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An international display of unity Massive crowds, world leaders join Paris march after attacks; thousands gather in other cities
Homework help can facilitate bonding Educators say working together contributes to better understanding of each other. EDUCATION, A-6
By Anthony Faiola and Griff Witte The Washington Post
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Here’s an opportunity to improve justice in New Mexico
From left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, EU President Donald Tusk and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas march arm in arm during Sunday’s rally in Paris. PHILIPPE WOJAZER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Santa Fe shows solidarity for France
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yewitnesses are stars of the courtroom. All at once, they can be sincere, honest, utterly believable and dead wrong. “It’s a human system, and humans make errors,” says Gordon Rahn, director of the Innocence and Justice Program at The University of New Mexico. His innocence project now is focusing on three men convicted of separate murders Milan in New Mexico Simonich during the 1980s. Ringside Seat Rahn says DNA evidence, still to be obtained and analyzed, may cast doubt on the guilty verdicts returned against some or all of the three. Eyewitness accounts played a part in each of their convictions. Advances in DNA technology could expose weaknesses or errors in 30-year-old testimony of the witnesses, Rahn says. He will not identify any of the of defendants at this stage, saying the innocence project wants to build each of the cases before discussing them publicly. Rahn, though, is outspoken in his support of a bill that state Sen. Cisco McSorley is sponsoring to enhance the accuracy of eyewitness identifications.
By Robert Nott The New Mexican
About 150 people gathered Sunday afternoon on the Santa Fe Plaza to show support for democracy and free speech, while also honoring 17 people killed in France last week during a three-day terrorism spree that began with an attack on the Paris office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. While Sunday’s event was mostly a silent affair, some of the participants broke into an impromptu rendition of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem. Many carried signs of solidarity that read “I am Charlie,” “Je Suis Charlie” and “Yo Soy Charlie,” representing the varied cultural background of the demonstrators. A few carried the French flag. Perry Bendicksen, honorary French counsel for New Mexico, gave what amounted to the only public speech at the event when he thanked the crowd for attending and said, “We’ll show together that love is stronger than hate and friendship is stronger than senseless violence.” Sunday’s gathering, organized by local French-speaking organizations Santa Fe Accueil and Santa Fe French Language Meetup Group, was one of many that took place around the world. In Paris, more than a million people demonstrated. Berlin, London, Rome, Boston and New York were
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Unemployment insurance changes bring some hikes Some local businesses surprised by increase under new rate formula By Bruce Krasnow The New Mexican
Silas Peterson doesn’t own a construction company or a hotel where seasonal workers might come and go. He owns an employment agency with four full-time staffers and some 200 temps who get placed in jobs based on demand. In the past three years, Peterson’s The Hire Firm has processed $2.5 million in payroll and has paid out $28,000 in unemployment claims. Yet, his 2015 unemployment insurance premium paid to the state of New Mexico is increasing to $30,000 a year, up from $8,000. “We’ll be paying four times what the rate has been in the past. That’s a big impact. We’re really not a very large business,” Peterson said. His rate of 4.92 percent of taxable wages is close to the state maximum. “It seems we’re being asked to
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PARIS n extraordinary chain of 1.5 million people, led by a group of world leaders linking arms, marched down the Boulevard Voltaire in a show of force Sunday meant to illustrate the power of unity and freedom of expression over the sting of fanaticism and terror. After a barrage of violence that traumatized the nation and left 17 victims dead, the boulevards of Paris produced a striking counter image: French President François Hollande arm in arm with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, flanked by the likes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and a host of European and African leaders. An estimated 4 million people nationwide — more than a third of them in Paris — mobilized, with sister demonstrations of support erupting from Ramallah to Sydney to Washington. “Paris is the capital of the world today,” Hollande said. Yet the show of solidarity could not entirely dispel the unease that has followed the attacks. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., who was in Paris for a security conference, said on CBS’ Face the Nation that the prospect of “lone wolf” terrorist attacks in the United States “frankly keeps me up at night.” Israeli leaders urged European Jews to move to Israel to escape antiSemitism. But out on the streets of Paris, Christians, atheists, Jews and Muslims stood side by side, sending up shouts of “Charlie, Charlie, Freedom of speech!” — a reference to Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper whose offices were attacked by Islamist extremists at the start of three days of terror last week. Crushing throngs filled the streets with the red, white and blue of the French flag as tearful family members of the fallen walked in a place of honor on a symbolic 2.1-mile path from the Place de la République to the Place de la Nation. A group of Muslims threw white roses from the sidewalks. The monumental robes of a giant Marianne, the symbol of
pay the highest rate even though we have a history. A four-fold increase is just crazy, why can’t they do it gradually?” he said. The unemployment insurance system is funded by premiums paid by businesses — government, private and nonprofit. The money is deposited into an unemployment insurance fund and used to sustain workers who have lost jobs through no fault of their own, paying a portion of their salary for up to 26 weeks or until they find another job. The old formula relied on contribution schedules, which reflected the overall health of the trust fund, said Joy Forehand, deputy director of the Department of Workforce Solutions. Though employers were assigned a rate based on their experience and payroll size, “inadequate trust fund balances were designed to trigger higher contribution schedules, which would have raised contribution rates for all employers. Due to the Great Recession the
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Blair and Rocio Foster of Rio Rancho were among about 150 people who showed up Sunday on the Plaza for a demonstration of solidarity following last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. ROBERT NOTT/THE NEW MEXICAN
among other major cities to host similar displays of support. In Santa Fe, the participants ranged from 12-year-old Blair Foster of Rio Rancho, who said, “It’s not right that journalists are killed because other people didn’t like what they did,” to Cameroon-born artist and cartoonist Issa Nyaphaga, who said he worked in Paris for about 10 years and knew many of the Charlie Hebdo cartoon-
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Friends of the Wheelwright lecture Robert Gallegos discusses how to differentiate between fake and authentic Native jewelry and pottery, refreshments 2 p.m., talk 2:30 p.m., Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian library, 704 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, 982-4636, $10.
Obituaries Emilio “E J” Cantou, Jan. 12 Lawrence Lee Lovato Sr., Jan. 7 Consuelo McCrossen, Dec. 23 PAGE A-8
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ists who were killed Wednesday. There were varied emotions and perspectives among the group. Nyaphaga said Sunday’s demonstrations made “global noise” against terrorists who want to “hit the spirit of people and divide us.” He is working on a cartoon reflecting his feelings on the tragedy.
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New rules to restrict hospital fee collections Law meant to protect low-income patients against price gouging By Robert Pear The New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has adopted sweeping new rules to discourage nonprofit hospitals from using aggressive tactics to collect payments from low-income patients. Under the rules, nonprofit hospitals must now offer discounts, free care or other financial assistance to certain needy patients. Additionally, hospitals must try to determine whether a patient is eligible for assistance before they refer a case to a debt collector, send negative information to a credit agency, place a lien on a patient’s home, file a lawsuit or seek a court order to seize a patient’s earnings. The rules, issued at the end of last year by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Ser-
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vice, lay out detailed requirements for nonprofit hospitals that have or want tax-exempt status, about 60 percent of hospitals nationwide. Health care lawyers said the rules could set an industry standard, influencing the practices of forprofit hospitals, because another federal agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, had endorsed them. The bureau has broad authority to supervise credit reporting companies and debt collectors. For-profit hospitals, like other businesses, are typically owned by investors and pay dividends and taxes. By contrast, if a nonprofit hospital earns a surplus, it is normally reinvested in the organization, not distributed to shareholders. Nonprofit hospitals may qualify for tax exemptions if they can show that they are organized and operated for charitable purposes and provide “community benefits.” “With these rules, it should be easier for low- and moderate-
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Two sections, 20 pages 166th year, No. 12 Publication No. 596-440