2023-10-11 11:31:00
New Mexico governor defends approach to attempted gun restrictions, emergency order on gun violence – Associated Press
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Tuesday defended her decision to treat gun violence as a public health epidemic, citing statistics on recent firearms seizures, reduced reports of gunfire in the Albuquerque metro area and an uptick in jail bookings, while awaiting a crucial court ruling on a signature effort to suspend gun-carry rights in public parks and playgrounds.
The governor last week extended an emergency public health order regarding gun violence an additional 30 days into early November. A federal judge has temporarily blocked provisions that suspended the right to carry guns in public parks, playgrounds and other areas where children recreate, setting a Wednesday deadline for a ruling on whether to indefinitely block the restrictions while several court challenges are resolved.
Lujan Grisham appeared at the news conference alongside Cabinet secretaries not only for New Mexico’s Public Safety and Corrections departments but also child welfare services, pubic health and environmental protection agencies that are under orders to respond to the ravages of gun violence and drugs.
They unveiled a new website dashboard for statistics related to gun violence in the Albuquerque area. Administration officials said some new efforts to contain gun violence and drugs wouldn’t be possible without the emergency orders — such as a mandate that expanded behavior health services from major medical insurers and emergency funding for wastewater testing for drugs at schools.
“I won’t rest until we don’t have to talk about (gun violence) as an epidemic and a public health emergency. That’s the goal — and if we turn the tide and it’s sustainable,” Lujan Grisham said.
Lujan Grisham is confronting a public backlash from critics of her public health order who describe its gun restriction provisions as an assault on constitutional rights that allow a person to carry a firearm for self defense.
On Tuesday, the governor said she has a responsibility to explore opportunities for gun-free “safe spaces” amid shifting judicial precedent.
“That’s a question that’s now moving to the courts,” Lujan Grisham said of her proposed gun restrictions. “I need to know what we can and cannot do to keep New Mexicans safe.”
The standoff is one of many in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year expanding gun rights, as leaders in politically liberal-leaning states explore new avenues for restrictions.
The governor’s emergency orders also include directives for monthly inspections of firearms dealers statewide, reports on gunshot victims at New Mexico hospitals and voluntary gun-buyback programs.
Corrections Secretary Alisha Tafoya Lucero said her agency is taking custody of 48 high-maintenance inmates from Bernalillo County’s Metropolitan Detention Center to free up staff to help the area contend with violent crime.
Environment Department Secretary James Kenney said the planned wastewater testing program aims to identify which opioids, including fentanyl, are present at public schools, with 250 testing points statewide, to inform the state’s response.
The governor has scaled back initial gun restrictions in the emergency public health order that broadly suspended the right to carry guns in most public places, which the sheriff and Albuquerque’s police chief had refused to enforce.
The latest health order also avoids interference with access to a municipal shooting range in Albuquerque located within a public park. Gun restrictions would be tied to a statistical threshold for violent crime that applied only to Albuquerque and the surrounding area.
State police would have authority under the governor’s order to assess civil penalties and fines of up to $5,000 for infractions.
Efforts are underway to create a telehealth prenatal and postpartum service for rural patients – By Susan Dunlap,New Mexico Political Report
To solve an urgent issue caused by an increasing OB-GYN desert, New Mexico Hospital Association and New Mexico Human Services Department are proposing to establish a telehealth prenatal and postpartum program for rural patients.
Troy Clark, executive director of NMHA, told NM Political Report that OB-GYN services are being lost across the country as well as in New Mexico. He said rural hospitals are struggling to maintain labor and delivery services in hospitals and that affects all women patients.
“It affects women’s health care in those [rural] communities,” Clark said.
Timothy Fowler, public relations coordinator for HSD, said the proposal is still in development and that there are many elements still to be finalized.
“This proposal will be submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services this year. Upon approval from CMS, HSD will formally announce the new program,” Fowler said via email
Fowler said it is too early to tell if the proposal will impact labor and delivery services and rural hospitals.
“The primary intent of this proposal is to allow perinatal Medicaid customers to access services near their homes, hopefully increasing their number of prenatal and postpartum visits and leading to healthier parents and infants across New Mexico,” Fowler said.
Clark said most OB-GYN doctors provide labor and delivery services in addition to handling regular patient visits. He said the exception would be nurse practitioners who provide OB-GYN visits but who do not offer labor and delivery services.
“I use the word OB-GYN as opposed to labor and delivery because it’s integral,” he said.
Clark said that within the past year and a half, two rural hospitals in New Mexico have closed their labor and delivery services due to workforce issues and the cost of keeping the services available. He said declining birth rates and the cost and quality burdens to maintain labor and delivery in a hospital are too great for many rural hospitals.
“Currently, we have four hospitals that deliver fewer than 100 babies a year,” Clark said.
He said there are eight hospitals that deliver 200 to 400 babies a year.
