Eideard

A man who was held in solitary confinement for two years and was forced to pull his own tooth because he was denied dental health, has been awarded $22 million for violation of his constitutional rights.

Stephen Slevin, 58, from New Mexico, was awarded the sum of money – one of the largest federal civil rights settlements in history involving an inmate – after accusing Dona Ana County jail of essentially forgetting about him while he was in custody, not giving him the healthcare he needed and treating him inhumanely.

Outside the federal courthouse in Santa Fe today, Mr Slevin said it was never about the money for him but more about sending a message that prisoners should be treated more humanely…

“Prison officials were walking by me every day, watching me deteriorate. Day after day after day, they did nothing, nothing at all, to get me any help.”

The 58-year-old was arrested in August 2005 and charged with driving while intoxicated and receiving a stolen vehicle near Las Cruces. His lawyer said that, due to his history of mental illness, he was placed into solitary confinement. Civil rights attorney Matthew Coyte revealed it was here that his client started to deteriorate.

He said: ‘They threw him in solitary and then ignored him. He disappeared into delirium, and his mental illness was made worse by being isolated from human contact and a lack of medical care…’

While Slevin was in solitary confinement, his toenails grew so long they began to curl around his feet, he developed bedsores, fungus and dental problems and lost a lot of weight, according to the lawsuit…

Mr Slevin was eventually released after 22 months as a pre-trial detainee and the charges against him were dismissed…

The county had recently offered to settle the case for $2 million…despite previously denying there was a lack of medical care and that, as government employees, county officials deserved immunity from liability.

You should know two things about this incident: [1] Don’t judge every part of New Mexico law enforcement by this case; [2] If he had been a serious criminal, DWI-repeater or violent felon – he would have been out of jail in no time at all.

Looking for a last-minute baby sitter? Want to let your neighbors know about a break-in? Wondering whether anyone else received an unexpectedly high water bill?

A number of people are logging on to private neighborhood websites to ask questions like these, get advice and share information through an electronic version of the backyard fence.

A company called Nextdoor, which offers a free online platform that enables people to create social networks for their own neighborhoods has launched.

Today, more than 800 neighborhoods in 43 states plus the District of Columbia have set up local websites where they can communicate one-on-one, as well as with the people nearby. There are five Nextdoor websites here in New Mexico, including three for Santa Fe neighborhoods: Los Milagros, Sol y Lomas and Talaya Hill.

Each website includes a neighborhood map, member postings, a directory of residents (including brief profiles), links to resources and reports of interest, and photographs of community events…

Access to each Nextdoor website is password-protected, and only verified residents can become members, log on and post messages. No one else has access to the content, so that people can safely share information on neighborhood topics…

Neighbors log on to the site, using their own user ID and password, to read postings, but they can also elect to receive posts instantly via email…

There are currently no advertisements on the websites, but the revenue model calls for eventually working with local businesses to provide special offers to website members — Groupon meets Facebook — according to Nextdoor spokeswoman Whitney Swindells.

It all sounds useful, practical and positive.

Hermit that I am, I probably would remain mostly as unresponsive to dialogue in the neighborhood as I am at the blogs I contribute to. But, I can think of the few times that my curiosity while out and about – spotting someone I thought might be a gangster preparing to burglarize or vandalize someone – would be useful to everyone in the neighborhood. After I called the Sheriff.

Sitting in the living room watching what passes for local news – and turned, looked out the courtyard doors to the sunset – and realized what a lovely crisp composition there was with the silhouette of a Siberian elm against the mackerel sky.

Took a number of photos – didn’t even take time to throw on a sweater – and this is our favorite.

Click photo to enlarge.

One of the delights of living in high desert country is the frequency of beautiful sunsets and sunrises. This was this morning.

 
This was the view at sunset, last night – looking just north of west at Las Conchas fire smoke plume. The wildfire grew from about 1000 acres at sunset to about 6000 acres overnight. 8-12 miles away as the raven flies.

