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KFOX-TV (El Paso) Web Search Wednesday, March 27, 2013
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NMSU Aggies football team to join Sun Belt Conference
By Jesse Martinez
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The New Mexico State Aggies will play football for the Sun Belt Conference.
NMSU athletics department announced Wednesday that the conference will be the new home for the Aggies
football team. The team will join the conference in the fall of 2014.
"I think it’s going to be good, in comparison to some of the other Sun Belt schools. We have all of the sudden
moved into a much better category because we compare very favorably with the other schools in terms of budgets
and that kind of thing,” said NMSU interim President Manuel Pacheco.
This season, the Aggies will be considered as independent when it comes to football.
This is a familiar conference for the Aggies because before they joined the WAC, they were members of the Sun
Belt for six years.
KRQE-TV (Albuquerque) Web Search Saturday, March 30, 2013
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NMSU to hold 'social justice' symposium
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico State University is set to hold a conference on social justice.
The school is scheduled Friday to start its annual J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium that aims to tackle
quality of life issues in southern New Mexico.
The two-day event is expected to draw community and religious leaders to discuss health and economic disparities,
food security, education and literacy around Dona Ana County.
Officials also hope to address public transportation problems in the area.
The event is named after J. Paul Taylor, a pioneer economist who studied poverty, Mexican Americans and migrant
farmworkers in the 1920s and 1930s. He later became one of the few whites to protest the internment of Japanese-
Americans during World War II.
KRQE-TV (Albuquerque) Web Search Tuesday, March 26, 2013
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NMSU researchers survey tree compatibility
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Researchers at New Mexico State University are mapping every tree on campus to
determine how suitable they are for the desert Southwest.
They're using the i-Tree computer program.
A technician with the university's Spatial Applications and Research Center, Buddy Clark, says the researchers are
looking at which species take in the most water and which do well on the Las Cruces campus.
The idea is that the trees that don't do well can eventually be phased out.
Everything from the tree's diameter to the condition of its leaves and location in relation to buildings and medians
are considered. The computer program collects and stores all the data gathered.
There are more than 65 species of trees and more than 6,000 trees on campus. Officials say that number changes
almost daily as trees are planted or removed.
Mansfield News Journal (OH) Web Search Sunday, March 31, 2013
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How can small jails prevent deaths?
Written by Linda Martz
MANSFIELD — A wrongful death lawsuit against Richland County goes to trial in federal court in September.
The action is being brought by the family of Michael Reid, an inmate who died in 2009 after a seizure in which he
cracked his skull on a concrete wall, suffering brain injuries.
One issue the family’s attorneys are likely to focus on is the lack of medical staff for the jail’s overnight shift. No
nurse was on-site, only on call, for the shift prior to Reid’s death, leaving corrections officers to try to monitor a
chronic alcoholic as he went into withdrawal.
In depositions, sheriff’s officials made the argument that cash-strapped Richland County could not afford to hire
enough nurses to cover all shifts. But a jail’s limited size and budget may not help much in a lawsuit, said G. Larry
Mays of New Mexico State University, who has studied jails since the 1980s. “The federal judges are just not
sympathetic to the argument that you don’t have the money to do that,” he said.
In “Trouble in the Heartland: Challenges Confronting Rural Jails,” published in 2011 in the International Journal of
Rural Criminology, Mays and Rick Ruddell of the University of Regina in Saskatchewan wrote that smaller jails
around the U.S. face tough issues.
American jails were modeled on the British system — which established jails in every county, regardless of
population, operated by a local sheriff. Rural jail administrators face “all of the challenges of large urban jails,” but
are disadvantaged by drawing from much smaller tax bases, dependent on budgets that have suffered in the
economic downturn, the researchers said.
A jail’s inmate population may have to reach 500 before the facility can afford “around-the-clock” medical staffing
for inmates with specialized medical problems, Mays told the News Journal. “Medical care is an area where small
jails are at a disadvantage,” he said. “Smaller jails are just terribly inefficient to run.”
Some jurisdictions have solved that issue by moving toward an increased inmate population — either by building a
new multi-county regional jail, or adding prisoners through contracts with the federal government or neighboring
counties with overcrowded facilities.
