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Morning Word
Eunice sues governor, AG over abortion
National anti-abortion activists and local New Mexico opponents gathered in Washington, DC yesterday to announce a new lawsuit filed yesterday by the City of Eunice against Attorney General Raúl Torrez and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Eunice is one of several New Mexico towns that passed so-called sanctuary laws restricting abortion. Those ordinances are part of a concerted strategy by anti-abortion activists to employ the federal anti-obscenity law the Comstock Act to restrict access to abortion medication—a legal ploy such activists say they hope to advance to the US Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court earlier this month granted Torrez’s request to stay—or suspend—restrictive abortion ordinances in Lea and Roosevelt counties, as well as the cities of Clovis and Hobbs and directed the parties to submit briefs addressing legal issues, including the legal impact of New Mexico’s recently enacted Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Act, which prohibits local governments from restricting access to health care in the way the aforementioned governmental bodies have attempted. Eunice’s new suit seeks a declaratory judgement that would allow its ordinance, which relies on the federal Comstack Act, to “trump” New Mexico state law. While the AG’s stay did not address Eunice and the city’s ordinance has not been legally challenged, Mayor Billy Hobbs said during yesterday’s news conference Eunice city councilors voted unanimously to file their lawsuit. “It gives me great honor to say here in our nation’s capital, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Attorney General Raul Torrez—WE WILL SEE YOU IN COURT,” Hobbs said in a statement. According to provided statements, Eunice City Councilwoman Erica Jones said opposition to abortion in her community had persuaded advocates from building a reproductive health clinic there. “What New Mexicans need is not more abortion clinics, but more hospitals and a better infrastructure for our health care needs,” she said.
SFPS community schools receive $825,000 in grants
The state Public Education Department announced yesterday it has awarded $10 million in Community Schools grant money, a 20% increase that will support 30% more schools—89 in total—than last year. According to a news release, New Mexico has 150 community schools; state law incorporated the model for them in 2013 and funding began in 2019. Of the schools receiving funding this year, 28 are in their planning year; 27 are undertaking implementation; and 17 are renewing. In the Santa Fe Public Schools district, Chaparral Elementary School, Amy Biehl Community School, Kearny Elementary, Nina Otero Community School and Milagro Middle School each received $150,000 and are in various stages of implementation; Santa Fe High School received $75,000 for renewal. “This is a new way of doing school from the traditional model,” Julie Brenning, PED’s community schools director, says in a statement. “The power is in the hands of families, schools and communities. We must return schools back to the community.” (Read more about the model here). Amongst its other facets, PED says under the community schools model, “collaboration is paramount,” and decision-making is based on collected data. “Community schools are a thoughtful way of leveraging community partners to improve student outcomes,” Education Secretary Arsenio Romero says in a statement. “We applaud the schools for their deep ties to their communities and their dedication to affecting change in innovative ways.”
Judge seals Rust lawsuit
First Judicial District Judge Bryan Biedscheid yesterday sealed the wrongful death lawsuit settlement against producer/actor Alec Baldwin and others stemming from the fatal Oct. 21, 2021 on-set shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The Associated Press reports Biedscheid cited Hutchins’ 10-year-old son as the reason for sealing the case. Halyna Hutchins’ husband, Matthew, sued last year and names their son as a plaintiff as well. Attorneys representing the Hutchins’ son said yesterday maintaining privacy is key to signing a settlement agreement. Some of the terms of that settlement were released in October and include dismissal of the case and resumption of the filming of Rust, with Matthew Hutchins serving as executive producer. The AP reports the terms of the settlement will only be available to the producers named in the suit and will exclude, for instance, armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed who, along with Baldwin, also faces involuntary manslaughter charges for her role in the fatal shooting.
