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Headline News From Nov. 1 & 8, 2002 Issues

Derry man tries to choke girlfriend to death

Monday in magistrate court accuses a man of attempting to strangle his girlfriend to death last Saturday, Oct. 26, in the southern Sierra County agricultural community of Derry.

City plans to scrap agreement with county’s dispatch authority

Truth or Consequences City Commissioners on Monday directed City Manager Richard Ramsey to notify the Sierra County Regional Dispatch Authority (SCRDA) that the city will terminate its agreement with the county’s 911 emergency service provider in one year.

Electric rate increase proposed for residents

Truth or Consequences City Commissioners on Monday approved for publication an amendment to the city’s electrical rates ordinance that will provide for what Utilities Advisory Board member Alvin Siffring described as “a nearly neutral situation for businesses and a slight increase for residential users."

DJ Online attracts visitors worldwide

The Desert Journal's website has attracted 73,119 visitors from more than 80 countries around the globe during the last year.

Draft of El Camino Real Plan released, open houses planned

The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management have published a draft management plan for El Camino Real National Historic Trail and have scheduled series of meetings to hear public comment about it.

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE

HSHS wins trophy
in Tourney of Bands

The Hot Springs High School Marching Band under the direction of Gary Shaver ended the season by winning a third place trophy in their division at the 25^th annual New Mexico Tournament of the Bands hosted by New Mexico State University.

Students monitor 1,500 miles of the Rio Grande

More than 1,800 students from the United States and Mexico on Wednesday, Oct. 30, positioned themselves on over 50 sites from Albuquerque, NM, to Brownsville, TX, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, to monitor the water quality of the Rio Grande.

DJ closed next week

The Desert Journal will not publish next Friday, Nov. 8, due to a death in the family.

OBITUARIES

Notices for Ada Lois Magness, Jane Garrison Stone, Dorothy Ellen Dean & Edna Mae Roberts.

…Eyeballs, anyone?

“Scrumpdelilicious” describes the taste of these eyeballs, served at Halloweird’s Haunted House. Click on photo for more Halloween spook shots from the haunted house.

DJ photo by Bill Johnson

…Halloweird’s Haunted House a real scary thriller

One might consider a psychiatric examination to determine one’s sanity after visiting Halloweird Production’s Haunted House this week at the old fire hall in downtown T or C. The images prove aliens are hungry for humans, especially tender young infants, and that they usually have no leftovers for their poorly fed caged pets. See photos of the haunted house throughout this page by scrolling down.

DJ photos by Bill Johnson

Derry man tries to choke girlfriend to death

Desert Journal Staff Report

A criminal complaint filed Monday in magistrate court accuses a man of attempting to strangle his girlfriend to death last Saturday, Oct. 26, in the southern Sierra County agricultural community of Derry.

According to the statement of probable cause filed by sheriff’s deputy James Coulter, a witness said he saw through his window two people running by his residence. He then went outside and saw the suspect chase and catch a female.

The man, identified in the complaint as Ramon Tapia Lugo, 21, of Derry, then walked the woman toward the road when he wrapped a belt around the female’s neck, choking her, the deputy’s statement said.

The witness told police he went outside to observe and saw the man holding the woman in a way that she was dangling from the belt while it was around her throat. “She appeared to be unconscious at this time,” the witness told police.

Police would later learn that the woman Lugo allegedly tried to kill was his live-in girlfriend, Olga Mireles. The incident happened in the late afternoon at about 5 p.m.

Lugo, according to the deputy’s statement, ran away when he realized he was being observed by the witness, who then attempted to attend to the woman’s needs as she was beginning to regain consciousness. The witness was joined by a friend who also provided a similar account of the incident to police.

The witness said Lugo returned to the scene while the witness was tending to the victim. According to the second witness, Lugo allegedly said he and Mireles had been fighting since they arrived in the area about three months ago and that he was afraid that the next time they fought he would kill her.

Coulter, who was dispatched to the old Derry Post Office, said he saw the suspect’s vehicle pulling out of Baquera’s chile plant. “While I was turning around to intercept the vehicle, it started backing up, back towards the chile plant,” Coulter said in the statement.

