two big ones,” Moczulski said. “We
have had people send $6,000 or
$10,000, and of course the purported grandson says don’t tell
mom and dad because they’ll be
angry. Then the grandparent talks
to mom and mom says ‘Johnny is
in Kansas.’ But then it’s too late.
Once you send money by Western
Union or MoneyGram, it’s like
cash. In Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police won’t touch
the case if it’s under $5,000.”
Moczulski stressed people of all
ages can be defrauded.
“It can be anybody. These people are very good at what they do,
and they prey on any person who
wants to be trusting. It is not that
the victims are stupid,” he said.
SHOPPING SCAMS
Moczulski said people should
be aware of overpayment
schemes, which start when a
scammer offers to buy an item
and sends more than the requested amount. Moczulski said they
often use money orders or
cashier’s checks because they are
harder to trace than a check. If the
sellers send the missing balances,
they may find the original payments were counterfeit.
SEE FRAUD, PAGE 3A
SCAM SIGNALS
Law enforcement officers from the Green
River Police Department, Rock Springs Police
Department and Sweetwater County Sheriff’s
Office said scams often have common indicators.
A solicitation may be a scam if:
• If it seems too good to be true.
• If it is unsolicited.
• If there is pressure to act quickly or lose
the opportunity.
• If it comes from outside the United States.
• If it says winnings or an inheritance is
coming from an unknown relative.
• If a person refers to family members, especially on the phone.
• If a person wants cash, money order or
cashier’s check, all of which cannot be traced.
• If a person asks for credit card or bank account numbers.
• If a person said, “You don’t need to check
out our company.”
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF
According to Sweetwater County Sheriff’s
Department Public Information Officer Dick
Blust, there are several ways to protect your-
self from fraud.
• Never send money, cashier’ checks or
money order to someone you don’t know.
• Verify if someone claims to be a family
member, or acting on their behalf, by contacting other family members.
• Never give credit card, bank or similar account numbers.
• If contacted by a charity, ask what percent of the money goes to commissions, operating expenses and the purported cause. If
the caller cannot or will not provide that information, it is likely a scam.
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1/5/2012
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Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
rocketminer.com
Make the New Year sparkle
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ROCK SPRINGS — The Community Fine Arts Center is kicking off its 2012 jewelry making
classes in January with a pair of
earrings that dangle and a
bracelet that is all buttoned up.
First up is a class working with
chain and sparkly crystals to create Crystal Drop Earrings starting at noon on Jan. 6, 2012. These
dangly chain earrings are a lovely
way to learn to work with chain
and to showcase great glass or
crystal beads. Dangling the beads
off a section of chain allows the
light to catch them for maximum
sparkle and it is easy to control
the length of the earrings to suit
every taste.
The second class will be conducted Jan. 20, starting at noon
and will feature techniques on
how to create a bracelet using
buttons, instead of beads, for the
focal points.
This class is a wonderful way to
show off all those special beads
that are tucked away in jars and
sewing kits.
Both classes will be taught by
local jewelry maker and assistant
to the director at the Community
Fine Arts Center Jennifer Messer.
Messer holds degrees from Western Wyoming Community College, Montana State University
and the University of Wyoming
and has taught classes in jewelry
making, Artist Trading Cards,
book making, art history and
mixed media projects.
All the supplies and tools are
included in each class fee, but students with their own tools or specific beads, chain or findings they
are hoping to use are welcome to
bring them to class. Students will
leave each class with a finished
piece of jewelry to wear.
Interested individuals can see
examples of these projects, and
more from the spring class
schedule, and register for a small
supply fee.
You can also keep up with our
classes and current exhibits on
the Web site www.cfac4art.com
or friend us on Facebook to see
great photos of upcoming classes
and shows.
CFAC hours are Monday
through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6
p.m. and Friday and Saturdays
from noon to 5 p.m.
Photojournalist Eve Arnold dies at 99
JILL LAWLESS
Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Eve Arnold,
a world-traveling photojournalist
whose subjects ranged from the
poor and dispossessed to Marilyn
Monroe, has died, the Magnum
photo agency said Thursday. She
was 99.
Magnum spokeswoman Fiona
Rogers said Arnold died peacefully Wednesday in a London nursing home.
Born in Philadelphia in April
1912 to Russian immigrant parents, Arnold lived on Long Island
when she became interested in
photography while working in a
photofinishing lab.
After taking a six-week photography course at the New School
for Social Research in New York,
she began her career in the
1940s, working for publications
including Picture Post, Time and
Life magazine during a golden
age of magazine photojournalism.
Her subjects included migrant
laborers, New York bartenders,
Cuban fishermen and Afghan nomads; celebrities such as Joan
Crawford and Elizabeth Taylor;
and political figures including
Jacqueline Kennedy, Malcolm X
and Margaret Thatcher.
Arnold was renowned for her
rapport with those she photographed.
“If you’re careful with people
and if you respect their privacy,
they will offer part of themselves
that you can use,” she told the
BBC in a 2002 interview.
Her most famous shots include
portraits of Monroe — both vulnerable and glamorous — taken
over a decade and collected in her
book “Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation.”
“Themes recur again and again
in my work,” Arnold once said. “I
have been poor and I wanted to
document poverty; I had lost a
child and I was obsessed with
birth; I was interested in politics
and I wanted to know how it affected our lives; I am a woman
and I wanted to know about
women.” Arnold joined the Magnum agency in 1951— the first
woman admitted to the cooperative — after her images of fashion
shows in Harlem caught the attention of photographer Henri
Cartier-Bresson.
Arnold settled in London in the
1960s, working for the Sunday
Times Magazine and other publications. In the 1970s she photographed and filmed Dubai’s ruling family for “Behind the Veil,”
and was one of the first American
photographers to work in China.
The photos she took there were
exhibited in her first solo show, at
the Brooklyn Museum in 1980,
and published as “In China.” Oth-
er volumes of her work included
“In America” and “The Great
British.”
Her work was exhibited at
Britain’s National Portrait Gallery
and was the subject of a retrospective show at the Barbican in
London in 1996.
Arnold was a fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and in
1995 was named Master Photographer by New York’s International Center of Photography.
In 2003 she was named an officer of the Order of the British
Empire, or OBE, by Queen Elizabeth II for services to photography, and in 2009 received a lifetime achievement prize from the
Sony
World
Photography
Awards.
Long divorced from husband
Arnold Arnold, she is survived by
her son, Frank, and three grandchildren. Funeral details were not
immediately available.
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Oil executives
meet with Alaska
gov. on pipeline
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) —
Shipping to Asia-Pacific markets may be the best way to
commercialize the natural gas
at Alaska’s prodigious North
Slope, the chief executive of
ConocoPhillips said after
meeting the state’s governor
Thursday.
To do that, the company
would like to build a pipeline
from the North Slope to a liquefied natural gas plant in the
middle part of the state to
prepare the gas for export,
ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva told reporters in Anchorage.
Alaskans have long hoped
for a gas line as a way to create jobs, provide more reliable
energy and shore up revenues
as oil production declines.
Mulva spoke after a closed
reception with business and
political leaders featuring him
and the CEOs of the North
Slope’s other major players,
Rex Tillerson of Exxon Mobil
Corp. and Bob Dudley of BP.
The reception followed a
two-hour meeting between
the chief executives and Parnell that focused on ways to
advance a natural gas
pipeline.
Parnell said in October that
he wants the companies to
unite behind a project that
would allow for liquefied natural gas to be shipped overseas, if the market for gas has
truly shifted from the Lower
48. Such a project would have
to come about under the
framework of the Alaska
Gasline Inducement Act,
which gave TransCanada
Corp. an exclusive state license to build the pipeline
and up to $500 million in reimbursable costs.
LANDER (AP) — Two years
ago, David Gonzales started a
small army he called TreeFight.
His citizen soldiers — more
than 100 strong — took to the
backcountry, waging a war
against mountain pine beetles
killing the valuable and now endangered whitebark pine trees.
The fighters stapled their secret weapon, pouches filled
with pheromones, to the tree.
The verbenone, a pheromone
mountain pine beetles use to
communicate, was meant to
confuse the beetles by sending
the signal the tree was full and
to leave it alone.
More than 100 of Gonazales’
volunteers attempted to protect
more than 1,000 trees. Yet,
thousands more continued to
die.
This summer, Gonzales plans
to create a larger army to continue the fight. In addition to
working with volunteers protecting trees on hikes, he’s
launching a new educational
component of TreeFight, teaching the next generation about
the importance of whitebark
pine and how it can protect the
species.
The nonprofit will focus on
working with kids in the outdoors.
“It’s the ultimate classroom,”
Gonzales said. “I wish I had
gone to classes in a whitebark
forest when I was young.”
Gonzales is working on the
lessons that will teach students
about ecology in an immersive
and adventurous way, he said.
While showing students whitebark pine trees at 9,000 feet,
kids will also learn how to travel safely and comfortably in the
mountains.
Gonzales plans to partner
with the Teton County School
District and hopes to forge relationships with other organizations, such as the Teton Science School, he said.
Gonzales worked with a
small number of students last
summer. The students learned
about the trees in the classroom
during summer school and
then went with Gonzales to actually see the trees and peel
away the bark to look for beetles.
At first, Gonzales thought the
kids weren’t listening as they
kicked rocks and jostled each
other.
Later, as the students wrote
blog entries inspired by the experience, he found they absorbed what he said in a way
adults didn’t.
“We have a limited capacity
for bad news and scary news
and intimidating news,” Gonzales said. “Kids are much more
likely to really listen because
this is the world they are inheriting.”
In addition to working with
student programs, Gonzales
said TreeFight will still offer
chances for adults to volunteer
on hikes to place verbenone
patches and ecotourism opportunities aimed at visitors to
Jackson during the summer.
Last summer, TreeFight
talked with the Forest Service
about placing patches in designated wilderness areas and if it
violated the Wilderness Act.
In the future, use of verbenone patches in the wilderness will be decided on a caseby-case basis by the Forest Service, said Linda Merigliano
with the Forest Service.
“I definitely see those conversations continuing,” she said.
While the Forest Service didn’t set a policy for pheromone
patches in wilderness areas, it is
going to partner with TreeFight
this summer, she said.
The Forest Service plans to
monitor some specific nonwilderness areas with verbenone to better understand if
it works or if results can be attributed to other factors,
Merigliano said.
TreeFight will probably be
asked to help in the monitoring,
she said.
Volunteers
through
TreeFight also will help plant
whitebark seedlings to help
with reforestation.
TreeFight began only two
years ago. Its impact on saving
trees is still unknown.
While most trees marked
with pheromone patches survived, there isn’t enough data to
credit to the verbenone, Gonzales said. Other factors, such as
a cold snap in October 2009
that helped keep beetle populations in check, also had an impact.
What Gonzales does know is
he has to try something.
“It’s still experimental,” he
said. “That’s (part of) what science is. Hopefully we can bring
students into that process and
get them excited about it and
get them to take part in it.”
OBITUARY
RUTH ELLEN MERRILL
GREEN RIVER — Ruth Ellen
Merrill, 88, of Green River, died
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012, at the
Castle Rock Convalescent Center
in Green River. A Green River
resident for the past seven years
and former resident of Casper,
she died following a sudden illness.
Mrs. Merrill was born
April 15, 1923, in Bayard,
Neb., the daughter of
William Crouch and
Sarah Spurgin. She attended schools in Glenrock and graduated from
Glenrock High School.
She married Rudy
Toman in Casper. He
preceded her in death on Jan. 26,
1966. She married Art Merrill in
1968. He preceded her in death in
2005.
Her interests included hunting,
fishing and exercising.
Survivors include two sons,
Tommy Toman and wife Colleen
of Missoula, Mont., and Jerry
Toman and wife Julie of Green
River; daughter, Sandee Owens
and husband Bill of Everette,
Wash.; four granddaughters,
Rudelle Gillingwators, Candice
Sobota, Jayden Toman and Jessica Flores; grandson, Zack
Toman; five great-grandchildren,
Tanner Sobota, Vaughn
Gillingwators, Ethan Flores, Hunter Flores and
Emma Toman; and several nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in
death by both her husbands, parents and 14
siblings.
A celebration of life
will be conducted at 2
p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, at the
Castle Rock Convalescent Center, 1445 Uinta, Green River.
Graveside services will be at noon
Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, at the
Memorial Gardens Cemetery in
Casper. Friends may call one
hour prior to services Sunday at
the center.
File-sharing group seen as religious
MALIN RISING
Associated Press
STOCKHOLM (AP) — A filesharing group that considers itself
a spiritual organization said
Thursday that Sweden has recognized it as a religious community.
According to documents provided by spiritual leader Isak Gerson, 20, his Church of Kopimism
received that approval in late December. The public authority responsible for such decisions was
closed for the day and couldn’t be
reached to confirm the approval,
which comes amid a global crackdown on file-sharing Web sites often used to illegally download
movies, TV shows and music.
Gerson said in an interview that
some of the church’s roughly
3,000 members meet every week
to share files of music, films and
other content they consider holy
and regard copying as a sacrament. He said the church’s philosophy opposes copyrights in all
forms and encourages piracy of all
types of media, including music,
movies, TV shows, and software.
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rocketminer.com
Well owner undertakes
study after earthquakes
JULIE CARR SMYTH
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An energy
company that shut down a northeastern Ohio
brine injection well last week after earthquakes in the area has commissioned a geologic study, as Democrats in Columbus and
Washington use the quakes to push for
stricter regulations on oil and gas drilling and
wastewater associated with hydrofracking.
A spokesman for Youngstown-based D&L
Energy Group told The Associated Press on
Thursday that the company is launching the
study because everyone involved wants to
“figure out what’s going on.” A seismologist
investigating the quakes has said the well almost certainly caused the series of minor
quakes.
Company officials discussed the plan during a private meeting Wednesday with the
Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
State Rep. Robert Hagan, D-Youngstown,
has scheduled a community forum on the issue for Jan. 11 and has called for a statewide
moratorium on injection drilling until 2014.
The Youngstown City Council voted Wednesday to support his proposal.
He invited representatives of ODNR, Environmental Protection Agency and Republican Gov. John Kasich’s office. U.S. Rep. Tim
Ryan and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats, are also pushing for state and federal officials to attend, he said.
“I’m tired of these discussions happening
in secret,” Hagan said. “People have a right to
know what’s going on, what’s being done.”
ODNR spokesman Carlo LoParo said the
department plans to send a representative to
the hearing.
D&L spokesman Vince Bivacqua said the
company plans to pay for its own comprehensive study, which it will share with state regulators in hopes of getting the well reopened.
He said the state may choose to replicate the
results or have them reviewed by outside experts.
“It was not an overly long meeting, but it
was important because we all want to figure
out what’s going on,” he said. “There’s been
a lot of rampant speculation that there’s been
a link between my client’s activity and this
seismic activity.”
Kasich called for a moratorium Saturday on
injection drilling within a roughly five-mile radius of the well operated by D&L affiliate
Northstar Disposal Services LLC, after a 4.0
magnitude quake brought the total for 2011 to
11. Seismic surveys have since placed the well
near the epicenter of both the New Year’s Eve
quake and a smaller quake Christmas Eve.
Four other wells are affected by the moratori-
um.
LoParo said the state will take the D&L
study into consideration.
“The Department of Natural Resources will
err on the side of caution in favor of an indefinite moratorium on injection drilling within
that area,” LoParo said. “We will always defer
to our data when making determinations, but
we will review other data as it becomes available.”
He emphasized that 176 other injection
wells have been operating in Ohio since the
mid-1980s without experiencing problems.
“There has been no seismic activity related
to those wells, which is a strong indication
that those wells were not built on fault lines,”
he said.
The Columbia University seismologist
leading the state investigation has said the injection of thousands of gallons of brine daily
into the well that opened in 2010 almost certainly caused the quakes. John Armbruster of
Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty
Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., said the
tremors could continue for a year.
Injection wells have also been suspected in
quakes in Astabula in far northeast Ohio, and
in Arkansas, Colorado and Oklahoma, Armbruster said. Ohio hasn’t experienced a quake
stronger than 4.0 since 2001, said state geologist Larry Wickstrom.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE ONE
FRAUD
Another scam is the fake mystery shopper who encourages
people to work from home by ordering goods as a mystery shopper. After paying the sign up with
the alleged business and receiving a check to cover costs, victims learn the scammer’s check
proved false.
“We had one woman who was
a mystery shopper. They sent her
these bogus checks, and she sent
money back to them, and she
wound up going from victim to
being a suspect quickly, because
even after she realized these were
bogus, she continued doing it.
She could be looking at federal
charges,” Moczulski said.
Another scam involves people
receiving an unsolicited check
followed by a call telling the recipient to cash the check but send
some money back. After money
is sent back, the victim learns the
original check was bogus.
INTERNATIONAL LOTTERIES
People are also warned to be
skeptical of international winnings.
“You have won a lottery in
Dubai, or the Irish sweepstakes
or your uncle died in Nigeria and
left you $1 million. In all of these,
the catch is you won but you have
to send them a processing or other fee,” Moczulski said. “This has
been going on since the dawn of
the Internet.”
Blust said this scam led to a
nightmare case he worked last
year.
“There was a widower out in
the county. He got the notice,
you’ve won the sweepstakes. He
sent $20,000, it cleaned him
out,” Blust said.
Rock Springs Police Department Community Service Officer
Randy Hanson said scams start
when somebody hacks into a
computer system, has access to
millions of computers and directs
them to send the scam spam.
“It may seem unbelievable, but
if one in 100,000 falls for it, they
are going to make a lot of money,”
Hanson said.
PLAYING ON EMOTIONS
Other scams play on emotions,
Moczulski said.
Carlo Harryman/Rocket-Miner
Charles Larson uses a computer at the Rock Springs Library. People
who have little familiarity with the dangers of the Internet can be the
victims of scams. While scammers often target the elderly, anybody
can be a victim.
“I got one e-mail from my sister about a farmer putting up a
sign for puppies for sale from his
dog’s litter. A little boy is tugging
at his shirt. He wants a puppy,
but only has 37 cents. The boy
says, ‘Can 37 cents get me a look
at them?’ The man says, ‘Sure.’
After looking through the dogs,
the boy settles on a little crippled
dog. ‘He’s going to need special
care,’ says the man. And the kid
pulls up his pants legs and show
braces on both legs. ‘I don’t care.
I don’t need a dog that can run
fast,” the boy says,” Moczulski
said.
He said the story included a
link so people can send donations, and while most people
don’t click it, the addresses of
those who do can be collected
and used by scammers to target
sympathetic people.
Similar scams use familiar
causes like the Red Cross or
claim to collect money for good
causes like buying police vests.
“It’s bad not just for the person
defrauded, but for the organizations that are real and legitimate,
because the scam makes people
leery of them. If you want to donate to a real organization that
you like, get their correct address
and send a check made out to
that organization,” Hanson said.
SAFE ONLINE PURCHASES
Moczulski said he buys goods
online. However, he said before
making any purchase, people
should look for the little lock icon
that says VeriSign with a check
mark. Moczulski said there are
many legitimate sellers online,
but people should never send
cash, cashier’s checks or money
order.
The three law enforcement officers said it is important to
spread the word and let people
know of any scam received. They
also urged people to contact law
enforcement if they receive or fall
victim to a scam.
URA
members discussed offering to
assist downtown merchants with
advertising if they would include
key words such as “historic
downtown.”
URA/Main Street Manager Jeff
Pedersen expressed interest in
this idea.
The committee planed to advance the idea to the URA board
to decide.
VACANT BUILDING FEEDBACK
Pedersen said he has received
both positive and negative comments regarding a proposed city
ordinance to deal with vacant
buildings and absentee landlords
who neglect properties.
“I appreciate the feedback,
even the negative feedback,” Pedersen said.
Pedersen said the comments
will help to craft a workable ordinance, with the idea being not to
punish anyone but to help property owners to renovate their
properties where needed.
“That’s the bottom line,” he
said.
Jensen said he could not understand the negativity regarding
the proposed ordinance and
added that there would probably
always be naysayers.
OTHER ACTIONS
• URA/Main Street Manager
Jeff Pedersen said the Broadway Theater is going to open at
some point, notwithstanding a
legal challenge brought by the
owners of the Star Stadium
Cineplex.
“The lawsuit is not an issue,
and we’re not going to make it
an issue,” Pedersen said. “I
think it will eventually go away.”
• Pedersen expressed optimism the community will begin
to understand the URA’s purpose better when they start to
see some of the project results,
such as more bike racks and
restrooms in Bunning Park.
“Then people will be able to
say, ‘OK, this is what they’re doing,’” Pedersen said. “Our expo-
“I’ve been here maybe 30
years,” Jensen said. “And some of
the buildings are still in the same
condition as they were 30 years
ago. … Let’s tear them down.
Let’s renovate them. Let’s do
something. Let’s not just let them
sit there. Why can’t people understand that?”
sure will be better received.”
• URA administrative assistant Terri Nations said the mailbox for letters to Santa outside
the URA Office received 368 letters, with all of them getting a
response.
“Some of the letters were
heartbreaking,” Nations said.
Requests included shoes,
clothing and a job for a parent.
• Rock Springs City Councilman Glennise Wendorf said the
URA was able to help some of
the families with their requests
by providing referrals.
• Kelly Frink, Stacy Jones and
Kathy Tacke also attended the
Promotions Committee meeting.
“With building ownership
comes responsibility,” said Maria
Mortensen, who was elected
committee chair at the start of
the meeting.
Rock Springs City Councilman
Glennise Wendorf attended the
meeting in her role as liaison.
She said absentee landlords
who may live far from Rock
Springs and act like they have no
reason to care were part of the
problem.
The URA will continue to work
on an ordinance proposal to present to the City Council.
3A
1 of 5 scientists
take issue with
Wyo. wolf plan
tal groups.
Future legal challenges are
likely if Wyoming fails to secure
CHEYENNE (AP) — One of the legal immunity provision it
the five scientists retained by a wants.
federal government contractor
In a telephone interview on
to review Wyoming’s proposed Thursday, Vucetich said he’s
wolf management states in a re- concerned the current Wyoming
cently released report that he plan is too vague. He noted, for
sees shortcomings with it.
example, that it says Wyoming
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife wants to kill wolves to reduce
Service this week released a conflicts with elk hunting but
peer review of Wyoming’s man- said many people in the state
agement plan for the gray wolf. might take that to mean that
The report follows last sum- there should be no wolves at all.
mer’s agreement between
“It’s not that (wolf) hunting is
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead and necessarily incompatible with
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recovery, but it sure can be,”
to end federal protections for Vucetich said. “And because of
wolves in Wyoming.
that, it’s got to be done carefulTheir deal, which still needs ly. The thing that goes right
approval from the Wyoming along with that is that’s not an
Legislature, calls for the state to abstract or general idea. Humaintain at least 10 breeding mans killing wolves is the reapairs and 100 wolves outside of son they’re endangered.”
Yellowstone National Park.
Vucetich said he trusts curWolves would be protected as rent state officials who say that
trophy game animals in north- they’re committed to keeping
western Wyoming in a flexible Wyoming’s wolf population at
area outside the park but classi- sustainable levels. However, he
fied as predators that could be said those people won’t always
shot on sight elsewhere.
be in their jobs and said the plan
Wolves were reintroduced in needs to stand on its own.
Yellowstone and other areas in
Gov. Mead said Wednesday
the mid-1990s. The wolf popu- that he’s pleased four of the five
lation in the Northern Rockies peer reviewers said that
has rebounded since then to Wyoming’s proposal is credible.
more than 1,600 animals, in“We will analyze this review
cluding more than
closely and address
300 in Wyoming.
any points that
While four of the
need further acscientists in the
tion,” Mead said. “I
peer review genercontinue to be caually approved of the
tiously optimistic
plan,
wolf
rethat control of
searcher John A.
wolves will return to
Vucetich, an associthe
state
of
ate professor at
Wyoming.”
Ferrell,
Michigan TechnoSteve
logical University,
wildlife and endanin
Houghton,
gered species policy
Mich., criticized it
adviser to Mead,
as vague and said it
said Thursday that
may overestimate
Vucetich’s concerns
the annual mortali- Gov. Matt Mead
should be easy for
ty wolf populations
the state to address.
can sustain. The
Ferrell said the
peer review report carries no le- state has no intention of allowgal weight.
ing the wolf population to slip
Wyoming is anxious to get down to the minimum level of
Congress to exempt its wolf 100 wolves and 10 breeding
management plan from legal pairs. “We’re going to manage
challenges, as it did earlier for for a little cushion above that,”
state wolf plans adopted by Ida- he said.
ho and Montana.
Chris Colligan, Wildlife AdvoCongress last month stripped cate with the Greater Yellowa similar proposed exemption stone Coalition in Jackson, said
for the Wyoming plan from a Thursday that Vucetich’s comspending bill but state officials ments reinforce some of the
are hoping to resurrect it in concerns his group has had all
some form.
along that Wyoming and the
The Fish and Wildlife Service Fish and Wildlife Service are
in 2007 endorsed an earlier moving forward with a faulty
Wyoming management plan but plan.
later repudiated it after a feder“Hopefully this opens up an
al judge criticized it in response opportunity to revise the plan
to a lawsuit filed by environmen- and get it right,” Colligan said.
BEN NEARY
Associated Press
‘I continue to
be cautiously
optimistic
that control
of wolves
will return to
the state of
Wyoming.’
BANK CALLS AND
PAYDAY LOANS
Another class of scams involves calls from fake bank workers.
“People call and say this is the
bank and we need to verify your
account number. It’s called phishing. It’s a lie. The banks know
your account number, and these
scammers know it. But if the
scammer makes enough calls, he
may get somebody who falls for
it,” Moczulski said.
“Payday loan scams are a big
one,” he said.
This type of scam begins when
people get online and think they
are communicating with loan officers and accidentally provide financial details to a scammer.
“People get online and think
they are communicating to one
place, but actually their information will go out to all sorts of different loan institutions and some
will be frauds. Then they become
the one to contact you and offer a
great rate. After a while, people
stop using it and the scammer
will start to call and harass you
and say you’re in arrears and
they’re calling the police and getting a warrant and you’d better
send us money. And people panic sometimes and send money.”
If people find themselves in
this situation, Moczulski said
they should call the police department.
He said people will learn if
there is an outstanding warrant
and can tell police about the
fraud.
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
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LIFESTYLES
rocketminer.com
COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD
Tiny Tots Pinups
MR. MISCHIEF: Kellin Jaymes
Wenzel celebrates his 1st
birthday on Jan. 6, 2012. He is
the son of Eric and Brittany
Wenzel of Rock Springs. His
grandparents are Joe and Carla DeSalvo and Bimbo and
Suzanne Chick, all of Rock
Springs. His great-grandparents are Steve and Sue Gennett and Al and Pat Chick, all
of Rock Springs, and the late
Jack and Donna Collins. He has
one sister, Brecklynn, 2.
TOO CUTE: Izabella Brielle
Salazar celebrates her 3rd
birthday on Jan. 6, 2012. She is
the daughter of Leo and Jessica Salazar of Rock Springs. Her
grandparents are Chuck and
Jahna Groh of Rock Springs
and the late Bernadette
Salazar.
Your local news source since 1881
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
NEWS TIPS: Call the news department with your local news ideas,
events and organizational updates 362-3736
Page 4A
Bates celebrate 50th anniversary
Jan. 8 with family and friends
ROCK SPRINGS — LB. and
Linda Bates of Rock Springs are
celebrating their 50th wedding
anniversary.
The couple married on Jan. 8,
1962, at the Methodist Church in
Mabton, Wash.
The couple has three daughters, Melissa Richards and husband Norm and Laura Wakeley
and husband Mark Pergande II,
all of Rock Springs, and Rena and
husband Tom Lee of Bozeman,
Mont; and grandchildren, Lacey
Wakeley, Brandon Wakeley, Matt
Richards and Aidan Pergande, all
of Rock Springs, and Katie Lee of
Bozeman.
L.B. Bates retired from the U.S.
Air Force and the Union Pacific
Railroad.
The couple’s interests include
traveling in their motor home and
spending time with their family
and friends.
Family and friends may call on
the couple at their home the afternoon of Jan. 8, 2012. A private
dinner for immediate family will
take place on Saturday.
L.B. AND LINDA BATES — 1962
LINDA AND L.B. BATES — 2012
AROUND SWEETWATER COUNTY
IHS students receive Student of the Week honors
Juvenile service
board meeting set
for Wednesday
ROCK SPRINGS — Two Independence High School students earn Student of the Week
honors.
Jesus Martinez was nominated
by Amy Skelton, counselor.
“Jesus comes to school every
day and is working hard in his
classes,” Skelton said. “He may
not like every assignment or
project, but he keeps at it until
he finishes. I am impressed with
how Jesus is trying in his classes
and his easygoing attitude. Keep
it up.”
Leonard VanArsdol was also
nominated for this honor by
Skelton.
“Leonard has truly made the
most of his second chance at
IHS,” Skelton said. “He has good
attendance, works hard, tries,
and his grades are reflecting
this. Leonard seems motivated
to be in school and to graduate.
I am very impressed with his effort thus far. Keep up the good
work!”
GREEN RIVER — The
Sweetwater County Juvenile
Community Service Board is
scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m.
Wednesday, Jan. 11, at the
Sweetwater County Juvenile
Probation Office, 115 E. Flaming Gorge Way, Green River.
Students named to WWCC
part-time honor roll for fall
ROCK SPRINGS — Western Wyoming Community
College is pleased to announce the names of the 103
students named to the PartTime Student Dean’s Honor
Roll for the 2011 fall semester.
Students named to the Parttime Honor Roll at WWCC
are part-time students who
have completed a minimum
of 12 credit hours in consecutive semesters with a minimum cumulative grade-point
average of 3.5 and who complete six to 11 credit hours
during the current semester
with a minimum grade-point
average of 3.5.
Rock Springs residents are:
Margret Akinniyi, Neshia
Bluemel, Rafael Chavez, Felipa
Christiansen, Brandalee Clay,
Beverly Cox, Deatra Crofts,
William Croy, Samantha Erwin, Ann Etcheverry, Jennifer
Gerken, Marianna Gonzalez,
Adrianna Hotchkiss, Marivic
Inman, Jennifer Johnson,
Heather Jones, Wendy Kent,
Joseph Lopez, Lois Magner,
Megan Marchetti, Michele
Margherio, Marilynn Noble,
Sirena Nussbaum, Judy Odogwu, Matthew O’Hare, Iyabode
Onyemenam, Tonya Preston,
Selma Sampley, Chad Smith
and Christopher Teigen.
Green
River
residents
named to the list are: James
Anderson, Julie Burgess,
Tamara Degner, Taylor Dockter, Abby Goyn, Jackie Grubb,
Lydia Holmes, Katie Johnsen,
Carol Johnson, Holly Kofoed,
Carolyn Liedtke, Heidi Lund,
Teresa Mecham, Ann Rudoff,
Jennifer Rundell, Dwaine
Shafe, Juanita Valerio and Kelly Worden.
Other Sweetwater County
residents on the list are
Nadelle Jones from Farson and
Susan Potter from Mckinnon.
Ten students from Carbon
County earned this honor.
They are: Lauren Kudera from
Baggs; Andree McKee from
Elk Mountain; Kayla Brunell,
Shelly Collier, Ashley Donovan, Cameron Olson, Manuel
Peralta, Pamella Rogers,
Tanya Seldomridge and Sadith Wailes from Rawlins.
Lincoln County students
named to the list are: from
Afton, Norma Baxter, Jody
Gardner and Michelle Winder;
from Etna, Adele Helgesen;
from Grover, Lisa Turner;
from Kemmerer, Crystal Clark
and Jodi Dillree; from La
Barge, Eric Nodes; and from
Thayne, Lisa Drollette.
From Sublette County, Ashlin Applin from Big Piney;
along with Brooke Belford and
Julie Belton from Pinedale.
Twenty-nine students from
Uinta County are on the PartTime Student Dean’s Honor
Roll for fall 2011. They are:
from Evanston, Kristopher
Beus, Trisha Corbet, Robert
England, Wendy Gerrard,
Margarita Harvey, Catherine
Howerton, Crystalynn Isherwood, Michaela Isherwood,
Roy Klinesmith, Jessica Manning, Rachel Mantle, Melinda
Matthews, Brittiney Nelson,
Sharon Poole, Meloney Pullen,
Lindsay Record, Edward Rohan, Barbara Symons, Kerri
Veldevere and Annie Wagstaff;
from Fort Bridger, Kay Rippetoe; from Lyman, Misty
Bybee, Alyssia Hemker and Julianna Vaineo; and from Mountain View, Natalie Anderson,
Jeanette Garetto, Cindy Haggit, Angeline Peterson and
Shaunna Romero.
Other students from around
and outside Wyoming, include,
Carolee Hornbuckle from
Douglas and Michael Clinger
from Idaho.
LIFESTYLES BRIEF
Couple finds $4,500
wedding ring in
dog’s stomach
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M.
(AP) — A couple has found a
suspect in the disappearance
of their $4,500 wedding ring
— their 10-month old basset
hound.
KOB-TV reported Wednesday that a veterinarian recent-
ly removed the ring from the
dog named Coraline after Xrays showed it was lodged
deep in her stomach and wasn’t coming out on its own.
Albuquerque
resident
Rachelle Atkinson says she
and her husband Scott had
searched everywhere for the
ring before beginning to suspect the dog ate it.
The vet said basset hounds
have a tendency to eat rocks.
