Santa Fe New Mexican October 25, 2022

Sunak takes over as Britain’s prime minister

Demons soccer 2.0

Santa Fe High is bound for state tournament again but with new roster, style SPORTS, B-1

Networks rebuff Ronchetti attempts to remove TV ad

Dem PAC’s spot says GOP candidate for gov. praised banning of all abortions

By Daniel J. Chacón dchacon@sfnewmexican.com

An attack ad that implies Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti praised banning abortion with no

exceptions is continuing to air on TV despite efforts last week by his campaign’s legal team to get it removed.

The demand follows a similar request from incumbent Democratic

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who was also denied a request to remove a negative ad from the airwaves.

For months, New Mexi cans have been inundated with attack ads purchased by the candidates and their well-funded allies in

State Supreme Court race a study in opposites

Zamora, a Democrat

a

faces conservative from private

By Claudia L. Silva csilva@sfnewmexican.com

One candidate spent years hearing cases in New Mexico’s busiest legal venues before being named to the state Supreme

Two killed, seven hurt in St. Louis school shooting

Teen charged in connection to party that allegedly led to fatal crash

Taos sophomore killed Sunday said to have been at gathering where alcohol was provided

By Marianne Todd For The New Mexican

TAOS — As friends and classmates mourned the death of 15-year-old Arry Jeantette, investigators looking into a crash that killed the Taos High School sophomore and severely injured six other students were trying to determine Monday if more charges were warranted.

Haley Martinez, 18, faces eight counts of contributing to the delin quency of a minor. She is accused of hosting a Sat urday night house party where several minors were provided with alcohol.

Some initial news reports indicated Martinez was accused of providing alcohol to Jeantette and other teens involved in the crash. While Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said officials believe the teens had been at Martinez’s homecoming party prior to the crash early Sunday morning, it remains unclear whether her charges are connected with them. Court documents name a few teens who spoke with law enforcement at the party and admitted they had been drinking there.

Hogrefe did not respond to a question about the teens tied to the specific charges against Martinez.

“We are working with the DA’s Office

Court a year ago.

Her challenger has a long career in private practice and as a prosecutor and unabashedly

trumpets his conservative cre dentials.

The matchup in the state Supreme Court race between Justice Briana Zamora, a Dem ocrat, and Republican Kerry Morris is a study in opposites.

Zamora, 48, who was appointed to the state’s highest court by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2021, said her expe rience as a judge in every level of the state’s judicial system sets her apart.

But Morris said voters should choose him because his decades of experience will allow him to bring balance and common sense to the court. He is part of a team of judicial candidates, including Ger trude Lee, Barbara Johnson and Thomas Montoya, who promise to “put the law before politics.”

Before her appointment, Zamora served on the Court of Appeals for roughly three years

Obituaries

GOP challenger vies for seat of gov.’s appointee

By Phaedra Haywood phaywood@sfnewmexican.com

FIRST

Locally

Book chain coming to S.F. 2nd & Charles bookstore will fill final big vacancy at Santa Fe Place mall; opening date undetermined.

Supreme Court Justice Julie Vargas — an appoin tee with a combined six years’ experience on the state’s appellate courts — faces challenger Thomas Montoya in her bid to keep her spot on the state’s highest court in November’s general election. Vargas, 54, says voters should choose her —

LUIS SÁNCHEZ

SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

Jill Baso, center, instructor with Desert Sage Thai Chi; Luren Bellucci, left; and Vicki MacCulloch perform Thai Chi in the snow Monday at the Rose Park.

The state’s first cold front of the year arrived Sunday, bringing with it a dusting of snow to Santa Fe. Andrew Church, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque, said Friday the cold front was the result of a storm system moving down from the Pacific Northwest. Temperatures are expected to rise today, with a high of 54 degrees.

PHOTO FROM VIDEO

An ad from A Stronger New Mexico, the PAC linked to the Democratic Governors Association, shows a tweet from GOP gubernatorial candi date Mark Ronchetti after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked in May.

Please see story on Page A-4

Please see story on Page A-4

Please see story on Page A-5

Julie Vargas Thomas C. Montoya

Kerry Morris Briana Zamora

Please see story on Page A-5

Arry Jeantette

IN BRIEF

Mich. school shooter pleads guilty, including to rare terrorism count

The teenage student accused of killing four classmates in a shooting rampage at a Michigan high school last year pleaded guilty Monday to two dozen charges, including to terrorism — a tremendously unusual charge in a school shooting.

Ethan Crumbley, who was 15 when police say he opened fire at an Oxford, Mich., high school, was charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm.

News of his plan to plead guilty emerged Friday, nearly 10 months after his lawyers said in court filings they planned to pursue an insanity defense. His attorneys said in court Monday they were withdrawing that notice.

Crumbley’s guilty plea to the first-degree murder counts could lead to him spending the rest of his life in prison. Ven Johnson, an attorney for some victims’ families in a lawsuit against Crumbley, said the plea was a “small step” toward obtaining full justice.

Former officer in Floyd killing pleads guilty to aiding, abetting

MINNEAPOLIS — A former Minneapolis police officer who held George Floyd’s back as he begged for breath and ultimately lost a pulse beneath the knee of officer Derek Chauvin nearly two and a half years ago pleaded guilty Monday to a state charge of aiding and abetting second-de gree manslaughter in the killing.

J. Alexander Kueng entered his guilty plea Monday, just as jury selection was set to begin in the third trial over Floyd’s killing. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped a count of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder against Kueng in the case.

Kueng had previously rejected a plea deal in the case, but after weekend negotiations between prosecutors and his defense, the former officer appeared in court Monday as his attorney announced they had negotiated an end to the case.

Ethiopian government, Tigray rebels set to begin peace talks

NAIROBI, Kenya — Representatives of the Ethiopian government and rebel forces in the country’s Tigray region arrived in South Africa on Monday for their first formal peace talks, a much-anticipated effort to resolve the almost two-year civil war that has ravaged Africa’s second-most-populous nation.

The mediation, led by the African Union, has new urgency because the conflict in Tigray has intensified, raising fears the humanitarian crisis and widespread atroc ities that have left thousands dead, millions displaced and hundreds of thousands hungry will only get worse.

The Ethiopian military and its Eritrean allies captured several major towns from Tigrayan forces in recent days, too, advancing toward the regional capital, Mekelle, and leaving Tigrayan leaders with a weaker hand in the deli cate negotiations.

Unilever recalls Dove and other dry shampoos over cancer risk

Unilever recalled popular brands of aerosol dry shampoo, including Dove, after discovering they were con taminated with a chemical called benzene that can cause cancer. The recall also covers brands such as Nexxus, Suave, Tresemmé and Tigi, which makes Rockaholic and Bed Head dry shampoos, according to a notice posted on the Food and Drug Administration’s website Friday.

Unilever’s recall pertains to products made before Octo ber 2021. The move again raises questions about the safety of aerosols in personal-care products. In the past year and a half, a number of aerosol sunscreens have been pulled from shelves, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Neutrogena, Edgewell Personal Care’s Banana Boat and Beiersdorf’s Coppertone. The recalls were set off by findings of ben zene in such products by an analytical lab called Valisure, based in New Haven, Conn., starting in May 2021.

New Mexican wire services

Sunak to lead U.K.

By William Booth and Karla Adam Washington Post

LONDON

After months of political fever, Britain on Tuesday will get a new prime minister, the third in two months, with the country now looking to Rishi Sunak — a former finance minister and hedge-fund manager, a 42-year-old whiz kid, richer than the royals — to beat back the harshest economic head winds here in a gen eration, including some of his own creation.

Sunak, a practicing Hindu of Indian descent, will be the first person of color to serve in Britain’s highest office, and his Conservative Party leadership win Monday, coinciding with the festival of Diwali, marked a moment of jubilation among many in Britain with South Asian heritage.

Sunak’s rise to the top office is especially significant in a country that has sometimes struggled to grapple with the legacy of its colonialist past. Britain ruled India for almost a century, from 1858 to 1947, and the modern-day United Kingdom is filled with the children and grandchildren of immigrants from the former realm.

In Southall, an area of west London some times called Little India for its large diaspora, people in the streets celebrated Sunak — even though many residents support the opposition Labour Party.

“If Rishi Sunak ever dreamed he would be prime minister on Diwali day, well, you couldn’t take bets on this. What a wonderful thing,” said Davinderpal Singh Kooner, 67, a dental surgeon, who was speaking outside a temple as young children lit candles behind him.

“It’s a unique moment to have an Asian PM,” he said — pausing for the fireworks that burst in a bright display of red above his head — “it’s a pivotal moment in the politics of this country.”

Hardeep Marwa, 45, a tech worker with the National Health Service, said his friends were talking about Sunak’s win as “an Obama moment.”

“It’s opening the door for South Asians to go into politics,” Marwa said.

Others in Britain were not so celebratory — for the fact was that members of the public in this race were mere spectators, with no role to play, as Conservative Party lawmakers in the House of Commons concluded, based on votes by 357 members, that Sunak was their savior.

In a brief televised address, his first as Tory leader, Sunak paid tribute to the “dignity and grace” of outgoing prime minister Liz Truss — whose six-week tenure was an unprecedented disaster — and warned that Britain faced a “profound economic challenge.” In those few words, the sunny forecasts of a post-Brexit “Global Britain,” previously sold by Sunak and his predecessors, began to be grounded in new realities.

Sunak vowed to serve with “integrity and humility” — qualities he suggested were lack ing when he resigned from Boris Johnson’s government and led a revolt against his former boss. He called for “stability and unity” — in other words, the opposite of the tumult and divisions that characterized Truss’ tenure.

Opposition politicians don’t appear to be leaving much leeway for a honeymoon period. On Monday, they continued their calls for a general election. Labour lawmaker Angela Rayner complained that Sunak’s accession was a coronation and that the Tories could not “keep doling out prime ministers every month.” Labour leader Keir Starmer charged that Sunak was “covered in the mess” that 12 years of Con servative rule had created.

Sunak is a center-right moderate who prom ises to craft a prudent path to balance Britain’s books and address its sky-high debt, which is partly a result of his own borrowing. Sunak wrote big checks as chancellor under Johnson during the pandemic. He had the government cover up to 80 percent of wages for millions of furloughed British workers — one of the most generous pandemic subsidies in the world. He also promoted a month of subsidized meals in August 2020, dubbed “Eat Out to Help Out “or “Rishi’s dishes,” designed to get Britons back into eateries.

The pandemic bills around the world are now coming due. And Britain’s predicament was made worse by Truss’ plan to slash taxes for the wealthy and corporations and double down on borrowing, hoping for a surge in supply-side growth.

Even after Truss gutted her plan and announced her resignation, the country’s top stock index, the FTSE 100, is struggling. The pound has been pounded and is trading with the dollar at $1.13. The Bank of England is pre dicting a recession for Britain in the coming months. Inflation has crested at 10.1 percent, a 40-year high, with the cost of living soaring because of higher energy and food costs, driven in part by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Xi starts third term with China’s economy in doldrums

China’s economic risks showed no signs of easing, with strict COVID-19 controls and a property slump continuing to weigh on growth and weaker global demand curbing exports, underlining the challenges President Xi Jinping faces as he begins a third term as leader.

In data delayed almost a week, the statistics bureau’s figures showed gross domestic product rebounded to 3.9 percent in the third quarter from almost stagnant growth in the second quarter when Shanghai and other cities were in lockdown.

The pickup was fueled by increasing

investment in infrastructure, though retail sales weakened and unemploy ment increased.

The GDP report came shortly after this weekend’s close of the Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress, in which Xi secured a third term in power and installed loyalists into the top ranks of the party. He didn’t indicate any departure from China’s zero-tolerance approach to combating COVID-19, a policy blamed for China’s plummeting business and consumer confidence.

Growth will “not be significantly higher” in the fourth quarter if that policy stays on its current course, said

Larry Hu, head of China economics at Macquarie Group. “For growth next year, it really depends on policy adjustments, if any, in Zero-Covid and property policy.”

Markets tumbled Monday as inves tors reacted to the political news out of the party congress and disappointment about the lack of easing on COVID Zero.

The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, a gauge of Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong, plunged more than 7 percent. Foreign investors sold a record amount of equities via trading links in Hong Kong.

The yuan weakened as much as 0.6 per

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U.S. labor movement looking to maintain momentum

By Lauren Kaori Gurley Washington Post

It has been a year of firsts for the U.S. labor movement, with successful votes for unions’ first Amazon warehouse, first Apple Store and first Trader Joe’s, Chipotle and REI locations. The most promising of all for union organizers has been victories at some 250 Star bucks stores.

The labor movement has continued to gain traction this fall despite a high-profile union defeat last week at an Amazon warehouse in Albany, N.Y. With 21 months of strong job gains, the tight labor market has resulted in unusual worker shortages across many sectors over the past year, giving work ers more leverage with employers.

“There’s a combination of things that have contributed to this organizing wave that we’re seeing, and the pan demic and post-pandemic economy have been a large part of that,” said John Logan, a labor studies professor at San Francisco State University. “It has opened up an opportunity for unions that didn’t exist before the pandemic.”

There are other objective measures of increased enthusiasm for unions this year. The National Labor Relations Board reported a 53 percent year-overyear increase in union election petitions over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, more Americans say they approve of labor unions, a high not seen since 1965.

“In a time where most institutions, including the Supreme Court, are becoming less and less popular or trusted, unions have their highest level of popularity in decades,” said David Weil, the Labor Department’s top wage and hour regulator under President Barack Obama. “We certainly see a restiveness that is coming out of the pandemic. There’s a greater willingness of working people to show dissatisfac tion.”

However, as the economy teeters toward a downturn in coming months, the window for cementing more victo ries could be narrowing.

Already job openings have fallen, and some companies — particularly in technology and interest-rate sensitive sectors such as mortgage finance — have ordered hiring freezes and layoffs, igniting fears that the paradigm of power in favor of workers could be short-lived.

“Workers have a lot of bargaining power, and that is fueling a resurgence in the labor movement,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. “Unions are trying to make real lasting inroads during this period. That’s going to change in 2023 and almost by definition lead to a reduction in worker bargaining power.”

cent to the weakest since January 2008. Monday’s data showed the ongoing damage from COVID-19 controls, with domestic demand weakening in September as a rise in infections led to more restrictions on mobility. Urban unemployment rose to 5.5 percent in September from 5.3 percent in August, following four months of declines, the statistics bureau said.

Retail sales growth slowed to 2.5 per cent, compared to August’s 5.4 percent increase. Imports grew by just 0.3 per cent, according to trade data released on the same day by China’s customs administration.

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For now, momentum appears to be accelerating in certain sectors, with walkouts at Amazon warehouses last week in Atlanta; Joliet, Ill.; and San Bernardino, Calif. A Home Depot in Philadelphia could become the com pany’s first location to unionize next month, and workers at a Trader Joe’s in New York City will vote on whether to make it the company’s first union store in that region. Quality assurance testers at Blizzard Albany, a subsidiary of games giant Activision Blizzard, will vote on whether to join a union. The country may also get its only unionized strip club in November.

Labor organizing efforts have also sprung up at Lowe’s, T-Mobile and Geico.

It is not clear whether these develop ments will increase union worker num bers. Last year, despite polls showing elevated enthusiasm for organized labor, union membership in the United States fell to 10.3 percent of U.S. workers after a pandemic-related uptick the previous year.

The

the

LOTTERIES

Roadrunner

ABERTO PEZZALI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rishi Sunak, center, waves Monday after winning the Conservative Party leadership contest at the Conservative Party headquarters in London.

Former finance minister will be first person of color to be British PM

shooting;

By Michael Phillis and Jim Salter Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — An armed former stu dent broke into a St. Louis high school Monday morning warning, “You are all going to die!” before fatally shooting a teacher and a teenage girl and wounding seven others before police killed him in an exchange of gunfire.

The attack just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School forced students to barricade doors and huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety. One terrorized girl said she was eye-to-eye with the shooter before his gun apparently jammed and she was able to run out.

Speaking at a news conference Mon day afternoon, police Chief Michael Sack identified the shooter as 19-year-old Orlando Harris, who graduated from the school last year.

Sack said the motive was still under investigation, but “there’s suspicions that there may be some mental illness that he’s experiencing.” Investigators later searched Harris’ home, Sack said.

Authorities didn’t name the victims, but the St. Louis Post-Dispatch identified the dead teacher as Jean Kuczka. Her daughter said her mother was killed when the gunman burst into her class room and she moved between him and her students.

“My mom loved kids,” Abbey Kuczka

Births may be riskier in Mississippi after Roe overturned

By Michael Goldberg Associated Press/Report for America

GREENWOOD, Miss. — In Mississippi, where health officials expect 5,000 more births each year as a result of the Supreme Court ruling upending abortion rights, children are more likely to die before their first birthday than in any other state.

Mississippi has the nation’s highest fetal mortality rate, high est infant mortality rate, highest pre-term birth rate and is among the worst states for maternal mortality. Black women are nearly three times more likely to die due to childbirth than white women in Mississippi.

As the state’s Republican leaders led the legal fight against abortion, Gov. Tate Reeves said he would do everything in his power to make Mississippi the “safest state in the nation for an unborn child.”

But access to pre- and post-natal care has dwindled in Mississippi since the June ruling, making childbirth even more dangerous for poor women and children. The only neonatal intensive care unit in the state’s impoverished Delta region closed in July under financial pressures, moving lifesaving care for ill or premature newborn babies about two hours away by car.

And now the publicly owned Greenwood Leflore Hospital has announced the permanent clo sure of its labor and delivery unit, saying it can’t pay competitive wages and retain experienced nurses. The area’s women will need to travel about 45 minutes to give birth at a hospital.

“If an emergency comes up and somebody lives in Green wood or out in the country, where are they going to go? That could be a catastrophe,” said Dr. Mark Blackwood, an OB/GYN based in the Delta.

Another hospital in coastal Mississippi also closed its labor and delivery unit, and several hospital systems are seeking buyers. All face more pressure due to the state’s refusal to accept Medicaid expansion and the billions of federal dollars it would provide for health care in the state.

Months after the Dobbs ruling forced the closure of the state’s last remaining abortion clinic, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch credited the state’s Republican women for “leading the cause,” and Reeves celebrated “100 days of protecting babies & dismantling the abortion lie.”

But health care analysts, doctors and pregnant women are expressing alarm as options for maternity care disappear.

More than 2.2 million women of childbearing age live in “maternity care deserts” in the U.S., and another 4.7 million live in counties with limited mater nity care access, according to an Oct. 11 report by March of Dimes, which focuses on maternal and infant health.

told the newspaper. “She loved her stu dents. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom.”

Sack said the other fatality was a 16-year-old female who died at the school.

Seven other 15- and 16-year-old students, four boys and three girls, were all in stable condition. Four students suf

fered gunshot wounds or graze wounds, two suffered bruises and one had a broken ankle.

Sack declined to say how Harris was able to get into the building, which has security guards, locked doors and metal detectors.

“If there’s somebody who has a will, they’re going to figure out, we don’t want

to make it easy for them,” Sack said. “We just got to do the best we can to extend that time it takes them to get into the building to buy us time to respond.”

Harris had the gun out when he arrived at the school, and “there was no mystery about what was going to happen. He had it out and entered in an aggressive, violent manner.”

Harris had nearly a dozen high-capac ity magazines of ammunition with him, Sack said. “That’s a whole lot of victims. … It’s certainly tragic for the families, and it’s tragic for our community, but it could have been a whole lot worse.”

St. Louis Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams said seven security guards were in the school at the time of the attack, each stationed at an entrance of the locked building. One of the guards noticed the gunman trying unsuccess fully to get in at a locked door. The guard notified school officials, who contacted police.

Sack said the call about a shooter came in at 9:11 a.m., and officers arrived and had Harris down by 9:25 a.m. He and others praised the quick response of offi cers and other emergency responders.

Central Visual and Performing Arts shares a building with another magnet school, Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience. Central has 383 students, Collegiate 336.

Monday’s school shooting was the 40th this year resulting in injuries or death, according to a tally by Education

Week — the most in any year since it began tracking shootings in 2018. The deadly attacks include the killings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May, when 19 children and two teachers died. Monday’s St. Louis shoot ing came on the same day a Michigan teenager pleaded guilty to terrorism and first-degree murder in a school shooting that killed four students in December 2021.

