
Fight for the sacred
Drilling at Chaco Canyon is back in the news with the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act, and now it's supported by New Mexican congressfolk ($) in DC. A successful fracking ban in Wyoming has implications that stretch into the Chaco situation (which is basically that the federal government wants to drill on and around sacred and protected land), so some activists are cautiously optimistic.
10-4
First responders in Santa Fe are getting brand-new radios this year, thanks to a joint project between the city and county and the gross receipts tax bond. The current radios in cop cars, ambulances and fire trucks are 17 years old and tend to malfunction, and the manufacturer (Motorola) won't even service them any more after 2020. So, by the end of 2019, everything will be shiny and new, and we'll all likely be a bit safer.
The power vacuum sucked ’em up
We've been dropping teasers about who will be running for Tom Udall's soon-to-be-vacant US Senate seat, and, in turn, who will be rushing to fill Ben Ray Luján's soon-to-be-vacant US House seat as he goes for that Senate spot. NM Political Report has magnanimously rounded it all up for us, including who's not running, if you're curious to see it all in one place.
More recognition for Santa Fe artists
Santa Fe artist Mi'Jan Celie Tho-Biaz has been chosen as a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow by the DC-based arts org. Artists are selected for works and missions that promote social justice, education and societal change. These fellows participate in the Kennedy Center's artist summits and have access to the org's coaches and experts when it comes to stuff like grant application and mentoring. Learn more about the program here.
Putting names to tragedy
Authorities have identified the two men killed ($) in Monday's plane crash as Santa Feans Larry Haight, 72, and Edward Jay Goldgehn, 60. Haight, an instructor with Sierra Aviation, was teaching Goldgehn how to fly. And that's all we have to say about that. It's just a sad story.
Be a witness to wetness
The mountains have about 150% of their normal snowpack (and could see even more precipitation this weekend), which means it's a historic year for the Rio Grande. Book your rafting trips now, folks, because who knows when we'll have this much water again.
Businesses under scrutiny
An Albuquerque coffee shop owner is in hot water after anti-Semitic posts on his Faceook page have gone viral. He insists that someone else, "someone vindictive," posted them, but that it wasn't him. In Santa Fe, meanwhile, an April Fools Day joke gone awry has stoked ire toward Ten Thousand Waves, and statements to The New Mexican by owner Duke Klauck ($) after the fact (in which he suggested that people take gender identity "too seriously") didn't help cool folks off; the company issued a formal apology for all of it yesterday.
Bomb diggity
Big shocker: It's gonna be windy today, whipping up travel and fire danger, so keep your wits about you. Then we'll have another bomb cyclone moving through, which should greatly impact Colorado and the Plains, but perhaps won't reach its worst fingers down toward us. Our temps will drop down a bit (we nearly hit 80 yesterday, but the next few days will be more like 50s), and we'll see some rain, but temps will rebound toward the 60s over the weekend. Once again, the Word almost typed "the '50s" rather than "the 50s."
Thanks for reading! The Word fell asleep before 8 pm yesterday and has no FOMO about whatever happened overnight.