Man found dead
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — A man headed to drink on the embankment behind The
Rocket Cafe on South Second Street found a man dead on the rocks
there Tuesday afternoon.
Gallup Police Lt. John Allen identified the man as Emerson John,
33, of Pinedale. Family members identified him after Gallup Police
got tentative identification through photo comparisons at the
Na'Nizoozhi Center, the McKinley County Adult Detention Center
and DCI Biologicals, Allen said.
After getting possible identification there, the officers took
the photographs to family members, who identified him.
John had no identification on him when he was found around 12:30
p.m. lying on his side, dressed in black clothes and a black jacket.
He was in an area not visible from the parking lot or Second Street
or Nizhoni Boulevard, Allen said.
"He was not at all in a sleeping position. It looked like
he was sitting up drinking. He had alcohol bottles lying around,"
Allen said.
The embankment and ditch is a common drinking area for vagrants,
as police found various broken alcohol bottles around the area.
Allen doesn't want to speculate on the cause of death, but he
said officers and Deputy Medical Investigator Richard Malone found
no obvious signs of foul play. "That doesn't mean there couldn't
be something invisible to us," Allen said.
Rigor mortis hadn't yet set in, so Allen said he hadn't been dead
for longer than a few hours. It's the type of case where police
wish he'd been found just a few hours earlier, when his life might
have been saved, he said.
An autopsy on the body is planned for Wednesday at the New Mexico
Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque to determine
cause of death.
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English testing raises problems in McKinley
County Schools
Zsombor Peter
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The New Mexico Board of Education recently announced
plans for a subcommittee to look into holding off standardized testing
of non-native speakers until they reach fluency in English.
During Tuesday's Gallup-McKinley school board meeting, Superintendent
Robert Gomez — who has long opposed the comparison of English
Language Learners (ELL) with fluent speakers on tests written in English
— said he welcomed the state's decision to look into the issue.
The subcommittee will make its report some time before March.
The dispute between the district and the state escalated last spring
when Gomez withheld the CTBS-5 (Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills)
scores of ELL students — who account for 46 percent of the district
— from the state. After discussing the idea with school administrators
and staff, the final decision was left to Gomez when the district
board chose not to carry a motion by the superintendent to vote on
withholding the scores at a March 19 meeting. Gomez finally releasing
the remaining scores
in October.
"We're very unhappy with them," said Vice President of the
New Mexico Board of Education Marshall Berman of the district. "That's
not how you handle these problems. You either take it to the (state)
board or the Legislature."
In a report Gomez delivered to the state board in response to its
proposal for a new accountability policy, he noted a national study
by the creators of the CTBS that found ELL students regularly scoring
20 to 25 points below students fully literate in English.
Noting the accommodation the state makes by providing for the Spanish
delivery of assessments, Gomez went on to argue that the state "makes
no dispensation for districts with large percentages of students speaking
languages other than Spanish or English," namely Navajo.
According to Berman, the state has been telling the Gallup-McKinley
district it could write its own Navajo-language assessments since
1999. This is an opportunity the state board's Assistant Superintendent
for Accountability and Information Services Patricia Rael said the
district has always had.
The district, however, has never seriously pursued this option, say
Gomez and the district's Director or Elementary Curriculum and Instruction
Edward Monaghan, because it would be too costly.
Berman says the state board has been looking into the option of a
Navajo-language test itself, but notes the severe difficulty posed
by what he considers the subsequent likelihood of having to accommodate
a host of other Native American languages through written assessments.
He doubts if even the state could afford such a project. "The
costs would be enormous," added Rael.
In addition to postponing the assessment of ELL students, Berman said
the state has been looking at testing those students orally, an option
he insisted "would still have to be related to the standards."
Whatever changes the state adopts in assessing ELL students, Berman
says the bottom line is measuring progress, a goal he sees reflected
in the state's decision last year to begin weighing growth as 50 percent
of a school's annual evaluation, the other 50 percent measuring its
performance to standards.
