
Scared out of signing
The president's anti-immigrant rhetoric has the governor sufficiently spooked. Not because she buys into it; rather, because she fears that if she signs a bill barring local law enforcement from enforcing immigration law, that New Mexico will lose federal funds. "We're not dealing with a federal government that is in my opinion working in a fair, productive, fact-based environment," Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told New Mexico In Depth. "So I do think those are legitimate concerns." Keep in mind, the president's threats to punish sanctuary cities have come to naught.
There’s no home for you here
Renting in Santa Fe is wild. If you can find a home at all (rare), and get a sane landlord and reasonable rent (even more rare), you might be kicked out due to a line in Santa Fe's building code ($) that no one's ever heard of and that is rarely enforced. That's what might happen to Jamie Durfee; SFR caught up with Durfee, her landlord and her neighbors to get to the bottom of the problems on Don Cubero Avenue.
Humanity on wheels
The New Mexico Department of Health has launched a mobile unit to provide medical care to asylum-seekers in Las Cruces. Those more concerned with money than kindness can rest: KOB reports that all supplies are donated and the doctors and nurses involved are volunteering their time; similarly, doctors at UNMH are volunteering time for extra shifts to treat expected large groups this weekend.
You can be an X, legally
The governor's staff said late Wednesday that she expects to sign into law a bill allowing New Mexicans to change the gender marker on their birth certificate, including switching between M and F as well as choosing X for non-binary. We talked to advocates and members of the trans community about the law, which is a significant step toward equal rights of all New Mexicans, but there's still a lot of work to be done.
Don’t lose your head
A young man from Rio Arriba County is charged with poaching more than a dozen deer and elk with plans to sell their heads for profit ($). Jacob Leyba, 20, accepted a deal wherein he pleaded guilty to four felonies (rather than the eight felonies and 37 misdemeanors with which he'd been charged) in exchange for outing his accomplices.
Don’t fence me in (in the same way)
After eight years with a tough-on-crime prosecutor in the governor's mansion, lawmakers predicted that criminal justice reform would be a hot topic at the first Legislative session under Gov. Lujan Grisham; they were right. New Mexico In Depth takes a closer look at eight bills that are still alive as the session enters its final three days, including making simple possession of nearly all drugs a misdemeanor, as well as parole reform and limits on solitary confinement.
Hear that train a’fallin
Yesterday's slightly viral Facebook post came from KFOR-TV out of Oklahoma, which posted pictures of a train blown clean off an elevated track near Logan, New Mexico. (Anyone can view that link to the Facebook post, but if you'd rather see it through the Albuquerque Journal, we can't tell you no.) Show this to your out-of-state pals when they say we're overreacting to the wind. Did we mention we're getting get a lot of wind?
Thanks for reading! Word reader Karen is after our own heart, and has told us about Wordsmith.org's 25th anniversary celebration, including contests, trivia and other fun things for word nerds. Panagrams? Anagrams? "Dog helps out with laundry / A proud hound slightly wet"? We know what we're wasting time with today…