Santa Fe Logs Fifth Homicide of the Year

Santa Fe logs fifth homicide

Santa Fe Police on Saturday reported the death of a shooting victim two days prior, marking the city’s fifth homicide of the year (versus six last year). According to a news release, SFPD at approximately 2:16 am, July 27 responded to calls of a shooting and man down near Rufina Street and Richards Avenue. Officers located Pedro Cardoso, 28, who had sustained what the statement of probable cause describes as two gunshots, but was still alive and transported to a local hospital in critical condition. Detectives arrested Joseph Lopez, 34, and initially charged him with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon as well as one count of trafficking a controlled substance (police located 97 small blue pills inside of Lopez’s socks, identified as fentanyl). At approximately 4 am on July 29, Cardoso died as a result of his injuries; the original charges against Lopez will now include an open count of murder. According to the statement of probable cause, Lopez told police multiple people had tried to beat him up and take his money and in the process Lopez had shot the attackers with “their own firearm that had fall out of one of his attacker’s waistbands.” His arraignment is scheduled for this afternoon.

SFPD launches drone program

ICYMI, the Santa Fe Police Department last week announced the start of an “Unmanned Aircraft System Program,” aka drones, to “assist officers in their duties, while honoring the privacy rights of Santa Fe’s citizens.” Specifically, the department reports it now has five “advanced drones,” which will be operated by Federal Aviation Administration-certified pilots for “a variety of safety operations, including search and rescue missions, crime scene investigation, and critical incident response.” As for the aforementioned privacy concerns, SFPD says it has created a “comprehensive policy framework, detailing clear guidelines and protocols for the use of drones” that emphasizes “respect for citizens’ privacy and civil rights and focuses on maintaining transparency and accountability.” The new program, Santa Fe Police Department Deputy Chief of Police Matthew Champlin says in a statement, “enables us to enhance public safety through cutting-edge technology, allowing us to better serve the community as well as making certain situations safer for police officers.” According to a news release, SFPD encourages people to share their comments and questions about the new drone program, and to come check them out at the first responder National Night Out event from 4 to 8:30 pm tomorrow, Aug. 1, at Villa Linda Park at Santa Fe Place Mall.

NM unemployment unchanged

At 3.8%, Santa Fe had the lowest not-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate among the state’s metropolitan statistical areas in June, according to newly released labor market information. In comparison, the Albuquerque MSA had a rate of 4.2%; Farmington had the highest unemployment rate among the MSAs at 5.5%, followed by the Las Cruces MSA at 5.3%. Overall, New Mexico’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.5% in June, unchanged from the rate in May and down from 3.9% last year. Among all states, New Mexico had the 15th highest unemployment rate in the country. Among counties, at 9.8%, Luna County had New Mexico’s highest (not seasonally adjusted) unemployment rate at 9.8%; Los Alamos County had the lowest unemployment rate: 2.5%. Over the year, New Mexico’s total nonagricultural employment increased by 39,600 jobs, or 4.8%, with most of the gains happening in the private sector, which was up 27,600 jobs, or 4.2%. Most of Santa Fe’s employment gains also were in the private sector, with private education and health services reporting a gain of 900 jobs, or 9.1%; leisure and hospitality reporting a gain of 800 jobs, or 7.4%; and professional and business services reporting an additional 200 jobs, or 3.4%.