Gomez apparently considers this accommodation inadequate, calling
for progress to count for even more. As for the state's proposal to
revise its accountability system, which Gomez said would allow the
state to dismiss the elected board of any district in which a single
school is performing below standards, he still feels that districts
like Gallup-McKinley are "being set up for failure."
"That's not true . . . that wouldn't happen," said Berman,
who found the superintendent's interpretation misleading. The state
overrode a school district board's authority only once. That was in
the case of the Santa Fe school district for financial reasons —
not academic performance, even then taking over only its budgetary
activities.
Rather, said Berman, the proposed policy, just as the current one,
means that individual schools could be taken over after
failing to make sufficient progress over a probationary period of
several years, a condition now facing all but four of Gallup-McKinley's
32 schools.
Besides a language bias, district administrators claim the assessments
do not adequately test those items dictated by state standards, leaving
the curriculum and students with a costly gap between what is taught
and what is tested. The district bases a large part of its case against
the assessments on a study last fall by the Council of Chief State
School Officers that found the CTBS-5 not comprehensive or difficult
enough. According to Berman, however, the council's study examined
data from only the language arts component of the assessment for only
one grade level, which he called "completely insufficient"
to draw any meaningful conclusions about the entire assessment.
Gomez also looks to an informal study by Monaghan — the results
of which the director did not feel confident enough to share with
the Independent — to criticize what he called the "off-the-shelf"
assessment's lack of correlation with standards.
The study found the highest degree of correlation in math, at 75 percent.
The state board of education, however, has continually refused the
district's argument, for which Berman said "there's not a shred
of evidence."
"Gomez has been at the forefront of this issue," he added,
"and its beginning to wear thin . . . there's never a perfect
match, but the assessments are quite well aligned with standards."
Rael agrees: "Selection of the assessment was done by a group
of educators because it did have good alignment with standards."
Rael and Berman also agree that alignment could — and constantly
should — be improving. For example, the state board in April
will look into specifying standards for math and science, subject
areas in which it does not yet have complete standards in place.
Thus, while the issue of alignment will remain unresolved for the
near future, the state's new subcommittee at least lends Gomez hopes
of relieving the district's accountability woes by considering the
temporary separation of fluent and non-fluent English-language students
come test time.
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Sniper fire hits Grants school bus
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — A sniper fired several shots and hit a bus carrying
the Grants High School basketball team home early Saturday morning.
No one was injured in the shooting with what was believed to be a
small caliber weapon, state police said. It is not known if the bullets
came close to any of the basketball players. The shooting happened
about 1:30 a.m. Saturday, but was not reported to the state police
until Monday morning.
Sgt. Rick Doty of the New Mexico State Police said bullets shattered
two bus windows and a third pierced the outer skin of the bus. He
said one bullet has been recovered as evidence, but he could not say
what caliber it is, though he did mention the bullet appeared to be
a small caliber.
The team had been in Truth or Consequences playing a game there, said
Grants High School Assistant Principal Gary Atencio.
Team members stopped at K-Bob's Steakhouse just off Interstate 25
to eat after the game. Students got back on the bus and were between
Bernado at mile marker 175 and Belen at mile marker 190 when someone
opened fire on the bus being driven along the darkened highway.
"At the time they thought it was some gravel they had hit, but
when he (the bus driver) realized what was happening, he got the bus
out of there," Atencio said, adding that the driver, employed
by Mesa Transportation, the company which contracts buses to the school
district, drove several miles down the road. "He checked on the
bus and kids and then got the kids back home,"
Atencio said."The kids are safe, that's the bottom line."
Atencio said he contacted the state police Monday morning, more than
50 hours after the shooting.
Two sources said they were told that the bus driver contacted Mesa
Transportation by a bus radio soon after the shooting and then simply
drove back to Grants. It is unknown what instructions were given to
the driver by Mesa. "One would think that the driver would have
pulled into the nearest telephone as soon as they could and call the
police," said Grants/Cibola County School Board member Bob Murdoch.
"I am concerned that no call to the police was made in Belen."
