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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2014 THE NEW MEXICAN
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LOCAL NEWS
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St. Michael’s High School outlasts SFIS in district opener.
SFPS attorney: Private contract doesn’t violate law Zamora releases opinion as district awaits AG’s ruling on program that aims to recruit dropouts By Robert Nott The New Mexican
Santa Fe Public Schools released its own legal opinion Tuesday, stating that its contract with a private, for-
In brief
Folk Art Market director resigns
Shawn McQueen-Ruggeiro, executive director of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, will be leaving the organization after the 2014 market in July. Her family will be moving back to California because of her husband’s work, a spokeswoman said. The organization won’t begin the search for her replaceShawn ment until the McQueenfall. “It was a Ruggeiro very hard decision,” said Clare Hertel. “There are nothing but good feelings all around.” A California native, McQueenRuggeiro started the job a little more than a year ago, after eight years working for Project Concern International, a health and development organization headquartered in San Diego. She has more than 20 years of fundraising and communications experience in the nonprofit arena. Nearly 21,000 visitors attended the 10th market in July 2013 and $2.7 million in goods were sold.
City panel OKs Plaza street plan The city of Santa Fe’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday endorsed a proposal by Mayor Javier Gonzales to close all the streets around the Plaza to vehicular traffic. The mayor’s proposal, which was met with criticism from some downtown business operators when he unveiled it last week, calls for closing Lincoln Avenue, San Francisco Street and Old Santa Fe Trail adjoining the Plaza park. The section of Palace Avenue in front of the Palace of the Governors has been closed for several years and would remain closed under the mayor’s proposal. The mayor has described the idea as part of a larger plan that Gonzales hopes will spur economic activity and bring more people downtown. The New Mexican
profit organization to run a program designed to help dropouts earn high school diplomas is legal under the state constitution. With support from state and local teachers unions, Democratic state Reps. Lucky Varela and Jim Trujillo, both of Santa Fe, recently asked the state Attorney General’s Office to review the contract between the Florida-based Atlantic Education Partners and the Santa Fe school district
to determine whether it violates state law by allowing a private entity to run a public school. A legal brief by the school district’s lawyer, Geno Zamora, says the contract — which has been approved but not signed, and thus has not been made public — makes it clear that the district, not Atlantic Education Partners, “owns, operates, supervises, and has control over the school.” The terms also will leave the district
in charge of administering the program’s funding. “No one on the board or on my administrative team believes in the privatization of public schools,” Superintendent Joel Boyd said Tuesday. “That is not an accurate depiction of this program.” The school board will discuss the plan and hear Zamora’s presentation on the legality of the proposal during a meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
Big chance for small startups
New shared biotech lab is sparking medical innovations
By Susan Montoya Bryan The Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE — A failure by New Mexico to address water supply challenges and climate change would have far-ranging effects on everything from national security to energy independence and the ability to compete in the global economy, a U.S. senator said Tuesday. The warning was issued by Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich to state officials, business leaders, tribal officials and mayors as they gathered for a two-day town hall on the severe drought gripping New Mexico. Heinrich told participants there’s no single solution to the water problems, and steps must be taken to pre-
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Jay McCleskey Gov. Susana Martinez’s adviser was paid $41,250 from October to April, plus over $33K from SusanaPAC.
Gov.’s adviser top-paid in race Among Dems, Webber’s consultant makes most By Steve Terrell The New Mexican
Dr. Sergey Dryga tests a BioDirection device for detecting brain trauma at the Santa Fe Business Incubator, which opened a new BioScience Laboratory on Tuesday. BioDirection is developing mobile technology to detect brain trauma quickly. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Staci Matlock
The New Mexican
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ots of people walk away after a blow to the head with little sign that something serious has happened to their brain. But a nanowire gadget under development at the new BioScience Laboratory in Santa Fe could soon help medical professionals diagnose traumatic brain injuries in less than three minutes with a small blood sample. The mobile diagnostic device developed by the company BioDirection is one of the first startup ventures renting space and sharing lab equipment in a wing of the Santa Fe Business Incubator at 3900 Pueblo del Sol. “This is a very big opportunity for our incubator and for bioscience and biotech businesses,” said business incubator CEO Marie Longserre. “It is the first core shared laboratory available to entrepreneurs in Northern New Mexico. It will reduce their startup costs and let them focus their valuable resources on developing and marketing their companies.” The BioScience Laboratory has a room with state-ofthe-art laboratory equipment such as centrifuges, a tissue hood, an autoclave, a super cold freezer and a machine that amplifies DNA. Each piece of high-tech equipment costs thousands of dollars. That’s not money a startup company like BioDirection can afford and still develop
The BioDirection prototype chip for a mobile device to detect brain trauma.
