Santa Fe New Mexican, Jan. 9, 2024

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The snow’s piling up in S.F. One to 6 inches of powder blanketed city early Monday as frosty temperatures with wind chills below zero on the way

By Margaret O’Hara and Nicholas Gilmore mohara@sfnewmexican.com ngilmore@sfnewmexican.com

A heavier-than-expected dose of snow and ice greeted Santa Feans on Monday morning — and it likely won’t be the last of the winter weather hitting Northern New Mexico this week, with frigid temperatures also in the mix, forecasters said.

A Sunday night snowstorm, which

continued throughout much of the day Monday, delayed newspaper deliveries and shuttered schools, courts, libraries, community centers and local government offices across Santa Fe. The storm also prompted Santa Fe Public Schools to call a two-hour delay

of Tuesday classes “out of an abundance of caution,” the district announced in a news release late Monday. Morning prekindergarten classes were canceled.

All told, between 1 and 6.5 inches of snow blanketed the city, depending on elevation, Randall Hergert, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office, said Monday.

Please see story on Page A-4

Ramon Martinez with the state’s facilities management division clears off the sidewalks at Bataan Memorial Building on Monday. A Sunday night snowstorm prompted closures throughout Santa Fe on Monday. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

Justices hear gun ban case State high court set to decide whether Lujan Grisham’s executive action taken last year constitutes overreach

City hopes new count of homeless brings help With close to 400 people in S.F. without housing, advocates decry lack of space in shelters

By Carina Julig

cjulig@sfnewmexican.com

LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN

New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Michael E. Vigil and Chief Justice C. Shannon Bacon question Holly Agajanian, the governor’s chief general counsel, while she argues at the court Monday morning. The National Rifle Association and Republican state lawmakers filed a petition with the court in response to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s suspension of the right to carry open or concealed firearms in public places in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.

By Robert Nott

rnott@sfnewmexican.com

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he New Mexico Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a high-profile case that not only challenges whether Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham can prohibit people with legal gun ownership from carrying their weapons in public places but also questions how much power a governor should have in issuing emergency orders.

The court didn’t immediately issue a ruling in the case, which challenges a public health order Lujan Grisham announced in the fall prohibiting firearms in parks and playgrounds in the Albu-

querque area.

She also issued an executive order at the time declaring drug abuse an emergency.

In her initial order, Lujan Grisham suspended the right to carry open or concealed firearms in all public places in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. The action came in response to alarming child deaths in Albuquerque, including the fatal shooting of an 11-year-old boy leaving a baseball stadium — a suspected case of misidentification — and the death of a 5-year-old girl in a drive-by shooting at home where she was sleeping.

Facing several federal lawsuits challenging the order, Lujan Grisham later amended it, limiting the ban to areas where children gather to play.

A federal judge overseeing the civil cases upheld the amended order in October. Still, gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association and Republican state lawmakers, filed a petition with the Supreme Court arguing state law allowing residents to carry firearms “cannot be blown up in an instant by executive fiat.”

Attorney Jessica Hernandez, who represents the plaintiffs, told justices Monday the Legislature should have the sole power to declare such an order when a threat is not imminent, but constant.

The hourlong high court hearing comes as similar Second Amendment cases are making

The city of Santa Fe and nonprofits that serve members of the local homeless community have compiled a new tally of the hundreds of people here who lack housing.

The estimate of 374 people living on the city’s streets, in shelters and in other precarious situations is what they call the first step toward finding solutions.

It comes amid brutal winter weather that has prompted the city to activate its Code Blue protocols, aimed at moving unsheltered people to warmth and safety. Along with recent snowstorms and another in the forecast this week, the city is expected to see several days with subfreezing high temperatures and low temperatures in the teens and single digits.

With 300 to 400 homeless people in the city, “there is not enough shelter space” for everyone, said Joe Dudziak, who operates Chaplain Joe’s Street Outreach, as he passed out zero-degree sleeping bags Monday to people on the streets.

Developing a more accurate picture of Santa Fe’s homeless population is a key step in meeting the specific needs of each person who lacks housing, city officials have said.

“We are really excited for this milestone,” said Kyra Ochoa, the former community health and safety director, during a recent interview.

Ochoa has since left the city to take on a position as one of three deputy secretaries at the New Mexico Human Services Department. She played a key role in many of the city’s initiatives to address homelessness.

The city in 2019 adopted Built for Zero, Please see story on Page A-4

Please see story on Page A-4

Inspections reveal loose bolts on Boeing airplanes Findings on craft grounded after door-plug mishap could compound on week of woes surrounding jet manufacturer

By Lori Aratani and Kelly Kasulis Cho The Washington Post

Alaska Airlines N704AL, a 737 Max 9 that made an emergency landing in Portland, Ore., after a part of the fuselage broke off mid-flight Friday, parked at a maintenance hanger. Inspections of similar grounded craft have uncovered various issues with the planes.

United Airlines on Monday said preliminary inspections of grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 planes have turned up loose bolts and other issues with the part of the aircraft that failed on an Alaska Airlines flight over Portland, Ore., last week, raising concerns of a systematic problem with jetliner.

In some cases, bolts needed additional tightening, the carrier said. The inspections of more than 100 Alaska and United planes manufactured by Boeing were ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration after a door plug blew out of the Alaska flight midflight Friday, causing injuries and chaos.

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The finding could compound the woes at Boeing, which has struggled to rebuild its reputation after an earlier model of the Max was grounded after two crashes killed 346 people several years ago. Investigations revealed problems with the design of an automated system on that plane, which had not been fully disclosed to the FAA. Boeing did not comment on United’s reported finding on the loose bolts Monday, which occurred as part of preliminary inspections that have been ongoing since Saturday. On Monday, the FAA said airlines can begin inspections in earnest using guidance from Boeing and the agency.

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High 28, low 13.

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Obituaries Ronald Riggs Ball, 83, Santa Fe, Nov. 23 Celia Gutierrez, 96,

Santa Fe, Nov. 27 Dennis Gregory Rodriguez, 69, Santa Fe, Dec. 28 PAGE A-7

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NATION&WORLD Pope urges surrogacy ban, says it’s ‘despicable’

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IN BRIEF House lawmakers release bipartisan paid family leave plan The House bipartisan working group on paid leave has released a modest, draft framework aiming to enhance access to paid family leave.

The framework, which the group says focuses on policies with “current consensus,” is a significant step in the quest for federal paid leave, which has divided Congress for decades.

The United States is one of the few countries that does not offer a paid parental leave program for new mothers.

The four-part framework aims to fill in gaps to paid leave across the country with federal grants that would help but not require states to implement or enhance their own paid leave programs. It would create an Interstate Paid Leave Action Network to help streamline programs across states. The proposal would enhance tax credits that already exist to incentivize small businesses, especially those with low-income workers, to provide paid leave. It will also allow small businesses to pool resources to more easily provide paid leave to their employees.

Florida GOP ousts chairman under investigation for alleged rape TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Republican Party of Florida removed chairman Christian Ziegler on Monday from his job as lawmakers attempt to move past a sexual assault probe ensnaring a GOP power couple.

Ziegler is accused of raping a woman who had previously engaged in a three-way tryst with him and his wife, Bridget.

Both he and his wife have resisted calls from the party to step down for weeks, with GOP officials citing bad optics.

Christian Ziegler rejects the allegations. Sarasota police are investigating the incident but have not yet filed charges.

Bridget Ziegler is a co-founder of the far-right group Moms for Liberty, which has led book-banning campaigns across the country.

Trump’s lawyers say he should be immune in Ga. racketeering case Lawyers for former President Donald Trump in the election interference case in Georgia asked Monday to have the criminal charges against him there dismissed based in part on an argument Trump is also making in the federal criminal case against him: that presidents should enjoy sweeping immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken while in office.

In August, a grand jury in Fulton County, Ga., indicted Trump and 18 of his allies — including Santa Fe resident John Eastman — on racketeering and other state charges as part of what prosecutors say was a multipronged effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.

Trump’s motion notes the Supreme Court has ruled current and former presidents enjoy immunity from liability for civil damages related to official acts. His Georgia lawyers argue this protection should apply to the criminal realm as well.

IPhone appears to have survived 16K-foot fall from Alaska Air flight Among the harrowing details of the blown-off fuselage panel that triggered a sudden decompression event on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282, one revelation seemed to defy the laws of physics: One of the mobile phones that had been sucked out of the Boeing Co. 737 Max 9 jet’s cabin remained in functioning condition after a 16,000-foot tumble.

A new-generation Apple iPhone landed intact, unlocked and with hours of battery life remaining on a Portland, Ore., roadside, according to a post on X by a user calling himself Seanathan Bates, who said he discovered the device. The screen showed an email from Alaska Airlines about a baggage claim for the flight, based on Bates’ photos.

The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed at a briefing Sunday one phone was found on the side of a road and another in a yard. The people have handed in both of the devices, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters.

New Mexican wire services

Francis says practice, already illegal in most of Europe, exploits ‘mother’s material needs’ to produce a child

By Jason Horowitz

The New York Times

ASTROBOTIC TECHNOLOGY VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Peregrine lunar lander at Astrobotic’s facility in Pittsburgh in October. The lander launched early Monday morning from Florida, but Astrobotic said the moon landing is in jeopardy because of a fuel leak that developed in the craft hours after the launch.

Moon landing may be in jeopardy after fuel leak Private company’s unmanned craft developed issues just after launch

By Marcia Dunn

The Associated Press

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. he first U.S. moon landing attempt in more than 50 years appeared to be doomed after a private company’s spacecraft developed a “critical” fuel leak just hours after Monday’s launch.

Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology managed to orient its lander toward the sun so the solar panel could collect sunlight and charge its battery, as a special team assessed the status of what was termed “a failure in the propulsion system.”

It soon became apparent, however, there was “a critical loss of fuel,” further dimming hope for what had been a planned moon landing Feb. 23.

“We are currently assessing what alternative mission profiles may be feasible at this time,” the company said in a statement.

The problem was reported about seven hours after Monday’s predawn liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket provided the lift for Astrobotic’s lander, named Peregrine, putting it on a long, roundabout path to the moon.

A propulsion system problem “threatens the ability of the spacecraft to soft land on the moon,” the company said. The lander is equipped with engines and thrusters for maneuvering, not only during the cruise to the moon but for lunar descent.

Late Monday, Astrobotic released a photo taken from a lander-mounted camera. The company said it showed a “disturbance” in a section of thermal insulation, and that aligns with what is known so far of the problem.

Astrobotic was aiming to be the first private business to successfully land on the moon, something only four countries have accomplished. A second lander from a Houston company is due to launch next month. NASA gave the two companies millions to build and fly their own lunar landers.

The space agency wants the privately owned landers to scope out the place before astronauts arrive while delivering tech and science experiments for the space agency, other countries and universities as well as odds and ends for other customers. Astrobotic’s contract with NASA

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for the Peregrine lander was $108 million and it has more in the pipeline.

Before the flight, NASA’s Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration, noted while using private companies to make deliveries to the moon will be cheaper and quicker than going the usual government route, there will be added risk. He stressed the space agency was willing to accept that risk, noting Monday: “Each success and setback are opportunities to learn and grow.”

The last time the U.S. launched a moon-landing mission was in December 1972.

Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt became the 11th and 12th men to walk on the moon, closing out an era that has remained NASA’s pinnacle.

The space agency’s new Artemis program — named after the twin sister of Apollo in Greek mythology — looks to return astronauts to the moon’s surface within the next few years. First will be a lunar fly-around with four astronauts, possibly before the end of the year.

Highlighting Monday’s moonshot was the long-delayed initial test flight of the Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The 202-foot rocket is essentially an upgraded version of ULA’s hugely successful workhorse Atlas V, which is being phased out along with the company’s Delta IV. Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, Blue Origin, provided the Vulcan’s two main engines.

ULA declared success once the lander was free of the rocket’s upper stage, nearly an hour into the flight and before the spacecraft’s propulsion system malfunctioned and prevented the solar panel from properly pointing toward the sun.

Besides flying experiments for NASA, Astrobotic drummed up its own freight business, packing the 6-foot-tall Peregrine lander with everything from a chip of rock from Mount Everest and toy-size cars from Mexico that will catapult to the lunar surface and cruise around, to the ashes and DNA of deceased space enthusiasts, including Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.

The Navajo Nation recently sought to have the launch delayed because of the human remains, saying it would be a “profound desecration” of a celestial body revered by Native Americans.

21 injured in explosion at Texas hotel thought to be accident

By Jesus Jiménez and Mary Beth Gahan The New York Times

At least 21 people were injured in an explosion that was most likely caused by a gas leak and substantially damaged a hotel in downtown Fort Worth on Monday afternoon, authorities said.

One person was in critical condition and two were in serious condition, Craig Trojacek, a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Fire Department, said at a news conference. Eight others had minor injuries, he added. Authorities learned about the additional injuries later, including one person who went to a hospital on their own.

Earlier, authorities had said one person was missing, but they noted later that the person had been found.

Initially, authorities said it was unclear what caused the explosion at the Sandman Signature hotel, which occurred about 3:30 p.m., although Trojacek said there was “a smell of gas in the area.”

“We were getting reports that it had started in the restaurant,” Trojacek said, adding that a restaurant at the hotel was under construction. “We’re not 100% sure that that’s where it actually started at this point.”

Later, the Fort Worth Fire Depart-

ment said on social media the explosion had most “likely” been caused by a gas leak, but that officials were waiting to confirm that.

A spokesperson for Atmos Energy, which provides natural gas to North Texas, said the company was looking into the explosion.

Video footage and images from the scene showed substantial damage to the ground floor of the hotel, a new facility housed in a historic century-old building, and debris littered across the street.

Christian Alvarez, 25, who works at the Pink Cobra, a tattoo parlor two

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blocks from the hotel, said he felt the shop shake on Monday afternoon.

Alvarez said he and two other co-workers walked outside and saw smoke pluming down the street.

“It was pretty gnarly,” Alvarez said.

Kevin Martinez, a manager at a CVS store nearby, said the windows of the store had reverberated for a couple of seconds after an initial blast. Some of his co-workers assumed the sound was thunder, as a line of storms had moved through earlier in the day, Martinez said.

“I said, ‘No, no it’s not,’ ” he added. “I thought it was a bomb.”

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ROME — Pope Francis on Monday called surrogate motherhood a “despicable” practice that should be universally banned for its “commercialization” of pregnancy, including the practice among wars, terrorism and other threats to peace and humanity in an annual speech to ambassadors.

An unborn child must not be “turned into an object of trafficking,” Francis said, adding: “I consider despicable the practice of so-called surrogate motherhood, which represents a grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child, based on the exploitation of situations of the mother’s material needs.” A child, he said, should never be “the basis of a commercial contract,” and called for a global ban on surrogacy “to prohibit this practice universally.”

Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy, and compensated surrogacy is also illegal or restricted in much of Europe. The United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal and several other nations allow surrogacy under certain conditions. Paid surrogacy is legal in some European nations, including Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

Surrogate mothers in the United States and Canada are often hired by Europeans, including same-sex couples, seeking to have children, though some American states have outlawed the practice.

Francis, a constant critic of consumerism’s corrosive effects on humanity, is deeply wary a profit motive will warp the traditional creation of life.

While Francis has generally avoided the culture wars over issues of reproduction and homosexuality in order to emphasize priorities such as the care of migrants and the poor, he has always upheld church teaching on the issues and maintained an absolute opposition to surrogacy and abortion. He has equated abortion with “hiring a hit man to resolve a problem.”

The Catholic Church has long opposed surrogacy — as it has in vitro fertilization — for a variety of ethical and theological reasons, and Francis has spoken frequently about what he calls “ideological colonization,” the notion wealthy nations impose their views on people and religious traditions that do not necessarily agree with them. Monday’s denunciation of surrogacy, which was wrapped in that familiar critique, reflected what people close to him call his frustration with what he considers the arrogance of the wealthy West, often toward less affluent parts of the world.

While the pope’s remarks come only weeks after Francis allowed blessings for same-sex couples, many of whom support surrogacy, the church has made it clear that those blessings were not a “justification” or “endorsement of the life that they lead,” but simply an expression of pastoral closeness to believers. In other words, the blessings had nothing to do with ideology and were misread if interpreted as such.

While the church opposes surrogacy, the Vatican’s office on church teaching has made clear that those children born from surrogacy can be baptized. It made that position clear in a recent statement clarifying that transgender people could be baptized. That same office has in recent weeks, with Francis’ explicit approval, allowed the blessing for samesex couples.

CORRECTIONS The Santa Fe New Mexican will correct factual errors in its news stories. Errors should be brought to the attention of the city editor at 986-3035.

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Ukrainians on defensive at ‘hell’s gate’ Russia sends massive Exhaustion along the front line as sides trade same small areas back and forth for months

By Carlotta Gall and Vladyslav Golovin The New York Times

By Constant Méheut The New York Times

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia launched a large-scale air attack against Ukraine on Monday, Ukrainian and Russian officials said, pounding several regions with missiles that killed at least four people, wounded more than 30 others and heavily damaged residential buildings and industrial sites.

Air raid alerts blared across the country from about 6 a.m. after the Ukrainian Air Force reported the takeoff of nearly 20 Russian fighter jets it said fired more than 50 cruise, ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

The tactics appeared to be in keeping with Moscow’s strategy of overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses with waves of different types of aerial weapons.

Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top commander, said his forces had intercepted about a third of the missiles, suggesting many had slipped through.

“Critical and civilian infrastructure, industrial and military facilities have been attacked,” he said in a statement.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had targeted “Ukrainian military-industrial complex facilities.”

Although the exact targets of the attack and the scale of the damage were not immediately clear, the assault came as Russia

MAURICIO LIMA THE NEW YORK TIMES

cles in front-line areas and operate on foot.

A cheap commercial drone, the FPV — for first person view — has become the latest weapon of the moment in the Ukrainian war.

It can fly as fast as a car, carries a lethal load of explosives and is guided to its target by a soldier sitting in a bunker several miles away.

Both the Russian and Ukrainian armies are using them to hunt and attack targets because they cut out the delay of relaying back coordinates and requesting artillery strikes.

Ukrainian soldiers said they often use the drones instead of artillery because shells were increasingly in short supply and the drones are a cheap, quick weapon for attacks on nearby Russian vehicles, bunkers and infantry.

For those on the receiving end of FPV drones, defending and supplying the front line have become increasingly risky.

“It is extremely dangerous to go by car,” said a Ukrainian National Guardsman, who uses the call sign Varvar. Men of his unit said that since September they had been leaving their armored vehicles and walking in 6 miles to positions.

“You can only go in on foot,” Varvar said.

The men of the 117th Brigade, who were deploying to the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region on a recent night, faced a 4-mile hike through rain and mud, the intelligence commander said. If they were wounded and captured, Russian troops would execute them, he warned them.

leaders who are determined to prevent the conflict that we’re facing now from spreading, doing everything possible to deter escalation to prevent a widening of the conflict,” Blinken told reporters traveling with him.

By Matthew Lee Blinken made the comments The Associated Press after meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman AL ULA, Saudi Arabia — at the Saudi royal’s winter camp U.S. Secretary of State Antony outside the ancient incense-route Blinken said Monday four key trading city of Al Ula in western Arab nations and Turkey have Saudi Arabia. Blinken had earlier agreed to begin planning for the visited Turkey, Greece, Jordan, reconstruction and governance Qatar and the UAE. of Gaza once Israel’s war against The leaders of those countries Hamas ends. “agreed to work together and to Blinken, who is on an urgent coordinate our efforts to help Mideast mission aimed primarily Gaza stabilize and recover, to at preventing the conflict from chart a political path forward spreading as fears rise of a for the Palestinians and to work regional war, said Saudi Arabia, toward long-term peace, security Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab and stability in the region as a Emirates and Turkey would whole,” Blinken said. consider participating in and conHe said they “are prepared tributing to “day after” scenarios to make the necessary commitfor the Palestinian territory, ments to make the hard decisions which has been devastated by to advance all of these objectives three months of deadly Israeli to advance this vision for the bombardment. region.”

Those countries had previBlinken did not offer specifics ously resisted U.S. calls for poston potential contributions. Finanwar planning to begin, insisting cial and in-kind support from the there must first be a cease-fire UAE and Saudi Arabia could be and a sharp reduction in the essential to the success of any civilian suffering caused by Israplan. el’s military response to Hamas’ Arab states have been highly deadly Oct. 7 attacks. critical of Israel’s actions and But on what is now his fourth had eschewed public support trip to the Mideast since the war for long-term planning, arguing began in October, Blinken said that the fighting must end before those countries are ready to start such discussions can begin. They such planning and that each have been demanding a cease-fire would consider its own involvesince mid-October as civilian ment in whatever is eventually casualties began to skyrocket. decided upon.

Blinken said he would bring “Everywhere I went, I found the Arab commitments to

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war Cabinet as well as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday and Wednesday before presenting them to Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and returning to Washington.

Any post-war plan for Gaza will require both Israeli and Palestinian buy-in, but Netanyahu and his government have their own ideas for Gaza’s future that the others will likely not accept. And, Netanyahu remains opposed to the concept of the two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, something that Saudi Arabia in particular is demanding if it is to normalize relations with Israel.

Blinken said Prince Mohammed remains interested in normalizing relations with Israel “but it will require that the conflict end in Gaza, and it will also clearly require that there be a practical pathway to a Palestinian state.”

“This interest is there, it’s real, and it could be transformative,” he said.

Israel has refused to agree to a cease-fire, and the U.S. has instead called for specified temporary “humanitarian pauses” to allow aid to get in and people to get to safety.

Another urgent priority for Blinken is to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza. The U.S. has been pressing Israel for weeks to let greater amounts of food, water, fuel, medicine and other supplies into Gaza, and the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Dec. 22 calling for an immediate increase in deliveries.

Israel kills key Hezbollah commander

By Bassem Mroue, Wafaa Shurafa and Jack Jeffery The Associated Press

BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander Monday in southern Lebanon, the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes across the border that have raised fears of another Mideast war even as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians.

The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah unit that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with regulations. The commander, Wissam al-Tawil, was a veteran of the Iranian-backed Lebanese force who took part in the 2006 cross-border kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that triggered the last war between Israel and Hezbollah, an official in the group said.

He is the most senior Hezbollah militant killed since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader last week in Beirut.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict.

In other developments, Israel said it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza,

though fighting and bombardment there continue.

Israeli forces are now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis, where thousands more Palestinians fled.

Israeli officials say the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militants’ Oct. 7 attack.

The offensive has already killed over 23,000 Palestinians, devastated vast swaths of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.

Medics, patients and displaced people fled from central Gaza’s main hospital as fighting drew closer, witnesses said Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, saying it was too dangerous amid Israeli bombardment, drone strikes and sniper fire. That spread panic among people sheltering there. Thousands left, joining the hundreds of thousands who have fled further south, said a hospital staffer, Omar al-Darawi.

World Health Organization staff who visited Sunday saw “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “The bloodbath in Gaza must end.”

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has stepped up its airstrikes against Ukraine in recent days, in what appears to be a strategy to degrade Ukrainian industrial and military capabilities and to wear down Ukrainian morale as the war drags on.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said last week Russia had launched some 300 missiles and more than 200 attack drones against his country in attacks around the New Year. The United Nations said Saturday 120 civilians had been killed across Ukraine and nearly 480 others injured since Dec. 29.

Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, said the attack Monday had targeted regions across the country, from Khmelnytskyi in the west to Kharkiv in the northeast, adding rescue workers were trying to pull people from under the rubble.

Unlike previous attacks, the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, was not hit Monday. That might be because the city is well protected by powerful air defense systems, including U.S.-designed Patriot batteries.

But Ukraine’s lack of air defense systems means it has to juggle resources between the front line and cities far from the fighting. As a result, some cities, such as Kryvyi Rih in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which was attacked Monday, are less well defended and are easier targets for Moscow.

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Russia has in recent days turned its focus to bombing Ukraine’s big cities to wear down civilians; for weeks its ground forces have been mounting attacks to claw back territory lost last summer and to seize long-prized Ukrainian redoubts along the eastern front.

Well accustomed to Russian artillery fire, soldiers said since March they had suffered the additional devastating power of glide bombs, half-ton explosives unleashed from planes that smash through underground bunkers.

“They would send them two by two by two, eight in an hour,” said a 27-year-old soldier known as Kit, of the 14th Chervona Kalyna National Guard Brigade. Like others interviewed, Kit identified himself by his call sign, according to military protocol. “It sounds like a jet coming down on you,” he said, “like hell’s gate.”

The destruction wrought by glide bombs is visible in towns and villages near the front line.

The town of Orikhiv, about 12 miles north of Robotyne, once served as a command center for the counteroffensive. Now it is an empty shell, the main street deserted, the school and other buildings split asunder by massive bomb craters.

Soldiers moved cautiously in the area, mostly living in basements and staying undercover, out of sight.

That is because the latest menace is Russia’s use of FPV kamikaze drones, which has forced Ukrainian soldiers largely to abandon vehi-

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ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION, Ukraine — Under the cover of darkness, leaning forward under the weight of packs and rifles, a squad of soldiers walked along a muddy lane and slipped into a village house.

They were Ukrainian infantrymen of the 117th Separate Mechanized Brigade, assembling for a last briefing and roll call several miles from Russia positions before heading to the trenches on the front line. Stolid men in helmets and rubber boots, they listened in silence as an intelligence officer briefed them on a new route in to their positions.

“Morale is all right,” said the deputy battalion commander, who uses the call sign Shira, standing nearby to see the men off. “But physically we are exhausted.”

Ukrainian troops along most of the 600mile front line are officially in defensive mode. Only in the southern region of Kherson are they still on the offensive in a tough assault across the Dnieper River.

But the fighting has not eased and Russian forces are now on the offensive.

The capture of the town of Robotyne in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region was as far as Ukrainian troops managed to advance in their summer counteroffensive. No breakthrough occurred. Now, in the trenches around Robotyne, Russian units are attacking daily.

Ukrainian troops try to counterattack immediately if they lose ground, commanders said.

“It is something like a game of Ping-Pong,” said a Ukrainian National Guard platoon commander who uses the call sign Planshet, meaning “tablet.” “There is a portion of 100 to 200 meters of ground always being taken and retaken,” he said.

Indeed, Ukrainian soldiers and commanders interviewed in recent weeks along a broad stretch of the central and eastern front said that Russian attacks were so intense that operating near the front line has never been so dangerous.

strike into Ukraine

Ukrainian artillery crew members prepare to fire toward Russian-held territory in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine last month. Ukrainian troops along most of the 600-mile front line remain optimistic but physically exhausted, with Russian forces now on the offensive in most regions.

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THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Justices hear gun ban case Continued from Page A-1

headlines around the nation, with gun control advocates and firearms enthusiasts clashing over legislation amid rising gun violence. A federal appeals court Saturday affirmed a judge’s ruling that barred California from enforcing a ban on guns in most public places. The judge had found the law, set to take effect this week, was unconstitutional.

Arguments in Monday’s hearing were far less focused on the Second Amendment than on the power of a New Mexico governor.

Hernandez told Supreme Court justices Lujan Grisham’s “executive orders are so far outside and so contrary to the emergency statute that in their entirety they are invalid.”

She said an emergency “needs to be something out of the ordinary. It can’t be our constant state of being. It cannot be the public safety issues that we face each and every day and that the Legislature legislates on in every single session.”

Holly Agajanian, who represents Lujan Grisham and state Health Secretary Patrick Allen in the case, countered the Legislature has long granted any governor the right to declare public health emergencies.

She said a declaration of emergency allows a governor to access emergency funding to address an issue — whether it’s a need to test wastewater systems or repair roads.

Waiting for the state Legislature, which meets once a year, to deal with an emergency is “too little, too late,” Agajanian said.

The five justices grilled both attorneys as they tried to determine what limits are in place in the state — or should be — regarding a governor’s power to issue emergency orders.

Chief Justice C. Shannon Bacon and Justice David K. Thomson asked Hernandez what standards should be applied.

Citing language in the state constitution that says emergencies should only be declared during unexpected disasters, Hernandez said there was “nothing sudden or unforeseen” about gun violence.

Bacon asked the attorneys whether it was up to her court to decide on the conflict, which seemed to be more of a tug-of-war between the Legislature and the Governor’s Office.

“Who’s the bad guy here? Is it the executive or the Legislature?” Bacon asked.

She also asked to what degree a governor could address an issue through an emergency order. For example, she said, if a governor declared driving while intoxicated an emergency, “could a governor suspend the ability of New Mexicans to drive in certain counties because of that emergency?”

There were no easy answers.

Justice Briana H. Zamora asked Agajanian where the boundaries lie when it comes to ensuring a governor doesn’t

TAKEAWAYS ◆ The state Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a case challenging Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s issuance of an emergency order prohibiting the carry or use of firearms in Albuquerque parks and playgrounds. She also issued an executive order saying drug abuse in the state constitutes an emergency. ◆ Though the court did not rule on the matter Monday, the hearing centered on the issue of just how far a governor can go when it comes to declaring emergency measures. ◆ The hearing came after a similar gun ban was stalled in the California courts and just before New Mexico lawmakers convene for a legislative session in which crime, gun violence and gun safety measures are likely to be among the top priorities.

call an emergency just to quickly access funding for a problem.

“That’s a completely fair question,” Agajanian responded. “I don’t know where the line is.”

Agajanian declined comment on Monday’s hearing as she left the Supreme Court building in downtown Santa Fe. This year’s 30-day legislative session begins Jan. 16. Crime, gun violence and gun safety are likely to be at the forefront during the session, which will primarily focus on creating a state budget for fiscal year 2025.

Changes to the governor’s emergency powers might also be considered.

Sen. Greg Baca, R-Belen, who serves as the Senate minority leader, said after the hearing Monday he plans to once again introduce legislation to limit the governor’s powers — an initiative some Republicans and Democrats have tried unsuccessfully in the past.

“Whether our Legislature and executive have the will to look into these matters and to satisfy the questions presented by this court is another matter,” said Baca, who attended the hearing.

