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Morning Word
State Supreme Court to hear redistricting arguments today
A survey of New Mexico residents released last September regarding the state’s redistricting process voiced strong support for an independent process. Specifically, 77% of people who responded supported creating an independent New Mexico redistricting commission that would draw the lines of legislative and congressional maps without the Legislature’s participation. A House Joint Resolution pre-filed by state Rep. Natalie Figueroa, D-Albuquerque, in advance of the legislative session starting Jan. 17, proposes an amendment to the state Constitution that would do just that. Kind of. If passed by the Legislature as a proposed constitutional amendment and then approved by voters next year, the bill—in its current form—would assign the state Ethics Commission the responsibility of appointing people to the redistricting commission. As written, however, some leaders in the Legislature would be able to eliminate some potential candidates (the bill also prohibits recent elected and appointed officials from serving on the commission). Stay tuned for that bill’s fate in this year’s session kicking off next week. At 1:30 pm this afternoon, however, the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the state Republican Party’s lawsuit alleging partisan gerrymandering by Democrats during the last redistricting (watch the hearing here). In a nutshell, the court will decide—possibly today—whether that lawsuit can continue. A district judge last spring denied requests from defendants—the governor and various legislative leaders—to dismiss the case, but paused it due to the pending primarily election at the time. Lawyers for the governor et al. say the case lies outside the judiciary’s jurisdiction.
NM delegation wants Hermits Peak rules changed
The state’s congressional delegation wants the Federal Emergency Management Agency to amend the rules for how the agency awards funds to New Mexico residents impacted by the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. The agency is taking comments through Jan. 13 regarding regulations for the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act. US Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, along with US Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández, Melanie Stansbury and Gabe Vasquez, filed a letter requesting several changes. They include expanding the language about who qualifies as an injured person under the act, which currently limits that definition to people impacted directly by the fire. “The areas impacted by the fires and surrounding communities faced significant flooding in the aftermath of the fires that was directly caused by the fire, and it was congressional intent that the Act cover the subsequent flooding,” the letter reads. The delegation also objects to the rules capping reforestation and revegetation awards to 25% of the pre-fire value of the structure and lot, which the letter says “does not take into account the degree of damage or the effort required to remediate the damage.” While Luján told SFR the bill is modeled on the legislation that compensated people impacted by the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire, “it is important that the final regulations for this Act, reflect that unlike the Cerro Grande Fire, the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire destroyed significant forested private lands, communities, acequias, ranches and farms,” the letter notes. Before his term ended, former New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas also filed comments with FEMA advocating for an independent claims manager with experience practicing law in New Mexico to oversee the process of reviewing New Mexico’s claims for losses and to provide a clear appellate process.
LANL scientists debate funding bias
Two Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists are among those disputing a new study that finds bias against Asian scientists’ federal funding rates. The New York Times reports on a November paper published in eLife that found Asian scientists’ success rate in securing federal grants from the National Science Foundation—which awards billions in research dollars annually—fell approximately 20% below the overall rate, and has done so for 20 years. Married LANL physicists Charles Reichhardt and Cynthia J. Olson Reichhardt, however, argue in a preprint against racial bias as the cause of those funding disparities. “The conclusion they draw from their paper isn’t tenable,” Charles Reichhardt tells the Times. “There are more variables in the data that you need to take into account, and when you take those variables into account, the effect goes away.” The Reichhardts’ paper purports scientists’ success rates should be compared at different stages of their careers and that Asian scientists often apply for grants in more competitive disciplines such as computer science and engineering. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory geoscientist Christine Yifeng Chen, lead author of the original paper, however, says the Reichhardts “analysis also relies on assumptions—in particular, that the increasing percentage of proposals from Asian scientists reflects a surge in the hiring of young Asian scientists.”
