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Red flag laws falter
A new investigation by the Associated Press shows so-called “red-flag” laws, under which law enforcement can remove weapons from people identified as dangerous, have been sparsely deployed in states with such laws on the books. That includes New Mexico, where the Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act, signed into law in 2020, has only been used eight times since then—a time period in which 600 gun homicides have occurred. Overall, the AP found among the 19 states and the District of Columbia, red-flag laws were used to remove firearms from people 15,049 times in that time period, amounting to fewer than 10 per 100,000 adult residents. The story also delves into pushback from some law enforcement agencies—particularly in rural areas—such as the New Mexico Sheriffs’ Association. “You’re showing up with 10 to 15 law enforcement officers and coming in the middle of the night and kicking in the door, and it’s already a dangerous environment,” Tony Mace, head of the sheriffs’ association and Cibola County, says. “You’re dealing with someone in crisis and elevating it even more.” A state health department presentation to the Legislature’s Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee earlier this summer ranked New Mexico as having the seventh highest age-adjusted firearm fatality rate in the US in 2020. At the end of last month, the governor signed an executive order creating a task force to coordinate and promote the state’s red-flag laws, saying in a statement it would “ensure stakeholders across the state have the information and tools they need to successfully and proactively address threats of gun violence and prevent harm in New Mexico communities.”
Santa Fe’s (hopeful) bicycle future
On Thursday, the City of Santa Fe’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Committee is scheduled to discuss and possibly take action on a 10-year strategic plan for making Santa Fe a bicycle-friendly community. Specifically, the final draft plan, which the BPAC Policy, Planning and Law subcommittee initiated in January, sets forth a goal to have the city by 2030 achieve the League of American Bicyclists gold-level Bike Friendly Community designation, and to hit the diamond level by 2050, wherein 20% of residents commute by bicycle with 0.2 fatalities and 50 crashes per 10,000 daily commuters. New Mexico at present ranks as the third deadliest state for pedestrians and bicyclists, according to data compiled by the League of American Bicyclists, and Santa Fe ranks third in the state for pedestrian and bike crashes, behind Albuquerque and Las Cruces. The strategic plan for Santa Fe identifies both numerous challenges and opportunities along the way to becoming a bicycle mecca, including numerous bicycle-centric organizations in the community (opportunity) and unsafe roads to bicycle and walk (threat). Electric bicycles also are listed as an opportunity, and the BPAC community will be reviewing a draft resolution on Thursday defining and incorporating electric bicycles into the city’s uniform traffic code, sponsored by City Councilor Michael Garcia and introduced to the governing body last month. BPAC will also receive an update following last week’s meeting on the St. Michael’s Drive Rail Trail Underpass Project, which included an early look at some of the design concepts; the project is currently slated to start construction in fall, 2024.
Gloom burns without incident
ICYMI Zozobra on Friday, organizers report record crowds of more than 71,000 people, surpassing the 63,000 who attended the 2019 pre-pandemic burning. Those figures, based on calculations from the drone footage, include volunteers and law enforcement. The latter had more than 200 representatives, with Deputy Police Chief Matthew Champlin telling SFR following the event this year’s Zozobra was “overall a quiet night,” with “no arrests, no citations and no major incidents that I’m aware of.” (Two 11-year-old girls were briefly lost by their mother during the “lights out” portion of the pre-burn performance, “but this was resolved within about 10-15 minutes and the two girls were located safely,” he said). Photographer Adria Malcolm captured the spectacle for SFR; we also spoke with numerous local officials and attendees about their gloom. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham cited COVID-19 (and donned a mask due to her own recent infection). Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber also referenced the pandemic, noting: “My gloom is the people we lost, trying to remember, get better, heal up and give people a chance to come back together.” Attendees dropping off and writing down gloom at this year’s event also mentioned heartbreak, illness and Donald Trump among their woes.