a product, said Brian McGlynn, the Arizona-based company’s president and CEO. The final piece of lab equipment bought for the BioScience Laboratory is an acoustic cytometer developed in part at the Santa Fe Business Incubator by former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist John Elling. Cytometers are used to count and study cells such as those in blood samples taken at hospitals.
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State, local leaders gather to tackle water woes Heinrich warns climate change will hit state with far-reaching effects
Wednesday at the Educational Services Center on Alta Vista Street. Boyd said the Engage Santa Fe program, which initially hopes to recruit at least 75 students, will use contract teachers to help dropouts earn needed credits in a nontraditional classroom setting. Boyd said the district will provide the locale — an administrative building or vacant school property, such as
vent conditions from getting worse. “There’s no doubt we’re seeing bigger fires. We’re seeing drier summers. We’re seeing more severe floods when it does finally rain and less snowpack in the winter,” Heinrich said. “The reality is things are only going to get more challenging.” Heinrich and other experts at the meeting suggested the ability of an arid state such as New Mexico to attract businesses and jobs, maintain its military bases and national labs, and continue with energy production depends on sustainable, clean sources of water. Heather Balas, president of New Mexico First, which organized the meeting, said 31 of the state’s 33 counties were represented, and those in attendance ranged from lawmakers and farmers to students and researchers. Discussions focused on aging water infrastructure, conservation and reuse, water rights and planning
Jay McCleskey, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez’s political adviser, is probably the best known political consultant in the state. So it might not be surprising that, according to the most recent batch of campaign finance reports filed this week, he’s also the best paid consultant in New Mexico’s gubernatorial race this year. Professional services fees the Martinez campaign paid to Albuquerquebased McCleskey Media Strategies between early October and early this month totaled $41,250. That figure doesn’t include the $41,000 Martinez spent through McCleskey’s company to buy television time for campaign ads or the $49,000 paid through McCleskey’s firm for a film shoot and media production for campaign spots. McCleskey’s company received another $33,436 from SusanaPAC, the governor’s political action committee, that will be used mainly to fund legislative candidates favored by Martinez and GOP candidates in down-ballot statewide races. SusanaPAC raised more than $208,000 and spent about $268,500 between early October and early April. The PAC, which McCleskey runs, still has more than $68,000 in the bank.
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Balderas is highest fundraiser in AG’s race By Barry Massey
The Associated Press
to set aside stereotypes and politics if they are to reach any consensus.
Democrat Hector Balderas has opened up a large fundraising advantage in the race for attorney general, according to the latest campaignfinance disclosures. Balderas collected about $241,099 in cash contributions and in-kind donations of goods and Hector Balderas services during the past six months. Republican Susan Riedel raised $34,263. Balderas, a two-term state auditor, reported cash on hand of $632,031 as of last week. Riedel had a balance of $21,649 in her campaign account. Riedel is a former prosecutor and judge from Las Cruces, and she was chief deputy district attorney in
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New Mexico Environment Secretary Ryan Flynn, center, discusses water quality issues around the state as Laguna Pueblo Gov. Richard Luarkie and Luara McCarthy of The Nature Conservancy listen during a town hall meeting Tuesday in Albuquerque. SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
for crisis situations. The goal was to come up with 16 recommendations by the end of Wednesday. Balas said participants would need
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