Lujan Grisham already has called for legislation modeled after the federal Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act — known as GOSAFE — that U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Angus King of Maine introduced in Congress late in 2023.

The federal legislation would regulate semi-automatic weapons to have permanently fixed magazines, limited to 10 rounds for rifles.

Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, said last week she plans to introduce a state bill similar to Heinrich’s after she has it vetted by legal analysts.

The bill’s potential effects on gun owners is unclear.

Illinois banned assault-style weapons a year ago but allowed people to keep the ones they already possessed if they registered them before Jan. 1, 2024.

A recent Chicago Sun-Times article said so far, only about 1% of the state’s population had done so.

City’s new homeless estimate Continued from Page A-1

a national framework for combating homelessness. Mayor Alan Webber has championed the model, which has an end goal of achieving “functional zero,” the point at which there are fewer homeless people in a city than people leaving homelessness at any given time.

Ochoa said last year the city was in the process of trying to get better information about its homeless population as part of Built for Zero.

“Part of what will help us end homelessness is being very accurate with our data,” she said in August.

To achieve that, officials contacted street outreach workers and other providers, as well as those in city departments that work with the homeless community, to determine an accurate estimate of the population. Former program manager Brittany Rodriguez, who left the city in December to work for the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, was “instrumental” at bringing together providers to share information, Ochoa said.

She added 374 is a rough estimate that could be “plus or minus” 50 people.

However, she said, the number is far more accurate than previous estimates determined through annual “point-intime” counts of homeless people.

These common counts for cities are often carried out on a given night in January. Officials and volunteers will fan out through shelters, streets and encampments to document how many homeless people they see that night.

Point-in-time counts, required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, have long been criticized by advocates for undercounting the population because they are likely to miss people who are couch-surfing or in temporary living arrangements but do not have permanent housing.

HUD defines homelessness as individuals and families who do not have a “fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.”

Santa Feans who work with members of the homeless community said they believe 374 is close but likely lower than the true number.

“You’ve got to remember, there’s a lot of people who are hidden away and we don’t know they’re there,” Dudziak said.

Korina Lopez, executive director of the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete’s Place, said she was not surprised

TAKEAWAYS ◆ The city of Santa Fe has compiled what it believes to be an approximate estimate of how many homeless people live within city limits, which it put at 374. ◆ People who work with members of the homeless community said they agree with the estimate but believe it is likely on the low end of the actual number. ◆ Tallying the homeless population is part of the city’s “Built for Zero” model of addressing homelessness, which focuses on identifying people’s individual needs and working to get them housed.

by the estimate.

“I think we’re seeing a more clear picture of how many people are unhoused in Santa Fe,” she said.

Having a good grasp of how many homeless individuals are in Santa Fe is important for the city and providers when applying for funding, she added.

Ochoa emphasized the new list doesn’t include full names or Social Security numbers for privacy reasons.

The next steps will involve using the more accurate data to determine how much money should go toward solutions such as emergency rental assistance, behavioral health supports, emergency shelter and different types of housing, Ochoa said.

It’s not something the city budget alone can solve, she noted, but will require the help of many community partners.

Webber praised Ochoa and the rest of the department for its work on homelessness during a breakfast with state lawmakers from Santa Fe in December.

“We have to stop talking about ‘the homeless’ and start talking about each individual homeless person and what it would take to get them housed,” Webber said.

The city’s priorities for the upcoming legislative session include a request for $15 million to build permanent and transitional housing to address “veteran, youth, and chronic homelessness,” according to city documents.

While Ochoa cautioned the city has a long way to go before it can achieve its goal of “functional zero,” she said the number made her feel hopeful.

“That isn’t 10,000 people, that isn’t 5,000 people,” she said. “Doesn’t that feel like a number that’s manageable?

Doesn’t that sound like that’s something that’s possible to solve?”

MATT DAHLSEID/THE NEW MEXICAN

Snowplows make their way along U.S. 84/285 Monday morning near the Nambé exit. The Nambé area had received about 6 inches of snow by midmorning. Santa Fe residents can expect below-zero wind chills through Wednesday.

The snow’s piling up in Santa Fe Continued from Page A-1

Wet, icy roads created challenges for drivers, with the New Mexico Department of Transportation road conditions map indicating “difficult driving conditions” in much of the northern half of the state.

Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza said his office responded to a few car accidents in recent days, including one in Tesuque on Monday afternoon, which resulted in a brief road closure though no serious injuries.

“Anytime that we get weather — especially the first storms of the year — we seem to see an increase in traffic accidents,” the sheriff said.

When temperatures drop below 15 degrees or snowfall measures above 6 inches, city and shelter officials activate ”Code Blue” protocols, authorizing the Santa Fe Fire Department’s Alternative Response Unit to work with Consuelo’s Place and the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete’s Place to ensure homeless residents have a safe, warm place to go. The city activated Code Blue protocols starting Friday, said Korina Lopez, Pete’s Place’s executive director.

Meanwhile, an aircraft deicing truck also caught fire Sunday evening at the Santa Fe Regional Airport, City Manager John Blair said.

City firefighters extinguished the fire, Blair wrote in an email, and there were no injuries or damage to property aside from the truck, which belongs to United Airlines.

City Fire Chief Brian Moya said the department was still investigating the incident Monday and had not yet determined the cause of the fire.

The airport was in full operation Sunday evening, and no runways were affected by the fire, Blair wrote.

Deicing trucks are specialized vehicles used to remove ice and frost from aircraft before takeoff, according to an industry news publication. The Santa Fe Fire Department was dispatched to the airport at 6:23 p.m. following a report of the truck fire, which was on a ramp leading to a taxiway, according to Blair’s email.

The department’s airport rescue firefighters put out the fire using a dry chemical “similar to that in a household fire extinguisher,” Blair wrote. Firefighters were on the scene two hours later, working with United Airlines employees to confirm the full shutdown of the truck.

Though conditions in Santa Fe will improve Monday night and Tuesday, the snowstorm is expected to continue to batter the northeastern corner of the state Monday, with whiteout conditions and winds over 60 mph. The National Weather Service has issued blizzard warnings extending through Tuesday morning for Raton Pass as well as parts of Union, Harding, eastern San Miguel, Quay and Curry counties.

“We’re recommending no one travel if they don’t have to through Northeastern New Mexico today,” Hergert said Monday. “If they do, it’s an absolute must to check the road conditions and bring a winter travel kit with them.”

Inspections reveal loose bolts on Boeing airplanes Continued from Page A-1

737 Max 9 planes have been grounded amid the investigation into the rapid depressurization accident Friday, which triggered an emergency landing and resulted in extensive damage to an Alaska Airlines plane.

There were no serious injuries in the accident, which is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, but the dramatic midair incident caused the FAA to order immediate inspections of the jetliners. Guidance issued Monday by Boeing and approved by the FAA allows the inspections to begin. The FAA previously said the inspections could take four to eight hours per plane but Monday said that was no longer accurate, without offering a revised estimate.

“The FAA’s priority is always keeping Americans safe,” the agency said in a statement, adding that all Max 9 aircraft would remain grounded until operators have completed the enhanced inspections.

Two airlines in the United States — Alaska Airlines and United Airlines — have Boeing Max 9 aircraft in their fleets.

Authorities are also investigating the auto-pressurization fail light on the Alaska Airlines flight that experienced the blowout. The light is designed to signal failures in the control of cabin pressure. It had illuminated on three flights in the weeks before Friday’s incident, the NTSB said. Those reports — Dec. 7, Jan. 3 and Jan. 4 — prompted tests and a reset by maintenance, she said.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said Sunday that Alaska Airlines had restricted the plane involved in the blowout from flying to Hawaii in case of the need for a swift landing, and that a later request from the airline for a deeper look had gone unfulfilled before Friday’s incident.

“It’s certainly a concern, and it’s one that we want to dig into,” Homendy said. She added that it’s unclear whether the light is linked to the accident, saying it’s possible it could have malfunctioned independently of the plane’s auto-pressurization system.

Inspections will be required on both the left and right cabin-door exit plugs, door components and fasteners. Operators must also complete corrective-action requirements based on findings from the inspections before bringing any aircraft back into service, the FAA said.

“The safety of our airplanes and everyone who steps onboard is a core Boeing value,” Stan Deal, commercial airplanes president and chief executive, and Mike Delaney, chief aerospace safety officer and senior vice president of global aerospace safety, wrote in a message to employees Monday. “We agree with and fully support the FAA’s decision to require immediate inspections of 737-9 MAX airplanes with the same configuration as the affected airplane.”

Deal and Delaney noted that the affected assembly is not found on other versions of 737 Max jets.

Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s chief executive, also announced that a companywide safety meeting is scheduled for Tuesday.

The inspections began a day after the NTSB announced it

Though conditions are slated to improve Tuesday, Hergert said this won’t be the last of Northern New Mexico’s winter weather.

Very low temperatures — ranging from the low single-digits to the teens — will continue Tuesday and Wednesday, with wind chills as low as minus-20 degrees in Taos. Santa Fe residents can expect wind chills around minus-9 to minus-10 degrees.

Those conditions are dangerous, Hergert said: Frostbite can set in within minutes for those without proper attire and shelter.

“It’s one of those days where we need to check up on each other,” the meteorologist said. “If you have grandparents or young children — or really anybody, it doesn’t matter their age — just check up on your neighbors. Make sure that they’re sheltered.”

And Thursday night, Northern New Mexico residents can expect another storm, albeit projected to be weaker than the one that covered Santa Fe in snow Monday.

It’s too soon to tell precisely what the next bout of winter wind and snow will look like, Hergert said; the specifics of the area’s next storm will be determined by ongoing weather conditions and the speed at which the next storm system rolls over the state.

But he added Santa Feans can expect anywhere from a dusting to a few more inches of snow by Friday morning.

Staff writer Carina Julig contributed to this report.

had recovered a key portion of evidence from the accident — the door plug that blew out of the Alaska Airlines plane over Portland, Ore. The piece had been found in a schoolteacher’s yard.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former accident investigator with the FAA and NTSB, said the door plug is a key piece of evidence that will allow investigators to confirm whatever failure occurred and how it occurred.

“I still believe that because it was such a new airplane and this is such a unique type of event that it’s manufacturerrelated,” he said, though the investigation into the exact cause is ongoing.

Anthony Brickhouse, an associate professor who teaches aviation safety and investigation courses at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said the door plug will offer important clues about what might have caused the failure.

“When it comes to structures, metals tell the story,” he said. “Whenever a metal fails, it leaves a signature. It tells a story — are there any dings, dents or deformation? There will be telltale signs that the NTSB is already looking at.”

Guzzetti said reports of irregularities with the plane’s auto-pressurization lights should be examined closely but may simply be indications of symptoms of wear to the door plug or potentially a loosening. He added that it is not unusual for auto-pressurization warning lights to go off.

Sometimes the sensors themselves fail; other times, it can be an indication of a pressurization problem.

“In this case, it may be a small consequence of what may have been happening to that door’s lock,” he said.

Brickhouse said it’s too soon to know whether Friday’s accident was connected to the previous three incidents involving the air pressurization lights.

“To the untrained eye, you have a pressurization accident Friday night, and then you see these three warnings, you automatically want to connect the dots,” Brickhouse said.

“But … we have to use factual information. It could be a situation where those three warnings are directly connected to Friday night or a 180 from that in that these things are totally unrelated. As the investigation plays out, they’ll be able to stitch things together.”

Flight 1282 was on its way to Ontario, Calif., from Portland when it had to return to the airport shortly after takeoff because the door plug — an exit that is paneled off, usually because it is deemed optional in safety regulations — had separated from the plane in midair.

The blowout caused a loud banging sound and allowed frigid, whipping winds to pour into the aircraft.

The cockpit door immediately flew open, banging into a lavatory door and jolting the first officer forward, causing her to temporarily lose her headset, Homendy said, citing interviews with flight attendants. The captain and the first officer were able to put on oxygen masks and turn on a speaker, but “communication was a serious issue,” she said.

Flight attendants described trouble getting information from the flight deck, and passengers in the cabin struggled to hear announcements. “It was very violent,” Homendy said.

Investigators who examined the grounded plane after the accident found that the headrests of two seats directly adjacent to the door plug were missing, as well as the back of one seat.

One flight attendant suffered minor injuries, according to the union that represents Alaska crews, The Washington Post reported. Several passengers required medical attention for injuries, the airline said. The flight was carrying 171 passengers and six crew members.

NATION & WORLD

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

A-5

As neighbors go left, Iowa turns right Far right balks as House pushes spending deal

No other state in nation swung as heavily for GOP between 2012 and 2020 as did Hawkeyes

By Jonathan Weisman

Backlash from Freedom Caucus underscores speaker likely needs Dems to pass $1.6T bill

The New York Times

DES MOINES, Iowa — With the Iowa caucuses six days away, politicians will be crisscrossing the state, blowing through small-town Pizza Ranches, filling high school gyms, and flipping pancakes at church breakfasts.

What Iowans will not be seeing are Democrats. President Joe Biden spoke Friday in Pennsylvania, and he and Vice President Kamala Harris both were in South Carolina over the weekend and Monday. But Iowa, a state that once sizzled with bipartisan politics, launched Barack Obama to the presidency in 2008 and seesawed between Republican and Democratic governors, has largely been ceded to the GOP as part of a remarkable sorting of voters in the Upper Midwest.

There is no single reason over the past 15 years the Upper Midwest saw Iowa turn into a beacon of former President Donald Trump’s populism. North and South Dakota shed storied histories of prairie populism for a conservatism that reflected the national GOP, and Illinois and Minnesota move dramatically leftward. (Sandwiched in between, Wisconsin found an uncomfortable parity between its conservative rural counties and its more industrial and academic centers in Milwaukee and Madison.)

No state in the nation swung as heavily Republican between 2012 and 2020 as Iowa, which went from a 6-percentage-point victory for Barack Obama to an 8-point win for Trump in the last presidential election.

Deindustrialization of rural reaches and the Mississippi River regions had its impact, as did the hollowing out of institutions, from civic organizations to small-town newspapers, that had given the Upper Midwest a character separate from national politics.

Susan Laehn, an Iowa State

By Carl Hulse

The New York Times

DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Donald Trump supporter looks on as the former president delivers remarks at a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last year. Over the past decade, the state went from a 6-percentage-point victory for Barack Obama in 2012 to an 8-point win for Trump in the last presidential election.

University political scientist who lives in the small town of Jefferson, recounted how an issue that once would have been handled through discussions at church or the Rotary Club instead became infected with national politics, with her husband, the libertarian Greene County attorney, stuck in the middle: New multicolored lighting installed last summer to illuminate the town’s carillon bell tower prompted an angry debate over LGBTQ+ rights, leaving much of the town soured on identity politics that it largely blamed on the national left.

Another issue: Brain drain.

The movement of young college graduates out of Iowa and the Dakotas to the metropolises of Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul made a mark on the politics of all five states.

Michael Dabe, a 19-year-old business and marketing major at the University of Dubuque, near the western bank of the Mississippi River, has found a comfortable home in Iowa, where life is slower and simpler than in his native Illinois and politics, he said, are more aligned with his

conservative inclinations.

But he expressed little doubt what he will be doing with his business degree once he graduates, and most of his classmates are likely to follow suit, he said.

“There are just so many more opportunities in Chicago,” he said. “Politics are important to me, but job security, being able to raise a family more securely, is more important, for sure.”

An analysis in 2022 by economists at the University of North Carolina, the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago of data gleaned from LinkedIn showed how states with dynamic economic centers are luring college graduates from more rural states. Iowa loses 34.2% of its college graduates, worse than 40 of the 50 states, just below North Dakota, which loses 31.6%.

Illinois, by contrast, gains 20% more college graduates than it produces. Minnesota has about 8% more than it produces.

Even when young families look to move back to the rural areas they grew up in, they

are often thwarted by an acute housing shortage, said Benjamin Winchester, a rural sociologist at the University of Minnesota in St. Cloud, Minn.; 75% of rural homeowners are baby boomers or older, and those older residents see boarded-up businesses and believe their communities’ best days are behind them, he said.

As such older voters grow frustrated and more conservative, the trend is accelerating. Iowa, which had a congressional delegation split between two House Republicans, two House Democrats and two Republican senators in 2020, now has a government almost wholly under Republican control, which has enacted boldly conservative policies that ban almost all abortions and transition care for minors, publicly fund vouchers for private schools and pull books describing sexual acts from school libraries. (The library and abortion laws are now on hold in the courts.) The congressional delegation is now entirely Republican after a 2022 GOP sweep in House races and the reelection of Sen. Chuck Grassley.

2024 ELEC TION

Biden speaks at S.C. site of 2015 racist attack

By Colleen Long, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville

The Associated Press

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Courting Black voters he needs to win reelection, President Joe Biden on Monday denounced the “poison” of white supremacy in America, declaring at the site of a deadly racist church shooting in South Carolina that such ideology has no place in America, “not today, tomorrow or ever.”

Biden spoke from the pulpit of Mother Emanuel AME Church, where in 2015 nine Black parishioners were shot to death by the white stranger they had invited to join their Bible study. The Democratic president’s speech followed his blunt remarks last Friday on the eve of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, in which he excoriated former President Donald Trump for “glorifying” rather than condemning political violence.

At Mother Emanuel, Biden said “the word of God was pierced by bullets of hate, of rage, propelled not just by gunpowder, but by a poison, a poison that has for too long haunted this nation.”

That’s “white supremacy,” he said, the view by some whites they are superior to other races. “It is a poison, throughout our history, that’s ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow or ever.”

It was a grim way to kick off a presidential campaign, particularly for someone known for his unfailing optimism and belief that American achievements are limitless. But it’s a reflection of the emphasis Biden and his campaign are placing on energizing Black voters amid deepening concerns among Democrats that the president could lose support from this critical constituency heading into the election.

Biden’s campaign advisers and aides hope the visit successfully lays out the stakes of the race in unequivocal terms three years after the cultural saturation of Trump’s words and actions while he was president.

It’s a contrast they hope will be paramount to voters in 2024.

Biden also used his second major campaign event of the year to thank the state’s Black voters. After an endorsement by Democratic

STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

President Joe Biden delivers remarks Monday at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., where nine worshippers were killed in a mass shooting by a white supremacist in 2015. “Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes. Always. It’s never appropriate,” Biden said.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, one of the highest-ranking African Americans in the U.S. House, the state made Biden the winner of its Democratic presidential primary in 2020. That, in turn, set him on a path to become the party’s nominee and defeat Trump to win the presidency.

“I owe you,” he said.

Biden was briefly interrupted when several people upset over by his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas called out that if he really cared about lives lost he would call for a cease-fire in Gaza to help innocent Palestinians who are being killed under Israel’s bombardment. The chants of “cease-fire now” were drowned out by audience members chanting “four more years.”

The president also swiped at Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina, and Trump, without naming either one.

Haley was governor at the time of the shooting and gained national attention for her response, which included signing legislation into law removing the Confederate flag

from the state Capitol. But she has been on the defensive recently for not explicitly naming slavery as the root cause of the Civil War when the question was posed at a campaign event. Her campaign responded Monday with a list of comments attributed to Biden that it said showed he’s racially insensitive.

Biden called it a “lie” that the war was about states’ rights. “So let me be clear, for those who don’t seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. There’s no negotiation about that.”

On more current events, he noted the scores of failed attempts by Trump in the courts to overturn the 2020 election in an attempt to hold onto power, as well as the former president’s embrace of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

“Let me say what others cannot: We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes. Always. It’s never appropriate,” Biden said. He said “losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he’s a loser,” meaning Trump.

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WASHINGTON — Congress on Monday began an uphill push to pass a new bipartisan spending agreement into law in time to avoid a partial government shutdown next week, with House Speaker Mike Johnson encountering stiff resistance from his far-right flank to the deal he struck with Democrats.

Ultraconservative House Republicans have panned the $1.66 trillion agreement Johnson made with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saying it is unacceptable.

The agreement essentially hews to the bargain that Congress passed last year to suspend the debt ceiling, which the hard right opposed at the time and had hoped to scale back. It also includes $69 billion in spending that was added as a side deal, money that conservatives sought to block altogether.

“This is a total failure,” the far-right House Freedom Caucus, a group of Republicans who have proved a thorn in the side of a series of GOP speakers, wrote on social media.

“I am a NO to the Johnson Schumer budget deal,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wrote on social media. “This $1.6 Trillion dollar budget agreement does nothing to secure the border, stop the invasion or stop the weaponized government targeting Biden’s political enemies and innocent Americans.”

The backlash from the

extreme right underscored anew that Johnson will most likely have to rely on substantial Democratic Mike support to Johnson pass the spending bills underlying the agreement. It also raised questions about the viability of his plan to try to attract Republican backing to spending measures by inserting conservative policy dictates aimed at restricting abortion rights and what Republicans see as “woke” administration policies.

Democrats say they will fight the addition of such policy riders. If a large bloc of Republicans opposes the spending bills, the speaker will either need to drop the policy provisions to secure Democratic backing or face a shutdown.

“Democrats will not accept any Republican poison pill policy changes,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, declared in a statement.

The result is Johnson finds himself in a predicament similar to the one that led to the ouster of Kevin McCarthy last fall — overseeing a minuscule majority while facing a potential government shutdown and having to cut a deal with Democrats that is certain to draw opposition from the far right.

White House, Pentagon to review Austin’s failure to disclose hospital stay

By Lolita C. Baldor, Seung Min Kim and Zeke Miller

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Both the White House and Pentagon said Monday they would look into why President Joe Biden and other top officials weren’t informed for days that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had been hospitalized. A Pentagon spokesman pointed to one reason: A key staffer was out sick with the flu.

Even as the Biden administration pledged to look into what rules or procedures weren’t followed, it maintained its silence about why Austin has been hospitalized for a week.

Late Monday, the Pentagon issued an update saying Austin “is recovering well.”

Some Republicans have demanded Austin’s resignation, but the Pentagon said he has no plans to step down.

Austin, 70, went to the hospital Dec. 22 for what the Pentagon press secretary called an “elective procedure” but one serious enough Austin temporarily transferred some of his authorities to his deputy, without telling her or other U.S.

leaders why.

He went home the following day.

He also transferred some of his authoriLloyd Austin ties after experiencing severe pain and being taken back to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center by ambulance and put into intensive care Jan. 1. The White House was not informed until Jan. 4.

Austin, who resumed his duties Jan. 5, is no longer in intensive care. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said his prognosis is “good,” but it is not known when he will be released from the hospital.

The Pentagon said Austin has continued to receive briefings and make calls to senior leaders. On Monday, he spoke to national security adviser Jake Sullivan and got briefings from Gen. Erik Kurilla, his top general in the Middle East; his deputy, Kathleen Hicks; and the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. CQ Brown Jr.

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THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

LOCAL&REGION

Sisters sue Record in sight as giving effort passes goal Española, claiming illegal stop E MP T Y S T O CKIN G FUND

By Nicholas Gilmore

ngilmore@sfnewmexican.com

Once again, Northern New Mexico residents have stepped to the plate to help their neighbors.

The New Mexican’s Empty Stocking Fund has surpassed its fundraising goal for the holiday season.

As of last week, the newspaper’s yearly charitable fundraising and giving effort had raised more than $414,000, surpassing the year’s goal of $399,000.

Donations can be made to the fund year-round, and payments will be distributed through the end of January.

The Empty Stocking Fund, which launches every year around Thanksgiving, helps hundreds of people in Northern New Mexico annually during the holiday season with money to help cover rent payments, medical bills, utility costs, car repairs, home improvements and other needs.

The effort represents a collaboration between the newspaper and several community partners, including The Life Link, Gerard’s House, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, Youthworks and others, program coordinator Susan Cahoon said.

“The impact of COVID is still

being felt in our community,” Cahoon said. “Add a bad flu and RSV season to Northern New Mexico, and the needs of our neighbors have grown.

There are fewer resources out there for some types of challenges, and we try to address them.”

This year’s fundraising has already exceeded 2022’s total of a little more than $378,000, but Cahoon said there was still time to beat the all-time-high total of $423,000 from 2021.

So far, the program has distributed about $314,000 from the fund in recent months, largely on recipients’ housing and utility costs, Cahoon said.

The Empty Stocking Fund also helps pay for vehicle repair costs, medical and dental bills, holiday presents and groceries for about 600 recipients per year.

When potential beneficiaries apply for help, Cahoon said, the program helps them to tap into other resources — such as state and federal government help and other nonprofit organizations — that could benefit them. After someone provides evidence of need and receives help from the Empty Stocking Fund, they are ineligible to receive funds from the

Please see story on Page A-7

LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO

Todd Nichols, executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society, shows a picture in July of J. Robert Oppenheimer at the house he lived in during the Manhattan Project. The Los Alamos Historical Society is raising an estimated $2 million to cover restoration work to the structure.

Oppenheimer’s crumbling cottage Historical society seeks $2M to fix up home where atomic history was made

By Teya Vitu

tvitu@sfnewmexican.com

T

he Los Alamos house J. Robert Oppenheimer lived in during the Manhattan Project saw new life in last year’s hit movie.

Now it’s in line for an estimated $2 million in restoration work, with the plan being to open the stone cottage built in 1929 to the public once it’s done.

J. Robert and Kitty Oppenheimer lived in the cottage from early 1943 to October 1945, for the entire run of the Manhattan Project that created the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan to end World War II. Several scenes of the movie Oppenheimer were shot at the house,

including Kitty Oppenheimer hanging clothes on the clothesline; the Oppenheimers first arriving at the house; and Oppenheimer waiting for news the bomb had been used. The Los Alamos Historical Society is in the opening stage of raising funds to give the home a makeover from foundation to roof to the electrical and plumbing, in the hopes of transforming it into an Oppenheimer gallery to tell the story of Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project.

The Oppenheimer house is part of the Los Alamos Historical Society’s “campus” within the Los Alamos Historic District. The society also owns the Hans Bethe House, where Manhattan Project and later Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hans Bethe lived, and operates the Los Alamos History Museum in the Los Alamos County-owned Los Alamos Ranch School Guest Cottage.

The stone Oppenheimer house

COURTESY PHOTO

The Oppenheimer house as it appeared in about 1930, when it served as the home for Los Alamos Ranch School art teacher May Connell.

was originally built for and to the specifications of May Connell, the art teacher at the Los Alamos Ranch School, which predated Los Alamos National Laboratory.

“The most striking feature is the living room,” said Cherie Trottier, the society’s past president and

Lawyer says surveillance camera flagged car in error, leading police to detain woman and 12-year-old

By Phaedra Haywood

phaywood@sfnewmexican.com

Two Rio Arriba County sisters have filed lawsuits against the city of Española, contending they were subjected to an illegal traffic stop after a surveillance camera mistakenly flagged their car as one that had been stolen in Rio Rancho.

Española police officers pulled the sisters over July 23 on Calle Duran after they had passed through an intersection equipped with a Flock Safety camera, which incorrectly flagged their car’s license plate as belonging to a stolen vehicle, according to the lawsuits.

The vehicle had a license plate one digit different from the stolen vehicle, car owner Jaclynn Gonzales says in her lawsuit, filed Jan. 3 in state District Court.

The plate number ended in 2, which the camera incorrectly read as 7, according to the complaint.

Gonzales is 21. Her 12-year-old sister, identified by the initials “DD” in a complaint filed by her mother, Janice Gonzales, was a passenger in the vehicle. In their separate lawsuits, the sisters said officers pulled the vehicle over and handcuffed them before placing them in the back of police vehicles prior to discovering the error.

Jaclynn Gonzales told one of the officers their mother lived nearby and asked if he would call her to come pick up the 12-year-old, her lawsuit says.

Instead, officers handcuffed the girl and put her in the back of a different police vehicle, according to the complaint.

The sisters are seeking an unspecified amount of damages, plus compensation for personal injuries including “anxiety, fear, worry and restriction of movement.”

Sheri Raphaelson, the sisters’ attorney, filed a similar complaint on behalf of a different plaintiff in April.

That lawsuit says Adam Pacheco was forced to exit his vehicle and kneel in the road with his hands on his head after he was mistakenly targeted as a suspect in an armed robbery.

In his case, an Española police officer determined the vehicle used in a robbery was a white Toyota Tacoma pickup with four doors, stickers on the back window and a New Mexico chile-themed license plate.

The officer then viewed surveillance video of a nearby intersection and spotted Pacheco’s vehicle — a white four-door pickup with one sticker on the back and a turquoise license plate — passing through, according to the lawsuit.

Despite the differences in the two vehicles, the lawsuit contends, the officer used license plate information taken from the surveillance video to create an alert, providing details about Pacheco’s truck, which was disseminated to other law enforcement agencies.

Pacheco — then 17 and an honor roll student at Pojoaque High School — was driving home from school when he was pulled over by a state police officer based on the faulty information, the lawsuit says.

Raphaelson said traffic surveillance cameras can lead to policing errors when they malfunction or when a human operator enters faulty information, or both.

“Both ways have happened and have resulted in improper traffic stops with innocent people being held at gunpoint,” she said.

The city of Española did not respond to a phone message seeking comment Monday.

Española Police Chief Mizel A. Garcia also did not respond to a phone message and email seeking information about the number and

Please see story on Page A-7

Please see story on Page A-7

Many in rural N.M. must go far afield for maternity, prenatal care Nearly 18% of state’s women live more than 30 minutes from facility set up for births

By Heerea Rikhraj

New Mexico In Depth

Christina spent much of 2023 traveling to Santa Fe for medical care during her pregnancy. She’d leave home about two hours before each doctor’s visit for the roughly 100-mile one way trip from her home in Mora County, in case accidents or construction caused traffic slowdowns.

Two years ago, she would have received her care 30 miles down the road at Alta Vista Hospital in Las Vegas, N.M. But the hospital closed its delivery care unit in June 2022.

“People say it’s because they weren’t

getting paid enough. I don’t really know why, but they closed,” said Christina, who asked New Mexico In Depth not to use her last name to protect her and her newborn’s privacy. “So I have to go to Santa Fe.” Her high-risk pregnancy forced the trip to Santa Fe three times a week in her final months, with transportation costs running about $150 a week.