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 392; 612,146 total cases
Deaths: four; Santa Fe County has had 347 total deaths; there have been 8,469 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 124. Patients on ventilators: four
Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends for the seven-day period of Aug. 22-28, Santa Fe County’s case rate continues to decline and was at 19.8, compared to 20.5 the prior week. The state recorded 3,420 cases statewide—based on reported cases—over the seven-day period, a nearly 11% decrease from the previous week.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent update for COVID-19 “community levels,” only one New Mexico county—McKinley—remains “red,” aka has high levels—down from three the week prior. Santa Fe County is one of 23 counties with green, or low levels. The state map, which updates each Thursday for the prior seven-day period, uses a framework that combines case rates with hospital metrics. The community levels site has accompanying recommendations at the bottom of the page. The CDC also provides a quarantine and isolation calculator.Following the CDC’s endorsement last week of new Omicron variant-focused booster shots, the state health department on Friday said it expects the new boosters to begin arriving in the state this week and has been allotted 54,400 initial doses. According to a news release, the BA.5 Omicron sub-variant accounts for an approximately 80% of the COVID-19 cases in New Mexico. The new vaccines are to be administered as a single booster dose to those who previously completed a primary series of COVID-19 vaccines and those who have had one or two booster doses. They can only be administered if it has been at least two months since a person’s most recent vaccination.
Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; New Curative testing site: 9 am to 5 pm, Monday-Friday, Santa Fe Technology Department, 2516 Cerrillos Road; 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. Vaccines for children: Parents of children ages 6 months to 5 years can now schedule appointments for vaccinations at VaccineNM.org.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
As Leonard Cohen once sang, “Everybody knows the fight was fixed/The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.” Was Cohen singing about the captured economy? You be the judge. On the most recent episode of Santa Fe Institute’s Complexity podcast, host Michael Garfield talks with Johns Hopkins University Professor of Political Science Steven Teles, co-author of The Captured Economy, and Barnard College Professor of Economics Rajiv Sethi, an SFI external faculty member, about “how self-serving economic actors intervene in regulation to stifle innovation, increase inequality and contribute to the conditions in which violence can flourish.”
Displaying the traumatic Indian boarding school legacy
New Mexico artist Susan Hudson (Diné) talks to Hyperallergic magazine about the more than 40 quilts she has made to convey the stories born from Indian boarding schools. “A quilt can be the beginning of a conversation about boarding schools,” Hudson says. “Making quilts is my form of activism.” Her work is part of the Heard Museum in Phoenix’s exhibition Away From Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories, which has a touring version through 2025, as well as an audio tour through the museum’s app. As the story notes, the US Interior in May released the first report from its ongoing investigation into the devastating history of Indian boarding schools, under the leadership of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna). But not everyone will read a government report, University of Minnesota professor Brenda Child (Ojibwe), an advisor for the exhibit, says, and “the exhibit makes boarding school stories more accessible to the public.” Hudson’s 2019 quilt, “The Beginning of the End,” hangs near a display listing Indian boarding schools grouped by state, and includes imagery that highlights practices those who attended the Toadlena Boarding School in New Mexico experienced, such as being assigned new names and being forbidden from speaking their native languages.
Boo!
According to the grocery store candy aisle, Halloween is the next holiday in the queue. And according to The Travel, “Taos Is the ultimate Halloween destination.” Why? Because “this quiet little destination tucked into the mountains of New Mexico is home to a thousand years of history, is the rumored burial site of witches, and is the location of a bizarre murder.” Moreover, Taos’ artistic residents “love to show enthusiasm for the spooky holiday, adding to the fun during this time of year.” One example The Travel cites is Kit Carson Cemetery, “a spooky sight. One of the town’s legends tells of three witches that are buried here in unmarked graves. Travelers are invited to walk the cemetery, especially close to twilight hours, to catch unexplained phenomena such as strange buzzing and sightings!” In addition to wandering around the graveyard, the story recommends hiking and rafting (for fun, not fear), and visiting Alley Cantina, purportedly the oldest building in Taos, “full of its own rumors of ghosts, hauntings, and plenty of spooky tales.” The Taos Inn makes a fitting destination for travelers in search of “fantastic accommodations paired with a bit of dark and scary history,” as apparently it’s where “a man was found beheaded under bizarre circumstances nearly a hundred years ago.”
Feel the heat
The National Weather Service forecasts widespread haze today after noon on a sunny hot day with a high near 87 degrees. Northeast wind 5 to 15 mph will become southeast in the afternoon.
Thanks for reading! The Word isn’t sure why she ended up watching a video of actor Brendan Fraser weeping at the Venice Film Festival, but it led her to read about his new movie, which she thinks she will probably see (and, from the sounds of it, probably weep through).
