Cowb boys hand Seahawks rare home defeat Sports, B-1 b
Locally owned and independent
Monday, October 13, 2014
www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢
EBOLA OUTBREAK
Why send grades when there’s video?
3 ELECTIONS 2014 The issues facing New Mexico
Liberal arts college encourages prospective students to show, not tell when applying. EDUCATION, A-8
Gov., challenger stand far apart on education
Researchers create ‘Alzheimer’s in a dish’ Replication of disease in petri dishes could accelerate drug research. LIFE & SCIENCE, A-9
Nurse connected to first U.S. case tests positive, raising questions, anxiety
After long fight, fired janitors see settlement
By Manny Fernandez The New York Times
S
ixteen janitors who were fired from their jobs six years ago held a reunion a few nights ago to celebrate a hard-fought, longawaited victory. They received a total of $130,000 from a company that once held the janitorial contract for Santa Fe’s public schools. The National Labor Relations Milan Board ruled that Simonich Merchants BuildRingside Seat ing Maintenance LLC retaliated against the janitors after they complained about sexual harassment and then organized to try to improve their working conditions. The decision in favor of the janitors held up through two appeals by the company. The janitors’ story isn’t one of David versus Goliath. They actually began with less power than David, who at least had a slingshot. Soon enough, though, the janitors received help from a Santa Fe-based advocacy organization for immigrants, Somos Un Pueblo Unido. The janitors learned that they could make their voices heard, even without a recognized union, if they stuck together by forming a workers committee. Here’s how it happened: The janitors worked for Californiabased Merchants Building Maintenance, which had janitorial contracts with school districts in several Western states. Santa Fe was one of them. Even though the janitors in Santa Fe worked for a private employer, they say one school administrator exerted enormous power over them. Court records and the workers identify him as Pete Ibarra, who oversaw custodial details. “Pete decided who gets hired and who gets fired,” said Elizabeth Castro, who was one of the janitors. Castro, now 28, said in a recent interview that Ibarra preferred to hire attractive young women when he evaluated those seeking to mop floors and clean toilets.
Please see RINGSIDE, Page A-10
Andrea Cortez, a prekindergarten student at Carlos Rey Elementary School in Albuquerque, marches in January with a group of about 300 outside the state Capitol. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO
King takes Martinez to task on A-F school grades, teacher evals By Robert Nott
EDITOR’S NOTE
The New Mexican
oters who say there is no difference between politicians may have a hard time claiming that about the education policies of Gov. Susana Martinez and Democrat Gary King. Martinez has moved forward with an A-F grading system for public schools; King says he would replace it. Martinez has settled on a new teacher evaluation system that heavily weighs student test data; King says he would throw the system out. Martinez is now spending about 45 percent of the state general fund on education; King says he would push for 50 percent. And Martinez has repeatedly said she is against tapping the state’s $14 billion permanent fund to expand early childhood programs. King has said he would pull 1 per-
V
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Lev Grossman: ‘The Magician’s Land’ Jean Cocteau Cinema presents a reading with the author at 7 p.m., a signing and questionand-answer session with George R.R. Martin will follow, $10 general admission, $5 with paperback purchase, no charge with hardcover purchase, 418 Montezuma Ave., 466-5528.
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-6
This is second article in a series looking at issues important to New Mexicans in the 2014 governor’s race. On Sunday, we looked at the economy. Today, we focus on education, followed by the environment, transparency, social issues and health and welfare. View earlier stories and additional election coverage at www.santafenewmexican.com/elections.
cent to 1.5 percent of that fund for such programs. With three weeks to go before the Nov. 4 election, education has emerged as one of the most volatile issues in the campaign — it was King’s first avenue of attack against Martinez, and his most vocal supporters are teachers and educators. “Education can and should be a game changer for Gary,” said Rep. Rick Miera, D-Albuquerque, a longtime member of the Legislative Education Study Committee. “There’s not a teacher in the state who is OK with what is happening, I mean in terms of grading schools, teacher evaluations, pushing money below the line,” said Ellen Bernstein,
head of the Albuquerque Teachers Federation. But Gov. Martinez thinks she, too, has a winning hand with her policies and has toured the state talking about reforms she says can move New Mexico schools ahead. As she did four years ago, Martinez is showing up in New Mexico elementary schools to read to children and promote the expansion of the “Breakfast After the Bell” food program, which provides morning meals to low-income students. Albuquerque pollster Brian Sanderoff said it is obvious that Martinez’s campaign handlers are “making a point to have her spend
Please see EDUCATION, Page A-5
MLK’s Nobel-winning vision: Is it still relevant 50 years later? Some say civil rights leader’s ideas on peace pertain especially to world today By Jesse Washington The Associated Press
Pasapick
Dallas hospital worker infected
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to much more than achieving racial equality. That goal, he said again and again, was inseparable from alleviating poverty and stopping war. And he reiterated this theme after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 50 years ago this week. “I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war, that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality,” he said in his Nobel acceptance speech. “Sooner or later, all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live
Comics B-12
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 986-3035
Crosswords B-7, B-11
together in peace.” Half a century later, it’s obvious that enormous progress has been made toward overcoming racial discrimination — that King was right in his vision about race. Yet widespread poverty remains, in America and beyond, and bombs still fall as brutal wars rage on. Was King naïve? Was his full vision simply unobtainable — do free markets require poor people to function, and will war always assert itself as a defining human habit? Is King’s Nobel vision relevant five decades later? Absolutely, insist some who study King’s life and philosophy. They say his
Life & Science A-9
Please see EBOLA, Page A-4
CDC plans to ramp up training In response to new case, agency will offer more specifics on protection By Pam Belluck The New York Times
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the agency would take new steps to help hospital workers protect themselves, providing more training and urging hospitals to run drills to practice dealing with potential Ebola patients. In response to the news that a health care worker in Dallas had contracted Ebola, a spokeswoman said the agency would also issue more specific instructions and explanations for putting on and removing protective equipment and would urge nurses and doctors to enlist a co-worker or “buddy” to watch them do so. “Certainly this event has given us all a wake-up call that we really need to make sure that front-line health care workers are fully prepared to handle a patient with Ebola,” said
Please see CDC, Page A-4
Today Mostly sunny. High 61, low 35. PAGE A-12
Please see MLK, Page A-4
Education A-8
DALLAS — A nurse here became the first person to contract Ebola within the United States, prompting local, state and federal officials who had settled into a choreographed response to scramble Sunday to solve the mystery of how she became infected despite wearing protective gear and to monitor additional places and people possibly at risk. The news further stoked fears of health care workers across the country, many of whom have grown increasingly anxious about having to handle Ebola cases. The confirmation Sunday of the second Ebola case in Dallas — four days after the death Wednesday of the first patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, a Liberian national who arrived in this country in September — opened a new and more frightening chapter in the unfolding public health drama. While the new Ebola patient was not publicly identified, officials said that she was a nurse who had helped treat Duncan at a hospital here and that she may have violated safety pro-
U.S. civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holds his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 1964. King was honored for promoting the principle of nonviolence in the civil rights movement. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
El Nuevo A-7
Opinions A-11
Sports B-1
Time Out B-11
BREAKING NEWS AT WWW.SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM
Obituaries Peggy Ann Armijo Ruiz, Oct. 8 PAGE A-10
Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 286 Publication No. 596-440