Taniya Gholston said she was saved when the shooter’s gun jammed as he entered her classroom. “All I heard was two shots, and he came in there with a gun,” the 16-year-old told the Post-Dis patch. “I was trying to run, and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact, but I made it out because his gun got jammed.”

Two teachers recounted near-miss confrontations with the shooter.

Ashley Rench told the Associated Press she was teaching advanced algebra to sophomores when she heard a loud bang. Then the school intercom announced, “Miles Davis is in the build ing.”

“That’s our code for intruder,” Rench said.

Students took refuge beneath her desk and behind her podium as the shooter tried to enter the locked classroom before giving up and going away.

“I don’t know why he chose not to break my windows or shoot through the lock,” she said.

Liberals urge president to rethink Ukraine war strategy

By Yasmeen Abutaleb Washington Post

A group of 30 House liberals is urging President Joe Biden to dramatically shift his strategy on the Ukraine war and pursue direct negotiations with Rus sia, the first time prominent members of his own party have pushed him to change his approach to Ukraine.

The letter, sent to the White House on Monday and first reported by the Washington Post, could create more pres sure on Biden as he tries to sustain domestic support for the war effort, at a time when the region is heading into a potentially difficult winter and Republicans are threatening to cut aid to Ukraine if they retake Congress.

In a letter led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chairwoman of the Congressio nal Progressive Caucus, the 30 Democrats call on Biden to pair the unprecedented economic and military support the United States is providing Ukraine with a “proactive diplomatic push, redoubling efforts to seek a realistic frame work for a ceasefire.”

The Democrats are specif ically concerned the United

Graham testimony in Georgia blocked for now by Thomas WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Monday temporarily blocked Sen. Lindsey Graham’s testi mony to a special grand jury investigating whether then-Pres ident Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in the state.

Thomas’ order is intended to prevent Fani Willis, Fulton County district attorney, from compelling Graham to testify while the Supreme Court weighs the senator’s request for

States is not engaging in regular dialogue with Russia as part of its effort to end a protracted war that has caused thousands of deaths and displaced 13 million people. The Biden administration has been adamant it is up to Kyiv whether and when to negotiate with Russia, arguing that Ukrai nians as a free people should decide their fate.

But some Russia experts say Moscow will only negotiate with the United States, a fellow superpower. The lawmakers say that opening must be seized given the war’s spreading devastation, adding, “The alternative to diplo macy is protracted war, with both its attendant certainties and cata strophic and unknowable risks.”

The liberal Democrats note the war’s disastrous consequences are increasingly felt far beyond Ukraine, including elevated food and gas prices in the United States and spikes in the price of wheat, fertilizer and fuel that have created global food short ages, not to mention the danger of a nuclear attack by Moscow.

White House spokesman John Kirby, responding to the lawmak ers’ letter, said the administration “appreciates their very thoughtful concerns” but reiterated that the Ukrainians must be central to any diplomatic overtures.

a lengthier halt to the proceed ings.

Willis has a deadline Thurs day to tell the high court why Graham should have to answer the grand jury’s questions. Lower courts have ruled that his testimony can take place.

Thomas acted on his own, as the justice who handles emer gency appeals from Georgia.

Associated Press

“We’re not going to have con versations with the Russian lead ership without the Ukrainians being represented,” Kirby said during a briefing with reporters. “Mr. Zelenskyy gets to determine — because it’s his country — what success looks like and when to negotiate.”

He added, “We’d all like to see this war end today, and quite frankly it could end today if Mr. Putin did the right thing and pulled his troops out.”

The lawmakers are at pains to differentiate themselves from the Republicans who are also challeng ing Biden’s approach to Ukraine. Some conservatives are now ques tioning U.S. aid to Ukraine because of its cost and, in a few cases, voic ing apparent sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We are under no illusions regarding the difficulties involved in engaging Russia given its outrageous and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the Democrats’ letter states. “If there is a way to end the war while preserving a free and independent Ukraine, it is Ameri ca’s responsibility to pursue every diplomatic avenue to support such a solution that is acceptable to the people of Ukraine.”

The letter was signed by some of the best-known and most outspoken liberal Democrats in Congress, including Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Cori Bush of Missouri, Ro Khanna of California and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota.

For now, their position remains a minority in the Democratic

Party, which has overwhelmingly supported Biden’s denunciations of Russia and his spearheading of a global coalition to funnel mas sive support to Ukraine. Biden has framed the conflict as part of his broader view that the world is witnessing a historic confron tation between authoritarianism and democracy.

Not even every member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus joined in Monday’s call for a change in strategy. Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., indicated he supported providing Ukraine enough aid and weapons to win the war outright.

“The way to end a war? Win it quickly. How is it won quickly? By giving Ukraine the weapons to defeat Russia,” Gallego wrote on Twitter on Monday.

DAVID CARSON/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

stand

lot near the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School

after a shooting that left two dead Monday.

COVID plans can let you have normal holidays

“It requires everyone who’s going to these gatherings to buy into the idea that we’re going to do the best to protect each other,” said Dr. Adam Ratner, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at New York University Langone.

By Dani Blum New York Times

At this stage in the long slog of the pandemic, many of us are forgoing masks in places we previously wore them and getting together indoors when we had formerly avoided it. But the holidays throw new variables at every one’s risk calculus. People trek across the country to see each other. Families crowd around dinner tables, with older, more vulnerable people sitting beside their younger relatives.

As we enter our third pandemic holiday season, some doctors are fearing a seasonal surge in COVID-19. In Europe — which many experts consider a bell wether for COVID-19 cases in the U.S. — cases are starting to mount, prompting the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization to warn a new wave of infections could be starting.

“This is the holiday that everyone’s going to come back together again,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. With a bit of advanced planning, he said, family gath erings can be safe this year and resemble something like pre-pandemic times. “We have the tools for a normal life,” he said. “We just have to use them.”

Here’s what to keep in mind as you map out your family’s plans for the holidays.

Plan around the highest-risk member of your family

Individual risk tolerance may vary among your family members, but in general, plan around the person at your gathering who is highest-risk. That means taking more precautions if you have a family member who is older than 60, on immunosuppressant medications, received a transplant or is a cancer patient, said Dr. Michelle Prickett, pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Medicine.

You should talk with your family mem bers ahead of time before gathering and figure out your game plan. Ask if people are up-to-date on their vaccinations, and encourage people to take additional precautions if a high-risk family member is attending, which could include limiting the number of people you invite to Thanksgiving dinner or investing in a few heat lamps so that you can move the meal outside. “This is something you can manage,” Prickett said. “But you can’t put your head in the sand.”

Get the new booster

“The biggest way to protect yourself and others is to stay on top of your shots,” said Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary medicine doctor at Cleveland Clinic. The new bivalent booster is a critical tool for warding off infection — although many people are not even aware that it is available. You can find the new booster at pharmacies and health centers across the country, and anyone 5 and older can receive it. (You can get your booster at the same time as your flu shot.)

Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, has urged people to get the new booster by Halloween, so that it kicks in before Thanksgiving gatherings.

Pay attention to symptoms

In the days leading up to a family event — and especially the morning of — watch out for COVID-19 symptoms: sore throat, congestion, coughing, fatigue, headaches and muscle pain. People infected with BA.5, the dominant variant of COVID-19, are less likely to report losing their sense of taste and smell, but those are also cru cial symptoms to watch for.

The dominant variant currently has a shorter incubation period — which means if you go to a packed bar on a Friday night and don’t have symptoms by Monday, it’s unlikely you have the virus, Chin-Hong said. If you still don’t have symptoms by Wednesday, you’re probably in the clear, he said, although

you should take a test to confirm.

However, it is still possible to have an asymptomatic case of COVID-19 — and as more people build up immunity to the virus through vaccination and prior infec tion, asymptomatic or very mild cases will be more common, said Dr. Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and senior fellow and editor at large for public health at Kaiser Health News. Even if you do not have symptoms, you can still spread the virus, she said, which makes it important to test right before gathering with a vulnerable person.

“If you’re going to sit down with Grandma for Thanksgiving dinner, I would test immediately before,” she said.

If you do feel sick, stay home — even if you’re negative on a rapid test. “Anyone who isn’t feeling well should stay home,” Ratner said, “because the tests aren’t perfect.”

Test wisely

The question isn’t whether to test before a family gathering; it’s when to test and how many times.

Experts differ on the exact timing and combination of tests you should take, but for the most accurate measure of whether you’re contagious before an event, take an at-home rapid test right before. “You can just have a little testing party outside, where everyone says, ‘OK, now we’re good; we’re negative; we can go in and see Mom,’ ” said Stuart Ray, an infectious diseases specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. You should also take a rapid test the day before, he advised.

“Rapid tests are very good, but they’re not perfect,” Prickett said. PCR tests are more sensitive, but it can take several days to get the results back, she said, and so a 5-day-old snapshot of your infection status won’t be helpful in determining if you’re contagious at the moment. If you can get a quick-turnaround PCR, that can boost your confidence that you’re negative; if not, take at least two rapid tests, 12 to 24 hours apart.

Consider a ‘mini quarantine’

You might want to minimize your exposure in the week before heading home for the holidays, Prickett said. That means wearing a mask in public indoor

Vulnerable House Dems play to the middle

By Marianna Sotomayor Washington Post

LANSING, Mich. — In between campaign stops, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., is taking calls from fellow House Democrats seeking her support for leadership races upon their return to Capitol Hill.

It’s a dumbfounding request for Slotkin, who may not even be serving in Congress next year.

“I’ve had some pretty tough conversations like, ‘Hey, I really like you as a person and I respect you as a lawmaker, but I’m trying to give you the privilege of running for chairman or chairwoman by keeping the majority,’ ” Slotkin said.

“It’s by no means a sure thing.”

Slotkin and 38 of her colleagues belong to an exclusive group no House Democrat wants to join: vul nerable members who represent the most competitive swing districts in the country. Most of them paved the way to Democrats’ regaining the House majority in 2018, when the party flipped 41 seats by promising to protect health care access and restore faith that government can function after former President Donald Trump took office.

As the handful of members in true swing districts, front line

Crash death

as we continue the investigation,” Hogrefe said.

The sheriff said the driver who rolled a silver Jeep Patriot around 1:40 a.m. Sunday on Los Cordovas Road remained in critical condition and was not expected to survive his injuries. He and two passengers were airlifted to a trauma center at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque.

Three other passengers were treated at Holy Cross Medical Cen ter in Taos.

The sheriff’s office has not iden tified any of the crash victims, but several members of the community confirmed Jeantette was the teen who died in the incident.

The Jeep Patriot came to rest upside down. Hogrefe said in a statement investigators suspect both speed and alcohol contributed to the crash, though he provided no details about the driver’s blood-al cohol level or other evidence to suggest the driver had been drink ing. None of the teens was wearing a seat belt, he added.

Taos High School opened its

Democrats represent a snapshot of America that often rebukes the extremes within either party. The makeup of these districts, however, can prove volatile in midterm election years, where voters often reject the sitting president’s party.

A recent CNN poll showed Demo crats on the defensive, with 48 per cent of likely voters living in com petitive House districts supporting the Republican candidate and 43 percent backing the Democrat.

These vulnerable Democrats now find themselves grappling

doors to students Sunday afternoon to offer counseling and support to those in the small community who were grieving Jeantette. On Mon day, students sought relief between classes.

Aliyah Herrera, 16, said she couldn’t bring herself to attend school Monday. “It doesn’t feel right without her there,” she said of Jeantette. “She was a very sweet girl. She cared for all her friends. She was always there for you and loving on you.”

Herrera said Jeantette was known for her laughter and for making oth ers laugh, especially teachers.

Another person close to the school said, “The students and the staff are devastated. We had two chaplains and mental health workers from Taos Behavioral Health. We’re very thankful for the community support. They created a memorial with poster board for the kids to sign.”

A GoFundMe campaign was created Monday on behalf of Jeantette’s parents, Andrew Jeantette and Alexa MacQueen, to help with funeral expenses. “Any funds left would be used towards raising teen safety awareness,” said a post on the page, created by Angel Mondragon of Taos.

Taos High School Principal C.J.

with what it means to be at the front lines guarding the House majority and, they argue, the direc tion of the country. Their fate will undoubtedly require post-Election Day reflection for their party: Is the pathway to maintaining congres sional majorities embracing liberal policies that activate the base or is it by taking a page from these swing districts and moderating to win the middle?

In the final weeks ahead of the midterm elections, these front line Democrats are working to con

Grace, who had alerted parents and staff about the crash Sunday morn ing and said all seven of the teens were Taos High students, declined to comment on the incident Mon day and instead referred questions to Valerie Trujillo, interim superin tendent of Taos Municipal Schools.

Trujillo did not respond to requests for comment but issued a statement Monday afternoon. “Our hearts are broken as we come together to help our students, parents, and staff recover from this weekend’s tragic accident,” she wrote. “The District will continue to work with law enforcement to fully investigate this tragedy.”

Deputy Sylvia Trujillo-Chacon wrote in a statement of probable cause against Martinez, filed Monday in Taos County Magistrate Court, she had spoken with seven teens at Martinez’s residence shortly after the crash. She had been called into assist the sheriff’s office with a report of a missing teen, she wrote.

The report had been filed by the mother of a teen boy who later was discovered at Martinez’s home, the court document says.

The teen’s mother said her son had called but was so intoxicated he did not know his whereabouts and then didn’t return home, Trujillo-Chacon

vince voters that they are the last line of defense against extremism, arguing they have a track record of working across the aisle and protecting personal freedoms, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s decision this summer to overturn Roe v Wade.

They also view their job as arbi ters of democracy as far from over, as many Republicans continue to question the integrity of U.S. elec tions, even after surviving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“It’s not just the substance of what we accomplished, said Rep. Tom Malinowski, N.J., a member of the Class of 2018 also in a tough race, “but the evidence our demo cratic institutions can still function in a way that helps people, which I hope is enough to convince more people out there that the democ racy is worth fighting for.”

wrote in the statement.

After she arrived at Martinez’s home, she wrote, she spoke with Martinez, the party host, who ini tially told her the missing teen was not there and that she had provided designated drivers for guests who had left earlier. But the deputy later found the boy she had been seek ing, the statement says, and he was one of three minors who admitted to drinking alcoholic beverages from coolers provided at Martinez’s party.

Four of the teens the deputy spoke with denied they had been drinking.

Martinez was arrested and booked in the Taos County jail.

She pleaded not guilty Monday to the eight charges against her, all fourth-degree felonies. Her attorney, John Day of Albuquerque, waived a formal reading of the charges before Taos County Magis trate Ernest Ortega.

Martinez was released on an unsecured appearance bond on the condition she maintains contact with her attorney, refrains from contact with any of the alleged victims and that she not possess alcohol.

The Taos News, a sister publication of The Santa Fe New Mexican, contributed to this report.

spaces and also limiting the time you spend around crowds — such as timing trips to the grocery store for when it isn’t super packed, she said.

This is especially important if you live in an area with high levels of COVID-19 cases. You want to check case counts like a weather report, Chin-Hong said — and keep in mind that these offer an incom plete picture, since rates of testing have plummeted.

Of course, total isolation isn’t feasible for many people. But the level of risk you encounter in a workplace, for example, where you can potentially wear a mask and may interact only with a set group of people, is likely lower than in environ ments such as a restaurant or bar, Ray said.

Mask up while you travel

While your risk may change slightly depending on which mode of trans portation you take, Gounder didn’t recommend prioritizing one form of travel over another. But whether you’re taking a plane, bus or train, make sure to wear a mask.

Even if you’re the only person on a plane or train wearing one, a high-quality mask can still protect you, doctors said. “It’s way, way better than nothing,” Ratner said, “and way, way worse than if everyone was masked.” He recommends people use an N95, KN95 or KF94 mask and that they keep it on for the entire trip or take it off for as short a time as possible. You might want to fill up on a big meal before your journey, so you don’t have to take off your mask to eat.

Ventilate your space

If you can’t hold your event outside, you can still increase air circulation and reduce the risk of trapping and transmitting the virus in a tight indoor space. Even cracking open the windows can improve air flow. You can also purchase portable air purifiers with HEPA filters. These devices can be expensive, but they can effectively capture some virus particles in the air.

Experts acknowledged that these pre cautions can be exhausting but stressed that advance planning can help us pro tect each other over the holidays.

“I do not think it’s going to be like this forever,” Ratner said. “But we’re still in this.”

Ronchetti ad

the increasingly aggressive gubernatorial race.

Among them is an ad that says Ronchetti “praised” the U.S. Supreme Court “for letting politicians outlaw abortion with no exceptions for rape or incest,” a ref erence to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which elimi nated the federal constitutional right to abortion and left the decision up to states.

In a letter to station managers, Ronchetti’s general counsel called the abortion ad, which was purchased by a political action committee affiliated with the Demo cratic Governors Association, “false and unsubstantiated advertising.”

“This advertisement falsely claims that Mark Ronch etti supports banning abortion with no exceptions for rape and incest,” Matthew Chandler of the Chandler Law Firm wrote Wednesday. “Ronchetti has said no such thing. Ronchetti has consistently supported exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.”

In response to Chandler’s demand networks take the ad off the air, A Stronger New Mexico, the PAC linked to the Democratic Governors Association, said its ad is accurate. The ad includes a tweet from Ronchetti, who wrote, “states will rightly make decisions regarding abortion” after the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade was leaked in May.

“The advertisement says nothing about Mr. Ronch etti’s own support for these exceptions — as his letter erroneously argues — but rather that he praised the Supreme Court for letting politicians regulate abortion as they see fit, as Wisconsin Republicans have pledged to do,” Ezra Reese, an attorney representing A Stronger New Mexico, wrote in a letter to station managers. “Given that the Dobbs opinion itself makes clear that the decision to regulate abortion now lies exclusively with politicians in states, there is simply no basis to say the ad’s claim is false.”

Ryan Sabel, Ronchetti’s campaign communications director, said the PAC is “blatantly lying” in the ad.

“Governor Lujan Grisham’s allies are lying on her behalf because they see the writing on the walls, the governor has failed this state on crime, education, and the economy and they will say anything to distract from those facts. Even going so far as to fabricate disgusting lies like this,” he wrote in a statement.

Sabel also took aim at the TV stations.

“We did not expect the media to correct the record and tell the truth as they have aided the Governor at every opportunity,” he wrote. “We simply wanted to set the record straight and give them an opportunity to do the right thing on the outside chance they would.”

Ronchetti used to be in the media business. He is the former chief meteorologist for KRQE-TV.

The letter from Reese, the attorney for the PAC, indicates the Ronchetti campaign has tried to get an ad pulled from the air at least once before.

The abortion ad mostly criticizes Ronchetti for scrub bing his campaign website on the issue of abortion.

“He tried to make it disappear,” a narrator says at the beginning of the ad. “But Mark Ronchetti got caught, trying to erase his long record opposing abortion rights.”

As a 2020 U.S. Senate candidate, Ronchetti stated “life should be protected at all stages” and that “unborn babies just happen to be living inside their mother.”

But as a gubernatorial candidate, he’s championed a more centrist stance following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

While still calling himself “pro-life,” Ronchetti has said if elected governor he would seek a “middle ground” that includes a ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest and when a mother’s life is at risk.

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.

With another winter surge predicted, experts say new booster, masking, testing key to keeping vulnerable safe

Democratic Reps. Katie Hill, Ca lif., left; Tom Malinowski, N.J., center; and Lauren Underwood, Ill., were all part of the Demo crats’ freshman class of 2018. Hill is no longer in the House, and Malinowski and Underwood are each facing tough reelection races in the 2022 midterms.

MELINA MARA/WASHINGTON POST

Continued from

Early voting returns signal high turnout

Georgia reports advanced voting returns 60 percent higher than 2018 midterms

By Bill Barrow and Jeff Amy Associated Press

ATLANTA — Early voting is going gangbusters in Georgia in the opening days of midterm balloting, fueling a new round of partisan jousting over Republi cans’ overhaul of election procedures after Democrats’ 2020 victories in the state.

Through Sunday, about 838,000 Geor gians had cast their ballots, most of them in person at advance voting sites, the rest returning mail ballots. That’s almost 60 percent higher than totals at this point in 2018, the last midterm election.

More than 10 percent of Georgia’s registered voters have already cast votes, a share that trails only Massachusetts and Vermont, where 22 percent and 16 percent of voters have sent in ballots, according to an Associated Press analysis of data col

Appointee

Continued from Page A-1

affirming her appointment by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in 2020 — over her opponent because she has more varied professional experience.

