New Mexico will wait another year to make its second addition to the Capitol’s Statuary Hall collection.

The New Mexico Statuary Hall Foundation had hoped to present its statue in November, but the group’s president, Herman Agoyo, said the project is still $150,000 short of its $230,000 goal. [IMGCAP(1)]

“We’re looking at taking the statue [to Washington] in November of ’04,” Agoyo said. The statue features Popé, the San Juan Pueblo Indian strategist and warrior credited with leading the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.

Fundraising slowed in part, Agoyo said, because all of the foundation’s seats had to be reappointed this year by Gov. Bill Richardson (D). The foundation plans to meet for the first time this month and will discuss scheduling fundraisers in both Los Angeles and Albuquerque.

Still Seeking Answers. On Oct. 2, 2001, the first victim of mail-delivered anthrax entered a hospital in Florida, and two years later the mystery of the bioterror attacks remains unsolved. This morning, Leonard Cole, author of “The Anthrax Letters,” will try to shed some light on the ongoing investigation.

Cole will be joined by Dr. Larry Bush, who diagnosed the first anthrax case, and six survivors of the inhalation-anthrax attacks to provide details about the victims’ recovery process, the government’s position on the perpetrator and nation’s bioterrorism preparedness.

Cole is one of the only people outside law enforcement to have interviewed every survivor of the anthrax attacks.

The event will take place at 11 a.m. in conference rooms A and B at the American Public Health Association Building, 800 I St. NW. — Jennifer Yachnin and John McArdle