Los Alamos National Labs are closed today as are schools and everything else in Los Alamos County. The communities of Los Alamos and White Rock started voluntary evacuations. Several smaller communities closer to the fire totaling 400 households or so were under mandatory evacuation.

The fire is within a mile of LANL boundaries, this morning – and everyone from Homeland Security to surrounding county fire departments are added to the fire crews. We all remember the fire that destroyed hundreds of home in Los Alamos several years back and hope to stop that being repeated.

Yes – it’s west of us. That ain’t good. Prevailing summer winds vary from south to west. Air quality this morning is abysmal. The smell of smoke woke me during the night. It’s settling into La Cieneguilla Valley pretty thick. I’ll have a better idea after sunrise.

We’re probably safe; but, safe doesn’t mean a whole boatload with wildfires until they’re contained. Even then, with Rocky Mountain winds – any fire can jump containment.

UPDATE: Folks who haven’t lived in the Southwest aren’t used to the numbers describing size out here. We have wildfires bigger than cities in other parts of the country. In the last 6 hours the fire has grown from 6000 to 44000 acres. Two or three dozen woodlands homes are gone. Families got out with the clothes on their back and not much else.

Backfires and burn outs appear to have blocked the fire from the two main population centers, White Rock and Los Alamos. Winds have changed again and are headed into unburned timber towards Jemez Springs. For the moment.

UPDATE 2: Los Alamos is now under a mandatory evacuation. Shifting winds, strong winds – no one’s safety can be guaranteed.

The evacuation order does not include White Rock – though residents are urged NOT to go to White Rock in case that community is added to the evacuation. Los Alamos residents are divided into three groups to aid in an orderly evacuation and the reverse 911 system is in effect making robocalls to residents to let them know when it’s time for their section of the town to evacuate. [2PM MDT, 27 June 2011]

UPDATE 3: Los Alamos is now mostly empty of residents. Streets are patrolled by local cops, state police and the national guard to prevent looting. The fire is now up to 60000 acres.

UPDATE 4: Thursday 30 June, the fire is up over 92,000 acres. The town of Los Alamos looks secure; but, the spread up Santa Clara Canyon has rocketed past anything expected and the Santa Clara Pueblo and the Puye Cliff Dwellings look to be threatened.

UPDATE 5: Monday 4 July – folks are allowed to return home to Los Alamos. The fire is still burning at the northern and southern ends. Now up over 121,000 acres.

Click pic to enlarge

The first two blossoms on one of my favorite chollas out in the back meadow by the bosque.

After a long dry winter and a matching spring – courtesy of La Niña – our high desert flowers have been sparse and late. This cholla is several feet high and often has nests from a few pairs of prairie birds; so, I tend to leave it undisturbed except when I can’t resist capturing a few snaps of its brilliant flowers.

You can see another dozen or so buds in the same frame – ready to explode in the coming week.

 
The major fires are something many of you have seen on television, e.g., the Wallow fire rolling in from Arizona, the Loop fire surrounding Carlsbad Caverns, the Track fire up at Raton on the Colorado border. Like most wildfires, they seem to have been started by careless, thoughtless human beings.

People have no concept of responsibility for their actions. The same fools have even less concern for what their actions visit upon other human beings. Many people have lost their homes and livelihood over recent weeks.

At the time I’m composing this – an hour-and-a-half before posting – this fire, the Pacheco Canyon fire is only several hours old. First spotted at one acre – near the Santa Fe ski area – it grew to 200 acres in a couple of hours. It was 83⁰ this afternoon and 5% humidity. Winds steady at 15mph with gusts to 40mph. The first chopper over the fire reported flames 40 feet in the air.

I imagine it’s up around 400-500 acres right now and no containment whatsoever.

We’re lucky because we’re southwest of the fire, about 25 miles away and there is a whole city in between us and the fire. The city is fortunate in that prevailing winds are blowing away from Santa Fe.

