artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
Lujan Grisham, Ronchetti face off in final debate
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Republican Mark Ronchetti weighed in on crime, abortion, health care and other top-of-mind issues in this year’s Nov. 8 gubernatorial race during last night’s final televised debate, hosted by KOAT-TV, the Albuquerque Journal and KKOB-AM. While the debate highlighted different views and approaches to policy issues, it also showcased, as the Journal notes, “insults and harsh jabs” throughout the hour-long discourse. Ronchetti highlighted Lujan Grisham’s financial settlement with a former campaign employee who accused her of harassment, also the topic of a new ad from Ronchetti’s campaign. Lujan Grisham in turn accused Ronchetti, who formerly worked as a meteorologist for KRQE-TV, of being unexperienced and a threat to women’s reproductive health care. When given the opportunity to ask Ronchetti a question, Lujan Grisham asked him if he knew what misoprostol is (a medication used in medical abortions). Ronchetti did not answer and pivoted back to the harassment settlement, among other accusations. The Democratic Party of New Mexico issued a statement following the debate describing it as confirmation Ronchetti is “not fit to be governor.” In a series of tweets, the state Republican Party highlighted Ronchetti’s attacks on Lujan Grisham, saying the governor “showed tonight she is not only out-of-touch, but closed off to taking responsibility, closed off to answering questions about her failed record, hypocritical actions or sexual assault allegations.”
City expects to complete 2021 audit next year
The City of Santa Fe expects to complete its 2021 audit in June 2023; it was due last December. City Finance Director Emily Oster and Chief Accounting Officer Ricky Bejarano delivered an update on the audit at last night’s City Council meeting, saying there had been “progress,” including officials recently having an “entrance conference” with Carr, Riggs & Ingram—the city’s new auditing firm. “That is the beginning of the client acceptance and pre-planning phase,” Oster said. The city is conducting the 2021 and 2022 audits simultaneously. The next phase, risk assessment and audit strategy, will begin in December, she said. Officials expect both audits to be finished by June 30. “I want to acknowledge that timeline may be longer than some of us had hoped for and I want to make a commitment to you all and the public that the Finance Department will be working to shorten the timeline any way we can,” she said. The audit update follows a long-running saga of problems with the city’s audits, the most recent of which prompted State Auditor Brian Colón last April to announce his intention to intervene in the city’s “worsening fiscal mismanagement.” City Councilor Michael Garcia last night expressed concern about the still unresolved situation. “Since I’ve been on the council, we’ve hoped to get our audits in on time and unfortunately that has not come to fruition. It’s four years in a row that our audit is late...to me, as a public official, I stat getting nervous…because it’s a cycle that is almost unbreakable and we’ve seemed to just not be able to figure it out.”
Early voting off to a good start in Santa Fe
The Santa Fe County Clerk reported “exceptionally high” turnout for the first day of early voting on Tuesday, with more than 500 voters casting ballots—”more than double what we expected,” County Clerk Katharine Clark said in a statement, describing turnout as “steady and enthusiastic.” “We’re hoping we continue to see high turnout,” she said. (SFR has a pending request with the Secretary of State’s Office for statewide turnout figures; political analysts expect high turnout in New Mexico for the general election). In addition to early voters, Clark says close to 10,000 voters have already requested absentee ballots. People who want to vote absentee, she says, “should apply for their ballot now and allow seven days each way for it to travel in the mail. They should return their ballots to a drop box, especially closer to the election, to ensure our office receives them by Election Day. If you have not requested your absentee ballot, do it now.” Voters can track their absentee ballots via SMS here, and check find all the ballot drop box locations here. The drop boxes are open 24 hours a day until the polls close at 7 pm on Election Day, Nov. 8. Early voting is open at the clerk’s office downtown (100 Catron St.,) 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and from 10 am to 6 pm on Saturday, Nov. 5. Additional voting locations open on Saturday, Oct. 22, including at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds (find a complete list here). You can find all of SFR’s election coverage here.
