Santa Fean killed in El Paso
An exceptionally tragic weekend in various parts of the United States hit home for the Silva family of Santa Fe when their relative was shot and killed ($ TNM) in the El Paso Walmart shooting. Angie Englisbee, nee Silva, 86, who has lived in El Paso for decades but grew up in Santa Fe, was one of the victims. The suspected shooter, who was likely targeting immigrants, is "a monster," said Englisbee's niece Karla Moya-Crites. "I won't even give him a name."
Landmark gets a remodel
As you scroll through this story about the Nob Hill Flying Star in Albuquerque, there's a picture that looks a little grainy but is instantly recognizable as the café. Turns out, though, the picture was taken in 1987, the year the restaurant opened. Maybe it's time for a remodel? The powers that be down there agree, and are preparing for a renovation of the 32-year-old eatery. The remodel is expected to be complete in mid- to late September.
Dashing thru the docs
What's worth hiding when it comes to documents about contracts to renovate the Santa Fe Regional Airport? Nothing, really, it seems … but that didn't stop city officials from apparently trying to hide them anyway. SFR's Katherine Lewin reports that basic documents related to the contracting process were unreasonably difficult to obtain and that once we got them (with help from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government), they didn't even show anything out of sorts. But all is not well; Melanie Majors of NMFOG expressed concern about city officials' inability or outright refusal to share the records.
Protect the seed
US Sen. Martin Heinrich and US Rep. Ben Ray Luján have introduced the "Native American Seeds Protection Act of 2019 to identify ways to protect Native American seeds and traditional food products, and assist tribes in ensuring that cultural practices and traditional ways of life are preserved," reports the Albuquerque Journal. In addition to supporting study of traditional foods and foodways, it would investigate the impact of food products fraudulently marketed as Native American-produced.
Tracing it back
One Española Walgreens has received the dubious distinction of being a center of New Mexico's opioid epidemic ($ TNM). From 2006 to 2012, the Walgreens dispensed more than 6 million pain pills; that's a lot for any location, but considering the store sits in a city of about 10,000, it's even more dire. That location was the third most prolific in the state; an analysis by The Washington Post ($) tracked nearly 11.8 million pain pills back to Prime Therapeutics and just over 6.6 million to a Lovelace outpatient pharmacy, both of which are in Albuquerque.
News in brief
Five people were killed and two injured when a vehicle overturned in Vaughn on Saturday. All were residents of Chicago. Don't fire warning shots to try to freak out people you think might be burglarizing cars, like a guy on Camino Jacobo did over the weekend ($ TNM); it's against the law. United Airlines will begin flights from Denver to Hobbs, another side effect of the oil boom in the Permian Basin.
Tell us the info
In even more news about governments dragging their feet on public records, KUNM's Marisa Demarco has been trying to get data about the springtime "surge" of state cops in Albuquerque, to no avail. Demarco wants to know what kind of crimes people were arrested for during the surge, and has encountered all kinds of roadblocks to viewing the public documents, including being told she can only look at documents for one hour every day in Santa Fe at pre-scheduled times (Demarco lives in Albuquerque), and being told that a USB drive she mailed to the records custodian was too small to fit the documents she wanted.
None more wet
Temps could reach toward 90 today with a 25% chance of rainfall in town, with a greater chance of rain at higher elevations.
Thanks for reading! The Word's favorite ice cream topping is either peanut butter sauce or rainbow sprinkles. Or butterscotch. Or pineapple.