Clark said that maintaining labor and delivery services is similar to maintaining an emergency room.
Clark gave an example of a rural hospital that averaged 10 deliveries a month and one month the hospital had six deliveries in one day and the other four came a few weeks later.
He said that for that one day, the hospital experienced pandemonium to manage six newborns and new parents but for most the rest of the month, there were almost no deliveries. But, the hospital has to maintain staff ready for delivery three shifts a day, seven days a week.
“You have a greater than 50 percent chance of not being involved in a delivery for the entire month. It’s a component most people don’t understand. The hospital has to bear the cost of keeping people there. They don’t know when the mothers are going to come to deliver,” he said.
The problem isn’t just cost but keeping staff up-to-date on their skills. If they are routinely not delivering, then they are not maintaining the level of experience in the event of an emergency, Clark said.
Clark said the problem doesn’t just impact rural hospitals and patients. It has a ripple effect on urban hospitals because rural patients wind up in urban hospitals.
“It’s part of the cog of a bigger issue but it’s not the driver of that. It’s not the driver of the pressure on urban hospitals. It contributes but it’s not the driver,” Clark said.
But Clark said it is still an urgent problem. In addition to the two hospitals that closed their labor and delivery in the last year, he said another rural hospital is considering closing its labor and delivery.
“Right now we need to keep them open,” he said.
Clark said the way it would work is a rural patient would go to the nearby hospital, which would provide a room and a nurse. The patient would have their routine prenatal and postpartum visits with the OB-GYN through telehealth with the local nurse taking vitals and providing any on-the ground work needed for the patient.
“ We can’t afford our current hospitals to stop labor and delivery,” Clark said.
Fiery crash during prestigious ballooning race leaves 2 Polish pilots with burns and other injuries – By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Two balloon pilots from Poland who were competing in the prestigious Gordon Bennett Cup long-distance race were recovering Tuesday from burns, broken bones and other injuries after their hydrogen-filled balloon struck a high-voltage power line over Texas and exploded before falling to the ground.
Race organizers said the team was flying at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,658 meters) to pass over the Dallas-Fort Worth airspace around 3:30 p.m. Monday and started their descent a short time later. Within a few hours, the balloon’s tracking device indicated that the aircraft’s motion had stopped.
Night already had fallen when the crash happened, according to authorities in Kaufman County, Texas. Flames were leaping from the side of the road where pieces of the balloon and basket had landed, not far from an electrical substation.
Residents shared stories on social media about seeing the balloon come down as if it was landing and then seeing it suddenly explode. Some also reported that their power went out while others said their lights flickered.
Steve Howie, the county’s emergency management coordinator, said it’s believed that the balloon first hit a 138,000-volt transmission line as it was floating about 90 feet above the ground. Then it hit a distribution line that was lower to the ground.
“The balloon filled with hydrogen exploded, caught fire and fell to the ground. Both occupants were injured, one more seriously than the other,” he said in a phone interview.
Federal transportation officials would be investigating the crash, Howie said.
The weather and visibility were good at the time, race organizers said.
The pilots — Krzysztof Zapart and Piotr Halas — had been aloft since launching Saturday night from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta along with 16 other teams representing nine countries. Competitors were aiming to fly the farthest distance in what is known as the world’s oldest air race.
The command team that oversees the international competition confirmed Tuesday that the pilots were in stable condition and expressed relief that the outcome was not any worse. Zapart sustained cuts and burns to his legs and arms, while Halas was being treated for burns and broken bones to his legs and midsection.
Event director Tomas Hora said the team’s ground crew was at the hospital with the pilots and he thanked balloonists in Texas who were offering their support.
“We are receiving many words of encouragement and support from the other teams participating in the Gordon Bennett and from the ballooning community throughout the United States and the world,” Hora said in a statement. “Balloonists are a tight-knit community who never hesitate to help each other in time of need.”
There were only two teams remaining in flight as of Tuesday afternoon. Both were trying to catch up to the lead team, which landed earlier in the day along the eastern edge of Georgia.
The balloonists spend days in the air, carrying everything they need to survive at high altitudes as they search for the right combination of wind currents to push their baskets as far as they can go.
They fly throughout the night and into the next day, trading off so one pilot can get some sleep while the other keeps an eye on weather conditions. Each team communicates regularly with race officials and their own weather experts as they gauge their prospects for pushing ahead.
Race organizers described Zapart and Halas as people with adventurous spirits who understand the risks.
Zapart has flown in eight Gordon Bennett races and won the 2019 America’s Challenge gas balloon race to break his streak of previous runner-up finishes. For Halas, this marked a return to the Gordon Bennett after having last competed in the event in 1997.
The gas balloon race has roots that stretch back more than a century, and this year marks the first time in 15 years that the United States has hosted the event.
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This story has been updated to correct the spellings of the pilots’ names. They are Krzysztof Zapart and Piotr Halas, not Krzystotf Zapart and Pjotr Halas.
