Mora County officials: Leaders or A glimpse into the historic home followers on fracking? Opinions, B-3 of poet Witter Bynner Home, inside Dece mbe r 2013
Sunday, December 1, 2013 S
Locally owned and independent
www.santafenewmexican.com Renowned po et’s home • Ap praisals
Mayor’s race now 4
Rob Robertson rrolls on 21-16 win over Taos sends Cardinals to Class AAA championship game. SPORTS, D-1
$1.25
Abeyta drops out of race, throws support to Gonzales. LOCAL, C-1
Commitment to help 10 Who Made a Difference honoree builds homes for Habitat. LOCAL, C-1
CAMERA OF THE
MOMENT Tiny, social-media friendly devices are delivering action-packed selfies, with outdoor enthusiasts leading the way
A highway sign shows an Amber Alert in Nebraska in 2002. The Amber Alert system began in Texas following the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. By 2005, the system was adopted in all 50 states. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Buzz fatigue may threaten impact of Amber Alert N.M. incidents are raising questions about overuse, false alarms and system’s role in keeping kids safe
A GoPro captures the collision of Ben Bowen, 21, and his brother, Seiya Bowen, 23, at Ski Santa Fe.
By Chris Quintana
SEIYA BOWEN/FOR THE NEW MEXICAN
The New Mexican
How easy is it? Watch four skiers hit the slopes at Ski Santa Fe with their GoPro cameras ready, and watch other footage at www.santafenewmexican.com
TOP: Adam Maestas, 28, and his wife, Samantha, 24, snowboard at Ski Santa Fe on Thursday, GoPro camera ready.
BELOW: The camera mounted to a snowboard captures Samantha Maestas and her husband in action.
PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Law-enforcement agencies in New Mexico, worried about the safety of missing 10-year-old James Agnew, issued an Amber Alert for him Oct. 29. They believed he had been abducted by his father’s fiancée. TV and radio broadcasts blared information all day about the boy and his alleged captor, Rebecca Aguirre, who was engaged to the boy’s father, Steven Ohala. Cellphones buzzed and wailed, alerting anyone with a cell signal in Northern New Mexico about the missing child. The Amber Alert was canceled when the boy was found hours later with Aguirre at a home near N.M. 14 and N.M. 599. He was uninjured. But whether the boy was ever in danger — as a text alert that day suggested — is unclear. The alert, one of two in New Mexico in October, raises questions about whether enough thought is being put into the alerts before they are issued and whether the alerts are actually effective in helping officials recover missing children. New Mexico State Police Lt. Emmanuel Gutierrez defended the Amber Alert, saying, “We stop the world in the state of New Mexico” in cases involving crimes against children. The Amber Alert system began in Texas following the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Spurred by federal legislation, the alert
Please see AMBER, Page A-4 By Anne Constable The New Mexican
D
ocumenting an epic powder run. Reliving the thrill of leaping off a cliff into the water. Capturing the view of Northern New Mexico’s sweepers and twisties hunched over the handlebars of a Harley. These are just a few of the reasons Santa Feans, like outdoor enthusiasts everywhere, are mounting little video cameras to their bikes, ski poles, helmets and chest harnesses. And that’s why Nick Woodman, an avid surfer who founded
Researcher: Magic bullet for education is attendance rate Program sees dramatic shifts in achievement at struggling schools
Please see CAMERA, Page A-4
By Claudia Rowe The Seattle Times
Obituaries
‘Right to a habitat’ After leaving 30-yearold campsite, man searches for his home. NEIGHBORS, C-8
Index
Calendar A-2
Josie M. Gonzales, 84, Santa Fe, Nov. 25 Fidel Lee Gutierrez Thomas Michael Ortega, 57, Nov. 23 Randolph Pacheco, 67,
Classifieds E-7
Pasapick
Santa Fe, Nov. 21 William Albert Reid, 77, Nov. 12
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Richard R. Sisneros Sr., 84, Santa Fe, Nov. 23
Today
Aurora Leyva Vigil, 95, Santa Fe, Nov. 21
Partly cloudy. High 47, low 28.
PAGE C-2
PAGE C-7
Lotteries A-2
Cultural Approaches to HIV/AIDS
Neighbors C-8
Opinion B-1
Panel discussion, Q&A, and candlelight ceremony commemorating World AIDS Day, 2-6 p.m., in conjunction with the exhibit Let’s Talk About This: Folk Artists Respond to HIV/AIDS, Museum of International Folk Art, 706 Camino Lejo, Museum Hill, by museum admission.
SEATTLE — The finding was hard to believe, but year after year and in state after state, the numbers kept bearing it out: Sixth-graders who missed 20 days of class had, at best, a 20 percent chance of graduating from high school on time. This was a bombshell for researcher Bob Balfanz, who’d spent most of his career trying to understand the factors driving 1 million American students to drop out each year. He’d paced school hallways and sat through hundreds of hours of classroom instruction. But in 2007, after tracking 13,000 middle-schoolers for eight years in Philadelphia, Balfanz finally isolated a red flag common to all who, years later, failed to graduate on time: a history of poor attendance. “You’d think, ‘Hey it’s only sixth grade — you can recover and grow out of this,’ ” he said.
Please see EDUCATION, Page A-7
Police notes C-3
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Cynthia Miller, cmiller@sfnewmexican.com
Real Estate E-1
Sports D-1
Time Out/puzzles E-12
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Six sections, 76 pages 164th year, No. 335 Publication No. 596-440