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COVID-19 by the numbers
New Mexico yesterday reported 2,433 new COVID-19 cases for the four-day period of Oct. 9-12, bringing the statewide total so far to 261,370; DOH has designated 231,884 of those cases as recovered.
Bernalillo County had 240 new cases, followed by San Juan County with 164 and Santa Fe County had the third highest number of new cases in the state: 62.
The state also announced 16 additional deaths, 14 of them recent and two from more than 30 days ago, including a Santa Fe County man in his 30s who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. There have now been 167 total fatalities in Santa Fe County and 4,869 statewide. As of yesterday, 308 people were hospitalized with COVID-19, 14 fewer than Friday.
Currently, 80.9% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 71.4% are fully vaccinated. In the 12-17-year-old age group, the state is currently reporting that 61.9% people have had at least one dose and 53.3% are fully inoculated; these percentages represent a decline since last week—SFR continues to have a pending request to the health department for information regarding that discrepancy. In Santa Fe County, among those 18 years and older, 91.8% have had at least one dose and 81.7% are fully vaccinated.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Webber widens fundraising lead
Candidates in the Nov. 2 City of Santa Fe election have filed their second round of campaign finance reports, with incumbent Mayor Alan Webber continuing to widen his lead. Webber added approximately $24,000 in individual contributions, about $3,500 in business contributions and another $3,300 or so in in-kind contributions, bringing his total cumulative fundraising so far to more than $388,000. His campaign reports having spent, thus far, more than $290,000. City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler’s campaign reports raising another $13,000 in individual contributions this reporting period, along with about $7,500 in business contributions and $2,400 in kind contributions, bringing her total haul thus far to almost $133,000; Vigil Coppler’s campaign reports having about $91,000 cash on hand. Candidate Alexis Martinez Johnson raised about $6,400 this reporting period in individual contributions and $600 in in-kind contributions; she has thus far raised about $16,600 and spent close to $6,000. Among all City Council candidates, incumbent District 1 Councilor Sig Lindell, who faces three challengers in her own race, has raised more than $80,000, and reported an additional $2,300 or so in the most recent period. Among her competitors, challenger Brian Patrick Gutierrez has $15,000 to spend as a result of public financing, whereas Joe Hoback has raised a little over $8,000 and Roger Carson has raised $2,600 and borrowed $11,000.
Gov outlines forthcoming priorities
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham plans to emphasize public safety, bail reform and transforming New Mexico into a hub for hydrogen development during the 2022 legislative session, according to remarks she made yesterday during a lunch hosted by the state chapter of the commercial real estate association NAIOP. The state anticipates approximately $1.4 billion in additional spending power in the coming year as a result of federal funds, coupled with a rebounding oil and gas industry. That additional money, the governor said, “means that we have incredible resources at our disposal to do any number of things.” Lujan Grisham, who will run for re-election next year, told attendees her three priorities will build on the successes thus far of her administration: “I stand before you today feeling really good about where we are, and about our potential future,” she said. As it relates to public safety and bail reform, the governor said she plans to ask for $100 million to help fund efforts to hire 1,000 officers across the state and require people charged with crimes involving violent weapons to show proof they can be safely released. The governor outlined her vision for transforming New Mexico into a hub for hydrogen development on the national Everything About Hydrogen podcast last month. Environmental groups, however, have raised concerns about whether hydrogen represents a clean alternative to fossil fuels.
Down by the river
If you love the Santa Fe River and perhaps know a little something about water issues, consider applying to serve on the Santa Fe River Commission. The City of Santa Fe is now accepting applications for four positions (three with voting privileges, one as an alternate who participates in discussions and can vote if a voting member is absent) for the commission, which acts as an advisory group on issues related to the river’s management, riparian corridor and the watershed. According to a news release, the city reinstated the commission in 2006 to provide advice on various subjects, including: the downtown river corridor; master plan financing and implementation of the river park; the Santa Fe River Fund; repairs and improvements to the river and the arroyos; urban watershed health and function; vegetation management; target flow program; the treated effluent management plan; and art along the river. Applicants must submit a letter of interest and a brief resume by 5 pm, Nov. 30 to Zoe Isaacson, river and watershed project administrator, at zrisaacson@santafenm.gov. The time commitment includes dedicating a few hours per month on commission agenda items and attending a monthly meeting from 6 to 8 pm on the second Thursday of each month. Interested members of the public can also contact Commission Chairwoman Rachel Kullman at Rachel@kullmanwater.com.
Listen up
Think you know everything there is to know about pizza? Think again. Francisco Migoya, on the other hand, may be able to make that claim. Migoya, chef and co-author of the new book, Modernist Pizza, spent four years working on the tome, which has 1,708 pages, weighs 35.5 pounds and has more than 1,000 photos. Migoya joins fellow chef and author Cheryl Alters Jamison on the most recent episode of her Santa Fe-based podcast Heating It Up—which also airs at 3 pm on Saturdays on KTRC, 1260 AM—to talk all things pizza.
The thrill is not gone
Thrillist chimes in with a roundup of the best things to do in “artsy, mystical” Santa Fe, a city described by the magazine as “charmingly weird and endlessly authentic.” You know you’re in Santa Fe, the story notes, “when the smell of piñon pine wafts off the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and the vast New Mexico desert starts to shrink into warm, rounded adobe buildings” (also when your refrigerator repairman turns out to be a reflexologist...but that’s a whole different story). To get one’s fill of the “artsy” side of Santa Fe, Thrillist recommends visiting the city’s museums, along with Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return. Shopping, though ostensibly neither artsy nor mystical, also receives its due, with recs for George RR Martin’s Beastly Books, Back at the Ranch (for cowboy boots) and Wind River Trading Company (to “satisfy your taste for turquoise”). And one must eat if one visits Santa Fe (or lives here, for that matter): “Santa Fe is renowned for its farm-fresh restaurants, tequila-soaked watering holes, and bakeries wafting with aromas of blue corn and chilies.” To that end, Thrillist has shout-outs for Betterday Coffee, Shake Foundation, Tia Sophia’s, Whoo’s Donuts, Coyote Cantina and Dolina Cafe & Bakery (none would seem to qualify as a tequila-soaked watering hole, but if you hit Tia’s, the Matador is just around the corner).
Hit the ground running
ICYMI, US Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, New Mexico’s former congresswoman, marked Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday by running the Boston Marathon. As reported by ABC News, Haaland discusses her running in a Boston Globe op-ed, saying: “I started running about 20 years ago. Along the way to running my first marathon, I began to think deeply about the story of my people who have used running not only to get places but to preserve their traditions and culture…I run because my ancestors gave me this ability,” she says later. Haaland, the country’s first Native American cabinet secretary, also marked the holiday—the first to be recognized by a US president with a proclamation—on Twitter, writing: “As @Interior works to honor our nation-to-nation promises, it is more important than ever to recognize Indigenous Peoples as the first stewards of this land.” US Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-AZ, had also qualified for the marathon, but did not run; people from Arizona traveled to Boston to protest the senator’s opposition to President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act.
Hello, fall temps!
Cool temperatures continue today, according to the National Weather Service, with a high near 58 degrees, sunny skies and west wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon.
Thanks for reading! The Word is a sucker for stories about decluttering.
