New Harry Potter stamps rile collectors, but expected to be big hit Page B-6
Locally owned and independent
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
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Group plans workshop for wage-theft victims
Gas prices fall Increased supplies and a drop in seasonal demand have helped lower fuel prices. PAge A-5
Don’t text and drive
By Uriel J. Garcia
The governor urges teens to pledge that they’ll behave behind the wheel and encourage friends to do same. PAge A-5
Rayos Burciaga, a Mexican immigrant who has lived in Santa Fe for the past 13 years, worked at a local Motel 6 as a room-service attendant for three years. But in the last year and a half that she worked there, she says, her employer would only pay her for a predetermined amount of time to clean each room. When she first started working for the motel, Burciaga, who is living in the coun-
The New Mexican
SFCC president on leave The college’s governing board votes 3-2 to put Ana “Cha” Guzmán on paid administrative leave. PAge A-5
try illegally, would clock in as soon as she started working and would get paid all the hours recorded on her time card, she said. But a new manager later changed work policies after Burciaga had worked there for just over a year. As part of the changes, employees were allotted 20 minutes to clean each room they were assigned. If an employee had 10 rooms to clean in a shift, that meant the employee was to complete the work in a little more
Please see WAge, Page A-12
From left, Alma Castro of Somos Un Pueblo Unido works with Rayos Burciaga, who filed a complaint about her former employer on Monday. Burciaga says she worked for a motel for three years and realized more than a year into her employment that she was not receiving all of her wages. JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
Frenzy caught on camera
Video of traffic stop raises questions about use of force, high-speed chases
Survey: Most who opt out of vaccines are Anglo Exemptions have risen in New Mexico’s schools By Bruce Krasnow The New Mexican
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College-educated, Anglo parents in New Mexico are the most likely to seek exemptions from required public health vaccines for their schoolage children, according to a survey released Monday by the state Department of Health. The first-ever survey by state health officials comes as more parents are seeking to forgo childhood vaccines — but still want to enroll their children in school, where contagion can spread quickly. In all, the number of exemptions has climbed in New Mexico to 3,372 in
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Please see VACCINeS, Page A-4
INSIDe u Vaccine exemptions at Santa Fe schools. PAge A-4
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Clockwise from top left: 1) Officer Tony DeTavis talks with Oriana Ferrell of Memphis, Tenn., after pulling her over again after she initally fled from him during a traffic stop. 2) Ferrell’s 14-year-old son gets out of the vehicle and approaches DeTavis as his mother tries to avoid restraint and get back in the van. 3) Other officers have arrived at the scene and shots are fired as Ferrell pulls away in the van. 4) Ferrell and her children pile out of the van and get on the ground after a high-speed chase through Taos that ended at the Hotel Don Fernando de Taos. STILLS FROM COURTESY VIDEO
By Chris Quintana and Andrew Oxford
The New Mexican and The Taos News
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or several minutes, a state police officer tried to explain the options to a woman in a Kia minivan loaded with children. She could sign a speeding violation, he said, or she could go to the Taos County Magistrate Court. He even gave her a break, saying he wouldn’t cite her for driving on an expired license. But as he stepped away from her vehicle, she drove off, launching a frenzied sequence of events that have put the New Mexico State Police in the
national spotlight over when it is proper for police to engage in high-speed chases and when officers should use deadly force. Edited footage of the dashboard-camera video taken from inside the state police officer’s car has gone viral. It shows the officer scuffling with the woman’s 14-year-old son and breaking a van window with his baton as he tries to gain entry. Another officer fires several times at the van’s wheels as it speeds away, leading to a second chase through Taos reaching up to 100 miles per hour. Unedited video of the Oct. 28 incident in Taos reveals a more nuanced situation, in which the
officer appears to show extreme patience and restraint with the recalcitrant driver, even after she speeds away the first time and her son charges him. But when two other officers show up, pandemonium breaks loose. The incident is one of four situations in the past month in which state police officers have used deadly force, including a shooting in Santa Fe on Nov. 7 that left a 39-year-old woman dead. State police are investigating at least two of the incidents, the one in Santa Fe and the one in Taos.
Please see FReNZY, Page A-4
Albuquerque voters get say on late-term abortion By Jeri Clausing
The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — Three years ago, anti-abortion “missionaries” Tara and Bud Shaver left Operation Rescue’s base in Kansas with one target: a clinic that abortion opponents say has turned this Southwestern city into the late-term abortion capital of America. But after a loss at the medical board and making little headway in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, their group, Project Defending Life, gathered enough signatures to place a
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late-term abortion ban on the municipal ballot. It is believed to be the first such referendum of its kind in the country and is being watched as a possible new front for activism in the abortion wars that have typically been waged at the federal and state levels. On Tuesday, Albuquerque voters will decide whether to ban abortions after 20 weeks following an emotional and graphic campaign. There were protests by “abortion holocaust” survivors at the city’s holocaust museum and a truck with
Classifieds A-7
Comics B-12
Lotteries A-2
pictures of aborted fetuses with torn off limbs that was used as a rolling billboard outside early polling places. Hundreds of thousands of dollars on television and radio ads have also brought out more early voters as the recent mayoral elections. One man yelling “abortion” was dragged away by a group of veterans after interrupting Gov. Susana Martinez’s speech Monday at the city’s Veterans War Memorial. The outcome is anyone’s guess in a state where abortion has traditionally been a non-issue.
Opinions A-10
Police notes A-8
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
NARAL Pro-Choice America President America Ilyse Hogue said it is the first municipal ballot on abortion that she knows of, and her group is watching the election closely. “I am concerned every single time these extreme ideologues seek to roll back what we believe is settled law in terms of a woman being able to make decisions about her health,” Hogue said. National organizations on both sides have descended on Albuquerque.
Sports B-1
Today Partly sunny. High 57, low 33. PAge B-6
Obituaries Leon Aron Mellow, 72, Nov. 14 Thomas Tucker, 57, Santa Fe, Oct. 26
Johnny Dominic (Nick) Ortega, 47, Pecos, Nov. 14 Thomas D. Rees, 86, Santa Fe, Nov. 14 PAge A-8
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
‘Access to the Danger Zone’ Screening of Peter Casaer’s documentary on Doctors Without Borders, narrated by Daniel Day-Lewis, 6:30 p.m., followed by a Q&A with New Mexico residents who worked with the organization, Jean Cocteau Cinema, 418 Montezuma Ave., no charge, doctorswithoutborders.org/ aboutus.
Please see ABORTION, Page A-4
Time Out B-11
Local Business A-9
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 323 Publication No. 596-440