Lobos face familiar foes as Aggies prepare to visit The Pit Sports, B-1
Locally ally owned and independent
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢
FDA: Soap might pose risks
NSA phone data collection likely illegal, judge rules By Ellen Nakashima and Ann E. Marimow The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Monday that the National Security Agency’s daily collection of virtually all Americans’ phone records is almost certainly unconstitutional.
“
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon found that a lawsuit by Larry Klayman, a conservative legal activist, has “demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success” on the basis of Fourth Amendment privacy protections against unreasonable searches. Leon granted the request for an injunction that blocks the collection
of phone data for Klayman and a coplaintiff and orders the government to destroy any of their records that have been gathered. But the judge stayed action on his ruling pending a government appeal, in recognition of the “significant national security interests
Please see NSA, Page A-4
A 40-year study casts doubt on the ability of antibacterial products to sanitize and reveals that they may be unsafe. PAGE A-3
Window wonderland
Vandals hit high school
Local storefront decorations celebrate the spirit of the holidays.
Pojoaque Valley High reports an estimated $25,000 in damages to campus. LOCAL NEWS, A-5
LOCAL BUSINESS, A-9
It’s a very complicated model. If it is that complicated, is it the good communication tool that the governor wanted? I don’t think so.” Bill Wadt, School Report Card Task Force member
A-F SCHOOL EVALUATION SYSTEM
Model confounds analytic task force
MUNICIPAL ELECTION
Ethics board dismisses complaint against Bushee By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
In the latest evidence of vagueness in the ordinance governing Santa Fe’s public financing system for municipal election campaigns, the city Ethics and Campaign Review Board on Monday dismissed a complaint against Patti Bushee, the longtime city councilor now running for mayor. Board members said the code is silent regarding a situation in which a candidate such as Bushee spends personal funds Patti Bushee to start a privately funded campaign before switching gears and seeking public financing. “I do agree that there appears to be a hole in the code,” board member Kristina Martinez said before joining in a 4-0 vote to dismiss the complaint. “But I do have big concerns with sort of allowing someone to get by on a technicality, for lack of a better term. What went on in this case, for me, doesn’t pass the smell test.” Santa Fe’s campaign finance law, which is being tested for the first time in a mayor’s race, has generated other points of contention in recent months. While the board has a responsibility to enforce the law, the ordinance doesn’t address the period of time before a candidate decides to run using public financing, said Ruth Kovnat, another board member. “That may be a hole that may have to be filled so that we can enforce the public finance code to achieve its purpose of keeping lots of money out of campaigns and level the playing field,” she said. The board based its decision on “legal, narrow issues,” Vice Chairman Roderick Thompson said. “If the law doesn’t say it, it can’t be violated,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that, as Ms. Martinez mentioned, that we don’t have concerns from a
Group finds results don’t clearly convey student proficiency or schools’ worth
Please see ETHICS, Page A-4 ABOVE: The School Report Card Task Force, composed of retired Los Alamos National Laboratory scientists, and the Los Alamos school superintendent and assistant superintendent met for a presentation on New Mexico’s A-F grading system Monday at the Bank of Los Alamos in Los Alamos. TOP: Retired LANL scientist Bill Wadt, right, says he’s edited many scientific reports in his career, but he cannot not fully explain the School Report Card after reading the report. PHOTOS BY CLYDE MUELLER/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Robert Nott The New Mexican
OS ALAMOS —When Gov. Susana Martinez introduced her A-F system for grading New Mexico schools in early 2012, critics said it would take a rocket scientist to figure out the complex formula. However, even a committee of five Los Alamos physicists, statisticians and math experts had difficulty after running the num-
L
bers and crunching figures in an effort to understand why one of their school district’s seven schools received a grade of C. On Monday, several of those men said the grading system — which weighs student performance, student growth and the growth of both the highest-performing and lowestperforming quadrants of student populations — contains helpful data but doesn’t clearly convey either the proficiency of students or the true measure of a school’s worth.
“It’s a very complicated model,” said Bill Wadt, a member of a School Report Card Task Force charged by Los Alamos Public Schools with sorting out the data. “If it is that complicated, is it the good communication tool that the governor wanted? I don’t think so.” Wadt, a theoretical chemist and chair of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation, said the average person probably couldn’t
Please see EVALUATION, Page A-4
Hospital to appeal $2.25M award in negligence case
Obituaries Lupita Maestas Archuletta, 87, Dec. 12 Dolores H. Garcia, 62, Dec. 9 Richard Kenneth Money Jr., 66, Dec. 2
Today
Adrienne J. Powell, 67, Dec. 11
Mostly sunny. High 50, low 27.
PAGE A-8
PAGE B-6
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Facility maintains it ‘committed no wrongdoing’ in treating 20-year-old By Phaedra Haywood The New Mexican
Mercedes Christopherson
Index
A Santa Fe County jury ordered Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to pay $2.25 million Friday to
Calendar A-2
Classifieds B-7
the family of a 20-year-old woman who died after being treated there for pancreatitis in 2009. It was the third time the medical negligence case had gone to trial. The hospital said it plans
Comics B-12
Lotteries A-2
to appeal the verdict, saying in a statement: “We believe we committed no wrongdoing.” Mercedes Christopherson went to the emergency room at Christus St. Vincent in November 2008 complaining of severe stomach pains. She was diagnosed with pancreatitis and transferred
Opinions A-10
Police notes A-8
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
to Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque, where she remained for a week, according to court documents. She was discharged Nov. 21, but she returned to Christus St. Vincent four days later complaining of increased abdominal pain.
Schola Cantorum of Santa Fe Away in a Manger concert with Gregorian chant, Renaissance polyphony and a cappella settings of familiar carols, 7 p.m., Loretto Chapel, 207 Old Santa Fe Trail, $20, discounts available, schola-sf.org. More events in Calendar, A-2 and Fridays in Pasatiempo
Please see AWARD, Page A-4
Sports B-1
Time Out B-11
Local Business A-9
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Two sections, 24 pages 164th year, No. 351 Publication No. 596-440