Briefs: April 29

Trouble in the Amazon? A March 23 story on the advocacy news site Noticias Aliadas reports that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has closed nonprofit organizations "that clash with government policies," beginning with two environmental groups, including Santa Fe-based Amada Encarnación Internacional.

Correa, whose economic nationalization programs have proven controversial, was re-elected this week.

AEI was founded in 2003 by Ecuadorian-born Santa Fe businessman Carlos E Fierro, whose son, lawyer Carlos W Fierro, is about to go on trial for vehicular homicide for a November 2008 hit-and-run. That's not the only person close to Fierro who's in trouble. According to a 2004 Albuquerque Journal story, the elder Fierro had received "a substantial amount of seed money" for AEI from James Davis, an executive with Stanford Financial Group. The Texas company was recently implicated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme. Davis is reportedly cooperating with government investigators against his old boss, Sir Allen Stanford. Two phone numbers listed for AEI were disconnected, and its website is "under construction."

No Hudson River Landings Here: Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration released details on more than 73,000 reported "bird strikes" from 1990 through 2008. Of 346 reported airplane-on-bird collisions in New Mexico, 203 involved various unknown avian species. Among the most unfortunate identifiable birds were sparrows (24 strikes in New Mexico), followed by horned larks (13 strikes). Bad news for Santa Fe's wild rodents, and the people who love them: Of the 20 prairie dogs flattened by airplanes around the country in that time, 11 perished on New Mexico tarmacs. Ten coyotes and one rabbit also were hit, along with two domestic dogs and one domestic cat.

Sadly, It's Not on YouTube: Santa Fe County resident John Odell is suing the Coleman Company, a national outdoor-gear chain with a factory outlet store on Cerrillos Road. Odell's complaint says in August 2007 he sat on a cot on display at the store. Unfortunately for all, the Coleman cot "collapsed" under Odell's weight, thus causing "painful and permanent, physical and mental injuries" that cost "considerable sums of money" to treat. The lawsuit says the store was negligent for "failing to warn people of the dangerous condition of the cot" and "failing to install warning signs." Odell's lawyer, Vitalia Sena-Baca, did not immediately return a request for comment.

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