Montoya, whose campaign ads feature the slogan “Law Before Politics,” says people should elect him because he’s a Republican and his election would help balance the distri bution of political affiliations on the Democrat-dominated court.

Prior to being appointed — and later elected — to the Court of Appeals in 2016, Vargas spent several decades in private practice where she handled primarily commercial and real estate cases.

Montoya, 70, has devoted the majority of his 41 year legal career to practicing family law.

“One of the biggest things that sets me apart is the broad nature of my experience,” Var gas said in a recent interview.

“I’ve done every kind of case imaginable while on the Court of Appeals. And now on the Supreme Court, not only have I written 150 opinions, I’ve probably sat on another 300 to 400 panels deciding cases. So the vast experience that I have in every area of New Mexico law is really what sets me apart.

“My opponent is a divorce lawyer; he’s got one area of expertise, and that’s what his entire career has been limited to,” she said. “I’ve done just about everything at this point.

lected by University of Florida professor Michael McDonald. California and Florida have each accepted more than 1 million mail ballots thus far. And the numbers nationwide are likely to accelerate this week as more states open early in-person

And I’d love to continue my work on the court; I think we have a lot more to do that will help the help and improve the lives of my fellow New Mexicans, who I love and care about.”

Montoya points to the fact that the state Judicial Nomi nating Commission — which vets candidates and makes recommendations for judicial appointments to the governor — is made up of an equal num ber of Democrats and Repub licans as an indicator “that the people’s intent is that there be a balance” of political affiliations on the state’s appellate courts.

“There needs to be a percep tion from the point of view of the public that politics are not guiding judicial decisions,” he said in a recent interview.

As it stands now, all five New Mexico Supreme Court justices and nine of the 10 Court of Appeals judges are Democrats.

Out more than 40 judicial appointments Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has made, Mon toya said, only three have been Republicans.

In many cases, he said, the governor hasn’t had a choice between candidates with different political affiliations, but when she does, “candidly, qualified Republicans need not apply.”

Four nominating commis sions have considered Montoya for appointments to District Court judgeships, he said, and three recommended him for the posts. “But I was not close enough to the governor to get the appointment,” he said.

And he says family law encompasses a lot more than

SUPREME COURT Q&AS

Julie Vargas

Party affiliation: Democrat Age: 54 City or area of primary residence: Albuquerque Educational background: Brown Univer sity, 1986-1990, Bachelor of Arts in History and English Literature; University of New Mexico School of Law, 1990-1993, J.D.

Occupation: Associate Justice, New Mex ico Supreme Court

Political Experience: In addition to this race to keep my seat on the New Mexico Supreme Court, I ran for and won a seat on the New Mexico Court of Appeals in 2016.

Relevant life experience: A native New Mexican, I understand the unique issues fac ing our state. Prior to serving as a judge on Court of Appeals and justice on the Supreme Court, I spent two decades helping small business and families with their legal issues.

Have you ever been charged or con victed of a crime, including drunken driving?: No

Have you ever filed for bankruptcy or been involved in a bankruptcy proceed ing, either personally or in business?: No

Have you ever been the subject of liens for unpaid taxes?: No 1. Why should voters choose you over your opponent?: I have broad experience in all areas of the law. In addition to my 23 years of experience in commercial litiga tion, as a judge on the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, I have decided hundreds of cases in every area of law that comes before our state courts. My commitment to improv ing the legal system is also evident from my volunteer activities with the State Bar, the Ethics Advisory Committee and the Disci plinary Board.

2. Describe your judicial philosophy: I do not have a per se judicial philosophy. My job is to decide each case on its own facts in a fair and impartial manner. In doing so, I am committed to following the canons of construction recognized by our case law for interpreting statutes and regulations. And with regard to case law, stare decisis coun sels how judges are to interpret that case law and the circumstances under which we can overrule it.

3. The Supreme Court formed the Equity and Justice Commission in 2020 to address issues related to race and bias in the judiciary. What are your views on whether the court, as a whole, deals effectively with racial and gender bias?: As with any organization, there is always room for improvement. We recently revised the policies for judicial nominating

Signs showing the way for voters stand outside a Cobb County voting build ing during the first day of early voting last week in Mari etta, Ga. More than 10 percent of the state’s voters have already cast votes. Advance voting is almost 60 percent higher than it was in 2018, the last mid term election.

MIKE STEWART ASSOCIATED PRESS

polling places or send ballots to voters.

“We’re seeing very robust numbers of people who are voting early, so at this point we’d have to see turnout crater before election day for the trajectory we’re on to change,” McDonald said.

Opposites

and as a trial court judge for about 10 years. Before that, she served in both metropolitan and district courts in Albuquerque.

Morris, 70, ran for Metro Court in 1986, District Court in 2004 and most recently the state Supreme Court in 2020. In his practice, Morris said he primarily handles probate and injury cases and has a contract with the New Mexico Risk Management Division.

“I’m the only [candidate] who’s issued decisions and opinions, and I’ve done so in every area of the law,” Zamora said during a recent interview. “I’m the only one who’s had nearly 150 jury trials in my career, and I have extensive experi ence in our criminal justice system.

“I’m the only one who has actu ally gone through the bipartisan judicial nominating commission and been recommended, and [I] have done that four times. Each time they recommended me to the governor,” Zamora added.

be evaluated by the public, in light of an opponent who’s going to criticize them, and I have several critiques for the courts, and particularly for my opponent,” he said.

Though judges are not supposed to make decisions based on politics, Morris claimed Zamora has broken this rule on multiple occasions throughout her time as a judge.

During a recent interview, Zamora said she has followed state regulations and made efforts to ensure her deci sion are made fairly. She hopes to see the court improve its transparency with the public by giving it better access to information on pending cases and improving livestreams of proceedings. She said she also hopes the court’s new Commission on Mental Health and Competency will improve resources in the state for peo ple going through the judicial system.

“One thing that’s near and dear to my heart is mental health and behavioral health because of the lack of resources I felt I had, despite being in the largest trial court in the largest jurisdiction in the state,” Zamora said.

just divorce.

“The impression for those who do not know is that family law practice is narrow,” he said.

“It is not. It is a very extensive and very broad practice because it includes every activ ity or business issue that may be involved in a relationship.

So any type of business activity, real estate, anything that people make home … and it includes children, which are the most important thing. … I have a very extensive background, dealing with problems that children have in our state.”

While would-be justices are routinely hard to pin down on any issues that could come before them, Vargas’ and Mon toya’s answers to a question about what they’d change in the Supreme Court shed some light on what their individual approaches.

Montoya — who said voters will be getting a “law and order judge” if they elect him — used the question as an opportunity to raise the controversial issue of the state’s bond system and whether reforms implemented in recent years essentially doing away with money bonds have made it too easy for crimi nals to be released from jail.

“I know we had a constitu tional amendment in 2016 … with respect to the bail system and the pretrial detention,” he said. “It’s been termed by many people a ‘catch and release’ … that can be looked at again to see whether effectively it is working or not working. I can absolutely tell you, what I hear repeatedly, is it’s not working. So it needs to be reexamined. That’s one thing that can be done.”

commissions to address race and gender bias and initiated transgender cultural flu ency training for court employees. However, there are areas of our system for which we have no data. For example, we have no data explaining whether criminal defendants are treated equally by race, ethnicity, or gender. This is something we’ve asked the commis sion to evaluate.

4. What do you perceive as the great est obstacles to justice in New Mexico, if any?: In the civil context, access to law yers and the justice system remains a sig nificant obstacle. Ten New Mexico counties have ten or fewer lawyers. Litigants continue to struggle to come to the courts and partici pate in cases. In the criminal context, access to mental and behavioral health treatment is among our most significant problems. The availability of these mental and behavioral health services is absolutely vital to avoid recidivism.

5. Who do you most admire on the current United States Supreme Court and why?: I was impressed by the newest justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. At her confir mation hearing, in addition to her intellectual prowess, she displayed grace and dignity under very difficult questioning. As mem bers of the court, we forgo some of our First Amendment freedoms to protect the impar tiality of the process, promising to decide cases fairly and impartially, notwithstanding our personal beliefs. I appreciated how the Justice answered the questions while remaining true to her obligations.

Thomas Montoya

Email: tommontoya@aol.com

Phone Number: (505) 450-7526

Age: 70 City or area of primary residence: Albuquerque Educational background: J.D., Univer sity of Southern California

Occupation: Attorney Party affiliation: Republican Political Experience: 2020 Candidate for Court of Appeals; 2022 Republican candi date for New Mexico Supreme Court

Relevant life experience: Forty-one years practice family law; AV Preeminent Rating Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review; 3 times qualified by Judicial Nominating Commission for District Judge; 23 years member, American Law Institute.

Have you ever been charged or con victed of a crime, including drunken driving? No

Have you ever filed for bankruptcy or been involved in a bankruptcy proceed ing, either personally or in business? No Have you ever been the subject of

In response to the same question, Vargas said she’d like to continue the court system’s ongoing efforts to make things work “more smoothly and effi ciently” for law enforcement.

“Because we have such a police shortage right now, we want to keep police doing their jobs rather than sitting in the courtroom waiting to testify or do a traffic case,” she said. “So we’ve been doing everything we can think of to minimize the time they have to spend in court.”

Vargas listed waiving police appearances at certain hear ings, allowing officers to attend court virtually and mandatory settlement conferences as some of the changes the Supreme Court has put in place to keep criminal cases flowing through the system despite a backlog created by COVID-19 shutdowns.

The state Supreme Court is the state’s highest court and “court of last resort” and has the authority to decide disputed rulings from all the state’s lower courts and the Public Regulation Commission.

The five members of the court — who are each paid about $180,000 per year — also have jurisdiction over all criminal matters involving sentences of life in prison and matters related to removal of public officials.

State Supreme Court justices can be elected or appointed, but if appointed — as Vargas was in 2020 — a justice must win election in a partisan race to remain on the bench.

liens for unpaid taxes? No

1. Why should voters choose you over your opponent? New Mexico needs balance in the appellate courts. Of the 15 current appellate court judges and justices, only one is Republican. I have 41 years experience in family law, a very broad field. I have an AV preeminent rating from the oldest and largest peer review organization. My work is cited as authoritative three times by our appel late courts. I was nominated three times for appointment as District Judge by the Judicial Selection Nominating Commission.

2. Describe your judicial philosophy. My judicial philosophy is conservative. This means the Supreme Court is not a Legis lature, making laws because of a desired result. That is the role of elected represen tatives and the people. I would not read into the Constitution or legislation words that are not there, because of a desired outcome. I will apply the law as written, not as I would want it to be. The facts and the law will con trol my decisions.

3. The Supreme Court formed the Equity and Justice Commission in 2020 to address issues related to race and bias in the judiciary. What are your views on whether the court, as a whole, deals effectively with racial and gen der bias? Apply the rules. Code of Judicial Conduct: “A judge shall perform the duties of judicial office, including administrative duties, without bias or prejudice.” Code of Professional Conduct: “In the course of any judicial or quasi-judicial proceeding before a tribunal, a lawyer shall refrain from inten tionally manifesting, by words or conduct, bias or prejudice based on race, gender, reli gion, national origin, disability, age, or sexual orientation against the judge, court person nel, parties, witnesses, counsel or others.”

4. What do you perceive as the great est obstacles to justice in New Mexico, if any? It is true that, because of the consid erable number and complexity of the laws, those without means are at a disadvantage in the court system against those who can afford a lawyer. Although laws cannot favor those who cannot afford a lawyer, courts can compel litigants to go to mediation, and the Legislature could appropriate monies to pay lawyers at a reduced rate to help litigants resolve their disputes outside the courtroom.

5. Who do you most admire on the current United States Supreme Court and why? Clarence Thomas. From his book, “My Grandfather’s Son,” I learned Justice Thomas came from a very poor family, aban doned by his father, and raised by his grand parents because his mother could not afford to care for him. Justice Thomas learned strong self reliance, self responsibility and discipline from his grandfather, who, with his grandson alongside him, toiled long hours at manual labor, because the grandfather would not allow himself to work for anyone else.

Morris argued these types of nominations are far from bipartisan, as Democratic judges greatly out number Republicans in state courts.

“The governor appointed 45 judges, 43 of which are Democrats. If that’s not partisan, what is?” Morris said. “Traditionally, Republicans are not elected in New Mexico, and I think that’s a problem because there’s no balance. … I think it’s important that we have a balance of views on the Supreme Court because it is a legislative body and makes law.”

Supreme Court justices serve eight-year terms and must stand in retention elections, in which they need to receive 57 percent voter approval. If appointed — as Zamora was in 2021 — a justice must win election in a partisan race to remain on the bench.

Morris said justices should have to run in a partisan election when their term ends, rather than stand ing for retention.

“I think they should stand for par tisan elections, so their decisions can

“Seventy percent of the individuals that enter into our criminal justice system have some sort of behavioral health issue. … So I think having a holistic approach — making sure we have a housing advocate on our commission, law enforcement and first responders — to address some of these underlying issues like mental health and substance abuse will have a huge impact on crime.”

Morris noted if he were elected, he would work to interpret statu tory law “in the original meaning of the words that were used at the time the statute was written. I’m conservative, and I believe in the original meaning or language of the U.S. Constitution and the state of New Mexico Constitution as well.

“Also, I think the court needs to be more restrained and some things that it does because the deci sions are so far-reaching and not appealable,” he added. “I mean, the Legislature can try to override what something the Supreme Court has done, but it’s very difficult. … Basi cally, we need to be more restrained and careful and thoughtful about the consequences, both foreseeable and unforeseeable.”

STATE SUPREME COURT Q&AS

Briana Zamora

Party affiliation: Democrat Age: 48 City or area of primary resi dence: Albuquerque Educational background: Uni versity of New Mexico School of Law, Juris Doctorate, Albuquerque, 2000; New Mexico State University, Bach elor of Arts, Las Cruces, December 1996.

Occupation: New Mexico Supreme Court Justice

Political Experience: Recom mended four times by bipartisan judi cial nominating commission; Justice, New Mexico Supreme Court; Judge, New Mexico Court of Appeals; Judge, Second Judicial District Court; Judge, Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court.

Relevant life experience: I am a mother of two children. I under stand the hardships that all families encounter regarding finances and raising children. Have you ever been charged or convicted of a crime, including drunken driving?: No

Have you ever been the subject of liens for unpaid taxes?: No 1. Why should voters choose you over your opponent?: I have dedicated my career to public service and am one of the only in New Mex ico’s history to serve at every level of our courts. I have presided over 20,000 cases, including first-degree murder cases. I have helped people get back on their feet through spe cialty courts such as Homeless and Drug Court. I have a strong back ground as an assistant Attorney Gen eral and as guardian ad litem protect ing abused and neglected children.

2. Describe your judicial phi losophy: My judicial philosophy is to serve with integrity and honesty and to ensure that everyone entering the court system is treated with dignity and respect, and that their voice is heard. My philosophy is to get it right through extensive research, listen ing, and applying the law fairly and evenly. I know when to be tough, but I always know how to be fair.

3. The Supreme Court formed the Equity and Justice Commission in 2020 to address issues related to race and bias in the judiciary. What are your views on whether the court, as a whole, deals effec tively with racial and gender bias?: This Commission is important to the work we do. A similar commission that I helped form, the Supreme Court Com mission on Mental Health and Compe tency, is also committed to improving access to the justice system. This is something we must constantly work on at all levels, through training, educa tion, and constant evaluation. Just like all organizations, the court system can do better, and this commission is criti cal to ensuring that we do that.

4. What do you perceive as the greatest obstacles to justice in New Mexico, if any?: The greatest obstacle to justice is the access to legal representation. Professional representation is critical in navigat ing this very complicated system.

Encouraging and enhancing pro bono services of the New Mexico State Bar membership would allow more people to effectively navigate this system.

5. Who do you most admire on the current United States Supreme Court and why?: Jus tice [Ruth Bader] Ginsburg. She has inspired a generation of women to strive for excellence. She demon strated that anyone can achieve the highest position with integrity and dignity. She is a true role model for any person, especially a judge.

Kerry Morris

Age: 70 Party affiliation: Republican City or area of primary resi dence: Albuquerque Educational background: J.D. University of New Mexico Law School, 1981

Occupation: Lawyer Political Experience: Ran for Metro Court 1986, District Court 2004, Supreme Court 2020

Relevant life experience: Have lived in New Mexico for nearly 70 years. Have owned several small businesses. Raised a family, been married 36 years. Have you ever been charged or convicted of a crime, including drunken driving?: No Have you ever been the subject of liens for unpaid taxes?: No

1. Why should voters choose you over your opponent?: I will bring to the court balance and the common sense that comes from 41 years of legal experience in the private practice of law. I am a former prosecutor in the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office. I have rep resented thousands of individuals and small businesses as well as state of New Mexico agencies in a wide vari ety of legal matters.

2. Describe your judicial phi losophy: I believe that judges should base their decisions on the law, not politics. Our decisions should be governed by the Constitution and the laws that have been duly enacted by the Legislature. A judge’s decisions should be well considered, based on the law and the facts and not reactive to current social turmoil and unrest.

3. The Supreme Court formed the Equity and Justice Commis sion in 2020 to address issues related to race and bias in the judiciary. What are your views on whether the court, as a whole, deals effectively with racial and gender bias?: Yes the court has dealt with these issues very effec tively through the codes of profes sional and judicial conduct. Also, I have been a lawyer for 41 and have never personally encountered either racial or gender bias in the courts of New Mexico.

4. What do you perceive as the greatest obstacles to justice in New Mexico, if any?: There are communities in this state that have a hard time having their issues properly addressed by the courts. For example, the concerns of the deaf and hard of hearing are not often addressed in a way that is meaningful for them. The court needs to do a better job of reaching out to these communities.

5. Who do you most admire on the current United States Supreme Court and why?: Clar ence Thomas for his courageous commitment to the Constitution and the rule of law.

LOCA L & R EGION

Law may restrict state funding for project

build a museum as large as 54,000 square feet.

By Scott Wyland swyland@sfnewmexican.com

The son of a Navajo Code Talker requested Tuesday the state chip in $25 million for a museum to honor the legendary U.S. Marines whose undeci pherable Native language helped turned the tide for America and its allies in World War II.

Regan Hawthorne presented half a dozen renderings of the proposed museum to lawmakers on the interim legislative Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, telling them he is asking both New Mexico and the federal government to each contribute $25 million to

Dance Church on hold due to owner, tenant disagreement

Welcoming place that promotes ‘spiritualism’ in jeopardy after south-side building changes hands

By Phaedra Haywood phaywood@sfnewmexican.com

Santa Fe devotees of Dance Church are losing their religion, at least temporarily.

For years the group has gathered at a south-side warehouse once or twice a week to engage in free-form movement in a safe space accompanied by music played by local DJs.

Dance Church is a welcoming place where dancers, particularly women, can be vulnerable and express themselves physically without fear or judgement, organizer Kurt “Siorge” Prassé said Monday.

“It facilitates a form of personal cathar sis, but also spiritualism,” he said. “It’s a form of worship, a form of prayer, and [participants] feel connected to a high power, as New Age as that might sound.”

But there was no Dance Church last week.

Prassé claimed that’s because Scott Lewis — the new owner of About the Music, the venue where the event is is held — has locked the group out and is attempting to break their lease.

Prassé filed an emergency petition for injunctive relief Friday, asking the state District Court to order Lewis and his wife Anna Lewis to allow Dance Church to continue meeting at the Fox Road venue “until the court make a further determination.”

“Doing so will allow these activities which have become so important to the Santa Fe Community to safely continue and perhaps in the future transition to a different venue gracefully,” he wrote in the petition, which he filed without the aid of a lawyer.

Lewis declined to comment Monday. His attorney said she’ll be filing a reply in the case later this week.

Prassé, 60, says he been involved in similar events — sometimes called ecstatic dance or 5 Rhythms — in San Francisco and Australia over the years and took over Santa Fe’s group in 2021 after it had been meeting at About the Music since 2018.

Prassé’s petition says he signed a new, two-year contract with the previous landlord in 2021, which allowed the group to use the space for the dance four hours per week — and for Prassé to maintain an office there — through December 2023.

Although lawmakers didn’t directly address the hefty sum Hawthorne was requesting, they expressed support for a museum that would memorialize the efforts of the Navajos who used their language to confound the Japa nese, helping U.S. forces to prevail in the Pacific.