FBI, APD investigate shootings targeting elected officials
ICYMI, the FBI and numerous other law enforcement agencies are investigating a string of shootings in Albuquerque aimed at elected Democratic officials. Law enforcement officials revealed the shootings in a news conference last Thursday, Jan. 5, in which they urged anyone with information to call the police at (505) 242-COPS or Crime Stoppers at (505) 843-STOP. The news conference followed what law enforcement said was the fifth shooting in the past month, and appeared to be aimed at the downtown law office of state Sen. Moe Maestas. The first shooting, APD says, occurred Dec. 4, 2022, at the home of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa in Southeast Albuquerque. The second shooting occurred Dec. 11, 2022 at the home of then-Bernalillo Commissioner Debbie O’Malley in the North Valley. The third shooting occurred Jan. 3, 2023, at the home of State Sen. Linda Lopez in Southwest Albuquerque, during which least eight shots were fired at her home after midnight. Following the news conference, APD said they also believe newly elected Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s former campaign office was shot at in December. “Our elected officials have chosen to serve, they should never be made to feel in danger in the comfort of their own homes,” Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller said in a statement, adding that he had spoken with all of the victims and “we are working with them and other elected officials [to] help provide any information about these incidents and also help them feel safe and be safe.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Jan. 6: New cases: 303; 660,725 total cases. Deaths: seven; Santa Fe County has had 380 total deaths; 8,849 total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 85. Patients on ventilators: six
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Jan. 5 “community levels” map shows just one county categorized as “yellow”—medium risk—for COVID-19: San Juan County. The rest of the state—including Santa Fe County—is green, aka has low risk. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: Receive four free at-home COVID-19 tests per household via COVIDTests.gov; Check availability for additional free COVID-19 tests through Project ACT; CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
The Children’s Hour public radio program has launched a new six-episode series, “A Brief History of the American Southwest for Kids,” which covers 23,000 years of history, and was produced through live virtual field trips to White Sands National Park; Chaco Canyon Culture Park; A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Cultural Center; Los Luceros Historic Site; and two “back in time” field trips to the Pueblo Revolt. According to a news release, the new series is geared toward children in 3rd through 12th grades; and was reviewed for accuracy by a team that included New Mexico State Historian Rob Martinez, multiple history professors, Pueblo educators, local tribal historians and others. Listen to the series, and find the accompanying learning guides here.
Capturing the aftermath of Roe v. Wade
In advance of the US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last June, the Los Angeles Times formed a team to report on the abortion issue. LA Times staff photographer Gina Ferazzi writes that she traveled throughout the West as part of that team, and some of her “most poignant photographs” came from the University of New Mexico Center for Reproductive Health in Albuquerque. “I was surprised by how many patients wanted to tell their story,” Ferazzi writes in the introduction to her photo essay, which includes several images shot in New Mexico. One depicts the mother of four children as she swallows the first pill for a medication abortion as her 3-year-old daughter plays on the floor at the Center for Reproductive Health, as instructed by Dr. Lisa Hofler. “Oh, my gosh, the magnitude for us is going to be tremendous,” Hofler told the Times of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. “This ripples far beyond New Mexico, and they’re going to be coming to us.” In another image, an antiabortion activist kneels at the graves of fetal remains at Sandia Memory Gardens cemetery in Albuquerque.
Place in the sun
Barron’s gives Santa Fe its moment in the sun, noting the city transcends Georgia O’Keeffe and Jonathan Larson and is, thus, “more than just flowers and sunshine—it’s a high desert city on the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains, full of art and culture. And in the winter, it’s a skier’s dream.” The story has shout-outs for Meow Wolf and Santa Fe’s margarita trail, particularly the concoction available at Luminaria restaurant at Inn & Spa at Loretto (pomegranate, strawberry and jalapeno, along with versions featuring smoked sage and one named for the property’s “resident ghost”). The Compound, Sazón and Altar Spirits also receive recognition. But Ski Santa Fe—often neglected in the national press—garners glowing accolades, with Barron’s noting the “mountain offers everything from challenging glades to introductory tree runs for young skiers. The only thing missing are the crowds, though you might find yourself rubbing elbows at the mid-mountain bar, Totemoff’s, which offers good beer, tasty tamales, and a green chile stew.” While Taos Ski Valley is missing from this particular story, it shows up in Vogue magazine’s roundup of the best ski resorts in the US, with yet another Georgia O’Keeffe reference, along with one for Ansel Adams, both of whom, Vogue writes, are two examples of artists who “have long been seduced by Taos’s dramatic, rugged landscape, which offers a surprising variety of ski terrain.” Nearby Angel Fire and Red River ski areas, the story adds, both offer “many more options that are both family-friendly and affordable, while “downtown” Taos “is bristling with Southwestern energy via the remaining adobe-style architecture (remaining?) that now houses charming art galleries, restaurants and inns.”
The calm before the possible storm
The National Weather Service forecasts a nearly balmy day: sunny, with a high temperature near 49 degrees and northeast wind around 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Tomorrow, temps may even reach the low 50s before a storm-and possible snow showers emerge Tuesday evening.
Thanks for reading! The Word isn’t sure how she feels about “smell-based adventures,”—such as a “Follow Your Nose” museum tour—becoming “the next big thing in travel.”