Leonard VanArsdol, left, and Jesus Martinez, right, were named Students of the Week at Independence
High School. They are shown with IHS Principal Randal “Doc” Wendling.
What’s fetal alcohol syndrome?
ROCK SPRINGS — Alcohol
consumption during pregnancy
is the leading known preventable
cause of developmental and
physical birth defects in the
United States.
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy puts a child at risk of suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects.
The Centers for Disease Control
reported that there is no known
safe amount of alcohol to drink
while pregnant and no safe time
to drink during pregnancy.
Choosing to drink alcohol
during any stage of pregnancy
can have dangerous effects on
an unborn child. During the first
trimester, using alcohol can
cause the baby to have abnormal
facial features. Growth and central nervous system problems
can occur from drinking alcohol
anytime during pregnancy. The
baby’s brain is developing
throughout pregnancy and can
be damaged at any time.
Fetal alcohol syndrome causes mental and physical problems
for a child’s entire life. Signs and
symptoms of fetal alcohol syndrome are:
• Low birth weight,
• Small head circumference,
• Failure to thrive,
Run ends for Ohio
man’s Secret Santa
bearing pies
note that said, “It has been a
great ride.” The person who
signed it “Pie Fairy” also wrote:
“My wings are shorter now and I
am a little too fat to fly anymore.
But I still love you!!”
The Columbus Dispatch reports that the 87-year-old Welch
still doesn’t know who was sending his perennial pastries, though
whoever did it knew him well
enough to know of his fondness
for pecan pies. Welch believes the
first one came in 1976.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A
Secret Santa has told an Ohio
man not to expect any more
pecan pies, which arrived mysteriously for 35 years.
Willis Welch says the pie that
showed up at his Columbus
home during the recent holiday
season was accompanied by a
• Facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheekbones, and an underdeveloped groove between
the nose and upper lip,
• Epilepsy,
• Poor coordination/fine motor skills,
• Poor socialization skills,
• Lack of imagination or curiosity,
• Learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time
and money, poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills, and
• Behavioral problems, includ-
ing hyperactivity, inability to
concentrate, social withdrawal,
stubbornness, impulsiveness
and anxiety.
Fetal alcohol effects are the
same but less severe.
It is important for women who
want to become pregnant to begin making healthy life choices
before they get pregnant. Fetal
alcohol syndrome lasts a lifetime.
For more information about
fetal alcohol syndrome, alcohol
use and/or abuse and drug use
and/or abuse during pregnancy,
contact Southwest Counseling
Service.
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rocketminer.com
In many parts of U.S., it’s
a winterless wonderland
DAVID SHARP
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) —
The big snowstorms of autumn
are just memories in New England, where people who make
their living off winter tourism are
losing income and New Hampshire primary candidates lack picturesque winterscapes for photo
ops. Tourists in the West play golf
instead of skiing. In Midwestern
hockey country, you can barely
slog a puck through the slush.
A continuing dearth of snow in
many U.S. spots usually buried by
this time of year has turned life
upside down. The weather pattern that left many northern
states with a brown Christmas is
still sticking around, and the outlook for at least the next week is
bleak for winter recreation enthusiasts.
Nationwide, the lack of snow is
costing tens of millions of dollars
in winter recreation, restaurant,
lodging and sporting goods sales,
experts said.
“It’s Mother Nature. She’s playing tricks on us, or something.
Now it’s getting nerve-racking,”
said Terry Hill, whose cash flow
is nonexistent because her rental
cabins are empty at Shin Pond
Village, north of Maine’s Baxter
State Park, normally alive this
time of year with the buzz of
snowmobiles.
Early in the winter, the Southwest saw some heavy snow, as
did parts of the Northeast clobbered by snow around Halloween
and Thanksgiving that has since
melted. The Pacific Northwest
has seen snow recently. And
longer-range forecasts predict
above-normal or normal snow
amounts for much of the country’s northern half for the rest of
the season.
Many economic losses can be
made up, said Charles Colgan, an
economist at the University of
Southern Maine’s Muskie Institute of Public Service.
But that’s of little comfort right
now in the Northeast, where busi-
nesses that depend on winter
recreation usually see heaps of
snow around the Christmas and
New Year’s holidays as a bonus
and it’s critical to have snow by
Martin Luther King Jr. weekend
— about a week from now.
As of Thursday, only 19 percent
of the nation was covered in
snow, less than half the average
snow cover over the past five
years on the same date, according
to the National Weather Service’s
National Operational Hydrologic
Remote Sensing Center in Minnesota.
On Friday, the forecast calls for
the Northeast to thaw out from
its first big cold spell. It’ll be in
the 50s and sunny in Reno, Nev.,
a place that’s normally snowbound by now. In the Midwest,
where the temperature hit the
40s Thursday, the warm weather
has turned frozen ponds and
backyard rinks to slush, sending
ice skaters indoors.
“There’s no place that has reliable ice. You’re skating on Jell-O.
You try to shoot the puck. It goes
a little ways and it gets stuck in a
puddle,” said Barbara Garn, who
has seen a big uptick in the number of participants in pickup
hockey games she organizes at
indoor rinks in Minnesota’s Twin
Cities region.
Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y., normally buried in feet
of snow by now, had the thirdlightest snowfall on record from
October through December.
Reno, Nev., recorded its driest
December in history, according to
the Northeast Regional Climate
Center at Cornell University in
New York.
“It’s been 128 years since Reno
didn’t have snow in December,”
said Scott Hickey, owner of a retail golf shop in Reno.
“Not only have we not had
snow, but it’s been mild so you
can play golf.”
He thinks snow will arrive in
time to satisfy skiers. And what’s
good for skiers, he added, will be
good for golfers in the end.
“We need the snow to water the
golf courses,” he said.
The ski industry is also having
a tough time in New England.
Ski resorts have a core of skiers
and boarders who are season
ticket holders or have slope-side
condos. Those folks are going to
go ski because they’ve invested;
what’s lacking are the thousands
of additional skiers — the weekend warriors — who are less likely to spend their dollars unless
conditions are great.
In Maine, up to 100 people
would be skiing on 12 miles of
trails on a good day at Carter’s
Cross-Country Ski Center, but
the center has yet to open because there’s no snow on the
ground. Worse, with no snow, no
one is buying skiing gear from
the store, said manager Jesse Hill.
It’s discouraging, he said, given
high hopes that accompanied the
early snowfall in October and November.
“It was just a big tease,” he said.
Fresh snow, said Matt Siekman, a skier from Portland, plays
a psychological factor in motivating “weekend warriors.” He admits to a bit of angst.
“It’s mostly anxiety, but I try to
remember it’s going to happen,”
he said. “It’s just a matter of
time.”
In New Hampshire, there’s no
snow to slow down Republicans
as they zoom across the state to
make their last push before next
week’s primary vote.
But the lack of snow means the
state is missing its snowy backdrop as bundled-up journalists
provide the latest political reports. And candidates have been
unable to plunk campaign signs
down in snowdrifts to provide a
showy backdrop for public appearances.
“It’s an iconic part of the primary,” said Dean Spiliotes, political science professor at Southern
New Hampshire University. “It’s
part of the ambiance — the mill
shots in Manchester, the snowcovered town squares, watching
candidates shuffle through the
snow.”
Remember worthy retirement
resolutions for retirees in 2012
DAVE CARPENTER
AP Personal Finance Writer
Retirees may be past the days
of resolving to work out more or
buy fewer $4 coffees. Yet when it
comes to money in particular,
resolutions may be even more important for those living on fixed
income.
From financial nuts and bolts
to more holistic aims, here’s a
look at seven worthy resolutions
for retirees in 2012:
1. Get disciplined about money
matters.
Retirees should set up a formal
budget and stick to it. Being
thrifty without a plan only goes
so far when unexpected expenses
arise, especially at an age when
health care costs can start to
mount.
It’s also wise to record your financial goals and plans, such as
how much money you expect to
withdraw from savings every
month.
“The more detailed the information about your spending requirements and investment goals,
the greater your chances of success,” says Bob Stammers, director of investor education for the
nonprofit CFA Institute for financial analysts.
2. Attack your debt.
Along with putting on pounds,
new retirees are prone to running
up debt with their newfound freedom. Paying off credit card debt
should be a top priority.
After the card debt is zeroed
out, use only one card and pay off
the balance monthly. If an emergency expense leads to a balance,
don’t let it linger or it will erode
retirement savings.
If your savings are languishing
in a money market account or
certificate of deposit earning
practically nothing, you can put a
chunk of it to greater use by paying off a credit card with an interest rate of 15 or 20 percent. Having savings yields at rock-bottom
lows presents a rare opportunity
to instantly improve your finances.
“There may never be a better
time than now to clear up all of
your credit card debt,” says
Michael Kresh, a certified financial planner in Islandia, N.Y.
3. Invest in dividend-paying
stocks.
It’s tough for retirees to get
meaningful income on their money from the traditional sources.
The best-paying money market
and savings accounts yield just 1
percent, five-year CDs no better
than 1.95 percent, according to
Bankrate.com. Even the U.S. government’s 10-year Treasury note
has been hovering around 2 percent.
For a bit more risk in the short
term, blue chip stocks that pay
dividends offer a combination of
reliable income and good odds
for share price appreciation over
the long haul.
Income investors have few alternatives to dividend stocks in
this environment, says Howard
Silverblatt, senior analyst for
Standard & Poor’s.
The average dividend stock
yielded 2.8 percent in 2011, and
investors can better that with
such blue chips as General Electric Co., 3.8 percent, or Pfizer
Inc., 4.7 percent. Other good options include dividend-heavy mutual fund T. Rowe Price Equity
Income (PRFDX), which gets a
gold-medal rating from Morningstar, and exchange-traded
fund Vanguard Dividend Appreciation (VIG), which carries a fivestar rating.
4. Get your estate plan in order.
Make sure your estate plan and
financial documents are updated.
Tax laws change and documents
may be out of date. Beneficiaries
may need to be revised.
Set up a review with an attorney and investment adviser to
make sure all of your plans are
current.
If you need help finding a financial planner near you, check
the Web site of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, http://findanadvisor.napfa.org/Home.aspx .
A basic estate plan includes a
will, living will, durable power of
attorney and health care proxy.
5. Be more generous.
Resolve to be more charitable,
giving to worthy causes for others
as well as your loved ones. It’s rewarding and makes tax and financial sense too.
Remember that you can give
gifts of up to $13,000 annually
without triggering taxes. Helping
a younger family member can
also set an admirable precedent
that reinforces the importance of
charitable giving.
You may want to consider a
charitable gift annuity, in which
you donate to a large charity and
receive regular lifetime payments
in return.
“In times of very low interest
rates and declining returns on assets, this is a good way for retirees to increase their cash flow
and get an income tax deduction
while helping a charity,” says
Michael Dribin, a trusts and estates attorney for Harper Meyer
in Miami.
6. Check into long-term care
insurance possibilities.
Consider getting a long-term
care policy. It may already be too
expensive if you have health issues or are well into retirement.
But note that roughly a fifth of
those who sign up for coverage
do so at age 65 or older, according to the American Association
for Long-Term Care Insurance.
About 70 percent of people
over 65 will require long-term
care services at some point. And
neither private health insurance
nor Medicare pay for the majority of the services people need —
help with personal care such as
dressing or using the bathroom
independently.
That can be a devastating financial burden without coverage.
An assisted living facility costs an
average of $38,280 per year, a
semiprivate room in a nursing
room runs $73,000 and home
health aides charge $19 to $21 an
hour, according to the insurance
association.
A typical long-term care policy
costs upward of $4,000 per year
for a 65-year-old couple. By 70,
for those still able to qualify, that
more than doubles. So don’t delay on this one.
7. Stretch your body and mind.
Choose daily pursuits that keep
you physically, mentally and socially engaged.
There’s abundant evidence that
continued physical activity helps
people live longer, feel better,
avoid depression and keep their
mental skills sharp.
United States gov.
proposes regulating
face, hand transplants
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
5A
Wyo. hospital
librarian is
a crucial
researcher
GABRIELLE PORTER
MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Chief Medical Writer
The government wants to
start regulating face and hand
transplants just as it does now
with kidneys, hearts and other
organs, with waiting lists, a nationwide system to match and
distribute body parts and donor
testing to prevent deadly infections.
It’s a big step toward expanding access to these radical operations, especially for wounded
troops returning home. A dozen
U.S. hospitals already do face or
hand transplants and more are
preparing to offer the operations. More than 1,000 troops
have lost an arm or leg in
Afghanistan or Iraq, and the
government estimates that 200
troops might be eligible for face
transplants.
“These body parts are starting to become more mainstream, if you will, than they
were five or 10 years ago when
they were first pioneered in this
country,” said Dr. James Bowman, medical director of the
Health Resources Services Administration, the government
agency that regulates organ
transplants.
The agency has proposed
new rules that expand the regulation of transplants to include
faces, hands and other body
parts. Waiting lists for these
body parts are informal and local now. The new rule would
make such transplants part of
the nationwide matching system run by the United Network
for Organ Sharing, or UNOS.
The rules would regulate
transplants of feet, ankles, legs,
fingers, windpipes, voice boxes,
the abdominal wall and possibly
even a uterus or a penis — operations tried at least once in other countries.
“When you think about the
human body, there is really
nothing that could not be replaced by transplantation. Almost nothing,” said Dr. Bohdan
Pomahac, who has done four
face transplants at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital in Boston.
At least 18 face transplants
have been done around the
world, starting in 2005 with a
French woman mauled by her
dog. The Cleveland Clinic did
the first face transplant in the
U.S. in 2008.
The U.S. Department of Defense is providing money for
more of these surgeries in
Cleveland and Boston in hopes
of helping soldiers disfigured in
battle. The University of Pittsburgh, the University of Califor-
nia, Los Angeles, and other
medical centers plan to offer
face or hand transplants soon.
The first successful hand
transplant in the United States
was performed in 1999, and
more than three dozen have
been done worldwide.
The proposal to treat these
like organ transplants “is terrific” and is supported by leading
transplant surgery groups,
Pomahac said.
“It’s a huge step forward in
the right direction. It will make
it easier for programs to get
started,” Pomahac said.
The federal agency will accept
public comments on the rules
until Feb. 14 before making a final decision. The rules are expected to take effect later this
year or early next year.
The change would not affect
regulation of heart valves, bone
and other tissue implants or
transplants, which are overseen
by the Food and Drug Administration. Instead, it would cover
transplants of complex tissues
such as a combination of bone
and muscle involving blood vessels — like a hand or face.
Many doctors and bioethicists long objected to face and
hand transplants because patients must take drugs for the
rest of their lives to prevent rejection, which can raise their
risk of cancer and other problems. The risk wasn’t considered worth the benefit for operations that are not lifesaving as
heart or liver transplants are.
But the objections have softened as face transplants have
been so successful and greatly
improved quality of life.
The most recent recipient is
Charla Nash, a Connecticut
woman mauled by a chimpanzee. She had a face transplant last May.
Now, “she’s feeling a lot of the
face. She can start to move on
one side. She’s able to talk better. Her spirits are great,” said
Pomahac, her surgeon.
Other face transplant recipients go out in public, enjoy eating normal food for the first
time in years, and some have
even become advocates for the
procedure.
So far, only two face transplant-related deaths have been
reported. One was a Chinese
man who reportedly was not
given or did not take medicines
to prevent his body from rejecting his new face. The other was
in Paris, a man who received a
face and a double hand transplant. He suffered a heart attack
during surgery for a complication.
Dog found alive 4 days
after Montana avalanche
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A
dog that was feared dead after it
was swept away in a weekend avalanche that killed its owner
showed up four days later at the
Montana motel where its owners
had stayed the night before going backcountry skiing.
Search and rescue team member Bill Whittle said he was “positive” that the Welsh corgi —
named Ole — had been buried in
Saturday’s avalanche.
“The avalanche guys were up
there on Monday investigating
and they were looking for the
dog too and never seen any
signs,” he said.
But on Wednesday, Ole
showed up exhausted and hungry back at the motel, four miles
from where the slide occurred,
the Billings Gazette reported.
“When I first saw the dog, it
was sitting in front of their room
staring at the door,” Cooke City
Alpine Motel owner Robert Weinstein said in an e-mail to The
Associated Press on Thursday.
Dave Gaillard of Bozeman
was skiing with his wife when
the avalanche struck near Cooke
City, an old mining town just
outside Yellowstone National
Park. “His last words to me
were, ‘Retreat to the trees.’ I
think he saw what was coming
from above, that I did not see,”
Kerry Corcoran Gaillard told the
Bozeman Daily Chronicle.
Gaillard’s daughter, 11-year-old
Marguerite, was putting photos
of Ole on poster board as a memorial Wednesday afternoon.
“She found out when she was
halfway done with that that Ole
was still alive,” said Gaillard’s
step-daughter, Silver Brelsford.
Gillette News Record
GILLETTE (AP) — Michlene Mankin does more than
put away books.
The medical librarian at
Campbell County Memorial
Hospital wears many hats: researcher, grant-writer, interface
to the outside world.
With the breakneck pace of
medical change, doctors in
small to midsized hospitals in
an isolated area, like CCMH,
can quickly lose touch with
trends and practices. For the
last 12 years, Mankin has
helped CCMH doctors stay
connected to the medical community across the country and
across the world.
“In large hospital settings,
there are lots and lots of doctors, and they can talk to each
other about things,” said
CCMH spokeswoman Karen
Clarke. “Here, we don’t have
lots and lots of doctors. ... She
acts as that community. She
can get all the latest and greatest discussions about whatever’s going on.
“This is a luxury for a hospital this size to have somebody
that’s actually here.”
Being the interface between
Gillette’s doctors and the rest
of the world takes some time.
While doctors, nurses and other medical staff will call
Mankin anywhere from 30 to
90 times monthly to ask for information on various topics,
she doesn’t sit around waiting
for the phone to ring. She
keeps her finger on the pulse of
the medical field by monitoring
Web sites, journals, research.
When the bulk of the Affordable Care Act comes into play
in 2014, hospitals like CCMH
will be paid based on the quality of care it provides.
“If we can provide the highest quality of care, our reimbursement for our hospital will
be better,” Mankin said. “That’s
really what it boils down to.”
With the continuing medical
educational sessions she helps
organize and the grants she
writes, Mankin does everything she can to help the hospital prepare for the 2014 reckoning.
She finds articles for doctors
taking their tests to qualify for
board exams. She works with
nursing students from Gillette
College, teaching them research techniques and finding
articles for them. She’s had patients come to her, asking to
know more about a recent diagnosis they’ve been handed.
She’ll do research for doctors
who don’t even work at the
hospital.
“That patient, that person
they’re dealing with is a community member,” Mankin said.
“And we are a tax-supported institution. So I would do that.”
Mankin also does medical
research for doctors of nonhuman patients.
Dr. Darren Lynde, a veterinarian from the Animal Medical Center, said he asks
Mankin for help several times
each year, usually for help with
cancer-related research. Human medical literature has
much more information about
certain drugs and treatments
than animal literature, because
humans live longer, Lynde said.
When he needs information on
side effects of a certain kind of
therapy, for example, he’ll turn
to human medicine — and
Mankin — for answers.
“(Mankin) could totally say,
‘Um, no, sorry, we’re a medical
library, have a nice day,”’ Lynde
said. “(But) she absolutely is always responsible, always happy and provides wonderful information for us.”
11759075.qxp
1/5/2012
8:59 PM
Page 6
SPORTS
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Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
Page 6A
WWCC wrestles with setback
ROBERT MORGAN
Rocket-Miner Sports Reporter
COLBY, Kan. — Western
Wyoming Community College
wrestling coach Art Castillo was
confident his team was ready to
return to action after the long holiday break.
This nationally-ranked group fit
in 14 practices to prepare to take
on Colby Community College in
the first dual of 2012.
However, Castillo is still
scratching his head as to what
happened Wednesday night in
Kansas. The Mustangs, which
beat CCC 34-12 six weeks ago,
did not mirror that same effort as
they were handily defeated 32-9 in
the rematch.
“It was disappointing, but we
have to learn from this and move
on,” Castillo said. “Win or lose, we
have to get better if we want to
keep our eye on the big prize.”
Castillo said it was going to be
a long night from the get-go.
WWCC lost the first six matches
before notching its only two wins
of the road trip.
“I’m pretty sure we took them
too lightly, considering how
things went last time,” Castillo
said. “We can use all the excuses
in the world, but the main thing is
that we did not get the job done.”
Former Green River High
School standout Mario Luna had
the best performance. The freshman star pinned sixth-ranked Jace
Campbell in the second round of
the 141-pound weight class.
“Mario is dominating people,”
Castillo said. “This is his thirdstraight pin of a nationally-ranked
opponent. Not just three wins, but
pins. He looked real good.”
Just minutes after Luna scored
his pin to finally give the Mustangs some points, Markos Serna
made it two wins in a row. The
sophomore
faced
Anthony
Weerdheim in the 149-pound division, where he battled from start
to finish and he held on for a 12-10
ROCK SPRINGS
HIGH SCHOOL
2012 INDOOR
TRACK SCHEDULE
DATE
Jan. 14
Jan. 20
Jan. 21
Jan. 27
Feb. 3
Feb. 3
Feb. 4
Feb. 16
Feb. 17
Feb. 18
March 2
March 3
ROCK SPRINGS — A longtime Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, PRCA, contestant and judge has decided to
switch gears and return to what
he did years ago.
Del Nose is giving back to the
sport he loves and has decided
to return as coach of the Northwest College rodeo team. The
longtime cowboy has been out
of the scene for nearly two years
as he stepped away to manage a
ranch in Montana.
This is not Nose’s first rodeo
in Powell as he coached the
Trappers for 12 years in a successful stint from 1998-2010.
“I’m thrilled to be back to
Northwest,” Nose said. “I’m
looking forward to doing some
recruiting and making it to the
national finals with a quality
team.”
Northwest competes in the
Big Sky Region, long recognized
as one of the toughest competitive regions in collegiate rodeo.
The Trappers consistently compete near or at the top of National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association rankings
The program is supported by
an active Rodeo Council that
underwrites the team’s travel
costs, scholarships and special
schooling opportunities.
OTHER PRO RODEO NEWS
• The Sheridan WYO Rodeo
will be featured on an upcoming
episode of the BBC America television show “American Road
Trip.” It is scheduled to air at 8
p.m. Feb. 7.
• PRCA Gold Card member
Walter Griva, a team roper who
competed for many years at
California Rodeo Salinas and
the Grand National Rodeo at
the Cow Palace in San Francisco, died Dec. 21, 2011, at his
Salinas home. He was 81. Griva
won money at most of the
biggest regional rodeos of his
day including the Chowchilla
Stampede, Oakdale Rodeo and
San Jose Firefighters Rodeo.
• Wade Sundell, who has finished among the top three sad-
SITE
Logan, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Kearns, Utah
Laramie
Kearns, Utah
Kearns, Utah
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Gillette
Gillette
Athletes must qualify in order to
compete at the Simplot games
and state championships.
Robert Morgan/Rocket-Miner
Nationally-ranked Western Wyoming Community College wrestler Markos Serna battles with a Colby Community College grappler. The sophomore was only one of two Mustangs to record a victory in a ‘disappointing’ 32-9 loss to CCC.
decision.
“That was one gutsy performance,” Castillo said. “He looked
good.”
WWCC was unable to chalk up
another point the rest of the
match. Sophomore Shawn Seppala flirted with victory after he
surrendered five points in the first
five seconds of his match before
dropping a narrow 9-7 decision in
the 174-pound weight class.
Freshman Ronnie Wardleigh
also fell victim to a close call when
he also was edged by two points,
8-6, in the 133-pound division.
Sophomore Simas Norkus, who
ended 2011 with an intense 3-2
win over Russian Andrei Melnic of
Northwest Kansas Tech, came up
a point shy against CCC in a 1-0
setback.
Other wrestlers who came \up
short in the first action of 2012 included sophomore Richard Serna,
125 pounds, pinned; freshman
Ross Taylor, 157 pounds, lost 9-2;
sophomore Jordan Schroeder, 165
pounds, pinned; freshman Riley
Argyle, 184 pounds, lost 9-5; and
freshman Carlos Saabedra, heavyweight, lost 11-2.
“It was a tough trip,” Castillo
said. “We will make the long drive
home, get in a practice or two and
go to Utah for Saturday. I think we
learned from something from
this.”
WWCC was supposed to stay in
Kansas another day and tackle
Northwest Kansas Technical College, another foe that Castillo’s
group defeated in November.
However, the program canceled
the rest of the season after the
coach abruptly resigned before
Christmas.
The Mustangs will return home
for one day before continuing on
Orem, Utah, to compete in the
Wolverine Open, where a dozen
schools will be in action.
Northwest College picks Nose
Former coach, pro
rodeo judge returns to
coaching in Powell
MEET
USU Invite
WSU Invite
WSU Invite
Utah Chal.
Wyo. Open
UHSTCA
UHSTCA
Simplot
Simplot
Simplot
State finals
State finals
Meet
Practice
Wyo. Open
WSU Invite
WSU Invite
Utah Chal.
Kearns Ice
Kearns Ice
Simplot
Simplot
Simplot
State finals
State finals
Site
Green River
Laramie
Ogden, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Kearns, Utah
Kearns, Utah
Kearns, Utah
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Gillette
Gillette
Athletes must qualify in order to
compete at the Simplot games
and Wyoming championships.
Saturday, Jan. 7
BBVA Compass Bowl
At Birmingham, Ala.
Pittsburgh (6-6) vs. SMU (7-5),
Noon (ESPN)
Sunday, Jan. 8
GoDaddy.com Bowl
At Mobile, Ala.
Arkansas State (10-2) vs. Northern
Illinois (10-3), 9 p.m. (ESPN)
Monday, Jan. 9
BCS National Championship
At New Orleans
LSU (13-0) vs. Alabama (11-1), 8:30
p.m. (ESPN)
Saturday, Jan. 21
East-West Shrine Classic
At St. Petersburg, Fla.
East vs. West, 4 p.m., (NFLN)
Saturday, Jan. 28
Senior Bowl
At Mobile, Ala.
North vs. South, 4 p.m. (NFLN)
From the 2011 Professional Rodeo
Cowboys Association Banquet
Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year – Cheyenne Frontier Days
Justin Committee Person of the Year – Julie Graber, Pretty Prairie, Kan.
Bareback Horse of the Year – Full Baggage, Frontier Rodeo
Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year – Medicine Woman, Frontier Rodeo
Bull of the Year – Palm Springs, Four L & Diamond S Rodeo
Veterinarian of the Year – Dr. Garth Lamb, Wrangler National Finals Rodeo
Coors Man in the Can – Keith Isley
Clown of the Year – Keith Isley
Secretary of the Year – Haley Schneeberger
Dress Act of the Year – John Payne
Comedy Act of the Year – Keith Isley
Small Rodeo of the Year – Elizabeth (Colo.) Stampede
Medium Rodeo of the Year – Deadwood (S.D.) Days of ‘76 Rodeo
Large Indoor Rodeo of the Year – San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo
Bullfighter of the Year – Dusty Tuckness
Announcer of the Year – Randy Corley
Contract Personnel Lifetime Achievement Award – Donita Barnes
— all surpassed $1 million in career earnings during the Wrangler NFR, bringing the total of
Pro Rodeo cowboy millionaires
to 101. Shiozawa’s win in the
NFR average helped him finish
second in the world standings
and jump more than 20 places
to 81st on the career earnings
list with $1,085,956 while Powell, who earned $1,003,657, and
Knowles, who had $1,000,355,
just made it over the mark on
the final day of the rodeo. Team
roper Jake Barnes and partner
Walt Woodard finished second
in the NFR average and earned
$62,596 apiece, allowing Barnes
to move ahead of Roy Cooper
into 14th place on the all-time
earnings list with $2,102,536.
• Bud Urbach, a former committee member with the Horse
Heaven Round Up in Kennewick, Wash., and the father of
PRCA tie-down roper Phil Urbach, died Dec. 11, 2011. He was
85.
• For the third-consecutive
year, the tie-down roping field at
the NFR finished with 14 contestants with season earnings of
$100,000 or more. No event in
rodeo history has had every one
of the top 15 reach six figures in
the same year.
• The initial list of National
Circuit Finals Steer Roping contract personnel has been
named. Jim Thompson will
serve as the announcer, Barb
Duggan is the secretary and
DeeDee Dickinson and Marlo
Ward the timers. The NCFSR is
scheduled for April 20-22 in
Torrington.
Date
Jan. 2
Jan. 13
Jan. 20
Jan. 21
Jan. 27
Feb. 3
Feb. 4
Feb. 16
Feb. 17
Feb. 18
March 2
March 3
NCAA FOOTBALL
BCS BOWL
SCHEDULE
2011 AWARDS
dle bronc riders in the world
standings the last two years, appeared at the Iowa State University Extension Outreach Program Fun Day on Dec. 27, 2011.
He told second- and third-grade
students about his life in rodeo.
Sundell showed the kids a video
of his 90-point ride on legendary Miss Congeniality, who
he said was “one of the best
bucking horses that’s ever
been;” his riding gear, including
his saddle, which he called his
office; and talked to them about
the perils of his chosen sport.
“I’ve been hooked, run over
and stepped on,” he said.
• There was good news and
bad news to come out of Bull
Riding World Champion Shane
Proctor’s arm surgery last week
in Charlotte, N.C. The good
news: Proctor is about to begin
physical therapy to regain
strength in his left arm and expects to be back in the arena
within eight to 12 weeks, earlier
than he had previously been
told and a bit surprising considering what the surgeon found
when he began work. When the
bull stepped on Proctor’s arm
during Round 10 of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo on
Dec. 10, he snapped the arm in
two, splintering it in some
places.
• Overlooked in all the excitement of the world championship races in Las Vegas were
some significant career milestones. Three PRCA cowboys —
tie-down roper Matt Shiozawa,
team roper Turtle Powell and
steer wrestler Trevor Knowles
GREEN RIVER
HIGH SCHOOL
2012 INDOOR
TRACK SCHEDULE
Carlo Harryman/Rocket-Miner
Controlling The Puck
ROCK SPRINGS: Under eight Miners hockey player Luke St. Marie gains
control of the puck during practice on Thursday night at the Rock
Springs Family Recreation Center Ice Arena.
Coaches named for
All-Star Shrine bowl
ROCK SPRINGS — Through
the process of nominations and
voting by Wyoming coaches, the
head coaches of the North and
South football teams have been
selected for the 2012 Shrine Bowl.
Jim Stringer of Powell will lead
the North squad, while Chad Goff
of Cheyenne East High School
takes the honor of coaching the
South stars.
Stringer led Powell to the 3A
state championship last month.
The road to the title was a challenge as the Panthers beat topranked Green River on its home
turf 23-21 and then held on to beat
three-time defending champion
Douglas in the final seconds to
claim the state crown.
Stringer’s coaching will consist
of Richard Despain, Powell; Jon
Vance, 4A, Kelly Walsh; Doug
Hazen, 2A, Lovell; and Mike Aagard, 1A, Burlington.
Goff guided CEHS to the class
4A championship last fall. CEHS,
which lost to Rock Springs in a
heavy snowfall in October, rolled
the rest of the season and went on
to upset previously undefeated
and top-ranked Natrona in the
state semifinals. CEHS lost to
Sheridan, the state’s No. 1 defense,
in the state title bout.
Goff has also filled his coach
staff with some of the top coaches
in Wyoming. His assistants will include Kirk Nelson, CEHS; Mark
Lenhardt, 3A, Torrington; Scott
Schultz, 2A, Wheatland; Will Gray,
1A, Pine Bluffs; and Mike Bates, 6man football, Snake River.
The 39th annual Shrine Bowl
will kick off at 7:30 p.m. June 9 at
Natrona County High School’s
Cheney Alumni Field.
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rocketminer.com
Old 49ers greats thrilled
with team’s resurgence
Will the NFL
playoffs
be filled with
yards, points?
HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Pro Football Writer
This NFL regular season
was unlike any other in the
Super Bowl era.
Teams gained more yards
than ever (a combined 693.7
per game, 21.7 higher than
the previous record). They
scored more points (44.4
combined per game) than
any time since 1965.
The entire history of the
league had produced two
5,000-yard passing seasons;
there were three in 2011.
Quarterbacks threw for 300
or more yards in a game 121
times, 17 more than ever before.
With Aaron Rodgers,
Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Eli
Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Matthew Stafford
among the quarterbacks
chasing a championship as
the playoffs begin this weekend, the question becomes:
Will this postseason be as
pass-heavy and filled with
points as the regular season?
More than 200
million watched
NFL this season
NEW YORK (AP) — More
than 200 million viewers
saw NFL games this season,
with an average of 17.5 million per game.
According to The Nielsen
Company, it was the NFL’s
second-highest viewership
average since 1989, behind
only last season (17.9 million).
NFL games accounted for
23 of the 25 most-watched
TV shows among all programming. The 16 mostviewed shows on cable TV
were NFL games.
A record 37 NFL telecasts
averaged at least 20 million
viewers, topping the previous mark set in 2010 of 35.
Fox matched 2010 for its
most-watched season, while
NFL Network’s Thursday
night telecasts were its most
watched.
NBC’s Sunday night football was the most-watched
show in prime time for the
second consecutive fall.
ESPN’s Monday night package was cable’s mostwatched program for the
sixth season in a row. CBS
had its second mostwatched season carrying the
AFC.