The transportation was unhealthy, too.

“They tell you they don’t want you to sit that long, but what do you think I’m doing? Sitting,” she said.

Once at the hospital in Santa Fe, Christina sometimes waited up to 30 minutes to see a specialist. Now, with the birth of a healthy baby in November, the cycle has started over — long drives to Santa Fe for infant and mother checkups for another year.

Design and headlines: John R. Roby, jroby@sfnewmexican.com

Christina isn’t alone. Across the state, one in three New Mexico counties are “maternity care deserts,” according to a 2022 March of Dimes report on maternal care nationwide. Nearly 18% of women in New Mexico lack access to birthing hospitals within 30 minutes of where they live, compared with 9.7% nationally, according to the report.

In addition to Alta Vista, hospitals in Gallup and Artesia recently closed their birthing units, leaving 14 rural birthing hospitals across the state. Raton’s hospital is considering closing its delivery unit, according to a presentation by the New Mexico Hospital Association to the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee in September.

High costs not fully covered by Medicaid or other revenue sources are the chief challenge to sustaining rural hospitals and the specialized care

needed for delivering babies, hospital administrators told lawmakers at the September hearing.

“We’ve had several hospitals close their obstetrics wings, as a result of needing to make some changes for their own operating costs,” said Lorelei Kellogg, acting Medicaid director at the New Mexico Human Services Department.

Dwindling rural population When hospitals close their delivery units, there are cascading effects. Not only must women travel long distances to deliver their babies at a hospital, but access to care over the nine months of pregnancy also declines. That’s because Medicaid, the government run low-income health insurance program that covers more than 40% of New Mexico’s population, pays much less for pre-de-

livery care than the actual birth of a baby. When rural providers can’t count on income from the delivery of a baby at a nearby hospital, it becomes difficult for them to offer prenatal care.

A dwindling rural population lies at the root of hospital struggles to maintain birthing facilities.

According to New Mexico State University, 20 counties experienced significant population decline from 2010 to 2018, a trend that continues today.

Rural counties have aging populations and fewer births, making it difficult for hospitals to sustain specialized maternity care units.

In 2020, nine hospitals in rural New Mexico reported delivering fewer than 300 babies, which is considered low, said Troy Clark, executive director of Please see story on Page A-7 SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

LOCAL & REGION

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

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Many in rural N.M. go far afield for maternity, prenatal care Continued from Page A-6 The New Mexican

The Empty Stocking Fund is a long-standing project of The New Mexican. Each year, hundreds of people receive aid from the fund during the holiday season to help cover rent payments, medical bills, utility costs, car repairs, home improvements and other needs.

Who it helps: Applicants, who must live within 50 miles of Santa Fe and must provide documents that provide proof of their identity, are considered without regard to race, age, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. Applications are closed.

How it works: Applications for funding are vetted. Members of the Empty Stocking Committee review requests, meet with each qualifying applicant to examine records of outstanding bills or other needs.

If a request is approved, the committee sends a check directly to the service supplier.

Requests can be as much as $2,500 per household depending on the need.

2023 goal: $399,000.

This holiday charity project, which began in 1981, is jointly administered by the Santa Fe Community Foundation, Enterprise Bank and Trust, the Salvation Army, Presbyterian Medical Services, The Life Link, Habitat for Humanity, Esperanza Shelter, Youth Shelters and Family Services, Gerard’s House and a private individual.

To donate: Make your tax-deductible donation online by visiting santafenewmexican. com/empty_stocking or mail a check to The New Mexican’s Empty Stocking Fund c/o The Santa Fe Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1827, Santa Fe, 87504-1827.

Cash and coin donations are always welcome.

Those can be dropped off at the offices of the newspaper at 150 Washington Ave., Suite 206.

Donors can request to remain anonymous.

If you can provide a service such as roofing or home repairs, contact Habitat for Humanity at repairs@ santafehabitat.org. If you can contribute food, clothing, toys, housewares, furniture, firewood or other items or services, call the Salvation Army at 505-988-8054.

DONATIONS Anonymous: $1,030.93 Anonymous: $1,546.39 Anonymous: $2,000 Anonymous: $3,500 Anonymous: $5,000 Gail Rachor, in memory of Lane Brooks: $100 Philip O. and Maye Rivera: $100 Karen Rowell: $150 Santa Fe Vintage Car Club: $300 Stephen Schmelling and Carlotta Lockmiller: $250 Paul and Lee Wheless Scmidt: $2,500 Judith Seltzer: $50 Shaggy Peak Fund: $1,200 William Siegal and MaryEllen Collins: $500 Leslie Kendal Smith: $220 Marja Springer, in memory of my parents: $100 Elizabeth Stefanics and Linda Siegle: $500 Paul and Missy Stockton: $515.46 Janet Stoker: $25.77 Cumulative total: $412,441.11

Sisters sue Española Continued from Page A-6

location of the cameras.

Flock Safety did not respond to a call and email seeking comment.

According to the company’s website, the cost of the cameras varies depending on how they will be used. The company markets the devices to housing associations, schools, residential property managers and the health care industry as well as to police.

TAKEAWAYS ◆ Two Rio Arriba County sisters have filed a lawsuit against the city of Española, claiming they were subjected to an unlawful traffic stop due to an error made by a computerized surveillance system. ◆ A 12-year-old girl was handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle during the incident. ◆ An attorney representing the sisters filed a similar complaint on behalf another teenager earlier this year.

the New Mexico Hospital Association.

But to keep their birthing units open, hospitals need to maintain certain staff on hand regardless of how many babies they deliver.

“You don’t just need an obstetrics gynecologist to run a birthing center. You need anesthesiologists, nurse practitioners and family physicians to be available around the clock. And that cost adds up,” Clark said.

In short, it’s expensive to maintain a hospital birthing unit. When hospitals face hard choices to keep their doors open, they are more prone to shut down the more expensive services to maintain others.

Compounding growing financial stress, in 2020, rural hospitals began receiving less money from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge of the government’s health insurance programs for seniors and low-income people.

The agency instead began sending more money to high-volume hospitals as a response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Generally, hospitals rely on the agency’s payments to sustain their operations, as payment for providing Medicaid services in New Mexico isn’t enough to keep a hospital running. The change placed a financial strain on rural hospitals, which typically serve fewer patients than urban ones.

“Rural hospitals depended on a fixed payments system to survive. They are now in crisis,” said Christina Campos, the administrator at Guadalupe County Hospital.

In 2023, state lawmakers increased the rate paid to providers for Medicaid services, but the amounts still aren’t enough to cover hospital costs.

Finding money To shore up facilities still operating birthing units, the hospital association and the state Human Services Department want to leverage a federal matching program that gives hospitals $4 for every $1 raised by the state.

“We are roughly looking to raise somewhere between $300 million to $500 million in state funds for matching,” said Clark.

Kellogg said the funding scheme would require them to keep their birthing units open.

“That’s really the intention behind those supplemental payments,” she said. “The requirement, or the metric that’s tied to the supplemental ... payment is really that they cannot minimize their services.”

Health care administrators say it’s also important to increase Medicaid rates for prenatal care.

Right now, Medicaid pays for prenatal and delivery care together in one package.

Clinics and hospitals that provide both services to the same patient receive full payment from Medicaid.

Clinics that provide prenatal services sometimes shut down soon after delivery units close when they can no longer deliver babies at a nearby hospital. That was the case for Alumbra Women’s Health and Maternity Care center, a midwifery clinic based in Las Vegas, N.M., which shut down 15 months after Alta Vista Hospital first suspended its delivery care unit in 2016.

Connie Trujilio, the clinic’s founder and a certified nurse midwife from Las Vegas, used to provide prenatal services at her clinic and delivered babies at Alta Vista hospital.

When the delivery unit at Alta Vista unexpectedly shut down in 2016 because of lack of staff and a low demand for services, her patients had to travel to Santa Fe to deliver without Trujillo, who couldn’t sustain her practice from the low Medicaid payments for prenatal care. Alta Vista eventually reopened its delivery unit again in 2017 for a few years before permanently closing in 2022. But by 2018, Trujillo’s practice was already closed.

“We took care of so many people in Las Vegas, and it was just such a huge loss. I sometimes think of patients I’ve had for years and wonder, ‘Where are they getting care?’ ” Trujillo said.

One solution may be telehealth: using phones or the internet to offer prenatal care at home.

The Rural Ob Access & Maternal Service, or ROAMS for short, is a collaborative project of hospitals and clinics in northeastern New Mexico meant to increase access to prenatal care. It created a telehealth program in 2019 that uses computers or phones to connect health clinics and hospitals in Clayton, Raton, and Taos with women at home. It also deploys community health care workers who help pregnant women navigate various tasks like accessing transportation for appointments or ensuring they get the right nutrition. This is particularly important in rural New Mexico, where communities grapple with higher poverty rates.

According to Colleen Durocher, the executive director of ROAMS, the pro-

gram significantly increased the number of women receiving prenatal care through the Raton hospital, through a combination of telehealth visits during the pandemic, public education and services from community health workers.

Now, with a federal grant that supported ROAMS just ended, ROAMS is looking for how to keep its momentum going.

Because Medicaid payments for pregnancy and delivery are bundled together, health clinics that provide only prenatal care struggle to sustain their services.

“We need to look at untangling the global rate of reimbursements so that prenatal services are reimbursed properly,” Durocher said.

ROAMS is currently exploring how to offer telehealth to women with high-risk pregnancies. According to various studies, women in rural communities are prone to increased rates of high-risk pregnancies, which require visits to specialized doctors who in New Mexico are largely in urban areas.

Telehealth is capable of serving those with high-risk pregnancies, but it requires specialized equipment that rural communities usually don’t have.

As a result, women with higher-risk pregnancies, like Christina in Mora County, have to travel long distances for care.

Christina said had Alta Vista offered simply an ultrasound service, it would have been a big help.

“If that was closer, that would save you one trip right there,” she said. “One trip makes a difference; it costs money to go over there all the time.”

Marjorie Childress contributed to this report.

Guard helps rescue FUNERAL SERVICES AND MEMORIALS 3 hikers in Sandias RONALD RIGGS BALL

The New Mexican

A New Mexico National Guard air rescue team, with the help of New Mexico State Police and other agencies, rescued three people early Sunday after they lost their way in the Sandia Mountains.

Five National Guard members rescued two men and a woman off the La Luz Trail in the Sandia Mountain Wilderness five or six miles from the base of the mountain, the Guard announced in a news release Monday.

Ground search and rescue teams from multiple agencies had hiked to the party late Saturday night and determined the woman, unable to walk,

required a hoist rescue, according to the release. The National Guard crew arrived early Sunday morning in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, the release says, and lowered a medic, who put the woman in a warming bag to be lifted to the helicopter.

The woman was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital.

Simultaneously, New Mexico State Police had launched a helicopter to attempt a rescue, but it was unable to fly at a low enough level due to high winds, the release states.

Instead, the state police crew flew to a higher altitude and assisted in communication between the ground and the Black Hawk crew.

Record in sight as giving effort passes goal Continued from Page A-6

program for four years.

The program serves people in need who reside within a 50-mile radius of downtown Santa Fe. This season, the Empty Stocking Fund has covered housing expenses of all stripes, from

payments for rent and mortgage costs to motel stays to repairs for trucks and vans that serve as temporary housing.

On Valentine’s Day, the newspaper will run a list of Empty Stocking Fund donors over several pages to express its gratitude to the community for helping support the program.

Oppenheimer’s crumbling cottage Continued from Page A-6

chairperson of the Oppenheimer Renovation Fund. “It has a great north-facing window.”

The Oppenheimer house has deteriorated across 95 years and has seen little structural upkeep over the decades.

The historical society has owned the 1,200-square-foot house since 2020 after Helene Suydam, who had owned the house with her husband, Jerry Suydam, for more than 50 years, died at age 100. The historical society had worked with the Suydams since 2000 to arrange the eventual transfer of the house, paying them a small amount each month until 2008.

“We had made repairs when things needed repairing,” Trottier said. But when the historical society took ownership, “We did a total inspection and became aware of what needed to be done. We need major renovations and repairs and upgrades.”

There are exposed wires, and the entire electrical system needs to be replaced. The society also discovered a feeble foundation underneath the house.

“You had stacked stones underneath,” Trottier said. “The stacked stones had fallen. The wood crossbars were eaten by termites.”

How is the house still stand-

ing? “Very carefully,” Trottier said.

The historical society is collaborating with MASS Historic Architects and expert restoration professionals to restore the house.

“In order to fix the foundation, they have to take out the wooden floor,” she said. “They have to dig out two-three feet of dirt and put in a helical pier [or screw piles to secure a new foundation]. They have to put in new cross beams.”

Future phases of work will likely include replacing the roof. The plumbing, heating and other mechanical systems also need attention. The historical society hopes to achieve those restorations with $2 million.

“We’re just getting started with fundraising,” said Leslie Linke, head of the Los Alamos Historical Society.

The historical society announced the major campaign in mid-December but has an event planned April 22 for Oppenheimer’s birthday.

The group has raised $111,000 through its website at tinyurl. com/2n2h34ht. Since Oct. 25, it has also raised $1,125 from seven donors through a GoFundMe page, tinyurl.com/mpt3nfxw.

“We are also talking to state and federal people to get some grants and historical restoration grants,” Linke said.

Ronald Riggs Ball, born May 20, 1940, in Colby, KS, passed from this life to be with the Lord on November 23, 2023. Surrounded by his loving family, he passed in comfort and with dignity according to his wishes in his home in Santa Fe, NM. Ron devoted his life to providing for his family. He deeply desired to offer his wife, Jean, and his three children the best life he possibly could. He was a hard and dedicated worker, entrepreneur, investor, and saver. He grew up in Boulder, CO, and told a story about the first time he got a paycheck when he was eight years old, which spurred his ambition to succeed.

Ron started his career with Safeway grocery stores in Denver, Colorado, where he managed several stores in the Denver area in the late sixties and early seventies. In 1974, the family moved to Santa Fe, NM, where Ron’s wife, Jean Egenhofer, was born and raised. Here, Ron nurtured his desire for investing and entrepreneurship. While working for Safeway in Santa Fe, he also started selling real estate and looking for “fixer-uppers” to invest in.

Ron was a Realtor from 1976 through the early 2000s, initially working with Barker Realty, then brokering his own agencies, Coronado Investment Realty and Ball Realty. He earned his Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI) and Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) designations. He was on the Board of Directors for the Santa Fe Board of Realtors from 1985–1989 and held several offices, including Board President in 1989. He also served as Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, MLS Chairman, Chairman of the Grievance Committee, and served on the Professional Standards Committee for the Santa Fe Board of Realtors. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Realtors Association of New Mexico, serving as the State Board Services Chairman and the State MLS Chairman. He was exofficial Director of the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce and served on the Community Advisory Board for the New Mexico Federal Savings and Loan.

Ron was active with the Boy Scouts as a volunteer leader and a member of the Order of the Arrow. Ron was also a proud and active member of the Scottish and York Rite Masonic organizations, a Shriner inducted in Denver and Santa Fe, and held the designation of 50-year member.

Ron attained his goals toward success and supported his family with the best life! He loved his family dearly. A lifelong learner, Ron encouraged the best formal education possible for his children and grandchildren. He also loved to share his lifetime of personal wisdom with family and friends. Ron loved people and loved being surrounded by friends and family. He and Jean traveled the world together for many years, often with family and friends, visiting six continents and scores of countries, and toured the U.S. in their motor home.

When Ron’s wife of 60 years passed unexpectedly in the summer of 2022, Ron was deeply grieved.

Later in life, he referred to her as his guardian angel. He found solace in the First Presbyterian Church of Santa Fe and attended multiple events each week for the last year of his life.

He was preceded in death by his devoted wife of sixty years, Jean Ann Egenhofer Ball, his parents Harold F. Ball and Virginia M. Brown, both of Denver, CO, and his brother Fred Ball. He is survived by his three children and their spouses, Tim and Mary Ann Ball of Elizabeth, CO; Susan and Andy Ortiz of Santa Fe; and Chris and Amy Ball of Chapin, SC; eight grandchildren, Jessica, Justin (Leah), Ryan, Steven, Matthew, Andy, Nicholas (Kaylie), and Brian; five great-grandchildren; and his sister Tami Kessler (Drew) of Denver.

A service will be held on Friday, January 12, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 208 Grant Ave., Santa Fe, NM. All are welcome to attend.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to: Shriners Hospitals for Children 2900 Rocky Point Drive Tampa, FL 33607 US OR https://www.shrinerschildrens.org

CELIA GUTIERREZ

DENNIS RODRIGUEZ

Celia Gutierrez, 96, passed from this life to be with the Lord on November 27, 2023, in Santa Fe, NM. She was born on June 14, 1927, in Rowe, New Mexico, to the late George and Elvira Gutierrez. She is preceded in death by her parents, sister Agatha Vigil (Epitacio Sr.), brother Fred Gutierrez (Aureila), nephew Anthony Gutierrez, and great niece Yvonne Vigil.

Celia graduated from Santa Fe High School. She retired from the First National Bank of Santa Fe and the Archdiocese of

Santa Fe Seminary.

Celia found solace, inspiration, and community as a choir member at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi for many years and at St. Anne’s Parish.

She traveled around the world on many adventures. She enjoyed traveling, music, reading, and watching sports. She was an avid Dallas Cowboy and Notre Dame fan.

She is survived by Delia Cisneros, her niece and caretaker, nephews Tommy Vigil (Ramona), Pete Vigil (Bell), Joseph Gutierrez, nieces Anna Soveranez, Rosina Duran, Viola Trujillo, Carmen Vigil, and many cousins of the Herrera family, many great nieces and nephews.

Services will be on January 12, 2024, at St. Anne’s Catholic Church, Santa Fe, NM; rosary at 10:00 a.m., mass at 11:00 a.m., and interment at Rosary Cemetery. Reception to follow at St. Anne’s Parish Hall.

November 28, 1954 December 28, 2023 Santa Fe—Dennis Gregory Rodriguez passed away peacefully in the presence of his family on the morning of December 28, 2023.

Full obituary: https://rivera.mykeeper.com/p rofile/Dennis- Rodriguez1/

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Tuesday, January 9, 2024

OPINION

M Y VIEW BOB L ARSEN

M Y VIEW KHALIL SPENCER

Vote, so women can make their own choices

Red flag laws must protect individual rights I

H

ow soon we forget. An all-male commission in Hobbs voted unanimously to ban abortion clinics from its city in the later part of 2022 (“Hobbs passes law blocking abortion clinics within city,” Nov. 9, 2022). More than a year has passed, and no one still mentions this “Hobbesian” vote by a bunch of selfish, unrestrained and uncivilized commissioners.

The year 2023 was not a great one for abortion rights across America. Next door in the state of Texas, the Republican governor, known for his dislike of immigrants as well, tried to force a woman to maintain a likely unviable and dangerous pregnancy. Some folks would like to create sanctuaries for the

unborn. How about creating respect and support for the living?

A state-of-the-art women’s hospital opened during my medical training at Northwestern in Chicago. One floor of a major hospital was designed pre-Roe for the care of sepsis (blood poisoning) in women. There were that many illegal, botched abortions taking place. No one likes abortion. Not the doctors performing the procedure, not the nurses assisting, nor the women asking to undergo the abortion. But women will get abortions, even if it’s illegal.

I support Planned Parenthood. I’m for safe, legal access to women’s health care. I sup-

port sex education, effective birth control, family planning, sterilization that includes vasectomies and therapeutic abortion. I hear it said, “We’ll take care of the child.” No, you won’t, nor will I. The Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson will result in many poor women suffering unnecessarily. It happened because of elections. Don’t forget to vote in 2024. I’m in solidarity with all who express the Libertarian position on abortion. “It’s not your business.” It’s between a woman, her partner, her doctor and her God. Dr. Bob Larsen, MPH, is a retired doctor living in Santa Fe.

M Y VIEW ROBERT E. ROSS

Courts should decide ballot fitness O ur system of government in the U.S. is popularly referred to as “democracy.” This is a partial truth. Our system is better represented by the word “republic.”

A republican (small “r”) form of government is a blending of three classical types: monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. The monarchical (autocratic) dimension in our system is the presidency and executive. The aristocratic component is the Senate (sixyear terms) and the Supreme Court (lifetime terms). The democratic dimension is the House of Representatives (two-year terms).

Representatives have to be frequently reelected by a broad constituency of the common people (In Greek, demos).

Why do we blend these three types of rule? It is because each by itself is limited and faulty. Monarchy allows too much power in too few hands. And there is generally no dependable method of choosing a successor.

The autocrat commonly chooses his/her successor, which often makes it a family member of considerably less acumen. Aristocratic rule by the educated and wealthier classes can lead to oligarchy (rule by the wealthy) and a failure to address the needs of the broader public. Pure democratic

rule places political decisions with people who often do not have the education or experience to make statesmanlike choices. A constitutional republic attempts to balance these differing domains of rule. It is generally considered the best form of government. It is at times hard to maintain. The Romans had a republic for 500 years, then devolved into an empire led by autocrats.

Right now, we see people on various ends of the political spectrum — even liberals!

— claiming it would be better for someone to be excluded from office via popular vote than via legal disqualification. They think a democratic rejection is superior to an aristocratic/judicial rejection. This perspective is hazardously misguided.

The courts are better qualified to decide if someone is guilty of unconstitutional behavior than is the general voting public.

Judges have studied the law and Constitution in depth. Most of the public have little grasp of either. We need to remember that this is not a case of criminal trial. The person is disqualified from running, not incarcerated or fined. The criterion of “beyond a reasonable doubt” does not apply here. We need only a preponderance of evidence. And we have that in spades. The case is not murky.

A presidential candidate has been judged by a state Supreme Court to be guilty of abetting an insurrection against the U.S. Constitution (after having vowed to protect it). The court has judged, per the 14th Amendment, that this person is ineligible to be on the ballot. Most commentators agree this is a correct judicial ruling; but inconsistently, they opine it would be better to allow this candidate to run and be rejected by the electorate than legally excluded.

This rates the judgment of the broad public on this matter above that of the judiciary. But these are equally valid constituents of our system. We have professional judges in part to correct for weaknesses in popular judgement.

The judiciary has a protective role to play in excluding unambiguously inappropriate candidates. The people, or the demos, with their limited understanding, might elect someone unfit. They have done it before.

We benefit from a balance of powers in government. At this juncture, the judicial exclusion of an insurrectionist from ballots nationwide is correct and desirable. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court must step up.

Robert E. Ross, Ph.D., is a retired teacher who lives in Santa Fe.

M Y VIEW DAYAN HO CHMAN-VIGIL

Time right for state Transportation Trust Fund

I

n the history of the state of New Mexico, we have never seen a budget surplus as high as we have this year. This $3.8 billion surplus creates a once in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest in transformative projects that could change the economic trajectory of our state.

Transportation infrastructure is one such project that the Legislature should seriously consider. Infrastructure is not as “sexy,” interesting or politically rewarding as other possible projects — but the investment in road and transit infrastructure will positively impact every aspect of New Mexicans’ lives, including quality of life (being able to get to and from work, to appointments, for medical needs), economic development (attracting companies, people and jobs), visitors and tourism, and future growth opportunities.

Without significant infrastructure investment and development, we will compromise the economic future of New Mexico.

For these reasons, I will be introducing a bill this legislative session that will create the New Mexico Transportation Trust Fund. The fund would be developed with a one-time appropriation of nonrecurring money from the state General Fund. That money will be

invested by the State Investment Council, the income from which will be accessible by the New Mexico Department of Transportation. Money in the trust fund will be used primarily for construction, maintenance and other transportation projects prioritized and approved by the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

New Mexico’s roads and highways are in constant need of maintenance, updates and construction. New Mexico’s multimodal (rail, air and bus) projects are also in need of additional investment and updates, and this fund will provide an ongoing revenue stream to ensure there is adequate funding for the state’s transportation infrastructure needs even in years when the state does not have a budget surplus.

The quality of our roads, the efficiency of crews to salt and de-ice roads during weather incidents, and the ability to complete quick road repairs are needs rarely thought about but remain crucial functions provided by state government for every single New Mexican.

We must take steps now to guarantee these critical needs can always be met.

Another critical use for the annual proceeds from the Transportation Trust Fund is

the funding of other priorities that arise from time to time, such as green transit projects.

As New Mexico transitions to carbon neutrality, public transit will pay a key part to achieving net-zero emissions.

This additional funding stream would allow public transit providers to expand their weekday and weekend hours, reducing vehicle traffic and increasing public safety.

It would also allow providers to upgrade or expand fleets to make public transportation a more comfortable, convenient, attractive and reliable solution for New Mexicans’ transportation needs.

In an age when Americans seem to be more divided than ever, the Transportation Trust Fund is a bipartisan initiative that has received support from legislators across the state. It is important we get this done now while we have a large surplus. And, most importantly, this fund will make a permanent difference in how New Mexicans use, envision and define infrastructure funding and development. I look forward to seeing it signed into law.

State Rep. Dayan Hochman-Vigil represents District 15 in Bernalillo County.

n its editorial (“New Mexico’s red flag law can be stronger,” Our View, Nov. 12) last year, The New Mexican omitted the need for due process as well as the need to facilitate the use of the state’s Extreme Risk Protection Order, or red flag law. A revised law should include both a right to counsel for those who cannot afford a lawyer, and employ the “clear and convincing” evidence standard when issuing a yearlong gun-removal order.

In the current law, there is no right to court-appointed counsel for those who cannot afford a lawyer. Yes, there is no current legal requirement under the rules of civil proceedings, but unlike any other civil proceeding, an Extreme Risk Protection Order proceeding strips a person of an enumerated constitutional right.

As Andrew Willinger of the Duke Firearms Law Center notes, “The question of whether to provide counsel in all ERPO proceedings is a legitimate area of policy debate.” In a legal critique of an early Rhode Island red flag bill, the Rhode Island ACLU stated, “Without the presence of counsel, individuals who have no intent to commit violent crimes could nonetheless unwittingly incriminate themselves regarding lesser offenses.”

The current law also can deprive individuals of their rights to own a gun on the simple “preponderance of evidence” standard, which is the lowest of the standards usually used in court proceedings, below “beyond a reasonable doubt” and “clear and convincing.” A person without a lawyer not only has to face a system with which the person

is most likely unfamiliar, but an evidence standard that can deprive a citizen of an enumerated right by a standard of evidence barely better than a coin flip. And what judge wants to be wrong when faced with a possible shooting, and thus err on the side of public safety?

In contrast to our law, a model federal red flag bill, House Resolution 2377, had both a higher standard of proof, the “clear and convincing” standard and a right to counsel, as does a model Cato Institute version of such a law. The higher burden of proof is present in a fair number of other state red flag laws as well.

As the Rhode Island ACLU said about the bill it criticized, and which is true of red flag laws in general, “The heart of the legislation’s ERPO process requires speculation — on the part of both the petitioner and judges — about an individual’s risk of possible violence. But psychiatry and the medical sciences have not succeeded in this realm, and there is no basis for believing courts will do any better. The result will likely be a significant impact on the rights of many innocent individuals in the hope of preventing a tragedy.”

Therefore, we need to ensure not only that a red flag law can be more effectively and efficiently utilized when needed, but also that “the rights of innocent individuals” are protected as well. We need to pay attention to both these concepts when the Legislature looks once again at a red flag bill.

Khalil Spencer is a Santa Fe resident and a member of the board of directors of the Los Alamos Sportsman’s Club. Opinions are his.

M Y VIEW MARIA DURAN

For New Mexicans, paid family medical leave would be lifeline

I

support paid family medical leave. Let me tell you my story.

Some time ago, I needed paid family medical leave when my son got sick. He had to get several surgeries, and I couldn’t be with him because I wasn’t able to take the time off of work.

If paid family medical leave passes in the upcoming legislative session, New Mexico workers will receive 12 weeks of paid time off that workers can use to take care of themselves or loved ones. When my son was sick, he had to travel to Utah to get surgeries and spent three months there. If I had 12 weeks of paid leave to take care of him, I would have been able to spend almost that entire time with him while he was out of state. But I couldn’t because I had to work to support my family.

I provide financial support to my two sons, one of whom lives in Mexico. When my son was deported, he was separated from his two young children, my grandkids, whom I also support. Providing financial support to my family members is something I do happily and proudly, and it is also something that could be much less strenuous for me if I had access to paid family medical leave.

Those of us in situations where a single income supports an entire network of loved ones feel the heavy weight of financial responsibility. When my son faced medical challenges requiring surgeries, it wasn’t just his well-being at stake — it was our ability to stay afloat as a family.

My story isn’t isolated but reflects the lived experience of many families across New Mexico. Families with elderly parents, children with health challenges or loved ones facing medical crises all share the same struggle. The choice between a paycheck and being available to care for a loved one in their time of need should never be one anyone has to make. That’s why it’s so important for the Legislature to enact 12 weeks of paid family medical leave for all New Mexico families.

We know we can afford to pass this legislation because it will be set up as a fund that both employers and employees will contribute to. It’s an investment in the well-being of our workforce, recognizing that healthy, supported employees are more productive and resilient.

We have a chance to ensure families don’t face the same difficult choices that mine and so many others have. I urge our legislators to see the countless stories behind the need for this policy. It’s time to give families the chance to prioritize their loved ones without sacrificing their financial stability. New Mexico can lead the way in supporting its citizens during pivotal moments in their lives.

Let’s make paid family medical leave a reality and ensure no one has to choose between their paycheck and their family again.

Maria Duran is a mother living in Albuquerque and a member of the grassroots organizing group OLÉ.

WRITE US Send letters, preferably on local topics, up to one a month. Include your name, street address and daytime phone number for verification purposes. We edit all letters for style, grammar and factual content.

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Tuesday, January 9, 2024

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OUR VIEW

The legislative session looms: Get informed

T

he legislative session begins next week — and the laws passed there make a difference in the lives of all New Mexicans. That’s why it’s wise to find out what is going to be proposed before the bills are introduced, the committees begin meeting and floor debates start.

