Exile on Cerrillos Road

Film union head leaves

Jon Hendry, longtime film advocate and leader of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 480, has resigned from his six-figure job weeks after a lawsuit was filed by a woman accusing him of groping and harassing her, then going after her outside work when she resisted his advances. Last week, a second woman joined the lawsuit, claiming Hendry demanded a quid pro quo arrangement for sex. When she eventually refused, the suit says, Hendry stopped giving her union work. The accusations have already cost Hendry his position as head of the New Mexico Federation of Labor; they've also contributed to the demise of the chairman of the state Democratic Party, Richard Ellenberg, who resigned last week after doubting the claims publicly.

Staying gone

Andrea Romero, whose travel expenses and dining habits caused the board of the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities to not extend her contract as executive director, says she's done with the job. The Los Alamos Monitor reports Romero says the job has become too politicized. It's also become the focus of a special review by State Auditor Wayne Johnson. She's running for the state House of Representatives against incumbent Carl Trujillo in June's Democratic primary.

Martinez clips heels of UNM women’s cross country

Gov. Susana Martinez uses her line-item veto power to nip and tuck various parts of every annual spending bill. It takes a few days to sort through all the red ink, but one discovering by Jessica Dyer over at the Journal is worth of news: The governor axed $30,000 for the women's cross country team at UNM. That's the same team that has won two out of the last three national championships. The amount vetoed is less than UNM football coach Bob Davie lost while on unpaid suspension the past month.

Times treatment

Deb Haaland, former candidate for lieutenant governor and state Democratic Party head, is profiled in a New York Times piece on the rise of Native American candidates for office ($). Haaland recently won the Democratic Party's pre-primary nominating convention vote, earning an automatic spot on the June primary ballot as she runs for the 1st Congressional District seat.

AHA! Oh, no …

Santa Fe's After Hours Alliance has dropped its annual Festival of Progressive Arts. The September event was free and featured music and visual arts set against the backdrop of the Railyard. The group tells SFR its fundraising model wasn't diverse enough, and when contributions waned over the last three years, it became clear they couldn't afford the event. AHA will continue its holiday market and Southside arts festival.

Missing you

Rep. Steve Pearce has been missing more votes than usual. In fact, he's already missed six times the number of roll call votes in Congress than he did in all of last year ($). Pearce is running for governor and has spoken of his grueling campaign schedule. It's apparently costing him time in Washington representing the people of the 2nd Congressional District.

Expect local fire restrictions

The miserable winter means you'll likely have less access to public land—or at the very least, you can do less stuff on it. Both Santa Fe County and the city expect to impose ($) fireworks bans and other usage restrictions to try to prevent fires this spring.

Windy enough for ya?

Go ahead and start throwing punches, because Nature doesn't care. Welcome to spring, Word readers, and hold on to your hats, roofs, chicken coops, lawn furniture and whatever else isn't bolted to something heavy. Max wind gusts in Santa Fe were above 50 mph and hit 70 down in Cline's Corners, making I-40 even more of a living hell than usual. There was some snow at local resorts, but the week is expected to warm statewide. Santa Fe could see 70 on Thursday.

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