However, a few legislators questioned whether the law barring the state from donating money to a nonprofit would be a barrier to funding.

Rep. Cathrynn Brown, R-Carlsbad, said she was sure it would be.

“I think it is an impediment to what’s being contemplated here,” Brown said. “I believe based on recent legislative activity that it’s pretty clear this is not a direction the New Mexico Legislature can go.”

Two years ago, a group of nonprofits sought state funding, she said, prompting her to say during a hear

ing that their effort would violate the state constitu tion. At the same time, a state senator was trying to pass a constitutional amendment to allow nonprofits to receive state funding, she said.

“To me, that was proof positive that it’s not allow able under current law,” Brown said.

Hawthorne said it’s possible the anti-donation clause might bar the state from allocating money to his nonprofit group, though he also suggested it’s not completely certain.

It’s also not clear what kind of conditions and obliga tions public funding would impose on his organization and the project if the money were approved, Hawthorne said. That made him consider whether the group should try to build the museum with private donations, he said.

Education initiatives on ballot next month

Constitutional Amendment 1 would increase preschool funding about $150M annually

By Nathan Lederman nlederman@sfnewmexican.com

A yearslong effort to sharply increase state investments in early childhood education will culminate Nov. 8 with New Mexico voters’ decision on a ballot measure.

Voters will be asked to consider approval of an increase in annual withdrawals from the state’s multi billion-dollar Land Grant Permanent Fund that is expected to send a couple of hundred million dollars more to both preschool programs and K-12 public schools.

New Mexico lawmakers approved a resolution in 2021 to place Constitutional Amendment 1 on the ballot following years of failed legislation.

Advocates pushing for the measures cited studies showing the benefits of early childhood programs, including higher academic achievement and graduation rates. But the move faced pushback from Republicans and conser vative Democrats in the Legislature who feared it would weaken the land grand endowment, funded by oil and gas fees and investment revenues, which already sends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to public schools and other beneficiaries.

Police investigating pair of pharmacy burglaries

By Nathan Lederman nlederman@sfnewmexican.com

Law enforcement officials say as many as four people burglarized a pair of area pharmacies late last week, taking cash and an unknown amount of pharmaceutical drugs from each location.

Santa Fe County Sheriff’s spokesman Juan Ríos said deputies responded to the report of a bur glary at a Del Norte pharmacy on Caliente Road in Eldorado early Friday morning, where surveillance camera footage revealed four hooded suspects breaking in with a crowbar.

Not long afterward, a Del Norte location on Galisteo Street in Santa Fe was breached in a similar fashion. Santa Fe Police Department Capt. Aaron Ortiz said four suspects were involved, and the car used in their escape matches a similar description to the 2022 white Buick Enclave detailed by the sheriff’s office.

“We don’t know who they are, but it looks like they’re making the rounds and breaking into pharma

cies,” Ríos said Friday. “It’s a ring of actors.”

The pharmacy in Eldorado was burglarized at about 5:40 a.m. Friday, according to an incident report provided by the sheriff’s

office Monday. Ortiz said the Gal isteo Street outlet was broken into shortly before 6 a.m. Ortiz said officers and deputies

Lawmakers have discussed the pos sibility of tapping into the investment fund, now valued at more than $26 billion, since at least 2010, when it con tained about $10 billion.

Constitutional Amendment 1 would increase yearly distributions by 1.25 percent of the fund’s five-year average. Officials’ most recent estimates show annual distributions would rise by about $150 million for early childhood educa tion and $100 million for public schools.

Congress also must approve the addi tional withdrawals. The state’s congres sional delegates have introduced federal legislation to achieve this.

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and her Republican opponent, Mark Ronchetti, took opposing sides on the statewide ballot measure during their first gubernatorial debate.

“I campaigned on getting that proposal through the Legislature and before the voters,” Lujan Grisham said. “Making sure that we take a small pinch out of the Land Grant Permanent Fund, our endowment fund for education, is criti cal.”

Ronchetti argued the endowment is a “backstop” for when oil and gas are not major factors in New Mexico’s economy and that the proposed amendment would draw it down too quickly.

“You look at where funding is, espe cially where funding is for early child hood [education], we have enough funds for it right now,” he said.

While he said in the debate he would not support the amendment, Ronchetti asked voters who they would trust to spend the money if the amendment is passed.

His campaign did not respond to questions asking for additional comment on his position.

N.M. to consider vaccine mandate for schoolchildren

Committee meets next month to consider recommendation

By Daniel J. Chacón dchacon@sfnewmexican.com

A little-known advisory committee for the state Department of Health is about to be thrown into the spotlight as it takes up rec ommending whether to mandate the COVID19 vaccine for public school students.

While the Vaccine Advisory Committee isn’t scheduled to meet until next month, its work is turning into an election year issue in the hotly contested governor’s race.

Last week, Sen. Gregg Schmedes, R-Tijeras, penned a letter to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham asking whether she supported mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for schoolchildren.

“A prompt and precise response to this question would be appreciated,” Schmedes wrote in the letter to Lujan Grisham, a Dem

ocrat running for reelection against Republi can Mark Ronchetti.

Schmedes said Monday he has yet to receive a response from the governor.

He also said his letter to Lujan Grisham was “absolutely” linked to the governor’s race. He noted other governors across the country have made their stances known after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee recommended adding the COVID-19 vaccine to immunization schedules. New Mexico’s Vaccine Advisory Committee will consider the CDC recom mendation in its review.

“This is an incredibly personal medical choice for our children, for our parents, and I think that this is something that people would cast their votes accordingly,” Schme des said. “The people of New Mexico, the parents of New Mexico, need to know where the governor stands.”

Ronchetti’s campaign did not return mes sages seeking comment.

Nora Meyers Sackett, Lujan Grisham’s press secretary, did not answer when asked whether the governor supports a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for school children.

Sackett instead said the advisory committee’s annual review doesn’t include the governor.

“The review and recommendation pro cess, which occurs every year, is based on scientific evidence and expert analysis and is independent of the governor’s office,” Sackett wrote in an email.

Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health, said the advisory committee includes department staff mem bers, the state epidemiologist, school nurses and pediatricians, among others.

“The [committee] will submit its recommen dations to the DOH cabinet secretary for final decision,” McGinnis Porter wrote in an email.

The advisory committee recommended the HPV vaccine for the 2021 school-entry

LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

The Del Norte Pharmacy and Home Medical in Santa Fe on Monday. The pharmacy was burglarized over the week end. Santa Fe County Sheriff’s spokesman Juan Ríos said video shows four suspects breaking in with a crowbar.

S.F. sheriff spokesman: String of such thefts have taken place in recent weeks

Some legislators say contributing funds could violate state constitution

SANTA FE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE COURTESY IMAGE

Be on the lookout poster for suspects accused of burglarizing two Del Norte pharmacies in the Santa Fe area over the weekend.

Pharmacist

INSIDE

Please

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Code Talker

Continued from Page

“And we still may,” Hawthorne said.

Still, Brown hinted state fund ing for the museum may not be totally out of the question.

Nonprofits are allowed to receive state money for providing services, she said. But when it comes to capital projects not state-owned, there are issues that must be ironed out by attorneys.

The late state Sen. John Pinto, a Code Talker from Gallup, secured more than $1 million in executive and legislative capital outlay funds to get the museum started in 2019. An intergovern mental agreement to build the museum, which included New Mexico agencies, was formed,

Hawthorne said.

State Sen. Harold Pope asked Hawthorne whether he heard about any potential conflicts with the anti-donation clause when the project was first proposed three years ago.

Hawthorn said he did not.

Pope said he has seen the law hinder state financial aid to non profits that were helping com munities during the coronavirus pandemic and the wildfires.

If the anti-donation clause wasn’t brought up at the project’s outset, then it probably shouldn’t come into play now, although the amount of money Hawthorne is requesting might be rejected, Pope added.

He said New Mexico will do what it can.

“I really want to see this come to fruition, what you’re talking about,” Pope said, “because the story needs to be told.”

Dance Church dispute

Continued from Page A-6

As part of the deal, Prassé built an expensive dance floor inside the upgraded warehouse and was reimbursed for half the cost of the materials, the lawsuit said. The rent was set at $240 per month.

But things got complicated after the building’s original owner died, according to Prassé. The previous owner’s heirs pressured him to relinquish his lease, Prassé said in his petition, “in order to make the warehouse more sellable.”

Because the events had become “very important to the local community” and he’d invested considerable time and money promoting the event and constructing the floor, Prassé said he initially refused but eventually “grudgingly agreed” to give up the lease for $50,000, thinking he could use the money to find

Pharmacy burglaries

Continued

from both agencies have spoken regarding the similarities in each incident.

“The [sheriff’s office] had reached out to the officer that was involved in the [Galisteo Street] investigation, and they kind of linked them together that way,” Ortiz said. “They said that the suspects appeared to be the same suspects from both incidents.”

The sheriff’s office was alerted to the burglary at the Eldorado location after a commercial alarm was triggered at the store.

Dance Church a new home.

Before the papers were signed, the heirs sold the property to the Lewises.

According to the petition, Scott Lewis began making demands and tried to pressure Prassé into retroactively changing the terms of the existing contract.

Prassé said when he refused, Lewis and two “bodyguards” physically blocked his entry to the space “as an act of revenge” and he’s been locked out of his office ever since.

Prassé’s petition says Dance Church regularly draws 20 to 50 participants, many bringing their children to be cared for on-site “allowing the parents moments of freedom for self-care intro spection, emotional support and often also to quietly process grief about the current covid criss and

Deputies arrived on scene at about 6:18 a.m., according to the incident report.

While the burglars had fled the Eldorado store prior to deputies’ arrival, surveillance footage from the incident showed four people forced their way into the pharmacy by prying open a security screen with a crowbar. According to the incident report, the burglars then crawled under the gate and made their way into the store.

About $200 in cash was taken, as well as “a bag of unknown contents suspected to be phar maceuticals,” according to the incident report. It also states the two heists could be related.

“The travel time from Del Norte-El Dorado and Del NorteSanta Fe is approximately four teen minutes,” the incident report

There are only three living Code Talkers from the more than 420 who served in World War II, so a museum would be the only way to preserve their legacy, Hawthorne said.

His father, Roy Hawthorne, was a Code Talker, making the pursuit of the museum even closer to his heart.

Regan Hawthorne said about $875,000 remains of the initial capital outlay, and he wants to use that for design, engineering and getting the first concrete slabs laid, and maybe even a couple of walls built, just so the dream can begin to materialize.

The goal is to break ground by Aug. 15, which is Code Talkers Day, he said.

“As long as I am anywhere near the helm of this organization, we’re going to build a museum,” Hawthorne said.

the economic downturn.”

“For me, it was like a sanctuary or a heaven,” regular participant Bonny Moss said Friday. “It was one of the very few places in my life I felt completely safe. I didn’t get hit on or asked out. As a woman, that’s like gold. … For me it was healing to get to move my body and not be sexualized. I think calling it Dance Church is really accurate. It’s like therapy, pleasure, fun, exercise and com munity all in one place.”

The success of the venture is dependent on consistency, Prassé argues in the petition. “Even a slight drop in attendance can have an exponential effect and further decimate attendance ulti mately leading to failure of the years long effort without much hope of rebuilding.”

State District Judge Kathleen Ellenwood McGarry as been assigned to hear the case, but no hearing had been scheduled as of Monday.

states, “leaving the suspects enough time to burglarize the Santa Fe store as well.”

Ortiz on Monday said the sus pects took cash from the Galisteo location’s cash drawer, as well as pharmaceutical drugs. He did not give specifics for what kind of drugs were taken.

Ortiz added more information will be derived from the incident once it is assigned to a detective.

“Once this is assigned … they’ll reach out to the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, see where they’re at with their investigation, and they’ll collaborate the two inves tigations,” Ortiz said. “They [will] work the two separate investiga tions, but as the leads develop, we’ll share that information.”

Ríos wrote in an email Monday the sheriff’s office did not have leads on the burglary in Eldorado.

Police say boyfriend at Texas hospital for baby’s birth kills

By Jake Bleiberg and Jamie Stengle Associated Press

DALLAS — A man fatally shot two Dallas hospital employees over the weekend, opening fire after accusing his girlfriend who had just given birth of infidelity, authorities said.

Jacqueline Pokuaa, a 45-yearold social worker, and Katie Annette Flowers, a 63-year-old nurse, were killed in Saturday’s shooting at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, according to police and hospital officials.

Authorities have said Nestor Hernandez, 30, opened fire around 11 a.m. while at the hos pital for the birth of a child by his girlfriend. Hernandez, who was on parole from prison and had been granted permission to be at the hospital while wearing an ankle monitor, was shot and wounded by a police officer, authorities said.

“In my opinion, this is a failure of our criminal justice system,” Dallas police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a news conference Mon

day. “A violent individual such as this should not have been on ankle monitor and should have remained in custody.”

Hernandez has been charged with capital murder but it wasn’t clear Monday if he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf. He was not listed among people being held in the Dallas County jail and authori ties said that after the shooting he was treated at Methodist and then taken to another medical faculty for further treatment.

Hernandez arrived at the hospital around 10:20 a.m. to visit the woman in delivery and began to strike her repeatedly in the head with a handgun, Garcia said. According to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by WFAA-TV, Hernandez started hitting his girlfriend after accus ing her of infidelity.

Hernandez then started mak ing “ominous” calls and sending text messages to his family, told his girlfriend that they were both going to die and said “who ever comes in this room is going to die with us,” according to the

Dallas TV station’s account of the affidavit. He shot Pokuaa when she came into the room to attend to the woman, then shot Flowers after she looked in the room upon hearing gunfire, Garcia said.

Hospital police Sgt. Robert Rangel saw Flowers get shot, called for backup and took cover outside the room where Hernandez was reloading his gun, the chief said. When Hernandez emerged, Rangel shot him in the leg and, after a standoff, police took him into custody, Garcia said.

Garcia said the woman Her nandez struck was treated for her injuries and that a newborn child who was in the room was not hurt.

Hernandez was released from prison on parole last October after having been convicted of aggravated robbery, accord ing to Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez. She said he was given permission to be with his “significant other” at the hospital during her delivery.

Arizona GOP officials vote against, then approve hand-count proposal

By Anita Snow Associated Press

PHOENIX — The two Republicans on a county board in southeastern rural Arizona approved a proposal 2 to 1 Monday for a hand-count of all ballots in the Nov. 8 election after rejecting a dif ferently worded motion during a chaotic meeting.

Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby voted for the measure after rejecting a first proposal that mentioned 100 volunteers who had already been vetted and trained for the hand count. The third board member, chairwoman Ann English, is a Democrat who voted against both pro posals, arguing that the country’s insurance would not protect it from expected lawsuits.

“I implore you not to attempt to order this separate hand-count,” said County Attorney Brian McIntyre, a Republican. He said such action would be unlawful and supervisors could be held personally liable in a civil action.

The Republicans were under intense pressure from voters in the heavily Republican county who

believe former President Donald Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.

“The Cochise County Supervisors are clearly manufacturing a scenario to delay the certification of Arizona’s election results,” said Natali Fierros Bock, member of a coalition of voting rights advocates in Arizona. “Election denying politi cians have been signaling that election disrupting tactics like the one seen today in Cochise County would be part of their strategy to overwhelm the work of our elections officials.

“These tactics are irresponsible, dangerous, and in some cases, very clearly against the law,” she said.

The first proposal that was rejected said that volunteers “are wishing to take part in this way to help people (including a few of the participants) who have lost trust in elections to see that elec tions are reliable and secure in our county.”

The measure that was approved calls for a hand-count audit in all precincts to be organized by the county recorder or other elections official to assure agreement with the machine count.

McIntyre also called that plan unlawful.

WILSON & COMPANY COURTESY PHOTO

A conceptual rendering of the Navajo Code Talkers museum proposed for a site near Window Rock.

Voters to consider constitutional amendments, bonds

State, S.F. County have 3 proposed bond issues that would be repaid with property taxes

By Nathan Lederman nlederman@sfnewmexican.com

Along with choosing who will serve in county, state and federal offices, voters casting ballots in the Nov. 8 midterm election will be asked to con sider several bond questions and proposed state constitu tional amendments.

The state and Santa Fe County have three proposed general obligation bond issues each, which would be repaid over time with property taxes.

Neither the state Department of Finance and Administration nor the county provided detailed information about the bonds’ potential effects on property taxes.

A spokesman for the Depart ment of Finance and Admin istration did not respond to a request for comment.

County spokeswoman Sara Smith said in an interview Mon day there would be no effect on property owners’ taxes if the county bonds were approved.

The county could not imme diately provide an estimate for how much an individual property owner’s taxes would decline if voters reject the bonds, she added.

Smith said Santa Fe County voters rarely reject vote “no” on bond questions.

Amendments

The three constitutional amendments on the statewide ballot pertain to education funding, government invest ments in household services and when state judges must run for reelection.

u Constitutional Amendment 1 asks voters whether the state should increase its annual with drawals from the $26 billion New Mexico Land Grant Per manent Fund by 1.25 percent,

which would generate about $150 million each year for early childhood education and $100 million for public schools.

u Constitutional Amendment 2 would create an exception to the state’s anti-donation clause and allow the Legislature to allocate funds for essential household services — such as internet access, electricity, water and wastewater — for residents in need.

u Constitutional Amendment 3 calls for any judge appointed to a court in New Mexico to serve for at least a year before running in a general election to retain the seat.

State bonds

Three ballot questions ask voters statewide to decide whether the state can issue gen eral obligation bonds for capital expenses.

u Bond Question 1: up to $24.47 million to improve or construct facilities for senior citizens.

u Bond Question 2: up to $19.3 million for capital expenses for schools, tribes and public libraries.

u Bond Question 3: up to nearly $216 million to make capital expenditures for “cer tain higher education, special schools and tribal schools.”

Santa Fe County bonds

Voters in Santa Fe County will decide on $25 million in bonds to pay for a range of infrastructure improvements:

u Up to $13 million to “acquire, construct, equip and improve roads.”

u Up to $7 million for water and wastewater projects.

u Up to $5 million in bonds to “acquire, design, construct improve, equip and restore open space, trails and parks.”

Education initiatives

Santa Fe Public Schools Super intendent Hilario “Larry” Chavez said the amendment would help the local district and the state become more competitive when it comes to hiring qualified educators.

The additional funds also could help Santa Fe’s prekinder garten programs grow, he said.

“I think it would go a long way,” Chavez said. “At those younger ages, if [kids] receive high-quality education for longer periods of time, they are more successful in school as they start to grow through the grade levels, and the possibili ties of them graduating with a high school diploma increase.”

He added, “Providing these high-quality programs and being able to fully fund it is key, and it’s a game changer.”

Allen Sánchez, president of the Catholic nonprofit CHI St. Joseph’s Children, has been fighting for additional early childhood education funding for years. He said the passage of Constitutional Amendment

1 could help realize goals he and others have been striving toward for nearly a decade.

His organization began pursu ing a constitutional amendment to draw additional funds from the endowment in the early years of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s time in office.

“One of the things that made it attractive was that it did not go to the governor’s desk … and therefore the Legislature could put this on the ballot without Susana Martinez during those eight years that she opposed it,” Sánchez said.

He noted the potential benefits if voters approve the measure.

“Children are going to be safer. They’re not going to be left with the wrong caregiver. They’re going to have high-qual ity child care. We’re going to see a decrease of abuse in children, and we’re going to detect the need for counseling interven tion earlier … [and] we’re going to have higher graduation rates,” Sánchez said. “That’s all the hope when this takes place.”

Vaccine mandate

medical decisions for their children.”

IN BRIEF

Family of man killed by Angel Fire police files suit

TAOS — The family of a man shot and killed by Angel Fire police in 2019, after his house burned down with his wife inside, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the village and the officer who pulled the trigger.

George Herrera, 61, was shot by officers after they and the village’s fire crews responded to a report of a house fire on Mountain Lake Terrace in May 2019. Officers reported Herrera was outside the house when they arrived and approached them with a knife. Herrera was shot in the chest by Officer Mark Fitch and later died in the back of an ambulance.

The remains of Herrera’s wife, Dianne Her erra, also 61, were found inside the burneddown home.

