Redistricting Committee Picks State House Maps

COVID-19 by the numbers

New Mexico health officials yesterday reported 630 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the statewide total so far to 266,777. DOH has designated 236,987 of those cases as recovered.

Bernalillo County had 116 new cases, followed by San Juan County with 101 and Doña Ana County with 77. Santa Fe County had 18 cases.

The state also announced 14 additional deaths, 13 of them recent; there have now been 4,966 fatalities. As of yesterday, 365 people were hospitalized with COVID-19—15 more than the day prior and a nearly 22% increase from Monday.

Currently, 81.4% of New Mexicans 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 72% are fully vaccinated. Among that demographic, 6.5% have had a booster shot. In the 12-17-year-old age group, 53.8% people have had at least one dose and 62.2% are fully inoculated. In Santa Fe County, among those 18 years and older, 92.3% have had at least one dose and 82% are fully vaccinated.

The US Food & Drug Administration yesterday, as expected, granted emergency authorization to both Moderna and Janssen (aka Johnson and Johnson) for booster shots of their COVID-19 vaccines. Moreover, the EUA allows people eligible for a booster to “mix and match” between the vaccines. Eligibility for the Moderna booster follows the same protocol as the Pfizer vaccine and is available at least six months after the primary series to people who are: 65 years and older; between 18-64 with high risk of severe COVID-19; 18-64 with frequent institutional or occupational exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Recipients of the J & J single-dose vaccine must be 18 and at least two months past their shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Vaccine Practices will meet today to discuss Moderna and J & J boosters, in advance of final recommendations from the CDC. New Mexico health officials earlier this week said they anticipated and were preparing to provide the other vaccine boosters upon final federal approval.

State leaders earlier this week also said they anticipate vaccine availability for children ages 5-11, possibly by the beginning of November. President Joe Biden’s administration yesterday released its plans for rolling out the vaccine to that age group upon approval by the FDA and CDC. NMDOH has an online town hall to discuss vaccines for children, currently scheduled to take place at noon on Oct. 29.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Redistricting committee makes House recs

New Mexico’s Citizen Redistricting Committee yesterday approved three maps to redraw boundaries for the state House of Representatives. Those maps take into consideration input—some conflicting—from Indigenous nations and tribes in northwestern New Mexico. One plan, created via a coalition that includes 19 Native American pueblo communities and the Jicarilla Apache Nation, emphasizes, the groups said, tribes’ “independent right to self determination.” On the other hand, representatives for the Navajo Nation “have advanced a plan that focused on retaining Native American majorities of roughly 65% or more in six House districts,” the Associated Press writes. A third map, from the Center for Civic Policy, reduces the number of state House districts in a part of Albuquerque that has mostly white, non-Hispanic residents. Former state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Cangiolosi voted against the committee endorsements yesterday. Last week, the committee approved map selections for congressional districts, state Senate districts and the state’s Public Education Commission. The adopted maps (minus those from yesterday, which have not yet been posted) can be viewed here.

Dry thoughts

Today, the City of Santa Fe Water Conservation Division, along with Santa Fe County and Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, launches local efforts for Imagine a Day Without Water, a national education and advocacy campaign. Santa Fe’s organizations produced a public service announcement to raise awareness about the role water plays here by imagining the public health repercussions of a day without water during a pandemic. “Public health is our number one priority, and a reliable water supply is important for all of Santa Fe’s public health needs,” Dr. Theresa Ronan, Christus’ medical director of quality and green team member, says in the video. The public can follow Day Without Water on social media via #valuewater and sign up for an Eye On Water account through the city (to monitor usage) here. “Today we encourage everyone to take a minute to think about what it would mean to go without water for a day and to reflect on the value water plays in our day-to-day lives to inspire the community to continue to ensure our essential and invaluable water systems keep flowing for generations to come,” Santa Fe Water Conservation Manager Christine Chavez said in a statement (ever dutiful, we took a minute to think about a day without water and realized that meant a day without coffee).