Locally, our legislative delegation works hard to meet with citizens, understanding that they need to explain what’s going on and listen to the opinions of voters as they go about their business. Town hall meetings are an opportunity to get up to speed.

During a short legislative session — 30 days — the kind that opens next week, the main order of business is financial, primarily to pass a balanced budget. But other issues always intrude on the finances. What will those be? The Santa Fe legislative delegation knows the answers to that question, and will spend two nights this week discussing what to expect.

From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Senate

Majority Leader Peter Wirth, Sen. Liz Stefanics and Rep. Matthew McQueen will discuss issues at the Max Coll Corridor Community Center, 16 Avenida Torreon in Eldorado.

The town hall is aimed at Eldorado/U.S. 285/Lamy and Galisteo communities, but all are welcome. From 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Wirth, Sen. Nancy Rodriguez and State Reps. Reena Szczepanski, Tara Lujan, Linda Serrato and Andrea Romero will meet with people at the Santa Fe Farmers Market Pavilion, 1607 Paseo de Peralta.

The sessions offer insight into what issues will be debated and how citizens can influence the outcome so their wishes are heard.

For legislators, it’s a chance to hear directly from citizens. That’s essential in a representative democracy.

For people who can’t make the meetings, there are online programs that give insight into the sausage-making that is passing laws.

The Conversations Different podcast airing this week (find it at santafenewmexican.

com) from The New Mexican features former state Sen. Dede Feldman and retired journalist Steve Terrell, longtime state government reporter. They’ll be discussing the power of lobbyists, specifically in reference to the difficulty New Mexico has had in increasing the excise tax on alcoholic drinks. The tax hasn’t been raised in decades, even as New Mexico continues to have the highest rate of alcohol-related deaths in the nation.

House Speaker Javier Martinez appears on Blue Opiñon, a production of the state Democratic Party, hosted by party chairwoman Jessica Velasquez. It can be viewed on YouTube.

On the episode, he discusses what’s ahead for the session and delves into the dynamics of his caucus. The virtual outreach isn’t limited to Democrats, of course.

Paul Gessing, head of conservative think tank the Rio Grande Foundation, recently visited No Doubt About It, the podcast hosted by former GOP candidate Mark

eVOICES

CO M M E N TA RY J E N N I F E R RU B I N

Views from the web

Santa Fe city councilor pulls resolution opposing plutonium pit production at LANL, Jan. 4 Maybe the sponsors of these resolutions should invite all the people who would lose their jobs to opine on this idea.”

Khal Spencer As a long-retired LANL employee, I would cheerfully endorse shutting down LANL, which I came to realize was a $8-9 trillion extortion racket. I consider LANL as a danger to our country, even more than just our state.”

Chris Mechels Really? Jamie Cassutt, having grown up here, does not realize the hazards of nuclear storage, let alone nuclear bomb making? She needs more time to study the matter?

Seems like she got marching orders from Webber to backtrack ASAP.” Stefanie Beninato

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THE PAST 100 YEARS From The Santa Fe New Mexican: Jan. 9, 1924: E. Las Vegas, N. Mex., Jan. 9 — General business in Las Vegas is encouraging and bank deposits recently have been showcasing a substantial increase, according to a report submitted at the annual meeting of the stockholders of the First National Bank of Las Vegas yesterday.

Jan. 9, 1974: The Public Service Commission today issued an order allowing the Public Service Company of New Mexico to charge higher rates to water users in Santa Fe. Under the order, a resident using an average of 18,220 gallons a month will find his monthly bill up from $7.98 to $8.73.

Jan. 9, 1999: Within a week, 50 animals on Danny Martinez’s Jacona farm have been torn apart by a pack of dogs. Only two piglets that hid under a pile of straw survived the two separate attacks. The most recent attack on Martinez’s 3-acre property, which he has owned for more than 20 years, happened Friday afternoon. “It looks like more than just the work of a dog; it looks like a wild creature did it,” Martinez said.

WRITE US Send letters, preferably on local topics, up to one a month. Include your name, street address and daytime phone number for verification purposes. We edit all letters for style, grammar and factual content. Send letters using the online form at santafenewmexican.com.

Tweet thoughts about local issues to @inezrussell or @thenewmexican.

Ronchetti and his wife, Krysty. Part of the discussion concerns electric vehicle mandates, but the trio also discuss what is likely to happen during the upcoming session.

State Republican Party chairman Steve Pearce also has a podcast, Inside New Mexico, that likely will feature discussions of the session. These all are available wherever you get your podcasts.

The Republican legislative delegation is reviving its podcast, Real NM, and will kick off its latest rendition with a Facebook live broadcast beginning 11 a.m. Tuesday. Sen. Craig Brandt will host the first episode. The podcast will be updated regularly during the session.

In short, there’s little excuse not to become informed. You can show up at a town hall and address legislators in person, or you can educate yourself by listening to podcasts and, of course, reading newspapers. For government to work, citizens must be informed. So get out there and find out what this legislative session means to you.

LE T TERS T O THE EDIT OR

U.S. must accept facts of Jan. 6

O

n the third anniversary of the assault on the Capitol, my mind goes back to a college classmate from years ago who habitually used the phrase “I can’t accept the fact that …” in discussion. Increasingly annoyed, a teacher finally snapped, “No, no, Mr. ___, you must accept the facts!” (Mr. ___ soon found another phrase.)

A disturbing number of Americans believe President Joe Biden wasn’t legitimately elected and think that the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks were “just a peaceful protest.”

That can happen when one trusts misinformation spread by the former president and his supporters. However, wherever there have been genuine, evidence-based hearings such as those held recently by the Colorado district court and the

Maine secretary of state, the facts appear as they are: the Jan. 6 attack was an unprecedented, violent, illegal attempt to destroy our democracy.

Regarding the Jan. 6 attack, we must accept the facts.

Grant Franks

Santa Fe

Release hostages being held in Gaza On Oct. 7, Hamas triggered the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. In a single day, Gazans tortured, raped and slaughtered over 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped around 250 to underground Gazan prisons. Approximately 138 hostages are thought to be still alive. Civilians held captive included families, children, festival-goers, peace activists, caregiv-

ers and older adults. Some of the hostages are or were from France, Germany, Nepal, the Philippines, Russia, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

Human Rights Watch and others call for the immediate and unconditional release of all the hostages, citing the atrocity as a war crime.

The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam of 1990 declared: “Taking hostages under any form or for any purpose is expressly forbidden.”

Civilized people around the world are calling for the unconditional release of these hostages and the bodies of the hostages already killed. This is the correct first step to resolve this war.

Raymond Singer

Santa Fe

M Y V I E W A M Y B O N N ET T

N.M. needs tiered acupuncture licenses

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am writing in support of establishing tiered acupuncture licensure in New Mexico.

Requiring that all acupuncturists take herb classes in acupuncture school and have passed the national boards in herbology is limiting acupuncturists from practicing in New Mexico.

New Mexico does not have enough acupuncturists now to fill the healthcare needs of our population. In Rio Rancho where I practice, there are only three fulltime acupuncturists and one parttime practitioner for a population of 100,000 people. I frequently am unable to schedule a new patient for two months.

Because of the closure of the only acupuncture school in New Mexico,

I am greatly concerned about the future of acupuncture here. New Mexico’s rules and regulations for acupuncture licensure are stricter than most other states. An applicant for doctor of Oriental medicine is required to pass acupuncture school with thousands of hours of school and training, pass five national board exams of which herbology is just one, and then pass a practical exam and jurisprudence exam for New Mexico.

In the past, I have had to turn away job applicants from other states for not having the herb requirements for our licensure. At this point, I have stopped hiring because no one locally is looking for an acupuncture job, and outof-state applicants typically do not

Editorial page editor: Inez Russell Gomez, 505-986-3053, igomez@sfnewmexican.com, Twitter @inezrussell

qualify. I also know multiple people who are licensed acupuncturists from other states who live here and cannot practice due to our rules and regulations regarding the herbology requirement.

Creating a tiered licensure would not create any safety issues for the public as licensed acupuncturists have the majority of training in common with a doctor of Oriental medicine.

Even though I have my doctor of Oriental medicine license in New Mexico, I would not hesitate to consider hiring or being treated by a licensed acupuncturist.

Dr. Amy Bonnett is a licensed doctor of Oriental medicine who practices in Rio Rancho.

Biden lays out election stakes

f nervous Democrats had any doubts, President Biden made crystal clear with his kickoff ad and speech in Blue Bell, Pa., that this election is about democracy vs. dictatorship, the Constitution vs. the cult of personality, and the rule of law vs. the rule of the mob.

In remarks Friday, Biden did not hold back. He made clear that the election is about our “sacred cause” — democracy — and reminded voters that George Washington voluntarily gave up power: “In America, genuine leaders — democratic leaders, with a small d — don’t hold on to power relentlessly. Our leaders return power to the people, and they do it willingly because that’s the deal.”

Put differently, what makes us great is our democracy, and democracies reject those would-be dictators who cling to power in defiance of the people’s will.

Biden was as biting and aggressive toward former President Donald Trump as we have heard. “I had won the election, and he was a loser,” Biden asserted in a made-forbumper-sticker turn of phrase. (Some lines were ruthlessly candid: “Trump is trying to steal history the same way he tried to steal the election.”)

“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him. Not America.

Not you,” Biden warned. “Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power.” Biden reminded voters that Trump has picked up where he left off, beginning his “2024 campaign by glorifying the failed violent insurrectionist, insurrection at our, on our Capitol.” He all but called Trump a coward guilty of betraying his oath. “[Trump] retreated to The White House. As America was attacked from within, Donald Trump watched on TV in the private small dining room off ... the Oval Office,” Biden noted. “The entire nation watched in horror, the whole world watched in disbelief, and Trump did nothing.”

Biden also elaborated on another theme, less widely discussed: Trump’s dark, fearful and negative view of America. “We get up. We carry on. ... We speak of possibilities, not carnage,” the president said, alluding to Trump’s inauguration speech. “We’re not weighed down by grievances.

We don’t foster fear. We don’t walk around as victims. We take charge of our destiny.”

He added: “We don’t believe, none of you believe, America is failing. We know America is winning. That’s American patriotism.”

In (accurately) defining Trump as hostile to our democracy and ethos, Biden puts himself and everyone, including “mainstream Republicans,” within the American democratic tradition; Biden makes the case that Trump’s persona and views are alien, weird and dangerous. It’s a compelling message because it is so obviously true.

No rational person imagines Biden would use the military to crush dissent. And no honest one would deny Trump tried it already and announced he would do so again. No rational person could envision Biden calling the mob to the Capitol if he lost; no honest one can forget Trump did nor would be shocked if he tried again.

There is no legitimate argument about what Trump wants. He has told us. Former Washington Post editor Martin Baron recently said: “He’s the only politician I’ve heard actually talk about suspending the Constitution. He’s talked about using the military to suppress entirely legitimate protests using the Insurrection Act. He’s talked about bringing treason charges against the then-outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. He’s talked about bringing treason charges against Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC. He’s talked explicitly about weaponizing the government against his political enemies. And, of course, he continues to talk about crushing an independent press.”

Reporting that the contest is between a pro-democracy candidate and an authoritarian candidate hardly counts as editorializing, then. To describe it in any way other than as a fight between a creepy, dark, authoritarian view and an optimistic, authentically American outlook would be misleading voters, an distortion meant to conceal Trump’s true nature and plans. There can be no confusion about which candidate seeks to impose “authoritarianism.”

Now is no time to feign “objectivity” or indifference to the election result. When the essence of democracy is at stake, Margaret Sullivan recently asked, “Can the political media in America get that reality across? Or will their addiction to ‘horserace’ coverage prevail?”

Biden is doing his part; now the voters and the media must do theirs.

Jennifer Rubin is a Washington Post columnist.

SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

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THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

ALMANAC

Midnight through 6 p.m. Monday

Santa Fe Area .Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.25" .... .Month . . . . . to . . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.47" .... . . . . .to Year . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.47" ....

AREA RAINFALL

Albuquerque Area .Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.02" .... . . . . . . to Month . . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.29" ....

Tonight

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28

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POLLEN COUNTS Santa Fe .Severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.9, . . . .Low ... .Allergens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Juniper ......

Albuquerque .Severity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.9, . . . .Low ...

Allergens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Juniper ......

Source: https://pollen.com

TODAY'S UV INDEX + 10 8 6 4 2 0

Extreme Very High High Moderate Low

The UV index forecasts the ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun. The higher the number the more risk of sun damage to your skin.

28 / 6

Humidity (Noon)

Sunny.

Sunday

Mostly Sunny.

24 / 10

Mostly Cloudy.

31 / 18

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Partly Cloudy.

34 / 22

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32 / 18

Humidity (Noon)

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71%

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Wind: WNW 15 mph

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Wind: NW 15 mph

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NEW MEXICO WEATHER

NATIONAL WEATHER

Shown is today's weather. Temperatures are today's highs and tonight's lows.

Taos 27 / 6

Farmington 31 / 10

San Francisco 59/46

Las Vegas 38 / 17

Pecos 33 / 16 Albuquerque 38 / 17

Truth or Consequences 48 / 25

Sillver City 41 / 23

St. Louis 42/26

Albuquerque 38/17 Phoenix 55/33

New Orleans 54/37

Mérida 91/73

Guadalajara 76/52 Mexico City 71/55

Hobbs 48 / 30 -0s

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Carlsbad 52 / 30

52° in Jal -1° in Dulce

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Yesterday Today Tomorrow Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W City

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Jet Stream

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Stationary

The Northeast will see mostly cloudy skies with scattered showers and isolated snow, highest temperature of 61 in Salisbury, Md. The Southeast will experience cloudy skies with scattered showers and thunderstorms, highest temperature of 83 in Gifford, Fla. In the Northwest there will be partly to mostly cloudy skies with isolated rain and snow, highest temperature of 52 in Coos Bay, Ore. The Southwest will see partly cloudy skies with isolated rain and snow, highest temperature of 65 in Fullerton, Calif.

53/31 s 42/23 s 26/7 pc 62/38 s 63/38 s 28/11 mc 35/16 s 40/21 s 35/20 s 52/26 s 33/21 s 55/31 s 36/17 s 34/20 pc 53/25 s 35/17 s 39/19 s 60/36 s 57/34 s

Las Vegas Lordsburg Los Alamos Los Lunas Portales Raton Red River Rio Rancho Roswell Ruidoso Santa Rosa Silver City Socorro T or C Taos Tucumcari Univ. Park White Rock Zuni

Yesterday Today Tomorrow Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W 29/19 mc 38/17 s 22/15 s 43/20 s 28/20 sn 27/13 s 39/28 s 38/15 s 43/27 sn 46/29 s 27/19 sn 34/16 s 22/12 mc 23/5 s 30/21 mc 36/17 s 47/33 pc 53/27 s 27/18 rs 39/23 s 36/26 sn 38/25 s 33/22 s 41/23 s 39/31 pc 46/21 s 40/25 s 48/25 s 29/16 sn 27/6 s 31/24 sn 40/22 s 42/26 pc 47/25 s 28/20 sn 29/10 s 27/13 mc 31/11 s

37/19 s 52/26 s 32/20 s 44/21 s 55/27 s 35/15 s 24/8 pc 38/21 s 60/33 s 45/28 s 44/26 s 44/26 s 50/25 s 57/34 s 30/13 pc 46/25 s 57/34 s 33/19 s 37/19 s

Jan. 9, 1888 - Severe cold gripped much of the western United States. At Portland, Ore., the Columbia River was frozen for two weeks. In Southern California, temperatures dipped below freezing in some of the citrus growing areas.

NATIONAL EXTREMES MONDAY High

95° in Falcon Village, Texas

NIGHT SKY

Low

-25° in Mackay, Idaho

Sunrise Today Wednesday Thursday

Mercury 7:13 a.m.

7:13 a.m.

7:13 a.m.

Rise Set

5:32 a.m.

3:28 p.m.

5:07 p.m.

5:08 p.m.

5:09 p.m.

Rise Set

Mars

4:36 a.m.

2:37 p.m.

Rise Set

6:16 a.m.

3:53 p.m.

5:44 a.m.

6:49 a.m.

7:46 a.m.

Rise Set

12:24 p.m.

--

3:07 p.m.

4:12 p.m.

5:25 p.m.

Rise Set

Uranus

9:45 a.m.

8:42 p.m.

Rise Set

1:01 p.m.

--

Sunset Today Wednesday Thursday Today Wednesday Thursday

WIND TRACKER

Moonset Today Wednesday Thursday

8 p.m.

2 a.m. Wed.

New Jan. 11

First Q. Jan. 17

Venus

Jupiter

Moonrise

Weather (w): cl-cloudy, fg-fog, hz-haze, mc-mostly cloudy, pc-partly cloudy, r-rain, rs-rain & snow, s-sunny, sh-showers, sn-snow, ss-snow showers, t-thunderstorms

2 p.m.

Cancún 84/78

WEATHER HISTORY

NEW MEXICO CITIES

8 a.m. Tue.

Miami 80/66

Fronts: Rain

High Low

Atlanta 60/33

Dallas 49/33

Monterrey 66/52

La Paz 65/58

Alamogordo 43 / 25

Washington D.C. 57/44

L

Denver 44/21

H

New York 51/46

Detroit 44/35

Chicago 37/31

Omaha 27/6

Hermosillo 64/41

Roswell 53 / 27

STATE EXTREMES MONDAY

Alamogordo 43/28 mc 43/25 s Albuquerque 33/26 mc 38/17 s Angel Fire 22/12 mc 25/3 s Artesia 48/34 pc 51/26 s Carlsbad 48/34 s 52/30 s Chama 32/17 sn 27/2 s Cimarron 22/12 mc 36/18 s Clayton 28/19 fg 33/20 s Cloudcroft 43/28 mc 26/17 s Clovis 43/27 sn 43/28 s Crownpoint 24/9 mc 29/18 s Deming 40/23 s 47/23 s 28/20 sn 33/8 s Espan~ ola Farmington 31/21 pc 31/10 s Fort Sumner 34/28 sn 44/27 s Gallup 27/16 mc 31/9 s Grants 29/18 mc 35/12 s Hobbs 48/34 s 48/30 s Las Cruces 42/26 pc 48/25 s

Los Angeles 63/42

Clovis 43 / 28

Las Cruces 48 / 25

City

Boise 39/29 Las Vegas 51/31

Boston 39/35

Minneapolis 30/20

Billings 40/23

Santa Fe 28 / 13

Ruidoso 39 / 23

H Seattle 45/37

Clayton 33 / 20

Los Alamos 27 / 13 Gallup G 3 /9 31

L

Raton 34 / 16

~ ola Espan 33 / 8

AIR QUALITY INDEX

Source: www.airnow.gov

30 / 18

Humidity (Noon)

Saturday

58%

A partial list of the City of Santa Fe's Comprehensive Water Conservation Requirements currently in effect: No outside watering from 10am to 6pm from May 1 to October 31.

For a complete list of requirements call: 955-4225 http://www.santafenm.gov/water_conservation

0-50, Good; 51-100, Moderate; 101-150, Unhealthy for sensitive groups; 151-200, Unhealthy; 201-300, Very Unhealthy, 301-500, Hazardous

Scattered Snow.

Friday

Wind: N 20 mph

WATER STATISTICS

.Monday's . . . . . . . . rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 .. . . . . . . . Forecast Today's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 ..

Thursday

Mostly Sunny.

Humidity (Mid.)

Los Alamos Area .Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.13" .... . . . . . . to Month . . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.62" ....

The following water statistics of January 7th are provided by the City Water Division (in millions of gallons).

Total water produced from: Canyon Water Treatment Plant: 3.991 Buckman Water Treatment Plant: 1.946 City Wells: 0.0 Buckman Wells: 0.0 Total production: 5.937 Total consumption: 6.273 Santa Fe reservoir inflow: 0.76 Reservoir storage: 255.08 Estimated reservoir capacity: 19.96%

Wednesday

Clear.

Humidity (Noon)

Las Vegas Area .Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.04" .... . . . . . . to Month . . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.36" ....

Taos Area .Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.32" .... . . . . . . to Month . . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.51" ....

NATIONAL CITIES

7 DAY FORECAST FOR SANTA FE

Santa Fe Airport Temperatures .High/low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32°/22° ......

Normal . . . . . . . high/low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44°/18° ...... . . . . . . .high Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61° . . . in . . 2002 .... . . . . . . .low . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -6° . . . in . . 1944 ....

Record Santa Fe Airport Precipitation .Yesterday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.02" .... .Month . . . . . to . . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.15" .... . . . . . . . month Normal . . . . . .to . . date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.12" ....

Year . . . . .to . .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.15" ....

Normal . . . . . . . year . . . . to . . date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.12" .... .Last . . . year . . . . .to. .date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0.20" ....

THE WEATHER

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Saturn

Full Jan. 25

Last Q. Feb. 2

Anchorage Atlanta Baltimore Bangor Billings Bismarck Boise Boston Charleston,SC Charlotte Chicago Cincinnati Cleveland Dallas Denver Des Moines Detroit Fairbanks Flagstaff Helena Honolulu Houston Indianapolis Kansas City Las Vegas Los Angeles Louisville Memphis Miami Milwaukee Minneapolis New Orleans New York City Oklahoma City Omaha Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Pittsburgh Portland,OR Richmond Salt Lake City San Antonio San Diego San Francisco Seattle Sioux Falls St. Louis Tampa Trenton Tulsa Washington,DC

Yesterday Today Tomorrow Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W 32/12 mc 52/27 mc 51/41 s 29/14 pc 27/3 pc 17/8 sn 31/14 mc 36/27 s 54/37 mc 49/29 pc 38/32 cl 41/27 mc 43/34 mc 57/48 ra 28/16 mc 36/27 sn 39/35 cl 19/13 sn 32/10 s 31/12 pc 76/68 ra 76/51 fg 39/30 cl 40/34 rs 49/37 s 62/43 s 46/30 mc 51/33 ra 76/60 cl 38/30 cl 31/24 cl 70/54 t 45/36 s 52/39 ra 34/28 sn 68/50 mc 48/35 s 54/37 s 39/34 mc 45/41 ra 50/27 mc 30/14 mc 64/57 mc 61/37 s 55/40 mc 41/37 ra 27/21 sn 40/28 ra 70/52 mc 45/33 s 47/39 ra 51/37 s

20/5 pc 15/6 mc 60/33 sh 47/34 mc 55/46 ra 52/35 mc 25/22 mc 49/30 ra 40/23 sn 35/6 sn 24/17 pc 28/-2 sn 39/29 rs 36/24 sn 39/35 mc 54/33 ra 71/42 sh 54/39 pc 65/37 sh 50/32 s 37/31 rs 33/26 mc 52/32 ra 37/31 sn 48/35 ra 37/33 rs 49/33 s 63/38 s 44/21 pc 42/12 s 31/13 sn 28/14 mc 44/35 ra 37/30 sn 5/-26 mc -10/-21 s 41/12 s 35/13 s 38/19 sn 27/3 sn 82/68 sh 77/66 sh 53/37 s 65/53 pc 44/30 ra 35/31 sn 33/17 sn 37/21 pc 51/31 s 54/34 s 63/42 s 61/44 s 52/31 sh 40/32 mc 46/28 sh 47/35 s 80/66 mc 76/67 mc 35/28 sn 33/25 mc 30/20 sn 27/17 sn 54/37 s 55/44 pc 51/46 ra 52/36 ra 41/28 pc 53/32 s 27/6 sn 32/11 mc 79/53 mc 63/47 s 53/47 ra 50/34 sh 55/33 s 58/39 s 50/36 ra 39/30 ss 44/34 t 41/37 sh 59/44 sh 56/39 sh 35/20 sn 33/21 sn 59/38 s 67/46 s 63/45 s 64/49 pc 59/46 sh 58/42 sh 45/37 ra 42/34 ra 18/4 mc 23/5 sn 42/26 ra 43/30 pc 78/56 mc 64/49 pc 51/47 ra 52/33 sh 38/26 mc 52/29 s 57/44 ra 50/31 pc

WORLD CITIES City

Yesterday Today Tomorrow Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W Hi/Lo W

Amsterdam 33/29 pc Athens 62/52 pc Baghdad 68/41 pc Beijing 32/12 mc Berlin 24/17 s Bermuda 68/61 ra Bogota 71/39 pc Cairo 74/59 pc Copenhagen 27/22 s Dublin 41/36 mc Frankfurt 32/27 mc Guatemala City 80/51 pc Istanbul 58/54 ra Jerusalem 67/53 mc Johannesburg 82/62 pc Lima 79/71 pc London 38/35 sn Madrid 45/33 s Mexico City 73/55 mc Moscow 8/-13 s Nassau 75/73 mc New Delhi 69/46 s Oslo 12/-11 s Paris 33/29 cl Rio 90/73 ra Rome 57/47 s Seoul 32/12 s Stockholm 19/8 s Sydney 80/67 ra Tel Aviv 75/52 s Tokyo 50/39 s Toronto 37/28 cl Vienna 29/25 sn

31/27 s 55/44 ra 70/50 pc 37/25 mc 26/17 s 62/60 pc 70/46 s 70/56 s 31/24 mc 40/38 mc 32/22 s 80/54 s 43/39 ra 61/51 pc 76/61 ra 77/71 mc 38/34 mc 45/40 cl 71/55 cl 14/8 sn 76/72 ra 70/50 mc 25/3 mc 34/29 cl 89/77 mc 48/43 ra 32/28 sn 32/20 mc 79/69 s 68/50 s 49/37 pc 38/34 ra 28/20 pc

33/28 s 47/43 ra 71/57 pc 33/24 s 30/22 s 69/64 cl 70/47 ra 66/55 s 35/31 pc 44/39 ra 33/26 mc 78/53 s 44/41 ra 55/47 s 78/59 ra 77/71 cl 39/33 s 50/43 cl 73/54 cl 28/11 sn 77/75 ra 71/54 s 25/13 s 35/30 mc 89/77 mc 50/46 cl 33/28 mc 33/28 pc 78/69 mc 65/61 ra 52/43 s 41/37 ra 34/26 s

Blizzard conditions bearing down on central U.S. The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — A “highly impactful” winter storm delivered a punch to the country’s midsection on Monday, with blizzard conditions dumping as much as a foot or more of snow and shutting down schools and highways in several Midwest states.

Through Tuesday, snow as deep as 12 inches could blanket a broad area stretching from southeastern Colorado to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, including western Kansas, eastern Nebraska, large parts of Iowa, northern Missouri and northwestern Illinois, said Bob Oravec, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md. “So a very, very highly impactful event coming forward,” Oravec said.

There were widespread school closures across Nebraska and Kansas on Monday ahead of the storm, where forecasters predicted 5 to 8 inches of snow.

The school district that includes Nebraska’s capital, Lincoln, told students to stay home. Lines were long Sunday at a Target Store drive-up in Omaha as residents stocked up on milk, bread and booze ahead of the storm.

Whiteout conditions in central Nebraska closed a stretch of Interstate 80. Kansas closed Interstate 70 from the central city of Russell to the Colorado border due to dangerous travel conditions.

The weather service office in Des Moines, Iowa, warned of the potential for “widespread heavy, possibly extreme, snowfall” of up to 15 inches and said commuters Tuesday morning would face “significant impacts,” with possible whiteout conditions at times.

Dubuque, on Iowa’s eastern border with Illinois, will close its city offices Tuesday. Schools in Cedar Rapids in eastern Iowa were among those closing Tuesday.

The weather has already affected campaigning for the

Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses, where the snow is expected to be followed by frigid temperatures that could drift below zero degrees by caucus day next week. It forced former President Donald Trump’s campaign to cancel multiple appearances by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who had been scheduled to court Iowa voters on Trump’s behalf Monday.

The Illinois Tollway, a state agency that maintains nearly 300 miles of toll roads across 12 northern Illinois counties, urged drives to take a similar “go it slow” attitude. The agency planned to deploy its entire fleet of 196 snowplows to clear snow and ice and help stranded drivers.

And another storm is on the way that will affect the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, Oravec said.

Blizzard warnings were out for much of the Cascade and Olympic ranges in Washington ALLAN JUNG/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and Oregon.

A flock of turkeys crosses a street in Worcester, Mass., on Sunday after a winter storm.

Musk’s reported drug use just latest headache for Tesla’s board

By Craig Trudell and Dana Hull

Bloomberg News

Elon Musk’s reported drug use has Tesla Inc. board members facing a familiar quandary: having to decide what, if anything, to do about the chief executive subjecting directors and shareholders alike to great financial and legal risk.

The Wall Street Journal’s article describing Musk’s history of recreational drug use and ongoing consumption of ketamine is the latest in a long line of tests for a board packed with the CEO’s acolytes — several of whom agreed less than six months ago to return $735 million to settle a lawsuit alleging they had excessively compensated themselves.

Shareholders voiced dissatisfaction with the board last year over Tesla’s succession planning and accused Musk of being distracted by his commitments to other companies. His chaotic 2022 takeover of Twitter, the social media company he’s renamed X, contributed

to Tesla losing $672 billion in market capitalization that year.

Before that, directors rode out litigation related to Musk’s doomed effort to take Tesla private in 2018 and his Elon Musk calling a cave explorer involved in the rescue of a youth soccer team in Thailand that year a pedophile. They also testified in proceedings related to the $55 billion compensation package they arranged for Musk in 2018 and in a trial challenging Tesla’s $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity, the struggling power provider run

by Musk’s cousins.

The report by the Journal — which said Musk has used LSD, cocaine, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms, often at private parties — isn’t even the Tesla board’s first brush with drug-related issues. Weeks after The New York Times reported in August 2018 directors

had expressed concern about Musk’s use of Ambien, he puffed a blunt containing marijuana on comedian Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Tesla’s board took minimal action in the wake of those episodes. It replaced Musk as chairman and named two new independent directors as required by the settlement of fraud charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. It could face more litigation over its handling of Musk’s drug use, said Stephen Diamond, who teaches courses on corporate governance at Santa Clara University’s School of Law. “This will give ammunition to class-action lawyers on behalf of disgruntled shareholders at Tesla, if they can tie evidence of drug use to his actual role as an executive,” Diamond said.