Coulter said he approached the suspect’s vehicle to find he had exited it and that he then heard a loud banging noise behind the plant. Coulter and Sheriff’s Deputy Rex Beard then searched for the vehicle’s driver and apprehended him as he went around the front of the plant.

Coulter said he noticed Lugo wasn’t wearing a belt at the time of arrest. “However, [Lugo’s] father brought out the belt from behind the residence where he threw it after taking it from the Blazer,” the statement of probable cause said.

The father also told police Ramon Lugo left in the Blazer, the same vehicle that Coulter encountered at the chile plant, and also that Lugo and Ms. Mireles had been living together at the home of Lugo’s father before the incident.

Charges leveled against Lugo include a count each of aggravated battery against a household member, a third degree felony; aggravated assault against a household member (with intent to commit a felony, murder), a fourth degree felony; and fourth-degree tampering with evidence (he threw, hid the belt).

Bond for Lugo was set at $15,000 cash only. He was arraigned Monday, Oct. 28, in the Sierra County Magistrate Court. Preliminary hearing was set for 1:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4, in magistrate court.

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The cyborg notices his eyes are missing.

City plans to scrap agreement

with county’s dispatch authority

By Fred Mramor of the Desert Journal

City commissioners are upset that SCRDA has not become an independent entity, as it was supposed to, since its inception in 1996 while the city still provides 47.5 percent of SCRDA’s funding and acts as its fiscal agent.

Commissioner Nadyne Gardner said Monday SCRDA was supposed to get its own funding shortly after it was established and initially funded by the city, Sierra County and the Village of Williamsburg but that it never happened.

“We’re just told that they (SCRDA) want X amount of dollars and we (city) are locked in and have to give that amount of money,” Commissioner Everett Banister said Monday.

Commissioners complain also that emergency dispatch workers are SCRDA employees, according to the city and SCRDA’s agreement, but that the city has no control over those employees, as in hiring, firing and disciplining, and is obligated to handle their payroll and provide them with benefits as though they were city employees.

City officials object also to being dragged into a lawsuit over an automobile accident involving a SCRDA employee.

Mayor Jimmy Rainey said Tuesday city officials do not wish to withdraw from SCRDA altogether but do want SCRDA to be the self-sufficient entity it was meant to be and not a burden on the city, county and village.

Mayor Rainey said he doesn’t know how much the city will be willing to pay to help support SCRDA but wants SCRDA to maintain a budget the city “can live with.”

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Some friendly faces were at the haunted house too!

Electric rate increase

proposed for residents

By Fred Mramor of the Desert Journal

City commissioners acted this week after the Advisory Board completed an electrical cost of service study in which it was discovered that “businesses were subsidizing the rest of the rate payers,” according to Siffring.

The city’s residential customers currently pay a monthly minimum charge of $2.66, which will be eliminated as of Jan. 1, but their monthly customer charge will be raised from $1.60 to $8.00 for a net increase of $3.74.

Utilities Advisory Board member Charlie Hibler on Wednesday said the $8 charge is intended to cover the cost of reading meters and maintaining service regardless of the amount of electricity a customer uses.

And residential customers will pay a little more for the electricity they do use. Residential customers currently pay 7.7 cents, plus a 1.1 cents pass-through charge, per kilowatt/hour (KW/H) for the first 1,500 KW/Hs per month, and 8.2 cents plus 1.1 cents pass-through per KWH above 1,500 KW/Hs per month. Residential customers will pay a flat rate of 9 cents, including the pass-through charge, per KW/H as of Jan. 1.

Small commercial customers currently pay a basic electrical service charge of $6.36 a month for single or three-phase systems but will pay a basic service charge of $10 a month for single-phase systems and up to $12 a month for three-phase systems.

The price of one KW/H to small commercial users will increase from 9.1 cents, including pass-through, to 9.5 cents.

Deleted from the electrical rates ordinance will be: the monthly minimum charge per month for each meter (for small commercial users) under this schedule shall be $10 for single-phase service; $20 for three-phase service; or $30 for a combination of single-phase service and three-phase service.