JANIE MCCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) —
Hall of Famer Jerry Rice wears
the championship ring from San
Francisco’s Super Bowl victory
after the 1989 season on his right
middle finger for all to see. He
smiles as he makes it known he
also rotates in the other two rings
he helped win for the franchise, in
the 1988 and 1994 seasons.
There is a renewed sense of
pride among the old 49ers stars
this season. They are thrilled to
watch this once-proud organization enjoy a resurgence at last under first-year coach Jim Harbaugh. It stung for Rice, Ronnie
Lott, Joe Montana and the rest of
the former greats during an eightyear playoff drought, too.
Under Harbaugh, hired away
from nearby Stanford last January on a $25 million, five-year
deal to turn things around in
short order, the NFC West champion Niners (13-3) have emerged
as an unlikely NFC power. They
are the conference’s No. 2 seed
and earned a first-round bye this
weekend. For the banged-up roster, the extra week should help
many players heal before their
home game Jan. 14 at Candlestick
Park.
What a dramatic change in culture for a club that hadn’t reached
the postseason or posted a winning record since 2002, and only
longed for the glory days of Rice
and others such as Steve Young
and Dwight Clark.
“It’s been very hard, but it’s
good to see the Niners working
their way back,” Rice said.
“They’re doing it defensively. The
defense is awesome. Jim Harbaugh, he instilled an identity to
this team. ... If they can get a little
bit more consistent in the red
zone, there’s no telling how far
this team can go.”
As they’ve been much of this
season, the 49ers are still largely
considered an underdog as they
return to the NFL’s big stage.
Harbaugh loves it that way. He
thrives on being doubted, unappreciated and underestimated.
From his blue-collar worker
mentality — Harbaugh untucks
his shirt after a victory to signal a
day’s work — to his uncanny motivational tactics that have
reached every corner of the locker room, the 49ers bought in
from Day 1. They decided this
would be their season and Harbaugh would lead them, a year after San Francisco was picked to
win the division only to stumble
to an embarrassing 0-5 start and
a surprising 6-10 finish.
“What I appreciate is they
stuck together through it, they
persevered, they did it right,” defensive line coach Jim Tomsula
said. “The guys did it right.”
Now, that “Who’s got it better
than us? No-body!” chant that
Harbaugh learned it from his
coaching father, Jack, and is such
a rage that shirts were made.
Players wear them around before
and after practice.
Harbaugh has done it his way,
unfazed by anyone who doesn’t
like him. Take that handshake
flap and firm backslap on Lions
coach Jim Schwartz at Detroit on
Bengals-Texans: uncharted territory
BARRY WILNER
AP Pro Football Writer
The Houston Texans never have won a playoff
game. Of course, they’ve never even played in one.
On Saturday, they host the Bengals, and anyone
who can remember when Cincinnati won in the
postseason remembers Boomer Esiason as a quarterback in his prime, not as a broadcaster.
“We’ve got some guys who were pretty close to
just being born when that happened,” Bengals
tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “We’ve got some
young guys on the team. So I imagine most of them
have no clue about it.”
The opener of the wild-card round looks like a
tossup. Yes, the Texans won the AFC South and are
seeded third, while the Bengals stumbled into the
playoffs as the No. 6 seed. And we know that Houston rallied in Cincinnati for a 20-19 victory, which
happens to be the last time the Texans (10-6) won.
Meanwhile, the Bengals have lost to every good
team they played in going 9-7.
Those facts don’t inspire much confidence in the
Texans, who are 3-point favorites, or in the Bengals.
“The guys in here, we can’t worry about the
past,” Cincinnati cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones
said. “We’ve got a great outlook to the future with
the young guys we’ve got here.”
That includes rookie quarterback Andy Dalton
and receiver A.J. Green, who have been dynamic
and will be keys to whether Cincinnati can advance
for the first time since beating the Houston Oilers
on Jan. 6, 1991.
Houston has a rookie QB of its own in T.J. Yates, a
third-stringer to begin the season. When Matt
Schaub and Matt Leinart went down with injuries,
Yates came on and the Texans won enough to capture the division. Yates will need to do a whole lot
more in the playoffs, as will a defense that allowed
the fourth-fewest points in an offense-oriented
league.
“Most rookies would come in nervous and that’s
something you don’t see in him,” star receiver Andre Johnson said. “If he is nervous, he does a great
job hiding it. I have a lot of confidence in his ability
and what he can do.”
The stage could be too big for many of these
players, which might lead to a low-scoring affair
with several turnovers. History is not on the side of
either team.
UPSET SPECIAL: BENGALS, 20-19
Detroit (plus 10) at
New Orleans, Saturday night
Another non-playoff factor for so many years —
the Lions last got here in the 1999 season, last won
a postseason game in early 1992 and last won an
NFL title in 1957 — goes against one of the league’s
hottest teams.
Detroit (10-6) has little fear of a shootout because
the Lions can score with most opponents; only
Green Bay, New Orleans and New England scored
more than their 474 points. And they can get after
Oct. 16.
“I think it was Harbaugh, but I
think it came down to this team
taking over, these players starting
to believe in themselves,” Rice
said. “You see that on the football
field right now. They believe
when t0hey step on that field
they can win the football game.
When Mike Singletary had this
team, I didn’t see that. I always
talk about having that quality of
play, knowing you have that confidence to go out there and do it.”
San Francisco landed eight
players in the Pro Bowl along
with a cast of alternates. Both Pro
Bowl-bound kicker David Akers
and punter Andy Lee set NFL
records — Akers the single-season field goal mark with 44, and
Lee the single-season net punting
the quarterback with a fearsome defensive line.
But the quarterback they are chasing is recordsetting Drew Brees, and the Saints (13-3) have been
virtually unchallenged in the Superdome, outscoring opponents 329-143. If turnovers are a key, Detroit might have an edge with a plus-11 margin to
New Orleans’ minus-3. Then again, the Saints had
only 19 giveaways all season.
Light up the scoreboard, fellas.
SAINTS, 37-24
Atlanta (plus 3 1/2) at New York Giants, Sunday
Weather could be a factor at the Meadowlands,
although Falcons QB Matt Ryan says not to worry
about his dome team in a northern outdoor environment in January. Ryan did, after all, grow up in
Philadelphia and play college ball in Boston.
He might get chased all the way down to Philly
and up to Beantown by New York’s reinvigorated
pass rush, which has 11 sacks in its last two games,
wins that propelled the Giants (9-7) to the NFC East
crown. If the Giants can’t get pressure on Ryan, and
Atlanta (10-6) can run the ball a bit, that would
leave wide-open spaces for Ryan to connect with
his solid group of receivers against a porous secondary.
The same is true for Eli Manning, and New York’s
running game has come on recently. Look for just
enough big plays from Manning, Victor Cruz and
the Giants’ sackmasters.
GIANTS, 27-23
Pittsburgh (minus 8) at Denver, Sunday
Ben Roethlisberger is limping, which is better
than Rashard Mendenhall, who is out with torn
knee ligaments.
Pittsburgh (12-4) is inconsistent on the offensive
line. It will be missing safety Ryan Clark, who will be
kept home as a precaution due to a sickle-cell trait
that becomes aggravated when playing at higher
elevations.
Even with those issues, the Steelers should romp
against the Broncos (8-8), who lost their last three
but, thanks to the charity of the rest of the division,
won the AFC West.
Tim Tebow no longer is leading stunning comebacks, and lesser defenses than Pittsburgh’s have
figured out how to make him uneasy. Look for Steelers coordinator Dick LeBeau to use a super-aggressive game plan that forces Tebow to make quick decisions while thwarting Willis McGahee and the
running game.
The Steelers won’t score a lot of points. Denver
barely will score any.
BEST BET: STEELERS, 20-6
RECORD:
Against spread: 8-6-1 (overall 126-107-5); straight
up 14-2 (overall 169-87).
Best Bet: 3-14 against spread, 12-5 straight up.
Upset Special: 11-6 against spread, 8-9 straight
up.
average of 44.0.
“One of the great things about
this 2011 team is their ability to
find ways to win and finish
games,” Harbaugh said. “And it’s
good to win in different ways —
when you have a team that can
win by scoring four touchdowns,
or you can win with special
teams, maybe different ways than
had been our formula in other
games we’ve won.”
The 49ers’ 10 turnovers
matched the 2010 New England
Patriots for least in the NFL since
1941. Alex Smith’s five interceptions rank fewest in franchise history for a single season and tied
for fewest in NFL history. San
Francisco’s 36-game streak of not
allowing a 100-yard rusher ended
at Seattle in Week 16.
The defense allowed only three
rushing touchdowns in 2011 — all
in the final two games — to set an
NFL record for fewest since the
league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978.
“They have something very
special,” said Lott, a Hall of Fame
defensive back. “They don’t give
up inches. They’re the AFC version of the NFC. They have an
AFC-type mentality of how they
play their defense. It’s funny because nobody has said they play
a lot like the Ravens and a lot like
the Steelers but they play a lot
like those defenses. It bodes well
because both those defenses have
been in the championship game
and Super Bowls. So you’ve got
to like that identity leads to the
championship. The other thing I
Even on the road, Steelers fans feel right at home
PAT GRAHAM
AP Sports Writer
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) —
Broncos linebacker Joe Mays was
strolling through the grocery
store earlier this week when he
spotted a family decked out in
Pittsburgh Steelers garb.
The invasion of Pittsburgh fans
has already begun. In his own
neighborhood, no less.
Wait until Sunday.
Billed as Broncos country, this
region will be transformed into
Steelers territory with Ben Roethlisberger & Co. arriving in the
Mile High City for a first-round
playoff game.
Pittsburgh fans have always
traveled well for big games, doing
their best to bring some homefield advantage on the road with
their numbers and noise.
That’s why Broncos coach John
Fox urged fans not to sell their
tickets to Steelers supporters.
The last thing Fox wants to see
this weekend is a sea of yellow
Terrible Towels in the stadium.
“I would encourage all of them
to keep their seats so to speak
and not sell them to Pittsburgh
fans, so our stadium remains as
active and loud as it’s been,” Fox
said.
“More blue and orange as opposed to (black) and gold.”
Shutting out Pittsburgh’s faithful probably won’t happen. They
were certainly a roaring bunch
during the 2005 AFC Championship, rooting on the Steelers to
a 34-17 win in Denver on their
way to another Super Bowl title.
The sight of so much black and
gold on the road never gets old
for Roethlisberger.
“I think it kind of blows most
people away,” he said. “When
you’re on the road and you have
guys on other teams that aren’t
used to seeing that, and all of a
sudden they see the Steeler fans
come in and their like, ‘Holy cow,
what’s going on?’ It’s a pretty
neat feeling.”
According to SeatGeek, a ticket search engine that pulls together listings from all major second-
ary ticket Web sites, Pittsburgh
fans just seem to find a way to get
their hands on tickets. A good
portion of ticket shoppers scouring SeatGeek for deals for the
playoff game are from the Pennsylvania area.
“The Steelers simply are a
massive road draw, and their fans
come out of the woodwork to
show up — wherever they are
playing,” said Will Flaherty, the director of communications at
SeatGeek. “We see it week in and
week out whenever the Steelers
hit the road in the NFL in terms
of elevated secondary market
prices, and this weekend is no exception to that trend.”
There may be even more tickets available from disgruntled
Broncos season-ticket holders.
Sure, this is the Broncos’ first
postseason appearance in six
years, but the recent poor play of
Tim Tebow, along with conservative, predictable play calling, has
turned off some die-hard Denver
fans.
The Broncos had far more
punts (nine) than points (three)
in a loss to Kyle Orton and the
Kansas City Chiefs last weekend.
The Broncos’ third straight loss
nearly cost them a playoff spot,
but they were bailed out when
San Diego beat Oakland later
Sunday.
“That game was one step
above watching paint dry,” said
Todd Tenenbaum, who’s from
Denver and has had season tickets in his family since the franchise’s birth in 1960. “To watch
the running back and quarterback bump into each other to see
who can get up the middle first is
just boring.
“I’d rather stay home and
watch ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’
with my kids.”
As for heeding Fox’s advice,
Tenenbaum said he’s taking it under advisement.
“Because of the value of the
tickets and that most likely Pittsburgh is going to cream us, I’d
rather sell to a Pittsburgh fan that
I know,” he said. “That way, they
can enjoy the game.
“I feel guilty about selling.”
Steelers fans often make road
games feel just like Heinz Field.
“I’m continually surprised and
awed by that, particularly when
we’re out west,” Steelers coach
Mike Tomlin said. “We’ve got
world championship-caliber fans,
and that’s why we work so hard
to produce results on the field for
them.”
Broncos running back Lance
Ball can’t get away from Steelersmania. He hears about it all the
time since his brother is a big
Pittsburgh fan.
“He’s on both sides. I think
he’ll wear a half (jersey of each),”
Ball said, laughing. “Pittsburgh is
one of America’s teams. They’ve
been around. They’re a favorite,
just like the Cowboys.”
As for the partisan crowd, Ball
said it won’t bother him. After all,
the Broncos went 3-5 at home, 53 on the road.
“I like playing in an away-game
type of field,” Ball said. “But we’re
at home. We have to take it like
that. It’s our house.”
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
7A
NBA BRIEFS
Heat beat Hawks
in triple-OT
without Wade
or James
ATLANTA (AP) — Chris
Bosh scored 33 points and
the Miami Heat, playing
without injured stars LeBron James and Dwyane
Wade, beat the Atlanta
Hawks 116-109 in tripleovertime on Thursday night.
Mario Chalmers had 22 of
his 29 points after the third
quarter for the Heat, including five in the third overtime.
Wade missed his secondstraight game with a sore
left foot and James was held
out after he turned his left
ankle late in the third quarter of Wednesday night’s
118-83 win over Indiana.
Neither star was in uniform.
Bosh hit a last-second, tying 3-pointer at the end of
regulation to force the first
overtime.
Joe Johnson had 20 points
for the Hawks, who did not
score in the third extra period. Josh Smith added 17
points and 13 rebounds for
Atlanta, which was seeking
its second win over the Heat
in four days but missed 15 of
46 free throws.
Bosh, the only healthy
member of Miami’s Big
Three, had 14 rebounds.
Sacramento Kings
fire coach Westphal
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
(AP) — The Sacramento
Kings fired coach Paul Westphal on Thursday, cutting
ties after two-plus seasons
amid a slow start and an escalating dispute with young
center DeMarcus Cousins.
Kings president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie
made the announcement
ahead of the team’s home
game against Milwaukee on
Thursday night.
Assistant coach Keith
Smart, let go by the Golden
State Warriors this summer
after one season, will serve
as head coach versus the
Bucks.
Looking to build momentum for a new arena project,
Sacramento stumbled at the
start again this year. A talented and athletic — albeit
raw — roster led by Westphal is 2-5 and in last place
in the Pacific Division.
“I want to thank Paul for
all of his effort on behalf of
the Kings,” Petrie said. “Unfortunately, the overall performance level of the team
has not approached what we
felt was reasonable to expect. I wish him the best in
his future endeavors.”
In two-plus seasons leading the Kings, Westphal finished with a 51-120 record.
The 61-year-old Westphal
also previously coached the
Phoenix Suns and Seattle
SuperSonics.
NBA SCORES
Thursday, Jan. 6
Miami 116, Atlanta 109 (3OT)
San Antonio 93, Dallas 71
Sacramento 103, Milwaukee 100
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Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
rocketminer.com
Wyo. Gatorade player
of the Year hopes to
play Division I ball
ROBERT GAGLIARDI
Wyo. Sports
Four Cowboys have been honored by the Western Wrestling Conference this year. Shane Onufer is just the latest UW grappler to be recognized for his performance, receiving the WWC Wrestler of the Week award Dec. 20 for his efforts in the Reno Tournament of Champions.
Onufer also was the WWC Wrestler of the Week for the week of Nov. 15. Zach Zehner was named WWC Co-Wrestler of the Week for the week
of Dec. 13 for the first time in his career. Joe LeBlanc was the third Cowboy to be named Wrestler of the Week this season, as he received the
honor for the week of Dec. 6. Kasey Garnhart was named the Co-Wrestler of the Week by the league for the week of Nov. 22. It was the first
of Garnhart’s season and first of his career.
Wyoming wrestling
team ranked No. 9
COWBOYS
WRESTLING
SCHEDULE
11/5 Northwest Open NTS
11/11 Brown vs. Gold G-23, B-15
11/12 Cowboy Open NTS
11/19 at Kearney Open NTS
11/21 at NWCA All-Star Classic
NTS
12/2-3 Las Vegas Invitational 3rd
out of 34
12/10 Nebraska N-19, W-15
12/18 Reno Tourn. of Champs 2nd
out of 20
1/1 Oklahoma State OSU-24, W-17
1/3 Oklahoma W-18, OU-17
1/15 Oregon State
1/20 Cal Poly
1/21 Utah Valley
1/29 Northern Iowa
2/2 Air Force
2/8 Northern Colorado
2/12 NWCA National Duals
2/16 South Dakota State
2/17 North Dakota State
3/3 NCAA West Regional/
WWC Championship
3/15 at NCAA Championship
3/16 at NCAA Championship
3/17 at NCAA Championship
Games in bold indicate home
games.
PROBABLE
STARTERS
Weight
125
125
133
141
141
149
157
165
174
184
197
Hwt.
Name
Michael Martinez
Kasey Garnhart
Zach Zehner
Mike Hamel
McCade Ford
Brandon Richard
Dakota Friesth
Shane Onufer
Pat Martinez
Joe LeBlanc
Alfonso Hernandez
L.J. Helbig
STATISTICAL
LEADERS
Overall Wins
1. Alfonso Hernandez, 25-4
2. Pat Martinez, 23-7
Dakota Friesth, 21-11
4. Zach Zehner, 19-7
5. Brandon Richardson, 18-11
6. Joe LeBlanc, 17-1
Shane Onufer, 17-1
8. Dallas Hintz, 16-4
Shane Woods, 16-6
Michael Martinez, 16-8
Dual Wins
1. Alfonso Hernandez, 3
Joe LeBlanc, 3
3. Pat Martinez, 2
Shane Onufer, 2
Dual Points
1. Joe LeBlanc, 13
2. Pat Martinez, 10
3. Alfonso Hernandez, 9
4. Kasey Garnhart, 6
Shane Onufer, 6
Pins
1. Austin Breckenridge, 8
2. V.J. Giulio, 7
Pat Martinez, 7
Andy McCulley, 7
4. Tanner Harms, 6
Dallas Hintz, 6
7. Joe LeBlanc, 5
Sean O’Leary, 5
9. Shane Woods, 4
Zach Zehner, 4
Quickest Pin
1. Austin Breckenridge, 0:22
2. Dan Crook, 0:23
3. Jace Jensen, 0:48
4. Tommy Thoman, 0:50
5. Alex Baca, 0:56
6. Joe LeBlanc, 1:00
6. Sean O’Leary, 1:08
7. Andy McCulley, 1:15
Jake Eitzen, 1:15
DAVID WATSON
Laramie Boomerang
LARAMIE (AP) — If the University of Wyoming wrestling
team hasn’t gotten much respect
in the past, it is getting it now.
The impact of the Cowboys’ 1817 upset of visiting Oklahoma on
Tuesday was immediate.
UW cracked InterMat’s top 10
listing less than 24 hours after
beating the Sooners, according to
Wednesday’s release of the national college poll.
Wyoming is listed in ninth
place, marking the first single-digit ranking in the history of the program.
UW was tied with the Sooners
at No. 13 in the InterMat poll
heading into the dual. It was 12th
in the WIN Magazine poll; the
Sooners were tied for 10th with
Michigan.
Those two polls are based on
tourney rankings.
In the National Wrestling
Coaches
Association
(NWCA)/USA Today poll, which
is based on dual meets, UW was
20th and Oklahoma tied for ninth
with Pittsburgh. UW also hosted
InterMat’s second-ranked team,
Oklahoma State, last Sunday and
lost 24-17 after leading with three
matches to go.
“We have a really tough schedule and could be 0-3 right now,”
UW coach Mark Branch tells the
Laramie Boomerang. “It’s funny.
We wrestled Oklahoma State in a
closer battle than most people
would’ve expected. But nobody
said, ‘Wow, Wyoming stuck close
with them’ because a loss is a loss.
“But now with a win against
Oklahoma, they have to know we
got the job done, and I think it will
bring more respect to the program.”
When Branch took over the UW
squad four years ago, he knew
what it would take to move the
Cowboys from good to elite. First,
UW was to compete against the
best. Then the Cowboys had to
start beating them.
Branch set duals with the top
teams in the nation. Some of the
programs he wanted to use as
Cowboys eye Oregon State
ROCK SPRINGS — Wyoming (1-2 overall) will wrestle in its
fourth dual of the season Jan. 15, when the Cowboys travel to Corvallis, Ore., to take on the Oregon State Beavers.
The Pokes lost 20-15 last season to the Beavers in a dual in
Casper. It will be the 25th meeting in the series, with Wyoming
holding a 6-18 record.
HISTORIC DAY
Wyoming’s 18-17 win over OU on Jan. 3 was its first victory over
the Sooners in a series that began in 1955. The Pokes now have a
1-14-2 record versus Oklahoma.
NATIONAL NOTICE
Pollsters across the nation took notice of Wyoming’s win over
the Sooners, and Wyoming was ranked in the top 10 of the InterMat poll, released Tuesday. The Cowboys were rated ninth, ahead
of teams like American, Nebraska and Oklahoma. It is the first
time in the history of the InterMat poll that UW has been in the
top 10.
measuring sticks from this part of
the country were Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma and Oregon State.
Scheduling the teams from Oklahoma wasn’t hard: Branch came
to UW with prior relationships as
associate head coach at Oklahoma State for six years when it
won NCAA titles from 2002-05.
He also is a four-time NCAA AllAmerica and two-time national
champion wrestler for Oklahoma
State. After losing to Nebraska 3410 and 47-0 from 2006-08, the
Cowboys beat the Cornhuskers
29-10 in Lincoln, Neb., in 2010.
UW lost to the Huskers 20-12 last
season and 19-15 this year.
The Cowboys have never beaten Oklahoma State, going 0-13
since 1956. But the gap is closing.
UW lost 34-4, 31-3 and 34-3 in the
last three years and 24-17 this season.
The Sooners are a recent addition, though the series dates back
to 1955; the Cowboys won for the
first time in 17 duals.
A day after one of the biggest
wins in program history, Branch is
sticking to his philosophy of what
got UW there.
“It means we have to go to
work and figure out what we did
2011-12 NATIONAL POLLS
wrong,” he said. “I’m not going to
think about (the win) right now,
but maybe at the end of the season I’ll look at it.
“When you look at the individual matches, even though I didn’t
like what I saw, (our wrestlers) got
their hands raised. We have emphasized finding a way to get your
hands raised even when it is ugly.”
Yet another challenge is ahead
for the Cowboys. They travel to
Oregon State for a dual Jan. 15 in
Corvallis, Ore. The Beavers are 41 heading into a dual Sunday with
Arizona State.
The 17th-ranked Beavers have
an 18-6 series advantage against
UW. Oregon State won 28-8 two
years ago and 20-15 when the
teams met in Colorado Springs,
Colo., last season.
“I felt like we should’ve won (at
Oklahoma) last year and Oregon
State is the same way,” Branch
said. “I hope our team takes that
as a challenge with something to
prove. It would be nice to get
some revenge.”
CHEYENNE
—
Jordan
Roberts created a buzz on the
football field.
And that buzz likely will continue until the Sheridan High
product decides where he wants
to continue his football career.
The 5-foot-10, 190-pound
Roberts was the Wyoming
Gatorade Player of the Year last
season as a running back. He
helped Sheridan win its second
Class 4A state championship in
the last three years.
Roberts carried the ball 308
times for 2,688 yards and 38
touchdowns. He also showed
his durability late in the season
with 80 carries in the semifinal
and championship games.
He rolled up 2,938 yards of
total offense, averaged 21 yards
per kickoff return and 9.1 yards
every time he touched the ball.
“He has good size and has
very good strength to go with
it,” Sheridan football coach Don
Julian said. “He’s a very powerful back. Along with that, he has
great vision and great ability to
make cuts at full speed, better
than any high-school running
back I’ve coached.”
Julian just completed his fifth
year at Sheridan, and was the
coach at Riverton for nine years.
In between those two places,
he was an assistant coach at the
University of Wyoming from
2002-06.
“I think this is a kid that has
the potential to play at a Division-I level,” Julian added.
“Whether he’ll get an offer to do
that, I don’t know.”
Roberts has no scholarship
offers from any Football Bowl
Subdivision schools, formerly
known and Division I-A. He is
scheduled to visit UW the last
weekend in January, and Julian
said Nevada also has shown
some interest.
Roberts has two scholarship
offers from two Football Championship Subdivision schools,
formerly known as Division IAA — Northern Colorado and
South Dakota. Former UW
coach Joe Glenn, who Julian
worked for from 2003-06, was
recently hired as the coach at
South Dakota.
Roberts will visit those two
schools over consecutive weekends starting next week.
“Ever since I was little kid, I
thought I was capable of playing
Division I, but I was always
open to everything,” Roberts
said. “It didn’t matter if it was
Division I-AA or Division I-A or
anything like that.
“It’s always been one of my
goals to get Wyoming interested. But I really just want to play
D-I and just see what my options are.”
NCAA rules prohibit college
Missouri hires former
UW coach Grinch
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) —
Alex Grinch, the secondary
coach at Wyoming the last three
seasons, is returning to Missouri to coach the safeties.
Grinch served on coach Gary
Pinkel’s staff as a graduate assistant from 2002-04.
2012 WYOMING
FOOTBALL
RECRUITING
VERBAL COMMITMENTS
DT Chase Appleby, 6-0,
270, Frisco, Texas (Centennial HS)
DE Justin Bernthaler, 6-3,
240, Stuttgart, Germany
(Fullerton College)
OL Jacob English, 6-6, 240,
Beloit, Kan. (Beloit HS)
P Tim Gleeson, 6-3, 190,
Melbourne, Australia
OL Walker Madden, 6-9,
270, Yucca Valley, Calif. (College of the Desert)
ATH Eric Nzeocha, 6-1,
210, Neusitz, Germany (Ansbach)
OL Connor Raines, 6-7,
320, Shingle Springs, Calif.
(American River CC)
WR Trent Sewell, 6-2, 205,
Bothell, Wash. (Bothell HS)
LB Lucas Wacha, 6-0, 180,
Texarkana, Texas (Pleasant
Grove HS)
RB Evan Williams, 6-0,
190, Minneapolis, Minn.
(Iowa Western CC)
DE Richard Winston, 6-4,
210, Chandler, Ariz. (Chandler HS)
coaches from talking to the media about recruits until they’ve
signed their national letters of
intent. Signing day is Feb. 1.
UW has four running backs
on its roster who will return in
2012: seniors Alvester Alexander and Ghaali Muhammad,
junior Brandon Miller (who also
played some at receiver) and
sophomore Kody Sutton. It also
has a verbal commitment from
Evan Williams from Iowa Western Community College, who
should enroll this month.
Julian said Roberts ran in the
4.6-seconds range in the 40yard dash during a one-day
camp at UW last spring, which
in this day and age is considered
a little on the slow side for a running back.
Roberts attended football
camps at Colorado, Boise State
and Notre Dame last summer.
Roberts transferred to Sheridan from Gillette, and 2011 was
the first season he played defense at the high-school level.
He played linebacker, where he
recorded 114 defensive points
and was second on the team
with 10.5 tackles for loss.
“I’m not so sure he wouldn’t
be a pretty fine safety, also,” Julian said. “I think he’s a kid that
could play on either side of the
ball.
“He’s a football player, and a
high-character kid. Given an opportunity, he is not going to be a
kid that’s going to hurt you.”
Wyoming coach Dave Christensen was the longtime offensive coordinator under Pinkel at
Missouri.
Grinch replaces Barry Odom,
named defensive coordinator at
Memphis last month. Wyoming
led the Mountain West Conference in pass defense last season
and was tied for fifth in the
NCAA with 31 turnovers produced.
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rocketminer.com
High water
in north
sparks Dutch
evacuations
9A
Karzai demands
U.S. hand over
Bagram prison
SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press
Associated Press
Associated Press
THE HAGUE, Netherlands
(AP) — Dozens of farmers were
warned to evacuate land north
of the Dutch capital Thursday
as a dike protecting the area
threatened to collapse.
Local mayor Ben Plandsoen
told national broadcaster NOS
that a polder — reclaimed land
that is drained by pumps and
mills — would likely be submerged under some 40 centimeters (16 inches) of water if
the dike protecting it breaks.
“You just don’t know how the
dike will hold up,” he said. “It is
saturated, so you don’t know
how much pressure it can take.”
Late Thursday the dike was
holding, but in the far north of
the country authorities were
still battling rising water levels
by strengthening dikes with
sandbags.
Staff at the Groninger Museum in the city of Groningen
also began moving exhibits, including a recently opened show
of clothes by Tunisian designer
Azzedine Alaia, from its ground
floor halls because of the rising
level of a moat that surrounds
the building.
The museum said it would be
closed Friday.
Elsewhere, riverside residents were offered sandbags, as
the low-lying Netherlands appeared to be largely winning the
latest skirmish in its never-ending battle to stay dry.
The densely populated nation
of nearly 17 million, 25 percent
of which lies below sea level,
has been drenched by heavy
rain and buffeted by strong
northwesterly winds for days.
The rain saturated dikes and
filled drainage canals and rivers
while gales lashing the coast
hampered efforts to pump the
excess water out of canals and
into the sea.
In neighboring Belgium,
newspapers reported that a 64year-old man died Thursday
morning in the town of Roosdaal, about 16 kilometers (10
miles) west of Brussels, when
high winds blew a massive door
on top of him.
Dutch authorities appealed to
the some 85 farmers who keep
livestock on below-sea-level
land near the village of Tolbert
160 kilometers (100 miles)
north of Amsterdam, to voluntarily evacuate because the dike
was threatened.
Dutch media reported that
most farmers ignored the voluntary evacuation and meteorologists said early afternoon
that the worst rainfall appeared
to have passed. With less rain
and lightning fast winds forecast over coming days, the situation was expected to ease although river levels could rise
before then begin to fall.
Even so, the Defense Ministry said it had put 50 troops
on standby with inflatable
boats, trucks and ambulances
in case they were needed in the
north.
Authorities also cordoned off
riverbanks in some areas of the
densely populated south.
In the city of Dordrecht,
thousands of sandbags were
made available to residents
whose homes or businesses
were threatened by the rising
levels of three rivers.
Television images showed
water lapping at windows of
houses built next to one of the
city’s rivers.
Inspectors also patrolled
dikes along the Oosterschelde
estuary in the south Thursday
and along coastal regions in
the north as powerful wind
gusts battered the North Sea
coast, national water authority
Rijkswaterstaat said in a statement.
Water authorities further
north said earlier Thursday that
they had brought the situation
under control by pumping millions of gallons of water into the
sea, lowering water levels in
drainage canals that crisscross
the country.
They also deliberately flooded uninhabited nature reserves
to lower water levels elsewhere
in populated parts of the region.
No deaths or injuries have
been reported in the Netherlands, though the strong winds
caused delays at the country’s
main airport, Schiphol, and on
railways.
WORLD
Prosecution demands death
for Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak
HAMZA HENDAWI
MIKE CORDER
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
CAIRO (AP) — Prosecutors on Thursday
called for Hosni Mubarak to be hanged,
saying he bore full responsibility for the
killing of protesters during the uprising
against him, in a courtroom moment unthinkable barely a year ago when the longtime leader held unquestioned power.
The demand for the death penalty at the
83-year-old former president’s trial played
to the widespread resentment of Mubarak
among Egyptians who hoped that punishment for his oppressive rule would be fruit
of the Arab Spring.
Still, some of the activists who helped
topple him are skeptical the sentence would
ever be carried out, if he is convicted. A
conviction would be followed by a possibly
lengthy appeals process that the ailing
Mubarak’s lawyer would likely draw out,
and Egypt’s new rulers — the military —
have the power to veto a death sentence.
Mubarak has been brought to every hearing since his trial began on Aug. 3 on a hospital gurney, wheeled into the courtroom
cage where defendants are held, alongside
his two sons, former security chief and six
top police commanders.
On Thursday, prosecutor Mustafa Khater
gave a passionate speech demanding the
death penalty for Mubarak, former Interior
Minister Habib el-Adly and four of the police commanders. They are charged with
complicity in the deaths of some 800 protesters during the 18-day uprising that led
to Mubarak’s fall on Feb. 11.
“Retribution is the solution. Any fair
judge must issue a death sentence for these
defendants,” said Khater, one of five prosecutors in the case.
“We feel the spirits of the martyrs flying
over this hall of sacred justice, and those
who lost their sight by the bullets of the defendants are stumbling around it to reach
the judge and demand fair retribution from
those who attacked them,” he said. “The
nation and the people are awaiting a word
of justice and righteousness.”
For separate corruption charges leveled
against Mubarak, his sons Alaa and Gamal,
and a close family friend on the run, Khater
demanded unspecified prison sentences
with hard labor. Two police commanders
charged with gross negligence face prison
terms.
Khater’s speech came on the last of three
days of sessions in which the prosecution
lay out its case, following months of testimony by witnesses, aiming to show that
Mubarak and el-Adly — who was in charge
of the police — ordered security forces to
use deadly force against protesters.
Chief prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said
earlier in Thursday’s session that Mubarak
was “politically and legally” responsible for
the killing of the protesters. He charged
that Mubarak was aware from meetings
with aides, regional TV channels and reports by his security agencies that the
killings were taking place but did nothing
to stop them.