An unidentified Mesa Transportation employee Thursday refused to comment
on the matter, saying she was told by Atencio to not say anything
to the press.
Another school board member, Mitzi Baca, called the shooting "mind
boggling," and questioned why the bus driver did not use his
bus radio to contact the police about the shooting.
She also said that no mention of the shooting was made Tuesday at
the school board meeting. "I learned about it from the (television)
news the next morning," Baca said.
"Had it been reported in Belen earlier, maybe they (the state
police) would have been able to round up the culprits," Murdoch
said. "My question is, who is responsible for reporting such
incidents?
"It's a terrifying thought. If you consider the worse-case scenario,
some of our kids could have been killed."
State Police Lt. Tom Dobson said the shooting was under active investigation
and Doty said the state police could use some help from the public.
"If anybody knows anything about this, saw anything, or heard
anything, or was shot at themselves on the interstate, please call
us at 287-4141," he said. "If you don't live in or near
Grants, call any state police office."
Atencio said the shooting marks the first such incident involving
the Grants/Cibola County School District he is aware of in the past
16 years.
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District 1AAAAA
Carrie Loretto
Sports Editor
GALLUP — The Gallup Bengals survived one battle and are looking
foward to the rest of the war.
The Bengals outlasted the visiting Rio Rancho Rams, 91-87 in overtime
of a physical District 1AAAAA contest at Gallup High School Friday
night.
"It was huge win, we needed this one," first-year Gallup
coach Ryan Cordova said. "It sits us right in the middle of the
district race. Now it maybe gives them a sense of believing that they
can compete. I'd like to finish as the third or second seed for the
district tournament, but we can't look that far ahead, we're going
to take it one game at a time."
Gallup improves to 10-5 overall and, at 2-1, sits behind Cibola and
Valley in the district standings. The Bengals play at fifth-ranked
Valley (2-0) tonight.
"Hopefully we can play hard again tomorrow night," Cordova
said.
The Bengals will have to regroup from a physical battle that featured
the Rams' 6-foot-3, 230 lbs. goliath Joel Lund. Bengals Robb Erickson,
Jared Montano and B.J. Estrada all took turns at trying to contain
the Rams' center, but Lund muscled his way to 34 points.
His most impressive points came off an alley-hoop slam dunk in the
third quarter that highlighted a 10-0 run by the Rams that put them
ahead for the first time at 44-42 since early in the game.
However, as had happened throughout the game, strong teamwork put
the Bengals back in control.
Jared Montano picked up a bad pass and scored on a reverse layup to
break a 46-46 tie, then came up with a steal.
Gallup missed a three-pointer, but then a couple of possessions later,
Domonic Romero regained control of the ball and scored after Lund
had blocked a shot attempt by Montano.
A defensive rebound by Fermin Gallegos triggered a fastbreak that
culminated with a three-point play from Jeremy Lewis, who took it
in for the score and drew a foul. He made the free throw to put Gallup
back up 53-48 with 2:26 left in the period.
The final minute of the quarter saw both teams hit with a technical
foul.
Bengal Jerome Joe was assessed a technical after entering the game
without checking in properly. Joe stepped onto the playing court without
being waved in by the officials. Lund, who was 10-of-13 from the line,
made both foul shots, but was then called for an offensive foul on
the ensuing possession.
That call resulted in a technical on the Rio Rancho coach who continually
criticized the officiating throughout the game.
Lewis sank both free throws to open up a 59-52 margin. Gallup was
unable to convert on the ensuing possession and a three-point play
by Lund made it a 59-55 score going into the final period.
Gallup still led 73-68 with 3:03 left in regulation, but turnovers
on four consecutive possessions made it a one-point contest with just
over a minute and a half left.
Erickson hit Gallegos on a backdoor play and Gallegos' reverse put
Gallup back up 75-72.
After a timeout, Rio Rancho set up a three-pointer for Landon Steffensen
who nailed the open shot to tie the game at 75-75.
