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NM Dems decry Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade
New Mexico Democratic officials yesterday responded in force to a Politico story reporting the US Supreme Court has voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and written a draft opinion to that effect. The court yesterday confirmed the report’s authenticity but said no final decision has been made by the court or its members. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham described herself in a statement as “outraged and horrified” by the draft opinion, noting that the “threat of the Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade is precisely why we repealed New Mexico’s criminal abortion ban, ensuring that New Mexico women have access to safe, high-quality, and legal reproductive care regardless of the Court’s devastating decision.” (the state Republican party released a statement “hailing” the draft opinion). US Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, called the draft opinion a “direct threat to a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions and a dangerous step toward dismantling every American’s right to privacy,” and said the court’s decision to take on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization adds to the reasons the US Senate “must urgently pass the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify reproductive rights.” Approximately 200 people attended a protest yesterday at the federal courthouse downtown, including Santa Fe City Councilor Sig Lindell, who told attendees she’d had to dig deep into her closet to find her old, pink, American Civil Liberties Union T-shirt emblazoned with, “My body is not public property.” Clearly, Lindell said, the fight to protect reproductive choice will continue. “We marched years and decades ago, and we’ll march again,” she said. “We’re not done. We thought we were, but we’re not.”
Gov requests federal disaster declaration
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced yesterday that rather than wait for the conclusion of New Mexico’s wildfire season, she was immediately requesting a presidential disaster declaration. Such designations, she said during an afternoon news conference, will “unlock nearly unlimited resources to make states and communities and individuals whole.” Officials say approximately 15,500 people have been evacuated due to the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, along with 800 from the Cooks Peak Fire and 200 from the Cerro Pelado Fire. Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon, the governor said, has destroyed 166 homes “that we know of,” but that number is highly likely to rise as officials are able to make assessments currently out of reach due to danger. Lujan Grisham also indicated the state would expect some type of reparation, given that Hermits Peak grew out of a prescribed burn. “This isn’t our first situation where the federal government put us in real harm’s way,” she said, referencing the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, which also began as a prescribed burn, has been estimated to have cost $1 billion in damages and prompted Congress to pass a compensation act in its wake.
Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon, as of last night, had grown to 147,909 acres and 20% containment. In a briefing last night, fire officials continued encouraging residents to monitor evacuation news from official sources, and said they would be taking advantage of slightly improved weather on Thursday and Friday to make progress on the fire in advance of what is likely to be red flag weather again over the weekend. As of last night, the Cerro Pelado fire in the Jemez Mountains was about 5.5 miles from Los Alamos National Laboratory, with crews particularly focused on the fire’s northeast section and has burned approximately 25,000 acres. A LANL news release said if the fire moves close to lab property, all employees who can telework could be shifted to maximum telework status “as part of an effort to reduce the number of employees who might have to evacuate” should the fire threaten either the lab or town.
Montoya trial begins
Opening statements are expected today in one of Santa Fe’s most anticipated trials in years. Estevan Montoya was 16 when he shot 18-year-old Fedonta “JB” White at a high school drinking party in Chupadero. The trial is expected to last two weeks. A dozen Santa Fe residents, including eight men and four women, will decide whether the August 2020 gunshot that killed White, a well-known local basketball star was murder. Prosecutors have charged Montoya, now 18, with first-degree murder and other crimes and are seeking adult penalties. Montoya’s defense team say he never intended to shoot White and was protecting himself. Montoya has been held at the Santa Fe County Adult Correctional Facility since April 19, jail records show. He’s been detained in different jails since his arrest. After learning he had been discussing a possible plea deal with fellow prisoners, Chief Deputy District Attorney Blake Nichols told the judge Tuesday: “We’re way beyond a plea deadline.” SFR will have daily coverage of the trial.
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 165; 523,023 total cases
Deaths: 12; Santa Fe County has had 276 total deaths; there have been 7,528 total fatalities statewide. Hospitalizations: 55; Patients on ventilators: one
Transmission: According to the most recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “community levels” tracking system—which uses case rates along with two hospital metrics in combination to determine the state of the virus on a county level—32 of New Mexico’s counties currently have “green”—aka low—levels, whereas Lea County is set at yellow, or medium, as are three Texas counties on New Mexico’s border. The CDC updates its map on Thursdays.
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
The most recent episode of the Growing Forward podcast, a collaboration between New Mexico PBS and NM Political Report, looks at entrepreneurship and equity in New Mexico’s nascent cannabis industry. The state’s legalization bill, as SFR has reported, requires the state to enact procedures that promote and encourage participation in the industry by people whose communities have been disproportionately harmed by prohibition, no later than Jan. 1, 2022. Hosts Megan Kamerick and Andy Lyman talk with residents who are hoping to participate in the new cannabis economy.
MIOFIA director looks back
Museum of International Folk Art Director Khristaan Villela will be leaving his post in June after about six years to join the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, California. Villela spoke with SFR about his new job and about his time at MOIFA, saying he was particularly proud of bringing the traveling exhibit about Alexander Girard organized by Germany’s Vitra Design Museum. The museum’s Girard Wing turns 40 this year, he notes, and “it was an amazing accomplishment that our team here, including our in-house curator, Laura Addison, were able to work with the Vitra to bring those remarkable objects of contemporary mid-modern design to Santa Fe. It was kind of mind-blowing to me to see the connection between the pieces of folk art on display and how it had an afterlife in Girard’s design practice.”
Don’t sleep on Albuquerque
“Hundreds of thousands” of tourists come to New Mexico to visit Santa Fe and Taos, using Albuquerque only for its airport. So says Forbes magazine, which proclaims “informed” visitors will be rewarded for taking advantage of Albuquerque’s art, culture and food. A don’t miss, the magazine says, includes the Frontier Restaurant for New Mexican grub and a “jaw-dropping collection of paintings from artists with connections to the state.” Other must-see stops include Hotel Chaco, where guests will see Joe Cajero’s (Jemez Pueblo) bronze sculpture Oneness, and be greeted by staff attired in uniforms designed by “Project Runway” contestant Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo). The Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, University of New Mexico Art Museum and Albuquerque Museum also receive notice, the latter of which includes an exhibit from 2022 Guggenheim Fellow Cannupa Hanska Luger (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara and Lakota): “Future Ancestral Technologies.” Next month, the Albuquerque Museum will open “Traitor, Survivor, Icon: The Legacy of La Malinche” (June 11), featuring art by some New Mexican artists and receiving rave reviews, such as this one yesterday in the Los Angeles Times.
Slight cool down
According to the National Weather Service today will be sunny and a little bit cooler with a high near 66 degrees and breezy with a west wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon and winds gusting as high as 5 mph. We remain under a red flag warning today.
Thanks for reading! The Word is giving her eyes a little rest by gazing at the winners from the Olympus Image of the Year Awards for microscopic photography—and may even download the wallpaper package to replace her desktop image with one of the multinucleate spores of a soil fungus.
