Santa Fe New Mexican, July 8, 2014

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LeBron James, Cavaliers owner could mend differences, reunite Sports, B-1

Locally owned and independent

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

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A Rio Rancho woman claims her son was poorly cared for when he suffered a brain injury. PAge A-7

Tourist spending up State sees a 7 percent rise. PAge A-7

Bookstore endures

Records: Wait for benefits worsening at state agency

International Folk Art Market aims to aid young Kenyan widows, other female artists

Injured boy’s mom sues city, hospital

Empowering women around the world

Human Services spokesman says progress being made in backlogged requests, but lawyer is unconvinced

Experience sets Garcia Street Books apart from competition. PAge A-12

By Patrick Malone The New Mexican

InSIde

In the month since a federal judge ordered the New Mexico Department of Human Services to immediately process thousands of backlogged applications for food and medical benefits, the waiting list has grown, according to court documents. A department spokesman said Monday that updated numbers, not yet filed in court, will show that the agency is making progress. A lawyer representing low-income New Mexicans seeking the benefits, however, was unconvinced the agency is complying with the judge’s order. “We still see long lines at Income Support Division offices, not being able to be seen on the day you come in,” said Sovereign Hager, a lawyer with the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty. “People still aren’t getting interviews as scheduled. They can’t get through on the phone. People are still having tremendous difficulty, and the department is still terminating people’s food benefits because of processing delays.” The judge’s ruling came in response to legal action brought by the center that aimed to end benefit wait times that some applicants said dragged on for months. Under a 15-year-old consent order, the state had agreed to a 30-day deadline for processing appli-

u Arizona loses dispute over driver’s license for immigrants. PAge A-5

Obama’s tone on migrants toughens White House indicates most minors entering U.S. will be deported By David Nakamura and Katie Zezima

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The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — The White House signaled Monday that it expects to deport most of the unaccompanied minors entering the country illegally across the southern border, employing the strongest rhetoric to date to indicate that an influx of thousands of Central American migrants will not be tolerated. The tougher tone came a day before Obama administration officials were expected to ask Congress to authorize new measures, including more than $2 billion in emergency funds, that would expedite the legal processing of the more than 52,000 children and 39,000 families apprehended this year. Officials said the request is separate from statutory changes that the administration also is seeking to make it easier to deport children back to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, where most of the influx has originated. The moves come as President Barack Obama attempts to stem an

Please see mIgRAnTS, Page A-5

Obituaries George Robert Marsik Sr., 86, Santa Fe, July 3 Charles Pacheco, Santa Fe, July 4 Donna Rose Pliska, 82, July 3 PAge A-9

Today Sun and some clouds. High 85, low 60.

Meeri Tuya, center, is a beader with the Maji Moto Widows Project, a Kenya cooperative. The group was accepted into this weekend’s 11th annual International Folk Art Market, where Tuya will represent her fellow beaders. COURTESY SUSAN DESLAURIER

By Anne Constable The New Mexican

M

eeri Tuya grew up in a traditional Maasai family in Kenya, where girls didn’t go to school — or at least not for long. Tuya’s own parents only allowed her to attend to the fourth grade. “A girl child was not counted as a member of the family,” she said in her application to the 2014 Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. Tuya dropped out to be circumcised, a traditional genital cutting that is illegal in Kenya but still practiced in some places. After a year of healing, she was married off to an 80-year-old man, becoming his fifth wife. Tuya said she was mistreated because she was not strong enough to work with the family’s cattle. Within a year, Tuya was pregnant, and then her husband died. “I was powerless and hopeless,” she said. All of her possessions, including

COmIng WedneSdAy Look for the 2014 International Folk Art Market magazine inside Wednesday’s edition of The New Mexican.

her traditional bridal dress made of ox leather sewn with white beads and small metal discs, were taken from her. Tuya decided to run back to her father’s house, but she was not welcome there. She said her father told her, “I don’t want to see you in my

Ex-El Mirador worker charged with embezzling over $100,000

home.” The next morning, she began a three-day walk through the bush, sleeping at night in the tops of the trees. Tuya made her way to the Maji Moto Widows Village, a sanctuary for Maasai widows established in 2007 on land provided by Salaton Ole Ntutu, a more progressive tribal chief. Many of the widows are young women whose much older husbands died soon after their marriages. In Tuya’s culture, widows are not allowed to remarry and do not have the right to own or inherit property. They often become homeless. At the village, Tuya returned to school. A medicine woman and other widows have taken care her daughter to allow her time to attend classes and study. She is now in high school and said she is “developing a passion of empowering and developing the community.” Tuya is one of the beaders

A former employee of Easter Seals El Mirador has been charged with embezzling more than $100,000 from the nonprofit behavioral health care provider. A Santa Fe County grand jury indicted Ricardo Franco, 30, of Rio Rancho on July 2 on two charges of embezzlement and one charge of tampering with evidence. A sheriff’s report said Franco had worked in El Mirador’s payroll department as a financial specialist since 2006 and had been stealing money from the organization by claiming up to 80 hours of overtime per pay period since 2010. Franco was supposed to earn about $30,000 a year, according to the report, but he was getting paid $60,000 to $80,000 per year due to his falsified time sheets in the last two years he worked there. Franco “hid or destroyed six months worth of overtime sheets to hide his embezzlement,” according to the indictment.

Please see ART, Page A-6

Please see WORKeR, Page A-6

Report alleges Rio Rancho man, 30, ‘hid or destroyed’ overtime sheets By Phaedra Haywood

The New Mexican

PAge B-6

Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com

‘Contemporary South + Southeast Asian Textiles’ Group show of works by Asian artists, opening today and running through July 14, Santa Fe Weaving Gallery, 124½ Galisteo St., 982-1737. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo

Index

Calendar A-2

Classifieds B-7

Pontiff asks for forgiveness from victims of sexual abuse By Jim Yardley

The New York Times

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Monday used his first meeting with victims of clerical sex abuse to offer his strongest condemnation of a crisis that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church, comparing priests who abuse minors to “a sacrilegious cult,” while begging forgiveness from victims and pledging to crack down on bishops who fail to protect children. By meeting with six victims from three countries, Francis was trying to

Comics B-12

Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035

Crosswords B-8, B-11

show resolve — and personal empathy — to address an issue on which he has faced criticism in what has otherwise been a popular papacy. While Pope Francis some advocates for victims praised the meeting, others dismissed it as little more than a publicity stunt. Francis first greeted the six victims — two people each from Ireland, Britain and Germany — Sunday after

Lotteries A-2

Opinions A-10

Sports B-1

they arrived at a Vatican guesthouse. On Monday, he led them in a private Mass at a Vatican chapel, where he offered a strongly worded homily condemning an abuse scandal that began to surface decades ago under John Paul II. Francis also met with each victim in sessions that, in total, lasted more than three hours. “Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you,” Francis said during his homily, according to a text released by the Vatican. “And I

Time Out B-11

Local Business A-12

BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

humbly ask forgiveness. I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves.” In his homily, Francis also vowed “not to tolerate harm done to a minor by any individual, whether a cleric or not,” and declared that bishops would be held accountable for protecting minors. He said the abuse

Please see POPe, Page A-4

Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 189 Publication No. 596-440


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