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Oct. 12: New cases: 323; 621,483 total cases; Deaths: three; Santa Fe County has had 353 total deaths; there have been 8,599 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 72. Patients on ventilators: three. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Oct. 6 “community levels” map, which uses a combination of hospital and case rate metrics to calculate COVID-19 risk for the prior seven-day period, New Mexico’s COVID-19 outlook remains unchanged from last week: Rio Arriba and De Baca counties are rated “yellow” (medium); all other counties are green (low levels); no counties are red (high). Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result; Curative testing sites; 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
Aristotle believed ethics should be a practical versus theoretical undertaking, and argued (at length) that theoretical ethics should in fact be subordinate to practice (at least that appears to be the gist of a paragraph we highlighted in our copy of the Nicomachean Ethics several decades ago). But you don’t need to dust off your dusty philosophy books to delve into ethical concerns here at home. A new podcast, EthicsNOW, from the New Mexico Humanities Council, along with New Mexico Ethics Watch, Davis Law New Mexico and KUNM, features discussion on how to bring ethics from the theoretical into the practical realm in everyday life. The show is hosted by NMEW Executive Director Kathleen Sabo, comparative ethicist Will Barnes and legal scholar Paul Biderman. Check out all eight episodes on topics ranging from ethics in politics, arts and medicine.
Red and green
CNN Travel spends some time exploring New Mexico’s obsession with chile. Yes, obsession. “People are completely mystified that we eat so much chile here,” Santa Fe School of Cooking chef/instructor Mica Chavez says. “It really is a part of almost every meal every day.” Santa Fe-based chef and author Lois Ellen Frank explains for the segment the thinking behind New Mexico’s “chile law,” passed in 2011, which prohibits advertising any chile grown outside the state as being New Mexico chile. “Very much like the French—the terroir—our land and the flavor of the land is in our food,” Frank says. And Romero Farm’s Matt Romero provides some historical and agricultural context for the state question, “red or green.” He loves green, he says, but only when it’s freshly roasted, not out of the freezer. “Here’s a saying,” Romero tells CNN: “Green chile is why we move here, but red chile is why we stayed.” As for Chavez, she goes through 100 pounds of chile a year and provides examples of how she uses them. Bottom line? “Everything that wraps up in unconditional love, wraps up in chile,” she says.
Breakfast of champions
A New Mexico couple recently created a food video that went viral on TikTok and caught the attention of the Today show. Rio Rancho resident Steven Archuleta combined his love of breakfast with his penchant for invention to create what he described as “squiggle cakes,” but the internet decided to call it “pancake spaghetti.” Archuleta, whom Today says is a retired Army infantryman and University of New Mexico alumnus, also has an interest in sustainability and a long-term project creating a solar-powered battery system. His wife, Briana, an Albuquerque wedding and portrait photographer, created the TikTok video, which currently has 1.4 million likes and more than 11,000 comments. Those comments have trended toward the positive. Pancakes? Good! Pancake spaghetti? Good! The Archuletas, Today reports, have been enjoying the comments, particularly ones referencing Buddy’s spaghetti breakfast in the movie Elf and those planning to make pancake spaghetti with their children on Christmas morning. “That’s what I love about it,” Steven Archuleta tells Today. “Anyone can do it. For me, being a father, it’s fun to see everyone do that for their significant others and their kids.” The couple also made a follow-up video that includes more detailed instructions and suggestions for toppings (the Today segment also breaks down Archuleta’s process).
A place in the sun
The National Weather Service forecasts temperatures ticking upward with a high near 68 degrees, sunny skies and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. If you’re planning to head up the mountain to catch the Aspens before they lose their yellow hues, be aware the “pavement rehabilitation” work on the Ski Basin Road continues; expect increased truck traffic and delays.
Thanks for reading! The Word is enjoying learning about this year’s genius grant recipients’ work—particularly Astrodynamicist Moriba Jah’s quest for space environmentalism.
