The Santa Fe Public Schools on Friday announced five candidates for the District 4 seat vacated by Rudy Garcia in June and said the Board of Education will hold a special public meeting tomorrow, July 26, at 5 p.m. to interview her. Candidates include Juan Blea, chief information officer for the state’s regulatory and licensing department and a licensed drug and alcohol abuse counselor. He also has a Masters of Education in Youth at Risk. Alba Blondis most recently worked in sales and management of the clothing store at Chico’s and has previous experience as a Spanish teacher and manager at the Family Learning Institute in Chicago; She holds a master’s degree in Education, Curriculum and Teaching. Jodie Wheeler is Senior Account and Human Resources Manager for Hal Burns Truck and Equipment Service, which has volunteered at Sweeney Elementary School, Ortiz Middle School, and Capital High School, among others, and serves as chair of the district’s Community Review Committee. Former District 3 Councilman Roman “Tiger” Abeyta is the Chief Professional Officer of the Santa Fe/ Del Norte Boys and Girls Club and also previously served as Santa Fe County Manager. John Baca is an executive assistant with the State Land Office and previously had experience with the State Environmental Department and the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court.
Rail Runner service is expected to resume later today fatal crash yesterday that killed two people. State police responding to the incident said the accident occurred on State Road 313 near Milestone 15 at San Felipe Pueblo and involved the train and a vehicle, reportedly at a private intersection. Train services were suspended yesterday after the accident; According to a Rio Metro Regional Transit District operator, there were about 90 passengers on board at the time, none of whom were injured. The names of the vehicle victims have not yet been released.
Officials also have not yet released the names of the two women killed in a flash flood in the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire scar area last week, nor a man said to have been in the vehicle, which authorities are continuing to search for. San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office officials said an overturned vehicle was located along Tecolote Creek Channel along County Road A16B last Thursday afternoon following reports of flooding. First responders found no occupants in the vehicle, but after searching the area, they found the bodies of two women in two different locations within the creek. The ongoing flash flooding near the burn scars remains a concern.
The State Office for Children, Youth and Family published a report on Friday that shows major problems in the authority with fluctuation, a “culture of fear” and high workload. Cabinet Secretary Barbara J. Vigil commissioned the report from Collaborative Safety LLC following her appointment to the position last August and following several child deaths over the past year, including the death of a one-month-old Valencia County child whose mother was previously contacted agency expressing fear she would hurt her son. The report should have been ready by mid-April, it said Albuquerque Journal. In a press release announcing the report, CYFD says the report’s recommendations are consistent with those Vigil made for the agency, including revising its staff training protocols; Creation of “new critical incident teams” to review serious injuries, including child deaths; and, among other things, joining the National Partnership for Child Safety. “CYFD’s work touches 20,000 families in New Mexico each year,” Vigil, a former state Supreme Court Justice, said in a statement. “Our employees are passionate about their work and when I took charge of this agency I immediately wanted to find and implement ways to improve the system for the children and families we deal with every day. This report highlights many of the challenges we are already addressing and further opportunities for improvement – and how we are addressing them.”
Reported on July 22nd
New cases: 1,042; 584,404 total cases
deaths: 20; Santa Fe County had a total of 327 deaths; nationwide there were a total of 8,191 deaths. nationwide Hospitalizations: 192. ventilation patients: 12
fall rates: According to the state Department of Health’s latest Geographic Trends report, for the seven-day period July 11-17, Grant County had the highest daily rate of cases per 100,000 residents: 70.8, followed by Lincoln County at 68.3 and Quay County with 68.1 ; Santa Fe County’s case rate was 44.3, up from 42.4 the week before.
Community Levels: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest update for COVID-19 “Community Levels,” updated every Thursday, shows that more than twice as many counties in New Mexico are now red or “high” compared to last week . The CDC framework combines case rates with two hospital metrics and shows that for the seven-day period July 14-20, 17 counties in New Mexico — 10 more than last week — are now “red” or high. Santa Fe County remains yellow or medium. Only four counties now have “green” or low scores — down from nine last week. CDC recommendations include indoor masking for people living in high-community counties. The community tiers page 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-reporting of a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; Covid-19 treatment Info: Oral treatments Paxlovid (from 12 years) and Molnupiravir (from 18 years); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. Individuals seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider may call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. Vaccines for children: Parents of children aged 6 months to 5 years can now schedule vaccination appointments at VaccineNM.org.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Last Thursday, the Jan. 6 committee concluded its eighth and final hearing through September (you can see them all here). Also last Thursday, KUNM’s Let’s talk New Mexico The program considered the impact of January 6 on the New Mexico election and political landscape. Guests include: Alex Curtas, Director of the Office of the New Mexico Secretary of State; Mason Graham of the New Mexico Black Voters Collaborative; Lonna Atkeson, professor of political science at Florida State University and former director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy at UNM; and freelance reporter Andrew Beale of Source New Mexico.
That Washington Post writes about the Rio Grande—or what’s left of it, given New Mexico’s historic drought conditions at this time. As a section of the river near Albuquerque dries up, officials are rationing water and “rescuing silvery minnows stranded in the remaining puddles.” Officials “also warn residents to prepare for the sight of a bed of mud and sand where one of the nation’s longest rivers should flow,” the story reads. “Most Albuquerque people who have lived here grew up knowing that the river always had water,” said Jason Casuga, CEO of the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District post. “So it would be a really big surprise to wake up and go outside and look at the river and realize, hey, there’s no water.” According to the US Drought Monitor, most of the state is severe, extreme, or exceptional affected by drought. Last week, investigators came across “the stretch of gravel and sand” where the river once ran. “We currently have almost no water left,” says Casuga.
Mel Gibson returned to Las Cruces last week to film The informantdirected by Michael Oblowitz and produced by Daniel Cummings (Gibson also directed ejection seat last year at Las Cruces); Kate Bosworth, Dominic Purcell and Nick Stahl also star in the film. According to the State Film Office, the film “tells the story of a terminally ill undercover drug cop who enlists the help of his partner and their junkie informant to patch up his death to support his financially strapped family.” Las Cruces Sun News spoke to Cummings, who says the story is based on a true story of 1990s drug officers, one of whom is a writer on the project. Cummings also noted, “It’s not easy” to make Las Cruces look like Upstate New York. The Sun News did a tour of the Old Doña Ana County Courthouse, where the production was filmed, among other locations, before moving on to Vancouver. Cummings has already worked in New Mexico and plans to bring two more productions here this year. “I’ve seen how film-friendly the community is and how enthusiastic they are and how easy it is to work with them,” he told the newspaper. “And there are a lot of places that haven’t been in every other episode of breaking Bad, like Albuquerque, so I think it’s a very good place for movies. Especially indie films, because you don’t always have the big, big budgets.” The Film Office says the production should employ about 30 New Mexico crew members, two New Mexico leads, and about 10 New Mexico backing talent.
If you’ve enjoyed the scorching temperatures of the past week, you might not mind the next few decades. For the rest of us, the National Weather Service is forecasting some relief today with a high temperature of 85 degrees, along with scattered showers and thunderstorms after noon and a 40% chance of precipitation. Temperatures should remain in the low 80’s with an increasing chance of rain throughout the week.Thank you for reading! The word is jealous of everyone who came to it See Joni Mitchell perform at the Newport Folk Festival yesterday.