Anidar ABQ Midwifery

Pregnant women seek alternatives to hospital birth during pandemic

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Professionals who assist with birthing center deliveries and at-home births in New Mexico say they are seeing more interest from soon-to-be parents because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One small midwife clinic in Albuquerque, Anidar ABQ Midwifery, is now getting four to five calls a day for at-home birth queries whereas, prior to the pandemic, it normally received about four to five calls every week or two, according to Claire Bettler, a certified midwife and nurse who owns the clinic. Birthing centers, which provide a more home-like setting for low-risk deliveries, are also seeing an increase in interest. Jessica Frechette-Gutfreund, midwife and executive director of Breath of My Heart Birthplace, said the Española-based birth center has seen its weekly call volume triple. “We’re getting somewhere between five and ten new inquiries a week.

Steve Bannon

Martinez on controversial Trump pick: ‘He gets to choose whoever he wants’

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Gov. Susana Martinez continued warming up to President-elect Donald Trump by defending his controversial pick of Steve Bannon to national media outlets Tuesday. Trump’s pick of Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, the far-right news website, as chief strategist at the White House drew rebuke from anti-discrimination groups like the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center. At the same time, the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan and former KKK leader David Duke praised Trump’s pick of Bannon. Bannon is under fire for his alleged anti-semitic comments as well as running Breitbart while the website published stories with headlines like, “Hoist It High And Proud: The Confederate Flag Proclaims A Glorious Heritage,”  “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,” and “There’s No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck at Interviews.” While Democrats, including those in New Mexico’s congressional delegation, are criticizing Trump for the pick, most congressional Republicans haven’t commented one way or another on Bannon.

Polling

Mixed results for Gary Johnson in latest polls

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More and more pollsters are including Gary Johnson as an option in presidential horserace questions and Johnson still isn’t quite hitting the big 15 percent threshold—especially when another third party candidate is thrown in the mix. The three most recent national polls to throw Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, into the mix were the Bloomberg/Selzer, CBS News and Ipsos/Reuters polls. Reaching 15 percent is important because all presidential candidates with an average of that level of support qualify to appear on nationally-televised presidential debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates runs these debates. Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, performs best in the CBS News poll, which puts him at 11 percent, four percent off of the 15 percent mark.