El-Adly authorized the use of live ammunition on orders from Mubarak, he said.
“He (Mubarak) can never, as the top official, claim that he did not know what was
going on,” Suleiman told the court.
“He is responsible for what happened
and must bear the legal and political responsibility for what happened. It is irrational and illogical to assume that he did
not know that protesters were being targeted.”
Addressing Mubarak directly, Suleiman
said, “If you had not issued these orders
yourself, then where was your outburst of
rage over the loss of the lives of your people?”
The trial’s presiding judge, Ahmed Rifaat, adjourned the hearings until Monday,
the first of two days he said would be assigned to the lawyers for the victims’ families to state their case. Next would be the
turn of the defense for all 11 defendants.
The timeline has led to speculation in the
courtroom that Rifaat wanted to wrap up
the case and issue a verdict before Jan. 25,
the first anniversary of the start of the 18day uprising that toppled Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule. The youth groups behind
the uprising are planning mass protests
across the nation, not to celebrate the day,
but to demand that the generals who took
over from Mubarak step down.
“It will not be a second revolution as
some are saying,” prominent protest leader
Shadi Ghazali Harb said. “The first revolution is not over yet. On January 25 we will
continue our struggle on a special day.”
Harb, like other activists, suspects that a
death sentence may be announced before
Jan. 25, but only to appease the revolutionaries who maintain that Mubarak and his
two sons were only arrested and brought to
trial after a series of mass protests that followed Mubarak’s Feb. 11 ouster. The
Mubaraks were arrested in April.
Harb said he was skeptical a death sentence would be carried out.
“It will be a political sentence that will
most likely be overturned on appeal,” Harb
said.
Even if Mubarak is convicted and sentenced to death by Jan. 25, the former
leader has a lengthy recourse to appeal that
could last months, said Omar Hagag elShal, who represents several victims’ families in the Mubarak trial.
He also held out the possibility that
Mubarak’s lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, would try
to draw out of the appeal process.
There is also the possibility that
Mubarak will be cleared of the protester
killing charges and convicted on corruption
accusations, bringing him a prison sentence but sparing him the noose. The corruption charges emanate from his association with friend and business tycoon Hussein Thabet, who allegedly sold Mubarak
and his family five luxury villas at a fraction
of their market price in return for Thabet
landing a lucrative deal to export natural
gas to Israel.
Even if a death sentence is upheld
throughout the appeal process, the nation’s
head of state — a position currently held by
the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
— could veto the execution.
The nation’s ruling generals are highly
unlikely to allow his execution if his sentence was upheld on their watch.
The Supreme Council is led by
Mubarak’s defense minister of 20 years.
The generals on the council are beholden to
Mubarak since their rise through the ranks
was only possible with his approval.
Mubarak is a former air force chief and a
decorated war hero. Already, several of the
generals have publicly commended
Mubarak for stepping down rather than see
the country plunging into prolonged bloodshed like Libya’s civil war and the continuing bloodshed in Syria.
The military has said that presidential
elections would be held before the end of
June and that it would step down when the
new head of state is sworn in. It has yet to
announce dates.
Mubarak’s trial is without precedent in
the Arab world and is an Arab Spring landmark.
Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was tried, convicted and hanged in an Iraqi court, but the
process was guided by American legal experts. Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled
the North African nation in the face of a
popular uprising, taking refuge in Saudi
Arabia. Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, after a
42-year reign, was captured and killed by
revolutionaries in October after a monthslong civil war. Yemen’s leader Ali Abdullah
Saleh has agreed to step down after 33
years in power, but there is no sign the turmoil in his Arabian peninsula nation is ending any time soon.
Many Egyptians have grown exasperated with the turmoil in their nation since
Mubarak’s ouster, particularly over a worsening economy and precarious security.
Though some voices are against executing
Mubarak, many will find satisfaction in the
punishment of a man they believed ruled
Egypt like it was his personal property and
planned to pass it to his son.
Suleiman, the chief prosecutor, summed
up these sentiments in comments he made
in court on Tuesday.
“He deserves to end in humiliation and
indignity: From the presidential palace to
the defendants’ cage and then the harshest
penalty,” he said. “He refused to willingly
relinquish power in response to the will of
his own people, so it was forcefully taken
from him.”
Another prosecutor, Wael Hussein, told
Thursday’s hearing that one of the six police commanders on trial — former chief of
the hated state security agency Hassan Abdel-Rahman — personally gave orders to allow inmates to escape from a string of jails
across the nation during the Jan. 25-Feb 11.
uprising.
The thousands of escaped prisoners have
been blamed for a dramatic surge in crime
since Jan. 28 last year when almost all vestiges of state authority collapsed. Most of
the inmates have since been captured and
returned to jail, but Egypt continues to suffer higher-than-usual crime rates.
The other three generals facing a possible death sentence are: Adly Fayed, chief of
general security, Ismail el-Shaer, Cairo’s security chief, and Ahmed Ramzy, chief of the
central security forces, or riot police.
Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease
MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer
CAMBRIDGE, England (AP)
— British scientist Stephen
Hawking has decoded some of
the most puzzling mysteries of
the universe but he has left one
mystery unsolved: how he has
managed to survive so long with
such a crippling disease.
The physicist and cosmologist
was diagnosed with Lou
Gehrig’s disease when he was a
21-year-old student at Cambridge University. Most people
die within a few years of the diagnosis, called motor neurone
disease in the U.K. On Sunday,
Hawking will turn 70.
“I don’t know of anyone who’s
survived this long,” said Ammar
Al-Chalabi, director of the Motor
Neurone Disease Care and Research Centre at King’s College
London. He does not treat
Hawking and described his
longevity as “extraordinary.”
“It is unusual for (motor neurone disease) patients to survive
for decades, but not unheard of,”
said Dr. Rup Tandan, a neurology professor at the University of
Vermont College of Medicine.
Still, Tandan said many longtime survivors had ventilators to
breathe for them — which
Hawking does not.
Hawking first gained attention
with his 1988 book “A Brief History of Time,” a simplified
overview of the universe. It sold
more than 10 million copies
worldwide. His subsequent theories have revolutionized modern understanding of concepts
like black holes and the Big
Bang theory of how the universe
began.
To mark his birthday Sunday,
Cambridge University is holding
a public symposium on “The
State of the Universe,” featuring
talks from 27 leading scientists,
including Hawking himself. For
30 years, he held a mathematics
post at the university previously
held by Sir Isaac Newton. Hawking retired from that position in
2009 and is now director of research at the university’s Centre
for Theoretical Cosmology.
Hawking achieved all that despite being nearly entirely paralyzed and in a wheelchair since
1970. He now communicates
only by twitching his right
cheek. Since catching pneumonia in 1985, Hawking has needed around-the-clock care and relies on a computer and voice
synthesizer to speak.
A tiny infrared sensor sits on
his glasses, hooked up to a computer. The sensor detects Hawking’s cheek pulses, which select
words displayed on a computer
screen. The chosen words are
then spoken by the voice synthesizer. It can take up to 10 minutes for Hawking to formulate a
single sentence.
“The only trouble is (the voice
synthesizer) gives me an American accent,” the Briton wrote on
his Web site. It took Hawking
four years to write his last book,
“The Grand Design,” missing his
publisher’s original deadline.
Hawking declined requests
from The Associated Press for
an interview, but his personal assistant, Judith Croasdell, spoke
to the AP. She described her
boss as remarkably patient.
“The way he communicates
can seem frustratingly slow to
most people but he doesn’t let
that impede his thinking,” she
said. After a brief hospital stay,
Hawking told her that he spent
the time thinking about black
holes.
Hawking typically comes into
the office after a big breakfast
and reading the news, Croasdell
said. “He’s not an early morning
person, but he does stay quite
late,” until about 7 or 8 in the
evening, she said.
Hawking’s rooftop university
office is crammed full of memorabilia: family photos, a miniature NASA shuttle, and a signed
picture of himself with President
Barack Obama and his wife,
Michelle. On top of physics
books sits a disability access
guide for the university.
Hawking’s fame has led to
guest appearances on some of
his favorite television shows including “The Simpsons” and
“Star Trek.” His animated likeness from “The Simpsons” has
even been turned into an action
figure — one of which sits proudly on his office desk. There’s also
a Homer Simpson clock that
Hawking is known to glare at
when visitors are late for an appointment.
“He’s a big ham, he loves the
spotlight,” said Kitty Ferguson,
who’s written two biographies of
the physicist.
She said he has a wry sense of
humor and has programmed his
computer to respond to random
encounters with people who ask
if he’s Stephen Hawking. “No,
but I’m often mistaken for that
man,” his voice synthesizer
deadpans.
Lou Gehrig’s disease, also
called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, attacks motor
neurons, cells that control the
muscles. Patients typically suffer
muscle weakness and wasting,
become paralyzed and have
problems talking, swallowing
and breathing. Only about 10
percent of patients live longer
than a decade.
People who are stricken at a
young age, as Hawking was,
generally have a better chance of
surviving longer. Most people
are diagnosed between 50 and
70. Life expectancy generally
ranges from two to five years after symptoms like slurred
speech, difficulty swallowing and
muscle weakness set in. Hawking’s personal physicians don’t
discuss his condition with the
press, Croasdell said.
For some reason, the disease
has progressed more slowly in
Hawking than in most. Al-Chalabi and colleagues are analyzing
a DNA sample from Hawking,
along with those of other patients, to see if there is something rare about his disease or
any genetic mutations that could
explain his long survival and if
that information could be used
to help others.
Some experts said the type of
care Hawking has, including
about a dozen health workers 24
hours a day, may have extended
his life expectancy.
“The disease can sometimes
stabilize and then the kind of
care delivered may be a factor in
survival,” said Virginia Lee, a
brain disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania School
of Medicine.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —
President Hamid Karzai demanded Thursday that the U.S. detention center at Bagram Air Base be
handed over to Afghan control
within a month, along with all
Afghan citizens held by the coalition troops across the nation.
Meanwhile, three NATO service members were killed in an explosion in the south of the country, the coalition said. It did not
provide any other details about
the incident.
A presidential statement said
that keeping Afghan citizens imprisoned without trial violates the
country’s constitution, as well as
international human rights conventions.
The prison, inside the sprawling U.S. base at Bagram north of
Kabul, abuts a well-known public
detention center known as Parwan, which is run jointly by
Afghan authorities and the U.S.
military.
It’s unclear how many high-value detainees are being held at the
U.S. facility. Human rights groups
have claimed that detainees were
menaced, forced to strip naked
and kept in solitary confinement
in windowless cells.
A statement from Karzai’s office said he issued instructions to
a commission consisting of the
ministers of defense, interior and
justice, as well as other top government and judicial officials, “to
complete their job regarding the
handing over of the (Bagram)
prison and other prisoners who
are held by foreign forces.”
“The work should be completed within a month,” it said.
The U.S.-led NATO coalition is
gradually handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan
police and army. The process is
due to be completed in 2014,
when most foreign troops are
scheduled to be withdrawn from
Afghanistan.
Karzai’s demands are the most
recent in a series of exercises in
political brinksmanship by the
president, as he tries to bolster
his negotiating position ahead of
renewed talks for a Strategic
Partnership Document with
America that will determine the
U.S. role in Afghanistan after
2014.
Among the conditions that
Karzai has set is an end to night
raids by international troops and
complete Afghan control over detainees.
Karzai is walking a tightrope.
Although he routinely plays to
anti-American sentiment in
Afghanistan by denouncing the
U.S., he needs America’s military
and financial strength to back his
weak government as it battles the
Taliban insurgency.
The CIA’s infamous secret network of “black site” interrogation
centers is now gone, but suspected terrorists in Afghanistan are
being held and interrogated for
weeks at temporary sites, including one run by elite special operations forces at Bagram Air Base.
The detainees include those suspected of top roles in the Taliban,
al-Qaida or other militant groups.
Also Thursday, Afghan police
said they arrested two British private security contractors and two
Afghan colleagues after finding a
cache of weapons in their vehicle.
They are being held for investigation into illegal arms transport.
Karzai has ordered all the protection companies shut down by
March and replaced by a unified
government-run protection force,
though recruitment is proceeding
at a slow place.
Authorities ordered the immediate shutdown of Afghanistan
operations of their company, the
international security consulting
firm GardaWorld, and are questioning other company employees.
In the latest violence, attackers
gunned down a local government
official on his way to a mosque in
southern Afghanistan in another
hit on a government figure. Hundreds of Afghan government officials have been killed in recent
years as the Taliban pursue a
sweeping assassination campaign
seeking to weaken confidence
Karzai’s administration and discourage people from joining the
government.
Haji Fazel Mohammad was
shot on his way to evening
prayers Wednesday in the volatile
district of Sangin in Helmand
province, the governor’s office
said. The attackers escaped.
The Taliban’s assassination
campaign has also hit senior figures.
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OPINIONS
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Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
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Page 10A
A novel solution to
the drug problem
A cop friend told me not long prisoners, a stance that had him
ago that he had changed his mind battling the prison lobby. I wish I
completely on the idea of legaliz- had Ben to talk to — he passed
ing drugs. His current take: Le- away a few years ago — or even
galize everything but meth and one of the letters he wrote to the
hang the meth-pushers — or Oregonian. But I remember him
something close to that.
talking and writing passionately
We were talking about
about the prison builders
a kid we both had
and the corporate ownknown back in the day, a
ers and their lobbies —
kid who had had some
private prisons were
problems, but skated
then a fast-growing inalong at the edge of the
dustry — and how they
law, made it through
influenced drug and
school and even had
prison reform.
some jobs. Then he got
Maybe the prison lobhooked on methamby has quieted down, but
phetamine. He was in
I doubt it. Alcohol and
prison at the time.
tobacco industries and
Whether legal or illetheir lobbies must still
gal, drugs alter the way
have their thumbs in any
people think and the
debate about legalizing
way they behave, my
currently illegal drugs.
friend said. Meth, howAnd I doubt that the asever, does something
sociations of prison
worse: It completely RICH
guards and the attorneys
transforms its users into WANDSCHNEIDER and wardens who make
something else, loosena living making sure that
ing whatever anchors of
our country incarcerates
conscience and humanity they more of its citizens than any othhave.
er developed country in the
Regulate drugs as legal prod- world, are staying quiet. I imagine
ucts, tax them, make them unat- that the drug cartels in Mexico
tractive for criminals, and let us would also not favor legalizing
go after the bad guys running the any of the drugs they sell so well
meth business, he said. All these in our country. Ditto for the
other illegal drugs — from pot to builders of border fences and surheroin — create huge profit cen- veillance systems; isn’t it amazing
ters, and the law enforcement that fences on the Canadian borcommunity spends a great deal of der have been proposed?
time and energy chasing the
Meanwhile, we continue to
criminals who exploit them, leav- smoke and drink legally, and then
ing no time for pursuing meth we deal with the health and crime
dealers. Witness two big marijua- problems these drugs generate.
na-growing busts in Wallowa We continue to make normal
County last summer and the local folks into criminals over drugs
and state effort that went into the that could be regulated and taxed
busts.
and dealt with as we deal with alThe illegal status of pot makes cohol. We continue to spend law
criminals out of ordinary people enforcement time and energy
who think drug laws are stupid chasing after the bad guys atand should be ignored, if not ex- tracted to the business — the
ploited. Remember Prohibition, heirs to the Prohibition era’s
where backyard stills, wineries Capones. And we spend more
and breweries made criminals of and more money on a war on
many rural people, and big-time drugs that we cannot win.
criminals made fortunes running
We also continue to watch as
alcohol across the borders of weapons and drugs are shipped
Canada and Mexico.
across our southern border, as
When I suggested that the big gangster wars erupt among the
mountain to climb in legalizing cartels and the dead and dying
drugs (except for meth) would be operatives who keep border viothe alcohol and tobacco lobbies, lence raging across Mexico. No
my friend the policeman agreed. vacationing now in Acapulco!
And don’t forget the prison lobAnd the meth guys? They are
by, another friend, Ben Butzein, still out there, cooking their poiadded later. Ben was a drug user sons in small towns and large,
in the 1960s, and spent time in running their stuff across state
prison for it. On his release, he and national boundaries, fueling
hooked up with an outfit in Port- crimes from theft to murder, fillland, Ore., called Better People, ing prisons and treatment prowhich helps ex-cons get their grams, and giving the overburlives back together. Ben was a dened law enforcement commufine example: He got his own life nity more than full-time employtogether, became a fine cabinet- ment.
maker and sometime poet, and
was a part-time resident of WalRich Wandschneider is a contributor to Writers
lowa County in eastern Oregon.
He also fought for prison re- on the Range, a service of High Country News
form and for the rehabilitation of (hcn.org). He writes in Joseph, Ore.
Writers
On The
Range
DOONESBURY FLASHBACK
By Garry Trudeau
Newt Gingrich should
own up to his mistakes
As the results of the Iowa cau- ing won a disappointing 5 percuses dribbled in, Americans got cent of the vote, Michele Bachto see how the GOP candidates mann clearly knew she would be
greeted victory and defeat. Top leaving the campaign trail, but
vote-getter Mitt Romney was she had only good words about
gracious toward Rick Santorum, her Iowa experience.
who came in second by
And then there was
eight thin votes, but
Newt Gingrich — whose
uninspiring
as
he
post-caucus remarks
pledged to get America
placed him in the Hall of
back to work. Santorum
Shame of sore losers.
pronounced, “Game on,”
Gingrich, who placed a
and then he hailed his
distant fourth, did
Italian grandfather’s depraise Santorum for
cision to leave Italy to
running a “great, posidig coal if that’s what it
tive campaign,” but only
took to bring his family
so that he could throw
to the United States.
his Cheerios at Romney
Ron Paul, who came
and Paul.
in third, saluted the work DEBRA
The former House
of his enthusiastic volun- SAUNDERS
speaker had taken to
teers and credited his
challenging Romney to
success to his role as a
pull TV spots that lamkeeper of the flame of limited poon Gingrich. The spots were
federal government. Fifth-place produced by an independent sufinisher Rick Perry told his sup- per political action committee
porters he would return to Texas run by Romney supporters. The
to “assess” the race. The next problem is that it is illegal for a
morning, the Lone Star State candidate to tell a super PAC
governor tweeted that he was what to do.
heading for South Carolina. HavThe best part: The anti-Gin-
Views
grich spots have featured Newt
in very public venues of his own
choosing. No one slinked behind
a bush to videotape Gingrich
cozying up to Rep. Nancy Pelosi
on a love seat so they could coo
about global warming. He decided to make those ads.
Nobody forced Gingrich to go
on “Meet the Press” and dismiss
Rep. Paul Ryan’s Medicare reform plan as “right-wing social
engineering.” That was his doing.
Likewise Gingrich’s latest flipflop. After boasting that he
would not go negative, Gingrich
released a newspaper ad that labels Romney as a “timid Massachusetts moderate.”
Gingrich has a right to slam
Romney, but he does so at a
price. Gingrich is not “semper fidelis” (always loyal) like a Marine; he’s semper fickle.
Gingrich never takes personal
responsibility. When his campaign failed to garner the 10,000
signatures needed to put his
name on the ballot in Virginia —
where he lives — the candidate
blamed a fraudulent signature-
gatherer. When the GOP House
voted 395-28 to fine Gingrich
$300,000 after an ethics investigation, he blamed partisan rancor. But when Gingrich was on
top in the polls, he credited his
gifts as a brilliant political strategist.
When he lost Tuesday, it was
Romney’s fault — for not stopping an independent super PAC
from airing the Newter’s own
words.
In New Hampshire on
Wednesday, Gingrich repeated
the new anti-Romney mantra on
Iowa. Quoth Gingrich, “Three
out of four Republicans repudiated Mitt Romney.”
I like to think that more than 8
in 10 Iowa Republicans repudiated Gingrich. And that made for a
positive campaign.
Email Debra J. Saunders at
dsaunders@sfchronicle.com. To find out more
about Debra J. Saunders and read features by
other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at
www.creators.com.
Arms dealer Obama will win by default
ROBERT SCHEER
Barack Obama will be re-elected not as a vindication of his policies but because the Republicans
are incapable of providing a reasonable challenge to his flawed
performance. On the central issue
of our time — reining in the greed
of the multinational corporations,
led by the financial sector and the
defense industry — a Republican
presidential victor, with the possible exception of the now-sidelined
Ron Paul, would do far less to
challenge the kleptocracy of corporate-dominated governance.
As compared to front-runner
Mitt Romney, who wants to derail
even Obama's tepid efforts at regulating Wall Street and who seeks
ever more wasteful increases in
military spending, the incumbent
president appears relatively enlightened. But that is cold comfort.
Not only has Obama been a
savior of the banking conglomerates that so generously financed
his campaign, but he also has
proved to be equally as solicitous
of the needs of the military-industrial complex. He entered his reelection year by signing a $662
billion defense authorization bill
that strips away some of our most
fundamental liberties and keeps
military spending at Cold War
levels and by approving a $60 bil-
lion arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
Those two actions represent an
obvious contradiction, since the
attack on American soil that kept
defense spending so high in the
post-9/11 decade was carried out
by 15 Saudis and four other men
directed by Osama bin Laden, a
wealthy Saudi primarily using
funding from his native land. Now
Saudi Arabia is to be protected as
a holdout against the democratic
impulse of the Arab Spring because it is our ally against Iran, a
nation that had nothing to do
with 9/11. Saudi Arabia, it should
be recalled, was one of only three
nations, along with the United
Arab Emirates and Pakistan, to
recognize the Taliban government that harbored bin Laden before 9/11.
This is the same Saudi monarchy that rushed its forces into
Bahrain last March to crush a
popular uprising. But that doesn't
trouble the Obama administration; for two years it has been aggressively pushing the Saudi
arms deal, which includes $30 billion in fighter jets built by Boeing.
Forget human rights or the other
good stuff Democrats love to
prattle on about. As White House
spokesman Josh Earnest put it,
"This agreement reinforces the
strong and enduring relationship
between the United States and
Saudi Arabia and demonstrates
the U.S. commitment to a strong
Saudi defense capability as a key
component to regional security."
The rationale for the first big
arms deal since 1992 with the
tyrannical Saudi monarchy is that
a better-armed Sunni theocracy is
needed to counter the threat from
the Shiite theocracy in Iran. Once
again, the U.S. is stoking religious-based fratricide, just as we
did in Iraq. Only this time, we're
on the side of Saudi Sunnis oppressing Shiites both at home and
in neighboring Bahrain. That oppression — along with a U.S. invasion that replaced Tehran's sworn
enemy in Sunni-led Baghdad with
a Shiite leadership that had long
been nurtured by Iran's ayatollahs
— is what enhances the regional
influence of Iran.
If Iran ever does pose a regional military threat because of its
nuclear program or any other reason, real or concocted, it will be
NATO forces that will take out the
threat, not the Saudis, who will
still be polishing their latest-model F-15s as icons of a weird conception of modernism.
The real reason for this deal is
that it is the only sort of jobs program that Democrats are capable
of pushing through an obstructive
Congress. The administration
boasts that the arms package will
result in 50,000 jobs in 44 states,
underscoring the warning from
Dwight Eisenhower, the last progressive Republican president,
about the power of a military-industrial complex that has tentacles in every congressional district. As Sen. Claire McCaskill of
Missouri, an Armed Services
Committee member who championed this sale, put it: "The F-15
is a world class aircraft built by
hardworking folks right here in
St. Louis. I am thrilled for all of
the skilled men and women on
the F-15 line that this important,
big order that I have stood sideby-side with them in working to
secure is finally happening."
A Democrat running for reelection, McCaskill added, "These
are important jobs in our community.
I will continue advocating for
sales of Boeing products wherever appropriate." Being a good Democrat, she doesn't reference
Boeing's profits, which are increasingly dependent upon arming the rest of the world.
That's the win-win of government-generated profits and jobs
on which the Democrats are
counting to defeat the Republicans, both through campaign
contributions from the more rational among the wealthy and the
votes of ordinary people who, despite being seriously hurt in this
economy, have nowhere else to
turn.
11753654.qxp
1/5/2012
3:15 PM
Page 15
rocketminer.com
DEAR ABBY
WONDERWORD By
David Ouellet
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
MOMMA by Mel Lazarus
By Abigail Van Buren
DEAR READERS: Yesterday I
printed letters from adults in response to a letter from “Emotionally Abused in California”
(Nov. 2), the 15-year-old who felt
her mother was treating her unfairly. Today we’ll hear from
teenage readers:
DEAR ABBY: I’m a 14-year-old
girl. My mom showed me the
letter
from
“Emotionally
Abused” and I almost died! Her
mom sounds just like mine. I
am not allowed to wear clothing
that shows too much skin or get
into a car with a teenage boy. I
don’t have cable TV. I have to do
my own laundry, clean my
room, cook dinner and hem my
own jeans.
Every night our entire family
sits down for dinner. My parents
always know my plans when I’m
out with my friends, and I go to
church every Sunday — with the
occasional groan.
I’m not the perfect daughter,
but I’m glad I’m being raised
with integrity, responsibility and
a whole lot of chores. — COOPERATING TEEN IN NEW JERSEY
DEAR ABBY: From one teen
to another: I have heard your
same story from friends a thousand times. You’re not being
treated like a criminal. Your
mom is doing you a huge favor.
She’s preparing you for the real
world by making you pay for
your own things. She’s got high
expectations if she thinks you
can get through college.
And about your friends, she
just wants to know who they
are. She’s not telling you no,
right? She’s a single mom, and
she’s trying to protect you.
You need to be easier on her
and try to see things through
her eyes.
Not everything she does is an
attack on you — in fact, it’s the
opposite. — FELLOW CALIFORNIA TEEN
DEAR ABBY: I’m an 18-yearold girl and I have never been in
trouble. I attend a private school
where modesty is the dress
code policy.
To pay for tuition to this
school, I work every afternoon
during the school year and fulltime during the summer. I’m expected to pay for my own
clothes, cellphone bill and haircuts out of my allowance. If I
can’t afford something, I don’t
buy it.
As long as I live with my parents, I will abide by their rules.
My parents love me very much
and have my best interests at
heart. “Emotionally Abused”
should have respect for her
mother and be thankful for the
many things she has. — MONTANA TEEN
GARFIELD by Jim Davis
DOG EAT DOUG by Ryan Anderson
BECKER BRIDGE Test Your Play
AGNES by Morrie Turner
ZACK HILL by J. Deering and J. Macintosh
JANRIC CLASSIC SUDOKU
BLONDIE by Dean Young and Dennis Lebrun
HOROSCOPE
By Holiday
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2012
ARIES (March 21-April 19) You’ll deliver
lighthearted fun. It will be good for relationships of all kinds, including professional. Your quick wit and active life will
be a magnet for new friends.
ONE BIG HAPPY... by Rick Detorie
CROSSWORD By
Thomas Joseph
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You’ll feel
youthful and unburdened by responsibilities. Feeling this way makes it true to
some extent. As if by magic, your schedule will be clear of worry and chores.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21) Could it be that
the energy and intention you give to your
goals have greater power than the actual
steps you take to make them happen?
You’ll get evidence to suggest this today.
CANCER (June 22-July 22) You’ll be
spending time with a complimentary individual. This person will confirm your
attractiveness, not that you need such
an ego boost. Your own opinion of yourself is what really matters.
FLO AND FRIENDS by John Gibel and Jenny
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) There will be people on either side of an issue trying to
get you to side with them or take action
on their behalf. How do you know
whether you’re doing the right thing? It
feels right.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) The only way to
see the big picture is to go to the top of
the proverbial mountain. You can do this
in your mind, or you can do it physically
by heading to the highest point in your
immediate geography. Either way will
give you clarity.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23) Accepting reality
is the first step to co-creating it. Your will
is strong, but the universal will is
stronger. You’ll defer to it as you realize
that any other move would be pointless.
SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) You may be
prone to silly mistakes. Try to slow down
and think things through. Luckily, your
reflexes are so quick that even if you
blunder, you can probably recover without mishap.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) If you
don’t get what you want right away, it
may be the best thing for you and everyone else. Sometimes what doesn’t happen may keep something really catastrophic from happening.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Your sense
of fun and adventure is going strong. You
have responsibilities, but you don’t let
them define who you are — mainly because that would make you boring!
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) The world
desperately will require your patience.
So few people really are patient these
days, and so many rely on patience from
others. Without it, life will run them over.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) New resources will inspire you to put an effort
into raising your attractiveness quotient
on both the inside and the outside. Consider yoga. It will help you do both at the
same time.
CRYPTOQUOTE
STRANGE BREW
11A
11759084.qxp
1/5/2012
6:09 PM
Page 12
BUSINESS
rocketminer.com
Rising hopes for
the job market
A Fed official speaks
Jobs created, in thousands
The readings on employment in
the last month have been encour- 200
aging. The Labor Department’s
weekly reports on unemployment
applications show that layoffs have 150
been declining. Manufacturers
reported that hiring picked up at
their companies. So there’s opti100
mism about today’s report from the
government on job creation and
unemployment. Economists are
50
J
looking for a moderate increase in
new jobs from November’s level.
A variety of reports have pointed to an improvement in
the economy in late 2011. Economists and investors
will want to hear what Federal Reserve Governor
Elizabeth Duke has to say about the outlook for 2012.
She’ll speak to the
Virginia Bankers
Association about
“Economic and
Housing Market
Developments.”
The Fed begins a
two-day meeting on
the economy on
Jan. 24.
est.
150
A
S
O
N
Your local news source since 1881
D
Source: FactSet
Local Stocks
52-WK RANGE
NAME
TICKER
LO
HI
CLOSE
CHG %CHG WK
YTD
1YR
MO QTR %CHG %RTN
VOL
(Thous) P/E
DIV
27.20
7
31.94
30.40
-.03
-0.1
s
s
s
+0.5
+7.6
33411
16
1.76f
8.45
1
18.47
9.36
-.09
-1.0
s
t
s
+8.2
-42.1
26748
10
0.12
APC
57.11
9
85.50
80.80 +1.03
+1.3
s
s
s
+5.9
+5.3
3600
dd
0.36
BP
33.62
7
49.50
44.25
-.50
-1.1
s
s
s
+3.5
+0.4
5184
7
1.68
BakrHu
BHI
41.91
3
81.00
50.82
-.71
-1.4
s
s
s
+4.5
-6.8
4700
14
0.60
BkofAm
BAC
4.92
2
15.31
6.31
+.50
+8.6
s
s
s
+13.5
-58.9
524825
dd
0.04
Chevron
CVX
86.68
0 110.99
109.10 -1.08
-1.0
s
s
s
+2.5
+23.7
7045
8
3.24f
ChurchD s
CHD
33.83
9
46.45
45.15
+.33
+0.7
t
s
t
-1.3
+31.4
793
22
0.68
Cisco
CSCO
13.30
7
22.34
18.92
-.07
-0.4
s
s
s
+5.0
-6.3
35263
16
0.24
Citigrp rs
C
21.40
3
51.50
28.51
+.34
+1.2
s
s
s
+8.4
-42.4
59902
8
0.04
Dell Inc
DELL
12.99
5
17.60
15.17
+.15
+1.0
s
t
s
+3.7
+9.7
15317
8
...
Dndreon
DNDN
6.46
2
43.96
10.62 +3.02 +39.7
...
EKodak
EK
0.44
1
5.85
.42
ElPasoCp
EP
13.42
0
26.97
ExxonMbl
XOM
67.03
9
FMC Corp
FMC
63.81
8
FordM
F
9.05
GenElec
GE
14.02
Hallibrtn
HAL
HonwllIntl
HON
Intel
IBM
AT&T Inc
T
Alcoa
AA
Anadarko
BP PLC
s
s
s
+39.7
-78.6
44942
dd
-.05 -10.6
t
t
t
-35.4
-91.5
29682
dd
...
26.08
-.17
-0.6
t
s
t
-1.8
+92.7
11450
cc
0.04
88.23
85.76
-.26
-0.3
s
s
s
+1.2
+17.3
15987
10
1.88
93.00
86.95
-.42
-0.5
s
s
s
+1.1
+12.0
535
25
0.60
3
18.97
11.59
+.29
+2.6
s
s
s
+7.7
-35.0
66003
7
0.20
6
21.65
18.55
-.01
-0.1
s
s
s
+3.6
+3.0
43938
15
0.68f
27.21
3
57.77
34.56
-.56
-1.6
s
s
s
+0.1
-10.3
16551
12
0.36
41.22
7
62.28
55.59
+.06
+0.1
s
s
s
+2.3
+6.4
2822
14
1.49f
INTC
19.16
0
IBM
146.64
JPMorgCh
JPM
27.85
MicronT
MU
3.97
Microsoft
MSFT
MorgStan
Oracle
25.78
25.40
+.29
+1.2
s
s
s
+4.7
+22.4
43911
11
0.84
8 194.90
184.66
-.88
-0.5
s
t
s
+0.4
+27.6
4414
14
3.00
4
48.36
35.68
+.73
+2.1
s
s
s
+7.3
-18.6
37000
8
1.00
4
11.95
7.16
+.17
+2.4
s
s
s
+13.8
-17.2
52805
dd
...
23.65
7
29.46
27.68
+.28
+1.0
s
s
s
+6.6
...
