Found
Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe says authorities have found the body of a young boy on property near Amalia, north of Questa and nearly to the Colorado border. Medical investigators will now try to identify the remains, suspected to be those of a missing Georgia boy abducted by his father in December. Deputies and the FBI arrested five adults, charging them with child abuse, and put 11 children in the custody of the state Children, Youth and Families Department after squalid living conditions on the property. Meanwhile, the owner of the property where the group had been squatting says he and others nearby had been asking law enforcement for months to come out to the property.
Not gun shy
Democrats in the Legislature plan to introduce four proposals aimed at regulating guns. Included in the package are background checks for all gun sales, regulations to keep guns from children, forcing domestic abusers to forfeit their guns, and a measure that would let police take guns from people who had been "red-flagged" as an immediate threat to their safety or the safety of others.
Maps
Residential development building permits through the first seven months of 2018 have jumped by some 43 percent over last year, according to Santa Fe city statistics. A map produced since SFR's cover story on the multifamily housing crunch shows that home building is on the rise, but when it comes to larger apartment complexes, they're still getting pushed to the south and west parts of the city.
Fiesta-lite
The board of the Santa Fe Public Schools voted last night to limit visits to schools from the Fiesta Court this year. The longtime tradition will be restricted to New Mexico history classes in fourth, seventh and ninth grades. The decision did not go over well ($) with many who packed the board room last night.
Shopping while black
Jordan McDowell certainly didn't seem arrogant when he spoke to KRQE's Chris McKee yesterday. But the 22-year-old Xavier University student who is visiting Santa Fe was unquestionably black. McDowell says that's why an Allsup's clerk in Santa Fe called police on him—"because he's being arrogant … because he's black"—and he has video of what happened. Police did show up, but so far haven't said if they filed a report on the call. It doesn't appear McDowell has been charged with anything.
Roll it down
A video of a New Mexico State Police stop of an unseatbelted driver in Taos last winter has many questioning the officers' use of force. In it, a very calm young man can be heard telling officers he doesn't want to roll his window down further. That's just before an officer rips out his driver's side window and drags him out of the car. Police say he wouldn't give them identification and that the 27-minute encounter, for which there is allegedly body camera video, proves officers acted appropriately.
Unindicted guest
Meow Wolf's Taos Vortex music festival was last weekend. SFR sent the newly unindicted no-conspirator Aaron Cantú to enjoy a weekend of camping and revelry, which he did. The crowd was thinner than expected and vendors may have taken something of a hit on the two-day festival, but Cantú reports that the Vortex did not suck.
Hotter
This is a weird weather week, which is why we're a bit obsessed. Highs today will spike to near 90 in Santa Fe and into the middle or high 90s in Albuquerque before tempering on Thursday and Friday. Gallup has set or tied records each of the past two days with temperatures in the mid 90s.Tomorrow and Friday should see a much better chance of monsoon rain.
Thanks for reading! The Word feels like having an umbrella and sunscreen at the ready is a prudent, but also very adult thing to do.
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