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Morning Word
Santa Fe Animal shelter quarantines sick dogs
The Santa Fe Animal Shelter will operate on a restricted basis, only accepting new animal impounds under certain conditions, and will not release any animals for the next two weeks following an “outbreak” of Canine Infectious Respiratory Disease, according to Wednesday afternoon press releases from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office and Santa Fe Police Department’s Animal Services Division. Shelter Operations Director Dylan Moore tells SFR the agencies’ use of the word “outbreak” is inappropriate, however, given just two of 120 dogs tested positive for the illness, and staff instituted the quarantine as a precaution. “What we’re asking is to keep non-emergency intakes out of the shelter, which is following the best practices guidelines from basically every governing body over shelters and shelter medicine. In order to keep a couple of sick dogs from becoming a lot of sick dogs, you want to minimize the incoming population, and that allows us to better monitor our existing population,” Moore says. CIRD has a relatively fast onset and a rapid cycle, he says, with animals typically becoming sick approximately five days after exposure and the disease running its course in about seven to 10 days. The sick dogs have been isolated to prevent the disease spreading. Moore says people can still visit the shelter to see cats, rabbits and guinea pigs. “The disease is not zoonotic,” he says. “It doesn’t jump to other species.”
Docs in NM’s Meta lawsuit show company knew about dangers
The Associated Press reports that newly unredacted content in New Mexico’s lawsuit against Facebook’s parent company Meta underscores the company’s complicity in endangering children’s welfare. New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez first filed the lawsuit in state district court in December, which alleges the social media sites are “prime locations for predators to trade child pornography and solicit minors for sex,” Torrez said; the suit was later moved to federal court at Meta’s request, but the state yesterday filed a motion to return the case to New Mexico’s courts. “Meta’s real goal is not to establish federal jurisdiction,” the motion reads. “As demonstrated by its willingness to flout well-established law, Meta seeks one thing: to shunt the state’s important government enforcement action into federal multidistrict litigation and thereby delay prosecution of its case. Meta should not be permitted to contort the federal removal process or waste the federal judiciary’s time simply because it is afraid of promptly facing a New Mexico jury in a New Mexico court. This court should reject Meta’s baseless removal and remand this action to state court.” As reported by the AP, the redacted materials include “internal employee messages and presentations from 2020 and 2021″ that reveal Meta knew about “issues such as adult strangers being able to contact children on Instagram, the sexualization of minors on that platform, and the dangers of its ‘people you may know’ feature that recommends connections between adults and children” and yet “dragged its feet when it came to addressing the issues.”
Oil and gas on the docket
Lawmakers will encounter half a dozen bills during the 30-day legislative session that began Tuesday proposing changes to the state’s oil and gas industry. Capital & Main reports those changes include: new well placement restrictions, along with increased fines and higher royalty payments. A trio of bills sponsored by Rep. Debra Sariñana, D-Albuquerque, would significantly limit the use of fresh water in oil and gas operations and require detailed reports on how water is used; impose mandatory fines for spills of chemicals, oil and so-called produced water that comes up alongside oil and gas; and create child health protection zones that bar new oil and gas operations of any kind within a mile of any school facility, and require that all existing operations within those zones end by 2028. That last issue in particular gets Sariñana fired up. “Kids shouldn’t go to school and get sick,” she says. New Mexico is the second-largest oil producer in the US following Texas and a top-10 natural gas producer as well. And while the state has enacted some of the most stringent oil and gas production regulations in the country since Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham came to office in 2019 with a drive to reduce the state’s carbon emissions, those have curbed neither production nor related greenhouse gas emissions.
GOP lawmakers seek governor’s impeachment
Two Republicans from the state House of Representatives are once again seeking to impeach Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. State Reps. Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, and Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo (here’s an Albuquerque Journal photo of them on the House floor) reportedly filed the articles of impeachment Tuesday, the first day of the legislative session. Both also attempted to call for a special session in September to impeach the governor but did not collect enough signatures to do so, the Journal reports. The legislators’ beef stems from Lujan Grisham’s public health emergency restriction on firearms, which has also been legally challenged. “Governor Lujan Grisham is a disgrace to New Mexico,” Lord said in a statement. “The rights of New Mexicans are not up for debate, and no matter how hard Lujan Grisham tries to violate the constitution, she will never succeed. I stood firm against her tyranny when she tried to use a Covid health order to take our guns, and I will continue to stand firm against her continued attempts to destroy our Republic.” In a statement to the Journal, spokeswoman Maddy Hayden characterized the impeachment filing as a “political stunt” and pointed out that the effort comes from “two legislators whose other priorities include banning necrophilia, building a border wall between Mexico and New Mexico, castrating sex offenders, reinstating the death penalty—and raising quail without a permit.”