Large commercial users’ demand charges (for extra capacity in the power lines) currently are $6.36 per kilowatt, $7.47 per kilowatt and $7.98 per kilowatt, depending on the number of kilowatts a customer demands – will be replaced by a single charge of $8 per kilowatt per month.

Deleted from the electrical rates ordinance will be: The monthly minimum charge per month for each meter (for large commercial users) under this schedule shall be $10.61 for single-phase service; $21.31 for three-phase service.

The preceding charges will be replaced by a customer charge of $23.25 per month for single-phase systems and $25.50 per month for three-phase systems.

The rate increases are expected to raise revenues by a half million dollars in the first year, according to Charlie Hibler.

Hibler said that attached to the rate recommendations is a five-year work plan stipulating that the new revenues are to be spent on electrical maintenance, repair and upgrades and should not be used to augment the city’s general fund.

Hibler said that only about three percent of electricity revenues are spent on maintenance and upgrades and that consequently the city’s electrical system has fallen into disrepair.

Hibler added that the new rates will fall somewhere in the middle of rates paid by electricity users in other New Mexico cities.

City utilities customers can expect also to pay more for water and wastewater services. The Utilities Advisory Board has completed a water and wastewater cost of service study and on Monday was directed by the city commission to conduct a rate study.

Hibler said there is a good chance that water and wastewater rates will be increased because the city’s water system is in no better condition than its electrical system.

Hibler said the city’s revenues from water services have been about even with costs and that little has been set aside for repairs and improvements. Hibler said grant funds may be available but that they are usually too little too late.

City commissioners in July 2000 raised all utilities rates five percent and another one percent the following year. City officials point out that these were the first increases in 14 years.

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Caged for the aliens' next meal...

DJ Online attracts visitors worldwide

The Desert Journal's website, www.desertjournalonline.com, has attracted 73,119 visitors from more than 80 countries around the globe during the last year.

An average of 200.87 visitors a day, or 1,406.09 visitors per week, have logged onto DesertJournalOnline during the one-year period from Oct. 30, 2001, to Oct. 30, 2002.

The website's statistical keeper, Urchin®3.3, has compiled data on the website since the end of October last year. The website was established several months before then in May 2001 and is a product of the Desert Journal, a small weekly general circulation newspaper established Sept. 15, 1995, and published since in Truth or Consequences, NM.

According to Urchin’s summary for the 12-month period, the counter shows total pageviews at 93,963, total hits at 658,510 and total bytes transferred at 8.422GBs.

The DJOnline website received a daily average of 258.14 pageviews, 1,809.09 hits and 23.69MBs of bytes transferred (per day) during the last year, according to Urchin's Summary Report.

Average pageviews per visitor were at 1.28; average hits per visitor were at 9; average bytes per visitor were at 120.8KBs and the average length of visit (H:M:S) was 8 minutes 23 seconds.

Urchin's Top Countries listing for the 12-month period show commercial (com) users as the No. 1 group of visitors to DesertJournalOnline at 44,249 visitors; network (net) users were No. 2 at 20,572; and educational (edu) users were No. 3 at 1,356.

Continuing in the top 10 were: United States, 540; Canada, 486; U.S. military, 432; U.S. Government, 322; non-profit organizations, 272; Israel, 141; and Australia, 133.

The Urchin report also lists all of the other users by country and they were counted as follows: United Kingdom, 103; Netherlands, 93; Old Style Arpanet, 87; Germany, 85; Japan, 59; France, 46; Mexico, 39; Belgium and Brazil, 37 each; Italy and Spain, 36 each;

Singapore, 33; Poland, 26; Belize, 25; Bermuda and Sweden, 24 each; Thailand and Switzeraland, 23 each; Austria, 22; Costa Rica, 21; Hong Kong, Portugal and United Arab Emirates, 20 each; New Zealand, 18; Saudi Arabia, 17; Denmark, 15;

Finland and Peru, 13 each; Iceland, Malaysia, Norway, 12 each; Argentina, Taiwan, Russia Federation and Croatia, 11 each; Chile, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominican Republic, Greece and China, 10 each; Hungary and Slovak Republic, 9 each; India, Romania and Indonesia, 8 each;

Philippines, Colombia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and International, 6 each; Virgin Islands (USA) and South Africa, 5 each; Ireland, Turkey, Cyprus and South Korea, 4 each; Latvia, Saint Lucia, Samoa and Bolivia, 3 each; Estonia, Guatemala, Aruba and French Polynesia, 2 each;

And the countries of Georgia, Macedonia, Panama, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Bahrain, Tuvalu, Iran, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Nepal, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Kuwait, Seychelles and Malta were counted at 1 each.

