
Keep your drones to yourself
We're gonna open the Word this morning with a PSA: Don't fly your drone over wildfires. Not only does that seem like a bad idea for the drone (wouldn't it get, like, hot and maybe melty?), but unmanned flying objects (UFOs, maybe) can interfere with airplane-aided firefighting efforts. The New Mexican reports ($) that there have only been four run-ins with drones this year, but much higher numbers in previous years make officials nervous as fire season will continue for the rest of the summer.
More about Ernestine
More details have emerged about the death of Santa Fe singer Ernestine Saucedo, nee Romero, and her husband Jessie Saucedo; on Friday, police released a statement identifying their deaths as a murder-suicide, in which Saucedo shot Romero twice before shooting himself. The couple had been estranged for at least a few weeks. The New Mexican covered a memorial service for Romero ($) held during last night's downpour.
C is for cookie
In addition to reporting on hard news that affects residents of the Southside, SFR has a commitment to bringing you the more lighthearted stories from places other than the Plaza; enter our profile of 17-year-old Sarina Griego, who discovered a passion for baking and now feeds opera-goers with her biscochitos out of the kitchen of Sweet Santa Fe in the Santa Fe Fashion Outlets.
Shawty got low
Speaking of profiles worth reading, the Albuquerque Journal recently visited with female lowriders in Chimayó and talked to them about car culture and women's place in it. Both the stories and the photos in this article are particularly fun.
Questions on canna
What constitutes a "seedling"? How big is a fully-grown cannabis plant? Should the plant cap be raised from its baseline but lowered from its current emergency levels? These questions and more swirled around a Department of Health meeting on Friday concerning proposed changes to New Mexico's medical cannabis program; the hearing officer called the meeting "productive."
Railyard Park incident
A stabbing was the result of an attempted robbery in the Railyard Park during the wee hours Saturday morning, police say ($ TNM). A 28-year-old man who cops believe is experiencing homelessness was lying in the grass when two other men came up, one with a gun and one with a knife, and attempted to rob him. They stabbed him instead, and the victim ran to the Allsup's at the corner of Guadalupe and Cerrillos to get help. He has been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Opinions, everyone’s got ’em
The Civilian Police Oversight Agency Board in Albuquerque, which investigates complaints against APD, was created after a federal investigation found the department had a practice of using excessive force and violating citizens' rights. The board is supposed to be impartial, but cops are now calling for the removal of a member after she tweeted about the federal "Blue Lives Matter Bill" and added her commentary: "F— THIS." SFR couldn't find the particular tweet in question, but the rest of Chelsea Van Deventer's Twitter feed makes her political beliefs quite clear. The ACLUNM has something to say about the matter, too.
Come again
There will likely be more storms today and tomorrow. Wahoo! The Word is excited about this and hopes you are too. I mean, not like we have much of a choice about it, so might as well be psyched.
Thanks for reading! The Word is confounded by this retrograde.