Bright star: Monique van Genderen’s abstract paintings Pasatiempo, inside The New Mexic an’s Weekly Magaz
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Friday, August 8, 2014
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August 8, 2014
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Obama authorizes Iraq airstrikes
Consumer spending rises in N.M., U.S. The state’s growth mirrored the national average, but was among the fastest in the West. PAGE A-2
President says ‘America is coming to help,’ but vows not to send in ground troops; food, water delivered By Julie Pace and Robert Burns The Associated Press
Ticks make people allergic to red meat
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama announced Thursday night he had authorized the Pentagon to launch targeted airstrikes if needed to protect Americans from Islamic militants in northern Iraq and help Iraqi security forces protect civilians under siege, threatening to revive U.S. military involvement in the country’s long sectarian war.
Doctors across the U.S. are seeing a surge of adverse reactions in people bitten by ticks. PAGE A-2
Fun and games continue at fair There are plenty of opportunities left for spectators and participants alike to enjoy at the Santa Fe County Fair.
In a televised late-night statement from the White House, Obama also said American military forces had already carried out airdrops of humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of Iraqi religious minorities desperately in need of food and water. “Today America is coming to help,” he declared. The announcements reflected the deepest American engagement in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew in late 2011 after nearly a decade of war.
INSIDE u Islamic militants rout Kurds in northern Iraq, seize dam. PAGE A-5
Obama said the humanitarian airdrops were made at the request of the Iraqi government. The food and water supplies were delivered to the tens of thousands of Yazidis trapped on a mountain without food and water. The Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion with ties to Zoroastrianism,
fled their homes after the Islamic State group issued an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death. Obama, who has staked much of his legacy as president on ending the Iraq war, acknowledged that the prospect of a new round of U.S. military action would be a cause for concern among many Americans. He vowed anew not to put American combat troops back
Please see IRAQ, Page A-5
LAS SOLERAS
Opera’s talented ‘urchins’ City panel soak up time in spotlight OKs first
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residential phase
Neighbors to east see opportunity in high-level nuke waste
Commissioners give green light on condition developer builds park By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
Please see WASTE, Page A-4
The New Mexican
ast-minute casting changes and updated themes drew a lot of press this season at The Santa Fe Opera. But some of the best word of mouth has been about the eight New Mexico boys in the children’s chorus in Bizet’s Carmen. The youth play street urchins acting as lookouts for an innkeeper/cocaine smuggler in this modern production set along the U.S.-Mexico border. It’s Carmen for the Breaking Bad generation. The boys, ages 10 to 14, pop out of dumpsters in Act 1 to perform “Avec la garde montante.” In French, they sing, “Sound the bugles; shoulders back; chest out; arms straight; we march along with the guards.” When their song ends, they slip back into the trash cans and wait quietly until Carmen and the factory workers finish their chorus. Needless to say, there’s no squirming or talking allowed in the bins during the 20 minutes or so they are cooped up inside. Nicholas Ottersberg, 12, of Santa Fe said he’s never been claustrophobic and actually likes tight spaces. “It gets a little warm in there,” he admitted, “but mostly
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Please see OPERA, Page A-4
Please see SOLERAS, Page A-4
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The boys pop up out of dumpsters Wednesday evening to sing ‘Avec la garde montante’ in Act 1 of The Santa Fe Opera’s production of Carmen. View video of the boys performing at www.santafenewmexican.com.
By Anne Constable
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Local youth show off musical skills in children’s chorus of SFO’s ‘Carmen’
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The Carmen children’s chorus rehearses before Wednesday evening’s performance at The Santa Fe Opera. Several of the boys, who range in age from 10 to 14, have performed in previous operas and say they would like to pursue professional music careers. PHOTOS BY JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
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MENTONE, Texas — Loving County is big, dry and stretches for miles, and is the perfect place, local officials say, to store high-level radioactive waste. Officials here hope to entice the federal government — with $28 billion to spend on the disposal of high-level radioactive waste — into considering the possibility. “With the money that this would generate for the county, we might even be able to pay the taxpayers back,” said the county judge, Skeet Jones. “We could build some roads. We could bring in some more water. We could have a town that’s incorporated, have a city council, maybe even start a school.” Loving County had a school, but it has been boarded up for years, and students are bused to neighboring Winkler County. “Maybe even have a Wal-Mart,” Jones mused. About midway between El Paso and Midland-Odessa, Loving County, population 95, is spread across 650 square miles, about twice the size of New York City. The population could grow 40 times larger and still meet the government definition of “highly rural.” Mentone, the county seat, has a courthouse, a single gas station, a food truck and not much else.
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The New York Times
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By Matthew L. Wald
The city Planning Commission gave preliminary approval Thursday for the first residential phase of a massive mixed-use development that could become a sea of rooftops at Santa Fe’s southern gateway in a couple of decades. The proposed subdivision, between the south end of Cerrillos Road and Interstate 25, is the first of five residential phases planned in the Las Soleras development. The Planning Commission voted 4-2 to approve 204 lots on 32 acres south of the intersection of Governor Miles and Rail Runner roads. Commissioners Lisa Bemis and Angela Schackel Bordegaray cast the dissenting votes. The commission approved the proposal with a condition that the developer construct a park after half the homes in the subdivision are built — rather than allowing the developer to put up a letter of credit to cover the cost of building a park. In addition to a host of businesses, Las Soleras eventually could consist of 1,700 to 2,500 homes, depending on the housing market. In fact, one of the two tracts approved by the commission Thursday is planned to be developed at about half the allowable density, though the developer left open the possibility to modify the housing
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Texas county hopes to woo feds for share of $28B in disposal funds
Santa Fe city limits The New Mexican
Lawmakers request oversight for Human Services N.M. Democrats blast state department’s actions in letter to feds By Patrick Malone The New Mexican
In a letter to President Barack Obama’s Cabinet secretary for Health and Human Services, Democrats in New Mexico’s congressional delegation on Wednesday criticized Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s
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abrupt shake-up last year of the state’s behavioral health care system. U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich and U.S. Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Michelle Lujan Grisham chided the New Mexico Human Services Department, accusing it of prematurely ousting more than a dozen behavioral health providers without due process and causing disruptions in the providers’ employment and care for the state’s mentally ill and people with substance abuse problems.
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“We have heard from numerous constituents including families, consumers, advocates and providers about a frayed behavioral health system,” stated the letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. The state Human Services Department responded by defending its actions. “If these politicians want to stand on the side of defending and excusing rampant overbilling in Medicaid, and the siphoning of millions of
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Medicaid dollars away from those most in need, that’s their prerogative,” department spokesman Matt Kennicott said. “Meanwhile, we have worked diligently to stop this abuse of taxpayer money and ensure that New Mexicans in need are receiving behavioral health services.” In June 2013, the state Human Services Department froze funding to 15 New Mexico-based providers of behavioral health services, citing credible allegations of Medicaid billing
Sports B-5
Please see HUMAN, Page A-4
Time Out A-8
Generation Next C-1
BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM
Obituaries Geraldine “Jerry” Egan, Aug. 4 Ellen Ray Franklin, Pecos, Aug. 3 John Houghton Phillips, July 15 John Hugh Tull Jr., June 25 PAGE B-2
Today Storms possible. High 84, low 57. PAGE A-6
Three sections, 24 pages Pasatiempo, 80 pages 165th year, No. 220 Publication No. 596-440