Storm drained
An exhausted Santa Fe that spent much of Monday night soaking up floodwaters with stacks of towels and beating back the tide with pushbrooms woke Tuesday and started cleaning up. There are too many stories to tell, but local media were out in force, showing you what's happening (really happening) in the world around you. Last night's rain was far less severe, and this evening's storms, while still possible, are more focused east of Santa Fe. Las Vegas has been getting slammed, too.
Cop secret
The attorney general has taken the better part of a year to decide if the public has a right to know how its police officers are disciplined. Cities like Rio Rancho and Albuquerque make such disciplinary decisions public, but cities like Santa Fe argue someone getting suspended or fired or otherwise called on the proverbial carpet is a matter of opinion and thus exempt from state law. When SFR ran a story more than a year ago on the matter, then-Mayor Javier Gonzales sent a letter to Attorney General Hector Balderas, who still hasn't offered an opinion on the matter.
Trail dust-up
Santa Fe's governing body is set to decide tonight whether to shift $279,000 in old parks bond money to a trail project in Tierra Contenta, on the city's Southside. The neighborhood has long been lacking in trail options and a proposed new path would also serve kids at Sweeney and Ortiz schools. But the money was originally tapped for an extension from the Frank Ortiz dog park in the northern part of the city to the La Tierra trails. The choice will highlight how Santa Fe deals with a growing economic and cultural divide.
MLG would drop education suit appeal
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham says she'd drop the appeal of a lawsuit in which a judge ruled that the state isn't doing enough to fund public education, especially for at-risk students. The Public Education Department spent 72 hours reviewing the case, announcing its decision to appeal late on Monday night. Her opponent, Steve Pearce, has said he'd abandon much of Gov. Susana Martinez' education framework, which has been one of the most controversial parts of the governor's two terms. Pearce has not yet said if he'd continue an appeal.
Stay classy
Monday, the official spokesman for a group slightly less secretive than the Bohemian Grove crowd told SFR to be patient in reporting that the divisive Entrada as we know it was getting ditched from the Fiesta. Plans hadn't been finalized, said Regis Pecos. Tuesday, Pecos sat down with the other newspaper to spill his guts about the Entrada, ($) which won't continue in its previous form, as SFR reported. As he did with the recent governors conference, Mayor Alan Webber ceded his ability to comment to an outside group and wouldn't say anything to either paper.
Passing through
Recently released immigrants who have been reunited with some or all of their families will be passing through Albuquerque as they await a legal determination on their status. Several community groups will be on hand with supplies and medical and mental health evaluations. Many of them will be electronically monitored by immigration authorities until their court hearings.
Water thievery
That's what's stuck in the craw of State Land Commissioner Aubrey Dunn, who says companies that run pipes to wells across state lines to get water for fracking in the Permian Basin are stealing water from the same aquifer. Pacific Standard magazine has an interesting look at the situation down by Carlsbad, Hobbs and points southeast.
Picture this
Georgia O'Keeffe wasn't "just" an artistic icon. The painter and New Mexican transplant spoke to generations of feminists through her life and her work. Tonight at 6 in the O'Keeffe Museum's education annex (it's just down the street from the museum itself), Professor Linda Grasso of the City University of New York gives a free talk on O'Keeffe's influence—real and imagined.
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