artdirector@sfreporter.com
Dems reveal primary line-up
The state Democratic Party yesterday released the results from its March 5 pre-primary convention, setting the roster for the June 7 election. In the contested state races, state Auditor Brian Colón led 2nd Judicial District Attorney Raúl Torrez with 61.46% versus 38.54%; for state Treasurer, Laura M. Montoya, former Sandoval County treasurer, received 58.29% of the delegate vote and former Magistrate Judge Heather Benavidez garnered 41.71%; for state auditor, former City of Santa Fe employee Zack Quintero: 61.81% and current Public Regulation Commissioner Joseph Maestas: 38.19%. In the state’s only contested Democratic primary for Congress, former Las Cruces City Councilor Gabe Vasquez received 80.43% versus physician Darshan Patel with 19.57% for the 2nd Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Yvette Herrell. Under state law, the candidates in contested races are placed on the ballot in the order of votes received at the convention (with highest first). Candidates who don’t receive at least 20% of the votes have to gather additional signatures to appear on the ballot at all. According to a DPNM news release, close to 1,000 Democrats attended the opening of the party’s pre-primary convention, either in-person in Roswell or via Zoom, and 1,141 delegates cast their votes, for a record 97.11% participation rate. Delegates also voted 96.56% in favor of adopting the proposed DPNM platform.
First responders mourn losses
At funerals over the weekend, police officers, firefighters and community members across the state mourned the losses of Santa Fe Police Officer Robert Duran and retired Las Vegas firefighter Frank Lovato. Duran, 43, is the first SFPD officer killed in the line of duty since 1933. In addition to his family and coworkers, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber attended and spoke at his service in Rio Rancho. “Our hearts are broken by the tragic loss,” Webber said, “and our hearts are lifted by all he has given us, all he has left for us as lessons to be learned, as an example to be followed and as shoes, very large shoes, to be filled.” Both Duran and Lovato died as a result of a automobile collision during a high-speed chase March 2 involving what turned out to be a fabricated kidnapping attempt. First responders, family and friends gathered Saturday as well for a funeral mass for Lovato, 62, at Our Lady of Sorrow Church in Las Vegas. Lovato joined the Las Vegas Fire Department in 1983 and retired in 2006; the department has retired his badge number, 27. “He was always active,” Las Vegas Fire Interim Chief Steven Spann told KRQE. “The guys tell me he would always be willing to help somebody reaching out to them. He always had a smile, he always wanted to help. That’s a firefighter, public servant’s nature.”
DOH reduces COVID-19 reporting; SFPS rescinds masks
On Friday’s two-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico, the state’s top health official announced reporting changes, starting today, for how information is delivered to the public. DOH will only report statewide daily and cumulative number of cases and no longer provide county-level updates on a daily basis. The daily reporting will also include the daily number of hospitalized patients; intubated patients; deaths; and test results. Those daily reports won’t be disseminated through the media, but will be posted on the health department’s epidemiology report site, with weekly reports with greater detail updated by the end of the day on Tuesdays. “We do have a Department of Health to run,” Scrase said Friday, while noting—not for the first time—that the department’s current method of compiling data takes 80 hours of staff time each day. That made Friday the last day for the daily report to which we’ve grown accustomed; that data is included below; SFR will continue reporting statewide data each morning here, along with a more thorough review of the weekly reports. The shift comes as cases and hospitalizations continue to drop, with the state also on Friday letting its statewide Crisis Standards of Care order for hospitals—in which hospitals can ration care if needed—expire. Scrase recalled the first time the state enacted the order on Dec. 9, 2020. “Most of us went to bed that night thinking we would not have enough resources to care for sick New Mexicans the next morning,” he said. “For reasons I still don’t completely understand, that night there was sudden change in the number of cases and we never actually got to that point where we had to do that.”