Police said George Herrera was wearing a blue rubber glove on one hand when he was shot. He was implicated in his wife’s death after investigators found paper had been stacked on top of her and an “ignitable fluid” was found near her body and throughout the house.

George Herrera’s children filed a lawsuit against the Village of Angel Fire “for damages

for battery; negligent hiring, training and supervision; violation of state and federal constitutional rights to be free and from unreasonable seizure; wrongful death; and loss of consortium.”

Fitch filed a motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity, but the judge denied the motion, stating a jury could reason ably find Herrera was not a threat at the time.

Ariz. governor puts more containers along border

PHOENIX — The state of Arizona has begun installing shipping containers along another section of the U.S.-Mexico border to fill gaps that aren’t covered by a border wall.

The move announced by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday to install stacks of containers in Cochise County in south-eastern Arizona came two weeks after federal officials told him to remove containers he had placed along the border in southwestern Arizona.

Ducey sued in federal court Friday, asking a court to allow the state to keep more than 100 double-stacked containers topped with razor wire in place near the community of Yuma, which sits near the California border. It also mentions U.S. Forest Service land where the new containers are being placed

FUNERAL SERVICES AND MEMORIALS

RICHARD ARIMOTO

Richard Arimoto died suddenly on October 5, 2022, at age 70 due to throat cancer. He died peacefully surrounded by family and friends. He was born to Fred and Amy Arimoto in Wilmington, Delaware in 1952 and is survived by sister Shirley Sanderson (Bob), sister-in-law Jane Arimoto, nieces Stephanie Hamel (Paul) and Amy Paylor (Michael), nephews Jordan Arimoto and Cameron Arimoto (Lauren), five grandnieces and three grandnephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother Steven. Both of Rich’s marriages ended in amicable divorces.

Rich was a scientist. He earned an M.S. at the University of Delaware in biology. His Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut dealt with dredge spoils on the New England coast. Post-doctoral studies at the Graduate School of Oceanography in Rhode Island involved trans-oceanic trace substance transfers. Living in New England offered Rich the opportunity to pursue deep sea and lobster fishing.

At the Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring & Research Laboratory in New Mexico he studied South Pole aerosol particles. Rich’s atmospheric research took him to China, Japan, Russia and even a sheep station in a remote area of New Zealand.

Rich retired in 2002, moving to Placitas, and then Santa Fe. Retirement gave him the opportunity to pursue many additional interests. He always had pets. Rich’s parrot was fluent in English, and somehow picked up a few X-rated phrases. His dogs earned tracking titles, and he likened the difficulty of earning them to humans passing the Bar Exam. Rich and his Corgi volunteered for Santa Fe Humane Society Pet Outreach program in which pets visit hospitalized patients.

Rich’s own words convey the mission of the program best: nenp.facebook.com/sfhumanesociety/videos/472604970327932/

He worked as an extra in movies, TV and commercials, appearing several times in Breaking Bad. Rich joined a Taiko drumming group that once performed at the State Capitol for legislators, staff and visitors. The group of drummers even built their own drums. Rich had a lifelong interest in motorcycling, acquiring his first bike at age 16, to his mother’s dismay. He owned many bikes over the years and became adept at rebuilding and servicing his bikes. For many years Rich enjoyed trap and skeet shooting, improving to the point where he had recently become an instructor for new shooters.

Rich made many friends in each of the activities that he pursued. When Rich chose to participate in an activity, whatever it was, he was IN 100%. That was the way that Rich approached everything in life, with gusto and enthusiasm. He will be missed by his family and friends.

We wish to acknowledge with gratitude the outstanding and compassionate medical care provided to Rich by Dr. Nathan Boyd, of the University of New Mexico Health system.

LUCILLE MONTOYA PERCY

On October 11th 2022, Our beloved Mother, Grandmother and Great Grandmother, Lucille Montoya Percy passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family.

A lifelong resident of Santa Fe, Lucille was the only child of Ambrosio and Estella Montoya. Our mother is survived by son Richard Griego and wife Janice, daughters, Debbie Griego, Christine Griego and partner Gary Medina and Lisa Griego, Granddaughter

hundreds of miles to the east.

The new section of shipping containers is aimed at a 10-mile section of the border. Ducey said it would take more than 2,700 of the 60-foot-long shipping containers to fill the gap.

Ariz. man facing prison for Border Patrol agent attack

TUCSON, Ariz. — A Mexican man is fac ing up to nine years in prison for attacking a U.S. Border Patrol agent in southern Arizona in January, federal authorities said Monday.

Prosecutors said 22-year-old Rey David Mar quez-Jimenez pleaded guilty last week to one count of attempted murder of a federal officer.

Under terms of the plea agreement, pros ecutors said Marquez-Jimenez faces a prison sentence of 60 to 108 months followed by three years of supervised release.

Marquez-Jimenez was accused of tackling a Border Patrol agent near Hereford as the agent was attempting to handcuff another person.

Authorities said Marquez-Jimenez punched the agent several times and tried to pull the agent’s gun out of its holster.

Marquez-Jimenez reportedly tried to point the weapon at the agent, then got on top of him and tried to stab him with a knife.

LYDIAR.TRUJILLO

It is with greatsadnessthatthe family of LydiaR .Trujillo announcesher passing away on October 18,2022.

Lydiawas born at thefamilyhomeinPojoaqueonFebruar y7,1927. She wasalifelongresident of Española (San Pedro). She spentmost of heradult lifebeingahomemaker dedicated to herfamilyand church at SantaCruzdelaCanadawhere she wasa member of the Altarand Rosary Society. Shewas also alifememberofthe Sacred HeartofJesusS ociety, abenevolentCatholic group dedicated to takingcareofits members. Herfather, Procopio, helpedestablish abranchofSacredHeart Society in Pojoaquebefore therewas a church in thevalley.

Lydiawas very stylishand atalentedseamstress.S omeofher favorite hobbies were bowling, oilpaintingand workinginthe yard,sometimes drivingher father’s oldtractor around herhome in Arroyo Seco.She wasa good friend to many,often takingthem out to lunch,and very helpful to thepriests andsisters at the church.Growing up,her parentsweremembers of Nuestra Señora de GuadalupechurchinPojoaquewhich shesupported in many ways,mostrecentlybydonatingthe fundstobuild acommittal gazebo at thePojoaquecemeter y.

As achild Lydialoved herfatherver ymuchand considered herselfhis “seventh son”.S omeofher fondest memories were when herfatherhomesteaded60 acresoflandinArroyoS eco (TheOjito) anddryland farmed beans They wouldstayinasmall cabinand rock structureonthe property.

With herhusband Paul,aBataanDeath Marchsur vivorand POW, Lydiatraveledtomanyplacesincluding thePhilippinesand Japan. When thekidswereyoung,afamilyvacationmeant loading up thecar anddriving to Mazatlán,Mexicofor time at thebeach andshrimpcocktails

Lydiawas precededindeath by herparents Procopioand Tonita Roybal,husband Paul Trujillo, sistersRuthand María, brothers Pablo, Estanislado(Stan), Isaudro(IM), Benignoand her close aunt Manuelita(Mela)Romero.

program for seventh graders, but former Department of Health Secretary Kathy Kunkel didn’t sign off on the recom mendation and instead said the vaccine would be strongly recommended — a scenario that could reemerge with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Schmedes said the decision should be left to parents,.

“Parents should have the right to choose,” he said. “Parents should have the right to make

Schmedes also said New Mexico parents have already made their intentions clear.

About 20 percent of children in the state between 5 and 11 years old have received their “primary series” and booster shot.

“This vaccine is ample,” he said. “It is widely available and yet you see what decision they’re making.”

Follow Daniel J. Chacón on Twitter @danieljchacon.

Rosalyn Martinez and husband Andrew, Grandson Cody Lujan and wife Dayna, Great grandchildren, Lauren and Andrew Martinez Jr. and Greyson Lujan. A private family service is planned.

by Rivera Family Funerals and Cremations

Rivera

Staff and wire reports

OUR VIEW

New tradition unites Santa Fe’s past, present

This Friday and Saturday on the Plaza, contemporary Santa Fe will link to its Mexican past with a celebration of Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, the traditional holiday honoring the departed.

Expect plenty of marigolds, a flower with a scent so spicy that spirits on another plane can follow it home.

This is not the traditional celebration from Mexico, which usually takes place Nov. 1 and 2, on the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ and All Souls’ days — although the practice rooted in Indigenous culture pre dates by centuries the arrival of the Span iards.

In Santa Fe, people will be paying hom age to the tradition, with an invitation to residents to join a different sort of cultural exchange. We hope it results in hundreds of

eVOICES

Views from the web Democrats, Republicans focus on voter outreach as Election Day ap proaches, Oct. 22

“ Get ready for the blue wave folks. It’s coming 11.8.22. A perfect trifecta: House, Senate and MLG.

I’d say a 10-point margin, minimum.” Maya Wright

“ I hope everyone goes out and votes.” B. Rosen

“ We have had that trifecta for four years, and we have been dead last or near dead last in every positive metric, and you still want more?”

Joseph Tafoya

THE PAST 100 YEARS

From The Santa Fe New Mexican: Oct. 25, 1922: That the proposed Indian bill, pending in Congress, favors non-In dian claimants as against the Pueblos, that it is therefore unjust and unfair, and that regular law and equity pro cedure should be followed in solving the Indian land controversy, is the finding of the report of the New Mexico Association for Indian affairs, which has published an anal ysis and condemnation of the bill.

Oct. 25, 1947: Our Navy — Victor in War, Guardian in Peace Oct. 25, 1972: The Santa Fe Board of Education Tues day night authorized school superintendent Philip Bebo to begin negotiations with the City of Santa Fe for the pos sible city takeover of the Mid High School complex.

Meeting in regular session at the school administration building, the board learned that City Manager Philip Baca has made a three-part finan cial proposal for the acquisi tion of the Mid-High School property.

The city is seeking the complex for a new city hall and convention center.

Oct. 25, 1997: The logic goes something like this: Most freshmen hate being hazed, harassed, drawn on, kidnapped, wrapped in Saran Wrap, extorted and ridiculed, but they can’t wait to do it to others once they’re through being freshmen.

The dubious tradition of hazing at Santa Fe high schools — which rarely turns ugly as it did this week when one 14-year-old passed out and was hospitalized — nonetheless follows an odd bit of logic. As with many age-old practices, it defies reason.

WRITE US

Send letters, preferably on local topics, up to one a month. Include your name, street address and daytime phone number for verifica tion purposes. We edit all letters for style, grammar and factual content. Send letters using the online form at santafenewmexican.com.

Tweet thoughts about local issues to @inezrussell or @thenewmexican.

people who generally don’t visit downtown Santa Fe taking part. It is difficult to become one Santa Fe if neighbors don’t join together more frequently and learn about one anoth er’s traditions and experiences.

What an opportunity, then. From 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, people will be able to see colorful decorations and hear traditional music, from Milagro Youth Mariachi to local favorite Carlos Medina, exploring sounds from the various regions of Mexico. On Sat urday, activities begin at noon. Decorating altars with ofrendas — or offerings — will be first up on the schedule.

These altars are the tributes many Mex icans make for their ancestors, whether a recently passed loved one or a great-grand father whose memory lingers in the current generation. They are intensely personal, with photographs, flowers and items that

meant something to the individual being honored. At the Santa Fe celebration, a number of businesses are sponsoring the community altars that people will decorate with their own remembrances.

A highlight of the evening will be a Glowin-the-Dark Candlelight Parade, starting after the sunset Saturday. Because facepaint ing booths will be available — complete with glow-in-the-dark paints — all who desire can participate. The evening ends with a dance party featuring global music.

Members of the Kiwanis Club are orga nizing the event, with Zozobra event chair Ray Sandoval once again in charge. Other community participants include Santa Fe Public Schools, Meow Wolf, Teatro Para guas and the city of Santa Fe.

The celebration promises to bring together community members who often

don’t mingle, while providing all attendees a way to remember loved ones. To ensure the celebration would be sensitive and inclu sive, Sandoval reached out to the Mexican Consulate in Albuquerque and the Museum of International Folk Art, as well as bringing in cultural consultant Samantha Carrillo.

For the Mexican Consulate, spokeswoman Norma Ang told The New Mexican the event “represents an important bridge of union with the people of Santa Fe and New Mexicans in general. It is an opportunity for the Consulate to make our culture known among the people who don’t know about this tradition and, at the same time, to keep its identity alive among the Mexican com munity residing abroad.”

Starting Friday, Santa Fe has a new tradi tion — rooted in the past but celebrated in the moment.

MY VIEW DENISE TORRES

Vote all the way through the ballot

On this year’s ballot, you will see two statewide judicial retention races. Senior Justice Michael E. Vigil is standing for retention to serve another term on the New Mexico Supreme Court and Judge Jane B. Yohalem is standing for retention on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. Under New Mexico law, they must receive 57 percent voter approval to continue in their current positions.

You may never have heard of either of these individuals or come in contact with them, so how do you decide whether they should stay on the bench?

The New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission was established in 1997 as a volunteer, nonpartisan commission to provide useful, credible information to voters on judges standing for retention.

The evaluation commission uses an objective, carefully monitored process to review their per formance in four main areas: legal ability; fairness; communications skills; and preparation, attentive ness, temperament and control over proceedings. These four areas are based on the American Bar Association professional definition of what consti tutes a “good judge.”

To measure a judge’s performance, the commis sion works with an independent research firm to send out confidential surveys to individuals who have come in contact with that judge, including other judges, attorneys and court staff.

We also review statistics from the Administrative Office of the Courts on the judge’s caseload, excus als (reason a judge is excused from hearing a case), recusals (reason a judge is disqualified from hearing a case) and the time it takes cases to get resolved.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Christus St. Vincent hospital deserves community support

I have been and am now a cancer patient. I attended the botanical garden event put on by New Mexico Cancer Care Associates when Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center was accused of being uncaring and of abandoning the mostly elderly cancer patients who were attending. Now I learn the oncology group had initiated the termination of the contract and that Christus, in turn, responded. I assume that in doing so, the cancer care group would be removing revenues for laboratory, infusion services, radiation and chemother apy from the hospital for itself.

I have lived in Santa Fe since 1976, co-founded Arroyo Chamiso Pediatric Center and was on the hospital medical staff for 40 years. Christus St. Vincent has been integral, essential and a critical supporter and provider of care for all the children of Santa Fe regardless of insurance, and indeed for all ages in Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico. It deserves our support. I have received excellent, competent cancer care and will continue to trust Drs. Andrea Teague, Timothy Lopez, Matthew Jackson and the others they bring on to the Christus St. Vincent oncology team.

Dr. Edward H. Kleiner Santa Fe

try, which is why the U.S. jail population is the largest in the world. Do we care? Does it matter? These inmates are our friends, our neighbors, even our relatives — but we have yet to turn our attention to the issue that causes increased suffering and early death.

Sallie Bingham Santa Fe

Road danger alert

I believe the material chosen by the state Department of Transportation to repave Interstate 25 near Algo dones is a major safety hazard that needs to be replaced. The shiny black surface being used currently reflects headlights of oncoming cars and acts as a mirror for them at night, causing drivers to become blinded at several points. I’ve driven twice at night in the last week between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and was unable to see well because of the glare reflecting on both sides of the road. It is really bad. A nonglare surface should be put down immediately to lessen the safety hazard.

Priscilla Shannon Gutierrez Santa Fe

The larger problem

Lost in the swirl of accusations around the issue of the latest attack ad on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is the much larger issue of the problems with our jails, so overcrowded that it was essential, for humanitarian reasons, to institute an early release program during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The epidemic now seems to be passing, but the crisis at our jails remains and seems to be of little concern to most of us or to our elected officials.

In 2018, 300,000 people were being held in state and federal prisons for low-level drug violations, with only 36 percent of the federal drug budget going to treatment while more than half went to law enforcement. These numbers continue to increase. In fact, policing and imprisonment have been called a superb growth indus

No experience

Listening to Mark Ronchetti’s political rhetoric attacking Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham reminds me of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” a short story by James Thurber. In the story, Walter Mitty daydreams of being a conquering hero — reminiscent of Ronchetti’s claims he can fix state government, crime and failing public schools. How he plans to accomplish this is questionable, since he lacks background knowledge and experience in any of these areas. He has never served in city or state government, worked in law enforcement, been a teacher or school administrator, and last but not least, spent time in the legal field. The office of governor is not an appren ticeship position. I hope voters will take voting seriously before voting for the Republican candidate for governor.

Alicia Byers-Smith Española

Our commission conducts at least one personal interview with each judge being evaluated — two interviews when time permits — to share the sur vey results, address any areas of improvement and assess their overall performance. The commission considers a substantial amount of data before mak ing its recommendations to voters.

The truth is, not all voters take the time to vote in judicial retention races. On average, somewhere between one and two out of every five voters who cast a ballot in the “top of the ticket” race such as president, congressional representative, senator or governor, fail to vote in judicial retention elections.

Why should you vote all the way through the ballot? These judges make important decisions.

The Supreme Court is the court of last resort and has superintending control over all inferior (lower) courts and attorneys licensed in the state. This court has mandatory appellate jurisdiction over criminal matters in which the sentence imposed is life in prison or the death penalty, appeals from the Public Regulation Commission, appeals from the granting of writs of habeas corpus (demonstrating a valid reason for a person to be legally detained), appeals in actions challenging nominations and removal of public officials.

The Court of Appeals is the intermediate appel late court in New Mexico, with mandatory jurisdic tion in civil and noncapital criminal and juvenile cases. This court hears the majority of appeals from lower courts.

This year, we are recommending voters retain New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Michael E. Vigil. We were unable to evaluate New Mexico Court of Appeals Judge Jane B. Yohalem and make a recommendation to voters because of the time frame of the evaluation, the rules governing the evaluation process and New Mexico legislation on judicial retention terms. Judge Yohalem was elected to the Court of Appeals in November 2020.

We encourage every single voter to get the infor mation they need to make an informed decision. For more information about the Judicial Perfor mance Evaluation Commission and our evaluations, visit nmjpec.org or call 800-687-3417.

Your vote and your voice are important. Please vote all the way through the ballot this year, includ ing the judicial retention races.

Denise Torres is chair of the New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission and has been a member of JPEC since 2008. She is a sole practitioner in the law firm of Denise Torres LLC, specializing in providing mediation services.

INDEX

NEW MEXICO CITIES

Chama43/28mc48/22s51/23pc Cimarron35/26mc62/31s60/33s Clayton58/42cl61/33s62/38s Cloudcroft59/43ra45/28s48/32s Clovis62/36ra64/35s69/43s Crownpoint45/28pc54/30s56/34pc Deming61/44s65/36s71/41s Espan ola 40/30mc59/30s64/32s Farmington49/32s57/32s59/34pc Fort Sumner59/41ra66/35s70/42s Gallup45/28pc57/24s58/30pc Grants44/28pc59/25s61/29s Hobbs64/48pc67/42s73/47s Las Cruces58/43ra66/39s72/44s

YesterdayTodayTomorrow CityHi/LoWHi/LoWHi/LoW Las Vegas41/31sn62/29s61/32s Lordsburg56/40s64/37s69/41s Los Alamos40/30mc54/32s55/33s Los Lunas52/35s62/30s66/35s Portales62/36ra66/35s71/43s Raton43/32sn60/29s58/31pc Red River35/26mc47/20s48/21pc Rio Rancho46/34mc59/31s61/35s Roswell70/46ra70/39s73/44s Ruidoso46/30rs57/33s60/38s Santa Rosa51/36sn66/35s69/41s Silver City56/40s60/37s61/39s Socorro53/38pc63/34s68/37s T or C61/39pc65/38s71/42s Taos46/28mc54/27s55/28s Tucumcari55/42ra65/35s70/42s Univ. Park58/43ra66/40s72/44s White Rock40/30mc56/32s57/33s Zuni45/28pc57/25s59/32s

Sunrise Today7:19 a.m. Wednesday7:20 a.m. Thursday7:21 a.m.

Sunset Today6:15 p.m. Wednesday6:14 p.m. Thursday6:13 p.m.

Moonrise Today7:29 a.m. Wednesday8:39 a.m. Thursday9:51 a.m.

Moonset Today6:33 p.m. Wednesday7:07 p.m. Thursday7:49 p.m.

White House honors groundskeeper of 50 years

By Darlene Superville Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Presidents come and go, but one constant through 10 presidencies has been Dale Haney, the chief White House groundskeeper, who as of this month has spent 50 years serving the fami lies — and many of their pets — who have called the mansion home.