54459
10
0.80
MS
11.58
3
31.04
16.28
+.34
+2.1
s
s
s
+7.6
-43.3
27941
10
0.20
ORCL
24.72
2
36.50
26.59
+.58
+2.2
s
t
s
+3.7
-16.6
50213
15
0.24
Pfizer
PFE
16.63
0
22.00
21.60
-.17
-0.8
t
s
t
-0.2
+25.5
43515
14
0.88f
PulteGrp
PHM
3.29
7
8.69
7.04
+.50
+7.6
s
s
s
+11.6
-15.0
14454
dd
...
Questar
STR
16.36
9
20.17
19.60
-.03
-0.2
t
s
t
-1.3
+16.0
998
17
0.65f
RegionsFn
RF
2.82
4
8.09
4.52
+.18
+4.1
s
s
s
+5.1
-37.7
31700
27
0.04
Saks
SKS
7.67
4
12.97
9.71
-.13
-1.3
t
s
t
-0.4
-8.7
4425
24
...
Schlmbrg
SLB
54.79
4
95.64
68.07 -1.49
-2.1
t
t
t
-0.4
-13.6
10114
20
1.00
SiriusXM
SIRI
1.27
7
2.44
2.04
+.21 +11.5
s
s
s
+12.1
+9.6
119772
51
...
SprintNex
S
2.10
1
6.45
2.24
-.07
-3.0
t
t
t
-4.3
-48.1
33685
dd
...
UnionPac
UNP
77.73
0 109.19
107.99
-.79
-0.7
s
s
s
+1.9
+18.9
2964
17
2.40f
WellsFargo
WFC
22.58
6
34.25
29.02
+.46
+1.6
s
s
s
+5.3
-8.2
45090
11
0.48
WmsCos
WMB
17.88
0
27.92
27.55
+.57
+2.1
s
s
s
+2.2
+38.5
11721
17
1.00f
Xerox
XRX
6.55
3
11.79
8.10
-.05
-0.6
s
s
s
+1.8
-27.0
7644
14
0.17
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
How is Germany
holding up?
Page 12A
S&P 500
1,281.06
The German government is
expected to report that orders
to the country’s factories fell 1.6
percent in November from
October’s levels. Germany is
Europe’s strongest economy,
but it is being hurt by the debt
crisis that has hit countries
including Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. There are fears
that the region might fall into a
recession that could slow economic growth in the U.S.
DOW
12,415.70
CRUDE OIL
$101.81
30-YR T-BONDS
3.06%
p
q
q
p
+3.76
NASDAQ
2,669.86
-2.72
GOLD
$1,619.40
-1.41
EURO
$1.2782
+.03
6-MO T-BILLS
.04%
p
p
q
q
+21.50
+7.50
-.0156
-.01
Holiday discounts
cut retailers’ profits
ANNE D’INNOCENZIO
AP Retail Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The 2011 holiday shopping season will go down in
the record books as the year the
Grinch stole stores’ profits.
Many retailers sacrificed their bottom lines by pushing heavy discounts
to shoppers bent on getting a good
deal in a challenging economy. That
created a sharp divide between stores
that won the battle for wallets, and
those that didn’t.
The big winners? Shoppers who
held out for deals late in the season.
Retailers collectively reported a 3.5
percent increase in revenue at stores
open at least a year for December, according to a tally of 25 merchants compiled by the International Council of
Shopping Centers. For November and
December combined, the figure rose
3.3 percent, a solid increase but still behind last year’s 3.8 percent pace.
The figures are based on revenue at
stores open at least a year. That is considered a key indicator of a retailer’s
health because it excludes results from
stores recently opened or closed.
Retailers depend on the holidays,
when they bring in as much as 40 percent of their annual revenue. The sea-
son also gives give valuable insights
into what it takes to get Americans to
spend in the weak economy. Clearly,
the rich kept spending, but for everyone else, it took a hot item like Apple’s
iPad or right-on exclusive fashions —
or a lot of “50 percent” off signs.
Winners included Limited Brands
Inc., Macy’s Inc., TJX Cos. and Nordstrom Inc., which posted strong revenue gains that beat analysts’ estimates. Macy’s, Ross and Limited even
boosted their earnings outlooks.
On the losing side, Target Corp.,
Kohl’s Corp., and J.C. Penney Co. cut
their fourth-quarter earnings projections after reporting weaker-than-expected sales. Gap had a big sales decline.
“There’s no question that the divide
is getting wider, and will get even
wider this year as the winners continue to take share away from rivals,” said
Joel Bines, managing director in the retail practice of AlixPartners. “Consumers have limited time, money and
attention, and they’re investing in a
smaller subset of retailers.”
Retailers will report fourth-quarter
earnings next month. The fullest picture of holiday spending will come in
next week’s government retail sales report, which captures more categories
like home improvement and electronics. Heading into the season, stores
knew it would be challenging to lure
shoppers dealing with high unemployment, paltry wage growth and higher
basic household costs. So retailers
plied customers with free shipping and
promised to match rivals’ prices. WalMart Stores Inc. resurrected layaway
to help shoppers finance their purchases.
For the semiofficial start of the
shopping season, stores opened as
early as Thanksgiving Day, pushing
big discounts that resulted in record
sales. But shoppers took a longer-thanusual breather after that early splurge.
A mild winter and Christmas falling on
a Sunday also encouraged people to
wait until the last minute.
That forced many stores like American Eagle Outfitters Inc. to slash
prices on coats and other cold-weather merchandise more than planned.
Stores’ success relied partly on what
they sell and who they sell it to.
Among discounters, Costco Wholesale Corp., known for selling discounted household basics in bulk, continue
to resonate with recession-weary
shoppers. Its revenue at stores open at
least a year rose 7 percent in December.
Dividend Footnotes: a - Extra dividends were paid, but are not included. b - Annual rate plus stock. c - Liquidating dividend. e - Amount declared or paid in last 12 months. f
- Current annual rate, which was increased by most recent dividend announcement. i - Sum of dividends paid after stock split, no regular rate. j - Sum of dividends paid this
year. Most recent dividend was omitted or deferred. k - Declared or paid this year, a cumulative issue with dividends in arrears. m - Current annual rate, which was decreased
by most recent dividend announcement. p - Initial dividend, annual rate not known, yield not shown. r - Declared or paid in preceding 12 months plus stock dividend. t - Paid in
stock, approximate cash value on ex-distribution date. PE Footnotes: q - Stock is a closed-end fund - no P/E ratio shown. cc - P/E exceeds 99. dd - Loss in last 12 months.
Dow average marks its first (tiny) loss of 2012
Commodities
JOSHUA FREED
AP Business Writer
FUELS
CLOSE
Crude Oil (bbl)
101.81
Ethanol (gal)
2.19
Heating Oil (gal)
3.04
Natural Gas (mm btu) 2.98
Unleaded Gas (gal)
2.74
Corn fell after
forecasts predicted rain in
Argentina, one
of the world’s
largest corn exporters. That
would help
crops already
damaged by
dry, hot weather
and raise global
supplies.
PVS.
103.22
2.22
3.09
3.10
2.79
%CHG %YTD
-1.37
+3.0
...
-0.7
-1.65
+3.5
-3.75
-0.3
-1.75
+1.9
METALS
Gold (oz)
Silver (oz)
Platinum (oz)
Copper (lb)
Palladium (oz)
CLOSE
1619.40
29.27
1414.50
3.42
643.85
PVS.
1611.90
29.06
1423.10
3.43
653.00
%CHG %YTD
+0.47
+3.4
+0.70
+5.0
-0.60
+1.1
-0.20
-0.3
-1.40
-1.8
AGRICULTURE
CLOSE
PVS.
%CHG %YTD
Cattle (lb)
1.21
Coffee (lb)
2.20
Corn (bu)
6.44
Cotton (lb)
0.95
Lumber (1,000 bd ft) 251.30
Orange Juice (lb)
1.82
Soybeans (bu)
12.01
Wheat (bu)
6.29
1.22
2.27
6.59
0.96
244.30
1.85
12.22
6.50
-0.55
-3.15
-2.28
-1.23
+2.87
-1.35
-1.66
-3.19
-1.6
-3.2
-0.5
+3.2
+1.7
+7.8
+0.2
-3.6
It took the whole day, but stocks
came all the way back.
Bruised once again by uncertainty
about European debt, the U.S. stock
market fell sharply Thursday at the
open, then steadily gained ground for
six hours. By the close, the Dow Jones
industrial average had shaved its loss
to less than three points.
It’s been six months since Marathon Oil split into
two companies. It kept its drilling and exploring operations under the Marathon Oil name and spun off its refining business to a new company, Marathon Petroleum.
Neither has lived up to expectations. But financial
analysts have hopes for Marathon Oil.
TALE OF THE TICKER
S&P 500
2,680
Nasdaq composite
1,260
Close: 1,281.06
Change: 3.76 (0.3%)
2,600
Close: 2,669.86
Change: 21.50 (0.8%)
2,520
10 DAYS
1,360
10 DAYS
(MPC)
Thursday’s close:
$31.92
Change since July 1:
-22%
2,800
1,280
2,700
1,200
CHALLENGES AHEAD
Marathon Petroleum
2,900
2,600
2,500
1,120
2,400
J
A
S
O
N
D
2,300
J
A
S
O
N
D
Question of the Day
What oil company do you think
will do the best this year?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Marathon’s split was part of an trend in the oil industry. ConocoPhillips also plans to split in two. Refining has become a low-profit business with dim prospects for growth because demand for gasoline is falling in the U.S. Demand is down 5 percent since 2007.
Many investors don’t want their returns from oil and
exploration diluted by refining.
How the two Marathon companies have
done since the July 1 split of Marathon Oil:
1,320
1,040
12,415.70. The Standard & Poor’s 500
index closed at 1,281.06. The Nasdaq
rose 21.5 points to 2,669.86. The market has had a strong start to the year.
The Dow is up almost 200 points, or
1.6 percent. The S&P 500 is up 1.9
percent. And the technology-focused
Nasdaq is already up 2.5 percent.
Stocks spent the morning lower after Europe — which dominated so
much of Wall Street’s hectic 2011 — became a concern again.
Marathon stumbles
Stocks Recap
1,200
It was the first decline of the year for
the Dow. The Standard & Poor’s 500
index gained just under four points
and managed to extend its January
winning streak to three days.
Investors looking for good news had
the latest encouraging report on the
U.S. job market. Weekly unemployment claims declined again, one day
before a crucial report on the national
jobs picture in December. The Dow recovered from a 134-point loss to end at
Chevron
ConocoPhillips
Marathon
Exxon
Quick click your answers at
Y E S T E R D AY ’ S P O L L
What kind of health care stock are
you going to buy?
Biotech
33%
None
67%
P/E (based on earnings
forecasts for next 12
months): 18
Revenue
(3 months ended Sept. 30)
2011: $20.7 billion
2010: $16 billion
Net income
(3 months ended Sept. 30)
2011: $1 billion
2010: $277 million
Insurer
0%
Results do not reflect a scientific poll.
They show only how readers responded. Figures may not total 100 due to rounding.
Drug
maker
0%
Div:
$1.00
Div. yield: 3.1%
SOURCE: FactSet
Marathon Petroleum had an advantage over
competitors because it refines crude oil produced
onshore in North America. That oil is cheaper than
crude found offshore. In November, though, two Canadian pipeline companies said they would send
more onshore oil to competing refineries on the
coasts. That shrank Marathon Petroleum’s cost advantage. The company’s stock fell 12 percent in one
day. It’s down 14 percent since the split.
Marathon Oil hoped investors would be willing to
pay more for its stock now that it is just an exploration and production company. But they believe Marathon paid too much for access to the oil and natural gas in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas. And production at its Droshky project in the Gulf of Mexico
has been disappointing. The stock is down 2 percent since the split. Still, analysts say Marathon Oil
has promising oil fields around the world and it pays
a good dividend for an exploration company.
Analysts still think splitting was a good idea, and
they expect Marathon Oil to deliver good returns.
“These things take time to win out,” says Phil Weiss
of Argus Research.
*Based on results reported by Marathon Oil before the split
Marathon Oil
(MRO)
Thursday’s close:
$31.26
Change since July 1:
-1%
P/E (based on earnings
forecasts for next 12
months): 7
Revenue
(3 months ended Sept. 30)
2011: $3.8 billion
2010: $3 billion
Net income
(3 months ended Sept. 30)
2011: $421 billion
2010: $482 billion
Div:
$0.60
Div. yield: 1.9%
Jonathan Fahey • AP
11759085.qxp
1/5/2012
5:24 PM
Page B1
NATIONAL
Titanic items to Rivals go hard after
be sold 100 years Romney, who goes
after President Obama
after sinking
rocketminer.com
Study says
parasitic fly
could explain
bee die-off
GOSIA WOZNIACKA
Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) —
Northern California scientists
say they have found a possible
explanation for a honeybee dieoff that has decimated hives
around the world: a parasitic
fly that hijacks the bees’ bodies
and causes them to abandon
hives.
Scientists say the fly deposits its eggs into the bee’s
abdomen, causing the infected
bee to exhibit zombielike behavior by walking around in
circles with no apparent sense
of direction. The bee leaves the
hive at night and dies shortly
thereafter.
The symptoms mirror
colony collapse disorder, in
which all the adult honeybees
in a colony suddenly disappear.
The disease is of great concern, because bees pollinate
about a third of the United
States’ food supply. Its presence is especially alarming in
California, the nation’s top producer of fruits and vegetables,
where bees play an essential
role in the $2 billion almond industry and other crops.
The latest study, published
Tuesday in the science journal
PLoS ONE, points to the parasitic fly as the new threat to
honeybees. It’s another step in
ongoing research to find the
cause of the disease.
Researchers haven’t been
able to pin down an exact
cause of colony collapse or find
a way to prevent it. Research
so far points to a combination
of factors including pesticide
contamination, a lack of
blooms — and hence nutrition
— and mites, fungi, viruses and
parasites.
Interaction among the parasite and multiple pathogens
could be one possible factor in
colony collapse, according to
the latest study by researchers
at San Francisco State University.
It says the phorid fly, or
apocephalus borealis, was
found in bees from three-quarters of the 31 hives surveyed in
the San Francisco Bay area.
The combination of a parasite, pathogens and other
stressors could cause die-off,
lead investigator John Hafernik
said. The parasitic fly serves as
a reservoir that harbors
pathogens — honeybees from
parasite-infected hives tested
positive for deformed wing
virus and other pathogens, the
study found.
“We don’t fully understand
the web of interactions,” Hafernik said. “The parasite could be
another stressor, enough to
push the bee over tipping
point. Or it could play a primary role in causing the disease.”
Hafernik stumbled onto the
parasitic fly by accident. Three
years ago, the biology professor looked for something to
feed a praying mantis. He
found some bees outside his
classroom, placed them in a
vial and forgot about them.
When he looked at the vial a
week later, he found dead bees
surrounded by small fly pupae.
A parasitic fly was feeding on
the bees and had killed them,
he said.
The fly is a known parasite
in bumblebees. Scientists used
DNA barcoding to confirm the
parasite in the honeybees and
bumblebees was the same
species.
The fly might have recently
expanded its host presence
from bumblebees to honeybees, Hafernik said, making it
an emerging threat to agricultural pollinators. The fact that
honeybees live in large
colonies placed in close proximity to one another and beekeepers frequently move the
hives throughout the country
could lead to an explosion of
the fly population, he said.
The fly, which is found all
over North America, could also
become a threat to native bees.
Hafernik plans to expand his
research to other parts of the
country and to study the parasite’s impact on agriculture in
California’s Central Valley.
Since it was recognized in
2006, colony collapse has destroyed colonies at a rate of
about 30 percent per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Premier Exhibitions Inc., of
Associated Press
which RMS Titanic is a division.
But the clock is ticking on
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — thousands of additional artifacts
Items as small as a hairpin and embedded in a 3-by-5-mile secas big as a chunk of the Titanic’s tion of ocean floor around the
hull are among 5,000 artifacts wreck, an area subject to a cenfrom the world’s most famous tury of extreme ocean condishipwreck that are to be auc- tions such as cold temperatures
tioned in April, close to the and treacherous currents.
100th anniversary of the disas“I think it’s fair to say that we
ter.
have only touched the surface,”
Nearly a century after the Wainger said.
April 15, 1912, sinking of the
The deteriorating hulk of the
ocean liner that hit an iceberg in Titanic is off limits to salvage.
the North Atlantic, a New York
The auction is subject to apCity auction is being
proval by a federal
readied by Guernsey’s
judge
in
Virginia
Auctioneers & Bro- ‘Who on
whose jurisdiction for
kers.
years has given overThat auction house this planet
sight to legal issues
has garnered headgoverning the salvage
lines in the past by doesn’t
of the Titanic. The Tiselling off such histor- know the
tanic treasures were
ical curiosities as
amassed during seven
prized Beatles photos, story of
risky and expensive
famous jewels of the
trips to the wreck.
late Princess Diana, the Titanic
U.S. District Judge
beloved Jerry Garcia and isn’t
Rebecca Beach Smith,
guitars and a police
who has overseen the
motorcycle used in the fascinated
case from her Norfolk
Texas
motorcade
courtroom, has called
when John F. Kennedy by it?’
the Titanic an “interwas slain. But nothing Guernsey’s
national treasure.” She
as titanic as the so- President Arlan has
approved
called Titanic colleccovenants and condiEttinger
tion.
tions that the compaOn April 11, all of the
ny previously worked
salvaged items are to
out with the federal
be sold as one lot in what government, including a prohiGuernsey’s President Arlan Et- bition against selling the collectinger describes as the most sig- tion piecemeal.
nificant auction ever handled by
The court conditions also rethat house.
quire subsequent owners to
“Who on this planet doesn’t make the artifacts available “to
know the story of the Titanic present and future generations
and isn’t fascinated by it?” he for public display and exhibiasked. “Could Hollywood have tion, historical review, scientifscripted a more tragic or goose- ic and scholarly research, and
bump-raising story than what educational purposes.”
actually happened on that
Wainger and Ettinger deship?”
clined to speculate on who
“It is as poignant to my 12- might bid on the collection.
year-old son as it is to me and
“You hate to be in the position
generations before me. There’s of being a fortuneteller or clairno end to the fascination about voyant,” Ettinger said. “I, for
it.”
one, would be very surprised if
The auction will be conducted there wasn’t international inter100 years plus a day after the Ti- est.”
tanic set sail from SouthampWainger said, “Any individual
ton, England, embarking on the can fall in love with any of the
ill-fated maiden voyage that had different artifacts because so
New York as its destination.
many of them are personal.
The collection was appraised When you read the personal stoin 2007 at $189 million, includ- ries you recognize the tragedy.”
ing some intellectual property
Premier Exhibitions has been
alongside the myriad items displaying the Titanic artifacts
plucked by remote controlled in exhibitions worldwide. The
probes from the pitch-black items were recovered from the
depths, some 2 miles below the shipwreck in expeditions in
ocean’s surface.
1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998,
Those artifacts include the 2000 and 2004.
massive hull section called “The
RMS Titanic, which has overBig Piece” as well as personal seen the artifacts for 18 years,
belongings of passengers and said the public company decidcrew, such as a mesh purse and ed to auction the collection in
eyeglasses. A bronze cherub response to shareholders’ wishthat once adorned the Grand es that the “company go out and
Staircase is also among the col- make money.”
lection, as are fine china, table
“It’s better to be in the hands
settings, bottles and ship fit- of a private institution that
tings — even the stand upon doesn’t have the same shortwhich the ship’s wheel stood.
term profit obligations that a
By court order, the items can- public company has,” he said.
not be sold individually and
In 2010, RMS Titanic collabmust go to a buyer who agrees orated with some of the world’s
to properly maintain the collec- leading experts in the most
tion and make it available for technologically advanced expeoccasional public viewing. The dition to the Titanic, undertaksale is subject to court approval. ing the first comprehensive
Ettinger and officials with mapping survey of the vessel
RMS Titanic Inc., which sal- with 3-D imagery from bow to
vaged the artifacts from the Ti- stern.
tanic wreck, spoke to The AssoThe most striking images inciated Press in advance of a me- volved the 3-D tour of the Titandia preview Thursday in New ic’s stern, which lies 2,000 feet
York.
from the bow.
The AP first reported on the
A camera in a remote-conauction Dec. 29, based on finan- trolled submersible vehicle
cial filings by RMS Titanic.
skimmed over the stern, seemThe planned sale also could ingly transporting viewers
include a trove of archaeological through scenes of jagged rustidata and visuals of the wreck, as cles sprouting from the deck, a
well as the only detailed map of length of chain, the captain’s
the vast ocean floor where all bathtub, and wooden elements
the artifacts were scattered after that scientists had previously
the Titanic’s sinking.
believed had disappeared in the
The Titanic’s sinking claimed harsh, deep ocean environment.
the lives of more than 1,500 of
The expedition fully mapped
the 2,228 passengers and crew. the wreck site, documenting the
An international team led by entire debris field for the first
oceanographer Robert Ballard time.
located the wreckage in 1985,
“Titanic” director James
about 400 miles off Newfound- Cameron also has led teams to
land, Canada.
the wreck to record the bow and
The research materials could the stern.
be a road map to learn more
The Titanic exhibit is among
about the wreck and the wreck several operated by Premier Exsite, how the ship sank, why it hibitions, which bills itself as “a
sank and serve as the founda- major provider of museum-qualtion for a full archaeological sur- ity touring exhibitions.” Its ofvey of the site.
ferings have included sports
“We are opening the door of memorabilia, a traveling Star
opportunity for the future of the Trek homage and “Bodies,” an
Titanic,” said Brian Wainger, a anatomy exhibit featuring prespokesman for Atlanta-based served human cadavers.
STEVE SZKOTAK
1B
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
DAVID ESPO AND
STEVE PEOPLES
Associated Press
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) —
Mitt Romney’s Republican presidential rivals repeatedly attacked him as a candidate of the
status quo and a timid, lessthan-reliable
conservative
Thursday as they simultaneously sought to slow his campaign
momentum and personally audition for the role of conservative
rival-in-chief.
“Don’t settle for less than
America needs,” said Rick Santorum, eager to capitalize on his
second-place finish behind the
former Massachusetts governor
in this week’s Iowa caucuses, a
scant eight votes off the pace.
A heavy favorite to win New
Hampshire’s primary next Tuesday, Romney all but ignored his
Republican rivals as he campaigned in two states. Instead,
he criticized President Barack
Obama as a “crony capitalist.
He’s a job killer.”
Without saying so, the rest of
the field appeared to share a
common campaign objective —
hold down Romney’s vote totals
in New Hampshire, then knock
him off stride 11 days later in
South Carolina, the first Southern primary of the year.
Romney benefited handsomely from having several rivals split
the vote in Iowa, where his winner’s share was roughly 25 percent.
“Gradually you are going to
see we have a difference of opinion about which will be the last
conservative standing,” former
House Speaker Newt Gingrich
told reporters as he campaigned
in New Hampshire. “But I think
you’ll eventually come down to
one conservative and Governor
Romney and he’ll continue to
get 25 percent.”
Also vying to emerge as Romney’s chief rival were Texas Rep.
Ron Paul and former Utah Gov.
Jon Huntsman, while Texas Gov.
Rick Perry awaited in South Carolina.
“We can’t afford to have a status quo president. We can’t afford to have a coronation for
president,” Huntsman said in
Durham, N.H.
Gingrich unveiled a new television commercial aimed at voters in New Hampshire and
South Carolina that cited one review of Romney’s jobs program
as timid and nearly identical in
part to the president’s.
“Timid won’t create jobs. And
timid certainly won’t defeat
Barack Obama,” the ad said.
Ironically, in a year in which
polls show the economy is overwhelmingly the top issue for voters, the first two contests are in
states with low joblessness — 5.7
percent in Iowa and 5.4 percent
in New Hampshire.
That all changes a week later.
South Carolina’s unemployment was 9.9 percent in November, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 42nd among
the states and more than a full
percentage point higher than the
national average.
Santorum managed to criticize Romney and most of the
other Republicans in the race in
the space of a few sentences.
“I’ve never been for government-run health care,” he said in
a swipe at both Romney and
Gingrich. “I’m not for no regulation, I’m not a libertarian,” he
added, a jab at Paul.
Santorum’s aides say he
raised $1 million in online
fundraising the day after his second-place finish in Iowa, and the
campaign sought to show momentum by announcing the support of a New Hampshire tea
party
leader
and
Catholicvote.org, an online organization.
“Our mission here is to show
that we’re the conservative alter-
native to Mitt Romney,” he said,
virtually conceding he wouldn’t
be able to close a yawning New
Hampshire gap in the polls before next Tuesday.
Gingrich sought to set a high
bar for Romney. “It’s probably
one of his three best states, but
we’ll see whether he gets a majority here,” he said.
In the ebb and flow of the
campaign, one-time national
frontrunner Gingrich was hoping to reverse a slide that landed
him in fourth place in Iowa. Santorum is ascendant, and Huntsman is hoping to make a statement after skipping Iowa to concentrate on New Hampshire.
Paul, somewhat curiously, was
absent, after a third-place finish
in Iowa. He is scheduled to arrive in New Hampshire on Friday, in time to campaign and
participate in a pair of weekend
debates.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who
finished fifth in Iowa, is bypassing New Hampshire to try and
resurrect his chances in South
Carolina.
Minnesota Rep. Michele
Bachmann dropped out after a
last-place showing in Iowa, and
her erstwhile rivals quickly contacted her supporters in South
Carolina, hoping to enlist them
in a new cause.
Her campaign manager there,
state Sen. Lee Bright, said he
has been contacted by aides to
Huntsman and Santorum but intends to remain neutral for the
time being.
Romney’s strengths in New
Hampshire include a familiarity
that comes with having served
as governor of next-door Massachusetts for four years. He also
campaigned in the state in 2008,
when he made his first run for
the White House.
A relative newcomer on the
national stage then, he lost to
Sen. John McCain, who won the
GOP nomination.
Like magic, Harry Potter’s owl spotted across U.S.
DIRK LAMMERS
Associated Press
LAKE ANDES, S.D. (AP) —
Famous for its role as Harry Potter’s companion in the books
and movies, a species of majestic, mostly white owls is being
sighted in abundant numbers
this winter far from both Hogwarts and its native Arctic habitat.
It’s typical for snowy owls to
arrive in the U.S. every three or
four winters, but this year’s irruption is widespread, with birders from the Pacific Northwest
to New England reporting frequent sightings of the yelloweyed birds.
As many as 30 were spotted in
December around South Dakota’s Lake Andes.
“Thirty in one area, that’s
mind numbing,” said Mark Robbins, an ornithologist with the
University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute.
The arrival of the birds, which
can top 2 feet in height with a
wingspan of nearly 5 feet, is the
result of a plentiful population of
Arctic lemmings this summer,
which led to a strong breeding
season, said Denver Holt, director of the Owl Research Institute
in Charlo, Mont.
Lemmings are snowy owls’
main food source, and the baby
boom is sending many of the
youngsters across the border to
scrounge for voles, field mice,
rats, rabbits and shorebirds.
“It’s very unusual, because it’s
coast to coast,” said Holt, who
has been researching the owls’
Arctic habitat for 25 years.
Snowy owls are drawn to
frozen lakes, which remind them
of their tundra back home in the
Arctic, Robbins said.
“And if they’re finding rodents
there, they’re staying there,” he
said. “And perhaps seeing a couple of more snowy owls there,
they may think, ‘OK, this is a hot
spot.”’
The owls have been regular
visitors to Boston’s Logan Airport, and one even showed up
just after Thanksgiving in
Hawaii. Chicago’s Montrose
Point Bird Sanctuary has become a haven for the creatures,
with “countless sightings” this
season, said Matthew Cvetas, an
Evanston, Ill., birder.
“It’s just been really incredible,” he said.
Cvetas said owl sightings are
exciting for birders, as the creatures are mostly nocturnal and
difficult to spot.
Though snowy owls hunt day
and night, the allure of their
plumage helps make them a
prize sighting.
“Here’s the largest North
American owl in terms of
weight, a near all-white ghost of
a bird for an adult male,” said
Cvetas, who has spotted four
snowy owls since November.
“For me, it symbolizes wilderness at its best.”
Missouri and Kansas typically
draw just a few snowy owls every
three or four years, but reports
this year have been widespread,
Robbins said.
01-06-12.qxp
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5:46 PM
Page 1
CLASSIFIED
rocketminer.com
ROCKET- MINER
GIVE US A CALL TO GET STARTED
307-362-3736 • 1-888-443-3736
advertising@rocketminer.com
Your local news source since 1881
ADOPTION IS an act of love.
Your brave choice will be
forever remembered. Your
child will be loved and
cherished
forever.
Expenses paid. Angela and
Rich, 1-877-781-8074.
CLASSIFIED RULES, RATES
$1.05 1 or 2 days
.95¢ 3 to 5 days
.85¢ 6 or more days
- Ads are per line per day consecutive days
- Add one-time $1.00 for a
mandatory web site charge
- Minimum Ad: 2 lines
- Minimum Charges: $3.10
Ad Size
1
Day
3
Days
6
Days
2 lines
3 lines
4 lines
5 lines
6 lines
7 lines
$3.10
4.15
5.20
6.25
7.30
7.30
$6.70
9.55
12.40
15.25
18.10
18.10
$11.20
16.30
16.30
26.50
31.60
31.60
* prices include $1.00 web site charge
Figure four average-length words per
line, but give us a call for exact info.
Deadlines: Line ads accepted daily until 2 p.m. for following morning’s Rocket-Miner. Cancellations and corrections will be accepted until 2 p.m. Deadline for Saturday
and Sunday papers is 2 p.m. Friday.
Check your ad: The Rocket-Miner will not be responsible
for errors appearing in ads after first publication.
Box numbers: An additional charge of $5.00 is required on
all Rocket-Miner Box Numbers. $10.00, if mailed.
Non-local rate: $1.05 Per Line Per Day Flat. Non-local rates
apply to advertisements of firms outside of Southwestern
Wyoming. Add $1.00 for web site charge.
CARPET INSTALLER - New,
Used, Repairs. Free Estimates. Henry, 389-4250.
CUSTOM DRAPERIES
Western Wyoming
Windows (307) 350-6579
EXPERIENCED AUTO DETAILING, licensed and insured, will accept all major
credit, debit cards and purchase orders. 382-4440,
389-1844, leave message.
TOWING: Cars, Trucks,
Semi’s, Machinery. Also
private property towing.
Call 389-9225.
ELECTRICIANS ON CALL
24 hours
Tarpon Energy, 382-2709
CALL MONTE Vista Construction. Now scheduling
roofs for spring. 382-0767.
Classified Display Ad Rates, Deadlines: Per Inch: $9.55.
Advertisements accepted daily until 12 noon for following
morning’s Rocket-Miner. Cancellations and corrections
accepted until 12 noon.
JAMES BROTHERS - Since
1947. Professional painting,
paper hanging, residential,
commercial. For estimates,
389-6745.
PICK YOUR FORMAT
QUICK, CLEAN Home cleaning, 354-6391.
Choose what works best for your ad. We also offer centering of text and Garage Sale Kits. Call for details.
WITHIN
ROCK SPRINGS,
1992 three bed, two bath, with
swamp cooler, fenced yard.
$850/month, $850/ de-posit,
lot rent included. FREE water,
garbage, sewer. One year
lease, no pets. 555-5555,
555-5555.
1
Good.
Simple,
multi-line ad.
2
WITHIN ROCK SPRINGS,
1992 three bed, two bath,
with swamp cooler, fenced
yard. $850 /month, $850/ deposit, lot rent included.
FREE water, garbage, sewer. One year lease, no pets.
555-5555, 555-5555.
Better. Add
an icon or an
attention getter.
S&E PROFESSIONAL Cleaning. Insured and licensed.
For all your cleaning needs,
307-389-7062.
CALL MONTE Vista Construction for all your remodeling needs - basements, bathrooms, kitchens. 307-382-0767.
H & H CONSTRUCTION. Residential and Commercial.
Additions - Garages - Repairs. Remodels - Windows
- Doors. Licensed and Insured. 362-8628, 389-5218.
IMMACULATE Cleaning LLC
residential/commercial,
general or deep cleaning.
Events, carpet cleaning
and more. Outstanding
customer
satisfaction!
Leave message at 371-3640.
INTERIOR and EXTERIOR
Painting/Texturing. Locally
Owned, excellent references. Pablo and Picasso
Painting, 362-4589, 371-2002
3
Best.
Customize your
ad! Upgrade to
a display ad.
Add photos,
borders or logos
for maximum
impact.
STRAPPED FOR CASH after
the Holidays? Earn extra
MONEY EVERY MONTH
working just an hour or two
in the morning before work
or school.
The Rocket-Miner has delivery routes available in
Rock Springs and Green
River. For details and
routes
available
call
362-3736.
HEAVY INDUSTRIAL acres
for sale. For inquiries and
appointments
call
TARUFELLI DEVELOPMENT
CORPORATION. 362-2247,
(307) 389-5380.
HOME TUTOR SERVICE
Primary through College
level, you/your child’s academic success at hand!
(801) 837-9482.
yourrkstutor@rocketmail.c
om
SPEED BUMP
BY DAVE COVERLY
A&S WATER Services, Inc.
now hiring full-time Drivers
in Rock Springs and Casper
areas. Experience with Bulk
Pneumatics and/or tankers
preferred. Pay rate 22 percent. Contact us at (307)
749-6772 or (307) 382-2146
or apply in person at 1471
Dewar Drive #207, Rock
Springs.
EXPERIENCED
OILFIELD
Driver, must have Class A
CDL with X endorsement
and good driving record.