With Santa Fe County’s “community levels” turning green under the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new ratings criteria, Santa Fe Public Schools on Friday announced an early end to its mandatory mask requirements. “Now is the time to ease mask-wearing in our schools and return to a sense of normalcy,” Superintendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez said in a statement, adding: “Everyone is to be respected in their masking-wearing decision. For those who continue to wear masks, we are completely supportive.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 264; 515,164 total cases
Top three counties: Bernalillo County with 70 new cases; Doña Ana County with 35; Sandoval County with 23.Santa Fe County: 18 new cases.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new “community levels” tracking system—which uses case counts and two hospital metrics in combination—all of New Mexico’s counties currently have “low” levels, except for Harding, Hidalgo and McKinley counties, which have medium levels. Last week, the CDC ranked 10 New Mexico counties, including Santa Fe County, as having “high” community levels. You can read the CDC’s technical drill-down on the system here.
Breakthrough cases: According to the most recent weekly vaccine report, between Feb. 7-March 7, 44% of COVID-19 cases were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 28.2% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 27.8% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 61.9%, 18.7% and 19.4%. The percentages shift to 63.9%, 18.7% and 17.4% for fatalities.
Deaths: 10 additional deaths, including a male in his 70s from Santa Fe County who had underlying conditions. Santa Fe County has now had a total of 254 deaths; there have been 7,050 fatalities statewide. Hospitalizations: 148
Vaccinations: 91.9% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 78.2% have completed their primary series; 44.9% of adults 18 years and older have had a booster shot; 12-17-year-old age group: 71.2% of people have had at least one dose and 61.3% have completed their primary series; Children ages 5-11: 38.9% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 30.1% have completed their primary; Santa Fe County: 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 87.1% have completed their primary series.
Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. 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
If you’ve ever found yourself giggling or laughing out loud at Ricardo Caté's cartoons, you’re not alone. The artist says he chortles at his own jokes himself sometimes. On the most recent episode of ¡COLORES! on PBS, Caté (Kewa), one of the most prominent Native cartoonists working today, talks with host Ebony Isis Booth about COVID, opioids and the source of his humor. Axios also featured Caté in a story Saturday about Native Americans’ efforts to show support for Ukraine.
Baldwin seeks indemnification in Rust shooting
While attending the Boulder International Film Festival, actor and Rust producer Alec Baldwin spoke about the slew of litigation that has ensued since the fatal shooting Oct. 21 at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe, which killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza. Baldwin, who fired the gun and has denied culpability, has been named as a defendant in many of those suits, and said during his remarks that: “What you have is a certain group of people, litigants and whatever…on whatever side who their attitude is, oh, the people who likely seem negligent have no money, and the people who have money are not negligent, but we’re not gonna let that stop us from doing what we need to do in terms of litigation,” Baldwin said. “So we have people that are suing people that they think are deep-pocket litigants.” Baldwin’s attorneys filed an arbitration demand on Friday, saying his contract protected him from financial liability in Hutchins’ death and seeking coverage for his legal fees. The filing also provides Baldwin’s account of the shooting, and documents his text messages with Hutchins’ husband Matthew following his wife’s death.
Book smart
Tickets for the first Santa Fe Literary Festival (May 20-23) went on sale at the end of last week, with the event receiving immediate attention from the UK Independent. “The word ‘magical’ is thrown around a lot in travel, but it feels apt when describing Santa Fe’s sheer vastness and singular appeal, not to mention the creative spirit that appears to float on every gust of wind to pass through its foothills.” (And those are a lot of gusts of wind.) The festival’s author lineup will make book nerds swoon. They include a keynote from Pulitzer-prize winning author Colson Whitehead (Harlem Shuffle, The Nickel Boys, and The Underground Railroad.); Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood (The Blind Assassin, The Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, to name a few); Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street); John Grisham (The Firm, A Time to Kill, plus at least 35 other books); and a whole slew of local authors (including, obviously George RR Martin). The festival includes talks and book signings; meditation walks with authors; culinary talks with food writers around curated meals; and literary day trips. The festival also offers discount tickets for New Mexico residents and students.
The space/time continuum
Perhaps you, too, awoke today screeching “what time is it,” and not in a cool Morris Day kinda way. Welcome to DST. Does sunshine really save lives? Apparently, the research remains inconclusive (if you’re too tired to read, this John Oliver video from 2015 also captures the situation well enough). Enough about temporal abstractions. Let’s turn our attention to atmospheric conditions: Today should be mostly sunny, with a high near 55 degrees and north wind around 15 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Look for temps in the 60s most of the week, except Thursday when it might snow because #spring.
Thanks for reading! The Word is watching a performance by and reading about Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha.