Haney’s chief responsibility is to care for the vast lawns, colorful flower gardens, hundreds of trees, thousands of shrubs and burgeoning vegetable garden on 18 acres of prop erty surrounding the White House. He also picks out the official White House Christmas tree every year — and already chose this year’s fir from a Pennsylvania farm.

To honor Haney, Biden and his wife, Jill, surprised him Monday by planting an elm tree on the south grounds. Biden said visitors in future years are “going to be looking at this tree and asking, ‘Who’s Dale?’ ”

Haney joked he “might still be here.”

But Haney is perhaps better known to many at the White House, from staff to Secret Service officers, as the

keeper of the president’s pets.

“He’s like the whisperer,” said Anita McBride, who was a young aide in the correspondence office in former Pres ident Ronald Reagan’s administration when she first met Haney.

These days, Haney is often seen walking Commander, President Joe Biden’s German shepherd.

“The first thing that I think about when I think about Dale is his relation ship with the first family’s animals,” said Gary Walters, who served four presidents over 20 years as White House chief usher.

Walters recalled the chaos of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the evacuation of the White House while former President George W. Bush was in Florida. Walters and some of his staff had stayed behind despite the evacuation. They were on the South Lawn when Walters turned around “and there was Dale standing with Barney under one arm and Kitty Cat under the other.”

“He had to find them and was look ing for direction on what to do with them,” Walters said of Bush’s Scottish terrier and cat. The pets eventually were reunited with Laura Bush.

Haney became foreman, then chief horticulturalist, before he was promoted to grounds superintendent in 2008, a position that made him part of the White House residence staff. Haney reports to the chief usher, and supervises a full-time staff of 12 gardeners, maintenance workers,

electricians and plumbers.

“When I accepted the job I agreed to stay for two years,” he said in an interview with White House History Quarterly, a publication of the White House Historical Association. “But the time has gone by so fast that it really doesn’t feel like 50 years.”

Mercury Rise6:33 a.m. Set5:56 p.m.

Venus Rise7:22 a.m. Set6:20 p.m.

Mars Rise9:09 p.m. Set11:43 a.m.

Jupiter Rise4:50 p.m. Set

Saturn Rise2:58 p.m. Set

Uranus Rise6:54 p.m. Set8:41 a.m.

Q. Nov. 16

YesterdayTodayTomorrow CityHi/LoWHi/LoWHi/LoW Anchorage34/19pc31/28cl33/21sn Atlanta78/41s77/53pc68/48pc Baltimore64/57cl72/61mc74/57mc Bangor60/54fg67/57sh65/58ra Billings52/30s53/31pc52/32mc Bismarck52/33sn50/27pc51/32pc Boise 49/28mc54/38pc51/32ra Boston61/52fg68/59fg66/58fg Charleston,SC77/50s77/61s79/60pc Charlotte76/40s75/55s76/52pc Chicago79/64mc62/47sh57/43pc Cincinnati77/41pc78/53mc60/40ra Cleveland77/54s73/56mc62/45sh Dallas77/62ra69/47s72/50s Denver49/34s61/35mc58/32mc Des Moines73/46ra55/38pc58/42s Detroit79/49pc71/55mc61/38sh Fairbanks28/14fg27/16s22/10ss Flagstaff49/20s59/29s56/27s Helena49/30pc44/27sn43/28sn Honolulu89/74mc87/75pc88/76sh Houston81/72hz73/51s77/53s Indianapolis75/52mc72/51sh59/39sh Kansas City76/52ra56/41mc62/44s Las Vegas65/49s71/51s74/50s Los Angeles75/53s76/55s72/53s Louisville81/54mc77/50mc59/40sh Memphis81/60mc72/47sh66/45s Miami86/72s82/72pc84/73s Milwaukee74/61mc57/44sh56/39pc Minneapolis70/50ra53/36pc54/38s New Orleans85/66pc80/57sh72/58s New York City60/55fg70/61sh69/57sh Oklahoma City73/53ra64/45s67/50s Omaha76/46ra59/38s60/47pc Orlando86/66pc85/64s87/66s Philadelphia62/54cl69/61cl71/54fg Phoenix73/57s77/55s79/56s Pittsburgh72/45s74/53mc64/46sh Portland,OR57/48ra55/45ra54/43sh Richmond73/57s67/50pc66/51pc Salt Lake City49/36pc50/33ra52/30ra San Antonio92/73ra79/52s81/57s San Diego74/53s73/58s69/57pc San Francisco73/50s66/51pc67/50s Seattle58/45ra53/45ra54/48ra Sioux Falls61/43mc59/33s56/43s St. Louis76/63mc67/45sh63/42s Tampa86/66s86/66s84/68s Trenton59/52cl69/60sh71/52fg Tulsa 77/55ra60/42t66/46s Washington,DC67/57cl72/58mc73/55mc

YesterdayTodayTomorrow CityHi/LoWHi/LoWHi/LoW Amsterdam61/58ra60/54ra65/52cl Athens81/65s80/66s81/68s Baghdad93/73mc89/66mc92/72pc Beijing66/37s69/39s66/55mc Berlin66/54ra60/53ra63/50pc Bermuda77/75ra77/76ra77/76ra Bogota66/50ra65/48ra61/52ra Cairo 82/68pc79/66ra83/67ra Copenhagen60/52ra59/54ra58/51mc Dublin59/50mc60/50mc59/56ra Frankfurt68/55ra60/54ra65/53ra Guatemala City79/59ra75/57ra75/58ra Istanbul70/55s70/57s69/64pc Jerusalem73/60ra77/60ra75/62ra Johannesburg77/56ra82/54pc81/65ra Lima 68/59cl67/59mc66/59mc London63/54ra63/53mc65/60cl Madrid64/54ra71/58mc73/62cl Mexico City79/65ra79/62ra76/63ra Moscow45/41cl42/29mc41/34mc Nassau82/80s80/79ra78/77s New Delhi88/65s90/66s90/74s Oslo 45/41ra47/44ra50/41mc Paris 67/59ra68/58mc72/60ra Rio 78/71ra76/70ra79/68s Rome77/60s79/63s80/63pc Seoul58/44s60/38s63/49s Stockholm48/43ra52/50ra51/48ra Sydney68/61ra76/63ra77/63pc Tel Aviv80/66ra84/67ra82/74ra Tokyo65/55ra59/53ra63/55mc Toronto63/46s62/53mc61/54ra Vienna66/54pc68/56ra62/54mc

Emmy-winning actor of ‘Will & Grace’ dies at 67

LOS ANGELES — Leslie Jordan, the actor whose wry Southern drawl and versatility made him a comedy and drama standout on TV series including Will & Grace and Amer ican Horror Story, has died.

The Emmy-winner, whose videos turned him into a social media star during the pandemic, was 67.

“The world is definitely a much darker place today without the love and light of Leslie Jordan. Not only was he a mega talent and joy to work with, but he provided an emotional sanctuary to the nation at one of its most difficult times,” a representative for Jordan said in a statement Monday.

The native of Chattanooga, Tenn., who won an on outstanding guest actor Emmy in 2005 for his part as Beverly Leslie in Will & Grace, had a recurring role on the Mayim Bialik comedy Call me Kat and starred on the sitcom The Cool Kids

Jordan’s other eclectic credits include Hearts Afire, Boston Legal, Fantasy Island and The United States vs. Billie Holiday. He played various roles on the American Horror Story franchise series.

Jordan died Monday in a single car crash in Hollywood, according to reports by celebrity website TMZ and the Los Angeles Times, cit ing unidentified law enforcement sources.

Is this close-up ant terrifying or beautiful? Depends who you ask

By María Luisa Paúl Washington Post

There are an estimated 20 quadril lion ants all over the planet, except in Antarctica — a bummer, considering the continent’s name.

But a close-up shot of a carpenter ant that started making the rounds last week bears almost no resem blance to the cutesy, cartoonish faces brought to life in films like Disney/ Pixar’s A Bug’s Life or DreamWorks’ Antz. Instead, the image by Lith uanian photographer Eugenijus Kavaliauskas is reminiscent of a horror movie, with the carpenter ant’s antennae poking out of eerie red circles and its jaw looking like an alien’s saber-toothed grin.

The photo — which was honored with a distinction in Nikon’s 2022 Small World Photomicrography

Competition — was quickly dubbed by Twitter users as nightmare fuel.

Yet for Kavaliauskas, the photo he captured by magnifying an ant’s face five times under a stereo 10x micro scope is an example of “God’s designs and the many interesting, beautiful, unknown miracles under people’s feet,” he told the Washington Post

A lover of all things nature, Kavaliauskas began his wildlife photography career by shooting images of birds of prey — including some that earned him awards. But four years ago, a desire to unearth the world’s secrets, a passion for the “unseen angle” and lessons from his friend and fellow photographer Saulius Gugis inspired him to take on photomicrography, or capturing images under a microscope. The craft completely changed his outlook, he said.

“There are no horrors in nature, only lack of knowledge,” Kavaliauskas said. “When I began photomicrog raphy and before that, I was like everyone else — all beetles and insects were monsters to me. Now the situation has turned upside down. Many insects are not as pleasing to the eye as a cat, but it all depends on your point of view.”

The idea to photograph a carpenter ant — a species that chews through wood to engineer tunnels for its nests — came by looking at the little bugs crawling in the trees in the forest near his home in Taurag, Lithuania. He landed on the image by playing around with the shadows and light hitting the ant’s face.

The zoomed-in photo actually makes the ant look a bit more men acing than it should. For instance, the red spheres in the ant’s seemingly

sneering face aren’t its eyes, which are hidden in the shot; they’re where its antennae start. And the sharp-looking things coming out of its jaw are actually teeny-tiny trigger hairs, used to communicate and sense the environment around them.

“If you would’ve taken a picture of that same ant’s head just a little bit farther back, it would have been almost cute,” said Miles Maxcer, a National Science Foundation graduate research fellow with the University of Florida’s department of entomology and nematology. “I swear some ants can be really cute and fuzzy.”

Where some find horror, scien tists see a species that helps plants disperse, aerates soil and keeps ecosystems clean by acting as a sort of top-notch waste disposal and recy cling service.

New Oct. 25 First Q. Nov. 1 Full Nov. 8

President and first lady celebrated golden milestone by planting elm tree dedicated to Haney on South Lawn

Associated Press

EVAN VUCCI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dale Haney, the chief White House groundskeeper, right, laughs as he stands with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden during a tree planting ceremony Monday on the South Lawn of the White House. Haney has tended the lawns and gardens of the White House for 50 years.

Leslie Jordan

EUGENIJUS

Fields, Bears score 23 straight points, beat Pats

By Jimmy Golen Associated Press

The clock was running down in the second quarter and the pocket was collapsing around Justin Fields, with one defender coming at him from the right, another circling around on his left, and a third com ing straight at him.

A quick pump fake froze one of the rushers. Fields drifted left, barely eluding the outstretched arm of another, and then stutter-stepped to the right to squeeze through a hole that barely existed. And then it was a race to the sideline, picking up 20 yards on a third-and-14 and mov ing Chicago into field goal range.

Tshiebwe, Timme top preseason All-America team roster

By John Marshall Associated Press

Oscar Tschiebwe was the consensus men’s college basketball player of the year last season, an accomplishment usually followed by a jump to the NBA.

Kentucky’s big man decided to take a different route. He’s coming back — and he may be even better this season.

“He’s a better passer. He’s a better dribbler. He has a better feel. He talks,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “Offensively he knows the plays better. And he’s authentic.”

Tshiebwe was a unanimous selection along with Gonzaga big man Drew Timme in the Associated Press presea son All-America team released Monday. They were joined by North Carolina forward Armando Bacot, Houston guard Marcus Sasser and Indiana for ward Trayce Jackson-Davis on the team selected by a 59-person media panel that votes on the weekly AP Top 25.

Tshiebwe is the ninth AP national player of the year — Bill Walton and Ralph Sampson did it twice — to return for another season, according to Sportradar, and the first since Tyler Hansbrough came back to lead North Carolina to a national title in 2009.

The fourth-ranked Wildcats are hop ing Tshiebwe can do the same for them.

The 6-foot-9, 260-pound forward

Fields threw for 179 yards and a touchdown and ran for 82 yards and another score on Monday night, converting five third downs with his legs and five more with his arm to lead Chicago to a 33-14 victory over the New England Patriots.

“He kept the drives going,” Patri ots linebacker Matthew Judon said. “We would get them in third and long, and it seemed like he would just find a running lane and pick it up with his feet, or making a throw. He would just keep the chains mov ing. We had no answer for him.”

Fields ran for a 3-yard score in the first quarter to give the Bears (3-4) a 10-0 lead. After Bailey Zappe came off the bench to replace Mac

Jones and led New England to backto-back touchdowns and a 14-10 lead, Fields hit Khalil Herbert for a 25-yard touchdown pass to start a string of 23 unanswered points.

“I’m still growing, still getting better,” Fields said. “The sky’s the limit for sure.”

In a matchup of quarterbacks from the 2020 College Football Playoff National Championship game, Fields outperformed Jones, who led Alabama to victory over Fields’ Ohio State. And Fields also outplayed Zappe, who came on after Jones was managed just two three-and-outs and an interception

DEMONS 2.0

Santa Fe High aims to defend 5A title with vastly different squad

By James Barron jbarron@sfnewmexican.com

They are the defending Class 5A boys soc cer champions by name, but the Santa Fe High Demons are not the first names that come out of coaches’ mouths when listing off this season’s contenders.

A year ago, Santa Fe High rode a senior-heavy squad and the unparalleled talents of then-junior Alex Waggoner into history, winning the program’s first state championship. Today, the Demons are a more synergistic group that relies more on a group effort than one dominant player. They enter the Class 5A State Tournament with a 16-4 record and a sixth seed; a dark-horse candidate to hoist the blue trophy rather than the hunted, which they were last year.

The path to a repeat will not be easy, starting off with an opening-round matchup against No. 11 Rio Rancho, a team that is capable of upsetting Santa Fe High. This time, the Demons have to

navigate each round, instead of waiting for a quar terfinal opponent like last year.

This matchup will be the second involving Santa Fe High teams Tuesday. The girls team, seeded 10th, takes on fellow District 5-5A foe No. 7 Albuquerque High at 3:30 p.m. at Bulldog City in the third match between the teams this season.

One thing Chris Eadie, Santa Fe High’s head coach, said his team must do to survive and advance each round is to play with an urgency and intensity that should match the stakes that accom pany each match. Whether they can muster that energy remains to be seen.

“This is an inexperienced team,” Eadie said. “Yeah, we’ve had this 20-game season, but we’re inexperienced in that we only have three guys on this team with starting experience throughout the playoff run last year. So, we got guys who have never really been in this kind of high stakes situa tion.”

The three returning players from last year — Eadie’s son, Evan Eadie; Max Anderson and Owen

Lock — are key contributors to this team and have embodied the system coach Eadie envisioned. Last year, the Demons relied upon the 36 assists by senior midfielder Mike Wissman and the Division I-level talent displayed in Waggoner’s 73 goals to win a championship.

If Santa Fe High is to repeat, it will take a col lective effort. While Eadie did his best Wissman impersonation with 19 assists, leading goal scorer Chris Solano’s 16 goals were a quarter of what Wag goner had at this point of last season. Overall, the offensive production by the Demons is half of what it was last fall (65 goals versus 136), but 13 players have recorded a goal — four more than last year’s squad.

Because of that, playing with intensity is all the more important. In a 3-2 loss to Albuquerque Rio Grande to end the regular season, coach Eadie said the Ravens played with a desperation the Demons lacked. Some of that was because Santa Fe High

Hot-hitting Harper carries Phillies into 1st World Series since 2009

By Dan Gelston Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — The bil lionaire owner of the Philadelphia Phillies pounded his fists on Bryce Harper’s chest and joked the Phil lies slugger was almost underpaid at $330 million over the life of his contract.

It was absurd to put a price tag on the moment for John Middle ton as he pulled in Harper for a hug while the National League championship celebration swirled around them on the field. This was a moment the duo visualized when Middleton took a jet in February 2019 to Las Vegas to court Harper in meetings and dinners that

would eventually yield a 13-year, $330-million deal, the biggest in baseball history for a free agent.

So when Harper and Middleton finally embraced — once the Phillies beat San Diego 4-3 on Sun day in Game 5 of the NLCS and reached their first World Series since 2009 — yeah, the feelings were a bit more personal.

“You bet it was. Of course it was,” Middleton said. “[It’s] $330 million later, mutual promises of being committed to winning and doing whatever it took to win.”

Harper delivered in the postsea son, a place seen only in fits and spurts for a franchise that has two World Series championships in 140 years. The tater forever etched

as an all-timer in team history — the one that had Middleton and Phillies fans everywhere pleading for the ball to keep going — was his game-winning, two-run homer in the eighth that lifted Philly into the

STATE SOCCER TOURNAMENT

Please

DARRON

Santa Fe High’s Max Anderson, right, collides with Sandia Prep’s Nicholas Moralde during the Class 5A state champion ship game Nov. 5 at the UNM soc cer complex.

JIM WEBER NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Bears running back Khalil Her bert celebrates his touchdown against the Pa triots during the first half of Monday’s game in Foxborough, Mass.

STEVEN SENNE ASSOCIATED PRESS

THURSDAY

Prescott knows it’s defense 1st for Cowboys despite return

By Schuyler Dixon Associated Press

FRISCO, Texas

Dallas quarterback Dak

Prescott’s surgically repaired right thumb felt good enough in his return to the field to make some dangerous throws he knows he should have avoided.

As his comfort grows with each week removed from a five-game absence due to the fractured thumb, Prescott will be challenged to remember what kept the Cowboys in contention while he was out: defense.

“The last thing I’m trying to do is put this team in a bad position because I’m overconfi dent,” Prescott said after another defense-driven win, 24-6 over Detroit.

“When you have a defense like this, you have to continue to go through the reads and take a check down here or there, and it will pay off.”

Prescott, who was fortunate not to get intercepted at least twice, benefited from the run ning game and some short fields to turn a 6-3 halftime deficit into a comfortable victory. Dallas forced five turnovers.

Even without takeaways, the formula will probably remain the same Sunday for the Cowboys (5-2) in another home game against a struggling NFC North team in the Chicago Bears, who will be on a short week.

“I feel like we’re playing with a lot of confidence and poise,” cor nerback Trevon Diggs said after recording his third interception this season, and 17th through 35 games in his career.

“We know how to keep teams out of the end zone. Just keep

that mindset, and the game: Keep it close and our offense is eventually going to start clicking and get it working like they did.”

The Cowboys went 4-1 with Prescott sidelined and Cooper Rush under center. That certainly wasn’t because of offensive dominance — Dallas remains among the worst teams in total yards, passing yards and third-down conversions.

The struggles are uncharac teristic for an offensive-minded franchise, but do give players and coaches hope for bigger things if Prescott can get the offense moving again.

“We are not going to put any limitations on what we can do,” Prescott said. “As I said, it’s important to grow each and every day. That’s what I told the team today. This was a great win, celebrate it and enjoy it but tomorrow we have to come in and get better.”

What’s working

The Cowboys dropped Jared Goff five times when Detroit came in tied for the fewest sacks allowed with seven. Dallas has 29 sacks, tied for the fourth-most in club history through seven games.

Dallas is the only team with two of the NFL’s top 10 in sacks.

Micah Parsons is tied with San Francisco’s Joey Bosa for the league lead after getting his seventh against the Lions.

Dorance Armstrong already has his career high with six, tied for fourth in the NFL.

What needs help

While No. 1 receiver CeeDee Lamb’s production has been solid, the group behind him is

struggling to make an impact.

Noah Brown had five catches for 50 yards, but fumbled when he was somersaulted on a hit by safety DeShon Elliott inside the Detroit 10.

Michael Gallup caught a touchdown in his return from a torn ACL three weeks ago, but was shut out against the Lions after just two catches for 18 yards against the Eagles.

Stock up

Kick returner KaVontae Turpin keeps taking advantage of the few opportunities he gets. The latest was a 52-yard punt return that Dallas couldn’t turn into points when Prescott was sacked to get knocked out of field goal range. Turpin is second in the NFL at 16 yards per punt return.

Stock down

The Dallas offense is 29th in third-down conversion rate, and it’s not just a problem of third-down distance. The team’s second possession against the Lions ended when Elliott lost 2 yards on third-and-1.