‘Ring of fire’ solar eclipse will slice across Americas on Saturday with millions along path – By Marcia Dunn Ap Aerospace Writer
Tens of millions in the Americas will have front-row seats for Saturday’s rare “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun.
What’s called an annular solar eclipse — better known as a ring of fire — will briefly dim the skies over parts of the western U.S. and Central and South America.
As the moon lines up precisely between Earth and the sun, it will blot out all but the sun’s outer rim. A bright, blazing border will appear around the moon for as much as five minutes, wowing skygazers along a narrow path stretching from Oregon to Brazil.
The celestial showstopper will yield a partial eclipse across the rest of the Western Hemisphere.
It’s a prelude to the total solar eclipse that will sweep across Mexico, the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, in six months. Unlike Saturday, when the moon is too far from Earth to completely cover the sun from our perspective, the moon will be at the perfect distance on April 8, 2024.
Here’s what you need to know about the ring of fire eclipse, where you can see it and how to protect your eyes:
WHAT’S THE PATH OF THE RING OF FIRE ECLIPSE?
The eclipse will carve out a swath about 130 miles (210 kilometers) wide, starting in the North Pacific and entering the U.S. over Oregon around 8 a.m. PDT Saturday. It will culminate in the ring of fire a little over an hour later. From Oregon, the eclipse will head downward across Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas, encompassing slivers of Idaho, California, Arizona and Colorado, before exiting into the Gulf of Mexico at Corpus Christi. It will take less than an hour for the flaming halo to traverse the U.S.
From there, the ring of fire will cross Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and, finally, Brazil before its grand finale over the Atlantic.
The entire eclipse — from the moment the moon starts to obscure the sun until it’s back to normal — will last 2 1/2 to three hours at any given spot. The ring of fire portion lasts from three to five minutes, depending on location.
WHERE CAN THE ECLIPSE BE SEEN?
In the U.S. alone, more than 6.5 million people live along the so-called path of annularity, with another 68 million within 200 miles (322 kilometers), according to NASA’s Alex Lockwood, a planetary scientist. “So a few hours’ short drive and you can have over 70 million witness this incredible celestial alignment,” she said.
At the same time, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse will be visible in every U.S. state, although just barely in Hawaii, provided the skies are clear. Canada, Central America and most of South America, also will see a partial eclipse. The closer to the ring of fire path, the bigger the bite the moon will appear to take out of the sun.
Can’t see it? NASA and others will provide a livestream of the eclipse.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR EYES DURING THE ECLIPSE
Be sure to use safe, certified solar eclipse glasses, Lockwood stressed. Sunglasses aren’t enough to prevent eye damage. Proper protection is needed throughout the eclipse, from the initial partial phase to the ring of fire to the final partial phase.
There are other options if you don’t have eclipse glasses. You can look indirectly with a pinhole projector that you can make yourself, including one made with a cereal box.
Cameras — including those on cellphones — binoculars, or telescopes need special solar filters mounted at the front end.
SEEING DOUBLE
One patch of Texas near San Antonio will be in the cross-hairs of Saturday’s eclipse and next April’s, with Kerrville near the center. It’s one of the locations hosting NASA’s livestream.
“Is the city of Kerrville excited? Absolutely!!!” Mayor Judy Eychner said in an email. “And having NASA here is just icing on the cake!!!”
With Saturday’s eclipse coinciding with art, music and river festivals, Eychner expects Kerrville’s population of 25,000 to double or even quadruple.
WHERE’S THE TOTAL ECLIPSE IN APRIL?
April’s total solar eclipse will crisscross the U.S. in the opposite direction. It will begin in the Pacific and head up through Mexico into Texas, then pass over Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, the northern fringes of Pennsylvania and New York, and New England, before cutting across Canada into the North Atlantic at New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Almost all these places missed out during the United States’ coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in 2017.
It will be 2039 before another ring of fire is visible in the U.S., and Alaska will be the only state then in the path of totality. And it will be 2046 before another ring of fire crosses into the U.S. Lower 48. That doesn’t mean they won’t be happening elsewhere: The southernmost tip of South America will get one next October, and Antarctica in 2026.
GOING AFTER THE SCIENCE
NASA and others plan a slew of observations during both eclipses, with rockets and hundreds of balloons soaring.
“It’s going to be absolutely breathtaking for science,” said NASA astrophysicist Madhulika Guhathakurta.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Aroh Barjatya will help launch three NASA-funded sounding rockets from New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range before, during and after Saturday’s eclipse. The goal is to see how eclipses set off atmospheric waves in the ionosphere nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) up that could disrupt communications.
Barjatya will be just outside Saturday’s ring of fire. And he’ll miss April’s full eclipse, while launching rockets from Virginia’s Wallops Island.
“But the bittersweet moment of not seeing annularity or totality will certainly be made up by the science return,” he said.
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