Apply in person at 16 Second St., Reliance, WY, or
send resume to PO Box
1974, Rock Springs, WY
82902, or email:
freedom5300@yahoo.com.
Great company offers benefits and competitive pay,
based on experience.
PLANT MANAGER
Plant manager sought for
emulsion plant in Point of
Rocks, WY. Responsible for
all aspects of managing
the plant, from customer
interaction to completing
BOL’s. Provides technical
sales support and oversight of magazines and
production facilities.
Successful
candidate
needs proven ability to supervise, solve problems,
work under pressure, communicate effectively to
meet customer needs and
work with other third parties. Word and Excel
needed. Bachelor’s degree
in chemical-related field, or
experience commensurate
with the position preferred.
Maxam US is a full service
explosives company delivering a wide range of products and services to the
mining and construction industries, and providing
outstanding compensation
and benefits, including salary, bonus, health, dental
and 401-K. Equal opportunity employer.
Remit resume to:
hhrr.na@maxam.net.
RIG WELDER with truck to
work on drilling rigs. North
Dakota, Wyoming areas.
Call 389-2843, 389-9385.
FLATBED DRIVER wanted,
must have CDL and two
years experience. Competive wages, paid vacation
after first year. Fax resume
to 307-782-7623, any questions 307-747- 2328.
O’TOOLE’S HOT SHOT Full-Time Driver, Class A
Hazmat, CDL required.
(307) 350-9220.
BARTENDER - now taking
applications,
must
be
available for all shifts. Apply in person, no phone
calls please, 516 Elk Street,
Joe’s Liquor and Bar.
Friday, Jan. 06, 2012
Page 2B
01-06-12.qxp
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rocketminer.com
Friday, Jan. 06, 2012
ORTHODONTIC ASSISTANT
Our busy office seeks an
Orthodontic Assistant who
is enthusiastic and committed to providing a high
level of patient care. Previous orthodontic experience
is not essential, however
we believe you must have
good communication skills
and be self-motivated, people oriented and personally
stable. Please bring resume to 2405 Cascade
Drive, Rock Springs.
3B
UPCOMING APARTMENTS
for rent; two bedroom, one
bath for only $775, deposit
$400. Pet friendly, first two
months free pet rent. Best
deal in town. Call 382-6281.
MONROE APARTMENTS in
Green River. Two bed, 1.5
bath
townhouse
style
apartments. Rent $700 per
month, $700 deposit. Some
pets allowed with $150
non-refundable pet fee
plus $25 additional a
month. Call Southwest Real
Estate, 307-382-9180 or visit
southwestwyoming.com
Equal Housing.
TWO BEDROOM apartment.
All utilities paid except
electricity, no smoking, no
pets, $700. Call 389-1445.
CLEAN, SPACIOUS two bedroom apartment, close to
elementary schools. No
pets. Call 362-2949.
MEDICAL CLINIC in Rock
Springs is hiring part-time
Reception Staff. Requirements: availability between the hours of 8 a.m. 6 p.m. including Monday Friday and 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
on weekends, very strong
customer service skills,
ability to multi-task, solid
computer user skills, experience answering multi-line
phones in busy office setting, and willingness to perform some testing after
training. Please email letter
of interest, resume and references to:
russ@bighornoccmed.com
MECHANIC WITH minimum
three years experience
with repair and maintenance on all types diesel
engines, trailers and tankers. Must have valid drivers license, class A CDL desired, but not required. Will
require some on call nights
and weekends. Great company offers benefits and
competive pay based on
experience. Apply in person at 16 Second St. Reliance, WY, or send resume
to: Box 1974, Rock Springs,
WY, 82902 or email to:
freedom5300@yahoo.com.
YOUTH SERVICES ASSISTANT position. A part-time
(20 hours a week) position
is available at the Sweetwater County Library in
Green River. This position
assists the general public
(children, teens and adults)
in satisfying their informational and recreational
reading needs. Excellent
human relations and communications skills are required in this team environment position. Applicants should submit a library employment application by January 13, 2012 to
the Business Office, 300 N.
1st East, Green River, WY
82935. Applications and a
job description can be obtained from any library
within the Sweetwater
County Library System or
by visiting our website
h t t p : / /s w e e t w a t e r l i braries.com
TRUCK DRIVER with roll-off
experience and clean motor vehicle record. Local
work, 50 hours per week.
Call Bruce at 307-214-9711.
KENWORTH SALES is looking for a Parts Counter
Salesman, previous parts
experience preferred. Apply in person at 384
Blairtown Road, no phone
calls please!
CLASS
A
CDL
Driver
wanted,
must
be
self-motivated and able to
work independently, will
make day trips Monday Friday and be home most
nights. Competitive pay
and benefits, call (307)
746-3688 for application
and or interview.
STRAPPED FOR CASH after
the Holidays? Earn extra
MONEY EVERY MONTH
working just an hour or two
in the morning before work
or school.
The Rocket-Miner has delivery routes available in
Rock Springs and Green
River. For details and
routes
available,
call
362-3736.
TOWNHOUSES, TWO bedroom, 1.5 bath, garage. No
pets. Good references. For
appointments, call (307)
875-2848, Green River.
PRAXAIR NAIG Production
Tech - Green River, WY.
Praxair is a global Fortune
250 company with $10.8 billion in sales and 26,000 employees in 2008. North
American Industrial Gases
(NAIG) is the leading provider of industrial gases in
North America.
Job Description:
Under the routine direction
of the manager, are responsible for a variety of
complex operations and
duties in an industrial gas
production environment.
Monitors equipment performance, makes minor adjustments, and may perform routine maintenance
tasks. Must know when to
call other specialists when
more serious malfunctions
occur.
Measures and records various data associated with
operating equipment. Utilizes standard repair procedures. Responsibilities
/duties are typically focused and routine at this
level.
Must be able to drive a
company
vehicle,
be
on-call during off hours,
and respond to plant call
outs.
This is a normal day shift
work schedule with scheduled on-call nights and
weekends.
Job Requirements:
High School diploma or
equivalent experience. Associates Degree preferred.
Two-six years Production
Operations
experience.
Strong
instrumentation
background is a plus. To
apply, visit our web site at
www.praxair.com. Click on
Careers, Career Opportunities and Search for Technical Career opportunities.
Click on the job title from
the complete Job List or
search by job number
1101350. Equal Opportunity
Employer, male, female,
disabled, veteran.
FULL-TIME, Live-in Baby
sitter needed, room and
board is supplied. Fax resume to (307) 782-7623. Call
(307) 747-2328.
BABYSITTER NEEDED for
two young children. Call
Brandie, 307-371-7923.
ROOM
FOR
Rent
in
Wamsutter, shared kitchen
and bath, $250 per month.
(307) 354-7386.
FOUR BEDROOM, two bath
in Green River. 307-871-8708
204 LIBERTY #B - Four bed,
1.5 bath, rent $1100, deposit starts at *$1100. No
pets/No smoking. Southwest Real Estate, (307)
382-9180 or visit:
southwestwyoming.com.
Equal Housing.
$850 - TWO bedroom, ideal
area. 371-9923.
3502 MADISON. Two bedroom, 1.5 bath, with 10x10
storage unit. Very clean, no
pets. Some utilities paid.
One year lease. $850 plus
deposit. 362-9419.
GREEN RIVER, fully furnished two bedroom. One
car garage. All utilities
paid, washer/dryer. No
smoking, no pets. Deposit
required. 875-7032.
TWO BEDROOM - 1415 E.
Teton, Green River. $675
rent and deposit, plus electric and water. Lease required. No pets. Call
389-0078 or 870-6112.
TWO BEDROOM, washer
and dryer hook-ups, one
year lease, no pets, no
smoking, $750, 362-2205.
***NEW LUXURY CONDO***
***FREE RENT***
Three bedroom, two bath.
Tile, granite counter tops,
air conditioning, garages.
Must see! First, last, plus
deposit. One year lease.
New, behind Smith’s, Green
River. (801) 368-8660
CONDO: 2916 Plumtree,
Apartment E, three bedroom, two bath. No smoking, no pets. $900/month
plus utilities. Turnkey Properties, (307) 867-2772.
TWO BEDROOM, 1.5 bath,
washer/dryer. No pets, no
smoking. 362-7935.
THREE
BEDROOM
furnished, all utilities paid,
free
Wi-Fi.
No
pets!
362-3211.
TWO BEDROOM located in
Green River, includes onsite storage unit, starting
at $625. No pets. 875-4296.
GREEN RIVER, studio and
two bedroom apartments,
starting at $500. No pets.
Available now. 875-5036.
GREEN RIVER, two bedroom, one bath furnished.
$950/month, pay own utilities. No pets, no smoking.
870-4361, Owner/Agent.
409 ARCHERS Trail, Rock
Springs. Four bedroom, 2.5
bath, rent $1800, deposit
starts at *$1800. Call Southwest Real Estate (307)
382-9180 or visit:
southwestwyoming.com
Equal Housing.
2608 CEDAR Springs, four
bedroom, three bath, no
smoking, no pets, $1750 per
month
plus
utilities.
Turnkey Properties, (307)
871-2772.
THREE BEDROOM town
houses in Green River. One
year lease. No Pets. Call
389-1077, 871-1351.
http://landlrentals.weebly.c
om
THREE BEDROOM house, all
utilities paid, washer and
dryer, $1250 per month.
362-2929.
THREE BEDROOM house.
No smoking, no pets, $1200
per month, $1200 deposit.
362-9307, leave message.
THREE BEDROOM town
house at 1418 Raindance.
New kitchen, flooring and
paint. One year lease, $950
per month plus $900 deposit. Credit check. No pets
or smoking. Call Tom
Fossen at AAA Properties,
389-5180. Owner/Agent.
THREE BEDROOM, College
Court, 1.5 bath. No pets.
Year lease. $1,295 plus deposit. 362-9419
GREEN RIVER townhome.
Two bedroom, 1.5 bath, full
unfinished basement. No
pets. 875-5036.
01-06-12.qxp
4B
1/5/2012
5:47 PM
Page 3
Friday, Jan. 06, 2012
THREE BED, one bath, north
of Rock Springs, tenant
pays gas and electric, one
year lease, no pets allowed, 389-1077, 871-1351,
http://landlrentals.weebly.c
om
ONE BEDROOM RV’s for
rent. $500 per month, includes most utilities. Call
307-382-7482.
THREE BED, two bath in
Rock Springs. $850/month
plus utilities. $850 deposit.
No pets, no smoking.
362-2843, after 5 p.m.
rocketminer.com
December 20, 2011
Green River, WY
The Board of County Commissioners met this day at 8:30 a.m. in Regular Session with Acting Chairman Bailiff, Commissioner West, Commissioner Van Matre and Commissioner Kolb present. The meeting opened
with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Approval of Agenda
Commissioner West moved to approve the agenda. Commissioner
Kolb seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.
Approval of Minutes 12-6-11
Commissioner Kolb moved to approve the minutes of the last meeting.
Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. With no discussion,
the motion was approved unanimously.
Acceptance of Bills
1800 SQ. FT. building. Great
visibility, large lot. 7 ft. garage door. Call Dan, (307)
389-1664.
4000 SQ. FT. commercial
zoned building with .5 acre
fenced yard in north Rock
Springs area, available for
lease February 2012. Call
352-6439, please leave message.
7500 SQ. FT. light industrial
(County) zoned building for
lease. Several offices, four
14 ft. bay doors, wash bays.
One acre fenced yard with
concrete, asphalt and electrical service. 382-3311.
GREAT LOCATION for small
business in high traffic
area which includes living
quarters. Call 362-2563.
STORAGE AND shop units.
(307) 875-2848.
LIBERTY GUN SAFES. Protect your valuables from
fire or theft, call 362-8356,
389-2629.
FIREWOOD - Spruce, Fir,
Apple, Ash, Elm, Poplar,
etc. All sizes $45 per pickup
load, (307) 382-8675.
COMMERCIAL EQUIPMENT
for sale. Hobart 12 inch
slicer. True refrigerator,
two door. Wells deep fryer,
120
weight.
Kenmore
side-by-side refrigerator.
Call 212-6419 or 389-3953.
SPORT RIDER by Health
Rider,
$40.
Nex
bike
all-terrain shock EST Extreme, $40. Tan recliner,
new, $250 or best offer.
362-2573.
TOTAL GYM XL, $1000. Nordic
Track
Treadmill
EXP2000i, $500. Small exercise rower, $50. Pilates
Perfomer bench, $50. Call
875-7672, 307-871-2954.
DOWNHILL SKIS - skis,
boots and poles, men and
womens, 875-1471.
STAGE AND DJ Lighting.
Pickin’ Palace, 553 N. Front
Street.
WE BUY Trucks, SUV’s, Motorcycles, ATV’s, Campers.
Wolf Auto - 362-1555.
BUYING JUNK Cars, Semi’s,
Machinery. Prices from $35
to $1000. 389-9225.
CATALINA MACAW, $750
with cage; two Conure Parrots, $200 each; two Cockatiels $50 each; one Chihuahua puppy, $200. Rock
Springs area, 307-840-2535,
serious buyers only.
MALTESE, ONE male; Pomeranian one male; Chihuahua, one male, one female.
Shots current, registered
and ready to go. Call (307)
851-7008.
EXCELLENT GRASS hay, approximately 70 pound bales, $7/bale. Lyman, WY.
Ted (307) 780-6185 or (307)
787-6185.
MINIATURE HORSE for sale,
32 in. tall. Very good with
kids. She can pull wagons.
Asking $400 or best. Also
have wagon. Call Justin,
(307) 707-7017.
Approval of County Vouchers/Warrants, Monthly Statements,
Bonds and Abates/Rebates
Commissioner West requested clarification on the Department of Interior
voucher relative to the Brook’s fire and questioned future implications of
the cost sharing agreement for fighting fires. Acting Chairman Bailiff
explained that the cost was incurred due to the cost sharing of a helicopter with the BLM. Public Works Director John Radosevich noted that
he would obtain more information relative to the cost share agreement
and report back to the commission at a later date. Commissioner West
moved to approve the acceptance of the bills which include the county
vouchers and warrants, the monthly statements, the bonds and the
abates and rebates. County Clerk Dale Davis requested that the bond
for County Treasurer Robb Slaughter be excluded. Commissioner West
accepted the requested exclusion. County Treasurer Robb Slaughter
clarified that, as part of the abates and rebates, the Department of Audit
completed an audit for General Chemical and explained that General
Chemical over reported trona production in 2009 which resulted in a significant rebate. Following discussion relative to purchases, Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.
WARR# NAME DEPT TOTAL. 9, Bank Of The West, Gen Accts,
3.31; 46090, Bank Of The West, Gen Accts, 0.18; 1, Bridger Valley
Electric Assn, Fire Marshal, Commiss, Clk, Treas, Shrf, Co Atrny, 2,
Centurylink, Grants Proj, GR Cir Court, IT Dept, Shrf Dtn Mnt, Clk Dist
Crt, Flt Veh Main, Comm Dev&Eng, Vet Services, 476.18; 3,
Centurylink, Assess, Juv Prob, Road & Bridg, Elect, Human Resour,
Purchasing, Grants Admin, RS Off Bld A, Shrf Emg Mgt, Fire Marshal,
RS Mnt/C Pur, Comm Nur-Hom, Env Hlth, 2,091.24; 4, City Of Green
River GR Fcl Mt CH, GR Cir Court, GR Rsvlt Mai, GR Wrhs Main, GR
Rd & Brdg, GR JV Maint, 1,644.84; 5, Directv, Shrf Emg Mgt, 18.00; 6,
Questar Gas, GR JV Maint, GR Fcl Mt CH, GR Cir Court, GR, Rsvlt
Mai, GR Wrhs Main, GR Rd & Brdg, 6,645.68; 7, Rock Springs Municipal Ut, Fire Marshal, RS Rd & Brdg, ,RS Veh Maint, Thmpsn Bld A,
RS Off Bld A, Att Bld 731C, Facil 731C C, Shrf Dtn Mnt, JV 731 Bld
D, 4,410.47; 8, Rocky Mtn Power, RS Rd & Brdg, Comm Dev&Eng,,
GR Rsvlt Mai, 3,370.33; 9, Schuck, Mary L, Elect, 152.00; 46100,
Sweetwater Television Co, Shrf Dtn Mnt, Shrf, Fire Marshal, 175.58; 1,
Union Telephone Company Inc, Elect, 43.17; 2, Verizon Wireless, Fire
Marshal, Shrf Emg Mgt, 321.05; 3, Wyoming Waste Services, RS Veh
Maint, RS Off Bld A, Thmpsn Bld A, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 1,343.77; 4,
Bridger Valley Electric Assn, Farson R & B, 146.65; 5, Centurylink,
Commiss, Clk, Treas, Juv Prob, Grants Proj, GR Fcl Mt CH, Road &
Bridg, Flt Veh Main, Elect, Comm Dev&Eng, Human Resour, RS Off
Bld A, Fire Marshal, 1,195.31; 6, Centurylink, Assess, Shrf, Co Atrny,
GR Cir Court, IT Dept, Clk Dist Crt, Purchasing, Grants Admin, Enhd
911, Shrf Emg Mgt, Comm Nur-Hom, Env Hlth, 3,626.52; 7, Centurylink, Shrf, 70.95; 8, Fleet Services, Shrf, Flt Veh Main, 22,526.68; 9,
Hasler, Gen Co Admin, 240.00; 46110, Home Depot Credit Service, GR
Fcl Mt CH, Shrf Dtn Mnt, Purchasing, 383.72; 1, Paetec, Clk, Treas, Assess, Shrf, Co Atrny, Juv Prob, Grants Proj, GR Cir Court, IT Dept, Coroner, Clk Dist Crt, GR Fcl Mt CH, Road & Bridg, 314.64; 2, Paetec,
Commiss, Flt Veh Main, Elect, Comm Dev&Eng, Human Resour, Purchasing, Grants Admin, RS Off Bld A, Shrf Emg Mgt, Fire Marshal,
Comm Nur-Hom, Env Hlth, 314.65; 3, Payment Remittance Center,
Road & Bridg, Shrf Dtn Mnt, IT Dept, Clk, Treas, Coop Ext/4H,
1,809.53; 4, Payment Remittance Center, IT Dept, 85.67; 5, Payment
Remittance Center, GR Fcl Mt CH, 266.03; 6, Payment Remittance Center, Elect, 20.42; 7, Payment Remittance Center, Co Atrny, IT Dept, Vet
Services, Comm Nur-Hom, Comm Nur-Pub, 1,239.59; 8, Purchase
Power, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 200.00; 9, Rocky Mtn Power, Shrf Dtn Mnt, RS
Mnt/C Pur, Comm Dev&Eng, RS R&B Lagoo, 5,944.23; 46120, Sweetwater Television Co, Shrf Emg Mgt, 47.45; 1, Union Telephone Company Inc, Env Hlth, Coop Ext/4H, 256.84; 2, Verizon Wireless, Shrf,
Shrf Emg Mgt, Fire Marshal, Vet Services, IT Dept, Commiss, Elect, Co
Atrny, 1,049.34; 3, Wyoming Waste Services, RS Mnt/C Pur, 137.44; 4,
Ace Hardware, GR Fcl Mt CH, Fire Marshal, 408.33; 5, Ace Hardware,
Shrf Dtn Mnt, Shrf, 245.71; 6, Ace Hardware #11263-C, GR Fcl Mt CH,
Shrf Dtn Mnt, 349.49; 7, Advanced Medical Imaging, Shrf Dtn Mnt,
96.00; 8, American Polygraph Association, Shrf, 150.00; 9, ASC American Screening, Juv Prob, 59.70; 46130, Auto Parts Unlimited, Flt
Veh Main, 61.59; 1, Autospa Inc, GR Fcl Mt CH, Shrf, 54.51; 2, Battery
Systems, Flt Veh Main, 187.59; 3, Bennett Paint & Glass, GR Fcl Mt
CH, 2.00; 4, Bloedorn Lumber, Shrf Dtn Mnt, GR Fcl Mt CH,
1,607.42; 5, Bookcliff Sales Inc., Road & Bridg, 157.50; 6, BVAC Inc,
Shrf, 12,163.00; 7, Carrier Corporation, GR Fcl Mt CH, Capital Proj,
9,605.82; 8, Castillon D.D.S., A. Bryce, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 768.00; 9, City
Auto Sales, Flt Veh Main, GR Fcl Mt CH, 231.87; 46140, City Auto
Sales, Flt Veh Main, 2,645.61; 1, City Of Rock Springs, Shrf Dtn Mnt,
25.00; 2, City Of Rock Springs, Animal Cntrl, 2,024.98; 3, CJ Signs,
Shrf, 45.00; 4, Communication Technologies, Shrf Emg Mgt, 200.00; 5,
Concept Development Corp, Shrf, 2,495.00; 6, Copier & Supply Co Inc,
Clk, Shrf Dtn Mnt, Shrf, Assess, Purchasing, Commiss, Land Use, Co
Atrny, 954.12; 7, Copier & Supply Co Inc, Shrf, Land Use, 513.90; 8,
Culligan Bottled Water, GR Cir Court, Vet Services, Co Atrny, 173.00;
9, Custom Cage, Shrf, 635.00; 46150, Dell Marketing L P, Srf, 112.31;
1, Doi/Blm, Gen Co Admin, 24,655.35; 2, Ed Sidwell, Flt Veh Main,
99.99; 3, F B McFadden Wholesale Co, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 3,458.75; 4,
Fedex, Co Atrny, 75.92; 5, Felderman, Kimmie, Grants Proj, 41.64; 6,
First Choice Ford, Flt Veh Main, 52.57; 7, Global Equipment Company,
GR Fcl Mt CH, 540.74; 8, Golden Hour Senior Citizens, Senior Cntrs,
21,792.49; 9, Grainger, GR Fcl Mt CH, 432.65; 46160, Green River
Postmaster, Shrf, Clk Dist Crt, 280.00; 1, Green River Star, Vet Services, 39.00; 2, Gruber Technical Inc, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 11,812.15; 3,
Hamm-Hills, Laura J, Clk Dist Crt, 165.75; 4, Heyborne Radakovich &
Com, Gen Co Admin, 825.00, 5, High Country Behavioral H, Vet Services, 500.00; 6, High Security Lock & Alarm, GR Fcl Mt CH,
1,507.00; 7, Holland Equipment Company, Road & Bridg, 443.76; 8,
Homax Oil Sales, Inc., Flt Veh Main, 532.27; 9, IBC Wonder / Hostess,
Shrf Dtn Mnt, 480.10; 46170, Incaption Inc, IT Dept, 7,482.96; 1, Industrial Solutions Inc, GR Fcl Mt CH, 685.00; 2, Infogroup, Assess, Clk
Dist Crt, Coroner, Elect, Shrf Emg Mgt, Shrf Dtn Mnt, Shrf, Treas,
2,160.00; 3, Johnson, Wally J.,Commiss, 466.48; 4, Kroschel, Faith,
Coop Ext/4H, 329.64; 5, Lujan, Catalina F, Clk Dist Crt, 90.00, 6,
Macy’s Truck Repair Inc, Flt Veh Main, 120.00; 7, Mathey Law Office Assign, Clk Dist Crt, 315.15; 8, McFarland, Kelly D, Vet Services,
133.96; 9, McGee, Hearne & Paiz LLP, Commiss, Gen Co Admin,
50,000.00; 46180, McKee Foods Corporation, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 705.28; 1,
Meadow Gold Dairy, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 1,003.57; 2, Memorial Hospital Of
SW, Coroner, 480.00; 3, National Business Systems, Treas, 15.45; 4,
Net Transcripts Inc, Co Atrny, 273.00; 5, Nicholas & Company, Shrf
Dtn Mnt, 2,095.69; 6, Nutech Specialities Inc, Flt Veh Main, 305.50; 7,
Office Depot Inc, Shrf, 539.00; 8, Pacific Steel & Recycling, GR Fcl Mt
CH, 100.00; 9, Pamida Inc, Shrf, 24.98; 46190, Pineda, Bobby Wayne,
Public Defnd, 600.00; 1, Plainsman Printing & Supply, Clk Dist Crt,
178.77; 2, PM Autoglass Inc, Flt Veh Main, 290.00; 3, Public Defender,
Public Defnd, 2,500.00; 4, Quill Corporation, Purchasing, Road &
Bridg, Shrf, Assess, Co Atrny, Vet Services, GR Fcl Mt CH, Shrf Dtn
Mnt, Clk, IT Dept, 88.61; 5, Quill Corporation, Road & Bridg, Assess,
IT Dept, GR Fcl Mt CH, Vet Services, Shrf, Grants Proj, Clk, Co Atrny,
Fire Marshal, 405.88; 6, Quill Corporation, GR Fcl Mt CH, Co Atrny,
Shrf, Vet Services, Clk Dist Crt, Clk, Treas, Shrf Dtn Mnt, Coop
Ext/4H, 2,647.78; 7, Real Kleen Inc, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 318.50; 8, Retail
Acquisition & Deve, Shrf, 361.60; 9, Rock Springs Newspapers Inc,
Treas, 127.00; 46200, Rock Springs Newspapers Inc, Human Resour,
Gen Accts, Gen Co Admin, Intr Gv Pool, 947.07; 1, Rock Springs
Newspapers Inc, Gen Co Admin, Gen Accts, 2,566.75; 2, Rock Springs
Newspapers Inc, Gen Co Admin, 2,553.18; 3, Rock Springs Newspapers
Inc, Land Use 485.73; 4, Rock Springs Newspapers Inc, Co Atrny,
637.10; 5, Rock Springs Newspapers Inc, Grants Proj, 9.51; 6, Rock
Springs Sweetwater C, RS SWC Airpt, 107,500.00; 7, Rock Springs
Winlectric Co, GR Fcl Mt CH, 622.93; 8, Rocky Mountain Service Bu,
Clk, 76.86; 9, Roderick, Judy K., Grants Proj, 77.00; 46210, Rushing,
Matthew C, Shrf, 6.45; 1, Secretary Of State, Shrf, 60.00; 2, Shadow
Mountain Water Of WY, Vet Services, 19.75; 3, Skorcz Enterprises Inc,
Capital Proj, 2,200.00; Slaughter, Robert D, Treas, 53.28; 5, Sterling
Communications, Shrf, 285.00; 6, Sweetwater Co, Comm Nur-Hom,
Comm Nur-Pub, Grants Proj, 172.92; 7, Sweetwater Co Child Devel,
Human Svcs, 47,086.05; 8, Sweetwater Co Circuit Court, Co
Atrny,40.00; 9, Sweetwater Co Community N, Shrf, 95.00; 46220,
Sweetwater County, Transport, 30,882.84; 1, Sweetwater County Health,
Comm Nur-Hom, 99,000.00; 2, Sweetwater Trophies, IT Dept, GR Fcl
Mt CH, 30.02; 3, Swick’s Matco Tools, Flt Veh Main, 8.40; 4, Swisher
Hygiene Frachise, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 1,189.69; 5, Teton Sheetmetal, Shrf
Dtn Mnt, 765.00, 6, The Radio Network, Shrf, 320.00, 7, The Tire Den
Inc, Flt Veh Main, GR Fcl Mt CH, 2,758.95; 8, The UPS Store - #3042,
Shrf, Clk, 55.26; 9, Tubbs MD LLC, Kennon C, Shrf Dtn Mnt,
4,000.00; 46230, U S Foodservice Inc, Shrf Dtn Mnt, 2,829.50; 1,
United Site Services Of N, Wamsuttr R&B, 176.00; 2, Vaughn’s Plumbing & Heating, GR Fcl Mt CH, 855.00; 3, Vehicle Lighting Solution,
Shrf,193.42; 4, Waxie Sanitary Supply, Flt Veh Main, Fire Marshal,
Road & Bridg, GR Fcl Mt CH, 531.16; 5, Wehrle, Mary Ann, Co Atrny,
101.70; 6, West Payment Center, Clk Dist Crt, 2,264.50; 7, Western Pathology Consult, Shrf, Dtn Mnt, 352.00; 8, Western States Livestock,
Shrf, 150.00; 9, Western Wyoming Family Pl, Human Svcs, 1,500.00;
46240, Whisler Chevrolet Company, Flt Veh Main, 214.43, 1, White
Mountain Lumber, GR Fcl Mt CH, 759.32, 2, Wilkerson IV, MD, PC,
Jam, Coroner, 1,040.00; 3, Wyoming Embroidery, Shrf, GR Fcl Mt CH,
1,064.50; 4, Wyoming Technology Transf, Comm Dev&Eng, 80.00, 5,
Wyoming.COM LLC, IT Dept, 4,043.40; 6, Young At Heart Senior Cit,
Senior Cntrs, 19,688.78; 7,Youth Home Inc, Human Svcs, 33,500.00; 8,
YWCA Of Sweetwater County, Human Svcs, 31,778.93; GRAND TOTAL: 644,768.04.
Acting Chairman Bailiff reported that he visited with the following people: courthouse security, Clerk of District Court Donna Lee Bobak, District Court Judge Nena James and Judge Jere Ryckman and Public
Works Director John Radosevich. Acting Chairman Bailiff acknowledged that several calls were received from McKinnon residents regarding plowing of roads. He noted that he spoke with Emergency Management Director Dave Johnson relative to Unicom Connect System and explained that he will meet with Mr. Johnson on December 21, 2011 to
discuss communication inter operability between public, private and
government sectors.
The following unlisted warrants are payroll warrants: 46088
County Resident Concerns
The following bonds were placed on file:
Acting Chairman Bailiff opened county resident concerns. Green River
Greenbelt Task Force Vice Chairman Andy Seiller expressed his concerns with the lack of a FEMA Plan within Sweetwater County. Following discussion, Acting Chairman Bailiff invited Mr. Seiller and Emergency Management Director Dave Johnson to present his concerns at the
next county commission meeting on Tuesday, January 3, 2012. Hearing
no further comments, the public hearing was closed.
Darrell Burke, SWCO Fire District #1/Treasurer, $ 5,000.00; Barbara L.
Huston-Miles, Town of Bairoil/ Treasurer/Clerk, $ 25,000.00; David E.
Buller, Jamestown Rio Vista Fire District, $10,000.00.
TAXPAYER TAX AMOUNT TAXPAYER TAX AMOUNT: BESSO
DAWN LEE, -53.34; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -21.88; BESSO
DAWN LEE, -46.52; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -21.82; BESSO
DAWN LEE, -46.82; DEVON ENERGY PROD CO LP, -25,043.02;
BESSO DAWN LEE, -35.80; DEVON ENERGY PROD CO LP,
-950.76; BESSO DAWN LEE, -35.12; BP AMERICA PROD CO,
-10,319.58; BESSO DAWN LEE, -36.20; EVANS MR & LJ TRUST,
-32.18; BESSO DAWN LEE, -31.98; ANADARKO E&P CO LLP,
-22,649.66; BESSO DAWN LEE, -30.50; CABOT OIL & GAS CORP,
-1,103.72; BESSO DAWN LEE, -30.86; CABOT OIL & GAS CORP,
-1,260.72; BESSO DAWN LEE, -30.76; CABOT OIL & GAS CORP,
-659.52; BESSO DAWN LEE, -28.14; CABOT OIL & GAS CORP,
-1,444.46; BESSO DAWN LEE, -27.70; GENERAL CHEMICAL
CORP, -223,477.96; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -46.34; GENERAL CHEMICAL CORP, -498.26; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN,
-53.66; MERIT ENERGY CO, -1.06; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN,
-52.06; MERIT ENERGY CO, -1.76; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN,
-47.62; MERIT ENERGY CO, -0.54; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN,
-69.38; MERIT ENERGY CO, -677.56; YAGER RALPH &
CAROLYN, -49.90; MERIT ENERGY CO, -7,724.04; YAGER
RALPH & CAROLYN, -48.50; MERIT ENERGY CO, -1.82; YAGER
RALPH & CAROLYN, -46.78; MERIT ENERGY CO, -80.74; YAGER
RALPH & CAROLYN, -40.08; MERIT ENERGY CO, -325.08; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -66.28; MERIT ENERGY CO, -671.02;
YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -66.06; MERIT ENERGY CO, -2.06;
YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -66.92; MERIT ENERGY CO, -2.42;
YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -58.98; GOLDEN ENERGY PARTNERS LLC, -176.18; YAGER RALPH & CAROLYN, -20.78;
Public Hearing
Grants Budget Amendment
County Clerk Dale Davis presented Resolution 11-12-CL-02, Sweetwater County Budget Amendment. Grants Manager Krisena Marchal was
present to explain the budget amendment. Following a brief discussion,
Acting Chairman Bailiff opened the public hearing. Hearing no comments, the hearing was closed. Commissioner West so moved. Commissioner Kolb seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion
was approved unanimously.
Land & Water Conservation Fund Grant
Grants Manager Krisena Marchal presented the Land and Water
Conservation Fund 2011 Application for Assistance - Sweetwater
County - Crossroads West Park. Acting Chairman Bailiff opened the
public hearing. Sweetwater County Parks and Recreation Administrative Assistant Gayle Abney was present and explained that, due to compliance issues with the playground equipment, the grant is the board’s
number one priority. The commission requested that, for better clarification, Ms. Marchal present the entire project.
with the commission.
Commissioner West
Commissioner West reported that he attended several meetings for the
Health Insurance Committee relative to proposals for consultant/brokers
for the health insurance plan and that four finalists were interviewed.
Commissioner West reported that, at the last meeting, he discussed, under Title 18, a provision for a senior citizen service district. He explained that the Young at Heart Senior Center and the Golden Hour Center will conduct a joint meeting in January for further discussion.
