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Santa Fe judge orders Trump ally to testify in Georgia
Santa Fe lawyer John Eastman, an ally to former President Donald Trump, must appear later this month before a special grand jury in Georgia as part that state’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, following a ruling this week by First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer. Eastman has been linked to efforts to block congressional certification of the election results, and reportedly emailed Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani proposing they challenge the outcome of two US Senate runoff elections in Georgia. Giuliani testified in Georgia this week. The Albuquerque Journal reports District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said Eastman is not a “target” of Georgia’s grand jury but, rather, needed as a witness (Carmack-Altwies conducted the hearing for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, allowable under Uniform Act laws). “He has inside information about how all of this alleged interference in the election in Georgia in 2020 went down, and that’s what they would like to talk to him about,” Carmack-Altwies said. Eastman’s lawyer argued his client will be invoking the Fifth Amendment and, as such, should not be required to travel. Sommer did not find that argument compelling: “I do not think inconvenience rises to the level of undue hardship,” she said.
City will seek $22 mil to revamp Fogelson Library for public use
The City of Santa Fe says revamping Fogelson Library “to be a new 21st century central library” is one of its top five capital improvement priorities for funding requests in next year’s legislative session. The priorities follow a resolution the City Council approved last February to move forward redevelopment of the Midtown campus. The city hopes for $22 million in funding to further the library plan, along with approximately $12 million for infrastructure development at the Midtown site, another top priority. Maria Sanchez-Tucker, former Library Division director, spoke in favor of the new branch at the council’s Aug. 10 meeting. “This is truly a gift that we can give to the community,” she said. “It’s the one free space, the place of culture and knowledge for the city, that we have this wonderful opportunity to take advantage of and really start planning what a modern public library will be for this wonderful city.” She and current Library Division Director Margaret Neill hope to make use of Fogelson’s collection—currently not accessible to the public. That collection, former Fogelson Director Valerie Nye said, “is amazing, especially for people interested in studying art and literature, theater, opera—a lot of things that people in the Santa Fe community are interested in, and those books are not available to us.”
Disease expert expects rise in NM monkeypox cases
Thus far, New Mexico only has 16 cases of monkeypox, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But those numbers will likely rise, according to University of New Mexico Hospital Epidemiologist Dr. Meghan Brett. “I think New Mexico is often late to the game with every infection that I’ve seen,” she said in an interview published by UNM Health Sciences. “We weren’t the first state to be impacted by coronavirus, and it took a while to get here. This is not dissimilar.” In a news conference earlier this month, Acting Health Secretary Dr. David Scrase and state Epidemiologist Dr. Laura Parajón said the state had a limited supply of the JYNNEOS vaccine, was amping up its outreach to people at risk for monkeypox and had set up a call center for anyone interested in a vaccine (1-855-600-3453). As Brett notes, monkeypox “is generally occurring among men who have sex with men. More intense contact is probably what’s needed for transmission. That can be contact with the skin lesions themselves, or it can be transmitted by respiratory secretions, but it’s really more prolonged face-to-face contact where that’s going to happen.” DOH has not yet voluntarily released basic demographic information regarding the state’s monkeypox cases nor identified in which counties they were reported—information other states make available. On its monkeypox information page, DOH states, “At this time, the Department of Health will not be releasing any identifiable data to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.” The Santa Fe Reporter filed a public records request with DOH on Aug. 3 seeking basic information on New Mexico’s monkeypox cases, including: county of residence; age; gender; reported travel; and hospital status. The health department in turn said it required additional time to respond (there were 10 cases at the time) and requested until today as allowed under the Inspection of Public Records Act.
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 630; 604,810 total cases
Deaths: eight; Santa Fe County has had 335 total deaths; there have been 8,342 fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 160. Patients on ventilators: 13
Case rates: According to the state health department’s most recent report on geographical trends for the seven-day period of Aug. 8-14, Santa Fe County’s case rate continues to decline and was at 26.3, compared with 34 the prior week. The state recorded 4,500 total cases statewide—based on reported cases—over the seven-day period, a nearly 15% decrease from the previous week.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent update for COVID-19 “community levels,” Santa Fe County now has 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. Santa Fe is now one of 13 counties with green or low levels and only four—down from 11 last week—have “red” or high levels. The community levels site has accompanying recommendations at the bottom of the page. The CDC also provides a quarantine and isolation calculator.