In addition, Urchin counted 85 "other" and 3,216 "unresolved" in the Top Country listings for DesertJournalOnline during the last year.

“We’re proud that we are able to contribute to the international acclaim of Truth or Consequences, Sierra County and New Mexico through our website,” said Desert Journal publisher Bill Johnson, also the webmaster of DesertJournalOnline.

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The bartender (below) has prepared a Bloody Mary to quench the thirst of the damned.

Draft of El Camino Real Plan

released, open houses planned

Hearing set Dec. 5 for T or C

SANTA FE - The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management have published a draft management plan for El Camino Real National Historic Trail and have scheduled series of meetings to hear public comment about it.

The document, called "El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail Draft Comprehensive Management Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement” was prepared during the last 18 months following an earlier series of public hearings to discuss environmental issues, historical development and recreational access along the 404-mile U.S. portion of the trail from El Paso, TX, to San Juan Pueblo, NM.

The draft plan lists alternatives for managing historic properties on BLM-administered and other federal, tribal, state, local or private lands.

It is available in print and on compact disc by contacting plan coordinators

Harry Myers, National Park Service, 505-988-6717, or Sarah Schlanger, BLM, 505-438-7454.

A series of "open houses" are scheduled from El Paso to Santa Fe. The meetings will begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the BLM office in Albuquerque, 534 Montano Road NE, and Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Holiday Inn Convention Center, 1100 California NE in Socorro.

The meetings continue at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8, at the St. Francis Auditorium, Fine Arts Museum, 107 W. Palace Ave., Santa Fe, and at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, at the New Mexico Farm and Heritage Museum, 4100 Dripping Springs Road in Las Cruces.

Discussions will begin at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, at the Chamizal National Memorial, 800 S. San Marcial St. in El Paso, Dec. 3 at the Onate Center, Highway 68 at Alcalde, and Dec. 5 at the T or C Civic Center, 400 E. 4^th St. in Truth or Consequences.

Open house participants may meet with plan drafters, ask questions and provide comments.

Comments about the plan also may be mailed to Myers or Schlanger at: El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail, P.O. Box 728, Santa Fe, NM 87504-0728; or hand-delivered to the National Park Service Long Distance Trails Office, 2968 Rodeo Park Drive West, Santa Fe.

All comments, including names and home addresses of respondents, will be available for public review during regular business hours at the Park Service Office and the BLM State Office, 1474 Rodeo Road, Santa Fe. Although anonymous comments will not be accepted, individuals may request that their identify or home address be excluded from the record.

Spanish explorers created the 1,200-mile El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Royal Road of the Interior) in the 16^th Century as a link between the colonial capital of Mexico City and the provincial capitals of the "interior lands" in the present-day Santa Fe area.

Congress granted national historic status to the trail in October 2000. This is the first time that a national trail has been assigned to two agencies for joint administration.

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HSHS wins trophy in Tourney of Bands

By BJ Amin

High school marching bands from New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Colorado performed their field shows in Aggie Memorial Stadium before a team of judges.

The 21-member HSHS band earned points in numerous categories for quality, balance, uniformity, dynamics, marching maneuvers, style and creativity. The daylong event highlighted a performance by the NMSU Pride Band just before the presentation of awards.

HSHS Drum Major David Amin had the honor of leading the entire group of drum majors representing 35 schools onto the field for the ceremony in a packed stadium with roars of cheers for “the little band that could,” HSHS having been the smallest band in attendance, as the third place trophy was announced and presented.

The HSHS band also participated in the Aspenfest in Ruidoso earlier in the season and brought home a third place trophy and a $100 cash prize for their parade performance. They also placed fourth in the Aspenfest field competition.