The Cowboys had to settle for a field goal when Tony Pollard was dropped for no gain on third-and-2. Another third-and-2 resulted in a sack of Prescott.

Injuries

the season with a foot injury sustained after his interception against the Lions. Lewis got up after the catch and was tackled awkwardly. Officials ruled him down by contact on review, rendering the attempt at a return pointless. ... TE Dalton Schultz had another scare with the right knee that has bothered him most of the season. He left the game after landing awkwardly on a tackle, but returned and drew a pass interference penalty in the end zone to set up one of Ezekiel Elliott’s two 1-yard touchdown runs. ... Elliott took a hard hit on his right knee at the end of a 14-yard run and could be dealing with issues the same way he was a year ago.

Key number

20.41 — Parsons’ mph when he chased down Detroit TE Brock Wright and tackled him at the 1-yard line near the pylon on a 17-yard catch. Jamaal Williams fumbled on the next play, and Anthony Barr recovered to protect Dallas’ 10-6 lead in the fourth quarter.

Next steps

The Cowboys won’t be home again until Thanksgiving after playing the Bears. The open week is followed by trips to Green Bay and Minnesota as the Cowboys finish a four-game NFC North run.

Hackett shows he’s in charge and at fault

By Arnie Stapleton Associated Press

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.

B y sitting Russell Wilson, Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett demonstrated he’s in charge of the team. He also proved he’s at fault for Denver’s odious offense.

The Broncos are 2-5 despite holding oppo nents to fewer than 16.4 points per game. They’re the first team in NFL history with a losing record while allowing fewer than 17 points a game through Week 7.

In what may prove the best decision of his rocky rookie season in Denver, Hackett held out his $245 million quarterback against his wishes because of a strained hamstring.

Wilson wore a smile and a headset on the sideline Sunday in support of Brett Rypien, who made his second career start.

Hackett? He was dialing up a whopping 46 passes for his backup QB in a one-score game.

The result was another close loss, a 16-9 gut-wrencher to the New York Jets that once again had fuming fans streaming to the exits in the closing minutes. This time it happened with the Broncos taking over at their 25-yard line and down seven with 41/2 minutes left.

The Broncos have now lost by 1, 9, 3, 3 and 7 points.

“I’m just sick of being right there,” defen sive lineman Mike Purcell said. “We keep saying, ‘You know, we’re right there, it’s gonna turn around, it’s gonna turn around.’ But to be honest, [forget] that. We’ve gotta turn it around. I feel people are just waiting for it to turn around.”

Hackett said at halftime when the Broncos trailed by a point that they needed to keep running the ball. But he didn’t follow his own advice: Rypien threw 28 times and handed it off seven times in the second half.

Rypien’s first six snaps in the third quarter were passes and he threw on the Broncos’ final 15 snaps of the game, completing seven of them.

“We wanted to come out there and run the ball and then sometimes situation deter mines that you go to a couple of passes to try to get some chunks and so forth,” Hackett said Monday.

“But yeah, I mean, in the end, we’ve got to execute better. We ended up running the ball a little bit and I think that fourth quarter we started going up-tempo. That’s where a lot of the passes are starting to show up there at the end,” Hackett said.

Rypien’s eight misfires in those final 15 plays included a heave into the end zone on fourth-and-3 at the Jets 25 that Sauce Gardner kept away from Courtland Sutton and another to the goal line that didn’t come close to KJ Hamler on fourth-and-10 from the Jets 49 with 30 seconds remaining.

Both of those fourth-down go-for-it-all attempts continued a season-long trend of head-scratching calls by Hackett in the clos ing minutes or overtime.

The Broncos haven’t scored a touchdown after halftime since Oct. 3 and their offense has scored just three points in the third quar ter all season.

With his offense playing so poorly and his defense playing so well, Hackett is trying to keep his team from cracking.

“It starts with me getting up in front of the team and holding everybody accountable, including myself and the coaches,” Hackett said. “I always believe that where communi cation lacks, negativity fills the void. As long as we keep that communication open at all times, I think that will always keep every body together so we can band together and get ourselves out of this hole and get us out of this losing streak.”

What’s working

Denver’s defense, which has held six oppo nents under 20 points.

What needs work

The halftime adjustments, which are only making things worse. In 20 drives after half time over the last three games, the Broncos have two field goals, a missed field goal, two interceptions, three turnovers on downs and 12 punts.

Hackett said after the game that he’d look at everything to kickstart his stagnant offense when asked if he’d consider relinquishing play-calling duties. But on Monday he said, “Right now, in a short week, we’re going to keep the status quo.”

Stock up

Patrick Surtain II continues to show he’s worthy of being called the best cornerback in the NFL.

Stock down

Receiver Courtland Sutton failed to block his guy on a screen pass for the second straight week and this time it got Jerry Jeudy clobbered.

Injuries

“All of them are going to miss some time,” Hackett said of the three players who got hurt Sunday: OLB Baron Browning (hip), RT Cam Fleming (thigh) and RB Mike Boone (ankle).

SIDELINES

NFL looking into interaction between refs, Bucs wide receiver Evans

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The NFL said it is looking into what transpired between two game officials and Tampa Bay wide receiver Mike Evans in the tunnel of Bank of America Stadium after the Buccaneers’ 21-3 loss to the Caro lina Panthers on Sunday.

A reporter captured a video of side judge Jeff Lamberth and line judge Tripp Sutter approaching Evans as he is making his way toward the locker room.

There is a short inaudible exchange between the game officials and Evans, before the player turns around and is handed a slip of paper. A second video posted by a reporter from 1340 AM Fox Sports appears to show Evans writing something as Lam berth stood next to him while Tampa Bay players walked past them to the locker room.

According to the collective bargaining agreement between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association game officials are not allowed to “ask players, coaches or any other team person nel for autographs or memorabilia.”

In addition, game officials are not allowed “to sell or trade NFL tickets for anything of greater value than the face value of the tickets” or “sell or trade for anything of value NFL mer chandise, autographs or memorabilia.”

The CBA goes on to stipulate that they recognize game offi cials may need to obtain player autographs or team merchan dise or memorabilia for personal or charitable purposes, but said that such requests should be made through the officiating department and never to a player or team employee directly.

Lamberth is in his 20th season as an NFL official, while Sutter in his fourth.

It’s unclear what, if any, potential punishments the game officials could face if they received an autograph from Evans.

Nantz to call last NCAA Final Four in 2023; Ian Eagle to take over

NEW YORK — Jim Nantz will step away from calling the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament after next year and will be succeeded by Ian Eagle.

CBS Sports confirmed the move on Mon day night. It was first reported by the New York Post

Nantz has been a part of the CBS coverage of the tournament since 1986. He was the studio host for five years before calling his first Final Four in 1991.

Next year’s Final Four will take place in Houston, 40 years after the University of Houston’s run to the national championship game before it was upset by North Carolina State. Nantz attended the University of Houston and hosted coach Guy Lewis’ television show.

The 63-year old Nantz will remain the lead voice of the net work’s NFL coverage, along with leading its golf team. CBS has The Masters and PGA Championship.

Eagle has been with CBS since 1998. Besides calling the tournament, he is part of the network’s No. 2 NFL team. The 53-year-old Eagle is also part of Turner’s NBA coverage and has called Brooklyn Nets games since 1995.

Demons 2.0

Continued from Page B-1

was locked into a six seed, but Eadie said that kind of effort will lead to a short stay if the Demons play the same way against the Rams.

Against the Ravens, Santa Fe High players lingered to argue calls instead of continuing to play. It’s a quality that won’t work when playing teams that want to counterattack aggres sively and quickly.

“Hopefully, we will make some minor [in-match] adjust ments,” Chris Eadie said. “That way, the next time we’re in this situation on Tuesday or what ever, hopefully we won’t crack under pressure. We’ll be able to keep our resolve and keep our composure. From here on out, if you lose composure, the chances are your stay is going to be short in the postseason.”

DEMONETTES, LADY BULLDOGS PREPARE FOR ROUND 3

Santa Fe High head girls coach Justin Najaka said there is not real need to scout Albu querque High. The two teams have played almost 200 minutes of soccer against each other this year, so there is little that either side could do to surprise the other.

In the first matchup Sept. 21, Santa Fe High took a 2-0 lead into the halftime break with a strong midfield attack that relied on possession. The second half put the Lady Bulldogs’ speed on display, and they scored twice

Fields, Bears score 23 straight points in win over Patriots

Continued from Page B-1

in his return after missing three games with a high ankle sprain.

With the damp Gillette Stadium crowd chanting “Zappe! Zappe!” the fourth-round draft pick from Western Kentucky led the Patriots to back-toback touchdowns and a 14-10 lead. But the Bears scored the next 23 points.

“Just a poor showing, across the board, from beginning all the way to the end,” New England safety Devin McCourty said. “If we give up 33 points, I don’t care who plays quarterback. We’re going to have a tough time win

ning the game.”

Zappe was 5 of 6 for 109 yards and a touchdown in the first half. But in the second, he was 9 of 16 for 76 yards and two interceptions. Jones completed 3 of 6 passes for 13 yards, with one intercep tion. Rhamondre Stevenson caught eight passes for 59 yards and ran 11 times for 39 for the Patriots (3-4).

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said the plan all along was to play both quarter backs, and that Jones was not benched for his performance. He declined to say who would start next week against the Jets.

“He would have gone back in [but] the score got out of hand,” he said. “I didn’t

think that was the right thing to do.”

David Montgomery ran for 62 yards and Herbert did the same for Chicago, which had lost three straight games and four out of five. The Bears had also lost five straight to the Patriots and eight out of nine since beating New England in the 1986 Super Bowl 46-10.

Bears kicker Cairo Santos was 4 for 4, including a 50-yarder late in the third quarter that made it 26-14. After Zappe went three-and-out, Dante Pettis returned a punt 27 yards to the Patriots’ 39-yard line; Herbert and Montgomery took it the last 26 yards to give Chicago a 33-14 lead.

Bears rookies Kyler Gordon and

Jaquan Brisker had their first career interceptions.

PAPA PATRIOT

The loss deprived Belichick of a 325th career victory — regular season and play offs — that would have moved him past Monsters of the Midway Hall of Famer George Halas on the NFL’s all-time list.

Belichick and Halas remain tied for second behind Don Shula, who won 347 games for the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins.

HONORING SEYMOUR

The Patriots honored former defensive lineman Richard Seymour at halftime as he was presented his Hall of Fame ring by owner Robert Kraft. Seymour was

within four minutes of each other late in regulation to force overtime.

In the rematch at Santa Fe High on a rainy Oct. 8, Albu querque High scored first in the 55th minute, only to see the Demonettes respond in the 63rd on a Lily Earnest goal off a corner kick. It appeared the two teams would finish tied and ultimately share the district title, but a turnover at midfield led to one last coun terattack by the Lady Bulldogs’ Mia Escobedo, who rifled a shot under goalkeeper Molly Wissman with seconds left in the second overtime.

A motivating factor for Santa Fe High was last year’s disap pointing 1-0 loss to Las Cruces in the 5A opening round.

Najaka said it was the team’s first postseason experience, and it showed in the way the team played. With a year expe rience under their belts, the senior-dominant Demonettes might be wiser in dealing with this year’s tournament.

Najaka said a tougher non district schedule was designed to prepare the team for a late October/early November run.

“We played Cleveland, which is the number-one team,” Najaka said. “We played last year’s state champ [Albuquerque Cibola] and we had some tough games and we asked for that because we wanted to be prepared to play when we have to go through tougher teams at state. Last year, they were nervous.”

inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this past summer.

He spent eight seasons with New England and was a member of three Super Bowl winning teams.

INJURIES

Bears: OL Lucas Patrick left in the first half with a toe injury.

Patriots: S Kyle Dugger left in the third quarter with an ankle injury. C David Andrews was evaluated for a head injury after taking a blindside block from Bears defensive lineman Mike Pennel following a fourth-quarter interception. Pennel was ejected on the play.

UP NEXT

Bears: At the Dallas Cowboys on Sun day.

Patriots: At the New York Jets on Sun day.

Associated Press

CB Jourdan Lewis is out for

RON JENKINS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott exits the field after the end of Sunday’s game against the Lions in Arlington, Texas.

MATT YORK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett speaks to Broncos quarterback Brett Ryp ien during the second half of Sunday’s game against the Jets in Denver.

SPORTS TALK

Mike Evans

Jim Nantz

desperate drivers have season on the line

By Jenna Fryer Associated Press

Joey Logano has little stress headed into Martinsville Speedway, where his results won’t make a difference in his march toward the NASCAR championship.

The rest of the field?

Well, expect chaos.

There are still three spots open in the title-deciding finale and seven drivers head into Sunday’s race at NASCAR’s smallest and oldest track with a chance. Only 58 points separate Ross Chastain in second from Chase Briscoe in eighth, and a victory can earn a driver an automatic berth into the winnertake-all finale at Phoenix Raceway.

Logano is already locked into the champi onship race via his victory at Las Vegas two weeks ago. The remaining seven playoff driv ers will be fighting for every point possible on a 0.526-mile track that proved in April to be impossible to pass on.

“Nobody’s passing anybody at Martinsville, so better bring it,” said 2020 NASCAR cham pion Chase Elliott. “It’s gonna be tough.”

Elliott knows firsthand. He started from the pole at Martinsville in the spring and led 185 laps. But he lost the lead to Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron and that was it for Elliott, who finished a perplex ing ninth as he stalled out in traffic the rest of the race.

In fact, only four total drivers led laps in the Next Gen car’s debut at Martinsville, and Ryan Blaney and Austin Dillon combined to lead a whopping six of the 403 laps. The show belonged to Byron and Elliott, who combined to lead the remaining 397 laps (98.5 percent).

That pushed Hendrick Motorsports to 10,000 laps led at the track in Rick Hendrick’s home state of Virginia.

So what does it mean?

Track position is crucial and the Next Gen car, created in part to level the playing field, has left little separation from the front to the back of the grid. The new 18-inch Goodyear tire on the cars has created even more grip, which has alleviated the potential for driver mistakes.

With the chance to race for the Cup cham pionship on the line, drivers are going to have no choice but to be very, very aggressive.

But NASCAR has made it clear over the

Tshiebwe

Continued from Page B-1

from the Congo led the nation in rebounding at 15.1 per game while averaging 17.4 points. He shot 60 percent from the field, had 60 steals and 55 blocks, and finished the season with 16 con secutive double-doubles on the way to a school-record 28.

Instead of taking his game to the NBA, Tshiebwe opted to return when projections had him going in the second round of the 2022 draft.

“They [NBA scouts] want my game to expand a little bit,” said Tshiebwe, who started his career at West Virginia. “They want me to be able to make one or two 3-pointers, They want me to catch the ball, drive and finish, and get better in dribbling.”

Timme made a similar decision — two years in a row. The 6-10 senior was one of the nation’s best big men each of the past two seasons, leading the Zags on deep NCAA runs, including a trip to the national title game in 2021. He was a second-team All-American for the second straight season a year ago after averaging 18.4 points and 6.8 rebounds.

UP

Noon

on

last three weeks that it is watching closely and won’t tolerate any sort of race manipu lation or retaliation. Bubba Wallace was sus pended for Sunday’s race at Homestead-Mi ami Speedway for deliberately crashing Kyle Larson a week before, and Cole Custer and Stewart-Haas Racing have a Thursday appeal scheduled of their $200,000 fines for allegedly assisting Briscoe’s advance into the third round of the playoffs.

Denny Hamlin, co-owner of Wallace’s car, wrecked Elliott once at Martinsville to trigger a heated post-race exchange. After the mes sage sent by NASCAR the last several weeks, drivers will have to carefully consider what’s acceptable this Sunday.

“They drew a very good line,” Hamlin said of NASCAR. “They did the right thing. Now it’s about can we be more consistent with that for the future? What is the determining factor of crossing that line?”

Blaney, who led five laps at Martinsville in the spring but still thought he had a car capable of winning, sits sixth behind Hamlin below the cutline along with Christopher Bell and Briscoe. Bell and Briscoe both believe they are in must-win situations to advance to the Phoenix finale, but Blaney believes he can qualify on points.

He also knows now he must do it within NASCAR’s boundaries.

Timme still had areas of his game he wanted to work on before heading to the NBA and hoped for one more shot at winning a national title with the second-ranked Zags. The NCAA’s name, image and likeness deals made it an easier decision and, besides, college life is a lot of fun.

“We have a chance to do some thing special, I wanted to get my degree, there’s things I want to work on, I want to build on,” Timme said. “It was a culmina tion of a lot of things, but I really enjoy being a college kid.”

Bacot also has a chance to do something special with the Tar Heels.

The 6-11 forward tied the NCAA record with 31 dou ble-doubles last season and became the first to have six in the same NCAA Tournament while leading North Carolina to the national title game. The Tar Heels lost to Kansas, but are No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 and among the favorites to win it all with Bacot back.

“I don’t go a day where we’re not like saying, man, we can’t wait to get to that,” Bacot said of winning a national title. “Maybe that’s not the best approach, but I mean, we’re human.”

Sasser was a key cog two years

“I personally think it is good that NASCAR is putting the law down, the hammer down on things that they think are wrong and that they want to act,” Blaney said. “That is the only way you can kind of police it. You have to do those things. At the end of the day, it is their call.

“If they see something that they don’t like, I expect them to act on it, and they have the last couple of weeks. It doesn’t change the approach of the way I do anything. In my mind, you never think about, ‘If I do some thing malicious with intent, or something like that, that you can get away with it.’ ”

Martinsville in 2015 was the site of one of the more recent egregious acts of retalia tion. Matt Kenseth, feuding for weeks with Logano, returned his wrecked car to the track to intentionally retaliate against Logano — a move that cost Logano a spot in the champi onship race and earned Kenseth a two-race suspension. Kenseth was the last driver suspended for on-track action before Wallace last week.

With the season on the line for seven driv ers come Sunday, it might make for desperate measures in the waning laps.

“Sports tests your morals and tests your character a lot of times,” Logano said. “Some times it is tough to balance all that in the heat of the moment. You sometimes make decisions that you’re not proud of later on, but you learn lessons every time. I’ve made mistakes and made dumb decisions inside race cars that I regret. But I’ve learned from every one of them, and I feel like I know where my line is now.”

ago during the Cougars’ first Final Four run since the Phi Slama Jama days, averaging 13.7 points while playing menacing defense.

The dynamic 6-2 guard got off to a strong start last season, but was limited to 12 games after breaking a bone in his left foot. He was named the American Athletic Conference preseason player of the year and a big rea son the Cougars are ranked No. 3 in the AP preseason poll.

Jackson-Davis was a preseason All-American last season and led the Hoosiers in scoring (18.3) and rebounding (8.1). The 6-9 forward also helped Indiana reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in six years, but the run ended with a first round loss to Saint Mary’s.

With Jackson-Davis back, the No. 13 Hoosiers are the favorites to win the Big Ten and, they hope, make a deep March run.

“I think I have kind of set the stone of my individual legacy, being an All-American and doing all of those things, but those don’t really matter if you don’t win something here,” he said. “Winning is a big thing here, so winning a national championship and also winning a Big Ten title, those are my two main goals this year.”

were concerns he might not be back until next year.

Varane injury hurts France’s defense for World Cup team

By Jerome Pugmire Associated Press

PARIS — The World Cup is starting to prey on players’ minds. Raphael Varane’s reac tion to getting injured while playing for Manchester United at the weekend was a case in point.

The France defender left the field at Stamford Bridge in tears after damaging his right ham string while stretching to make a tackle in the second half of United’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea.

After receiving treatment, he was inconsolable and pulled his jersey over his head as United teammates came over, some putting their arms around him and Portugal international Diogo Dalot even kissing him on the side of the head.

Hardly a normal reaction from Varane, or indeed his teammates, to an injury. Make no mistake — the World Cup, which is less than a month away, is weighing heavy in their thoughts.

For France coach Didier Deschamps, defensive woes are piling up, with Varane’s fitness for the tournament now clearly in doubt and other defenders recovering from injuries.

Varane is crucial to the defending World Cup cham pions as their best and most experienced defender. The elegant, ball-playing 29-year-old has outstanding positional play and is an astute reader of the game. He made all of his 87 international appearances under Deschamps and played a crucial part in the team’s World Cup success four years ago.

