Week ending Friday, July 31, 2020

Global Quieting

The plunge in human activities worldwide in recent months due to the pandemic has brought the longest and most pronounced quiet period of seismic noise in recorded history. An international team of scientists write in the journal Science that the relative quiet has allowed them to detect previously concealed earthquake signals, which could help us more accurately tell the difference in the future between man-made and natural seismic noise. The typically quiet periods around Christmas, New Year’s and the Chinese New Year have been eclipsed by the decline of industrial production, transport and service industries brought on by...

Was it a conspiracy? Wrongful termination?  Inside politics?  Lack of communication?

A complaint filed against Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services by former CEO David Conejo and his management company Healthcare Integrity in U. S. District Court July 23 indicates it was a mix of these and more.

Conejo said July 29 that he could feel the shifting winds at the hospital early in 2020. He said he brought his contract with him to a February meeting and said he “had a sense that … maybe they wanted to make a change in who the CEO was.”

At the meeting he said he offered a couple of suggestions to members of the hospital board.

“You can allow me to finish out my...

Turmoil continues to rock the hospital with a second whistleblower who wishes to remain an anonymous source, came forward to the Gallup Sun on July 29 with claims of structural problems within the physical facility of the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital.

According to the source, areas within the hospital that are designated as sterile environments are not being kept sterile. Some of those areas were documented in pictures shown here.

The source explained that in one of these locations, where instruments and equipment are cleaned and sterilized, a clock on the wall hid a large hole and the paint was peeling on a door jamb. The source called these “infractions,” and said...

The McKinley County Board of Commissioners discussed voiding the two oldest Gross Receipts Tax Bonds for the county during their July 14 meeting.

The board also discussed giving County Manager Anthony Dimas Jr. the authority to take the necessary steps to annul the two bonds, totaling over $5.3 million, as well as to amend the budget afterward.

This item had been previously discussed at several meetings, Dimas said.

“One bond is from 2010 for the complex where the Magistrate Court is, where the outstanding principal is $3.8 million,” he said. “Then there is a 2014 bond for the energy project we did for the buildings to upgrade to new energy and efficiency, where the total is...