The Bengals missed a couple of scoring opportunities on their next
possession despite offensive rebounds by Erickson and Romero. The
Bengals lost the ball on a jump ball rebound, but found themselves
still alive when Sal Puentes was called for an offensive charge trying
to drive the lane.
Gallup got a final chance with 7.9 seconds left, but Lund blocked
a shot by Guliford underneath the basket.
Rio Rancho also had a final opportunity after two seconds were put
back on the clock when the Rams were awarded a timeout after Lund's
block. The Rams got the ball downcourt on a long pass and Steffensen
got a three-point attempt off, but it bounced off sending the game
into overtime.
Rio Rancho took the early advantage in the extra period, but three-pointers
from Lewis and Joe put Gallup up 81-80.
A steal by Joe, who had been given a reprieve in the fourth quarter,
triggered a Bengal fastbreak that resulted in a pair of free throws
by Erickson after he was fouled taking it in for a score. That put
Gallup ahead to stay 83-80 as the teams traded scores the rest of
the game.
When Joe was assessed the technical in the third quarter, it had been
counted as a personal foul giving him four. He was called for his
fifth foul just over a minute into the fourth quarter. Cordova questioned
whether the technical should have been
assessed on the bench instead of on Joe and the referee ruled the
foul shouldn't have been counted against Joe and he was allowed to
continue playing.
Joe was one of six Bengal players who scored in double digits. He
finished with ten points, six in the overtime period, two assists
and a steal. Romero and Montano led the Bengals with 20 points apiece,
Gallegos finished with 14, Lewis 13 and Erickson 11. Montano had a
strong night on the boards that resulted in a double-double as he
grabbed 10 rebounds. He also had a steal and an assist. Guliford led
the team in assists with seven and Romero had three steals. Erickson
and Lewis each had a blocked shot.
A strong shooting performance in the first half keyed by good motion
and passing kept Gallup ahead after an 11-0 run in the opening period
gave the Bengals a 13-4 lead.
Joe scored on a layup; Erickson scored off an inbounds pass from Montano;
Montano rebounded a rare Bengal miss and put it back up for a score;
Romero hit the first of three Bengal treys; and Montano added another
basket off an assist from Guliford.
"We swung the ball well, found the open player and were able
to knock down our shots. We were moving well without the ball, moving
well with the ball," Cordova said.
The Bengals shot 64 percent (18-of-28) from the field in the first
half. For the game, they finished with a 56 percent performance, making
33-of-59 shots. Gallup was 47 percent (9-of-19) from three-point range
an 78 percent (14-of-18) from the free throw line.
Rio Rancho shot 54 percent (30-of-56) from the field and were 21-of-31
(68 percent) from the free throw line.
Gallup, who was a step slower on defense at times, was called for
28 fouls, Rio Rancho 23.
Rams guard Sal Puentes proved to be too quick for the Bengals to contain
as he penetrated Gallup's defense for 23 points.
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Suit over council's pay raise continues
Jim Maniaci
Dine' Bureau
CHINLE — The suit against the 19th Navajo Nation Council giving
itself a $10,000 pay raise two years ago will continue, a visiting
tribal judge ruled Friday morning in district court here.
But it could require another two years for a final decision —
a year after the 20th Council takes office — as both sides indicated
they would appeal to the Navajo Supreme Court if the judge favors
the other party.
Before a nearly full courtroom, Judge Irene Toledo denied Attorney
General Levon Henry's dismissal motions. She rejected central government
arguments the court lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case and the
four plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief could be
granted...
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Local democrats gather to support Sandel candidacy
Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The primary may be six months away, but lieutenant
governor candidate Jerry Sandel is already out of the gates, stumping
for votes in familiar territory — San Juan and McKinley Counties.
Sandel was here with an entourage of familiar faces for a candidate's
luncheon Friday at the El Rancho Hotel, and everyone who was anyone
was there; well, democrats anyway.
Sandel was brought to Gallup, and introduced at the luncheon by
friend and former Gallup resident Pete Derizotis, who is now a judge
in San Juan County. Sandel and Derizotis worked together as legislators
years ago.