Listen up
Today’s playlist comes from Ivan Calhoun, self-described as “one of the goofy old boy rugby players of Santa Fe,” who “can easily be found catching live music in town or in the region often.” We will take submissions to the 2024 Morning Word Playlist Project through the end of the week, and continue sharing them at least through the end of the month. Five songs from any genre and any era. Submit here.
1.”Morning Song” by the Avett Brothers: “Since this is a ‘Morning’ Word Playlist plus there is such emotional sentiment in the lyrics.”
2. “I Am the Highway” by Audioslave: “A very poignant song with incredible vocals by Chris Cornell, who all of us dearly miss.”
3. “Rain” by Greg Allman: “One of the greatest Beatles covers of all time. Also another that is dearly missed.”
4. “Unwed Fathers” by John Prine: “And another dearly missed singer/songwriter who tells such a truthful story. Any of the covers of this song from Tammy Wynette to Sarah Jarosz have the same impact.”
5. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by Sarah Jarosz: “Since I mentioned Sarah, this is one of the most amazing U2 covers ever done. So glad she’s performing at the Lensic this spring.”
Hit the road
Valentine’s Day arrives in less than a month, but the advice for lovebird travelers has begun. Travel & Leisure magazine offers road trip suggestions for couples, with Route 66 appearing on the list of 10 of the most romantic ones in the US. While on Route 66, T&L suggests stopping in Albuquerque to “soak in” its “unique vintage shops,” and then stop by “the historic Route 66 neon sign for a photo op.” (Does this sound romantic to anyone?). Meanwhile Boss Hunting, “Australia’s leading men’s lifestyle website” also turns an eye to Route 66 as part of its series on its favorite spots in the US. Tucumcari and Santa Rosa both receive shout-outs for their Route 66 ambiance à la neon signs, historic motels and car museums, “but otherwise spend most of your time in New Mexico in the fascinating city of Santa Fe,” Boss Hunting says. Santa Fe receives another shout-out from down under in Boss Hunting’s roundup of the 20 most beautiful hotels in the US. Four Seasons Rancho Encantado makes the list and “feels like a set piece from Breaking Bad,” Boss Hunting writes (probably not the association Four Seasons is aiming for) “consisting of well-appointed casitas that look out to dramatic rock formations and dusty hiking trails. Start your day on a mountain bike or in a hot air balloon, then spend the afternoon perusing the hundreds of local art galleries and sampling one of the most colourful culinary scenes in the USA.”
Adventures with horoscopes
Regular readers may recall last month this newsletter highlighted a Condé Nast magazine story identifying best travel picks per the Zodiac, wherein should a surfeit of Aquarians (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) appear in Santa Fe, we’ll know which lifestyle-magazine-industrial-complex to blame. Closer to home, New Mexico Magazine has customized intrastate activities for every astrological sign. So any Aquarians heeding Condé Nast’s call to visit Santa Fe might, while here, want to venture outside the City Different limits, Olivia Bonfiglio a bookseller at The Ark Bookstore here, says. “Roswell would be super cool for a weird, wacky Aquarian,” Bonfiglio tells the magazine, which notes that “the independent and free-thinking air sign would have a blast contemplating the mysteries of the cosmos at the International UFO Museum and Research Center or expanding their mind at the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art. Plus, the nearby Bottomless Lakes State Park taps into the Water Bearer’s big-thinker mindset.” As for Santa Fe activities, Geminis should head to Meow Wolf, Charlene R. Johnson, author of the Skydance Esoteric Astrology column for the Questa del Rio News, says, because this “airy-fairy sign doesn’t like being pinned down.”
Downright balmy
The National Weather Service forecasts another sunny day, with a high temperature near 46 degrees and north wind 15 to 20 mph.
Thanks for reading! The Word enjoyed Erica Lies and Elly Lonon’s McSweeney feature “If Zeus Had Instagram.”