The HSHS Band provided enthusiasm, support and music for the home Tiger football games and one away game in Socorro. They also play the National Anthem for the ROTC students when they present colors at special events.

The HSHS band played the National Anthem, Lord of the Rings and The Patriot for the opening ceremonies of the local community’s Relay for Life fund raiser to fight cancer.

For the last field show of the season, the student musicians will perform in costumes to entertain local elementary school students.

The HSHS band consists of dedicated students who attend class at 7 a.m. every school day to practice their performances on the football field.

The marching season has ended but marching band class will continue through the semester with musicians practicing and auditioning for All State and a Christmas concert.

Gary Shaver has given many hours of dedication to his students in and out of school.

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I wonder if they were twins. They’re both very white and missing teeth. Skulls courtesy of Holloweird’s Haunted House.

Students monitor 1,500 miles of the Rio Grande

These students are part of Project del Rio, a bi-national educational program dedicated to empowering youth to learn about and protect their communities in the Rio Grande watershed.

In preparation for this day, teachers and selected students attended an 18-hour workshop to discuss the current issues of the river in each region.

Students also received training on quality water testing methods that help them analyze the health of the river such as the amount of dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, nutrients, organic material, pH salts and sediments.

Looking at land use practices and other potential sources of contaminants, students collected data to identify where potential problem areas are before developing strategies to help improve these problems.

Participating schools in the New Mexico area include Las Cruces High, San Andres High, Hot Springs High and Bosque High.

Under the direction of Mark Hedge, HSHS students in the Truth or Consequences area will collect and test water samples from the Rio Grande at the Third Street Bridge a mile south of Elephant Butte Dam and at Las Palomas five miles south of T or C.

Results will be shared among the schools and with monitoring agencies such as the International Boundary and Water Commission, Comisión Nacional de Limites y Agua, Natural Resource Conservation Service, New Mexico Environment Department, Texas Commission of the Environment, and others.

In the spring, students will continue their work by developing action taking projects that look at the social, political and economic factors related to these issues and present them in a bi-national, bilingual Student Congress.

Project del Rio is now in its 13^th year and is sponsored by the Natural Resource Conservation Service, the Hispanic Professionals of the NRCS, EPA sponsored Environmental Education and Training Partnership, Environmental Protection Agency, Toshiba America Foundation, McCune Foundation and Turner Foundation as well as many local sponsors in the area.

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DJ closed next week

No paper Nov. 8 due to family death

The Desert Journal will not publish next Friday, Nov. 8, due to a death in the family.

The office may, or may not, be open depending on the availability of staff and their schedules to meet obligations outside of the office.

Canceling next Friday’s paper will allow the publishers to travel and attend services in the middle of the week in Colorado.

For more details on the death, see the Obituary column for Lois Magness.

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OBITUARIES

Ada Lois Magness, 90, a resident of Truth or Consequences the last 11 years, died Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2002, at Sierra Vista Hospital.

She was born June 27, 1912, in Tuscola, TX, to Rebecca Jane and Obe Staggs. At age 16 she married Morgan “Muggs” Magness and they had five children. The homemaker lived in Texas until 1947 and then moved her family to Colorado. She was the dietician at the hospital in Cortez, CO, for many years. She moved to New Mexico in 1989 and lived in T or C since 1991.

Survivors include her two daughters, Marcella Loyd and husband Gene of T or C, and Virginia Culver and husband Leonard of Dolores, CO; her son, Eddie “Buck” Magness and wife Mardi of Los Lunas; her sister, Velma Magness of Farwell, TX; 19 grandchildren; 24 great-grandchildren; 11 great-great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband in 1968; two sons, Jerry Lloyd Magness and Obie Wayne Magness; her infant grandson, Morgan Magness; her four brothers, Henry Flower and John, Obie and Frank Staggs; three sisters, Ida Mills, Jane Alswood and Pearl Humphrey.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6, at the Church of Christ in Cortez, CO, with Pastor Hunt Zumwalt officiating. Burial will be in the Summit Ridge Cemetery in Dolores, CO, next to her husband’s resting place. Arrangements are by Ertel Funeral Home in Cortez, CO, with local arrangements being handled by Sierra Funeral Home, 507 W. McAdoo St. in T or C. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to the T or C Service Center’s Home Health Program, 360 W. 4th St., T or C, NM 87901.