Richland County and the City of Mansfield decided to merge the county’s older jail and the city’s small holding
facility, building a new jail in 2008. But a regional multi-county jail — though discussed for three decades — never
got off the ground.
“In 1986, we met in Marion with the commissioners from Ashland, Crawford, Marion, Delaware, and I think
Seneca and Wyandot to see if there was interest in a regional facility,” said Richland County Commissioner Ed
Olson. “Later around 1988 or 1989, we discussed a regional jail to be built in Fredericktown, which was midway
between Mansfield and Mount Vernon, that would serve Richland and Knox.” About the time that the Ohio State
Reformatory was to be closed, the state offered OSR to about eight counties in north central Ohio for a regional jail,
he added.
“There were three primary reasons why these efforts did not pan out: judges, location and jail standards,” Olson
said. “Nearly every county wanted a regional jail as long as it was built in their county. Multiple judges were
opposed to locating a jail too far from their court if it would mean delays in getting prisoners to hearings and trials.”
Mansfield News Journal (OH) Web Search Sunday, March 31, 2013
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“The OSR offer was dead on arrival. Any building that had any real value, the state wanted to keep. About the only
thing that they were offering was the cell block, which would not be approved by the Ohio Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation as a county jail.”
But the commissioner said Richland County is still considering taking outside prisoners. “It might be attractive for
other counties to contract with us to house their prisoners. That would provide additional income for us to hire more
staff and allow more prisoners to be housed in the new jail.”
There could be economies of scale for other counties to pay Richland County to house their prisoners rather than
build expensive new jails, Olson said. The number of jails in the U.S. has decreased from about 4,000 in the 1970s,
to about 3,300 now, Mays said.
When courts began using video arraignments, one obstacle to building multi-county jails — judges’ concerns about
court hearing delays — became less of a roadblock, Mays said. Video arraignments also reduced risk that inmates
might escape enroute, or smuggle contraband items into the jail on their return, he added. Other options have been
pursued around the U.S. for solving the budget inefficiencies posed by operating small jails.
Six states, mostly in New England, have opted to run state-operated rather than locally operated jails, though that
works best as a solution in very geographically compact areas, Mays said. Some jurisdictions have adopted
privatized operation of jails — though that has been used primarily at state level, by prison systems.
Few sheriffs in charge of small jails have attempted to reduce the chance of incidents involving higher-risk inmates
with specialized medical needs by attempting to move them to big-city jails with round-the-clock medical staffing,
Mays said. For one thing, larger jails don’t necessarily have extra beds to rent out to other counties. “Most jails run
at capacity, especially on weekends. If a sheriff is looking out for some place to send an inmate, they might have a
real problem finding somebody who will take them,” Mays said.
Sending high-risk prisoners someplace else would be a decision that should be discussed with the courts and the
sheriff, Olson said. “The sheriff is tasked by law to run a county jail. It is not a discretionary option whether or not
to operate a county jail,” Olson said. “The courts have control over who is sentenced to the jail.”
Mays said he sometimes finds it difficult to understand why more sheriffs around the U.S. aren’t eager to give up
running jails — since those facilities tend to be a problematic part of their operation. “A lot of politicians don’t
want to give up local control,” Mays said. “They don’t want to give that up because it’s part of their budget.”
But counties assume a lot of liability operating jails — with a potential for problems when suicidal inmates, drug
and alcohol abusers, people with mental illnesses, HIV, AIDS or tuberculosis, are brought in, he said. Adding to
potential risk, sheriffs sometimes place “problematic” employees in the jail — taking road deputies who tend to
produce negative publicity out of the public eye, Mays said.
Typically, sheriffs come from from the law enforcement side, moving up through road patrol or detective division,
and often don’t know much about the daily workings of jail operations when elected, Mays said. “A sheriff would
be smart to bring in a jail administrator and say ‘let that person run the jail,’” he said.
Public officials tend to be well aware of the liability risks facing small jails, Mays said. He remembers addressing a
group and having the chairman of a county commission tell him: “We’ve known about this for 20 years, and we just
don’t have the money to do anything about it.”