Sandel represented San Juan County as a legislator for 30 years,
which is quite a feat, since the county is and has been heavily
Republican for decades...
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Watchman to constituents: Don't expect too much
Walter Howerton Jr.
Legislative Reporter
SANTA FE - Rep. Leo Watchman Jr., D-McKinley, San Juan, doesn't
think his Navajo constituents should expect too much out of the
current session of the New Mexico Legislature.
He doesn't think anyone can expect very much when they don't receive
very much in the first place.
We're dependent on the suds at the top of the cola already,"
Watchman said on Friday. And with lean budget times, there are not
going to be many bubbles for Indians oranyone else on top of the
flat legislative budget cola this year, no matter how anybody shakes
it...
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Crownpoint man in wrong lane; 4 killed
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Four people were killed instantly when the Cadillac
they were driving toward Albuquerque on Interstate 40 was slammed
into by a wrong-way drunk driver just inside the Cibola County line.
An informed police source said the driver, Lloyd Larson, 39, of
Crownpoint, a Navajo employee of the Department of the Interior
and driving a white Chevrolet department pickup truck, has at least
three previous driving while intoxicated charges on his record.
The informed source said he did not know if Larson had any DWI convictions,
but he did know there were several DWI arrests in the past.
The accident is being investigated by the state police, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation and the Laguna Police...
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Former Acoma gov. pleads innocent
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — Former Acoma Gov. Ronnie Davis Shutiva has
pleaded innocent to charges that he embezzled $8,000 from the tribe.
Shutiva's attorney, John Cline, entered the plea on Shutiva's behalf
at an arraignment Thursday in federal court. Shutiva was released
on his own recognizance.
Shutiva also told U.S. Magistrate Lorenzo Garcia his name is Ronnie
Davis Shutiva rather than Ronald D. Shutiva as listed on the indictment,
which accuses him of two counts of theft from an Indian tribal organization...
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Proposed IHS pact added to council agenda
Jim Maniaci
Dine' Bureau
WINDOW ROCK — The tribal Ethics-Rules Committee on Friday added
the proposed $277 million IHS area takeover contract to the Navajo
Nation Council agenda.
The 88 delegates are scheduled to hold their winter session Monday
through Friday. They could consider up to 30 resolutions, the quarterly
"State of the Navajo Nation" addresses by President Kelsey
Begaye, Council Speaker Ed T. Begay, and Supreme Court Chief Justice
Robert Yazzie. Also on the list are six reports including one on
water rights and another from Melton Martinez of the Navajo RECA
Reform Working Group, a Dine' grassroots organization, asking for
$80,000 from New Mexico and $50,000 from the tribe to set up an
all-races uranium workers office in Thoreau...
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Deaths
Arthur Gutierrez
GALLUP — Rosary services for Arthur Gutierrez, 79, will be
held at 1 p.m., Monday, Jan. 28 at Sacred Heart Cathedral.
Gutierrez died Jan. 20 in Albuquerque. He was born Jan. 9, 1923
in Gallup.
Gutierrez was a veteran and served in World War II. He was employed
with City of Gallup, where he retired from.
Survivors include his sons, Steve "Hoss" Gutierrez and
Arthur Gutierrez Jr.; daughter, Virginia Gutierrez DeSantiago; sisters,
Alice Moeckel of Albuquerque, Mary Montano of Denver and Dolores
Cuellar of Gallup; brothers, Vincent Gutierrez of Ventura, Calif
and Manuel Gutierrez of Boston, Calif.; six grandchildren and four
great-grandchildren.
Gutierrez was preceded in death by his parents, Alvino and Jacinta
Gutierrez and wife, Virgina DeLara Gutierrez.
Jason Huskeyethnaswood Clark
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Services for Jason Clark, 23, will be
announced at a later date.
Clark died Jan. 19 in Newberry Springs, Calif. He was born Aug.
16, 1978 in Los Angeles.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
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