Meter made: The poetry issue Pasatiempo, inside
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Friday, January 10, 2014
The New Mexic
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January 10, 2014
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the poetry issu
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Council split over hospital Lawmaker fights for Chief evaluation King criticizes state’s response to boy’s death
Caretaker shot by police dies
Obama strives to get step ahead of Snowden
The attorney general says caseloads at the Children, Youth and Families Department are unmanageable.
Robert Dominguez never recovered from injuries sustained in March.
The president is expected to announce new intelligence-gathering guidelines that will withstand future disclosures.
LOCAL NEWS, B-1
LOCAL NEWS, B-1
PAgE A-5
Taos representative proposes funds to upgrade tracks, protect Amtrak route
Bushee wants employees and consumers on assessment panel
By Patrick Malone The New Mexican
Health care in Santa Fe is due for a checkup, according to some some city councilors. But the focus of the assessment and who should conduct it are dividing policymakers. A draft resolution offered by Councilor Patti Bushee seeks to establish a study group to examine Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center’s operation. It includes seats at the table for hospital union employees as well as consumers. However, a competing plan submitted this week by Councilor Peter Ives plucks organized labor and patients from the study group. Instead of emphasizing the hospital’s performance and fiscal health, Ives’ resolution focuses on the shifting landscape of federal and state health care policies and funding, and how local health care providers should respond to them and care for indigent patients. “The first resolution was very much focused on Christus St. Vincent — not that Christus St. Vincent isn’t worthy of focus, but my own sense is if you’re going to talk about care and affordability,
A northbound Amtrak Southwest Chief stops at the Lamy station in March 2012. NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTOS
Please see HOSPITAL, Page A-4
By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican
A
Taos lawmaker plans to introduce legislation that would fund rail improvements intended to keep Amtrak’s Southwest Chief running on its historic route through Northern New Mexico. The passenger train, which runs between Chicago and Los Angeles, might be rerouted through Southern New Mexico if Amtrak doesn’t reach an agreement by January 2016 for upgrading and maintaining portions of the tracks in New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado. Rep. Roberto Gonzales, D-Taos, who chairs the state House Transportation Infrastructure Revenue SubcomRoberto mittee, said he will prefile Gonzales a bill that would allocate $4 million from the state’s general fund for track upgrades in New Mexico. A second bill to be introduced during the 30-day session, which starts Jan. 21, would ask for $4 million from the capital outlay fund, which usually funds special state projects, Gonzales said. Ford Robbins, who leads the Southwest Chief Coalition, an advocacy group that also has chapters in Colorado and Kansas, said group members met with staff from Gov. Susana Martinez’s office recently to seek her support for funding the track improvements and maintenance. Martinez hasn’t been enthusiastic about a proposal presented to legislators last year that
Martinez still backs Christie amid traffic jam scandal Ford Robbins, right, and concerned citizens from Albuquerque and Santa Fe meet in the REI Community Room in March 2012 to discuss federal funding shortages for the Southwest Chief. Group members met recently with staff from Gov. Susana Martinez’s office to seek her support for funding track improvements and maintenance.
calls for New Mexico to contribute $4 million a year for 10 years to help fund work on tracks long used by the Southwest Chief. At a Monday news conference, Martinez said there is no money for the railroad in her proposed budget. In a statement issued to The New Mexican in November, the governor had said, “We’re happy to discuss various proposals around this important issue, but Amtrak was created
and funded by Congress since its inception, and thus, any agreement should not stick the taxpayers of New Mexico with a large tab. According to the New Mexico [Department of Transportation], the state has never provided state funds for Amtrak service. We’re willing to work together on this issue, but any agreement needs to take that reality into account.”
Please see CHIEF, Page A-4
Snowpack shrinks as dry conditions return By Staci Matlock
The New Mexican
New Mexico’s snow season started off with a roar before Thanksgiving and dwindled to a faint meow in early January. The last significant snowfall in most of the state, including the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Santa Fe, occurred Dec. 22. And no major storm is headed this way for at least another week, if not longer, said meteorologist Kerry Jones with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. “We don’t see any good signs of anything significant,” Jones said Thursday. “Even more disheartening is that on some of the ski area webcams at 10,000 feet, you see bare ground.”
Index
Calendar A-2
The snowpack left behind by a few good storms in late November and December is already contracting. “This is not to say we won’t have winter storms from here out,” the forecaster said, “but we really need storms every 10 days or so to maintain and build on the snowpack.” Mountain snowpacks, vital for feeding New Mexico rivers in the spring, were ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent of the median average on the latest snowpack map, released Jan. 1 by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The map is based on snowpack and precipitation data gathered at snow telemetry sites. The median is the middle number of all the snowpack data gathered from 1981 to 2010.
Classifieds C-2
Comics C-8
PRECIPITATION FOR SANTA FE AREA
Governor says she is confident fellow Republican will ‘handle this matter appropriately’ By Steve Terrell The New Mexican
Gov. Susana Martinez expressed confidence Thursday in a beleaguered Republican governor with whom she has been strongly associated in recent months: Chris Christie of New Jersey. Christie, at a nationally televised news conference Thursday, announced he had fired one of his top aides who, emails indicate, was behind a move to purposely cause a massive traffic jam to punish a mayor who refused to Susana support Christie’s re-election. “Gov. Martinez is not familiar Martinez with the details of the situation, but understands Gov. Christie took strong action today, which is what she would expect from him,”
Please see COUNTERPART, Page A-4
Numbers are based on three weather data collection sites.
INSIDE u Christie jettisons key adviser. PAgE A-4
December totals: Less than 0.25 inch December average: 0.77 inch January totals to date: 0 inches
Obituaries
January average: 0.61 inch
Ramon Garcia, 81, Santa Fe
The mountain snowpacks feed 14 key water basins in the state. “Every basin was below the median as of Thursday,” Jones said. “About half of them are significantly below.”
Charissa H. Kerrisk-Lopez, 34, Carlsbad, Dec. 31
Please see DRY, Page A-4
Lotteries A-2
Opinions A-7
NATIONAL DROUGHT MITAGATION CENTER
DROUgHT LEVEL Abnormally dry Moderate drought
Police notes B-2
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
Sports C-5
Severe drought Extreme drought Exceptional drought
Time Out A-8
Today
Charlotte Saiz Ortiz, 90, Santa Fe, Jan. 6
Partly sunny. High 42, low 23.
Joseph Erle Osborne III, 89, Jan. 4
PAgE A-6
PAgE B-2
Generation Next C-1
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Three sections, 24 pages Pasatiempo, 64 pages 165th year, No. 10 Publication No. 596-440