Djokovic defeats Federer for Wimbledon championship
Locally owned and independent
Monday, July 7, 2014
Sports, B-1
www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢
City hopes to boost Internet speeds, competition with new fiber-optic line
Late-night tech time In a new trend called vamping, teens are staying up to stay connected — and getting less sleep. TeCH, A-6
Some say fix is welcome as others question need
6 Israelis arrested in revenge killing
By Chris Quintana The New Mexican
Santa Fe residents pay the same average monthly rate for Internet service as Albuquerque residents, but can only browse the Web at half
Suspects held in brutal death of Palestinian teen described as “youths.” PAge A-3
the speed. A $1 million city project aims to close that gap. The money will fund an independent pipeline to the Internet in an effort that city officials hope will increase competition and drive up Internet speeds. But some Internet providers aren’t happy with the project or the way the city sidestepped open bidding in awarding the contract. One of
the state’s largest Internet providers questions whether the project is needed or will promote the diversity of providers sought by city officials. Another company threatened litigation before backing down. City officials are undeterred. And ordinary consumers and businesses who rely on the Internet say anything that improves the city’s plodding Web speeds is welcome.
“More broadband is the way of the future,” said Jason Hool, president of Santa Fe Studios, whose clients consume massive amounts of bandwidth transferring digital video files across the country and the world. “It’s key to all of our clients, and that’s only going to continue,” Hool said.
Please see INTeRNeT, Page A-4
SFPS prepares to unveil new schools, tech
In rural areas, vets’ visits to doctor require lots of travel Volunteers drove 917K miles last year to ensure patients throughout N.M. made it to Albuquerque appointments By Susan Montoya Bryan
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — For millions of veterans living in rural America, the challenges of accessing an overburdened and scandal-plagued health care system go beyond having to wait months to land an appointment. Transportation adds another dimension to the problems they face. Hundreds of miles often lie between doctor offices and veterans in small towns across the country. For anything worse than a common cold, local clinics are often helpless, and it can take hours behind the wheel for vets to get adequate care. It’s worse for those who can’t drive themselves. Lawmakers in some states have been talking about how to best fill the gaps, and the Veterans Affairs Department has been working to expand transportation options throughout its system, but New Mexico — one of the largest and most rural states — has yet to make the list. Many veterans who call Southern New Mexico’s remote stretches of desert home or those scattered across the northern mountains depend on volunteers to drive them. Last year alone, volunteers spent nearly 26,000 hours driving some 917,000 miles to ensure patients made it to medical appointments in Albuquerque. In Wyoming, volunteers with Disabled American Veterans drove more than a half-million miles. Nationally, the organization covered about 30 million miles in 2013. “Oh my gosh, it would have been a mess if we didn’t have this driver,” said Jean Gorn, who made the four-hour trip from Alamogordo to Albuquerque recently with her husband, 83-year-old Army veteran Jens Gorn. This marked the third time the Gorns have had to travel to the VA medical center in Albuquerque. The clinic near their home handles only basic needs. It was no different when the couple lived in Nebraska. They were four hours from the medical center in Omaha, and the local clinic could do nothing last August when Jens Gorn started feeling numbness in his leg and ended up having a stroke. He had to be hospitalized outside the VA network, resulting in a week of bills not covered by his insurance.
Please see TRAVeL, Page A-4
Ringside seat
Politics and other diversions
Milan Simonich is on vacation. His column will return next Monday.
Lenny Martinez sets up computers at El Camino Real Academy on South Meadows Road, in preparation for the school year. The new K-8 school, also pictured above, has several computer labs and interactive whiteboards. PHOTOS BY JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
Work continues to ready facilities for students’ return next month By Robert Nott The New Mexican
O
n Aug. 18, the day Santa Fe Public Schools students return to class, the district also will welcome some new additions, including two brand new K-8 schools intended to ease overcrowding on the city’s south side. El Camino Real Academy and Nina Otero Community School feature expanded classrooms, increased special education space, pre-kindergarten facilities, two gyms and two playgrounds — one for smaller children and one for middle-schoolers. In addition, both schools have computer labs and interactive whiteboards. On the east side, Atalaya Elementary
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
‘Corazones Heridos’
Today Partly sunny. High 89, low 61. PAge A-10
Index
Calendar A-2
Fume-fired ceramics by Susan Ohori, opening today at Casa, 1098½ S. St. Francis Drive, 982-2592. More events in Calendar, A-2
Classifieds B-5
Comics B-10
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
Camino Real Academy off N.M. 599. Safety upgrades and roofing repairs are occurring districtwide. The total cost for the changes is $101 million, funded by 2009 and 2013 general obligation bonds. Additionally, the district will begin to draw from the $55 million education technology bond to initiate its five-year digital learning plan, which will eventually put an ageappropriate computer device in the hands of every one of its roughly 14,000 students. And the district still is using $12.7 million per year from a 2009 mill levy bond for maintenance, upkeep and some technological needs.
Please see SFPS, Page A-8
Nonprofits’ birth control cases next for justices By Mark Sherman and Rachel Zoll
Pasapick
School will reopen this year after extensive demolition and renovation, which involved some conflict over the possibility that the new gym would obscure neighbors’ views. At Piñon and Kearny elementary schools, students will return to renovated buildings that include new classroom wings; improved heating, ventilation and airconditioning; and other systems upgrades. The district plans to remove all portable classroom buildings from these sites by the end of the calendar year. In addition, Ortiz Middle School is getting a new track and field, and Agua Fría Elementary School is being demolished to make way for an early-childhood center. Agua Fría students will transfer to the El
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — How much distance from an immoral act is enough? That’s the difficult question behind the next legal dispute over religion, birth control and the health law that is likely to be resolved by the Supreme Court. The issue in more than four dozen lawsuits from faithaffiliated charities, colleges and hospitals that oppose some or all contraception as immoral is how
Crosswords B-6, B-9
Life & Science A-7
far the Obama administration must go to accommodate them. The justices on June 30 relieved businesses with religious objections of their obligation to pay for women’s contraceptives among a range of preventive services the new law calls for in their health plans. Religious-oriented nonprofit groups already could opt out of covering the contraceptives. But the organizations say the accommodation provided by the administration does not go far enough because, though they are not on the hook finan-
El Nuevo A-5
Opinions A-9
Sports B-1
cially, they remain complicit in the provision of governmentapproved contraceptives to women covered by their plans. “Anything that forces unwilling religious believers to be part of the system is not going to pass the test,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents many of the faith-affiliated nonprofits. Hobby Lobby Inc., winner of its Supreme Court case last month, also is a Becket Fund client. The high court will be asked to take on the issue in its term
Tech A-6
Time Out B-10
BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM
that begins in October. A challenge from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, probably will be the first case to reach the court. The Obama administration argues that the accommodation creates a generous moral and financial buffer between religious objectors and funding birth control. The nonprofit groups just have to raise their hands and say that paying for any or all of the 20 devices and methods approved by government
Please see NeXT, Page A-4
Two sections, 20 pages 165th year, No. 188 Publication No. 596-440