“The Tesla board has an obligation to discern what’s going on here.”

While Musk’s drug use has the potential to harm his other enterprises — particularly SpaceX, a U.S. government contractor — he derives more of his for-

tune from Tesla than any other company.

His shares and exercisable stock options are worth $97.6 billion, or about 44% of his $219.4 billion net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

“Whatever I’m doing, I should obviously keep doing it!” Musk posted on X, pointing to Tesla and SpaceX being the world’s most valuable car and space companies. “If drugs actually helped improve my net productivity over time, I would definitely take them!”

Tesla’s longest-serving directors are Musk, 52, and his younger brother, Kimbal — both have been on the board since 2004. Kimbal’s reelection to the board has drawn pushback in recent years from an investor critical of his lack of relevant industry experience and a proxy adviser concerned about objectivity.

Proxy advisers also opposed the 2022 reelection of Ira Ehrenpreis, a venture capitalist who has been on the board since 2007. The only other relatively long-tenured director on the board is Robyn Denholm, who joined in 2014 and

became chairperson in 2018. Tesla’s four other directors are James Murdoch, the former 21st Century Fox CEO appointed in 2017; Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, the former human-resources chief of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. who joined in 2018; and Joe Gebbia and JB Straubel, who were elected to the board last year.

Gebbia co-founded Airbnb Inc., and Straubel is a co-founder of Tesla.

Musk’s reported drug use may temporarily hit Tesla’s shares, said Gene Munster, a managing partner at Deepwater Asset Management. But those who’ve held on through the CEO’s antics have been rewarded — the stock has soared 1,168% since Musk’s on-air cannabis toking in September 2018.

“A small percentage of investors will sell their stock over the next week and put some pressure on shares,” Munster said Sunday. “Most investors won’t care, because it falls into the category that if you want to profit from Elon, you have to put up with his controversies.”

Business Classifieds Time Out

SPORTS

B-5 B-6 B-9

NFL PL AYOFFS

TueSDay, JanuaRy 9, 2024 THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

BOYS BA SKE TBALL

Demons ready to ride back into Storm

Wild-card round set to begin

By James Barron

jbarron@sfnewmexican.com

How to watch, bracket format, betting favorites

By David Brandt

The Associated Press

The Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys are riding high after big Week 18 wins capped their regular seasons. The Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles are reeling after stumbling down the stretch.

With or without momentum, the NFL playoffs begin for 12 of the 14 postseason qualifiers during wild-card weekend.

Games begin Saturday, when the Texans host the Browns and the Chiefs host the Dolphins.

The No. 1 seeds — including the AFC’s Baltimore Ravens and NFC’s San Francisco 49ers — get a bye until next week’s division round.

Of this weekend’s six wild-card games, a pair have particularly juicy storylines.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford, who was 0-3 in the playoffs with the Lions, goes back to Detroit as a member of the Los Angeles Rams. The Lions tied a franchise record with a 12-win regular season and will seek their first playoff victory since beating Dallas on Jan. 5, 1992.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy will face his former team when Jordan Love leads the Packers to Dallas on Sunday.

The Cowboys routed Washington 38-10 to clinch the NFC East title and will host Green Bay aiming to stay unbeaten at home this season.

Six teams — the Browns, Lions, Packers, Texans, Rams and Steelers — are in the playoffs after missing out last season. At least four teams who failed to qualify one season have reached the playoffs the next every year since 1990.

SECTION B

GABRIELA CAMPOS/NEW MEXICAN FILE PHOTO

Santa Fe High’s Lukas Turner goes up for two against Atrisco Heritage during the 2023 APS Metro Championships at Albuquerque Sandia. The Demons will face Rio Rancho Cleveland tonight in the tournament’s opening round.

Scouting reports really won’t be needed for the Santa Fe High boys basketball team for the first two rounds of the APS Metro Championships.

The Demons are all too familiar with the Rio Rancho Cleveland Storm, their first-round opponents at 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday at Albuquerque High. They already played each other Dec. 8 — an 80-74 Storm win in Rio Rancho — and saw each other numerous times during summer scrimmages and fall league games.

APS METRO CHAMPIONSHIPS Santa Fe High (9-2) vs. Rio Rancho Cleveland (8-2) When: Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.

Where: Albuquerque High Tickets: $5 general admission. Tickets can only be purchased online at tinyurl. com/mw4n6ess

But awaiting Santa Fe High on Wednesday will be La Cueva or the host Bulldogs, who play each other after the Demons-Storm game.

The Bears lost to the Demons 54-44 Please see story on Page B-3

COLLEG E FO O TBALL PL AYOFF CHAMPIONSHIP MICHIGAN 34, WA SHINGTON 13

‘Michigan, this is for you’ Harbaugh delivers school’s first national title since 1997, Corum scores 2 TDs as Wolverines overpower Huskies

How to watch SATURDAY 2:30 p.m. NBC — No. 5 Browns at No. 4 Texans 6 p.m. Peacock — No. 6 Dolphins at No. 3 Chiefs

The Dolphins-Chiefs game will be the first NFL playoff game to be exclusively streamed on Peacock, an NBC subscription service. Fans in the markets of Kansas City and Miami will still be able to watch for free on their local NBC affiliates.

SUNDAY 11 a.m. CBS/Paramount+ — No. 7 Steelers at No. 2 Bills 2:30 p.m. Fox — No. 7 Packers at No. 2 Cowboys 6 p.m. NBC — No. 6 Rams at No. 3 Lions

MONDAY 6:15 p.m. ABC/ESPN — No. 5 Eagles at No. 4 Buccaneers

DAVID J. PHILLIP/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and quarterback J.J. McCarthy celebrate with the trophy Monday after their win against Washington in the College Football Playoff championship in Houston. Michigan won 34-13, securing its first national title since 1997.

The format

By Ralph D. Russo

This is the fourth season of the current NFL playoff format. The field was expanded to 14 teams in 2020 when the league added a third wild-card qualifier from both the AFC and NFC. Wild-card weekend: Friday-Sunday Divisional round: Jan. 20-21 Conference championships: Jan. 28 Super Bowl 58: Feb. 11 in Las Vegas, Nev., at Allegiant Stadium The four division winners in each conference automatically get the top four seeds, regardless of record, and then the top three teams with the best record that didn’t win their division are the wild-card selections. That’s why it’s fairly common for a wild-card selection to have a better record — but worse playoff seeding — than a team that fin-

The Associated Press

HOUSTON im Harbaugh raised the championship trophy as gold and white confetti sprayed over his team and “We Are the Champions” blared.

Nine years after he took over at Michigan, Harbaugh delivered on the lofty expectations that he brought with him to his beloved alma mater.

Blake Corum ran for 134 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns as Harbaugh and the top-ranked Wolverines — undeterred by

J

suspensions and a sign-stealing case that shadowed the program — completed a three-year surge to a national title by beating No. 2 Washington 34-13 Monday night in the College Football Playoff.

The Wolverines (15-0) sealed their first national title since 1997 when Corum, who scored the winning touchdown in overtime against Alabama in the Rose Bowl semifinal, blasted in from the 1-yard line with 3:37 left to put Michigan up by 21 and set off another rousing rendition of “The Victors.”

Michigan running back Blake Corum is tackled by Washington cornerback Elijah Jackson. Corum ran for 134 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns. GODOFREDO A. VASQUEZ/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Please see story on Page B-4

G OLF

Tiger Woods tees off during the final round of the PNC Championship on Dec. 17 in Orlando, Fla. Woods and Nike have ended their partnership after 27 years.

Woods, Nike end partnership after nearly three decades

By Doug Ferguson The Associated Press

Tiger Woods has gone from “Hello, world,” to saying goodbye to Nike.

Woods ended months of speculation by making it official Monday that the partnership between golf’s biggest star and the powerful Swoosh brand is ending after 27 years, a move that raises questions about the future of both in the sport.

Woods in a social media post thanked Nike co-founder

Phil Knight for his “passion and vision” that brought them together when he turned pro.

“Over 27 years ago, I was fortunate to start a partnership with one of the most iconic brands in the world,” Woods wrote. “The days since have been filled with so many amazing moments and memories, if I started naming them, I could go on forever.”

Mark Steinberg, his agent at Excel Sports, confirmed the end of the deal that began in 1996 when Woods turned pro after winning his third straight U.S. Amateur.

Please see story on Page B-3

“I guess, hello world, huh?” a 20-year-old Woods said at the Greater Milwaukee Open.

Nike launched a “Hello, World” campaign two days later, and Woods lived up to the hype. Within eight months, he already had four wins, including the watershed Masters victory that made him the first golfer of Black heritage to win a major.

“It was time for the next chapter,” Steinberg told The Associated Press. “Amazing run.

Great partnership.”

Nike also posted to social

Sports editor: Will Webber, wwebber@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Eric J. Hedlund, ehedlund@sfnewmexican.com

KEVIN KOLCZYNSKI ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

media, saying in a photo, “It was a hell of a round, Tiger.”

“Tiger, you challenged your competition, stereotypes, conventions, the old school way of thinking,” the Nike post was captioned. “You challenged the

entire institution of golf. You challenged us. And most of all, yourself. And for that challenge we’re grateful.”

Woods signed a five-year deal worth $40 million when he turned pro. It was shocking

money at the time to most in the industry except Nike, and his father.

“Chump change,” the late Earl Woods once said, and he was proven correct. Woods renewed the deal believed to be worth over $100 million in 2001. His eight-year deal in 2006 was reported to be $160 million, and his latest deal was signed in 2013 for a reported $200 million.

As recognizable as any athlete in the world, Woods became the face of Nike Golf and had his Please see story on Page B-4 SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

B-2

SCOREBOARD

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

TODAY ON TV

PREP SCHEDULE

Schedule subject to change and/or blackouts. All times local.

San Jose St.

CHL HOCKEY 10 a.m. NHLN — Vítkovice Ridera vs. Skellefteå AIK 12:30 p.m. NHLN — Genève-Servette vs. Lukko Rauma COLLEGE BASKETBALL (MEN’S) 4:30 p.m. FS1 — Seton Hall at Georgetown 5 p.m. ACCN — Wake Forest at Florida St. 5 p.m. CBSSN — Toledo at Kent St. 5 p.m. ESPN — Missouri at Kentucky 5 p.m. ESPN2 — Houston at Iowa St. 5 p.m. ESPNU — Yale at Brown 5 p.m. SECN — South Carolina at Alabama 7 p.m. ACCN — Notre Dame at Georgia Tech 7 p.m. CBSSN — Creighton at DePaul 7 p.m. ESPN — Duke at Pittsburgh 7 p.m. ESPN2 — Texas A&M at Auburn 7 p.m. SECN — Vanderbilt at LSU 8:30 p.m. FS1 — New Mexico at UNLV 9 p.m. CBSSN — San Diego St. at

COLLEGE BASKETBALL (WOMEN’S) 4 p.m. BTN — Maryland at Michigan St. 6 p.m. BTN — Minnesota at Michigan 6:30 p.m. FS1 — Marquette at Seton Hall IIHF HOCKEY (GIRL’S) 4 a.m. Wednesday NHLN — Under-18 World Championship Group Stage: Sweden vs. U.S., Group B, Zug, Switzerland NBA 6:30 p.m. NBATV — Memphis at Dallas TENNIS 4 a.m. TENNIS — Adelaide-ATP/ WTA, Auckland-ATP, Hobart-WTA Early Rounds 4 p.m. TENNIS — Adelaide-ATP/ WTA, Auckland-ATP & Hobart-WTA Early Rounds; Kooyong Classic Day 1 4 a.m. Wednesday TENNIS — Adelaide-ATP/WTA, Auckland-ATP & Hobart-WTA Early Rounds; Kooyong Classic Day 1

NFL AMERICAN CONFERENCE EAST y-Buffalo x-Miami e-N.Y. Jets e-New England

11 11 7 4

L

6 6 10 13

T

PCT

y-Houston e-Indianapolis e-Jacksonville e-Tennessee

10 9 9 6

W

L

T

PCT

*-Baltimore x-Cleveland x-Pittsburgh e-Cincinnati

13 11 10 9

SOUTH

NORTH

WEST

W

W

0 0 0 0

7 8 8 11

0 0 0 0

L

T

4 6 7 8

L

T

PCT

L

T

PCT

y-Dallas x-Philadelphia e-N.Y. Giants e-Washington

12 11 6 4

W

5 6 11 13

W

0 0 0 0

NATIONAL CONFERENCE EAST

NORTH

y-Detroit x-Green Bay e-Chicago e-Minnesota

WEST

W

0 0 0 0

8 8 10 15

0 0 0 0

L

12 9 7 7

PF

483 396 304 366

PCT

6 9 9 12

9 9 7 2

377 396 377 305

T

11 8 8 5

e-New Orleans y-Tampa Bay e-Atlanta e-Carolina

PF

.588 .529 .529 .353

.765 .647 .588 .529

L

y-Kansas City e-Denver e-Las Vegas e-L.A. Chargers

SOUTH

451 496 268 236

PCT

0 0 0 0

W

PF

.647 .647 .412 .235

T

5 8 10 10

W

L

509 433 266 329

PF

.529 .529 .412 .118

402 348 321 236

PF

.706 .529 .412 .412

T

*-San Francisco 12 5 0 x-L.A. Rams 10 7 0 e-Seattle 9 8 0 e-Arizona 4 13 0 e-Eliminated from playoffs x-clinched playoff spot y-clinched division *-clinched home-field advantage

371 357 332 346

PF

.706 .647 .353 .235

PCT

0 0 0 0

PF

.647 .471 .471 .294

461 383 360 344

PCT

PF

.706 .588 .529 .235

491 404 364 330

SATURDAY’S GAMES

SUNDAY’S GAMES

Cincinnati 31, Cleveland 14 Detroit 30, Minnesota 20 N.Y. Jets 17, New England 3 New Orleans 48, Atlanta 17 Tampa Bay 9, Carolina 0 Tennessee 28, Jacksonville 20 Dallas 38, Washington 10 Green Bay 17, Chicago 9 Kansas City 13, L.A. Chargers 12 L.A. Rams 21, San Francisco 20 Las Vegas 27, Denver 14 N.Y. Giants 27, Philadelphia 10 Seattle 21, Arizona 20 Buffalo 21, Miami 14

Cleveland at Houston, 2:30 p.m. (NBC/Peacock) Miami at Kansas City, 6 p.m. (Peacock)

SUNDAY, JAN. 14

Pittsburgh at Buffalo, 11 a.m. (CBS) Green Bay at Dallas, 2:30 p.m. (FOX) L.A. Rams at Detroit, 6 p.m. (NBC/Peacock)

MONDAY, JAN. 15

Philadelphia at Tampa Bay, 6:15 p.m. (ESPN/ABC)

DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS SATURDAY, JAN. 20 AND SUNDAY, JAN. 21

NFC lowest remaining seed at San Franciso, TBD AFC lowest remaining seed at Baltimore, TBD NFC two remaining seeds at higher seed, TBD AFC two remaining seeds at higher seed, TBD

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS SUNDAY, JAN. 28

AFC AFC lowest remaining seed at AFC highest remaining seed, 1 p.m. (CBS) NFC NFC lowest remaining seed at NFC highest remaining seed, 4:30 p.m. (FOX)

COLLEGE FOOTBALL BOWL SCORES, SCHEDULE

Rose Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal Pasadena, Calif.

No. 1 Michigan 27, No. 5 Alabama 20, OT Allstate Sugar Bowl College Football Playoff Semifinal New Orleans No. 2 Washington 37, No. 3 Texas 31

17 301 20-46 255 1-0 1-17 0-0 27-51-2 1-12 5-47.8 0-0 5-30 30:44

HOME 6-3-0 8-1-0 5-4-0 6-3-0

AWAY

AFC

7-1-0 3-5-0 5-3-0 3-5-0

8-4-0 8-4-0 7-5-0 4-8-0

PA

HOME

AWAY

PA

HOME

AWAY

PA

HOME

AWAY

294 413 331 398

315 428 407 518

5-4-0 5-4-0 6-3-0 2-7-0

8-0-0 6-2-0 4-4-0 1-7-0

327 325 373 416

5-3-0 4-4-0 5-3-0 2-6-0

PA

HOME

395 350 379 362

6-2-0 5-3-0 5-3-0 2-6-0

PA

298 377 402 455

HOME

5-3-0 5-3-0 5-3-0 2-6-0

AFC

7-5-0 7-5-0 6-6-0 4-8-0

6-2-0 3-5-0 2-6-0 3-5-0

AFC

9-3-0 5-7-0 6-6-0 3-9-0

AFC

4-5-0 5-4-0 2-7-0 3-6-0

3-2-0 4-1-0 1-4-0 2-3-0

AFC

4-5-0 5-4-0 2-7-0 0-9-0

3-2-0 2-3-0 3-2-0 1-4-0

AWAY

AFC

6-3-0 4-5-0 2-7-0 5-4-0

4-1-0 2-3-0 1-4-0 1-4-0

AWAY

AFC

7-2-0 5-4-0 4-5-0 2-7-0

2-3-0 2-3-0 2-3-0 1-4-0

NFC

3-2-0 2-3-0 3-2-0 2-3-0

NFC

5-0-0 3-2-0 3-2-0 5-0-0

NFC

2-3-0 3-2-0 2-3-0 2-3-0

NFC

9-3-0 7-5-0 5-7-0 2-10-0

NFC

6-6-0 7-5-0 4-8-0 1-11-0

NFC

8-4-0 7-5-0 6-6-0 6-6-0

NFC

10-2-0 8-4-0 7-5-0 3-9-0

DIV

4-2-0 3-3-0 4-2-0 1-5-0

DIV

3-3-0 3-3-0 5-1-0 1-5-0

DIV

4-2-0 3-3-0 4-2-0 1-5-0

DIV

5-1-0 4-2-0 3-3-0 0-6-0

DIV

4-2-0 4-2-0 3-3-0 1-5-0

DIV

4-2-0 4-2-0 2-4-0 2-4-0

DIV

0 14

Alabama Notre Dame Oklahoma Miami Southern Cal Ohio State Minnesota Nebraska Clemson Florida Florida State LSU Michigan Texas Georgia Army Auburn Penn State Pittsburgh Tennessee BYU Colorado Maryland Michigan State Syracuse Texas A&M TCU

— —

13 34

MICH

16 443 38-303 140 0-0 2-27 2-81 10-19-0 1-4 5-46.8 0-0 5-45 29:16

12 8 7 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Boys basketball — APS Metro Tournament, at Abq. High: first round, Santa Fe High vs. Rio Rancho Cleveland, 5:30 p.m.

Los Alamos at Capital, 7 p.m.

Abq. Sandia Prep at St. Michael’s, 7 p.m.

Mesa Vista at Santa Fe Prep, 7 p.m.

Pojoaque Valley at Pecos, 7 p.m.

Jemez Valley at McCurdy, 7 p.m.

Abq. Evangel Christian at Peñasco, 5:30 p.m.

Coronado at Shiprock Northwest, 5:30 p.m.

Escalante at Cuba, 7 p.m.

Questa at Springer, 6:30 p.m.

West Las Vegas at Abq. Cottonwood Classical Prep, 7 p.m.

Girls basketball — Capital at Los Alamos, 6:30 p.m.

Pojoaque Valley at Las Vegas Robertson, 7 p.m.

Jemez Valley at McCurdy, 5:30 p.m.

Coronado at Shiprock Northwest, 4 p.m.

Navajo Prep at Escalante, 5:30 p.m.

Questa at Springer, 5 p.m.

Wednesday Boys basketball — APS Metro Tournament, quarterfinals/consolation: Santa Fe High vs. Abq High/Abq. La Cueva, 7:15 p.m.(quarterfinal)/5:30 p.m.(consolation) New Mexico School for the Deaf at Coronado, 6:30 p.m.

Girls basketball — New Mexico School for the Deaf at Coronado, 5 p.m.

Thursday Boys basketball — Braves Invitational at Santa Fe Indian School: first round, Abq. Menaul vs. Santa Fe Prep, 8 a.m.; Mesa Vista vs. Abq. Sandia Prep, 11:30 a.m.; Moriarty vs.

McCurdy, 3 p.m.; Laguna-Acoma vs.

Santa Fe Indian School, 6:30 p.m.

Bean Valley Conference Tournament at Estancia: first round, Abq. Cottonwood Classical Prep vs. Monte del Sol, 12:30 p.m.

Abq. Academy at Capital, 7 p.m.

Walatowa at New Mexico School for the Deaf, 6:30 p.m.

Pecos at Peñasco, 7 p.m.

Girls basketball — Lady Braves Invitational at Santa Fe Indian School: first round, Mesa Vista vs. Bernalillo, 9:45 a.m.; Laguna-Acoma vs. Cuba, 1:15 p.m.; Newcomb vs. McCurdy, 4:45 p.m.; Raton vs. Santa Fe Indian School, 8:15 p.m.

Bean Valley Conference Tournament at Estancia: first round, Monte del Sol vs. Santa Rosa, 3:30 p.m.

Sundevil Invitational at Abq. Sandia Prep: first round, Las Vegas Robertson vs. Abq. Academy, 3:45 p.m.; Abq. Del Norte vs. St. Michael’s, 7 p.m.

Capital at Piedra Vista, 7 p.m.

7. North Carolina 11-3 1213 8 8. Arizona 12-3 1107 10 9. Oklahoma 13-1 1023 11 10. Illinois 11-3 924 9 11. Marquette 11-4 869 7 11. Duke 11-3 869 14 13. Memphis 13-2 843 15 14. Baylor 12-2 787 18 15. Wisconsin 11-3 663 21 16. Auburn 12-2 559 25 17. Colorado St. 13-2 436 13 18. BYU 12-2 426 12 19. San Diego St. 13-2 386 20. Utah St. 14-1 241 21. Clemson 11-3 219 16 22. Creighton 11-4 187 23. Gonzaga 11-4 185 24 24. FAU 11-4 165 17 25. Texas 11-3 148 20 Others receiving votes: Dayton 126, Mississippi 125, James Madison 98, Cincinnati 79, Nevada 77, Texas Tech 62, Wake Forest 38, Grand Canyon 35, Seton Hall 34, South Carolina 29, Miami 27, St. John’s 18, Iowa St. 16, Colorado 8, NC State 7, Michigan St. 7, Alabama 7, Providence 6, Oregon 4, TCU 3, Northwestern 3, Princeton 2, Utah 2.

MONDAY’S SCORES EAST

Arcadia 81, Kings (Pa.) 72, OT Coppin St. 58, Md.-Eastern Shore 55 Delaware St. 78, Morgan St. 66 Husson 88, Maine-Farmington 80 Lehman 87, Pratt 56 Manhattanville 91, Purchast 62 Misericordia 83, Stevens Tech 64 Monmouth (NJ) 81, Northeastern 62 Rivier 75, Lesley 68 Slippery Rock 78, Davis & Elkins 76 Wilmington (DC) 78, Dist. of Columbia 66

Alabama St. 83, Ark.-Pine Bluff 72 Lamar 75, Incarnate Word 59 Texas A&M-CC 81, Houston Christian 59

CONFERENCE USA W. Kentucky Jacksonville St. Sam Houston St. New Mexico St. Liberty Louisiana Tech UTEP Middle Tennessee FIU

1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1

SATURDAY’S GAMES

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, and total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25thplace vote and previous ranking.

1566 1486 1481 1335 1291 1253

W L

PRV 1 3 2 4 5 6

PCT W

L PCT .800 .563 .500 .438 .688 .625 .563 .400 .313

SUNDAY’S GAMES

2 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0

L 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 2

SATURDAY’S GAMES

PCT

1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 .500 .500 .500 .000 .000 .000 .000

W

14 13 14 10 13 13 8 7 7 7 7

L 1 2 1 4 2 2 7 6 6 8 8

PCT .933 .867 .933 .714 .867 .867 .533 .538 .538 .467 .467

San Diego St. 72, UNLV 61 Nevada 72, Fresno St. 57 Utah St. 77, Colorado St. 72 New Mexico 77, Wyoming 60

TUESDAY’S GAMES

Colorado St. at Boise St., 7 p.m.

Wyoming at Utah St., 7 p.m.

Air Force at Nevada, 8 p.m.

New Mexico at UNLV, 8:30 p.m.

San Diego St. at San Jose St., 9 p.m.

WOMEN’S NCAA BASKETBALL THE AP TOP 25 POLL

15 15 21 26 30

Milwaukee Indiana Cleveland Chicago Detroit

25 21 21 17 3

12 15 15 21 33

W

W

FAVORITE

W

FAVORITE

FAVORITE

THURSDAY’S GAMES

Brooklyn at Cleveland, noon Boston at Milwaukee, 5:30 p.m.

Portland at Oklahoma City, 6 p.m.

New York at Dallas, 6:30 p.m.

Phoenix at L.A. Lakers, 8 p.m.

NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE ATLANTIC

PRV

The top 25 teams in The Associated Press’ wom-

39 24 8 39 25 12 37 20 10 40 20 16 41 19 17 39 17 17 40 17 19 35 14 21

7 2 7 4 5 5 4 0

55 133 105 52 123 99 47 133 120 44 144 136 43 134 143 39 111 137 38 120 134 28 116 125

39 26 11 2 40 22 13 5 39 18 11 10 40 20 14 6 38 21 15 2 38 19 13 6 39 20 15 4 41 13 19 9

54 132 112 49 137 122 46 121 130 46 117 113 44 135 136 44 94 117 44 121 106 35 126 150

METROPOLITAN GP W L OT PTS GF GA

N.Y. Rangers Carolina N.Y. Islanders Philadelphia New Jersey Washington Pittsburgh Columbus

WESTERN CONFERENCE CENTRAL

GP W

PACIFIC

GP W

Winnipeg Colorado Dallas Nashville St. Louis Arizona Minnesota Chicago Vancouver Vegas Los Angeles Edmonton Seattle Calgary Anaheim San Jose

L OT PTS

GF GA

39 41 39 40 38 38 39 40

26 26 23 22 20 19 17 12

9 12 11 17 17 17 18 26

4 3 5 1 1 2 4 2

56 55 51 45 41 40 38 26

132 152 142 126 109 114 116 94

94 130 120 125 120 114 127 151

40 40 36 36 39 40 39 40

26 23 20 20 16 17 13 9

11 12 10 15 14 18 25 28

3 5 6 1 9 5 1 3

55 51 46 41 41 39 27 21

155 133 122 131 106 121 97 80

105 112 91 113 115 131 130 164

MONDAY’S GAMES

L OT PTS

GF GA

Vancouver 6, N.Y. Rangers 3 Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 1 Dallas 4, Minnesota 0 Colorado 4, Boston 3, SO

GB

Los Angeles at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m.

San Jose at Toronto, 5 p.m.

Seattle at Buffalo, 5 p.m.

Vancouver at N.Y. Islanders, 5:30 p.m.

Anaheim at Nashville, 6 p.m.

Columbus at Winnipeg, 6 p.m.

Florida at St. Louis, 6 p.m.

Edmonton at Chicago, 6:30 p.m.

Boston at Arizona, 7 p.m.

Ottawa at Calgary, 7 p.m.

L

PCT

GB

.639 .600 .514 .486 .472

Cleveland 117, San Antonio 115 Portland 134, Brooklyn 127, OT New Orleans 133, Sacramento 100 Orlando 117, Atlanta 110, OT Dallas 115, Minnesota 108 Denver 131, Detroit 114 Memphis 121, Phoenix 115 Toronto 133, Golden State 118 L.A. Lakers 106, L.A. Clippers 103

MONDAY’S GAMES

Oklahoma City 136, Washington 128 Chicago 119, Charlotte 112, OT Indiana 133, Boston 131 Miami 120, Houston 113 Utah 132, Milwaukee 116 L.A. Clippers 138, Phoenix 111

TUESDAY’S GAMES

Minnesota at Orlando, 5 p.m.

Sacramento at Detroit, 5 p.m.

Portland at New York, 5:30 p.m.

Memphis at Dallas, 6:30 p.m.

Toronto at L.A. Lakers, 8:30 p.m.

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES

GP W L OT PTS GF GA

Boston Florida Toronto Detroit Tampa Bay Montreal Buffalo Ottawa

GB

13 14 18 19 19

W

Seattle San Jose at TAMPA BAY Vancouver Columbus Anaheim at ST. LOUIS at CHICAGO at ARIZONA Ottawa

Denver at Utah, 8 p.m.

Toronto at L.A. Clippers, 8:30 p.m.

PCT

23 21 19 18 17

UNDERDOG

-120 -450 -115 -120 -250 -215 -170 -375 -146 -130

L

L.A. Clippers Sacramento Phoenix L.A. Lakers Golden State

PACIFIC

LINE

at BUFFALO at TORONTO Los Angeles at N.Y. ISLANDERS at WINNIPEG at NASHVILLE Florida Edmonton Boston at CALGARY

GB

.714 .686 .684 .474 .286

Minnesota at Boston, 5 p.m.

Sacramento at Charlotte, 5 p.m.

San Antonio at Detroit, 5 p.m.

Washington at Indiana, 5 p.m.

Oklahoma City at Miami, 5:30 p.m.

Phila. at Atlanta, 5:30 p.m.

Houston at Chicago, 6 p.m.

New Orleans at Golden State, 6:30 p.m.