The air tankers are landing at the municipal airport for the night, right now. Winds are supposed to be gusting up to 50mph, tomorrow. Going to be a long season.

We have been moving through the slowest arrival of springtime in decades here in La Cieneguilla. The trees and willow brush down in the bosque of the Santa Fe River are just turning to leaves and green.

In a three-day law enforcement sweep in Northern Virginia, immigration authorities arrested 130 foreign nationals with criminal records, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced Wednesday.

“If you’re committing crimes here in our communities and you’re here unlawfully, it’s time for you to go home,” said the agency’s director, John Morton. He said 76 of the 130 arrested had multiple criminal convictions and 10 of them had previously been deported and returned illegally to the United States.

The majority of those arrested in the latest edition of what the agency calls Operation Cross Check are illegal immigrants, Morton said. But some were here legally, he said, although he could not provide a specific number. Morton indicated their legal status could be in jeopardy depending on the seriousness of their crimes.

A news release issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement said at least four legal residents were among those arrested, and it listed past convictions for such crimes as sexual assault, grand larceny and abuse and neglect of children.

According to agency officials, the people caught in the sweep, which ended Tuesday, have past convictions for rape, assault, burglary, drug possession and other crimes. Eight fugitives also were arrested during the roundup, as well as 21 people who do not have criminal convictions but are in the United States illegally…

The director said his agency is paying serious attention to DUI offenses but focuses its resources on the most serious offenders, such as alleged murderers and rapists. “But we’re all about trying to identify and remove everyone who is committing crime and here unlawfully,” Morton said.

Of course if you live in a town like Santa Fe, you’re breaking the law by attempting to catch lawbreakers who also happen to be illegal immigrants.

Yup. Local ordnance is muy simpatico to undocumentados. Maybe more so than they are to local coppers who get the flak when someone ends up back on the streets who is wanted for crimes more serious that which prompted arrest in Santa Fe.

Poo isn’t something generally talked about in polite company but like it or not, all of that human waste has to go somewhere. In smaller rural communities, it usually goes to wastewater lagoon systems; the alternative is mechanical treatment plants which process waste far more quickly but are expensive, labor intensive and often use chemicals. Enter the “Poo-Gloo,” or Bio-Dome as it is officially known – an igloo-shaped device that can reportedly clean up sewage as effectively, but far more cheaply, than its mechanical counterparts.

The Poo-Gloo, developed by Wastewater Compliance Systems, Inc., uses a combination of air, dark environment and large surface area to encourage the growth of a bacterial biofilm which consumes the wastewater pollutants. It is claimed that Poo-Gloos can treat pollutants just as quickly as mechanical plants while operating at a fraction of the cost – hundreds of dollars a month rather than thousands – and can be retrofitted to existing lagoon systems.

The Poo-Gloos work in clusters, with two dozen or more arranged in rows fully submerged at the bottom of the lagoon. Each Poo-Gloo consists of four concentrically nested plastic domes filled with plastic packing to provide a large surface area for bacterial growth. Rings of bubble-release tubes sit at the base of every Poo-Gloo and bubble air up through the cavities between domes. The air exits a hole in the top of each dome. As air moves through the dome, it draws water from the bottom of the lagoon up through the dome and out the top…

Taylor Reynolds, director of sales for Wastewater Compliance Systems says that most of the projects he quotes are between US$150,000 and $500,000, a far more palatable option for an average municipality than the $4 million to $10 million they are quoted for a mechanical plant…

The Poo-Gloo is not just for consuming poo, however. Wastewater Compliance Systems is in the process of filing patents for other applications and markets, hence the rebranding as Bio-Dome, which the company agrees is “less fun” but more appropriate for their diversification.

A significant topic in our household – since we’re only a couple of miles from the city’s wastewater treatment plant. Founded on a less-than-successful design decades ago, the vapors attendant upon it’s function are also less-than-desirable. Something that would be a significant issue in our little community outside the city limits – if we weren’t favored by the prevailing winds.