Rank ‘em up

City of Santa Fe voters in the Nov. 2 election will encounter ranked-choice voting for the third time since 2018, this time in the three-person mayoral race and the four-person contest for City Council District 1. In both cases, the incumbents’ campaigns have less interest in courting second or third-place votes, with Mayor Alan Webber’s campaign manager telling SFR: “We’re just out educating voters about how it works and talking about issues that matter like COVID, affordable housing and sustainability—it’s up to the voters to decide who wins at the end of the day.” Similarly, City Councilor Signe Lindell says, “We’ve just run a regular race asking for people’s vote.” Challengers, however, are taking the system into account. Mayoral candidate JoAnne Vigil Coppler’s campaign said they are appealing to Alexis Martinez Johnson’s supporters for second-place votes, while Martinez Johnson also has openly asked all voters to consider her as their second-place if not their first. Similarly, District 1 challengers Joe Hoback and Brian Gutierrez both say they are appealing to voters committed elsewhere, as well as trying to explain RCV to them. As to that, survey data shows Santa Feans like and understand the system, while anecdotal evidence indicates otherwise. Both supporters and critics alike think it will take more time to gain traction and become familiar. “This is still a relatively new voting system,” Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver says. “It is going to take time. Folks have been voting ‘pick one’ our whole lives and now we’re being asked to rank three or more.”

Listen up

KSFR’s show The Last Word, airing at 6 pm on Thursdays, provides content for people who read, people who write, people who want to publish and everyone in between. Catch the show, hosted by Carly Newfeld, this evening and/or catch up with latest episodes, such as last week’s show with Judy Beil Vaughan, who read from her memoir Strawberry Roan: Growing Up in The Shadow of Hermit’s Peak, which tells a coming-of-age story about growing up in Northern New Mexico on her family’s horse ranch.

Behind IATSE’s struggle

While film and television workers in the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees union avoided a historic strike earlier this week, Craft Services Department Head Hailey Josselyn tells SFR “it isn’t over.” First off, she says, “There’s still a vote [to ratify the terms of the agreement], and this is unprecedented. It hasn’t happened in over 100 and something years. There’s enough money for things, but it’s this manufactured scarcity where they tell us there isn’t enough. There is.” Josselyn has worked in film for seven years and says workers are not asking for anything outside the pale. “We’ve all been, as workers, afraid to say ‘Hey, I’m really miserable,’ or ‘This isn’t cool that I never get to see my family, and my friends die in car wrecks on the way home.’ The time with the pandemic has given people this realization—and all we’re asking for is lunches, water, breaks.” The pandemic exacerbated those issues, she said. For now, supporters can help by remaining aware and showing empathy. “Someone said something to me like, ‘You guys chose the job—it’s Hollywood,’ but empathy costs nothing. The chances of us being billionaires are so far off—we have a better chance of becoming homeless—and in film, we are talking unfathomable amounts of money, and all we’re struggling for is living day-to-day.”

Writing to the past

A new anthology, Between Certain Death and a Possible Future: Queer Writing on Growing Up with the AIDS Crisis, edited by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore and out this month, made several lists as one of the most anticipated books of 2021, from Oprah Daily, The Millions and The Rumpus. The latter writes the anthology “offers crucial stories from this missing generation in AIDS literature and cultural politics, and includes 36 personal essays on the ongoing and persistent impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis in queer lives. Here you will find an expansive range of perspectives on a specific generational story—essays that explore and explode conventional wisdom, while also providing a necessary bridge between experiences.” Santa Fe Community College Creative Writing faculty member Emily Stern is among the writers included, with her essay “To Make a Whore of,” excerpted from Stern’s manuscript, This is What it Sounds Like, a memoir focusing on a mother and daughter’s life-changing revelations about one another, in Southside Chicago and Northwest Indiana, amidst the ‘80s and ‘90s American AIDS epidemic.

Sunny day A-OK

Don’t pull out those mittens just yet. Today’s forecast from the National Weather Service calls for sunny skies with a high near 67 degrees and north wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon. Currently, forecasts show Santa Fe back in the low 70s this weekend.Thanks for reading! Though an ardent animal lover, The Word found scientists’ visions for animals of the future less-than-cuddly (whale rats!).