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It’s Monday, April 11, 2022
Three relief payments on the way to NM
New Mexicans are on deck to receive three cash infusions this summer now that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed House Bill 2, which enacts a $698 million economic relief measure to automatically send $500 payments to single tax filers and $1,000 to joint filers in two equal parts in June and August. That’s on top of payments due to go out in July under a previous measure from the regular legislative session that exclude upper-income residents. Income limits don’t apply to the newly approved payments and $20 million also was set aside largely for elderly people with little or no income who don’t ordinarily file taxes. The measure also makes provisions to help undocumented people obtain the cash. Democratic Rep. Christine Chandler of Los Alamos, chairwoman of the lead House committee on taxation, hailed the benefits as a way to combat increased prices for gas, groceries and other needs. “The rising fuel costs are hitting families, especially in our rural communities,” she said at an online news conference. “We are giving families relief now and also in the summer when they are preparing to send their kids back to school.” Lujan Grisham also signed the $50 million “junior bill” on Friday, authorizing money for projects across the state, including for a homeless shelter and community mental health center, domestic violence prevention, food pantries and other community service items in Santa Fe.
Rail Runner fares sliced
Traveling on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express is about to get a whole lot more affordable—at least for the summer. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Rio Metro Regional Transit District on Friday announced a 75% fare reduction beginning April 18 on all one-way, day pass and monthly passes. According to a news release, the RTD will shift operational costs to cover 50% of the fare reduction and the New Mexico Department of Transportation will cover the remainder. Reduced prices will remain in place through at least July 31. “Daily ridership on the Rail Runner is about 60% of pre pandemic ridership levels,” RTD director Terry Doyle said in a statement. “Now with more people returning to work and gas prices at an all-time high, we’re hoping that this reduced fare promotion encourages many to get back on the train, and also attracts those who have never commuted by rail to give it a try.” Lujan Grisham had asked legislators who recently wrapped a special session to include $1 million in the “junior bill” to cover a similar fare reduction, but the bill didn’t include that provision. “We are using every available tool in the state’s toolkit to deliver economic relief to New Mexicans,” said Lujan Grisham in a statement thanking the RTD. Fares are calculated depending on the number of zones a rider crosses. A fare from Santa Fe’s Zia Station to the Albuquerque Alvarado Center is five zones, for example. That one-way ticket is set to drop from $9 to $2.25. In other train-adjacent news, the Santa Fe Planning Commission last week approved a housing development on private land next to the Zia Station near the intersection of St. Francis Drive and Zia Road. Some of the buildings will be three stories tall and will also house businesses.
First week neared $10 million in cannabis sales
Cannabis retailers generated nearly $10 million in sales statewide between April 1 and 7, with Albuquerque and Las Cruces topping the list of sales by city, according to figures released Friday by the Cannabis Control Division. Santa Fe retailers reported the third highest sales, reporting $893,264 in total. New Mexico sales clocked in at $9.998 million in medical and adult-use combined, with adult-use sales alone bringing in $6.13 million. In addition to the larger cities, smaller communities along the Texas border made the top 10, including Hobbs, Sunland Park, Clovis and Carlsbad. Division Director Kristen Thomson said the first week of sales hasn’t wiped out the supply, as was true in other states as legalization launched. “In New Mexico, that was simply not the case,” Thomson said in a statement. “Customers and patients across the state were all able to get the products or medicine they wanted and needed. Through careful regulatory planning hand-in-hand with industry, New Mexico cannabis producers have done something that’s never been done before. This week is something we can all be proud of.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
New cases: 124; 518,941 total cases
Deaths: 9; Santa Fe County has had 267 total deaths; there have been 7,360 total fatalities statewide. Hospitalizations: 63; Patients on ventilators: 8
Breakthrough cases: According to the weekly vaccination report, over the four-week period of March 7 through April 4, 38.5% of COVID-19 cases in New Mexico were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 24.5% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 36.9% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 61%,18.6% and 20.4%. The percentages shift to 54.5%, 20% and 25.5% for fatalities.
Community transmission: According to the health department’s community transmission report for the two-week period of March 22 through April 4, only DeBaca County has low transmission. Nineteen counties have moderate transmission; 11, including Santa Fe County, have substantial transmission; and two have high rates of transmission. According to the report, Santa Fe County had 177 new cases during that two-week period and has a daily case per 100,000 population of 8.4. 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—31 of New Mexico’s counties—including Santa Fe County currently have “green”—aka low—levels, whereas Hidalgo County has a yellow, or medium, level. The CDC updates its map on Thursdays.
Vaccinations: 91% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 77.8% have completed their primary series; 46% of adults 18 years and older have had a booster shot; 12-17-year-old age group: 71.3% of people have had at least one dose and 61.7% have completed their primary series; Children ages 5-11: 39.3% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 31.5% have completed their primary. Santa Fe County: 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 87.4% have completed their primary series.
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 book that introduced the world to Rambo celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Hear Santa Fe author David Morrell discuss his book First Blood on the KSFR radio show “Cline’s Corners” with host Lynn Cline. The book kicked off the long-running movie series starring a greased up and gun-toting Sylvester Stallone, and Morrell postulates on the current landscape in the film industry, including the significance of a feature by a streaming service winning Best Picture at the Oscars this year—Coda by Apple TV.
Big yes to animals in need
The Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society is raising money and waiving adoption fees today as part of the statewide NM Luvs Pets Day to help needy animals. “When all of these animal welfare groups come together, it demonstrates how much more we can accomplish for animals in need,” said Murad Kirdar, public relations officer for the shelter. Santa Fe is among 13 organizations participating in the awareness effort with Animal Humane New Mexico. “In the past three weeks, we have received almost 30 underage kittens and puppies that need around-the-clock care, special food and medical attention,” says Kirdar. Read the latest edition of the “Heavy Petting” column by shelter CEO Jack Hagerman, who writes this month about how big dogs are often overlooked in shelters, but science indicates they might be the smarter choice.
Spring smoke
High winds Sunday led to “voluntary evacuations” for the communities of San Ignacio, Las Dispensas and Pendaries near the Hermit Peak Fire about 12 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where a Type 2 incident management team out of Arizona plans take command today. The fire started Wednesday as a controlled burn that spread outside its intended boundaries. It is burning in “steep, rugged, terrain with limited access by vehicle” and has grown to about 540 acres, according to Santa Fe National Forest officials. Four hotshot crews and three helicopters are among the resources already deployed, including163 firefighters. Forest officials say smoke may be visible from Gallinas, El Porvenir, San Pablo, Mineral Hill, San Geronimo, Gascon, Pendaries, Rociada, Mora, Ledoux, Las Vegas and along the I-25 corridor. In southeastern New Mexico, another planned burn went out of control near Dexter. Officials there say it blackened about 1,900 acres along the Pecos River west of Bottomless Lakes State Park. The fire started as a prescribed burn by the BLM on Thursday, but a fire whirl carried flames, debris and ash across the area and a wildfire had developed by early afternoon, the Roswell Daily Record reports.
Hold on to your hat
The National Weather Service warns that “a very dangerous fire weather pattern will persist for several days across the region as very windy and dry weather impacts New Mexico.” In Santa Fe, temperatures are forecast to reach 68, with a “red flag warning” in effect for wind, which begins from the south at 10 to 15 mph becoming southwest 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.
Thanks for reading! The Substitute Word spent much of the weekend pondering images in the cliffs at La Cieneguilla petroglyph trail and holed up with Tracing Time: Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau by Craig Childs, who came through Santa Fe last month for a talk at Collected Works.