State reports first West Nile virus cases of 2023

The state health department on Friday reported the first West Nile virus cases of the year: two people, from Lea County and one from Sandoval County, both hospitalized and now recovering. In addition, a horse from Sierra County also was diagnosed with West Nile virus, which is transmitted by mosquitos. Last year, according to DOH, New Mexico had 11 human infections, two of which were fatal. Recommendations to prevent human contraction of West Nile virus include: using approved insect repellent outside; wearing long sleeves and pants at dawn and dusk; eliminating water-holding containers; draining birdbaths, saucers under potted plants etc. weekly and making sure doors, windows and rain-barrels are tightly screened. DOH recommends horse owners vaccinate their animals for West Nile virus and Western Equine Encephalitis, which is also carried by mosquitoes. There is no West Nile virus vaccination or medication for humans. Symptoms of the milder version include headache, fever, muscle and joint aches, nausea and fatigue. While people normally recover on their own, people aged 50 and older and those with other health issues are at “highest risk of becoming seriously ill or dying when they become infected with the virus,” a news release notes. More serious symptoms include fever, neck stiffness and paralysis. Find more info on the DOH West Nile webpage.

Listen up

The most recent episode of New Mexico PBS New Mexico In Focus program delves into the state’s nuclear legacy in the wake of Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer, with The Line panelists discussing whether the film should have acknowledged the impact of atomic testing here. Correspondent Russell Contreras also talks with Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium founder Tina Cordova about downwinders’ fight for justice and panelists discuss. Panelists include: former state Sen. Dede Feldman, lawyer Sophie Martin and Source New Mexico Editor Shaun Griswold.

More on Trinity

Speaking of Tina Cordova, when SFR caught up with her last week, she mentioned she’d probably been interviewed at least 30 times in recent days. Cordova also contributed a guest essay yesterday to the New York Times about “what Oppenheimer doesn’t tell you about the Trinity test.” July, Cordova writes, is already a tense month for some in New Mexico, because the events of July 16, 1945 “weigh heavily” on those whose lives were changed forever by the atomic testing. This July, she notes “has been more tense than usual, as our community waited for the release of Oppenheimer —and some recognition of what we have endured over the last 78 years.” The movie, however, does not acknowledge either the downwinders, nor the New Mexicans who went to work in the uranium mines that supplied the Manhattan Project. Instead, “the film doubles down on the silence we’ve been living with for eight decades about the loss of life and health that was a consequence of the development and testing of the atomic bomb.” The Los Angeles Times also takes up the impact the Trinity Test had in New Mexico in a feature story about the Hispanic and Native American downwinders in the Tularosa Basin. And the New Yorker writes about how Oppenheimer is only the latest attempt to dramatize the events of the Trinity test, and pinpoints the most significant one prior to Christopher Nolan’s film as the opera Dr. Atomic by John Adams and Peter Sellars, which premiered in San Francisco in 2005, and was mounted in Santa Fe in 2018 (The Metropolitan Opera’s production of Doctor Atomic is currently available on demand via either a subscription or rental).

A is for art, B is for bats

August starts tomorrow, which means stories about where to travel in the fall start right now. AFAR magazine includes Santa Fe in its roundup of the 10 best places to travel in September. Santa Fe, always a hot-spot for art-seekers, will have a new venue come September: the New Mexico Museum of Art’s new Vladem Contemporary wing, which opens Sept. 23. AFAR also shouts out Andrea Fisher Fine Pottery for an expansive view of Indigenous art in the area, and Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi for a convenient and plush stay. Travel & Leisure magazine, meanwhile, is already onto October, with its list of recommendations including the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Oct. 7-15): “Watching hundreds of balloons paint the sky above the Sandia Mountains is a truly unforgettable sight. When you’re done sky-gazing, delight in hot air and gas ballooning events and competitions.” Also involving New Mexico and the sky (kind of), National Geographic magazine includes Carlsbad Caverns in its list of the 10 best US national parks in which to see wildlife. In the case of Carlsbad, that wildlife would mostly be Brazilian free-tailed bats, although the caves also house ringtails, porcupines, peccaries and cave swallows. As for the bats, however, the Bat Flight Program runs through October.

Cool it

The National Weather Service forecasts a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 pm today. It will otherwise be mostly sunny with a high temperature near 89 degrees, and east wind 5 to 15 mph becoming south in the afternoon.

Thanks for reading! In lieu of going to the beach, The Word is reading about what people at the beach are reading.