Commissioner West explained that Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater
County continues to pursue a partnership agreement with the University
of Utah. He noted that he attended the Memorial Hospital Christmas
Party.
Commissioner West reported that he attended the enXco scoping meeting relative to the Quaking Aspen Wind Farm as well as the Board of
Health meeting.
Commissioner West requested assistance from the commission in support of a resolution for Southwest Counseling Service crisis stabilization
funding which would be forwarded to the governor and local legislators.
The commission concurred that Commissioner West proceed forward in
drafting a resolution to be presented during the board meeting on January 17, 2012.
Commissioner Bailiff
Acting Chairman Bailiff reported that he attended the enXco scoping
meeting relative to the Quaking Aspen Wind Farm.
Break
Acting Chairman Bailiff called for a 10 minute break.
Action/Presentation Items Continued
Board Appointment- Sweetwater County Events Complex (5 year
term)
Following discussion relative to the applicants, Commissioner Kolb
made the motion to re-appoint Jodee Burnett to the Events Complex
Board. Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.
Special Prosecutor Resolution
Deputy County Attorney John Prokos requested approval of Resolution
11-12-AT-01, Special Prosecutor. Commissioner West moved to approve Resolution 11-12-AT-01 and authorize the acting Chairman
Gary Bailiff to sign. Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion.
With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.
Request the Approval of Amendment #1 to the 2009 JABG Grant
Contract
Grants Manager Krisena Marchal requested a motion to approve, and
have the Chairman sign, Amendment One to the 2009 JABG Grant Contract. Following a brief discussion, Acting Chairman Bailiff entertained
a motion to approve the request for Amendment Number One to the
2009 JABG Grant Contract. Commissioner West moved to approve
and authorize the Chairman to sign. Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved with
Commissioner Kolb voting nay.
Request the Approval of the FY 2012 Affirmation of Audit Certifications for Federal Grants
Grants Manager Krisena Marchal requested a motion to approve, and
have the Chairman sign, all FY 2011 Affirmation of Audit Certifications
for Federal Grants. Following discussion, Commissioner Kolb made
the motion to request the approval of the Fiscal Year 2011 Affirmation
of Audit Certifications for Federal Grants Certifications. Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.
Request Approval to Award the Health Consultant Bid
Human Resource Manager Garry McLean explained the Sweetwater
County Health Insurance Committee evaluation process for the Health
Consultant/Broker proposals. Following discussion regarding the health
insurance broker/consultant fee proposals, the commission tabled the
item to be addressed during a special meeting to be held on Thursday,
December 22, 2011 at 4:00 p.m.
Action/Presentation Items
Other
Request the Approval of Resolution 11-12-GR-01 for the Land &
Water Conservation Fund Grant Application
Ms. Marchal presented and requested approval of Resolution
11-12-GR-01 for the Land & Water Conservation Fund Grant Application. Following discussion relative to the grant, Parks and Recreation
Maintenance Supervisor Don Murray and Administrative Assistant
Gayle Abney were present to explain the priority of the project and the
compliance issues with the playground equipment. Commissioner West
moved to approve Resolution 11-12-GR-01. Commissioner Kolb seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously. Hearing no further public comments, the hearing was closed.
Commissioner Comments/Reports
Commissioner Kolb
Commissioner Kolb reported that he attended the National Guard meeting relative to their water supply. He further reported that he attended
meetings for Planning & Zoning, the Airport Board, Communities Protecting the Green and the enXco scoping meeting concerning the Quaking Aspen Wind Farm.
Commissioner Kolb noted that he attended the Memorial Hospital
Christmas party.
Commissioner Kolb explained that the Events Complex has provided the
county with posters as visual aides showing ongoing changes occurring
at the Events Complex for the National High School Rodeo project and
noted that they will be displayed in the County Courthouse hallway.
Commissioner Van Matre
Commissioner Van Matre reported that he attended a meeting of the Museum Board. He explained that IT Director Tim Knight will come before the board on January 3, 2012 to provide the commission with an update on his department. He explained that five VSO interviews were
conducted. Commissioner Van Matre noted that he continues to work
with Grants Manager Krisena Marchal and stressed that all grants should
be funneled through Ms. Marchal to avoid subterfuge. Commissioner
Van Matre explained that Green River Mayor Hank Castillon and City
Administrator Barry Cook expressed interest in the Circuit Court building and he suggested that they request to be on the agenda for discussion
Human Resource Manager Garry McLean informed the commission that
a facilities employee resigned and requested authorization to backfill the
vacancy. Commissioner West moved to approve the request to advertise to re-fill the position. Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. Following discussion, the motion was approved unanimously.
Executive Session(s)-Personnel/Legal
Acting Chairman Bailiff entertained a motion to enter into executive
session for legal and personnel. Commissioner West moved to go into
executive session. Commissioner Kolb seconded the motion. With no
discussion, the motion was approved unanimously. A quorum of the
commission was present.
After coming out of executive session, Acting Chairman Bailiff entertained a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Kolb made a motion to adjourn. Commissioner Van Matre seconded the motion. With no discussion, the motion was approved unanimously
Adjourn
There being no further business to come before the Board this day, the
meeting was adjourned subject to the call of the Chairman.
This meeting was recorded and is available from the County Clerk’s office at the Sweetwater County Courthouse in Green River, Wyoming.
SWEETWATER COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SWEETWATER
COUNTY, WYOMING
Absent - Wally J. Johnson, Chairman
Gary Bailiff, Member
John K. Kolb, Member
Don Van Matre, Member
Reid O. West, Member
ATTEST:
Steven Dale Davis, County Clerk
Jan. 6____________________________________________________
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WASHER AND dryer set,
$300, 371-3707.
BUNKBED, METAL frame,
twin upper, full lower. Full
mattress only. Asking $150,
call 875-7672 or 307871-2954.
REFRIGERATOR AND gas
range, $150 for both,
362-5214.
BEAUTIFUL 1700-plus sq. ft.
townhome in Garbett’s new
Morningside community.
Starting price, $164,900.
Call Craig Knudsen, Garbett
Realty, (307) 922-3822.
FOUR BEDROOM, two bath,
big yard, 916 Garfield Lane,
(307) 389-6180.
2000 GMC Sierra 2500, extended
cab,
shortbed,
113,000 miles, 6.0L, automatic transmission, CB radio, grill guard, running
boards, rhino lined, fifth
wheel
hitch,
$9500,
382-9486, 389-3004.
FOR SALE By Owner. As is.
Great Rental. Call 382-3554
for more Information and
to set up a viewing of the
home.
2000 FORD Ranger XLT, 4x4,
mileage 49,100. Automatic
transmission, V-6, 4.0L engine, $7900. 382-6587.
TWO BED, one bath split
level duplex, large kitchen,
living room, finished basement,
one-car
garage.
Schools across the street,
YWCA in back. New windows, swamp cooler and
furnaces. Stove, refrigerator,
dishwasher,
large
washer/dryer and garage
door opener stay. By
owner, $140,000, 3528 A
Cleveland
Dr.,
Rock
Springs, 382-3968.
2010 DODGE Ram Pickup
SLT 1500 - $24,999. First
Choice Ford, 877-472-6010.
2005 GMC Yukon Denali $17,799. Great Western
Autobrokers, 877-472-6010.
1995 POLARIS 300, 2x4.
Runs good. $1,500. 382-3253.
TWO LARGE cul-de-sac lots
for sale. 362-2929.
Friday, Jan. 06, 2012
5B
1991 JAYCO Eagle 285 5th
wheel trailer, $5000. 1989
Kit Companion 20 foot
bumper trailer, $3000. Call
382-9486, 389-3004.
DON’S RV AND REPAIR
Monday - Friday, 9 a.m. - 5
p.m. 362-7646, 1901 Foothill
Boulevard, Rock Springs.
2008 ARCTIC Cat Crossfire
8, 800 cc., EFI. 500 miles.
$3,800/best. 870-6401.
2009 SUMMIT Everest 800R
154 track. Great condition,
low
miles.
$7000/best.
307-389-0018.
PUBLIC NOTICE
The Rock Springs, Green River,
Sweetwater County Combined
Communication Joint Powers
Board will hold its regular meeting on Monday, January 9, 2012 at
2:00 p.m. at the City of Green
River, 50 E. 2nd North, Green
River, WY.
Jan.6_______________________
Public Hearing Notice
1996 ACURA. 3.5RL 185000
miles, $2000. Call or text for
pictures. 307-922-2560.
2007 NISSAN Sentra $11,999. Great Western
Autobrokers, 877-472-6010.
2008 FORD Fusion SE $12,499. First Choice Ford,
877-472-6010.
1998 DODGE 1/2 Ton 4x4,
quad cab, new tire. Runs
great, 389-3053.
The Sweetwater County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a
public hearing on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. in the
County Commissioner’s Room in the Sweetwater County Courthouse,
Green River, Wyoming. The purpose of this public hearing is to consider a Conditional Use Permit in accordance with Section 6.C of the
Sweetwater County Zoning Resolution to allow the construction of an
unmanned satellite dish tracking station as requested by Universal
Space Network, Inc. This application is to be located on a parcel of
land owned by Level 3 Communications, LLC and described as 0.183
leased acres in the Southeast Quarter of Section 15, Township 18 North,
Range 106 West of the 6th Principal Meridian, Sweetwater County, Wyoming and is commonly known as 213 Purple Sage Road, Rock Springs,
Wyoming (see vicinity map below).
The Board of County Commissioners will consider the Planning and
Zoning Commission’s recommendation during a public hearing scheduled on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. in the County Commissioner’s Room in the Sweetwater County Courthouse, Green River, Wyoming. Interested persons or groups are given the opportunity to submit
data, views, and arguments relating to this issue.
For further information regarding this application, please contact the
Land Use Office, Sweetwater County Courthouse, 80 West Flaming
Gorge Way, Suite 23, Green River, Wyoming 82935, telephone
307-922-5430 or 307-872-3914.
Dated this 6th day of January, 2012.
Steven Dale Davis, County Clerk
Jan. 6____________________________________________________
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ORDINANCE NO. 2011-14
FORECLOSURE SALE NOTICE
WHEREAS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that default in the payment under the terms of a secured and perfected Note has occurred. The
Note is secured by a Mortgage dated April 18, 2008 and recorded in
Sweetwater County on April 21, 2008 at REC# 1531201 BK# 1118 PG#
0700 from Michael E. Ronick to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as nominee for Rock Springs National Bank for the amount of
$113,000.00. The Mortgage having been assigned to and is now in possession of BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., SUCCESSOR BY MERGER
TO BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP FKA COUNTRYWIDE
HOME LOANS SERVICING LP, recorded on December 7, 2011 at
REC # 1614131 Book 1193 Page 576.
WHEREAS the Mortgage contains a power of sale, which by reason of
default has occurred, the Mortgagee has declared to become operative,
and no suit or proceeding has been instituted to recover the debt secured
by the Mortgage, or any part thereof, nor has any suit or proceeding instituted and the same discontinued and;
WHEREAS written Notice of Intent to Foreclose by Sale and Advertisement has been served upon the record owner and party in possession
of the mortgaged premises at least ten (10) days prior to commencement
of the publication, and the amount due upon the Mortgagee at the date of
first publication of this notice of sale being the total sum of $115,600.17
which sum consists of the unpaid balance of $109,394.52, plus interest
accrued to the date of this first publication of this notice in the amount of
$6,205.65, plus outstanding charges, plus attorney fees, costs expected
and accruing interest and late charges after the date of first publication of
this notice.
WHEREAS this property being foreclosed upon may be subject to
other liens and encumbrances that will not be extinguished at the sale
and any prospective purchaser should research the status of title before
submitting a bid.
NOW, THEREFORE BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., SUCCESSOR BY
MERGER TO BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP FKA COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS SERVICING LP as Mortgagee, will have
the Mortgage foreclosed as by law provided by having the mortgaged
property to be sold at public venue by the Sheriff or Deputy Sheriff in
and for Sweetwater County, Wyoming to the highest bidder for cash at
10:00 AM on January 23, 2012 at the front door of the Sweetwater
County Court house located at 80 West Flaming Gorge, Green River,
WY 82935. For application on the above described amounts secured by
the Mortgage, said mortgaged property being described as follows, to
wit:
CONDOMINIUM UNIT C IN BULIDING NO. 1, AS SHOWN ON
THE CONDOMINIMUM MAP FOR PLUMTREE VILLAGE, A CONDOMINUM PROJECT IN THE CITY OF ROCK SPRINGS, SWEETWATER COUNTY, WYOMING APPEARING IN THE RECORDS OF
THE COUNTY CLERK OF SWEETWATER COUNTY, WYOMING,
RECEPTION NO. 866309, AND AS DEFINED AND DESCRIBED IN
THE DECLARATION OF CONDOMINIUM FOR PLUMTREE VILLAGE, AS RECORDED IN SUCH RECORDS ON JANUARY 18,
1982, IN BOOK 727, PAGE 632-656 AND IN FIRST SUPPLEMENTARY DECLARATION RECORDED ON AUGUST 5, 1982, IN
BOOK 733, PAGES 4-9.
With an address of 2916 Plumtree Drive Apt C, Rock Springs, WY
82901
Together with all improvements thereon situated and all fixtures and appurtenances, thereto.
BANK OF AMERICA, N.A., SUCCESSOR BY MERGER TO BAC
HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP FKA COUNTRYWIDE HOME
LOANS SERVICING LP.
Neal Valorz, Esq.
Fred Van Remortel, Esq.
ROBERT J. HOPP & ASSOCIATES, LLC
400 East 20th Street
Cheyenne, WY 82001
Toll Free No. 866-620-8605
Dec. 30 Jan. 6, 13, 20________________________________________
APPLICATION FOR RENEWAL OF RETAIL LIQUOR
LICENSE
Notice is hereby given that on the 5th day of January 2012, HORSE
THIEF SALOON, INC., filed an application for a Retail Liquor License
in the office of the Town Clerk of the Town of Superior for the following described place and premise:
HORSE THIEF SALOON, No. 71 Main Street, Lot 11, Block 1 O.T.,
the entire front ground floor of building a room measuring 20’x50’ in the
Town of Superior, Wyoming, and protest, if any there be, against the issuance of such license will be heard at the hour 7:10 p.m. on the 9th day
of February 2012, in the Superior Administration Building of Superior.
Michaelene Maes-Ekker, Town Clerk
Jan. 6, 13, 20, 27___________________________________________
Public Hearing Notice
The Sweetwater County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a
public hearing on Wednesday, February 8, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. in the
County Commissioner’s Room in the Sweetwater County Courthouse,
Green River, Wyoming. The purpose of this public hearing is to consider an amendment to Exhibit B in accordance with the Sweetwater
County Growth Management Plan and a Zoning Map Amendment from
Single Family Residential, Minimum Lot Size 2 Acres (R-2/SF LS2) to
Commercial (C) in accordance with Section 24.B.1.B of the Sweetwater
County Zoning Resolution. This application, requested by Tim and
Wanda Self, is for a parcel of land described as 19.75 acres located in
the East Half of Section 29, Township 20 North, Range 105 West of the
6th Principal Meridian, Sweetwater County, Wyoming and is commonly
known as 470 Yellowstone Road, Rock Springs (see vicinity map below).
The Board of County Commissioners will consider the Planning and
Zoning Commission’s recommendation during a public hearing scheduled on Tuesday, March 6, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. in the County Commissioner’s Room in the Sweetwater County Courthouse, Green River, Wyoming. Interested persons or groups are given the opportunity to submit
data, views, and arguments relating to this issue.
For further information regarding this application, please contact Sweetwater County Land Use, Sweetwater County Courthouse, 80 West Flaming Gorge Way, Suite 23, Green River, Wyoming 82935, telephone
307-922-5430 or 307-872-3914.
AN ORDINANCE AMENDING SECTION 4-200-6 OF THE ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF ROCK SPRINGS, WYOMING,
WHICH ORDINANCE PERTAINS TO GARBAGE COLLECTION.
WHEREAS, the Governing Body of the City of Rock Springs desires to
amend Section 4-200-6 of the Ordinances of the City of Rock Springs,
entitled “Fees,” which ordinance pertains to Garbage Collection.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT ORDAINED BY THE GOVERNING
BODY OF THE CITY OF ROCK SPRINGS, STATE OF WYOMING:
Section 1. That Section 4-200-6 of the Ordinances of the City of Rock
Springs entitled “Fees,” is hereby amended to read as follows:
4-200-6 Fees.
(6) Fees - Residential. Each one family residential unit, each kitchen
unit in an apartment building, and each individual trailer shall be
charged a fee not to exceed fourteen ($14.00) nineteen ($19.00) dollars
per month for the collection, hauling and disposal of garbage originating
in said unit, unless arranged for under a commercial fee, or a dumping
permit, and each unit shall be billed up to a maximum of three months in
advance of said service. (Ord. No. 75-8, 2-18-75, Ord. No. 77-7, 4-5-77,
Ord. No. 79-12, 5-15-79, Rev. Ord. 1979, Ord. No. 86-06, 6-4-86; Ord
No. 94-17, 7-7-94; Ord. No. 2006-29, 12-5-06).
This ordinance shall take effect immediately after it has been posted or
published as required by law.
1st Reading: December 6, 2011
2nd Reading: December 20, 2011
3rd Reading: January 3, 2012
PASSED AND APPROVED this 3rd day of January, 2012.
David M. Tate
President of the Council
Attest:
Lisa M. Tarufelli
Carl R. Demshar, Jr.
City Clerk
Mayor
Jan. 6____________________________________________________
NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that a Purchase Money Mortgage dated
September 25, 2006, was executed and delivered by Rock Springs Investment, LLC (“RSI”), as Borrower, to John and Virginia Quintana,
Mortgagees. Said mortgage, which was recorded with the Sweetwater
County Clerk and Ex-Officio Register of Deeds on September 25, 2006,
in Book 1070 at Pages 0450 – 0457, was given as security for payment
of a promissory note. The real property will be foreclosed by sale to the
highest bidder at public auction pursuant to a power of sale contained in
said mortgage.
The premises described in said mortgage is as follows:
A PARCEL OF LAND SITUATE IN THE WEST HALF (W/2) AND
THE NORTHEAST QUARTER (NE/4) OF SECTION 5, RESURVEY
TOWNSHIP 18 NORTH, RANGE 105 WEST OF THE SIXTH PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN, SWEETWATER COUNTY, STATE OF WYOMING, ACCORDING TO AN OFFICIAL PLAT OF SAID LAND FILED
IN THE DISTRICT LAND OFFICE, SAID PARCEL BEING
BOUNDED AND DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS:
BEGINNING AT THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF SAID SECTION
5; THENCE ALONG THE NORTH LINE OF SAID SECTION,
SOUTH 87°56’33” EAST, 2754.16 FEET, MORE OR LESS, TO THE
NORTH QUARTER CORNER OF SAID SECTION;
THENCE CONTINUING ALONG SAID NORTH LINE, SOUTH
87°52’30” EAST, 32.13 FEET TO THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF
THAT CERTAIN PARCEL OF LAND CONVEYED BY UNION PACIFIC LAND RESOURCES CORPORATION TO D. NEIL PRUITT
AND FAYE PRUITT AND AVELINO T. GUTIERREZ BY SPECIAL
WARRANTY DEED DATED JULY 10, 1981, UPLRC AUDIT NO.
741-2;
THENCE ALONG THE WEST LINE OF SAID DEEDED PARCEL,
SOUTH 00°54’58” EAST, 1592.88 FEET TO THE NORTHERLY
RIGHT-OF-WAY LINE OF INTERSTATE I-80; THENCE ALONG
SAID NORTHERLY RIGHT-OF-WAY LINE, SOUTH 64°02’07”
WEST, 1932.34 FEET TO A MONUMENT SET BY THE WYOMING
HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT MARKING THE RIGHT-OF-WAY;
THENCE
CONTINUING
ALONG
SAID
NORTHERLY
RIGHT-OF-WAY LINE, SOUTH 64°18’32” WEST, 1211.76 FEET TO
THE WEST LINE OF SAID SECTION 5; THENCE ALONG SAID
WEST LINE, NORTH 00°21’40” EAST, 3064.15 FEET TO THE
POINT OF BEGINNING.
TOGETHER WITH ALL IMPROVEMENTS THEREON, AND EASEMENTS, APPURTENANCES AND INCIDENTS BELONGING AND
APPERTAINING THERETO, OR USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH; SUBJECT, HOWEVER, TO ALL MINING, MINERAL AND
OTHER
EXCEPTIONS,
RESERVATIONS,
EASEMENTS,
RIGHTS-OF-WAY, AND CONDITIONS OF RECORD.
BEGINNING AT A POINT ON THE WEST LINE OF SAID SECTION
5 WHICH POINT BEARS SOUTH 00°18’38” WEST, 1569.47 FEET
FROM THE NORTHWEST CORNER OF SAID SECTION; THENCE
SOUTH 56°00’00” EAST, 700.00 FEET; THENCE SOUTH 88°11’18”
EAST, 300.11 FEET; THENCE NORTH 64°02’49” EAST, 230.00
FEET; THENCE SOUTH 44°00’00” EAST, 130.00 FEET TO THE BEGINNING OF A CURVE CONCAVE SOUTHWESTERLY HAVING
A RADIUS OF 566.73 FEET; THENCE ALONG SAID CURVE
THROUGH A CENTRAL ANGLE OF 18°02’49”, 178.51 FEET;
THENCE SOUTH 64°02’49” WEST, 362.88 FEET; THENCE SOUTH
64°19’14” WEST, 835.70 FEET; THENCE SOUTH 25°40’46” EAST,
300.00 FEET TO A POINT ON THE NORTHERLY RIGHT-OF-WAY
LINE OF INTERSTATE HIGHWAY I-80; THENCE ALONG SAID
NORTHERLY RIGHT-OF-WAY LINE SOUTH 64°19’14” WEST,
375.00 FEET TO A POINT ON THE WEST LINE OF SAID SECTION
5; THENCE ALONG SAID WEST LINE NORTH 00°18’38” EAST,
418.28 FEET TO THE WEST QUARTER CORNER OF SAID SECTION; THENCE CONTINUING ALONG SAID WEST LINE NORTH
00°18’38” EAST, 1075.00 FEET TO THE POINT OF BEGINNING.
The sale will be held by the Sweetwater County Sheriff at the front door
of the Sweetwater County Courthouse in Green River, Wyoming, at
10:00 A.M. on February 2, 2012, to satisfy the amounts due on the mortgage. Default has occurred in performing the conditions of the mortgage
and the promissory note it secures. Lender claims that as of January 5,
2011, the principal amount of $1,627,379.78 is owing on said promissory note, together with accumulated interest of $213,743.67. In addition, legal fees and costs incurred by Borrower in this matter in the
amount of $1,171.18 are due and owing by the Borrower under the terms
of said note and mortgage for a total owing of $1,842,294.63. Per diem
interest of $267.51 together with ongoing costs and legal fees are owed
from and after January 5, 2012.
The property being foreclosed upon may be subject to other liens and encumbrances that will not be extinguished at the sale and any prospective
purchaser should research the status of title before submitting a bid.
DATED this 5th day of January, 2012.
John and Virginia Quintana
Lenders/Beneficiaries
Jan. 6____________________________________________________
Chapter 6, Section 2(m) of the Wyoming Air Quality Standards and Regulations provides that prior to a final determination on an application to
modify an existing source, opportunity be given for public comment
and/or public hearing on the information submitted by the owner or operator and on the analysis underlying the proposed approval or disapproval. The regulation further requires that such information be made
available in at least one location in the affected air quality control region, and that the public be allowed a period of thirty (30) days in which
to submit comments. A public hearing will be conducted only if in the
opinion of the administrator sufficient interest is generated or if an aggrieved party so requests.
Notice is hereby given that the State of Wyoming, Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Air Quality, proposes to approve a request by the following applicant to modify an existing source in Sweetwater County, Wyoming.
Chevron USA, Inc.
1400 Smith St., Rm 45055
Houston, TX 77002-7308
The applicant has requested permission to modify the Table Rock Unit
128 well site by increasing condensate production due to the well recompletion, with a smokeless combustion device to control volatile organic
compound and hazardous air pollutant emissions associated with the
condensate storage tank, located in the SW1/4NE1/4 of Section 25,
T19N, R98W, approximately two (2) miles south of Table Rock, in
Sweetwater County, Wyoming. The Division is proposing conditions requiring the control of the pneumatic heat trace pump. A copy of the permit application and the agency’s analysis is available for public inspection at the Sweetwater County Clerk’s Office, Green River, Wyoming.
In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, special assistance or alternate formats will be made available upon request for individuals with disabilities.
Written comments may be directed to Steven A. Dietrich, Administrator,
Division of Air Quality, Department of Environmental Quality, 122 W.
25th St., Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002 or by fax (307) 777-5616. Please
reference AP-12674 in your comment. Comments submitted by email
will not be included in the public record. All comments received by
5:00 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012 will be considered in the final determination on this application.
Jan. 6____________________________________________________
STATE OF WYOMING
Department of Environmental Quality/Division of Air Quality
PUBLIC NOTICE
Chapter 6, Section 2(m) of the Wyoming Air Quality Standards and Regulations provides that prior to a final determination on an application to
construct a new source, opportunity be given for public comment and/or
public hearing on the information submitted by the owner or operator
and on the analysis underlying the proposed approval or disapproval.
The regulation further requires that such information be made available
in at least one location in the affected air quality control region, and that
the public be allowed a period of thirty (30) days in which to submit
comments. A public hearing will be conducted only if in the opinion of
the administrator sufficient interest is generated or if an aggrieved party
so requests.
Notice is hereby given that the State of Wyoming, Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Air Quality, proposes to approve a request by the following applicant to construct a new source in Sweetwater
County, Wyoming.
BP America Production Company
P.O. Box 157
Wamsutter, WY 82336
The applicant has requested permission to construct a new three well
gas/condensate production facility, known as the Frewen Unit 19-160
PAD, consisting of the Frewen Unit 19-160, 19-140D and 19-50D wells,
with four smokeless combustion devices to control volatile organic compound and hazardous air pollutant emissions associated with the condensate storage tanks and pneumatic pumps, located in the SE1/4SE1/4 of
Section 19, T19N, R94W, approximately five (5) miles south-southwest
of Wamsutter, in Sweetwater County, Wyoming. A copy of the permit
application and the agency’s analysis is available for public inspection at
the Sweetwater County Clerk’s Office, Green River, Wyoming. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, special assistance or
alternate formats will be made available upon request for individuals
with disabilities.
Written comments may be directed to Steven A. Dietrich, Administrator,
Division of Air Quality, Department of Environmental Quality, 122 W.
25th St., Cheyenne, Wyoming 82002 or by fax (307) 777-5616. Please
reference AP-12693 in your comment. Comments submitted by email
will not be included in the public record. All comments received by
5:00 p.m., Monday, February 6, 2012 will be considered in the final determination on this application.
Jan. 6____________________________________________________
EXCEPTING THEREFROM A PARCEL OF LAND CONVEYED BY
UNION PACIFIC LAND RESOURCES CORPORATION TO ADAMS
SALES, INC. BY SPECIAL WARRANTY DEED DATED MARCH
25, 1982, UPLRC AUDIT NO. 29162-2, SAID PARCEL OF LAND
SITUATE IN THE WEST HALF (W/2) OF SECTION 5, TOWNSHIP
18 NORTH, RANGE 105 WEST OF THE SIXTH PRINCIPAL
MERIDIAN, SWEETWATER COUNTY, WYOMING, BOUNDED
AND DESCRIBED AS FOLLOWS:
Dated this 6th day of January, 2012.
Steven Dale Davis, County Clerk
STATE OF WYOMING
Department of Environmental Quality/Division of Air Quality
PUBLIC NOTICE
By: /S/ Richard Mathey
Richard Mathey (#5-1616)
Attorney for Lenders/Beneficiaries
P.O. Box 1060
Green River, Wyoming 82935
(307) 875-5872
Jan. 6, 13, 20, 27___________________________________________
LEGAL NOTICE
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
that the Board of Trustees of the
Western Wyoming Community
College district will conduct their
regular January meeting on Thursday, January 12, 2012, at 7:15
p.m. in Board Room 3060, Rock
Springs Campus.
LENZI,
Valentina ‘Tena’ Lenzi, Centennial, Colorado. A Mass
of Christian burial will be
celebrated today, January
6, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. at SS
Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church, 633 Bridger Ave.,
Rock Springs, Wyoming. A
rosary will be recited today
at 10 a.m. at the church. Interment will be in the Rock
Springs Municipal Cemetery. Friends may call until
time of services at the
church.
CASSARI,
Ida Cassari, Rock Springs,
Wyoming. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated Monday, January 9,
2012 at 10:30 a.m. at the SS
Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church, 633 Bridger Avenue, Rock Springs. Rosary
Monday at 10 a.m. at the
church. Interment will be in
the Rock Springs Municipal
Cemetery. Friends may call
Monday until time of services at the church.
Let The
Classifieds
Work For You
362-3736
Shannon Honaker, President
WWCC Board of Trustees
Jan. 6______________________
Colo. snowmobiler
dies after being
hit by tree
LARAMIE (AP) — A 70year-old Colorado man has
died after being struck by a
falling tree while snowmobiling in the Snowy Range
Mountains in southern
Wyoming.
The Albany County coroner says William A. Rice, of
Lakewood, Colo., died from
internal bleeding.
The accident happened
shortly before 12:20 p.m. on
Dec. 29.
Authorities say high
winds knocked down the
60-foot tree.
Sheriff Dave O’Malley
tells
the
Laramie
Boomerang that three
deputies on routine forest
patrol responded quickly
and found Rice conscious
and talking but in a lot of
pain.
O’Malley says that while
waiting for emergency medical responders to arrive,
Rice lost consciousness and
quit breathing.
Father: Suspect
in shootout
had PTSD
PAUL FOY
Associated Press
OGDEN, Utah (AP) —
Search warrant in hand,
a team of bulletproof
vest-wearing
officers
rapped on the door of a
small, red-brick Utah
house, identifying themselves as police. When no
one responded, authorities say, the officers burst
inside.
That’s when the gunfire erupted.
When it was over
Wednesday night, a 7year veteran officer was
dead and five of his colleagues were wounded,
some critically. The suspect, an Army veteran
whose estranged father
said suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder
and may have been selfmedicating with marijuana, was injured.
Now, as the city tries
to grapple with the outburst of violence and the
loss of one of its officers,
investigators are trying
to determine how the
raid as part of a drug investigation could have
gone so terribly wrong.
“It’s a very, very sad
day,” an emotional Ogden Police Chief Wayne
Tarwater said Thursday.
A candlelight vigil for
the fallen officers is
planned for Thursday
night at an Ogden amphitheater.
Police declined to reveal details of the shooting besides a general
timeline, citing the ongoing investigation.
They would not say,
for instance, whether the
shootout took place entirely inside the home or
spilled out into the yard,
how many shots were
fired and how many guns
were recovered.
There will be several
investigations, including
one by Ogden police and
another outside probe by
prosecutors.
Among the questions
that authorities will try to
answer was whether the
officers, in the chaotic
moments upon entering
the house, may have inadvertently fired on each
other.
Police said the warrant
was based on information about possible drug
activity, but would not
say what officers were
specifically looking for
inside Matthew David
Stewart’s home, which
sits across the street
from a Mormon church
meeting house.
Stewart, 37, was in the
hospital with non-life
threatening injuries, authorities said. He does
not have an attorney yet.
Utah court records
show Stewart’s criminal
history includes only a
2005 conviction for a
class B misdemeanor
traffic violation — operating a vehicle without
insurance. A judge found
him guilty after a bench
trial and ordered him to
pay a $350 fine.
State officials also
placed a pair of tax liens
on Stewart last August.
Stewart served in the
Army from July 1994 to
December 1998, spending a year based in Fort
Bragg, N.C., and nearly
three years stationed in
Germany, Army records
show.
He held a post as a
communications equipment specialist, earning
an Army Achievement
Medal and a National
Defense Service Medal.
Both are given for completing active service, although they don’t indicate exceptional acts of
valor.
Stewart’s
father,
Michael Stewart, said his
son works a night shift at
a local Wal-mart and may
have been sleeping when
police arrived.
“When they kicked in
the door, he probably felt
threatened,” said Michael
Stewart, who has been
estranged from his son
for more than a year, but
keeps track of him
through his two other
sons.
11759086.qxp
1/5/2012
5:08 PM
Page B7
rocketminer.com
African National Congress
celebrates 100th anniversary
MICHELLE FAUL
Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG (AP) —
Against all odds, the party of
Nelson Mandela has transformed a nation where just 20
years ago black South Africans
could not vote, and beaches and
restaurants were reserved for
whites only.
The venerated party once
banned for decades under
apartheid has won every national election since racist white rule
ended in 1994, and President Jacob Zuma vows the party “will
rule until Jesus comes.”
Yet as the African National
Congress marks its 100th anniversary this weekend with fanfare and dozens of visiting presidents, critics say the ANC has
failed to unchain an impoverished majority still shackled by
a white-dominated economy.
Unemployment
hovers
around 36 percent and soars to
70 percent among young people. Half the country’s population lives on just 8 percent of the
national income, according to
the Congress of South African
Trade Unions.
South African political analyst
Aubrey Matshiqi praises the
ANC
for
developmental
achievements “unprecedented
anywhere in the world” in its 17
years of governing the country.