Columbia at GEORGETOWN Toledo South Carolina Texas at IOWA STATE Missouri VCU at BOWLING GREEN Northern Illinois at BROWN Rhode Island at FLORIDA STATE Central Michigan at BALL STATE Miami (OH) Indiana at WEST VIRGINIA SE Louisiana Richmond Oklahoma State at NEBRASKA at DEPAUL Texas A&M BYU Vanderbilt Wyoming Notre Dame at PITTSBURGH at BOISE STATE Air Force at UNLV at SAN JOSE STATE

NHL

PCT

10 11 12 20 25

W

UNDERDOG

at DETROIT at ORLANDO Portland Memphis Toronto

UNDERDOG

11½ 7½ 3½ 11½ 5½ 3½ 12½ 3½ 1½ 1½ 7½ 5½ 3½ 4½ 7½ 2½ 3½ 1½ 4½ 1½ 9½ 7½ 15½ 7½ 2½ 8½ 15½ 5½ 5½ 1½ 15½ 2½ 10½

TUESDAY

L

25 24 26 18 10

LINE

at CORNELL Seton Hall at KENT STATE at ALABAMA at CINCINNATI Houston at KENTUCKY at GEORGE MASON Ohio at WESTERN MICHIGAN Yale at DAVIDSON Wake Forest at EASTERN MICHIGAN Akron at BUFFALO at RUTGERS Kansas State at NICHOLLS STATE at LOYOLA CHICAGO at TEXAS TECH Purdue Creighton at AUBURN at BAYLOR at LSU at UTAH STATE at GEORGIA TECH Duke Colorado State at NEVADA New Mexico San Diego State

TRANSACTIONS

.595 .595 .514 .361 .143

UNDERDOG

at TAMPA BAY

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

— 3½ 3½ 8½ 21½

Minnesota Oklahoma City Denver Utah Portland

(240) (218) (226) (234½) (233)

TUESDAY

.676 .583 .583 .447 .083

PCT

(44)

O/U

11½ 5 11½ 8 5

WEDNESDAY’S GAMES

15 15 17 23 30

NORTHWEST

LINE

Sacramento Minnesota at NEW YORK at DALLAS at L.A. LAKERS

— — 6½ 12 15

22 22 18 13 5

O/U

2½

Pittsburgh Green Bay L.A. Rams

NBA

.583 .583 .400 .235 .167

L

TODAY

TUESDAY

— 4½ 7 12½ 13

Dallas New Orleans Houston Memphis San Antonio

SUNDAY’S GAMES

UTEP 74, Chicago St. 69

W

PCT

21 21 14 8 6

SOUTHWEST

Jacksonville St. 70, FIU 63 Sam Houston St. 81, Louisiana Tech 77 W. Kentucky 70, Liberty 68

Utah St. San Diego St. Nevada Boise St. Colorado St. New Mexico Wyoming Air Force UNLV Fresno St. San Jose St.

L

Miami Orlando Atlanta Charlotte Washington

UNDERDOG

OPEN 2½

.778 .657 .583 .432 .417

WESTERN CONFERENCE

1.000 12 3 1.000 9 7 1.000 8 8 1.000 7 9 .000 11 5 .000 10 6 .000 9 7 .000 6 9 .000 5 11

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE

PCT

O/U

(35½) (50½) (51½)

TUESDAY’S GAMES

L

8 12 15 21 21

CENTRAL

SOUTHWEST

W

28 23 21 16 15

at HOUSTON Miami

10 7½ 3½

FAVORITE

UNDERDOG

(44½) (44)

TODAY

9½ 7 3

MONDAY

1. South Carolina (34) 14-0 874 1 2. UCLA (1) 14-0 841 2 3. Iowa 15-1 760 4 4. Baylor 14-0 738 6 5. Colorado 13-1 705 5 6. NC State 14-1 671 3 7. LSU 15-1 668 7 8. Stanford 14-1 637 8 9. Southern Cal 12-1 593 9 10. Texas 15-1 589 10 11. Virginia Tech 12-2 542 13 12. Kansas St 15-1 513 11 13. UConn 12-3 487 12 14. Indiana 13-1 428 14 15. Louisville 13-2 365 17 16. Gonzaga 14-2 319 18 17. Ohio St. 11-3 270 20 18. Notre Dame 10-3 265 16 19. Utah 11-4 264 15 20. North Carolina 11-4 218 21. Florida St. 12-4 162 22 22. Creighton 11-3 99 21 23. Marquette 13-2 96 19 24. West Virginia 13-1 70 24 25. UNLV 12-1 68 Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 38, Michigan St. 23, Oregon St. 15, Syracuse 15, TCU 11, Arizona 8, California 6, Princeton 4, Nebraska 3, Davidson 3, Maryland 2, Fairfield 2, Miami 1, Texas A&M 1, Washington 1.

Boston Phila.

New York Brooklyn Toronto

O/U

2½ 3½

OPEN

Philadelphia

en’s college basketball poll, with first-place votes in parentheses, and total points based on 25 points for a first-place vote through one point for a 25th-place vote and previous ranking.

SOUTHEAST

Wartburg 95, Emmaus Bible Eagles 62

THE AP TOP 25 POLL

14-1 14-0 13-1 13-2 11-3 11-2

at BUFFALO at DALLAS at DETROIT

Boys basketball — Santa Fe High at the APS Metro Tournament, semifinals/consolation: TBA Santa Fe Prep, Mesa Vista, McCurdy at Braves Classic at Santa Fe Indian School: TBA Monte del Sol at Bean Valley Conference Tournament at Estancia: TBA Mora at Lion Classic at Santa Rosa: TBA Tierra Encantada at Abq. Chesterton Academy, 3:30 p.m.

Aztec at Española Valley, 7 p.m.

Cimarron at Peñasco, 6:30 p.m.

Questa at Dulce, 5:30 p.m.

Pecos at Escalante, 6 p.m.

Coronado at Gallup Hozho Academy, 2:30 p.m.

Girls basketball — McCurdy, Mesa Vista at Lady Braves Invitational at Santa Fe Indian School: TBA St. Michael’s, Las Vegas Robertson at Lady Sundevil Invitational at Abq. Sandia Prep: TBA Taos at Capital, 2 p.m.

Springer at Santa Fe Prep, 6 p.m.

Academy for Technology and the Classics at Mora, 4 p.m.

Tierra Encantada at Abq. Chesterton Academy, 2 p.m.

Pojoaque Valley at Hot Springs, 2:30 p.m.

Los Alamos at Aztec, 4 p.m.

Cimarron at Peñasco, 5 p.m.

Coronado at Gallup Hozho Academy, 1 p.m.

Pecos at Escalante, 4:30 p.m.

Questa at Dulce, 4 p.m.

Wrestling — Santa Fe High, St. Michael’s, West Las Vegas at Pinto Duals at Moriarty, Capital, Tierra Encantada, Pojoaque Valley, Española Valley, Taos, Pecos, Las Vegas Robertson at Sammy Vivian Invitational at Socorro, 9 a.m.

Los Alamos at Doc Wright Invitational at Winslow, Ariz., TBA

ATLANTIC

MIDWEST

MEN’S NCAA BASKETBALL

PTS

FAVORITE

Saturday

PTS

TODAY

2½ 3½

SUNDAY

Boys basketball — Santa Fe High at the APS Metro Tournament, semifinals/consolation: TBA Santa Fe Prep, Mesa Vista, McCurdy at Braves Classic at Santa Fe Indian School: TBA Monte del Sol at Bean Valley Conference Tournament at Estancia: TBA Kirkland Central at Española Valley, 7 p.m.

Sanford (Colo.) at Escalante, 7:30 p.m.

Girls basketball — McCurdy, Mesa Vista at Lady Braves Invitational at Santa Fe Indian School: TBA St. Michael’s, Las Vegas Robertson at Lady Sundevil Invitational at Abq. Sandia Prep: TBA Española Valley at Clovis, 6 p.m.

Sanford (Colo.) at Escalante, 6 p.m.

Swimming and diving — Dual: Abq. Sandia Prep at Santa Fe Prep (Salvador Perez), 3 p.m.

Wrestling — Los Alamos at Doc Wright Invitational at Winslow, Ariz., TBA

RECORD

OPEN

Cleveland at KANSAS CITY

NBA

SOUTH

RECORD

FAVORITE

Friday

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Alabama A&M 78, MVSU 70 Christian Brothers 67, West Alabama 46 Howard 82, SC State 78 McNeese St. 68, Northwestern St. 59 Montevallo 94, Valdosta St. 87 NC Central 60, Norfolk St. 58 New Orleans 88, Texas A&M Commerce 85 Savannah St. 97, Morris 64 Southern U. 79, Prairie View 58 Texas Southern 54, Grambling St. 52 Union (Tenn.) 87, Ala.-Huntsville 82 West Georgia 80, Lee 66

Jan. 4, 2006 — Rose Bowl — Texas 41, Southern Cal-x 38 Jan. 1, 2005 — Orange Bowl — Southern Cal-x 55, Oklahoma 19 Jan. 4, 2004 — Sugar Bowl — LSU 21, Oklahoma 14 Jan. 3, 2003 — Fiesta Bowl — Ohio St. 31, Miami 24, 2OT Jan. 3, 2002 — Rose Bowl — Miami 37, Nebraska 14 Jan. 3, 2001 — Orange Bowl — Oklahoma 13, Florida St. 2 Jan. 4, 2000 — Sugar Bowl — Florida St. 46, Virginia Tech 29 Jan. 4, 1999 — Fiesta Bowl — Tennessee 23, Florida St. 16 x-participation vacated

1. Purdue (54) 2. Houston (7) 3. Kansas (2) 4. UConn 5. Tennessee 6. Kentucky

Tuesday

NFL SATURDAY

5-1-0 5-1-0 2-4-0 0-6-0

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP

First Quarter MICH: Edwards 41 run (J.Turner kick), 10:14.

WASH: FG Gross 25, 3:56.

MICH: Edwards 46 run (J.Turner kick), 2:23.

Second Quarter MICH: FG J.Turner 31, 13:28.

WASH: McMillan 3 pass from Penix (Gross kick), :42.

Third Quarter MICH: FG J.Turner 38, 11:55.

WASH: FG Gross 45, 8:58.

Fourth Quarter MICH: Corum 12 run (J.Turner kick), 7:09.

MICH: Corum 1 run (J.Turner kick), 3:37.

A: 72,808.

First downs Total Net Yards Rushes-yards Passing Punt Returns Kickoff Returns Interceptions Ret. Comp-Att-Int Sacked-Yards Lost Punts Fumbles-Lost Penalties-Yards Time of Possession

PA

280 362 324 384

4-4-0 5-3-0 5-3-0 1-7-0

DIV

4-2-0 4-2-0 2-4-0 2-4-0

Jan. 6, 2014 — Florida St. 34, Auburn 31 Jan. 7, 2013 — Alabama 42, Notre Dame 14 Jan. 9, 2012 — Alabama 21, LSU 0 Jan. 10, 2011 — Auburn 22, Oregon 19 Jan. 7, 2010 — Alabama 37, Texas 21 Jan. 8, 2009 — Florida 24, Oklahoma 14 Jan. 7, 2008 — LSU 38, Ohio State 24 Jan. 8, 2007 — Florida 41, Ohio State 14

MONDAY, JAN. 8

WASH

AWAY

6-3-0 4-5-0 4-5-0 5-4-0

NFC

4-1-0 4-1-0 3-2-0 0-5-0

BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS

CFP National Championship Houston No. 1 Michigan 34, No. 2 Washington 13

3 3

HOME

AFC

7-5-0 7-5-0 4-8-0 4-8-0

Jan. 8, 2024 — Michigan 34 , Washington 13 Jan. 9, 2023 — Georgia 65, TCU 7 Jan. 10, 2022 — Georgia 33, Alabama 18 Jan. 11, 2021 — Alabama 52, Ohio St. 24 Jan. 13, 2020 — LSU 42, Clemson 25 Jan. 7, 2019 — Clemson 44, Alabama 16 Jan. 8, 2018 — Alabama 26, Georgia 23, OT Jan. 9, 2017 — Clemson 35, Alabama 31 Jan. 11, 2016 — Alabama 45, Clemson 40 Jan. 12, 2015 — Ohio St. 42, Oregon 20

At Las Vegas, Nev. TBD vs TBD, 4:30 p.m. (CBS)

7 3

PA

353 415 371 367

4-4-0 4-4-0 3-5-0 3-5-0

COLLEGE FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP WINNERS

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY, FEB. 11

3 14

AWAY

7-2-0 7-2-0 4-5-0 1-8-0

NATIONAL FOOTBALL CHAMPIONS

WILD-CARD PLAYOFFS SATURDAY, JAN. 13

WASHINGTON MICHIGAN

HOME

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING: Washington, D.Johnson 11-33, McMillan 1-9, Nixon 2-7, Rogers 1-2, Polk 1-1, (Team) 1-(minus 1), Penix 3-(minus 5). Michigan, Corum 21-134, Edwards 6-104, McCarthy 4-31, Mullings 3-21, Orji 2-15, (Team) 2-(minus 2).

PASSING: Washington, Penix 27-51-2-255. Michigan, McCarthy 10-18-0-140, (Team) 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING: Washington, McMillan 6-33, Odunze 5-87, Westover 5-42, Polk 4-37, Nixon 3-7, D.Johnson 2-24, Culp 1-14, Rogers 1-11. Michigan, Loveland 3-64, Wilson 3-54, C.Johnson 3-25, S.Morgan 1-(minus 3).

MISSED FIELD GOALS: None.

Pittsburgh 17, Baltimore 10 Houston 23, Indianapolis 19

NO. 1 MICHIGAN 34, NO. 2 WASHINGTON 13

PA

311 391 355 366

Subject to change. Check with schools regarding tickets and game times and dates. Send changes to sports@sfnewmexican.com.

SPORTS BETTING LINE

Walatowa at New Mexico School for the Deaf, 5 p.m.

Pojoaque Valley at Abq. Manzano, 7 p.m.

Pecos at Peñasco, 5:30 p.m.

Taos at Kirtland Central, 6 p.m.

Cimarron at Mora, 5:30 p.m.

GB

GB

— — 3 8½ 16

— 1 ½ 8½ 15

— 1½ 4½ 5½ 6

Montreal at Philadelphia, 5 p.m.

Minnesota at Dallas, 5:30 p.m.

Vegas at Colorado, 8 p.m.

BASEBALL Major League Baseball National league ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS — Named Casey Wilcox, Shane Phillips, Alex Arpiza and Kathleen Ritter development staff.

CHICAGO CUBS — Promoted Jared Banner to assistant general manager, Andrew Bassett to vice president, professional scouting, Meghan Jones to vice president, baseball strategy, Garrett Chiado to senior director, baseball operations, Jason Kanzler to director, player development, Ryan Otero to director, pitching, Kyle Chin director, baseball technology, Scottie Munson to assistant director, amateur scouting, Wil Remillard to assistant director, hitting, Kenny Socorro to assistant director, international scouting, Bryan Guo to coordinator, player development, Sarah Ketring to coordinator, minor league operations and Cal Christofori to assistant, baseball operations. Elevated Kyle Blum to senior analyst, baseball sciences, Shingo Murato to manager, baseball analytics/Pacific rim liaison and Jeremy Frank to baseball analytics analyst. Named Jake Ciarrachi Kyle Phillips,, Mitchel Webb and Thad Webber specialists, pro personnel and Sam Abrams to pro scouting analyst. Promoted Brent Phelan to international scouting suprvisor, Albert Gonzales to international/global crosschecker, Marco Prieto to Latin America scout, Venezuela, Bobby Filotei to special assistant to the vp of amateur scouting, Matt Sherman to national field coordinator, Garrett Tolivar to coordinator, amateur scouting video, Ben Kullavanijaya to coordinator, amateur scouting, Alex Lontayo to regional coordinator, scouting, Jacob Williams to Southeast regional coordinator and John Pedrotty to Northeast regional coordinator.

Minor League Baseball Frontier League FRONTIER LEAGUE — Announced new majority owners of Joliet Slammers are Mike Veeck, Night Train Veeck and Bill Murray.

LAKE ERIE CRUSHERS: Traded LHP Jonaiker Villalobos to Florence.

SCHAUMBURG BOOMERS: Signed OF Brett Milazzo to a contract extension.

WINDY CITY THUNDERBOLTS: Signed RHP Tyler Johnson.

FOOTBALL National Football League ARIZONA CARDINALS — Signed WRs Andre Baccellia, Kaden Davis and Jeff Smith, OLs Jackson

LINE

+100 +340 -104 +100 +202 +176 +140 +290 +122 +108

Barton and Marquis Hayes, RB Tony Jones, CB Quavian White and TE Bernhard Seikovits to futures contracts for 2024.

ATLANTA FALCONS — Signed WR Chris Blai, DBs Natrone Brooks and Lukas Denis, LBs Milo Eifler and Donavan Mutin, DE Demone Harris, OTs John Leglu, Ryan Swoboda, Tyler Vrabel and Barry Wesley, G Justin Shaffer and RB Carlos Washington to futures contract for 2024.

CAROLINA PANTHERS — Signed TE Stephen Sullivan, DL LaBryan Ray and DL Nick Thurman to one-year contract extensions. Signed RBs Tarik Cohen, Spencer Brown and Mike Boone, WRs Jalen Camp and Cam Sims, TEs Jordan Matthews and Chris Pierce, OT Badora Traore and DL Raequan Williams to futures contract for 2024.

CHICAGO BEARS — Signed LB Micah Baskerville, TE Stephen Carlson, OLs Jerome Carvin, Roy Mbaeteka and Bill Murray, DB Adrian Collins, DLs Michael Dwumfour and Daniel Hardy and WR Nsimba Webster to futures contracts for 2024.

CINCINNATI BENGALS — Signed DT Domenique Davis, CB Allan George, C Nate Gilliam, DE Jeff Gunter, LB Shaka Heyward, WRs Shedirck Jackson, Kwamie Lassiter II and Kendric Pryor and G Jason Kirkland to futures contracts for 2024.

DENVR BRONCOS — Signed QB Ben DiNucci,and WRs Phillip Dorsett and David Sills to futures contracts for 2024.

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS — Waived CB Tony Brown.

Re-signed C Darell Baker, S Trevor Denbow and LBs Cameron McGrone and Sagun Olubi to one year contract extensions.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Signed R Chandler Brewer, DBs Tevaughn Campbell, Erick Hallett and Ayo Oyelola, LBs Dequan Jackson and Amani Oruwariye, DE Esezi Oomewo, G Keaton Sutherland and C Darryl Williams to futures contracts for 2024.

LAS VEGAS RAIDERS — Signed DEs David Agoha, Elerson Smith and Charles Snowden, CBs Cornell Armstrong and Sam Webb, QB Anthony Brown Jr., Ts D.J. Fluker and Jalen McKenzie, TEs Cole Fotheringham and John Samuel Shenker, S Jaydon Grant, DTs Marquan McCall and Nesta Jade Silvera and WR Kristian Wilkerson to futures contracts for 2024.

LOS ANGELES RAMS — Waived DL Earnest Brown.

MINNESOTA VIKINGS — Signed WRs Trishton Jackson, N’Keal Harry and Thayer Thomas, CBs Joejuan Williams and Jaylin Williams, RB DeWayne McBride, LB Abrahan Beauplan, T Coy Cronk and Gg Henry Byrd and Tyrese Robinson to future contracts for 2024.

NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS — Signed DE William Bradley-King, LB Joe Giles-Harris, DB Azizi Hearn, DT Tysten Hill, WR T.J. Luther, OT Andrew Stueber and RB Ke’Shawn Vauhn to futures contracts for 2024.

NEW YORK GIANTS — Fired special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey and offensive line coordinator Bobby Johnson. Signed RB Deon Jackson, WR Dennis Houston, Ts Yodny Cajuste and Joshua Miles, G Jalen Mayfield, DT Ryder Anderson, LBs Dyontae Johnson and Jeremiah Martin and DBs Kaleb Hayes and Stantley Thomas-Oliver to futures contracts for 2024.

NEW YORK JETS — Signed WRs Malik Taylor and lance McCutcheon, DLs Stephen Jones and Marquiss Spencer, OLs Vitaliy Gurman and Eze Obinna, CB Tae Hayes and K Austin Seibert to futures contracts for 2024.

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Signed OT Mark Evans, CB Falon Hicks, TEs Tommy Hudson and Michael Jacobson, OL Tommy Kramer, WR Niko Lalos, RBs Jordan Mims and James Robinson, LB Anfernee Orji, DL John Pensini and Jack Herlin to futures contracts for 2024.

SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Signed OLB Levi Bell, DT Matthew Gotel, RB Bryant Koback, TE Tyler Mabry, S Jonathan Sutherland, and WRs Cody White and Easop Winston Jr. to futures contracts for 2024.

TENNESSEE TITANS — Signed DB Shyheim Carter, CB Tay Gowan, WR Tre-Shaun Harrison, T Thomas Odukoya, OLB Thomas Rush an OL Lachavios Simmons to futures contracts for 2024.

WASHINGTON COMMANDERS — Signed LB Brandon Bouyer-Randle, WR Davion Davis an CB D’Angelo Mandell to futures contracts for 2024.

Released TE Curtis Hodges.

Canadian Football League WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS — Named Jordan Younger defensive coordinator and Mike Miller special teams coordinator.

HOCKEY National Hockey League ANAHEIM DUCKS — Returned G Alex Stalock to San Diego (AHL). Recalled D Jackson LaCombe from San Diego. Recalled G Calle Clang from Tulsa (ECHL) to San Diego.

CALGARY FLAMES — Returned D Yan Kuznetsov and LW Jakob Pelletier to Calgary (AL). Placed C Kevin Rooney on waivers.

COLORADO AVALANCHE — Recalled D Sam Malinski from Colorado (AHL).

MINNESOTA WILD — Returned LW Jake Lucchini and Gs Zane McIntyre and Jesper Wallstedt to Iowa (AHL). Reassigned F Maxim Cajkovic from Iowa to Iowa (ECHL).

NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Reassigned D Topias Vilen from Adirondack (ECHL) to Utica (AHL).

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS — Reassigned D Mason Millman from Reading (ECHL) to Lehigh Valley (AHL).

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS — Recalled F Lukas Svejkovsky from Wheeling (ECHL) to Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton (AHL).

SAN JOSE SHARKS — Recalled F Scott Sabourin from San Jose (AHL).

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING — Reassigned D Jack Thompson to Syracuse (AHL).

TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS — Signed C William Nylander to an eight-year contract extension.

SPORTS

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

B-3

COLLEG E FO O TBALL

ME N’S AP T OP 25 BA SKE TBALL P OLL

CFP delays tweaking format to decrease spots reserved for league champions

Unbeaten Houston jumps Kansas to No. 2 behind Purdue

By Ralph D. Russo

The Associated Press

The College Football Playoff delayed reducing the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five in the upcoming 12-team format on Monday, though the change is expected to be in place next season.

CFP Board of Managers chairman Mark Keenum, the president of Mississippi State, said the Pac-12 representative, Washington State president Kirk Schulz, requested the delay.

Keenum said he expected the board to circle back on the issue in a few weeks.

“I’d be shocked if we weren’t a 5-7 playoff for this coming football season,” Keenum said.

For now, the playoff format for the next two years has spots reserved for six conference champions and six at-large selections. The expected change to five spots for champions and seven at-large spots was prompted by a wave of conference realignment and the state of the Pac-12, which will lose 10 of its 12 members to other Power Five leagues this summer.

Oregon State and Washington State plan to keep the Pac-12 running as a two-team conference next year as they try to rebuild the league. The Beavers and Cougars have a scheduling

By Dave Skretta

The Associated Press

agreement with the Mountain West in place for next season.

“They’re going through some issues legal issues that they’re working on right now,” Keenum said, without providing details.

“They want to get all their issues resolved.”

With only nine full major college football conferences in place for next season — and one fewer Power Five conference than when expansion was first agreed upon — the CFP management committee agreed to recommend changing the original 6-6 format to a 5-7 model.

While the presidents didn’t vote on the 5-7 change they did endorse a proposal that for a conference to have a champion eligible for one of those five spots, it needs to have at least eight members. The only one of the nine major conferences that won’t have that many next year will be the Pac-12.

The CFP board is comprised of conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director.

The quarterfinals that will be played for the first time after the 2024 season are additional inventory not covered by the current CFP TV deal with ESPN that has two remaining seasons.

An entirely new media rights agreement is needed for the College Football Playoff for 2026 and beyond.

“We had our [media] consultants meet with us and talk to us today. They did not get into specifics,” Keenum said. “We need to get this resolved. We’re playing the new 12-team playoff this year and we need to get a media deal done.”

Media deal

CFP threats

Keenum said the CFP hopes to have a new media agreement in place soon. The expanded format for the next two years requires a new deal for the extra four games added to a system that currently includes three playoff games and four of the so-called New Year’s Six bowls.

CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said the threats directed at him and members of the selection committee after Florida State was left out of the playoff with a perfect record led to the CFP arranging for extra security for some members.

Hancock said committee

LINDSEY WASSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO

Washington State running back Nakia Watson, left, runs the ball against Washington safety Mishael Powell during a Nov. 25 game in Seattle. The College Football Playoff delayed reducing the number of spots reserved for conference champions from six to five in the upcoming 12-team format on Monday, though the change is expected to be in place next season.

‘Michigan, this is for you’ Continued from Page B-1

After nine seasons coaching his alma mater and in his third consecutive playoff appearance, Harbaugh delivered the title so many expected when he took over a struggling powerhouse in 2015 — despite missing six regular-season games this season while serving separate suspensions.

And he did it with a team his old coach, Bo Schembechler, would have adored. The Wolverines ran for 303 yards against Washington (14-1), and their defense held Michael Penix Jr. and the Huskies’ prolific passing game to just one touchdown while intercepting the Heisman Trophy runner-up twice.

“There are more than 100 Michigan men who are on this team,” Harbaugh said. “What they’ve done is amazing. They will forever be known as national champions.”

Penix’s remarkable six-year college career ended with maybe his worst performance of the season. Usually unfazed by pressure, Penix was not nearly as precise against a Michigan defense that took away his signature deep throws. The Indiana transfer who came back from two knee surgeries and two shoulder injuries was roughed up by the Wolverines, limping at times, stepped on another time.

Asked how he was feeling, Penix said: “Better than I was three years ago.”

Penix finished 27 for 51 for 255 yards and a touchdown as the Huskies had their 21-game winning streak snapped.

“They’ve given me everything they possibly can,” coach Kalen DeBoer said of a group of players who went 4-8 just two seasons ago and 25-3 since he

ERIC GAY/THEASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. leaves the field at the end of the half against Michigan during the College Football Playoff championship in Houston. Penix finished 27 for 51 for 255 yards and a touchdown.

took over in 2022.

Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy had a modest game, throwing for 140 yards and running for 31. But it was enough for him to improve to 27-1 as a starter for the Wolverines.

Michigan gave Washington a taste of life in the Big Ten, where the Pac-12 champions are heading next season, and the Huskies were up for the grind for a while.

Two long touchdown runs

by Donovan Edwards and 229 yards rushing in the first quarter put the Wolverines up 17-3 early in the second and conjured up memories of last year’s historic Georgia blowout of TCU. Washington stabilized and didn’t allow the Wolverines another point in the first half.

After the Huskies stopped Michigan on a fourth-and-2 from the UW 38 with 4:46 left in the second quarter, Penix went to work.

He found Jalen McMillan on a fourth-and-goal with 42 seconds

left for a 3-yard touchdown.

After being on the verge of getting buried by the Wolverines, the Huskies fans sang along to “Who Let the Dogs Out,” happily down 17-10 at half.

Will Johnson’s interception of Penix on the first play of the second half gave Michigan another opportunity to open up a two-touchdown lead, but the Huskies forced another field goal

by James Turner to make it 20-10.

Michigan nursed a touchdown lead until halfway through the fourth quarter, when it put together 71-yard drive, capped by Corum’s tackle-breaking 12-yard touchdown that finally gave the Wolverines some room with a 27-13 lead and 7:09 left.

Corum, the engine of groundand-pound offense and heart and soul of team loaded with fourth-, fifth- and even sixth-year players, missed the CFP last year with a knee injury. He was named

members received not just threats on social media, but calls and emails sent to them threatening their homes and personal safety.

“We’ve been in contact with the FBI. Some of it was really unfortunate,” Hancock said.

Revenue sharing Left undecided was a revenue distribution issue that for now just involves SMU, which is leaving the American Athletic Conference to join the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024.

Revenue distribution in the 12-team format will guarantee each school a set amount: $6 million for Power Five schools and $1 million for schools in so-called Group of Five conferences.

The commissioners have not yet agreed whether SMU should receive a full Power Five share for the next two years and whether a moratorium should be placed on full shares for schools moving up beyond 2026.

offensive player of the national title game in the final four-team College Football Playoff before it expands to 12 teams next year.

“Michigan, this is for you,” Corum told the Wolverines fans.

Michigan seemed to be steaming toward a third consecutive Big Ten championship and playoff appearance when in October it was revealed the NCAA was investigating the program for potentially breaking rules that prohibit in-person scouting of opponents and using video equipment to attempt decode opponents’ play signals.

The scandal turned Connor Stalions, the low-level Michigan recruiting staffer accused of orchestrating the scheme, into a household name and threatened to derail the Wolverines’ season.

The NCAA process will linger well into 2024 and it is unknown what penalties Michigan could face. The Big Ten, though, decided to act more quickly and punished Michigan by suspending Harbaugh for the final three games of the regular season, including matchups with Penn State and rival Ohio State.

Michigan at first said it would fight the penalties in court, but within days backed down and accepted the punishment. The Wolverines were undeterred.

With offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore taking Harbaugh’s place, it became Michigan vs.

Everybody and nobody could stop the Wolverines.

Harbaugh returned for the postseason, completed the mission and got to celebrate with his father, Jack — himself a former college football coach — as he accepted the trophy.

“Who has it better than us?”

Jack Harbaugh asked the fans during the trophy ceremony.

They replied with a boisterous: “Nobody!”

Demons ready to ride back into Storm Continued from Page B-1

on Dec. 5 at Santa Fe High, while Albuquerque High is already on the schedule twice for District 5-5A play.

Cisco Rivera, the Demons head coach, said it’s a big challenge Metro Championship organizers face because so many of the tournament teams see one another during the regular season.

Besides, he sees it as a test run for the Class 5A State Tournament in March.

“We’re going to play a good team at every round of this tournament,” Rivera said. “And when you get to state, you’re going to see a good team every game.”

More concerning for Rivera, though, is getting his team in the right frame of mind after Saturday’s disappointing 58-55 overtime loss to Clovis. Santa Fe High led by as many as nine points in the first half and by seven midway through the third before Clovis used a 9-0 run to take a 34-32 lead.