She was an “I can do it!” type of mother, grandma, great-grandma and great-great-grandma.

Jane Garrison Stone, 89, widow of the late Milburn Stone (Doc on “Sunsmoke”), died Oct. 20, 2002, at her home in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. She was born Nov. 21, 1912, in Hutchinson, KS. She moved to California to study at the Pasadena Playhouse and worked for Selznick Studios where she met Boris Karloff and his wife, Edie. This led to her employment with Ralph Edwards Productions where she was office manager, Ralph’s secretary, and stand-in for the principle subjects during rehearsals for Edwards’ production, “This Is Your Life.” In fact, she was the stand-in for her mother-in-law, Laura Stone Marr, who was the subject for the first “This Is Your Life” television show.

She married Milburn Stone who appeared in more than 47 movies, including “Young Mr. Lincoln” before turning to television on “Gunsmoke,” which ran 18 years and is still in syndication.

Mrs. Stone worked with Ralph Edwards until her retirement in 1961 when she and Milburn moved to Rancho Santa Fe. Stone died in 1982. She attended 11 Truth or Consequences Fiestas with her husband and Ralph Edwards and also rode in two Fiesta Parades in T or C.

Survivors include her daughter, Shirley Gleason of Costa Mesa, CA; her sister, Rowena Liddicote of Long Beach, CA; her brother-in-law, Joe Stone of San Diego, CA; four grandchildren, Ellen Gleason Cook and husband Keith, Jim Gleason and wife Eva, K.C. Gleason and wife Laura and Kelley Gleason Smith and husband Scott; and seven great-grandchildren.

Services will be held Sunday, Nov. 3, at Sorrento Valley Chapel, El Camino Memorial Park, 5600 Carroll Canyon Road in San Diego, CA. She will be interred next to her husband. The family asks that donations be made to the Alzheimers Foundation.

Dorothy Ellen Dean, 81, of Truth or Consequences, died Monday, Oct. 14, 2002, at the New Mexico Veterans Home. She was born Aug. 6, 1921, in Ester Park, CO. She was schooled in Colorado where her father was a chemistry teacher. After graduating from high school she joined the U.S. Army in 1944 and received an honorable discharge in 1945. She married George Sullivan and they lived in Durham, NY, through the summers. Their winters were spent in their RV touring the Southwest. Eventually they sold their home in New York to settle south of Williamsburg, NM.

Her husband preceded her in death in 1992. Survivors include her step-daughter, Betty Worter and husband Jerry of Tacoma, WA; two step-grandchildren; and many friends.

Cremation arrangements were by Desert Lawn Crematorium in Deming, NM, with her ashes to be scattered later.

Edna Mae Roberts, 81, a resident of Sierra County since 1986, died Monday, Oct. 21, 2002, at the Sierra Health Care Center in Truth or Consequences. She was born April 29, 1921, in Freeport, PA, to James and Mary (Lawton) Anderson. She married Clarence E. Roberts on May 20, 1939, in Wellsburg, WV. She was a dental and medical clerk and also a homemaker. She enjoyed sewing and ceramics.

Survivors include her husband of 63 years, Clarence E. Roberts of T or C; her son, James T. Roberts of La Palma, CA, her daughter, Barbara (Roberts) Lomen of La Crescenta, CA; six grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her parents and her two brothers, William and Albert Anderson.

Private family services were held Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Fort Bayard National Cemetery in Fort Bayard, NM. Arrangements were by Sierra Funeral Home, 507 W. McAdoo St. in T or C.

Clarification

Dianne Hamilton, candidate for state representative for District 38 that includes Sierra County, said a statement in a front-page story, “District 38 race heats up,” in last week’s paper deserves clarification, since her stance wasn’t made clear on some unfinished legislative work.

She said she wanted to assure DJ readers that she does not, nor has she ever, supported either drug decriminalization or cock fighting. She said she’s flat out against both of these activities.

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