NM hantavirus cases increase
ICYMI, the state health department recently reported three more cases of hantavirus, bringing the total to five thus far in 2023. All five cases came from different parts of the Four Corners region, with one person dying from the virus and the other four requiring hospitalization, including in the intensive care unit. Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a severe respiratory illness, stems from the sin nombre virus, primarily carried in New Mexico by deer mice in their droppings and urine. People don’t transmit the virus to one another; it’s contracted by breathing it in when, for instance, “droppings or urine containing the virus are stirred up and the virus is put into the air as mist or dust,” DOH says. People also can contract hantavirus by touching their eyes, nose or mouth after touching mice feces and the like. Early symptoms include a panoply of horrors, including fatigue; fever and muscle aches, possibly with chills; headache; nausea; vomiting; diarrhea; abdominal pain; and a cough that leads to respiratory distress and severe illness. Generally, people catch hantavirus from cleaning a place with lots of mouse excrement. More info, including tips to avoid contracting hantavirus, can be found here, with advice on how to deal with “wild rodent infestations” here.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported April 17: New cases: 391 (includes the weekend); 678,119 total cases. Deaths: 0. Santa Fe County has had 403 total deaths; Statewide hospitalizations: 84; patients on ventilators: nine. The state health department will stop reporting daily COVID-19 cases on May 11.
The Centers for Disease and Prevention most recent April 13 “community levels” map shows improvement for New Mexico, with the entire state turning green, which indicates low levels (last week Union County was yellow, for medium). Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: Receive four free at-home COVID-19 tests per household via COVIDTests.gov; Check availability for additional free COVID-19 tests through Project ACT; CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
The Santa Fe International Literary Festival returns next month (May 19-21) for year two, but the shock and awe of the lineup remains undiminished from last year’s debut. Founders Clare Hertel and Mark Bryant join host Lorene Mills on the most recent episode of Report from Santa Fe to talk about the festival, which will feature local, national and international authors, including (but not even remotely limited to): Jennifer Egan, Gillian Flynn, John Irving, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Ingrid Rojas Contreras.
Over the moon
The New York Sun has strong praise for Blood on the Moon by Alan K. Rode, published last month by the University of New Mexico Press. The book, part of UNM Press’ “Reel West” series devoted to Western films, is “one of the best examples of recent works that have energized both cinema study and group biography,” Sun book reviewer and author Carl Rollyson writes. The book examines the 1948 RKO “noir western” Blood on the Moon, directed by Robert Wise, starring Robert Mitchum, Barbara Bel Geddes and Robert Preston (here’s the Variety magazine plot summary). “Mr. Rode has examined the RKO production notes, Robert Wise’s laserdisc commentary, and, it seems, every other piece of evidence that makes him seem better informed than even the consummate Wise,” Rollyson notes, who concludes that Rode “is just about the perfect writer for the ‘Reel West’ series.” Moreover, he adds, “film is a corporate enterprise,” and as director and treasurer of the Film Noir Foundation, Rode “understands the institutional and business side of filmmaking very well.”
Bird-brained
Scientists refashioning dead birds to be used as drones and possibly deployed for spying sounds like the premise of a potentially popular movie (with an inevitable Zombie twist). It was actually the subject of a story (and video) in a subscription-only New Scientist last February and a more recent one from Reuters that isn’t locked behind a paywall. The scientists in question, who are preserving the dead birds through taxidermy and converting them into drones to study flight, are part of a team at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. Associate Professor for Mechanical Engineering Mostafa Hassanalian, who is leading the research, tells Reuters he was unable to achieve the results he sought using artificial/mechanical birds. Enter real, albeit deceased ones: “We came up with this idea that we can use…dead birds and make them (into) a drone,” he says. “Everything is there…we do reverse engineering.” Hassanalian tells Reuters the current taxidermy bird prototype can fly for a maximum of 20 minutes, so the next stage is determine out how to extend its flight capacity and to test it in the wild with living birds. While the scientist says the drones are intended to study flight—in possible service to the aviation industry—the parody conspiracy group Birds Aren’t Real was quick to express vindication.
Critical fire weather
The National Weather Service forecasts widespread critical fire weather across the state today through Thursday. Santa Fe will be sunny, with a high temperature near 71 degrees and east wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west 15 to 20 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph.
Thanks for reading! The Word follows Patti Smith on Instagram and looks forward to perusing her photo book, A Book of Days (which published last November, but this new New York Review of Books review re-animated the perusal instinct).