But attorneys know that federal code contains civil rights language that makes wrongful death cases involving
incidents in jail financially worth pursuing, Mays said. “Ultimately, if you house people, if you lock them up,
you’re legally responsible for them,” he said. “Get ready to go to court.”
Mother Nature Network Web Search Sunday, March 31, 2013
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Voyager 1 probe may have left the solar system
By Tia Ghose
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft — the farthest-flung object created by human hands — has traveled beyond the sun's
sphere of influence and may even have left the solar system forever, a new study suggests.
On Aug. 25, 2012, 35 years after the Voyager 1 mission launched, Earth's most distant spacecraft detected a sharp
change in the intensity of fast-moving charged particles called cosmic rays, suggesting it had left the outermost
reaches of the heliosphere marking the edge of the solar system.
"Within just a few days, the heliospheric intensity of trapped radiation decreased, and the cosmic ray intensity went
up as you would expect if it exited the heliosphere," said Bill Webber, professor emeritus of astronomy at New
Mexico State University in Las Cruces, in a statement.
Though Voyager 1 has left the sun's backyard, the scientists still don't know for sure whether the probe has entered
interstellar space or a mysterious in-between region beyond the solar system.
"It's outside the normal heliosphere, I would say that," Webber said. "We're in a new region. And everything we're
measuring is different and exciting."
Webber and his colleagues noticed the dramatic cosmic ray signal drop when Voyager 1 was about 11 billion miles
(17.7 billion kilometers) from the sun. Anomalous cosmic rays trapped in the heliosphere's outer reaches dropped to
1 percent of their previous level. Meanwhile, galactic cosmic rays, which come from outside the solar system,
jumped to twice their previous levels, reaching their highest levels since the spacecraft launched, researchers said.
The findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Voyager 1 was actually the second of NASA's two Voyager spacecraft to launch on historic tours of the solar
system. Voyager 2 blasted off on Aug. 20, 1977, with Voyager 1 following a few weeks later on Sept. 5 of that
year.
Both spacecraft carry a gold-plated copper
disc containing sounds and images of Earth.
The golden record is about 12 inches (30
centimeters) across and attached to the hull of
each Voyager probe. The records are engraved
with a diagram that explains how to play them
and where Earth can be found, just in case the
Voyager probes are discovered by intelligent
extraterrestrial lifeforms.
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar system and
interstellar space, which scientists are calling the stagnation region. (Image: NASA)
NECN-TV (MA) Web Search Friday, March 22, 2013
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NMSU-Alamogordo nursing program put on notice
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. (AP) — The New Mexico State University-Alamogordo nursing program has been placed
on warning status by a national accrediting agency.
NMSU-Alamogordo President Cheri Jimeno told the Alamogordo Daily News (http://bit.ly/WS7lCs) Thursday that
the nursing program risks losing accreditation if it does not turn itself around by 2014.
Jimeno says the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission wants the Alamogordo program to have
eight or nine faculty with a master's of science and nursing degrees. It currently has five.
She says the program was placed on warning status late last year and is being required to increase its faculty, make
changes to its curriculum and improve its pass rate for a nursing exam.
The program is also being asked to tweak its curriculum to reflect national trends in nursing.
NorthJersey.com Web Search Tuesday, March 26, 2013
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NMSU researchers survey tree compatibility
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Researchers at New Mexico State University are mapping every tree on campus to
determine how suitable they are for the desert Southwest.
They're using the i-Tree computer program.
A technician with the university's Spatial Applications and Research Center, Buddy Clark, says the researchers are
looking at which species take in the most water and which do well on the Las Cruces campus.
The idea is that the trees that don't do well can eventually be phased out.
Everything from the tree's diameter to the condition of its leaves and location in relation to buildings and medians
are considered. The computer program collects and stores all the data gathered.
There are more than 65 species of trees and more than 6,000 trees on campus. Officials say that number changes
almost daily as trees are planted or removed.
Parkersburg News (WV) Web Search Wednesday, March 13, 2013
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W.Va. Democrats name new executive director
PARKERSBURG - The West Virginia Democratic Party Tuesday named a new executive director.