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. 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
Author Celia C. Pérez grew up in New Jersey and resides in Chicago, but her new middle-school novel Tumble follows the adventures of 12-year-old Adela Ramirez, who lives in a small New Mexico town. In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, Pérez says she writes in part to challenge assumptions about what it would mean to grow up Latino in a small New Mexico town. “In media, I think we’re typically represented as, you know, that we’re big and boisterous. And there is this extended family of abuelos and aunts and uncles and cousins. And that wasn’t my experience growing up,” she says. In Tumble, Addie sets out to learn more about her unknown father and her “sleuthing takes her to a New Mexico ranch,” where her world and family expands to include numerous relatives (who also turn out to be professional wrestlers).
Happy Birthday, Santa Fe Indian Market
The exhibit Art of Indigenous Fashion opens at 5 pm today at IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, offering “insights into the approaches and perspectives of Indigenous designers beyond the visual and material qualities of their work.” Guest curator Amber-Dawn Bear Robe (Siksika Nation), an art history instructor at IAIA, talks about the exhibit (on display through Jan. 8, 2023) in a brief video, noting: “There is no one way to define Indigenous fashion, but what I can say is Indigenous fashion is the original fashion and design of North America.” Attendees should “expect some surprises” at tonight’s opening she says, including overlap with the Indigenous Fashion Show at 3 pm, Sunday, Aug. 21, part of this weekend’s Santa Fe Indian Market events.
Speaking of Indian Market and fashion, Vogue magazine previews 15 Indigenous artists “to know” at this year’s centennial event, a list that includes fashion designer Jamie Okuma (Luiseño-Shoshone-Bannock); designer Orlando Dugi (Diné); Santa Fe-based jeweler Keri Ataumbi (Kiowi); and perennial Indian Market award-winner, beadwork artist Elias Jade Not Afraid (Apsaalooké), to name a few. You’ll also find an overview of this weekend’s many Indian Market and Indian Market-adjacent events in this week’s SFR Picks. “It’s really exciting to finally have this event with no restrictions,” Kim Peone (Colville Confederated Tribes/Eastern band of Cherokee), executive director of Southwest Association of Indian Arts, tells SFR. “For me, it’s been more like Indian Market on steroids.” And remember, the Market is free and open to all. “Even though we’ve been doing events since the beginning of the year, the actual market is different,” Peone continues. “We just want people to come out and celebrate our birthday with us.”
All for climate!
The most recent installment of The Climate 202, the Washington Post’s climate newsletter, identifies US Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, as one of Congress’ “three climateers,” along with US Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and US Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI). “At a time when youth climate activists are putting pressure on the party, the three are relatively young—at least by Senate standards,” the Post notes. “Schatz is 49, Heinrich is 50 and Whitehouse is 66. The trio also come from parts of the country that are facing different climate disasters.” In the case of Heinrich, of course, New Mexico faces increasingly severe drought, as evidenced by the Rio Grande recently running dry. Schatz, Heinrich and Whitehouse, the story says, “have been meeting every week since 2019 to plan actions, legislation and social media campaigns around climate change. They have also spoken regularly at weekly closed-door Democratic lunches to keep climate top-of-mind for their colleagues.”
Bring an umbrella
Looks like it could be a wet Indian Market weekend out there. The National Weather Service gauges Santa Fe’s chance for rain today at 20%, with isolated storms after 3 pm. Today should be otherwise partly sunny with a high temperature near 80 degrees. The likelihood of rain increases to 50% tonight and 70% on Saturday, at which point the temperature is expected to drop into the high 60s (!). We could see more rain on Sunday, when high temperatures should rise back into the mid to high 70s.
Thanks for reading! In July, The Word read a story about corns, tomatoes and peaches and proceeded to eat almost nothing else for the last month, but she plans to branch out this weekend at the Santa Fe Farmers Market and try out some of these recipes featured recently in New Mexico Magazine.
