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UNM plans to cut four sports
The University of New Mexico announced plans yesterday to cut men's soccer, men's and women's skiing and women's beach volleyball programs. The university faces financial and federal gender equity law challenges after years of athletic department mismanagement. The department has racked up a nearly $5 million deficit. The programs proposed for the chopping block—as well as the to-be-restructured running programs—are among the university's most successful. The school's foundering football program and men's and women's basketball teams seem to be unaffected. Regents will hear details of the plan at a meeting today.
All alone
In the face of multi million-dollar legal settlements stemming from improper use of solitary confinement at New Mexico jails and prisons, lawmakers have renewed a call for reform. Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed a bill in the last legislative session that would have provided more strict rules for using solitary confinement. Lawmakers passed it with bipartisan support and expect a similar measure to win favor when a new governor takes office.
Crash calls
Authorities have released calls from motorists to 911 during a series of crashes that killed three people and sent dozens to the hospital early Sunday morning. The crashes, which were not one, large chain reaction crash as initially reported, shut down I-25 north of Bernalillo for most of Sunday. The three people killed were all Mexican women who had been living in different cities in Colorado. Ten people are still in the hospital; none of them are in critical condition.
‘Allo guv’nahs
The National Governors Assocation's summer conference begins in Santa Fe today; or, as the locals call it, "the other Zozobra thing." The city has foregone hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees and unreimbursed overtime for the honor of hosting the event. It culminates Saturday evening with a closed-to-the-public event at the Fort Marcy ball field that will feature the burning of "Tio Coco," a facsimile of Zozobra. The city is closing streets around the convention center until Saturday evening and rerouting bus traffic by several blocks as the closures impact its downtown bus terminal. Meanwhile, corporations have paid big bucks ($) to get their names and faces in front of the nation's governors.
Suing Susana
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has renewed the tradition of suing Gov. Martinez. This time, it's over her executive decision to transfer a state park along the Rio Grande in Las Cruces to the state Game and Fish Department for administrative use. The lawmakers say she can't do that without their approval.
Liver die
New Mexico has the nation's fifth-highest rate of death from liver cancer, according to a new study in the British Medical Journal. The study says rates of cirrhosis and liver cancer have skyrocketed in the US ($) between 1999 and 2016. Such diseases are often caused by repeated heavy drinking.
One in the chamber
Beethoven does Mozart. What's not to love? As part of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Orion String Quartet livens up the St. Francis Auditorium today. The quartet will play Beethoven's work and other mythically inspired works in a mid-day concert. It starts at noon and you need tickets.
The heat
It's back, with a vengeance. Expect highs in the mid-90s in Santa Fe and 100 in places like Albuquerque, Socorro and Las Cruces. It will continue through the weekend with a significantly reduced chance of showers.
Thanks for reading! The Word encourages you to wave at the governors as they wander to and fro in our fair city. Some of them even talk to the press, which is cool.
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