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COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 181 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total so far to 196,997. The health department has designated 177,930 of those cases as recovered. Bernalillo County had 78 new cases, followed by San Juan County with 31. Both Sandoval and Santa Fe counties had eight cases.
The state also announced 12 additional deaths; there have now been 4,039 fatalities. As of yesterday, 130 people were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Currently, 57.2% of New Mexicans have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 41.1% are fully vaccinated. In Santa Fe County, 67.5% have had at least one dose and 46.2% are fully inoculated.
Health Secretary Dr. Tracie Collins and Human Services Secretary Dr. David Scrase will provide a COVID-19 update at 1 pm today, which will stream live on the DOH Facebook page, and be available with Spanish language interpretation on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s YouTube page. In response to questions from SFR, Health Communications Director Matt Bieber said the health officials may respond to yesterday’s updated guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which stated that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks outdoors “except in certain crowded settings and venues.”
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here. If you’ve had experiences with COVID-19, we would like to hear from you.
Justice Vigil announces retirement
Yesterday, state Supreme Court Justice Barbara J. Vigil, the longest-serving member of the current court, announced she plans to retire at the end of June. Prior to joining the court in December 2012, Vigil served as a District Court judge in the First Judicial District for approximately 12 years, presiding over Children’s Court for a decade. She served as the Supreme Court’s chief justice from 2014 to 2016. “It has been a tremendous honor to serve as a judge and justice over the past 21 years,” Vigil said in a statement. “The time has come for me to step down from the Supreme Court so that I may devote my time and energy to serving vulnerable communities in a more direct manner. I have enjoyed fulfilling the critical legal work of the Court, but perhaps equally rewarding has been the opportunity to work with countless professionals and volunteers to bring forth initiatives designed to improve our system of justice.” A news release regarding Vigil’s retirement notes she advocated during the recent legislative session for a court-backed measure to improve legal representation for children and parents in abuse and neglect cases, in addition to instituting and presiding over two juvenile drug court programs to provide effective drug treatment for Santa Fe and Rio Arriba county youths charged with drug offenses. The state Judicial Nominating Commission will interview applicants for Vigil’s seat and recommend nominees to the governor for possible appointment.
Council hearing on city budget tonight
At 6 pm tonight, the Santa Fe City Council will consider the budget for the coming fiscal year, following a series of Finance Committee meetings over the last two weeks reviewing and ultimately approving Mayor Alan Webber’s proposal. Tonight’s meeting will include a public hearing; details on how to watch and contribute either live or written comments available here. The $348.6 million budget represents an 11% increase over the FY21 fiscal year budget. Among other items, it includes a $3 million investment in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and money to create an eviction hotline; $1 million to improve parks and another $1 million for recreation; increased funding for Spanish translation of public information; and a 4% pay increase for all city employees (3% for directors). You can read some of the budget’s highlights, as identified by Finance Department Director Mary McCoy, here.
House Republicans want CYFD investigation
Yesterday, via news release, New Mexico House Republicans said they have requested the state Attorney General and Auditor to investigate the Children, Youth and Families Department for potential violations to the state’s public records law. The request follows a Searchlight New Mexico story that says CYFD staff have been using the privacy-driven Signal app, rather than traditional email or phone texting services, and has set up its messages to automatically delete. “What we have see over the past year is a government that has hidden itself away in a maze of virtual walls,” House Minority Leader Jim Townsend of Artesia said in a statement. “For the leadership in any state agency to think that they can circumvent transparency by deleting public documents is a slap in the face to New Mexicans who have placed their trust in public service.” Open government advocates echoed the statement in Searchlight’s story, with New Mexico Foundation for Open Government Director Melanie Majors saying: “You can’t just encrypt and automatically delete communications between state employees.That’s no different than putting official documents in the shredder at the end of every day.” Majors also noted that improper destruction of public records is a fourth-degree felony. CYFD Secretary Brian Blalock tells Searchlight the department began using Signal when the COVID-19 pandemic began, partly as a technology upgrade required to protect confidential records. He says none of the destroyed messages were subject to the state’s open records act.
Listen up
The Augmented Humanity podcast, produced in partnership by the New Mexico Humanities Council and KUNM, has spent April focusing on Indigenous language and culture, speaking with MoniGarr, founder of MoniGarr.com, a small tech company based in the Akwesasne Indian Reservation, which develops XR—aka extended reality—solutions and custom software, with a focus on Indigenous language revival, futurism and culture. Catch the most recent episodes here.
Secret impressions
How did the Impressionists view the world, and how did artists such as Manet, Monet and Cézanne evolve from being critically rejected to having their works become so beloved? In the film Secret Impressionists, curators Claire Durand-Ruel (the great-great-granddaughter of Impressionists’ art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel) and Marianne Mathieu accompany audiences as they unveil 50 previously unseen works by Impressionist masters Manet, Caillebotte, Renoir, Monet, Cézanne, Signac, Sisley and Morisot, and discuss the art revolution sparked by the Impressionist movement. The Lensic Performing Arts hosts at-home viewings of the film today through April 28 ($10), but you will have to choose a specific day and time to watch.
Luhan’s legacy
In 2018, novelist Rachel Cusk told the New Yorker she wasn’t “interested in character because I don’t think character exists anymore.” But her most recent novel, Second Place (her first since the Outline trilogy), “owes a debt to Lorenzo in Taos, Mabel Dodge Luhan’s 1932 memoir of the time D. H. Lawrence came to stay with her in Taos, New Mexico,” Cusk says in the book’s afterward. Dwight Garner delves into this reveal for the New York Times, writing: “You don’t need to have read Luhan’s memoir (I hadn’t until this week) to enjoy Cusk’s novel. Luhan’s book is a treat, though, and deserves to be better known. Lawrence was irritable and intense, as is the painter L in Cusk’s novel.” Moreover, Garner notes, both books are addressed to “Jeffers.” In Luhan’s book, “this was her friend, the poet Robinson Jeffers. In Cusk’s novel, Jeffers’s identity remains a mystery. Someone could write a term paper on the overlap between the books.”
Perfect storm
Look for all kinds of weather today, the wet kind—we have an 80% chance of precipitation in the form of scattered showers before 9 am, then scattered showers and thunderstorms between 9 am and noon, then showers and possibly a thunderstorm after noon. The high temperature will near 56 degrees and it will be breezy, with a northeast wind 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 35 mph. The chances for rain drop to 50% tonight with more scattered showersbefore 9 pm.
Thanks for reading! The Word is finding all the talk about how introverts and extroverts will adapt to post-pandemic life a little tiring (because she’s a self-diagnosed ambivert), but this was an interesting interview between two Atlantic staff writers with opposing personality types.