But he noted that many at the
ANC festivities will have their
joy marred by “a tinge of disappointment and even sadness”
about weaknesses and failures.
The ANC’s reputation is being tarnished by a never-ending
deluge of corruption scandals,
some involving politicians who
sacrificed during the fight
against apartheid and now feel
entitled to luxury cars and financial payback.
It’s created disillusionment,
especially for those who volunteered to serve as freedom fighters at a time when many of the
ANC’s leaders were imprisoned
for their activism.
Serame Mogale, who was
only 14 when he became a guerrilla fighter for the ANC, recalled that the slogan in one Angolan training camp was “the
pace of the slowest.”
“We would run six hours nonstop with female comrades in
front, from whom the whole
company or platoon will take
the pace,” he recalls. “But today,
the weakest is overtaken and left
behind to tire and die.”
Africa’s oldest liberation
movement is kicking off the festivities with a golf tournament
— an event critics say shows
how the grassroots-based movement has morphed into an elitist-run political party.
More than 100,000 people
are expected for the ANC centenary festivities, including 46
heads of state and a dozen former presidents, the party says.
Nobel peace laureate Desmond
Tutu is coming, though it’s unclear whether Mandela will
make an appearance.
The 93-year-old icon’s public
appearances have become increasingly rare, though he did
attend the closing ceremony of
the World Cup in 2010. He also
made a surprise appearance at a
campaign rally ahead of the
2009 election, when the ANC
faced unprecedented competition from a breakaway party.
“I would be nothing without
the ANC,” Mandela said at a
2008 party rally marking his
90th birthday.
The political party representing South Africa’s impoverished
majority already has drawn criticism for spending 10 million
rand (nearly $1.5 million) of
public money to buy the church
where it all began.
The Wesleyan church is the
focus of this weekend’s centenary celebrations in Bloemfontein, a city in the heart of the
country.
It was here that black activists
and intellectuals founded the
liberation movement that would
help lead the decades-long
struggle against racist rule.
Until just 20 years ago, blacks
were evicted from their homes
and herded into separate suburbs, forced to work under
slavelike conditions on mines
and farms. Families were separated under legalized race discrimination so that white entrepreneurs could take advantage
of poorly paid black laborers.
The best parks, beaches and
restaurants were reserved for
the white minority, with signs in
Afrikaans saying “Net Blankes”
— Whites Only. Some shops
would only serve blacks through
a hole in the wall.
Black nannies cared for white
children and prepared elaborate
meals for white families, then
went to hovels in the backyards
of mansions to feed their own
children “ration meat” — bones
and fat less nutritious than the
meals served to white families’
dogs.
A turning point came in 1960
when police turned their guns
on about 300 people peacefully
protesting “pass laws” restricting them to certain areas and requiring them to leave white areas where they worked by nightfall.
At least 69 people were killed
and scores wounded in the
Sharpeville massacre. The unprovoked slaughter attracted international condemnation that
formed the roots of the global
anti-apartheid movement.
The government declared a
state of emergency and banned
South Africa’s two liberation
movements — the Pan Africanist Congress, which had organized the Sharpeville protest, and
the ANC.
ANC leaders declared there
was no longer any space to organize nonviolent resistance
and formed Umkhonto we
Sizwe, Zulu for “Spear of the
Nation,” an army that would
wage a guerrilla war for liberation.
“The time comes in the life of
any nation when there remain
only two choices: submit or
fight. That time has now come
to South Africa. We shall not
submit, but we shall fight back
by all our means within our
power for the liberation of our
motherland,” said the guerrilla
army manifesto.
After Mandela’s 1990 release
from prison, he was elected
president of ANC and went on
to become South Africa’s first
black president after the historic
1994 election.
While the ANC confronted a
common enemy in apartheid, it
became a catchall for people of
many different ideological persuasions. Once the enemy was
defeated, it is not surprising that
differences have arisen.
“We would like to think it (the
ANC) has teething problems,
but it’s not really only teething
problems,” said Amina Cachalia,
a political activist who joined
the ANC in the 1940s. “I think
suddenly it’s become a different
platform for different ideologies
and for different people with different agendas, and that’s a pity,
a great pity.”
The party also has struggled
to find a leader as charismatic
as the beloved anti-apartheid
icon.
Thabo Mbeki, the president
who succeeded Mandela, was
unceremoniously booted out of
office by an ANC congress that
deemed him too cerebral and
out of touch with the people.
Today the ANC is led by
Zuma, a guerrilla fighter who
was imprisoned at Robben Island alongside Mandela but
whose polygamous lifestyle and
extramarital affairs have scandalized South Africans.
Zuma’s leadership is being
challenged by Julius Malema,
the very same fiery youth leader
credited with ousting Mbeki and
helping bring Zuma to power in
2007. Late last year, an ANC
disciplinary committee fired
Malema and suspended him
from the party for five years.
Malema, who is awaiting the
result of an appeal and is under
police investigation for corruption and tax evasion, has been
denied the opportunity to address the centenary celebrants.
But he will speak at smaller rallies near Bloemfontein, the party said of the young firebrand
who draws support from young
adults.
Sifiso Mkwanazi, a 26-yearold self-employed businessman,
complains about the government’s lack of investment to
create jobs and better education
opportunities.
“For the generation of my
parents, I think it (the ANC) has
done a lot, but with our generation, I don’t think they are contributing as much as they
should be,” he says.
Still, he said his vote would go
to the ANC unless a viable opposition party devoted to the
people’s interest springs up.
Cachalia, who has been a
friend of Mandela for 60 years,
says she wonders what he
would make of the ANC’s evolution.
“I sometimes feel very disillusioned these days, but I suppose
we live in hope,” she says.
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
WORLD
7B
Scores killed in Iraq
bombings targeting Shiites
ADAM SCHRECK
Associated Press
BAGHDAD (AP) — An apparently coordinated wave of bombings targeting Shiite Muslims
killed at least 78 people in Iraq on
Thursday, the second large-scale
assault by militants since U.S.
forces pulled out last month.
The attacks, which bore the
hallmarks of Sunni insurgents,
come ahead of a Shiite holy day
that draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from across
Iraq, raising fears of a deepening
of sectarian bloodshed. Rifts
along the country’s Sunni-Shiite
faultline just a few years ago
pushed Iraq to the brink of civil
war.
The bombings in Baghdad and
outside the southern city of
Nasiriyah appeared to be the
deadliest in Iraq in more than a
year.
Thursday’s blasts occurred at a
particularly unstable time for
Iraq’s fledgling democracy. A
broad-based unity government
designed to include the country’s
main factions is mired in a political crisis pitting politicians from
the Shiite majority now in power
against the Sunni minority, which
reigned supreme under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
Some Iraqis blame that political discord for the lethal strikes.
“We hold the government responsible for these attacks. They
(the politicians) are bickering
over their seats and these poor
people are killed in these blasts,”
said Baghdad resident Ali Qassim
not long after the first bomb went
off.
The attacks began during
Baghdad’s morning rush hour
when explosions struck the capital’s largest Shiite neighborhood
of Sadr City and another district
that contains a Shiite shrine,
killing at least 30 people, according to police.
Several hours later, a suicide attack hit pilgrims heading to the
Shiite holy city of Karbala, killing
48, police said. The explosions
took place near Nasiriyah, about
200 miles (320 kilometers)
southeast of Baghdad.
Hospital officials confirmed
the causalities. Authorities spoke
on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to
release figures of the dead and
wounded, who numbered more
than 100.
The blasts occurred in the runup to Arbaeen, a holy day that
marks the end of 40 days of
mourning following the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein, a revered Shiite figure. During this time, Shiite pilgrims —
many on foot — make their way
across Iraq to Karbala, south of
Baghdad.
Baghdad military spokesman
Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi
said the aim of the attacks is “to
create turmoil among the Iraqi
people.” He said it was too early
to say who was behind the bombings.
Coordinated attacks aimed at
Shiites are a tactic frequently
used by Sunni insurgents.
The last U.S. combat troops
left Iraq on Dec. 18, ending a
nearly nine-year war. Many Iraqis
worry that a resurgence of Sunni
and Shiite militancy could follow
the Americans’ withdrawal. In
2006, a Sunni attack on a Shiite
shrine triggered a wave of sectarian violence that pushed the
country to the brink of civil war.
“People have real fears that the
cycle of violence might be revived
in this country,” said Tariq Annad, a 52-year-old government
employee in Sadr City, after
Thursday’s bombings.
Attacks on Wednesday targeted the homes of police officers
and a member of a governmentallied militia.
Those strikes, in the cities of
Baqouba and Abu Ghraib outside
Baghdad, killed four people, including two children, officials
said.
Two weeks earlier, militants
killed at least 69 people as a wave
of bombs ripped through mostly
Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad. An al-Qaida front group in
Iraq claimed responsibility.
Iraq’s political mess is providing further ammunition for extremists.
Shiite Prime Minister Nouri alMaliki’s government issued an arrest warrant for the country’s top
Sunni politician last month. The
Sunni official, Vice President
Tariq al-Hashemi, is holed up in
Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish
region in the north — effectively
out of reach of state security
forces.
Al-Maliki’s main political rival,
the Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, is
boycotting parliament sessions
and Cabinet meetings to protest
what its members say are efforts
by the government to consolidate
power.
Gala Riani, a Middle East ana-
lyst at IHS Global Insight, said
the political storm feeds into Sunni fears they could be marginalized by the Shiite-dominated government — worries that Sunni
militants are trying to exploit.
“The political crisis has set up
a perfect scenario for Sunni militants to re-establish themselves,”
she said. “It’s very sectarian in
nature and gives them fuel for
their fire.”
While the political showdown
appears far from being resolved,
there are tentative signs of
progress.
Al-Maliki met Thursday with
the Sunni speaker of parliament,
Osama al-Nujaifi, a member of alHashemi’s Iraqiya party. In televised comments afterward, they
described the talks as positive
and said they will work to find a
way out of the crisis.
Earlier, both men condemned
Thursday’s bombings.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also denounced the “terrorist violence” in Iraq and called the
attacks “desperate attempts by
the same kind of folk who’ve
been active in Iraq trying to turn
back the clock.”
Britain’s Foreign Office minister for the Middle East and North
Africa, Alistair Burt, urged Iraq’s
leaders to renew their efforts to
break the political impasse.
Meanwhile, six Iraqiya lawmakers broke ranks with their
party over the boycott by attending a parliament session. Ahmed
al-Jubouri, one of the Iraqiya lawmakers who participated, said he
did so to “encourage all blocs to
sit together and open dialogue.”
Bosnia’s most oldest and prestigious
cultural institutions shutting down
SABINA NIKSIC
Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia’s oldest and
most prestigious cultural institutions have begun closing their
doors one after another, thanks to
long-standing disputes among
politicians from its three ethnic
groups and dwindling state funding.
In 2011, the seven institutions
— among them the 125-year-old
National Museum whose collection includes the famed 600year-old Jewish manuscript
known as the Sarajevo Haggadah
— received virtually no funding
from authorities in the Balkan nation and can no longer finance
their work or even cover their
utility bills.
The National Library is due to
close its doors Friday, just days
after the Historical Museum
closed.
The National Gallery shut
down last summer, while the National Museum expects to close
piece by piece in coming weeks
after its power supply is cut off
over unpaid bills.
“By no will of our own, we have
found ourselves in the middle of
a political battle and have become
a political problem,” National Museum director Adnan Busuladzic
told The Associated Press.
A main reason for the closings
is the failure by political leaders of
the country’s Serb, Croat and
Bosniak peoples to agree on what
to do with Bosnia’s shared historical and cultural heritage, and
whether to even preserve it.
Founded by Bosnian state authorities at different stages of the
country’s turbulent history, the
top seven cultural institutions
were left without a guardian at
the end of Bosnia’s 1992-95 interethnic war.
Under the Dayton peace agreement that ended the conflict,
Bosnia was split along ethnic
lines into two semiautonomous
parts linked by a weak central
government.
The central government has no
ministry of culture and no obligation to provide permanent fund-
ing for the institutions that are
the custodians of the country’s
national heritage, including precious medieval manuscripts, religious relicts, and natural history
artifacts.
Bosnian Serbs, in particular,
oppose giving the central government control over the cultural
sites, with their leaders often insisting that Bosnia is an artificial
state and that each of the country’s ethnic groups has its own
heritage.
Bosniaks, meanwhile, insist
that safeguarding the shared history of the Bosnian people is one
way to keep the country unified
instead of permanently splitting
it the way many Bosnian Serbs
would want.
The culture minister of the
country’s Bosniak-Croat part,
Salmir Kaplan, pledged late
Thursday that his government
will provide funding to cover the
unpaid utility bills of the National Museum. But Kaplan admitted
that was just a temporary solution.
So far, the national institutions
Israel and U.S. to stage major defense drill
IAN DEITCH
Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military is gearing up together with U.S. forces for a major
missile defense exercise, the Israeli military announced Thursday, as tension between Iran and
the international community escalates.
The drill is called “Austere
Challenge 12” and is designed to
improve defense systems and cooperation between the U.S. and
Israeli forces. It follows a 10-day
Iranian naval exercise near the
strategic Strait of Hormuz. Israel’s
military said the drill with the U.S.
was planned long ago and is not
tied to recent events. Both Israeli
and U.S. officials said the exercise
would be the largest-ever joint
drill by the two countries.
The Iranian war games came as
the West was adopting new sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, charging it is making weapons. Iran insists its program is peaceful. Israel considers
Iran a strategic threat because of
its nuclear and missile programs
and support of violent groups in
Lebanon and Gaza, as well as frequent references by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to
Israel’s destruction.
The Israeli military spokesman
did not give a date for the drill
Thursday, but a senior military official said it would be in the next
few weeks. He said it would be the
biggest missile defense drill ever
held. He was speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The Israeli official said thousands of American and Israeli soldiers from different units would
take part. He said the drill would
test multiple Israeli and U.S. air
defense systems against incoming
missiles and rockets. Israel has
deployed the “Arrow” system,
jointly developed and funded with
the U.S., designed to intercept
Iranian missiles in the stratosphere, far from Israel.
“The U.S. European Command
and the Israel Defense Forces periodically conduct routine exercises in Israel,” the Israeli military
said in a statement. “U.S. European Command routinely works
with partner nations to ensure
their capacity to provide for their
own security and, in the case of Israel, their qualitative military
edge,” it said. Thousands of U.S.
and Israeli troops held a similar
exercise in 2009, code-named Juniper Cobra 10, designed to test
missile defense technology.
Martin Van Creveld, a military
historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said Thursday
that the drill was intended not
only to practice military maneuvers but also to pressure Iran.
“Defending against an attack is
not something that you improvise
from today to tomorrow. It’s
something you have to prepare,
you have to rehearse, you have to
prepare for,” Van Creveld said.
“This, among other things, is an
exercise to show Iran, the people
in Tehran, that Israel and the
United States are ready to counterattack,” he said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta previewed the exercise in
a speech last month, saying it
would be an example of unprecedented levels of defense cooperation that the Obama administration has achieved “to back up our
unshakable commitment to Israel’s security.”
have been financed through often
insufficient ad-hoc grants from
different layers of government.
For the past decade, most of the
scarce funding that had allowed
them to stay open while cutting
down on staff and operational
costs came from the reserves of
the central budget.
But following the October 2010
general elections, the six winning
parties took nearly 15 months to
reach an agreement on formation
of the new central government,
leaving power in the hands of an
outgoing cabinet that failed to
pass a budget.
Funding for the work of central
institutions was secured through
temporary financing decisions
and no reserve funds had been
provided, leaving the national cultural institutions with nothing.
“We accumulated huge debt for
our heating bill and now it will be
switched off, and then the water
in our pipes will freeze and our
alarms will shut down, our phone
lines and our Internet connection
will be cut off,” Busuladzic said,
before Kaplan’s pledge.
U.S. man bails on
7th solo try to
round Cape Horn
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) —
An 84-year-old American
sailor found alive in the remote South Pacific told his
rescuers his mast was so badly cracked that he couldn’t
raise his sails without snapping it in two, Chile’s navy
said Thursday.
But aside from scrapes,
bruises and general exhaustion, Thomas Louis Corogin was in good condition,
the captain of the Japanese
merchant vessel White
Kingdom told the navy after
pulling the sailor from his
boat.
Corogin, a lawyer from Port
Clinton, Ohio, was apparently
frustrated at having to give up
on his seventh attempt to sail
alone around the tip of South
America, one of sailing’s most
difficult feats.
“He was physically wiped
out,” said the merchant ship’s
captain, R.G. Villamin, according to Capt. Jorge Bastias, a navy spokesman.
11759089.qxp
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1/5/2012
5:36 PM
Page B8
NATIONAL
Police-on-police
shootings rare;
guidelines rarer
FRANK ELTMAN
Associated Press
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) —
Street smarts, judgment, discretion.
Other than relying on those
skills taught at the police academy and honed through experience, off-duty and retired law
enforcement officers appear to
have few rules to follow when
confronting a crime out of uniform, like the apparent friendly
fire that left a federal agent dead
on New Year’s Eve.
And when different police
agencies are involved, with unfamiliar officers coming face to
face and making snap decisions
about life and death, the peril is
greater, according to a 2010
New York state study of policeon-police shootings that called
for uniform protocols across
agencies.
The task force created in
2010 by then-Gov. David Paterson found “enormous variation”
in how thoroughly departments
across the country train for encounters between police officers
in and out of uniform — “if they
train at all.”
“The multiplicity of agencies
is a source of many problems in
policing, but it raises particular
problems when officers from
one agency confront an officer
out of uniform from another
agency, mistaking the confronted officer for a criminal,” the report said.
John Capano, a 51-year-old
off-duty agent for the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, was
shot Saturday in Seaford while
struggling with 43-year-old suspect James McGoey during a
robbery
for
prescription
painkillers and cash at a small
family pharmacy. Capano, an
explosives expert who served in
Iraq and Afghanistan, was a customer and followed the suspect
outside.
During Saturday’s holdup,
someone ran into a nearby deli
and shouted that the drugstore
was being robbed. A retired
Nassau County police lieutenant
and an off-duty NYPD officer
who were in the deli ran to the
pharmacy. Shots were fired, and
Capano and McGoey were
killed.
On Tuesday, a law enforcement official speaking on the
condition of anonymity told The
Associated Press the retired
county officer likely shot Capano. Nassau County police
have not commented on details,
citing the ongoing investigation.
The task force that looked at
protocols for out-of-uniform or
retired officers included calls for
improved communication and
training, as well as creating
across-the-board protocols for
different agencies.
Since the report came out,
training of police recruits on encounters with off-duty and
plainclothes officers was doubled to four hours, said Janine
Kava, a spokeswoman for the
state Division of Criminal Justice Services. And thousands of
officers statewide have taken
courses for existing officers on
police-on-police encounters, she
said.
The agency also issued recommendations to law enforcement agencies in March 2011,
offering guidance for developing
policies on confrontations between uniformed officers and
plainclothes or off-duty officers,
agency spokeswoman Jessica
Scaperoti said Wednesday.
Recommendations included
requiring officers to carry photo
IDs at all times and requiring
them to be aware of their
agency’s policies regarding offduty conduct, firearms possession and arrests. Also, off-duty
officers should carefully consider whether intervention is necessary, including whether the
health and safety of innocent
people are involved.
They were only recommendations, not mandatory, and they
do not appear to address retired
officers except to note that
“qualified retired law enforcement officers are authorized to
carry a handgun throughout the
United States.”
Capano, a 23-year member of
the federal firearms bureau who
taught U.S. military members
and local forces in Afghanistan
and Iraq how to investigate explosions, likely wouldn’t have
been subject to the recommendations of the state agency.
Capano would have never
backed off, an ATF supervisor
said Wednesday.
“As law enforcement officers,
we go to crimes; we don’t run
away from them. And that’s exactly what he did. In his mind
I’m sure he had no choice,” said
Eric Immesberger, the agent in
charge of the ATF’s Long Island
office.
It wasn’t clear whether Nassau County police distributed
the recommendations to officers, current or retired. But Jon
Shane, a retired Newark, N.J.,
police captain who is now a professor at John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, said officers
must rely on their instincts and
experience.
“Presumably these are officers who have been trained
throughout their careers on how
to use a weapon properly,” he
said.
When officers retire, they
must apply for pistol permits, as
any citizen does, Shane said. On
Long Island, which has been a
bedroom community for New
York City police officers since
the 1950s, more than 17,000
pistol permits of the 66,000 issued are in the hands of retired
officers.
The task force noted that although rare — police-on-police
shootings have averaged one a
year in the United States for the
past three decades — many involve instances of white officers
shooting blacks out of uniform.
In the New Year’s Eve case, both
victims were white.
It was the second deadly
holdup in a pharmacy on Long
Island in 2011. In June, a gunman opened fire in a drugstore
about 30 miles east in Medford,
killing two employees and two
customers before fleeing with a
backpack filled with painkillers.
The shooting also appears to
be the second friendly fire incident in Nassau County in the
last year. A Nassau police officer
in plainclothes was shot to
death in March by a transit authority officer in Massapequa
Park.
James Carver, president of the
Nassau County Patrolman’s
Benevolent Association, noted
significant differences in the two
cases.
In March, uniformed officers
were already at a domestic disturbance and had secured the
situation when someone in the
crowd of bystanders — possibly
a retired police officer — saw
what turned out to be an armed
Nassau County officer in street
clothes approaching the scene
and yelled “Gun!”
A transit authority officer
who was patrolling a nearby
train station opened fire, killing
the Nassau officer instantly. Lt.
Kevin Smith, a Nassau police
spokesman, said no public report was issued after the shooting and training issues were
handled administratively.
In Saturday’s case, no uniformed officers had arrived by
the time Capano or the off-duty
and retired officers became involved, Carver said. The ATF
agent may have been mistaken
for a robbery suspect.
“Every situation should be
handled differently,” Carver
said. “But in general, no member of the general public, including off-duty or retired officers,
should get involved if they see
uniformed officers on the scene.
Never interject yourself into
what an active duty police officer is doing.”
Neither the retired Nassau
lieutenant nor the off-duty
NYPD officer has commented
publicly. A telephone call to the
NYPD officer’s home was not
returned, and a woman answering the telephone at the deli
where the retired lieutenant
works said no one would comment.
Capano’s family placed blame
for the shooting on the robbery
suspect. “We only blame one
person for the whole thing, and
that was the criminal,” Tony
Guerriero, Capano’s brother-inlaw, told Newsday. The two officers at the scene “were all
there to do their job and it just
played out the way it played
out.”
Friday, Jan. 6, 2012
rocketminer.com
Obama launches reshaping,
shrinking of U.S. military
ROBERT BURNS
AP National Security Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking beyond the wars he inherited,
President Barack Obama on
Thursday launched a reshaping
and shrinking of the military. He
vowed to preserve U.S. pre-eminence even as the Army and Marine Corps shed troops and the
administration considers reducing its arsenal of nuclear
weapons.
The changes won’t come without risk, Defense Secretary Leon
Panetta said. But he called it acceptable and, because of budget
restraints, inevitable.
In a presentation at the Pentagon, Obama said the U.S. is “turning a page” after having killed
Osama bin Laden, withdrawn
troops from Iraq and begun to
wind
down
the
war
in
Afghanistan. He outlined a vision
for the future that some Republican lawmakers quickly dubbed
wrongheaded.
“Our military will be leaner, but
the world must know the United
States is going to maintain our
military superiority,” Obama said
with Panetta and the Joint Chiefs
of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin
Dempsey, at his side.
In a presidential election year
the strategy gives Obama a
rhetorical tool to defend his Pentagon budget-cutting choices. Republican contenders for the White
House already have attacked him
on national security issues including missile defense, Iran and
planned reductions in ground
forces.
Obama unveiled the results of
an eight-month defense strategy
review that is intended to guide
decisions on cutting hundreds of
billions from planned Pentagon
spending over the coming
decade. The eight-page document
contained no details about how
broad concepts for reshaping the
military — such as focusing more
on Asia and less on Europe — will
translate into troop or weapons
cuts.
Those details will be included
in the 2013 defense budget to be
submitted to Congress next
month.
In about every major war or defense speech Obama hits themes
intended to resonate with American voters — mainly, that the
United States is turning a page
from two wars, and that any nation-building will focus on improving the United States, not
strategic allies abroad.
The economy is more likely to
determine Obama’s re-election
fate than national security. To
keep his promises to shrink the
deficit and to prove he is serious
about fiscal management to voters wary of enormous government spending, Obama must
show the oft-protected Pentagon
is not exempt.
The political danger, though, is
that his opponents will use any
slashing of spending to paint the
president as weak on security.
Both Panetta and Dempsey
said they anticipate heavy criticism of their new strategy, which
was begun last spring by then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates after Obama called for defense
Defense shift could have impact on Colo. bases
DAN ELLIOTT
Associated Press
DENVER (AP) — Spending cuts coupled with
a new U.S. defense strategy outlined Thursday
will have ramifications for the large Army and Air
Force presence in Colorado, but the impact
might not be felt for years.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said ground
forces would be reduced and restructured now
that the Iraq war is ended and the U.S. is scaling
back in Afghanistan.
That could affect Fort Carson outside Colorado Springs, home to about 27,000 soldiers.
Another 2,700 soldiers are expected when a helicopter brigade is established at the post.
“It was clear there was going to be a reduction
to the land forces, with the Marine Corps and the
Army,” said James A. Helis, chairman of the National Security and Strategy Department at the
Army War College. “I don’t think we could make
any predictions right now specifically on what
impact it’s going to have on any particular activity.”
Panetta and President Barack Obama rolled
out the new defense strategy at the Pentagon, citing the changing role of the U.S. as wars in Iraq
and Afghanistan wind down and it renews its focus on Asia, where China’s economic and military clout is growing.
None of the cuts and shifts in focus will likely
have any immediate impact because of the long
lead time in the federal budget. The defense
budget planned for next year is $662 billion, $43
billion less than this year.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said plans to bring
the helicopter brigade to Fort Carson were still
on track as far as he knows.
Udall, a member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said the new strategy’s emphasis on
cyber security means the Colorado-based Air
Force Space Command will play a key role. The
command, with headquarters at Peterson Air
spending cuts. The Pentagon now
faces at least $487 billion in cuts
in planned defense spending over
10 years.
The criticism from Republicans
came quickly.
Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon,
R-Calif., chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee, issued a statement saying, “This is
a lead-from-behind strategy for a
left-behind America.” He called it
a “retreat from the world in the
guise of a new strategy.”
Panetta said that smaller military budgets will mean some
trade-offs and that the U.S. will
take on “some level of additional
but acceptable risk.” But in a
changing world the Pentagon
would have been forced to make a
strategy shift anyway, he said.
The money crisis merely forced
the government’s hand.
Obama wants the new strategy
to represent a pivotal point in his
stewardship of defense policy,
which has been burdened by two
expensive wars begun under
President George W. Bush. The
drag those conflicts placed on
military resources has deferred
other priorities.
Obama said his administration
would not repeat the mistakes
made after World War II and Vietnam when defense reductions left
the military ill-prepared.
“As commander in chief, I will
not let that happen again,” he
said. “Not on my watch.”
Obama’s involvement in the defense review and his decision to
Force Base in Colorado Springs, is responsible
for cybersecurity in the Air Force, among other
things.
Colorado is also home to the North American
Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command at Peterson, the Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs and a sizable Defense Department intelligence contingent at
Buckley Air Force Base in the Denver suburb of
Aurora.
Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., faulted Obama
for not spelling out how defense cuts will be
made. “What weapons systems are we canceling,
what programs are we delaying, how does this affect the capability of our force?” Coffman asked.
Scaling down ground forces moves the U.S.
further from being able to fight two wars in different regions at the same time — a change that
Coffman criticized.
“What was specific was changing our fundamental doctrine of being capable of simultaneously fighting two conflicts to fighting one. I fundamentally disagree with that,” he said.
Coffman is a member of the House Armed
Services Committee and an Iraq war veteran who
spent six months in that country in 2005-06 as
a civil affairs officer with the Marines. He said
Obama should push South Korea and Europe to
increase defense spending.
“The vast majority of our NATO allies aren’t
even spending 2 percent on defense. They’re relying on us,” he said.
Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., said Obama appears to be letting the budget dictate defense
spending, rather than need.
“The mentality seems to be, ‘Let’s have a preset budget number for defense, and all the missions have to fit around that predetermined
amount,”’ said Lamborn, also a member of the
Armed Services Committee. “What I think we
should do is look at the security needs of the
country and base (the budget) on what the needs
are, not what the dollars are.”
personally announce it at the Pentagon underscore that he is not
just a commander in chief coping
with a slimmer military in debtridden times. He is also an incumbent president seeking a second
term and wanting to show who’s
in charge.
Dempsey praised the military
strategy and the work of crafting
it, calling it inclusive and comprehensive.
“It’s not perfect,” the general
said. “There will be people who
think it goes too far. Others will
say it doesn’t go nearly far
enough. That probably makes it
about right. It gives us what we
need.”
Obama said the military will be
reshaped between now and 2020
with an emphasis on countering
terrorism, maintaining a nuclear
deterrent, protecting the U.S.
homeland and “deterring and defeating aggression by any potential adversary.”
Those are not new military
missions, and Obama announced
no new capabilities or defense initiatives. He described a U.S. force
that will retain much of its recent
focus, with the exception of fighting a large-scale, prolonged conflict like the recently ended Iraq
mission or the ongoing war in
Afghanistan.
“U.S. forces will no longer be
sized to conduct large-scale, prolonged stability operations,” the
strategy document said, referring
to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Left unsaid: The military was
not sized for those unexpectedly
long wars when they began. The
Army had to be expanded by tens
of thousands of soldiers and the
Marine Corps also grew. The military at the time of the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks was being
shaped in somewhat the same
form as Obama’s vision for 2020:
agile, flexible, reliant on high-tech
weaponry and dependent on allies.
The new strategy moves the
U.S. further from its longstanding
goal of being able to successfully
fight two major regional wars at
the same time.
It said the U.S. will maintain a
robust nuclear arsenal but hinted
at reductions.
“It is possible that our deterrence goals can be achieved with
a smaller nuclear force, which
would reduce the number of nuclear weapons in our inventory as
well as their role in U.S. national
security strategy,” the strategy
said.
The new strategy strongly suggests a reduced U.S. military presence in Europe, notwithstanding
a continuing close relationship
with NATO, and says Asia will be
a bigger priority. It also emphasizes improving U.S. capabilities
in the areas of cyberwarfare, missile defense, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen praised the
U.S. strategy, calling it consistent
with the alliance’s vision for collective defense.
2 face charges in crime IRS contacts one in eight
spree across Utah, Nev. millionaires for extra taxes
ALAN FRAM
KEN RITTER
Associated Press
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Utah
man and a woman have been
charged with conspiracy, kidnapping, armed robbery and stealing
vehicles in a crime spree that investigators believe started in central Utah before ending in Nevada’s cold desert.
Nevada prosecutors filed the
charges Wednesday against Logan Welles McFarland, 24, and
Angela Marie Hill, 25, who also
goes by Angela Atwood.
Hill also was charged with attempted murder in the shooting
of Rattana Keomanivong, 35, a
gym operator who was wounded
in the head when authorities say
she foiled an attempt to steal her
vehicle in West Wendover. McFarland faces a lesser charge of
acting as a principal to an attempted robbery with a deadly
weapon.
McFarland’s attorney, Gary
Woodbury, and Hill’s lawyer,
Frederick Lee, a deputy public
defender, declined comment
Thursday about the case.
Hill and McFarland were arrested Tuesday after a manhunt.
They had been sought as suspects in the shooting of Keomanivong and the Utah slaying of
LeRoy Fullwood, a 70-year-old
retired barber, and his wife, Ann
Fullwood, a 69-year-old retired
schoolteacher. Authorities in Sanpete County, Utah, issued an arrest warrant Sunday for McFarland in the burglary of the Utah
couple’s home in Mount Pleasant.
Additional charges were pending.
McFarland and Hill were also
identified in Nevada court documents as suspects in a highspeed chase on Interstate 80 during which items, including Rattana’s purse, were thrown from a
Volkswagen Jetta stolen from a
motel parking lot in Wells.
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — One
in eight people earning at least
$1 million annually was audited
by the Internal Revenue Service
last year, making them far likelier to be examined than those
making below $200,000, according to IRS data released
Thursday.
Just 1 in 100 individuals earning less than $200,000 had
their income tax returns examined, the IRS said.
The 12 percent of millionaire
earners audited in 2011 was appreciably higher than the 8 percent who were audited in 2010.
IRS officials said the high ratio
was part of an effort to demonstrate that tax laws are applied
fairly.
“That has been something
we’ve concentrated on to assure
that there’s equity in the system,
to assure that those at the lower
end of the spectrum know that
those at the higher end of the
spectrum are subject to the
same rules and enforcement as
everyone else,” Steven Miller,
deputy IRS commissioner for
services and enforcement, said
in an interview.
In recent weeks, President
Barack Obama and congressional Democrats have sought
to boost taxes on the wealthy
as a way to pay for jobs programs, a theme they are expected to continue in this presidential and congressional election year. IRS spokeswoman
Michelle Eldridge said the
growing portion of millionaire
earners’ returns audited is not
related to politics.
“The IRS is an agency of civil servants, and we base our audit decisions on tax issues —
nothing else. We don’t play politics here,” she said.
Between 2004 and 2009, the
percentage of millionaire earners audited ranged between 5
percent and 7 percent.