Jacob Winowich, the party voter file manager, will succeed Derek Scarbro, who also announced on Tuesday he will
go to work for LGCR Government Solutions LLC, a subsidiary of the law firm Lewis, Glasser, Casey & Rollins, a
Charleston-based government relations company. Scarbro earlier this year said he would leave as executive director
of the the party in March.
Winowich previously was employed by the Democratic Party of New Mexico where he was opposition research
director. He has experience serving campaigns on statewide and legislative district races in numerous states.
"Derek leaves some pretty big shoes to fill." Winowich said. "I am excited by the opportunities presented by the
2014 election. While we clearly have a lot of work ahead of us, I am confident that we can rally the Democratic
Party behind the best candidates for West Virginia's future."
Winowich has been with the Democratic Party since August 2011, starting as a field organizer, then managing the
party's database systems in 2012, and most recently helped oversee the party's finances.
"I'm happy to have Jacob stay on in this new leadership role," said Democratic Party Chairman Larry Puccio. "He
has worked for state parties in many different capacities and understands how the organization works."
He lives in Charleston and graduated from New Mexico State University. He has completed graduate work from
the University of New Mexico.
Winowich was born and raised in Albuquerque, N.M. His father was raised in Charleston and still has extended
family living there.
"I am confident that Jacob has the experience to energize and organize the party for a successful 2014 election,"
said Belinda Biafore, Democratic Party vice chair.
Scarbro will join LGCR on Monday.
"I'm excited about this new chapter in my career," Scarbro said. "I've spent my entire time in government and
politics and I think that LGCR Government Solutions will be a good fit for me."
Scarbro's wife, Sara Payne Scarbro, is on the staff of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
He received a bachelor's from Marshall University in political science and international affairs. He has also worked
for the Wes Virginia treasurer and the state Development Office.
Scarbro and his wife live in Charleston. He has worked for the party for about 10 years.
LGCR Government Solutions helps clients anticipate and manage changes affecting their interests, including
regulatory issues and lobbying. It has been active in congressional, gubernatorial and legislative campaigns.
"Derek will be a great addition to our team," Nick Casey, a managing partner of the firm and a former state
Democratic Party chairman, said. "I'm very happy to have the opportunity to work with him again."
The Republic (IN) Web Search Saturday, March 30, 2013
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NMSU to hold 'social justice' symposium on southern NM disparities
LAS CRUCES, New Mexico — New Mexico State University is set to hold a conference on social justice.
The school is scheduled Friday to start its annual J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium that aims to tackle
quality of life issues in southern New Mexico.
The two-day event is expected to draw community and religious leaders to discuss health and economic disparities,
food security, education and literacy around Dona Ana County.
Officials also hope to address public transportation problems in the area.
The event is named after J. Paul Taylor, a pioneer economist who studied poverty, Mexican Americans and migrant
farmworkers in the 1920s and 1930s. He later became one of the few whites to protest the internment of Japanese-
Americans during World War II.
Air Force ROTC Hosts Local Bataan Memorial Death March This Weekend
VALDOSTA - This weekend cadets from Valdosta State University's Air Force ROTC Detachment 172 and
civilians from the campus and community will participate in the third local Bataan Memorial Death March.
Participants will walk 26.2 miles down the streets of Valdosta carrying 35 to 50 pound sacks in remembrance of the
thousands of American and Filipino soldiers who became prisoners of war in the Philippines during World War II.
Participants will meet at 3:30 p.m. Friday, March 29, in front of North Campus and walk 13.1 miles north toward
Moody Air Force Base. They will meet the next morning at the same location the next day to walk the remaining
13.1 miles.
The first ever Bataan Memorial Death March was organized in 1989 by the Army ROTC program at New Mexico
State University. In 1992, White Sands Missile Range and the New Mexico National Guard joined the ROTC
program in sponsorship of the event and it was moved to the missile range. Since its inception, the march has
grown from about 100 to some 5,200 marchers from across the United States and several foreign countries. While
still primarily a military event, many civilians choose to take the challenge.
For more information, contact Malynda Dorsey, communications specialist, at [email protected] or (229)
333-7177.
