College backs away from Alexie
Mounting allegations of sexual misconduct by Sherman Alexie have forced the Institute of American Indian Arts to rename a scholarship and rethink its relationship ($) with the famed Native author. The school says it doesn't have any direct knowledge of misconduct at the college during Alexie's tenure as a guest instructor and mentor. However, several online allegations say that the author has targeted Native women elsewhere.
Safety first
After a recent threat that turned out to be a hoax and a school shooting threat in the not-so-distant past that resulted in the long-term suspension of a Santa Fe High School student, Santa Fe Public Schools plans to hold a news conference this morning to reinforce its school safety protocol and ensure parents, students, staff and others that it's taking threats seriously. The district recently hired SFPD Deputy Chief Mario Salbidrez as its security head.
LANL community group questions leader’s contract
Andrea Romero may be out of a job in two days. Romero heads the Regional Coalition of LANL Communities and has come under suspicion ($) in the past weeks after relatively extravagent travel spending was called into question. Now, Santa Fe County has asked the coalition whether it has the authority to extend her contract.
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Oh, the tilde. It has dogged Angel Peña for his entire life. When his staff tried to correct "Pena" to "Peña" at the top of pages containing signatures for his candidacy in the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District, the secretary of state's office ruled the signatures invalid. A judge has upheld Maggie Toulouse Oliver's decision (No hyphen. We checked). Peña has a few days to decide ($) if he'll appeal the court's ruling.
See that wall! See that wall!
Donald Trump is headed to California next month to view the prototypes ($) of his border wall, which have been constructed near San Diego. The president is also expected to attend a Republican National Committee fundraiser in Los Angeles. Trump lost the state by 4 million people—or roughly the number of attendees at his inauguration.
In pursuit of pursuit policies
BernCo Commissioner Maggie Hart Stebbins wants to hire an outside evaluator to check out the county sheriff's pursuit and use-of-force policies. The commissioner says she's concerned by the rising number of use-of-force incidents as well as the potential for injury in pursuits.
Beryllium blunders
Federal investigators are worried about a toxic element at Los Alamos National Lab. A recent report says LANL isn't doing enough to protect employees from beryllium. Substandard testing of old beryllium-handling sites could be endangering workers, inspectors found, and the lab isn't doing a good job tracking its inventory of the element.
Snow prospects dim
A storm that once looked promising for northern New Mexico now looks like it might run out of steam tomorrow without delivering much in the way of new snow. These are, of course, predictions. While we love the people who make them, we hope they're wrong.
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