His regular center-back partner is Presnel Kimpembe, who has made 28 international appearances, but he only just resumed training after recov ering from a hamstring injury. Kimpembe could at least play in a handful of games for Paris Saint-Germain before the World Cup.

Wesley Fofana, signed by Chelsea by $87 million in the transfer window, has yet to make his France debut but could provide valuable cover in Qatar.

However, Fofana injured his knee at the start of this month and is not expected to play for Chelsea before the World Cup.

That means Arsenal’s William Saliba has a strong chance of getting in the squad — and perhaps even playing in France’s opener against Australia on Nov. 22. The 21-year-old Saliba’s form has helped Arsenal to the top of the Premier League.

If Varane and Kimpembe are both sidelined, then Saliba could line up alongside Bayern Munich’s Dayot Upamecano, who like Saliba has seven France caps.

Another option is Monaco’s Benoit Badiashile, but he has only just broken into the France squad.

SHAQIRI’S RETURN Switzerland playmaker Xherdan Shaqiri has returned home to pre pare for the World Cup after his club Chicago Fire failed to reach the MLS playoffs.

Shaqiri will train for the next three weeks with Lugano, the Swiss club that is owned like Chi cago by American billionaire Joe Mansueto.

Lugano said Monday the tem porary deal was approved by the MLS, although the former Liver pool player cannot take part in Swiss league games.

The 31-year-old Shaqiri is pre paring for his fourth World Cup, and has scored a total of four goals at the previous three tour naments.

NEUHAUS OUT Germany midfielder Florian Neuhaus will miss the tournament as he continues his recovery from a knee injury sustained playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach.

The 25-year-old Neuhaus, who had started each of Gladbach’s first six Bundesliga games of the season, partially ruptured the rear cruciate ligament in his right knee in a challenge with Freiburg player Daniel-Kofi Kyereh on Sept. 11.

World Series and left even Harper momentarily bewildered.

“Oh my gosh. I just did that,” Harper said in the dugout.

Sure did.

Next stop, Houston.

The Phillies open the World Series on Friday against the Astros with more than a punch er’s chance against the defending American League champions strictly because of Harper. The numbers only tell part of the tale, even as the 30-year-old designated hitter is piling up stats among the best in postseason history, all while declaring Citi zens Bank Park is his house. He leads in the clubhouse, and from his Phillie Phanatic cleats and headband, to his novelty T-shirts to his shoutouts for Philly sports legends, he has embraced the fans and the pressure of playing in the city like few outsiders ever have in any sport.

“All the things we thought he was, have turned out to be true,” Middleton said. “There’s been no disappointments. Sometimes when you go through that pro cess you think you understand somebody and what you really get is a little bit different. There is nothing different with Bryce. He is just committed to winning. He’ll do whatever it takes. I think if I told him he had to play third base, he’d play third base.”

The right fielder who bowed to Phillies fans each time he ran out to start the game was forced into a DH role in April because of a small tear in the ulnar collateral ligament of his throwing elbow.

Because Harper could not throw with the injury, had the National League not adopted the DH rule this season, he might have missed a considerable chunk of time, if not the season. Remember, too:

When Harper’s thumb was bro ken by a pitch from San Diego’s Blake Snell in late June, there

The 2021 NL MVP slumped a bit late in the season as the Phillies made a run a the NL wild card. But in the playoffs against St. Louis, Atlanta and the Padres, Harper’s numbers soared higher than his jersey sales. Unlike Padres slugger Manny Machado, Harper did not ask for an out in his contract, though his postsea son play would have provided ample negotiation fuel.

Among his October achieve ments:

u Harper is hitting .419 with six doubles, five homers, 11 RBIs, 10 runs scored and a 1.351 OPS in the postseason.

u His 11 extra-base hits are most for a Phillies player in a postseason and his 10-game hit ting streak matches Lenny Dyks tra (1993) for the team’s longest in the playoffs.

u Harper’s go-ahead home run was the sixth in MLB postseason history in the eighth inning or later that gave his team the lead when trailing in a potential series-clinching game.

DARYL GRAHAM/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Byron puts on his helmet Saturday during NASCAR cup series qualifying

Online site sells apparel for transmasculine, nonbinary community

Both& is a new online apparel store with clothing specifically designed for the transmasculine and nonbinary community.

“We are designing for people assigned female at birth but who identify some where on the spectrum of masculine,” Both& founder and CEO Finnegan Shepard said.

Shepard at some point wants to open a brick-and-mortar store either in Santa Fe or Albuquerque, where Shepard is based.

Shepard launched Both& as an online store — bothandapparel.com — in June 2021 with no marketing, just black and white T-shirts and $1,800 in monthly sales. Sales last month hit $36,000, and merchandise now includes T-shirts, swim wear, hoodies, pants and but ton-down shirts.

Female bodies don’t fit well in men’s clothing, Shepard said, adding that Both& designs tend toward boxy and heavy fabric.

“None of it signals gender,” Shepard said. “It’s a profound shift for people to feel comfortable.”

Both& has raised $800,000 in angel funding with a goal of $1 million. Some of the funding comes from the New Mexico Angels and its partner, New Mexico Vintage Fund 2022.

Average gas price drops 11 cents in Santa Fe; statewide average $3.71

Santa Fe gasoline prices dropped 11 cents for the week to $3.68 for a gallon of regular unleaded fuel Thursday, the AAA New Mexico Weekend Gas Watch reported.

Santa Fe prices had been creeping up the past month after bottoming out at $3.53 on Sept. 15, reaching $3.79 on Oct. 13.

“The release of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve could help to cap crude oil price increases and keep pump prices trending downward,” AAA New Mexico spokesman Daniel Armbruster said.

The statewide average price was $3.71 per gallon, 13 cents below the national average of $3.84. Albuquerque had the cheapest gas among New Mexico metros at $3.63, a 15-cent drop from the prior week, while Las Cruces saw only a 3-cent decrease to $3.72 and Farmington inched down only 1 cent to $3.96, AAA reported.

Tentative deal would boost pay for 8,000 Southwest workers

DALLAS — More than 8,000 custom er-service workers at Southwest Airlines would get raises of 16 percent to 25 percent over four years under a ten tative contract, a sign of cost pressures facing airlines in a tight labor market.

The agreement announced Monday faces a ratification vote, however, and the same workers rejected a previous deal that union leaders negotiated in May.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said the new deal has better terms than the rejected agreement and would put people who work at Southwest ticket counters and airport gates at the top of the industry’s pay scale.

Under the agreement, a top-scale customer-service representative would get a 13.1 percent raise upon ratification and 25.1 percent over four years. The rejected deal would have given them a 17.5 percent raise over that period.

The union said the deal also includes bonuses — a minimum $1,000, running into several thousand dollars for most-se nior workers — stronger protections when employees are ordered to work overtime and improvements if similar workers at other airlines get better deals.

Airlines are under intense pressure to raise pay as air travel rebounds from the pandemic. The industry has lost tens of thousands of workers since the pandemic struck, many of whom took early retirement. Southwest CEO Rob ert Jordan said last year the airline was getting fewer applicants per job than it did before the pandemic.

Oil edges lower amid global demand outlook

Oil inched lower as long-term demand concerns about China and the rest of the global economy dampened sentiment even as a raft of earnings buoyed Wall Street.

West Texas Intermediate settled below $85 as traders remained glued to the outlook for economic growth and further central rate hikes. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen cautioned investors at a speech in New York that stresses in the global market could disrupt the U.S. financial system, which has so far proved resilient in the face of multiple shocks.

Crude has lost a third of its value since June as fears over a global economic slowdown continue to hang over the market.

Staff and wire reports

Bookstore chain set for Santa Fe Place

19,200-square-foot space, mostly vacant since Mervyn’s closed in 2008, will be new home for 2nd & Charles

By Teya Vitu tvitu@sfnewmexican.com

The 2nd & Charles national bookstore chain will fill the last big vacancy at Santa Fe Place.

At 2nd & Charles, shoppers can buy or sell books, visual media, games and other media with cash or store credit.

An opening date has not been announced for the Birmingham, Ala.-based chain, which started tenant improvement in mid-October in a portion of the former Mervyn’s anchor space, next to Conn’s Home Plus, which opened in June in 39,850 square feet of Mervin’s space.

2nd & Charles will occupy 19,200 square feet, space that has not seen a retail business since Mervyn’s closed in 2008, other than The Food Depot using it during the height of the pan demic to store and distribute food, mall marketing manager Antonio Guerrero said.

Santa Fe Place is now fully occu pied except for three small vacancies next to Boot Barn, Forever 21 and The Pretzel Zone. Capish! Pizza is under

construction at the mall end of the food court by the same proprietors behind Hawt Pizza at Hotel Chimayó in downtown Santa Fe and The Sawmill Market in Albuquerque, mall general manager Jim Schertzing said.

Schertzing added the long-awaited Las Cruces-based Rad Retrocade, a combined arcade games, restaurant and bar venue opposite Regal Santa Fe Place, is now expecting an early 2023 opening.

Bookstores used to be a staple at malls during the 20th century in the days of Waldenbooks, B. Dalton, Crown Books and Borders, but the number of bookstores dropped from 12,151 in 1998 to 6,045 in 2019, accord ing to the U.S. Census Bureau, and many malls have no bookstores these days.

“It’s definitely rare to have a bookstore in today’s marketplace,” Guerrero said. “We have quite a few bookstores downtown but none in this part of town.”

2nd & Charles sells new and used books, even rare signed editions. Beyond books, 2nd & Charles buys, sells and trades CDs and vinyl

records, DVDs and Blu-Ray movies (but not VHS tapes), game systems and accessories, games and toys, collectibles and action figures, and musical instruments, as well as com ics and graphic novels.

Customers can bring in three tote bags’ worth of used merchandise at a time to sell for cash or up to 150 per cent the cash offer in store credit.

2nd & Charles has 45 stores in 18 states, the nearest to Santa Fe in Lubbock, Texas, and four in Colorado in Aurora, Broomfield, Fort Collins and Littleton. Santa Fe would be the westernmost store, to go along with the southernmost Sierra discount outdoor gear store, which recently opened at DeVargas Center.

The states with 2nd & Charles stores include Alabama, Michigan, Georgia, Colorado, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Ken tucky, Delaware, Indiana, Pennsylva nia, Maryland and Illinois.

Syracuse, N.Y.-based Spinoso Real Estate Group, which owns Santa Fe Place, was in discussions with 2nd & Charles about locating bookstores in

Apple hikes music and TV+ prices in first increases since launch

By Mark Gurman Bloomberg News

Apple increased prices for its music and TV+ services for the first time, citing rising licensing costs, a move that risks giving rivals an edge in a fiercely competitive streaming industry.

The company increased the price of Apple Music to $10.99 a month from $9.99 for individuals, effective immediately, making it more expensive than services from Spotify and Amazon. Spotify surged as much as 9.4 percent to $97.07 in response to the news, its biggest intraday rally in almost three months.

With its video plan, TV+, Apple will continue to offer a lower price than companies such as Netflix or Warner Bros. Discovery, but that service has been slow to build as big a following as rival platforms. The price of Apple TV+ will climb to $6.99 from $4.99, and the standard Apple One bundle increases $2 to $16.95.

Apple’s push into streaming in recent years is part of a broader effort to generate more revenue from services. That category now generates nearly a quarter of the company’s sales — almost $20 billion in the June quarter — up from less than 10 percent in 2015. Apple is set to give its latest quarterly results this week.

The company said in a statement that the music price hike was due to “an increase in licensing costs” and that artists and songwriters will now earn more money. That came as good news for investors in War ner Music Group, a top recording company, which sent the shares up as much as 15 percent Monday.

Apple is also hiking its annual music plan to $109 from $99 and its TV+ yearly subscription to $69 from $49. Apple One bundles for families are going to $22.95 from $19.95, while the Premier package, which adds News+, Fitness+ and additional storage on top of Arcade, Music and TV+, is climbing $3 to $32.95.

Apple shares rose less than 1 percent to $148.56 on Monday. Though the stock is down 16 percent this year, that’s less of a rout than the broader indexes

have suffered. The S&P 500 has fallen more than 20 percent.

In explaining the TV+ increase, Apple said that service was introduced “at a very low price” because it started with just a few shows and movies. It’s now “home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, docu mentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers,” Apple said.

Still, the service’s viewership hasn’t matched that of other big streaming platforms. While Apple TV+ has had a run of critically acclaimed hits, including Oscar-winner Coda and series such as Severance and Ted Lasso, it remains an also-ran in the hotly com petitive streaming video space. Nielsen’s most recent report showed Americans spent more time watching at least five other paid services, plus ad-supported video from YouTube and Pluto TV.

Apple has increasingly relied on services to augment hardware sales in an environment in which device upgrades have become pricier and less fre quent. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has sped up the release of new digital offerings in recent years, including a credit card and, more recently, savings accounts.

Apple on Monday also released the first version of iPadOS 16 with Stage Manager multitasking soft ware, as well as the MacOS Ventura update for Mac desktops and laptops. It also rolled out iOS 16.1 with shared iCloud photo libraries and new features for smart homes.

The company isn’t alone in boosting streaming prices. The cost of Walt Disney’s flagship Disney+ service will rise 38 percent to $11 later this year. The company is introducing a new ad-supported tier then that will be priced the same as its earlier offering at $8 a month. That follows a 43 percent price increase, to $10 a month, for its ESPN+ streaming service in August. Netflix, which raised prices earlier in the year, is also introducing an ad-supported plan, although — at $7 a month — it will be cheaper than its existing offerings.

other Spinosa locations in the East.

“They brought up this property,” Schertzing said. “They said, ‘We believe your concept would work well here.’ ”

Spinoso owner Carmen Spinoso has said Santa Fe Place is his favorite property.

The 2nd & Charles stores are primarily in suburbs and secondary cities, with only four stores in the 100 largest cities: Jacksonville, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Aurora, Colo.; and Richmond, Va. Otherwise, the stores are in places like Bossier City, La.; Chantilly, Va.; Conroe, Texas; and Dayton, Ohio.

2nd & Charles was established in 2010 by the Birmingham, Ala.-based bookstore giant Books-A-Million, also known as BAM!, which has 260 stores in 32 states. The nearest Books-A-Mil lion to Santa Fe is in Abilene, Texas, with the other locations in Wichita Falls, Texas; Salina, Kan.; and Tulsa, Okla.

2nd & Charles and Books-A-Mil lion did not respond to numerous phone calls and emails from The New Mexican

Tesla cuts prices in China in sign of slowing demand

New York Times

Tesla on Monday cut prices for its cars in China, a sign of intensifying competition in the world’s largest car market that provoked a slump in the company’s shares.

Tesla’s Chinese website was offering the Model 3 sedan Monday for a starting price of 265,900 yuan, also known as the renminbi, or $36,600, including government subsidies, a 5 percent reduction. The Model Y sport utility vehicle was advertised at 288,900 yuan, a 9 percent cut.

Tesla shares fell more than 6 percent before recov ering a little as the price cuts reinforced fears among investors that the company’s profitability and domi nance of the electric vehicle market was threatened by slowing economic growth and increased competi tion. Until recently, strong demand for Tesla cars had allowed the company to frequently raise prices.

In China, Tesla faces competition from domestic companies like BYD, SAIC Motor and Nio, which are also pushing into the European market with more affordable electric vehicles. The Chinese government has promoted its electric vehicle and battery makers, seeing the shift in technology as a chance to break into the global market. Although China has the world’s largest car market, Chinese automakers are small players in the rest of the world.

Investors closely monitor Tesla’s performance in China because the country is seen as having far more growth potential than Europe or the United States.

Tesla shares have fallen 12 percent since Wednes day, when the company reported third-quarter profit figures that disappointed Wall Street.

Investors have been concerned about problems that Tesla has encountered increasing production at new factories near Austin, Texas, and Berlin. “Fac tory ramps take time,” Tesla told investors last week.

Tesla stock is also under pressure because traders expect the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, will have to sell more shares to come up with the money he needs to close his purchase of Twitter by Friday.

LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

Santa Fe Place mall shoppers walk Monday in front of the future home of 2nd & Charles. The Alabama-based chain sells new and used books and other media.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022:

You are intelligent, practical and will seldom refuse a dare. Without a doubt, you are force ful and tenacious! This is a year of exciting changes for you. Make new friends. Be willing to open new doors and walk new paths. Trust your intuition and be ready to act fast.

MOON ALERT: After 3:30 a.m. EDT today (12:30 a.m. PDT), there are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The Moon is in Scor pio.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

HHHH Use the energy of today’s Solar Eclipse to sort through debt, taxes, inheri tances and red-tape issues. Pay bills. Get your ducks in a row. Tonight: Check your finances.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

HHHH Today’s Solar Eclipse takes place opposite your sign, which is a wonderful opportu nity for you to think about how to improve your closest rela tionships. Tonight: Cooperate.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20)

HHHH You have a great oppor tunity today to think of ways to improve your job or the way you do your job. Likewise, you can think of ways to improve your health. Or better ways to deal with your pet, if you have one. Try it! Tonight: Get organized.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

HHHHH Today’s New Moon urges you to value your creative talents. Because it’s a Solar Eclipse, this message is strong. It’s important for you to achieve a healthy balance between work and play in your life. Tonight: Socialize.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

HHHH Think about what you can do to improve your home, as well as improve your family relationships on this special Solar Eclipse. Tonight: Cocoon.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

HHHH You are so bright and clever! (And funny when you want to be.) Today’s Solar Eclipse is a celestial reminder to you to be extra clear in all your conversations with others.

Tonight: Conversations.

JUMBLE

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

HHHH Today there is a Solar Eclipse taking place in your Money House. Therefore, give thought to your earnings and cash flow. Tonight: Check your bank account.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

HHHHH The Solar Eclipse today takes place in your sign, which means it’s time to take a realistic assessment of the image you create on your world.

Tonight: You win!

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

HHHH You are the philosopher of the zodiac. Today’s Solar Eclipse might make you more introspective. You might give more thought to your inner world and your spiritual values. We all have values. Tonight: Enjoy solitude.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

HHHH You often socialize through your involvement with groups and organizations, because it’s a happy marriage of interacting with others, and at the same time, contributing to your community. Tonight: Be friendly.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

HHHH You have an opportunity now to think about how you can make a better impression on bosses. Tonight: Respect authority.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

HHHHH Today is the perfect day to think about what further education or training you can get that will help you in your job or personally enrich your life. What fun! Tonight: Explore!

Siblings put all household chores on dad

Dear Annie: My younger brother and sister are twins, and they just turned 17. I am writing to you because they have three kittens but leave all the care and feeding of them to our father, who is 66.

They really wanted these kittens, but they didn’t want the responsibility that comes with them. Dad even cleans their room, and I feel they are walking all over him.

I suggested that he give them chores, which will help them become more responsible. But he doesn’t want to do that. He said everything is fine the way it is. I said to him, “No more animals after this because you’re the only one taking care of them.”

What should I do? They listen to me.

— Older Brother

Dear Older Brother: Since they listen to you, why not have a family sit-down in which you present a list of chores for each of them? If you are living at home, then you might include a few chores of your own.

It sounds like your dad feels a lot of love for all of his children, so I would start the meeting by listing the many things he does around the house, and then talk about the importance of developing responsibil ity. Those kittens will soon become three adult cats, and you are wise to use that as an example — taking seriously the owner ship of an animal — as an important step in becoming a responsible adult.

Dear Annie: In your response to “Pay ing Tribute,” I wanted to share what I did at my father’s memorial. I handed out a tulip bulb with an attached note, “in honor of” my dad’s name, and a short poem he always liked. On the reverse was the bulb type — yellow tulip — and planting instructions.

Dad passed away in September, so tulips were due to be planted, but the bulb could change with the seasons. I received many compliments that day, but the ones I trea sure most are those that came in the fol lowing spring when people reached out to me about the yellow tulip they’d forgotten they’d planted and how it reminded them of Dad again.

— Another Suggestion

Dear Another Suggestion: What a beautiful tribute. Flowers are so special, and that is a special way to honor your father. Thank you for sharing.

Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. To find out more about Annie Lane and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

SHEINWOLD’S BRIDGECRYPTOQUIP

KENKEN

Rules

• Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 6 without repeating.

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• Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, Oct. 25, the 298th day of 2022. There are 67 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history: On Oct. 25, 1760, Britain’s King George III succeeded his late grandfather, George II.

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