New Leader Announced for Beleaguered State Health Division

Disbarment trial for Trump adviser, Santa Fe resident, begins

John Eastman, a lawyer accused of concocting a strategy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, faces disbarment during proceedings that began yesterday in California. The FBI seized Eastman’s cell phone last year in a parking lot in Santa Fe, where Eastman lives, prompting speculation about where he’d been eating, and leading to protests at his home. When the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol wrapped up its work last year, it released an executive summary of its findings that mentioned Eastman 166 times and in which Eastman was identified as having written memos identifying means of stopping the certification of election results. Eastman now faces 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California connected to his plan that involved having Vice President Mike Pence interfere with President Joe Biden’s win in the race against former President Donald Trump. According to the Associated Press, the court, if it finds Eastman culpable, could recommend disbarment or other punishment, with the state Supreme Court of California making the final decision. The Washington Post reports yesterday’s proceedings centered largely on claims Eastman made regarding votes in Georgia, with Eastman remaining “somewhat defiant” when presented with rebuttals to those claims.

New leader announced for beleaguered health division

In the wake of investigations and revelations of abuse by providers operating under the state health department’s Developmental Disabilities Supports Division, Health Secretary Patrick Allen yesterday announced Dr. José A. Acosta will return to lead the section. Last year, Acosta served for six months as DOH’s chief medical officer. Previously, he worked as the executive medical director for the US Navy Pacific Fleet. Acosta’s “profound dedication to both public health and the developmental disabilities community, coupled with his collaborative approach, will be instrumental in enhancing the state’s procedures for serving and safeguarding people living with developmental disabilities,” Allen said in a statement. Acosta, in a statement, said he is “fully aware of the recent challenges we have faced and the urgent need to rebuild trust within our community. I am committed to implementing comprehensive, robust safeguards that protect the welfare and rights of individuals with developmental disabilities.” Last March, Allen, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Aging and Long-Term Services Department Secretary Katrina Hotrum-Lopez announced an investigation into providers, following revelations of abuse therein. Attorney General Raúl Torrez last month called for an overhaul of the system, following the arrests of three people in connection with the death of a 38-year-old disabled woman, whose horrific alleged abuse from a caregiver in a state-run program prompted the state’s investigation.

Officials: Coms systems should be fixed before Zozobra

For more than a year, city department heads have complained behind the scenes about unreliability in the technology police officers and firefighters rely upon: essentially radio transmissions and dispatch software. In fact, both failed simultaneously last June during a fire at a Southside townhome. “At that fire, we had no communications at all,” City Fire Chief Brian Moya tells SFR. “So, we were literally screaming at each other and using cell phones…that just can’t happen.” While fixes are in the works for the system, overseen by Santa Fe County, City Manager John Blair says he raised concerns about the original timeline for the radio upgrade, which would have fallen in mid-September—after the annual Burning of Zozobra—a big day for public safety—on Sept. 1. Subsequently, he says the board for the Regional Emergency Communications Center, on which he serves, agreed at its June 15 meeting to implement the fixes before Zozobra burns. In the meantime, Santa Fe Police Chief Paul Joye tells SFR his radio sometimes stops working, even right outside his office at police headquarters, “for no reason.” “You’ll get the out-of-range tone, and then the radio will actually display that I’m out of range. But I haven’t moved,” Joye says. “I’m sitting in my car, in the parking lot of the station.”

PRC: Solar providers will benefit low-income subscribers

Faced with criticisms about the process for last month’s selection of providers for the state’s community solar program, and questions about the program’s accessibility for low-income residents, the Public Regulation Commission yesterday reported it had reviewed the 45 companies selected and expects “significant benefits for low-income subscribers,” a news release says. To recap briefly: The Public Regulation Commission last month announced 45 projects had been selected—by the PRC and InClime, the contracted program administrator—from 408 submissions and evaluated using the point system set in the Community Solar Rule. That announcement led to several complaints filed with the PRC about changes in scoring criteria. After reviewing the proposals, “the PRC is pleased with the overall response from the market showing its commitment to providing access to community solar projects and offering significant savings for low-income subscribers,” PRC Community Solar Project Manager Mary Jane Parks said in a statement. “The selected projects and New Mexico’s community solar program are a model in the nation in terms of meeting the demand among low-income households to participate in community solar projects.”

Listen up

KUNM News Director Megan Kamerick returns to the library beat in a new episode of University Showcase that examines the threats facing books and libraries due to an uptick of attempts to censor library content. According to the American Library Association, last year saw nearly 1,300 challenges to censor library books and resources—almost twice as many as the year prior, with the vast majority of titles targeted “written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.” Kamerick discusses the issue with University of New Mexico Health Sciences Library Outreach and Community Engagement Librarian Deirdre Caparoso, chair of the intellectual freedom committee for the New Mexico Library Association.

New Metallica video features work by Taos Pueblo couple

Indian Country Today reports that Mozart Gabriel Abeyta (Taos Pueblo) and his wife Helly March did the storyboard and illustrations, respectively, for an 11-minute video for the Metallica song, “Inamorata,” off the band’s new album 72 Seasons. The video emerged, ICT reports, following a chance encounter in a Nashville nightclub with Metallica band member Robert Trujillo. According to the story, Abeyta, a full-time musician and part-time animator, recently married March, who is from Ukraine, and took her to Grimey’s in Nashville for its “New Faces Night.” Trujillo also attended and March wanted a photo with him to send to her father, “because her dad’s in the front lines in Ukraine,” Abeyta says. As the couple and Trujillo began talking, they discovered Trujillo and Abeyta—son of artist Tony Abeyta (Navajo) and fashion designer Patricia Michaels (Taos Pueblo)—were both from Taos. Once Trujillo learned about Abeyta’s work in film and saw March’s artwork, he said: “That’s it. I need you for the new Metallica music video,” Abeyta tells ITC. The video, directed by Jess Cope, depicts “a Native man stranded in the desert as vultures and snakes descend. He begins hallucinating and wakes up repeatedly in new realities until he reaches a final destination.” Cope, Abeyta says “asked more about the Indigenous culture of Pueblos, so I was able to provide a lot more of that. They incorporated some of that imagery. She gave us a secret of the story, but she wants to keep it up for interpretation for viewers.”

West watching

Paste magazine rounds up the “best western TV shows” available to watch right now, including Netflix’s Emmy-winning Godless (2016), much of which filmed in Santa Fe. The limited series from creator and director Scott Frank “stands out for the way it centers the women of La Belle, New Mexico,” Paste writes, and its depiction of “the ways in which society has reshaped itself in the absence of men…that are most intriguing and prove that there are ways to make life on the frontier still seem fresh after all these years.” The Emmy-award winning Longmire, which ran for six seasons (2012-2017) and also filmed in New Mexico, appears on the list as well: “The wide open spaces of New Mexico, which stands in for Wyoming, give the show a sense of place,” the story notes, “while the presence of the local Native American population in the story adds depth and brings a unique point of view not found in the majority of current shows about lawmen chasing criminals.” And speaking of filmed in New Mexico, Deadline reports the second season of Dark Winds, executive produced by George RR Martin and Robert Redford, based on Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn and Chee novels, begins airing July 27 on AMC. Here’s the trailer and, ICYMI, SFR’s story on the show’s filming at Camel Rock Studios on Tesuque Pueblo.

Grab the sunscreen

The National Weather Service forecasts more hot, sunny weather in Santa Fe today (and the foreseeable future), with a high temperature near 89 degrees and north wind 10 to 15 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon.

Thanks for reading! The Word is highly enjoying the NPR Tiny Desk Concerts for Black Music Month, such as this recent one from Ambré.