Despite that, the Demons led 47-42 heading into the final two minutes before

a closing 6-1 spurt helped Clovis push the game into overtime.

Rivera said the team was not ready to play the Wildcats and it showed.

“I think our heads were getting a little too big,” Rivera said. “We saw some things on film and were like, ‘Someone’s gonna get us.’

But it kinda got us refocused.”

Playing the Storm, led by former Demons head coach Zack Cole, is a great way to get the Demons’ attention. Cleveland is also coming in looking to rebound after a 61-58 loss to Farmington in the championship game of the Hobbs Holiday Tournament on Dec. 30.

Rivera said Cleveland is a microcosm of the opponents the Demons will face during the 16-team tournament.

“It’s gonna be a grind,” Rivera said. “It’s four games in five days, teams with deep benches. The teams that come out ready to play are the ones that are the most successful in this tournament.”

While the Demons might not have been at their best against the Wildcats, Rivera still

saw the energy and intensity they need to be successful. However, playing smart basketball is the one quality they need to learn if they want to take that next step and truly be considered 5A contenders.

To reach that level, Santa Fe High has to take care of the ball. Rivera said the Demons are improving in that area, as turnovers have dropped from an average of 16 per game through the first two weeks of the season to 10 over the past four games.

Turnovers were crucial in the Storm’s win last month, as the Demons turned the ball over on their last four possessions.

“I’ve always known they can compete with anybody so that’s not going to be an issue,” Rivera said. “We’ve just really focused on those late-game situation, turnovers that really prevented us from seeing if we really could have closed out that game.

“It’s still gonna end in the same result, if we don’t take care of the ball in those situations. You don’t want to give a team like Cleveland extra possessions.”

Purdue held its place atop the AP Top 25 on Monday following its win over Illinois in a top-10 showdown, while Houston jumped Kansas into second place as the last unbeaten team in Division I men’s college basketball.

The Boilermakers, who beat the No. 9 Illini 83-78 last week, picked up five more first-place votes and had 54 of the 63 possible to remain at No. 1 for the fourth straight week. The Cougars received seven first-place votes and were second, while the Jayhawks had the other two first-place votes but fell a spot to third after their down-to-thewire win over TCU. Houston is 14-0 for the third time in school history after beginning its Big 12 tenure with a romp past West Virginia.

Losses by James Madison and Ole Miss left the Cougars with the only unblemished record.

“I think our kids have always had a bit of a chip on their shoulders here,” Houston coach Kelvin Sampson said.

“We’ve had to get some of our own fans to understand that we’re pretty good. They were so bad for so long. Some of them still have not figured it out. Our kids have, and our coaches have, and we know who we are. And what we’re capable of doing.”

In truth, the Cougars have been doing it for a while now.

They went to the Final Four three years ago, the Elite Eight two years ago and the Sweet 16 last season, when they spent seven week atop the AP poll.

“Every team is different,” said Cougars guard Jamal Shead. “I think with this team, just like all the other teams, we’re bonded off the court. I think that plays a big part in being able to get onto each other in game and be able to

say anything to each other. We know we aren’t going to take it the wrong way, so we’re able to get on each other and keep pushing.”

Defending national champion UConn remained at No. 4, Tennessee was fifth and Kentucky sixth. North Carolina moved up one spot to seventh, Arizona and Oklahoma each bumped up two, and Illinois fell one spot to round out the top 10.

Marquette dropped four spots into a tie at No. 11 with Duke following its loss to Seton Hall, which made quite a statement last week and nearly entered the poll after a pair of wins over ranked teams; the Pirates also defeated Providence.

The Golden Eagles and Blue Devils were followed by Memphis, Baylor and Wisconsin, which jumped six spots after wins over Iowa and Nebraska.

Auburn made the biggest move after beating Pennsylvania and blowing out Arkansas, climbing nine spots to No. 16, and was followed by Colorado State and BYU, which lost to Cincinnati in the Big 12 debut for those two schools.

San Diego State returned to the poll at No. 19 and Utah State entered at No. 20, the first time the Aggies have been ranked since the first five weeks of the 2019-20 season.

Clemson, Creighton, Gonzaga, FAU and Texas rounded out the Top 25.

RISING AND FALLING Auburn is up to No. 16 on the strength of seven consecutive wins, the second-longest streak in the SEC behind Georgia’s ninegame run. The Tigers are just behind the Badgers, whose only loss since mid-November came at No. 8 Arizona.

No. 24 FAU’s fall continued with a loss to Charlotte. The Owls were seventh two weeks ago before losing to Florida Gulf Coast.

ERIC CHRISTIAN SMITH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Houston guard Jamal Shead passes as West Virginia guard Noah Farrakhan defends during Saturday’s game in Houston.

WOME N’S AP T OP 25 BA SKE TBALL P OLL

Iowa up to 3 behind South Carolina; only 3 unbeaten teams remain

By Doug Feinberg

The Associated Press

South Carolina remained No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll and is now one of three unbeaten teams left.

The New Year began with seven undefeated teams, but only South Carolina, No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 Baylor remain.

The Gamecocks (14-0) received 34 of the 35 first-place ballots Monday after beating Florida and Mississippi State last week. UCLA (14-0) garnered the other No. 1 vote and was second in the Top 25 once again. Iowa moved up to third after previously unbeaten N.C. State lost in the last second to Virginia Tech. The Wolfpack fell to sixth.

Baylor (14-0) jumped up two spots after topping previously undefeated TCU and Houston.

Colorado was fifth. LSU, which won at Mississippi on Sunday in front of a program-record crowd of 9,074 for the Rebels, was No. 7 behind N.C. State and Stanford, USC and Texas rounded out the top 10.

Virginia Tech moved up two spots to 11th, leapfrogging Kansas State and UConn. The Hokies’ two losses this season have come to Iowa on a neutral court and at LSU.

IN AND OUT After wins over Syracuse and Notre Dame, North Carolina re-entered the Top 25 one week after dropping out. The Tar Heels, who were the only team to beat two ranked opponents last week, came in at No. 20. UNLV also returned to the poll at No. 25.

Syracuse and TCU fell out.

The Horned Frogs also lost star Sedona Prince indefinitely to a hand injury. TCU had won its first 14 games, the best start in school history, before losing to Baylor.

UNBEATEN NO MORE West Virginia and Oregon State were the other two undefeated teams heading into 2024. The 24th-ranked Mountaineers fell to Texas last week and the Beavers were swept by USC and UCLA.

WELCOME BACK No. 18 Notre Dame got a lift from the return of Sonia Citron from a nine-game absence due to a knee injury. She had 18 points in a loss to North Carolina on Sunday. Notre Dame is still without guard Olivia Miles, who tore her ACL last season.

MILESTONE WIN Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer won her 1,200th game on Sunday, a victory over Washington. In 44 years as a head coach, VanDerveer has won three NCAA titles. She surpassed former Tennessee coach Pat Summit in 2021 as the women’s career victories leader and sits two behind former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski for most all-time in college basketball.

B-4

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

SPORTS

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Wild-card round set to begin

NFL

Commanders fire coach Rivera New team ownership begins making changes after another lackluster season

ished as a division winner.

The No. 1-seeded team in each conference gets a bye into the second round while No. 2 hosts No. 7, No. 3 hosts No. 6 and No. 4 hosts No. 5 during wild-card weekend.

The NFL has a re-seeding policy after each playoff round.

That means that no matter how the bracket started, the lowest-seeded team will always travel to the higher-seeded team in the AFC and NFC.

By Stephen Whyno

The Associated Press

ASHBURN, Va. on Rivera was fired Monday as coach of the Washington Commanders, a long-anticipated move the new owners made as they put their stamp on the NFL franchise they bought last year.

It’s just the first of several changes coming to an organization that has won just two playoff games over the past three decades.

The fourth and final season under Rivera finished with eight consecutive losses, a 4-13 record and a 38-10 home loss to division rival Dallas with Washington’s home stadium full of Cowboys fans.

“Clearly, we weren’t good enough this year,” controlling owner Josh Harris said at a news conference at the team’s practice facility. “We didn’t get it done on the field, and so we’ve decided to go into a new direction.”

Rivera’s firing came as no surprise to anyone, including the veteran coach who went 26-40-1 with Washington, including one playoff appearance in 2020 for finishing atop an uncharacteristically weak NFC East at 7-9 and never having a winning season.

If Rivera does not get another head coaching job in the league, he’ll finish exactly one game under .500 at 102-103-2 in the regular season.

“We did win an NFC East title in 2020, but we fell short since then, and for that, I am truly disappointed,” Rivera said in a statement released by the team. “It wasn’t easy and there is a lot more to be done, but I believe we began to change the culture of this organization in meaningful ways.”

Co-owners Mitch Rales, Magic Johnson and David Blitzer and well as former NBA executive Bob Myers and ex-Minnesota Vikings GM Rick Spielman will work with Harris in the searches for a head of football personnel and coach. After Dan Snyder hired Rivera four years ago to do both jobs, ownership is now expected to split those responsibilities, though Harris said he’d be flexible given the candidates available — a group that could include Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh.

General manager Martin Mayhew and a majority of the front office and coaching staff are also expected to go, as Harris and his fellow owners begin shaping the organization less than six months after buying the team from Snyder. For now, they remain employed while the Commanders go through what Harris described as a “rapid but thorough process.”

“This is probably amongst the most important jobs I have as a managing partner,” Harris said. “It’s important that I do this per-

R

Betting favorites

MARK SCHIEFELBEIN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Fans react to Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera walking off the field at the end of Sunday’s game against the Cowboys in Landover, Md. Dallas won 38-10.

sonally and get this right and that we bring in the right leadership.”

Rivera was hired by Snyder on New Year’s Day 2020, less than a month after the veteran coach was fired by the Carolina Panthers, who he coached Ron Rivera to the Super Bowl in the 2015 season. He was handed control in the aftermath of a chaotic era led by president Bruce Allen, which also included plenty of off-field misconduct that Rivera was forced to answer for as the voice of the organization.

Tumultuous times were the norm, from two team name changes to the allegations of sexual harassment in the workplace before Rivera’s arrival coming to light in the summer of 2020. Rivera was diagnosed with a form of skin cancer before that season started, and the well-respected former linebacker working through treatment became a source of inspiration for Washington when it made the playoffs.

“To be with somebody through a crucial part of their life and see how he battled that, that’s something you’ll never forget,” running back Antonio Gibson said. “And he was still there for us throughout that process, so we’ll always have love for him.”

Away from football, Snyder became the subject of multiple investigations before selling the team last year to Harris’ group for a record $6.05 billion.

Harris, Rales, Johnson and others buying the team put the focus back on football, to Rivera’s delight. Early in the season, he reveled in a debate about the team’s long

snapper as a turning point after years of talk about the sagging attendance, off-field chaos and the ownership change.

Along the way, the play on the field went south after a 2-0 start: a 37-3 drubbing by Buffalo beginning a three-game skid capped by an embarrassing prime-time home loss to previously winless Chicago. The season snowballed to several new low points: a 31-19 defeat at the hands of undrafted rookie quarterback Tommy DeVito and the New York Giants, a 45-10 drubbing at Dallas and an embarrassing home loss to Miami that was fittingly followed by fire alarms going off around the stadium.

It became clear the Commanders were playing out the string. They lost their final eight games to finish 4-13 and are set to pick second in the NFL draft, a spot they could get a franchise quarterback.

Asked what he’s proudest of from his time in Washington, Rivera cited team culture and otherwise tried to block out talk about his uncertain future.

“To me it’s always been exciting, a thrill and a honor to be on the field in the NFL,” Rivera said last week. “There’s only 32 of these jobs, there’s only 32 of these teams and you always appreciate that opportunity.”

Players lauded his conduct throughout his final season, with receiver Terry McLaurin saying Rivera never brought a bad attitude and defensive tackle Daron Payne praising the coach’s optimism.

“Everybody in this building loves Ron Rivera as a person and all that,” left tackle Charles Leno said. “But when you’re the leader of a ship, somebody has to go down with it.”

Falcons fire Smith after 3rd straight 7-10 season

By Paul Newberry

The Associated Press

ATLANTA — Arthur Smith, who inherited a rebuilding project in his first NFL head coaching job and failed to lift Atlanta from its playoff drought, was fired late Sunday night, hours after completing his third straight losing season with the Falcons.

Smith, the 41-year-old son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, finished with a record of 21-30. He went 7-10 each year.

Smith was dismissed after a 48-17 loss at New Orleans — the second-worst setback of his tenure, topped only by a 43-3 rout at Dallas in 2021. The Falcons dropped four of their last five games and were blown out in Smith’s final two contests, losing 37-17 at Chicago a week ago.

The Falcons have posted six straight losing seasons since their last playoff appearance in 2017.

After the team arrived back in Atlanta, Smith met with owner Arthur Blank and CEO Rich McKay. The firing was announced shortly after midnight, the first of what were expected to be several coaching changes around the NFL on “Black Monday.”

“Decisions like this are never easy and they never feel good,” said Blank, the 81-year-old owner who now begins the search for the sixth full-time head coach of his two-plus decades as the Falcons’ owner.

The franchise that joined the league in 1966 is still seeking its first Super Bowl championship.

Blank and McKay will lead the coaching search with input from general manager Terry Fontenot, who is keeping his job after also being hired ahead of the 2021 season.

“We have profound respect for Coach Smith and appreciate all the hard work and dedication he has put into the Falcons over the last three years,” Blank said in a statement. “He has been part of building a good culture in our football team, but the results on the field have not met our expectations.”

Smith was hired by the Falcons in 2021 after a decade-long stint as an assistant with the Tennessee Titans in which he moved

Continued from Page B-1

up to become their offensive coordinator.

Smith didn’t feel much heat after his first two losing seasons as Atlanta dealt with Arthur Smith major salary cap issues, the result of trading away two franchise stalwarts: quarterback Matt Ryan and receiver Julio Jones.

The expectations on Smith grew immensely this season, with Blank making it clear he expected nothing less than the team’s first trip to the playoffs since 2017 after a free-agent spending spree to improve the defense and using three straight top-10 draft picks on offensive playmakers Kyle Pitts, Drake London and Bijan Robinson.

But Smith never got reliable quarterback play, switching back and forth between Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke this season.

Ridder got the start Sunday, throwing two touchdown passes in a game that was tied 17-17 at halftime. But he tossed a crucial interception in the third quarter that led to the Saints’ go-ahead touchdown and set up another New Orleans’ score with a fumbled snap. The Falcons, meanwhile, were shut out in the second half.

Ridder finished the season with 12 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions and 12 fumbles.

“It happened too much this year,” Smith said. “The job is to consistently do it, and we didn’t do it.”

Asked about his job status following the loss, Smith added, “This is the industry that we are in. I love coaching. I would have loved to win today. Obviously, we didn’t.”

Some players spoke out in support of Smith.

“I absolutely love coach Smith,” offensive guard Chris Lindstrom said. “I know we didn’t win the games that we’re supposed to this year. But I think the foundation of what this locker room is, there’s a lot of great things to come.”

Those great things did not

come in 2023, despite one of the league’s easiest schedules. The fan base really turned on Smith after a dismal 9-7 loss to the NFLworst Carolina Panthers in Week 15, an opponent that came in with a 1-12 record and interim coach.

Smith’s biggest downfall was failing to settle the quarterback position after Ryan — the Atlanta starter since 2008 — was traded to Indianapolis following Smith’s inaugural season.

Marcus Mariota started much of the 2022 campaign, without consistent success, before the Falcons turned to Ridder for the final four games.

Ridder, a third-round draft pick, was anointed the starter heading into his second season and it looked like the team was headed for better times after a 2-0 start.

But the young quarterback struggled with turnovers, leading Smith to make a switch in early November to Heinicke. After two losses with Heinicke as the starter, the Falcons again turned to Ridder, with the coach saying he didn’t want to keep going back and forth.

Then came the loss to the league’s worst team on a dreary day in Charlotte before a largely empty stadium.

Clinging to a 7-6 lead midway through the fourth quarter, Ridder led a potentially clinching drive deep into Carolina territory — only to throw a pass that was so ill-advised, it was hard to even tell which receiver he was trying to hit.

Carolina made the gift interception and drove nearly the length of the field to milk the remaining time on the clock, kicking a chipshot field goal as time expired.

The loss knocked Atlanta out of a three-way tie for first place in the NFC South and largely sealed Smith’s fate. Livid fans flooded social media with post demanding that Blank “#FireArthurSmith” amid griping that Smith only got his job because of his billionaire father’s relationship with the Atlanta owner.

Ridder was benched again, with Heinicke reclaiming the job before being held out of the final

game due to an ankle injury.

Smith was hired largely based on his offensive success with the Titans. But he never developed a dynamic unit in Atlanta.

He was heavily criticized for conservative play-calling and failure to take advantage of Pitts, London and Robinson. Most telling, the team produced more than 30 points only once during his tenure. Atlanta was 26th in the league in scoring this season, averaging 18.9 points per game.

Oddsmakers are expecting some good games during the opening round.

There are two road favorites during wild-card weekend, according to FanDuel Sportsbook: The Browns are a 21/2-

point favorite over rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud and the Texans while the Eagles are also a 21/2-point favorite against the Buccaneers.

Not every game is expected to be tight. The Cowboys are 71/2-point favorites over the Packers while the Bills have a 10-point advantage over the Steelers.

As for the Super Bowl winner, the oddsmakers like the top seeds. The 49ers are +230 to win it all while the Ravens are at +350.

Feel like betting on a longshot? The Steelers (+13000) and Packers (+10000) would bring the biggest returns if they win it all.

And — as always — there are the prop bets. Among them, a wild-card weekend touchdown on the opening kickoff nets a +5000 payday.

Woods, Nike end partnership after nearly three decades witnessed along with the rest of the world, how Tiger not only own “TW” brand. redefined the sport of golf, but On the golf course, Woods broke barriers for all of sport,” set records as the youngest to Nike said in a statement. “We win the Grand Slam at age 24, watched him set records, chalthe only player to hold all four lenge conventional thinking and major titles at the same time and inspire generations of people his 15-shot win at the U.S. Open, around the globe. We are gratethe largest margin for a major in ful to have been a part of it. We golf history. wish him the best in the future.”

But there were signs in recent Woods has won 15 majors, years of a fractured relationship. second only to Jack Nicklaus (18), Woods returned from his Februand his 82 career PGA Tour vicary 2021 car crash that shattered tories are tied with Sam Snead. bones in his right leg by wearing But he has been slowed in FootJoy shoes, saying it was a bet- recent years by five back surter feel considering his injuries. geries, shattered ligaments in Woods remained in them — his rebuilt left knee, the 2021 car Nike has a long history making crash and age. He turned 48 at shoes — even until the PNC the end of last year.

Championship last month that Nike stood by him when his he played with his son. personal life imploded in 2009 When asked about his deal over extramarital affairs, and with Nike, Woods replied, “I’m when his schedule was reduced still wearing their product,” greatly because of leg and back and sternly repeated the phrase injuries. Woods remarkably when asked if this was the end returned from fusion surgery to of his deal. win the Masters in 2019, his fifth green jacket.

More than just a face, Woods unwittingly delivered big Nike also has shown signs moments for Nike, none greater of slowing its golf business. It than his 2005 Masters victory decided to get out of the hard when he hit a pitch from below goods business in 2016, sending the 16th green that went up Woods to play different clubs the slope and then rolled back and a different golf ball. toward the hole. The ball hung Nike, meanwhile, said in a on the edge for a full second — recent earnings call it planned the swoosh in full view — before to cut $2 billion over the next it dropped. It remains one of the three years, raising questions most famous moments in golf’s about how much it would most-watched tournament. remain invested in golf.

He also was filming a comThe company still has a stable mercial one year when between of golfers wearing its apparel — takes, Woods began bouncing including Scottie Scheffler, the the golf ball off his club. That world’s No. 1 player who wears led to a spot where he bounced a “TW” brand shoe — and Rory the ball off the club, between McIlroy and Nelly Korda. Jason his legs, behind his back, before Day, a former No. 1 player, did hitting the ball in mid-air. not renew his deal this year and “Throughout the course switched to a different apparel of our partnership, we have company.

Continued from Page B-1

A PROUD DAY IN HISTORY FOR SUTIN, THAYER & BROWNE: FIRST HISPANIC WOMAN NAMED CEO MARIA MONTOYA CHAVEZ Maria Montoya Chavez was elected as the new President and CEO of one of New Mexico’s most highly-accredited law firms, Sutin, Thayer & Browne.

This election launches an era of diversity and evolvement, as Maria is not only the first female CEO of the 77-year-old Firm, but also the first Hispanic.

Maria joined Sutin, Thayer & Browne in 2000 and has led the firm in numerous different arenas, including four years on our Board of Directors, as well as serving as Vice President for two years. She was also on the Board of the New Mexico Collaborative Practice Group, Board of Keshet Dance Company and was the Vice President for Del Norte Rotary Club of Albuquerque.

Maria currently practices exclusively in Family Law: divorce, child custody, child support, alimony, and the division of complex assets, etc. She is a Collaborative Law attorney and enjoys serving as a mediator and settlement facilitator. She has received several awards for her work, including Albuquerque Journal’s Reader’s Choice for Top Divorce Attorney, 40 under 40 and was selected as a Women of Influence.

She will lead Sutin attorneys, whose practice areas include Business Law, Tax, Estate Planning, Cannabis Law, Banking, Real Estate and Employment Law.

“I believe we have the right people in place, which will assist in delivering quality legal services to our clients. I’ve served in the trenches by the sides of many while at the Firm and I am honored to now lead the charge.”

- Maria Montoya Chavez

ALBUQUERQUE

SANTA FE

New Mexico’s Business Lawyers ® sutinfirm.com

BUSINESS Target locks up men’s underwear

By Teya Vitu

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

B-5

AI’s ‘leap forward’ Robots learn, chatbots visualize: How artificial intelligence will advance in 2024

tvitu@sfnewmexican.com

Target is putting underwear under lock and key.

The national retailer in early November started locking up Pair of Thieves men’s underwear at stores across the country, according to numerous online reports.

Target in Santa Fe opened the new year with all men’s underwear locked in transparent security cases, including Hanes, Goodfellow & Co. and Jockey brands of underwear and socks.

The secured men’s underwear stands out as no other clothing in the men’s, women’s and children’s section is locked up at the local Target or the Walmart Supercenter.

The 2020s have seen increased amounts of merchandise locked up, such as electric and hand tools, spray paint, iPhone cases, consumer electronics and electric tooth brushes. People frequently post on the Santa Fe Bulletin Board Facebook page about people wheeling loaded carts of unpaid merchandise out of Target.

Persistent shoplifting pushed Walmart to close all its stores in Portland, Ore., last year, and Target closed three Portland stores.

The New Mexico Chamber of Commerce, the state Legislature, local chambers of commerce, police and retailers collaborated last year to tackle organized retail crime. The result was legislation that specifically defined organized retail crime and allows law enforcement and prosecutors to combine multiple small shoplifting burglaries in a 90-day span into one felony charge if all the merchandise is worth more than $500. Another felony charge applies to stealing a combined $2,500 in merchandise across one year.

“HB 234 took New Mexico into the 21st century for law enforcement to deal with retail crime,” New Mexico Chamber of Commerce CEO Rob Black said in September.

Target did not respond to calls for comment.

VICTOR ARCE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

By Cade Metz

The New York Times

MELINDA SUE GORDON/UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIA AP

Florence Pugh as Jean Tatlock, left, and Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer.

IN BRIEF ‘Oppenheimer,’ filmed at locations in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, Abiquiú, shines at Golden Globe Awards The summer blockbuster Oppenheimer spent about three weeks in March 2022 in the Santa Fe area filming key scenes on the way to winning a handful of Golden Globe Awards on Sunday.

The government hearings were filmed in the Bataan Memorial Building — the former state Capitol — and the train scenes were filmed on the Lamy spur tracks used by the Sky Railway, said Jennifer LaBar-Tapia, commissioner of the Santa Fe Film Office.

“When they had to shut down streets around the Bataan Building for a week, they had to pay the city for the parking spaces,” LaBar-Tapia said. “The film production worked its way down from Abiquiú to Los Alamos to Santa Fe. The early scenes before Los Alamos existed were shot at the Ghost Ranch.”

Oppenheimer won the best drama feature film Golden Globe, and Christopher Nolan won best director. Cillian Murphy won best actor in a drama for his portrayal of J. Robert Oppenheimer, with Robert Downey Jr. taking home best supporting actor and Ludwig Göransson winning for his musical score.

“This is definitely a good start for awards season,” LaBar-Tapia said. “This is excellent for Santa Fe and New Mexico crew. Producer Emma Thomas gave a shoutout to the crew in her acceptance speech. Those are New Mexico people.”

Thomas, in her acceptance speech, said: “Everybody did their best.”

State seeks to buy Los Alamos building to house MVD and Environment Department office The state of New Mexico is trying for the third time to buy a building or property in Los Alamos to consolidate the Motor Vehicle Division and New Mexico Environment Department in a structure the state owns instead of leases.

Two earlier requests for proposals with Oct. 20 and Nov. 30 deadlines failed to turn up any suitable offers.

The state General Services Department seeks a building with at least 9,000 square feet or unspecified acreage that “should be sufficient to build a one-story office building with adequate parking” for up to 35 spaces, the request reads.

“It’s not meant to be an expansion,” said New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department spokesman Charlie Moore. “[MVD in Los Alamos] is a very small office with three employees.”

The Environment Department has an Energy Oversight Bureau office in Los Alamos.

Proposals must be submitted by Feb. 15, with a winning bid to be elected Feb. 18. General Services wants the sale to close and be ready to take possession by May 1.

The request for proposals is posted online at: generalservices.state.nm.us/state-purchasing/active-itbs-andrfps/active-procurements/.

The New Mexican

SAN FRANCISCO t an event in San Francisco in November, Sam Altman, CEO of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, was asked what surprises the field would bring in 2024.

Online chatbots such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT will take “a leap forward that no one expected,” Altman immediately responded.

Sitting beside him, James Manyika, a Google executive, nodded and said, “Plus one to that.”

The AI industry this year is set to be defined by one main characteristic: a remarkably rapid improvement of the technology as advancements build upon one another, enabling AI to generate new kinds of media, mimic human reasoning in new ways and seep into the physical world through a new breed of robot.

In the coming months, AI-powered image generators such as DALL-E and Midjourney will instantly deliver videos as well as still images. And they will gradually merge with chatbots such as ChatGPT. That means chatbots will expand well beyond digital text by handling photos, videos, diagrams, charts and other media.

They will exhibit behavior that looks more like human reasoning, tackling increasingly complex tasks in fields such as math and science. As the technology moves into robots, it will also help to solve problems beyond the digital world.

Many of these developments have already started emerging inside the top research labs and in tech products. But in 2024, the power of these products will grow significantly and be used by far more people.

“The rapid progress of AI will continue,” said David Luan, CEO of Adept, an AI startup.

“It is inevitable.”

OpenAI, Google and other tech companies are advancing AI far more quickly than other technologies because of the way the underlying systems are built.

Most software apps are built by engineers, one line of computer code at a time, which is typically a slow and tedious process. Companies are improving AI more swiftly because the technology relies on neural networks, mathematical systems that can learn skills by analyzing digital data. By pinpointing patterns in data such as Wikipedia articles, books and digital text culled from the internet, a neural network can learn to generate text on its own.

This year, tech companies plan to feed AI systems more data — including images, sounds and more text — than people can wrap their heads around. As these systems learn the relationships between these various kinds of data, they will learn to solve increasingly complex problems, preparing them for life in the physical world.

(The New York Times sued OpenAI and Microsoft last month for copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems.)

None of this means that AI will be able to match the human brain anytime soon. While AI companies and entrepreneurs aim to create what they call “artificial general intelli-

A

gence” — a machine that can do anything the human brain can do — this remains a daunting task. For all its rapid gains, AI remains in the early stages.

Here’s a guide to how AI is set to change this year, beginning with the nearest-term advancements, which will lead to further progress in its abilities.

Instant videos Until now, AI-powered applications mostly generated text and still images in response to prompts. DALL-E, for instance, can create photorealistic images within seconds off requests such as “a rhino diving off the Golden Gate Bridge.”

But this year, companies such as OpenAI, Google, Meta and New York-based Runway are likely to deploy image generators that allow people to generate videos, too. These companies have already built prototypes of tools that can instantly create videos from short text prompts.

Tech companies are likely to fold the powers of image and video generators into chatbots, making the chatbots more powerful.

‘Multimodal’ chatbots Chatbots and image generators, originally developed as separate tools, are gradually merging. When OpenAI debuted a new version of ChatGPT last year, the chatbot could generate images as well as text.

AI companies are building “multimodal” systems, meaning the AI can handle multiple types of media. These systems learn skills by analyzing photos, text and potentially other kinds of media, including diagrams, charts, sounds and video, so they can then produce their own text, images and sounds.

That isn’t all. Because the systems are also learning the relationships between different types of media, they will be able to understand one type of media and respond with another. In other words, someone may feed an image into chatbot and it will respond with text.

“The technology will get smarter, more useful,” said Ahmad Al-Dahle, who leads Meta’s generative AI group. “It will do more things.”

Multimodal chatbots will get stuff wrong, just as text-only chatbots make mistakes. Tech companies are working to reduce errors as they strive to build chatbots that can reason like a human.

Better ‘reasoning’ When Altman talks about AI’s taking a leap forward, he is referring to chatbots that are better at “reasoning” so they can take on more complex tasks, such as solving complicated math problems and generating detailed computer programs.

The aim is to build systems that can carefully and logically solve a problem through a series of discrete steps, each one building on the next. That is how humans reason, at least in some cases.

Leading scientists disagree on whether chatbots can truly reason like that. Some argue that these systems merely seem to reason as they repeat behavior they have

seen in internet data. But OpenAI and others are building systems that can more reliably answer complex questions involving subjects such as math, computer programming, physics and other sciences.

“As systems become more reliable, they will become more popular,” said Nick Frosst, a former Google researcher who helps lead Cohere, an AI startup.

If chatbots are better at reasoning, they can then turn into “AI agents.”

‘AI agents’ As companies teach AI systems how to work through complex problems one step at a time, they can also improve the ability of chatbots to use software apps and websites on your behalf.

Researchers are essentially transforming chatbots into a new kind of autonomous system called an AI agent. That means the chatbots can use software apps, websites and other online tools, including spreadsheets, online calendars and travel sites. People could then offload tedious office work to chatbots.

But these agents could also take away jobs entirely.

Chatbots already operate as agents in small ways. They can schedule meetings, edit files, analyze data and build bar charts. But these tools do not always work as well as they need to. Agents break down entirely when applied to more complex tasks.

This year, AI companies are set to unveil agents that are more reliable. “You should be able to delegate any tedious, day-to-day computer work to an agent,” Luan said.

This might include keeping track of expenses in an app such as QuickBooks or logging vacation days in an app such as Workday. In the long run, it will extend beyond software and internet services and into the world of robotics.

Smarter robots In the past, robots were programmed to perform the same task over and over again, such as picking up boxes that are always the same size and shape. But using the same kind of technology that underpins chatbots, researchers are giving robots the power to handle more complex tasks — including those they have never seen before.

Just as chatbots can learn to predict the next word in a sentence by analyzing vast amounts of digital text, a robot can learn to predict what will happen in the physical world by analyzing countless videos of objects being prodded, lifted and moved.

“These technologies can absorb tremendous amounts of data. And as they absorb data, they can learn how the world works, how physics work, how you interact with objects,” said Peter Chen, a former OpenAI researcher who runs Covariant, a robotics startup.

This year, AI will supercharge robots that operate behind the scenes, such as mechanical arms that fold shirts at a laundromat or sort piles of stuff inside a warehouse. Tech titans such as Elon Musk are also working to move humanoid robots into people’s homes.

“ The rapid progress of AI will continue. It is inevitable.”

Business editor: Teya Vitu, tvitu@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Brian Barker, bbarker@sfnewmexican.com

David Luan, CEO of Adept, an AI startup

SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM

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SANTA FE REAL ESTATE GUIDE JANUARY 2024

A HOUSE BEYOND Dinner Party Prep with Chef Johnny Vee • The Year Ahead

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Rating:IT BRONZE READ ONLINE Solution to 1/6/24 It’s a new year and everyone’s hoping for mucho prospero in the months ahead. To see what might be coming, we asked some of the city’s top realtors and builders and others what they see for Santa Fe’s future. We also asked one of last year’s favorite roomies, Chef Johnny Vee, for tips on entertaining at home. Which he gladly offered up. In addition, this month’s favorite roomer is artist Joanne LeFrak, who, ironically, unlike Chef Johnny, spends most of her me-time in her kitchen. (Go figure.)

Elsewhere, Saguna Severson talks with La Fonda ambassador and woman about town Jenny Kimball, and Ylise Kessler takes stock of AI in art.

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PART-TIME MAIL MANAGER Responsible person needed to work Wednesdays and possibly Thursdays to stuff, label and organize weekly mailings. Excellent organizational skills and references required.

505-820-2333 or robett@prodigy.net

announcements

No P Phone hone C Calls alls please.

LOST

The Administr Administrativ ative e Office of the Courts (AOC) (AOC) is recruiting recruiting for 1 - Chief Appellate Court Clerk 1 (U), #00000042 Position Location: Location: Albuquerque or Santa Fe, NM. Pay Range: Range $47.338 - $94.675 hourly OR $98,463 - $196,924 annually Extensive Benefits Package To apply and review the job description: https:// ttps://www www.. nmcourts.gov nmcourts.go v/car careers/ eers/ Equal Opportunity Employer

Classifieds

Get Results!

Saturday evening around 6pm we were traveling near the airport on Calle Debra, Calle Rael, The County Rd, and the 599 relief route between Airport Rd and I 25, and the frontage rd between 599 and Cerillos. We dropped green crates out of our truck that had a backpacks -one black and one purple, with SIGNIFICANT SENTIMENTAL value items, if anybody happened to pick them up please, please, please let me know, there is a CASH reward for their return. 505-907-3977 or 505-328-4487

PERSONALS THE TIME IS FULFILLED AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT AT HAND: REPENT YE AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL MK 1:15

merchandise

Call 986-3000 to place your ad!

PARKING Parking space available for your RV or Boat. Lock it and leave it. $150.00 to $250.00 depending on size. Inquiries may call 505-988-5299

BUILDING MATERIALS MISCELLANEOUS

STORAGE SPACE Full-size garage available for your car or general storage. Close in on Airport near Cerrillos Rd. Lock it and leave it, Don’t pay for a closet when you can have this unit for $300.00 a month.

Inquiries may call 505-988-5299

JANRIC CLASSIC SUDOKU

Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block. Use logic and process elimination to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest).

Rating: SILVER Solution to 1/8/24

© 2024 Janric Enterprises Dist. by creators.com

When not working on administrative tasks this position will be helping on the production floor with some physical labor involved with the ability of lifting up to 25 pounds. This position requires an organized person that can communicate well, is accurate with their work, is honest, can be on time every day and have an excellent attendance record. This is a mid-entry level position with room for advancement. Pay is flexible and will be based on prior experience.

Microsoft Excel skills required with the ability to use basic formulas in the program. Fluent bilingual English/Spanish is preferred. Any other software experience especially programs dealing with graphic design will also be helpful. Successful completion of a drug test will be required prior to employment offer.

MANAGEMENT

2Bed 2Bath Home for Legislative Session

© 2024 Janric Enterprises Dist. by creators.com

HOME

• Job Scheduling • Data report entry/verification and scanning of documents • Mail processing • Communicating with commercial clients to ensure their job information is accurate • Assist with inventory levels and parts ordering • Shipping and Receiving • Assist in processing and scheduling jobs for delivery • Generate new forms, documents and spreadsheets as needed • Generate production reports for production staff • Provide project support for production staff.

HOUSES FURNISHED

Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block. Use logic and process elimination to solve the puzzle. The difficulty level ranges from Bronze (easiest) to Silver to Gold (hardest).

1/9/24

ADMINISTRATIVE

PRODUCTION CLERK

1 bdrm.+ office + great amenities Indoor pool, sauna & gym. Furnished garden level condo. Arroyo views.

1 bdrm. + guest/office. Full size refrigerator, W/D, dishwasher & AC. Housekeeping included. Great long term corporate/film industry rental.

Pet-friendly. Minutes to 10K, skiing, markets & historic downtown. $2,350 monthly casitagalisteo@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS

WANTED: FULLFULL-TIME DELIVERY DELIVER Y DRIVER

The Santa Fe New Mexican is seeking a Production Clerk to perform office support duties including:

4 Aleppo’s land 5 Sandwich shop 6 “__ Us”: multiplayer logic and deduction game 7 Encouraging message 8 Brunch drink 9 “House of Gucci” actor Driver 10 Civil rights monogram 11 Spelling meet 12 Braying animal 14 Terr. that became two states 20 Replicant 21 Poor grade 24 Come off like old paint 25 Listing abbr.

26 “Go find out!”

29 Tetra- minus one 30 Dried fruit in trail mix, perhaps 32 Facial spots DOWN 33 Targets of some 1 Acid or base indicator bark beetles 2 “Relax, soldier” 34 FG’s three 3 European capital 36 Carry with effort with a medieval 37 Thereabouts astronomical clock 38 Lyft status

1/8/24

jobs

STAR ST ART T TO TODAY AND STA STAY ALL YEAR!

LARGE LUMBER PACK FOR SALE. Large house project was canceled due to family emergency. We have a large lumber pack for sale which was originally $150K. We are offering the pack at $140K or best offer. The pack can be viewed locally by appointment and the lumber pack list can be viewed upon request. Send requests to: tazoline@gmail.com In addition to the lumber pack we also have approximately 125 standing dead vigas.

FIREWOOD - FUEL

THE SANT SANTA A FE NEW MEXICAN MEXICAN IS SEEKING CARRIERS CARRIERS FOR FOR ROUTES IN THE SANT ANTA A FE AREA This is a great way to make some money and still have most of your day for other things - like picnics or time with family, other jobs or school. The Santa Fe routes pay $650 every other week and take 2-2.5 hours a day.

The New Mexican is a daily newspaper and our subscribers love having it at their homes every day. You can make that happen! You must have a clean driving record and a reliable vehicle. This is a year-round, independent contractor position. You pick up the papers at our production plant in Santa Fe. It’s early morning in and done!

PINE WOOD $350 FOR FULL MEASURED CORD. HALF CORD, $180. FREE DELIVERY IN SANTA FE AREA. 505-316-3205

MISCELLANEOUS

Applicants should call: 505-986-3010 or email circulation@ cir culation@ sfnewmexican.com sfnewmexican.co

In-App replica editions

santafenewmexican.com/theapp

Persian Tabriz wool rug 12’ x 16’ fine quality. Previously owned, EXCELLENT condition. Similar $15K - $20K new. $6900 O.B.O. 505-570-5624

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

sfnm«classifieds MISCELLANEOUS

pets

THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

B-7

to place an ad call: 986-3000 | email: classad@sfnewmexican.com | visit: sfnmclassifieds.com PETS - SUPPLIES

to place legals

sfnm«classifieds call: 986-3000

PETS - SUPPLIES

LEGALS LEGAL #92080

French bulldog pups, females $1500.

Potty trained. Health guarantee. Utd on shots. 4 months old, loving and playful. Great addition to your home.

505-901-2094 505-929-3333.

PETS - SUPPLIES TIPI SUPPLY SUPPLY NOMADICS TIPI COVERS COVERS MOST SIZES IN STOCK STOCK PAINTED P AINTED OR UNPAINTED UNPAINTED LODGEPOLE PINE TIPI POLES SIZES 16FT. 16FT. TO TO 36FT 36FT.. LONG LONG IN STOCK STOCK AT AT OUR WAREHOUSE PLEASANT PLEAS ANT VIEW, VIEW, COLORADO COL ORADO 970-560-1884 WWW..TIPISUPPL WWW TIPISUPPLY Y.COM

Add a pic and sell it quick!

Using

Larger Type

Awesome Maltese purebred $800 Female $750 Male. Yorkie teacup Female $1500. Maltipoo Female $500 Male $450. White and merle Pom $1250. 505-901-2094 505-929-3333

cars & trucks

The Santa Fe New Mexican

In-App replica editions santafenewmexican.com/theapp

4X4S NO-STRESS IN-HOME CA CAT CARE CARE Licensed & Professional Reasonable Rates THE CAT CONCIERGE Call Judy Roberts Santa Fe 505-954-1878 thecatconciergesantafe.com

UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS santafenewmexican.com/subscribe Chiweenie Puppies For Sale!

Pomeranian Puppies 4 sale Pomeranian puppies beautiful, toys and T-cups, males and females, rare exotic colors, registered and 1st vaccinations received, long time reputable breeder. 1500.00 505-550-7319

will help your ad get noticed

2011 F-550 Ford 4x4. New motor. New transmission. New transfer case. $29,500 Ron 505-577-4008

SUVS

986-3000 Call Classifieds For Details Today!

WANT TO BUY

986-3000 CASH PAID PAID FOR FOR VINYL RECORDS RECORDS 33RPM Albums/LPs, 45RPM Singles/7”s, even 78s! Bring them to our NEW location at 131 W. Water St in Santa Fe every weekday from 11AM to 4PM or Call 505-399-5060 to schedule an appointment!

3 weeks, 2 males, 3 females. First shots, de-wormed and trimmed nails, potty trained Call 516-909-8152

Small breed puppies Registered small breed local NM puppies for sale. Potty pad started. Payment plan available. Shots included.

Check out cmoes-puppies.com or text 575-308-3017. Cards/PayPal/ CashApp/ApplePay all accepted

2009 Hyundai Santa Fe GLS with 138k miles, recently fully inspected, One owner and runs great. $7000. Open to 4-wheel drive trade-ins. 218-994-9380

business&service directory BLACKSMITH

CHIMNEY SWEEPING

CONCRETE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO COUNTY OF SANTA FE FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT No. D-101-PB-2023-00331 IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF YVONNE B. MULL, Deceased.

NOTICE TO CREDITORS NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that Christina M. Beckmann has been appointed Personal Representative of this estate. All persons having claims against this estate are required to present their claims within four months of the date of the first publication of this Notice or within sixty days of the mailing or other delivery of this notice, whichever is later, or the claims will be forever barred. Claims must be presented either to the Personal Representative, at Post Office Box 2168, Albuquerque, NM 87103-2168, or filed with the First Judicial District Court, County of Santa Fe, at PO Box 2268, Santa Fe, NM 87504-2268.

Dated: January 3, 2024 MODRALL, SPERLING, ROEHL, HARRIS & SISK, P.A. Marjorie A. Rogers Attorneys for Personal Representative 500 Fourth St., NW, Suite 1000 Post Office Box 2168 (87103-2168) Albuquerque, NM 87102 Telephone: (505) 848-1800 Pub: Jan 9, 16, 23, 2024

To Place A Legal Notice

Call 986-3000

to advertise, call (505)986-3000, monday - friday 8-5 log on anytime to www.sfnmclassifieds.com HANDYMAN

LANDSCAPING

ROOFING

VICTOR’S LANDSCAPING,

Fireplace Fir eplace

a division of Victors Lawns LLC.

Fireplace Screens Fire Tools Andirons and Grates

MH Foundation, Patios, Slabs, Garage, Side-Work, Block-Work, All Concrete Related Work.

Clean, Efficient & Knowledgeable Full Service Chimney Sweep/Dryer Vents.

Appointments av available.

We will beat any any price!

505-982-9308 Artschimneys Artschimney sweep.com

CLEANING

We Do ANY Job, Small or Big! Free Estimates

UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS santafenewmexican.com/subscribe

CONSTRUCTION

Call and talk to one of our friendly Consultants today!

986-3000

CHIMNEY SWEEPING VOTED SANT SANTA A FE REPORTER’S REPORTER’ S BEST OF SANT ANTA A FE FOR FOR 2023!

THANK YOU YOU SANT SANTA A FE FOR FOR 45 YEARS OF YOUR YOUR TRUST. TRUST.

Handyman, landscaping, remodeling and repair.

Call the local guys.

We know the style.

Quality is our priority 100% satisfaction guaranteed.

We are licensed and insured Darren Martinez (Owner) 505-927-2559 Darren.j.martinez@gmail.com

MIKE”S HANDYMAN MIKE”S HANDYMAN SERVICE SER VICE YARD WORK, WORK,

Call tod toda ay!

505-660-4293 Cell 505-988-4607 Hom Home e Pporter er46@gm 46@gmail ail..com

Sell Your Stuff!

“SANT “S ANTA A FE STYLES”

A+ HOUSECLEANING HOUSECLEANING AVAILABLE NOW! NOW! One time or as needed.

Many years of experience in Santa Fe, Los Alamos, and surrounding areas.

ENCHANTED STONE •PROPER •PROPERTY TY MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT// MAINTENANCE (HOA’S, PRIVATELY OWNED, COMMERCIAL PROPERTY’S , ETC.) •LANDSCAPING •LANDSC APING •LANDSCAPE •LANDSCAPE MATERIALS MATERIALS (BOULDERS, BLOCK ROCK, TREES, FOUNTAINS)

505-670-8467 References available upon request.

•DIRT ROAD •DIRT ROAD AND DRIVEWA DRIVEWAY MAINTENANCE AND BUILDING

CONCRETE

•CULVER •CUL VERT T CLEANING

AFFORDABLE AFFORD ABLE CONCRETE AND ASPHALT ASPHALT WORK WORK

•LAND CLEARING AND DEMOLITION •ACE •A CEQUIA QUIA AND BAR BAR DITCH DITCH CLEANING

Painting, Plumbing, Carpentry.

Any job big or small 30 years experience. References upon request. 505-231-1946 Available now.

HAULING OR YARD WORK

*Drivew *Driv ewa ays *Foundations *Foundations *Patios *P atios *Slabs *Exposed Aggr Aggregate egate *Concrete *Concr ete Block Wall Wall *Exca *Ex cav vation *Demolition *Footings *Footings *Asphalt Re Repair *Sidewalks *Sidewalks *Stamped & Color Concrete Concrete Acid Stains

CHIMNEY, DRYER CHIMNEY, DRYER VENTS, VENTS, WOOD STO STOVES VES,, LINERS, LINERS, STUCCO HIRE A FULLY FULLY INSURED CHIMNEY SWEEPER SENIOR DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE MIKAEL 505-490-8407

Butcher, Baker or Candlestick Maker.

Hard Hat, Hospitality or Health Care.

Find Your Perfect Employee Here.

JobsSantaFe.com The #1 Way to Reach Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico

505-986-3000

TREE SERVICE DALE’ ALE’S S TREE SERVICE SERVICE

CALL 986-3000

PLASTERING

PROFESSIONAL PLASTERING

ROOFING

505-577-1488

TREE PRUNING, REMOVAL, STUMPS, HAULING, FRUIT TREES, EVERGREEN HEDGES, JUNIPER, PINON TRIMMING, STORM DAMAGE 505-473-4129 YARD MAINTENANCE AFFORDABLE! AFFORD ABLE! YARD WORK WORK

Block Rock Rock $175 Per Ton Small $250 Per Ton Large Riv River er Rock Rock $75 per ton Moss Char Character acter Rock Rock Benches, Boulders, Custom Fountain Fountain Prices will vary on size.

ALL-IN-ONE ALL -IN-ONE

ROO OOF F LEA LEAK K REPAI AIR R & MAIN AINT TENAN ENANC CE NOW DOING Roof Repairs, Roofing Maintenance, Stucco and Yard Cleaning & Maintenance Painting. Torch Down.

References Available 505-603-3182

CALL FOR FREE ESTIMATE 505-652-9408 OR 505-652-9208 AWESOME REFERENCES! FENCING

Financing av available and credit credit cards car ds excepted excepted 100% Customer Satisfaction Licensed/ BONDED/ BONDED/ INSURED DFMConcreteInc72@gmail.com DFMConcreteInc72@gmail.com 505-328-4883

Quality Roofs/Repairs, Drywall, Painting And Stucco, Licensed and free estimates!

Let our small business experts help you grow your business.

LANDSCAPING

•JUNK AND YARD YARD WASTE WASTE REMOV REMO VAL Residential and C Commer ommerci cial al

Have a product or service to offer?

Parapet restoration.

Roof leak repairs All your stucco and painting needs. Drywall, diamond finish, and repairs.

•TREE TRIMMING

OUR STAINLESS STAINLESS STEEL LINERS ARE THE PERFECT PERFECT LIFETIME SOLUTION SOLUTION FOR FOR OUR DETERIORATED DETERIORATED SANT SANTA A FE CHIMNEYS CHIMNEYS. C CALL ALL TO TODAY. 505-989-5775.

Licensed and Insured Landscaping Projects: Hardscaping, Retaining Walls, Patios, Fencing, Sod. Commercial Maintenance.

Call for Customized Estimate: 505-661-9680 VictorsLandscapingNM.com

THE JUNK MAN Free pickup of appliances and scrap metal. Free estimates for cleaning garages, sheds, hoarder houses, and trash pick up.

Reasonable fees 505-385-0898

•EROSION CONTROL

We Do It All

RZM ROOFING call Robert (505) 917-6736,

SNOW SNO W REMOV REMOVAL, LAWN MAINTENANCE, LAWN TREE PRUNING, BUSH TRIMMING, COY CO YOTE FENCES, FENCES, FLAGST FLA GSTONE, ONE, LEAF CLEANING .

FREE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ASK FOR FOR NOAH NO AH 505-507-4462.

FENCE PRO’S PRO’S INC. BERRY CLEAN YARD BERRY YARD SERVICES SER VICES

FENCING * LANDSCAPING LANDSCAPING GATES * IRRIGATION, GATES IRRIGATION, ETC. ETC. LATILLAS LA TILLAS AV AVAILABLE. SERVING SER VING SANT SANTA A FE AND SURROUNDING AREAS FREE ESTIMATES ESTIMATES ISAA IS AAC C CORTEZ CORTEZ 505-660-5760 fenceprosnm@ gmail.com Lic# 17-00147202

Delivery Deliv ery and Setting Available 505-652-9208

Primary Roofing Service Pro Panel - T.P.O. - Torch down(BRAI) MPM Major Preventative Maintenance Includes All Pipes, Canales, Skylights, Fireplaces, etc.

Free Estimates. All work Guaranteed!

New Construction and Remodel.

Call Anthony 505-660-3758

Seasonal planting Lawn care Weed Removal Dump runs Painting Honest & Dependable Free estimates.

References.

(505)501-3395

B-8 THE SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN Tuesday, January 9, 2024

N EEverry Tuesday New

HOSTED BY:

INEZ RUSSELL GOMEZ

OPINION PAGE EDITOR, SANTA FE NEW MEXICAN

JAN. 9 - A CONVERSATION ABOUT THE POWER OF LOBBYISTS WITH:

Steve Terrell

former Santa Fe New Mexican er reporter

TO SUBSCRIBE VISIT: SANTAFENEWMEXICAN.COM/PODCASTS CASTS

and Dede Feldman Feldma

former New Mexxico state senator

TIME OUT

ACROSS 1 “Stat!”

5 Like most Italian nouns ending in -o: Abbr.

9 Volcanic residue 12 1/26.2 of a marathon 13 SiriusXM medium 14 Cheek swab material 15 *Number of copies requested by a publisher 17 Howard who narrates “Arrested Development” 18 *Barriers that slide in and out of a wall 20 Shriveled 23 Temporary relief 24 Ship’s backbone 25 Roast beef au ___ 27 Texter’s sign-off 28 Actor McKellen who played Gandalf 29 “Mayday!”

30 Org. with a Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list 32 *Stereotypical literary persona 38 Hardwood tree 39 One side in

checkers 40 Longoria of “Desperate Housewives” 41 “Dancing Queen” group 44 “Golly!”

45 “Right away, boss!”

46 Skin spot 49 Tight undergarment 51 *Designer’s collection 53 Picnic pest 54 Irritable ... or how you might describe all the words in the answers to the starred clues?

58 Wedding words 59 Pie-in-the-face sound 60 Diamond Head’s island 61 Heed the coxswain 62 Sharp and shrewd 63 Staircase part DOWN 1 Bit of concert equipment 2 What the Portuguese “senhor” means 3 Actor Mahershala

No. 1205

of “Moonlight” 4 Snail-mail correspondent 5 Swindler’s victim 6 Some venomous snakes 7 Dos + cinco 8 Bungee cables, for example 9 Skillful 10 Like high-strung horses 11 Fairy tale brother 13 Mountaineering enthusiast, in slang 16 Boatload 19 Fiber-___ cable 20 Hits the slopes 21 Track meet event 22 City mentioned at

the start of the Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil” 26 Show people to their seats, informally 29 Genre for the 1990s band Sublime 30 Something you don’t have to pay for, redundantly 31 Rotten 33 Ted Lasso, for one 34 “___ we there yet?”

35 Maintain, as a bar 36 Rotten 37 Give stars, say 41 Common plot point

on a soap opera 42 “The Godfather” Oscar winner 43 Present, as a prize 44 Having a light touch 45 Cookie-flavored breakfast cereal 47 Merchant’s booth 48 Jeweler’s lens 50 Helpful connections 52 Student ___ forgiveness 55 Smallest of the Chinese zodiac animals 56 Fill-in-___-blank 57 “How’s it goin’?”

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

HOCUS FOCUS

JUMBLE

Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes. com/mobilexword for more information.

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

HOROSCOPE

This is a tricky day, because you might impulsively agree to something when talking to a boss, parent or authority figure.

Tonight: Ambition!

The stars show the kind of day you’ll have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024: You are fast thinking, energetic and passionate. This is the final year of a nine-year cycle, which means it’s time for you to let go of anything or anyone who is standing in your way.

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping or important decisions from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST. After that, the Moon moves into Capricorn.

ARIES (March 21-April 19) HHH You’re an adventurer.

You’re the pioneer of the zodiac.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) HHHH Unexpected opportunities to travel might drop in your lap. Likewise, a sudden breakthrough in higher education, medical or legal matters might occur today. Tonight: Explore!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) HHH Expect a sudden change to an arrangement you have about inheritances, shared property, taxes or insurance issues, because this can very likely happen or around this time. Tonight: Practical ideas.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) HHH Today, or somewhere

CRYPTOQUIP

around this time, you can expect a surprise from a partner or close friend. They might demand more freedom in the relationship. Tonight: A practical conversation.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) HHH Your health or your work scene might have some interruptions around now. It might be a breakthrough related to technology. Tonight: Productive!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) HHHH Get ready, because sudden opportunities to slip away on a vacation might come to you. Or it might be an unexpected invitation to a social event. Tonight: Practice a skill.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) HHH Surprises might impact home and family at this time.

TODAY IN HISTORY

It could be the introduction of something high-tech to your home. Or a family member might surprise you, or your family dynamic might change. It might involve a parent. Tonight: Get organized.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) HHHH You might feel restless at this time because the Sun is in your sign dancing with wild, unpredictable Uranus. Tonight: Results!

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) HHHH Lots of changes are taking place in your life right now. New people, new places and new ideas — spontaneous travel, courses and new learning curves. Tonight: You’re convincing.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) HHH This is a restless time for you. Many of you are keeping a low profile as you wait for your birthday to arrive. Nevertheless, some of you are hanging out with younger, creative people.

Tonight: Happy solitude.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) HHH Unexpected events might impact your finances or your belongings. Do be aware of this.

Don’t be casual about anything.

Protect what you own against loss, theft or damage. However, this could be good news!

Tonight: Budget ideas.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) HHHH This is an excellent time to meet new friends and get involved in clubs and organizations. Some of you might meet someone unusual or avantgarde, which will please you, because you love characters.

Tonight: Work with others.

SHEINWOLD’S BRIDGE

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2024. There are 357 days left in the year.

Today’s highlight in history: On Jan. 9, 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, S.C., retreated because of artillery fire.

Rules • Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 6 without repeating.

• The numbers within the heavily outlines boxes, called cages, must combine using the given operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.

• Freebies: Fill in single-box cages with the number in the top-left corner.

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SUPER QUIZ Take this Super Quiz to a Ph.D. Score 1 point for each correct answer on the Freshman Level, 2 points on the Graduate Level and 3 points on the Ph.D. Level.

Subject: AMERICANA (e.g., Name Walt Whitman’s first and most famous book of poems. Answer: “Leaves of Grass.”)

American.

Answer________ 6. Who was the first non-native English speaker to become first lady of the U.S.?

Answer________

FRESHMAN LEVEL 1. What is a “grand slam” in baseball?

Answer________ 2. What is “The Great White Way”?

Answer________ 3. Jerry Mathers played the title character, Theodore Cleaver, in this TV sitcom.

Answer________

PH.D. LEVEL 7. After playing sidekick Kato in the TV series “The Green Hornet,” he gained fame as a martial arts actor.

Answer________ 8. She became the most famous stripper in U.S. history. Her 1957 autobiography is titled “Gypsy.”

Answer________ 9. Which U.S. president observed, “Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God”?

Answer________

SCORING: 18 points — congratulations, doctor; 15 to 17 points — honors graduate; 10 to 14 points — you’re plenty smart, but no grind; 4 to 9 points — you really should hit the books harder; 1 point to 3 points — enroll in remedial courses immediately; 0 points — who reads the questions to you? (c) 2024 Ken Fisher

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Dear Annie: My boyfriend and I have been together for five years. This last year, there has been no physical intimacy between us at all. We vibe very well in our relationship being partners in a small business. He says he is still attracted to me and keeps on blaming our busy work lives for lack of sex. But we are usually home before 10 p.m. and we rarely work on weekends.

When we used to have sex, he struggled with erectile dysfunction.

I even asked him if he would go to the doctor to see if he had a problem. He agreed to make an appointment, but when the day came he made excuses and did not go. Now it’s gotten to the point where I’ve stopped trying, and he’s not trying either. Can you please help with some advice here?

— It’s Been a Year Dear IBAY: ED is extremely common, impacting an estimated 30 million men in the U.S. While it shouldn’t be cause for embarrassment, it is cause for concern, as it can be an early warning sign of cardiovascular problems including endothelial dysfunction (damage to the lining of blood vessels) or atherosclerosis (the buildup of plaque in the arteries). He might be more receptive to you if you approach it that way — out of concern for his whole-body health — and offer to go with him to the appointment, to offer moral support. I hope he hears you out.

Dear Annie: I think you might have missed a chance, recently, to help a woman who had no sense of her own value, in your letter to “Lost.” Instead of referring her to a dating app in which she would latch on to another man who ignores her, “Lost” might benefit from some therapy first. She was so desperate to continue contacting a man who so obviously didn’t care about her. Her level of desperation in continuing to pursue someone after being blocked is a sad example of a person with no sense of boundaries and no love of self.

I was in a similar headspace many years ago due to my own poor relationship choices. My life decisions were the product of my low self-esteem and an upbringing that taught me that I needed a man to feel like I have value. I have since received much-needed counseling in self-compassion, self-worth, and healthy boundaries, as the result of having an emotionally unavailable parent. These days, I know that I deserve a relationship in which I can express my needs to my partner. If they are not met, I can let go of that person, knowing that they are not for me. I trust myself and have erected boundaries that protect me, but also let the right person in. I wish her well.

— No Longer Lost Dear No Longer Lost: You’re right. I focused on the wrong aspect of “Lost’s” letter, her dating life, rather than on her inner emotional life and sense of self-worth.

Thank you for bringing it back to the heart of the matter. I’m glad to hear you found yourself.

1. A home run with the bases loaded. 2. New York City’s Broadway. 3. “Leave It to Beaver.” 4. Surfing. 5. Uncle Remus. 6. Melania Trump (Melania Knauss). 7. Bruce Lee. 8. Gypsy Rose Lee. 9. Thomas Jefferson.

in Keep

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