
Just drop off the key
'Twas the announcement heard 'round the water cooler yesterday: US Sen. Tom Udall announced in a YouTube video that he will not run again in 2020. The 70-year-old senator, who has held the seat since 2008, says that his last two years in office will be better spent battling the presidential administration's policies than organizing another campaign. The New Mexican has a summary of his career ($).
Diversion of resources
Border Patrol has closed all five New Mexico highway checkpoints, as well as checkpoints in West Texas, to divert resources and manpower to the border itself. February saw 76,000 migrants crossing the US-Mexico border, an 11-year high, so Border Patrol says its agents are temporarily needed more there. Also, in border news we forgot to mention yesterday, attorneys with the Santa Fe Dreamers Project are among the aid workers and others who have been detained and questioned at the border. In addition to searching electronics and rifling through WhatsApp and text conversations, one lawyer says CBP agents asked him about his political views and personal life.
Do you want to play a game?
Gov. Lujan Grisham has asked the entire game commission to resign ($); she wants to start fresh. The seven-member commission is appointed by the governor, and while efforts have been made to split appointments between the governor and the Legislative branch, some argue the group remains politically charged thanks to how it's chosen.
You can leave your nightgown at home
Speed vans aren't making a comeback ($) quite yet. The Public Works Committee has tapped the brakes on the program, saying that new information requires city councilors get a little more time to review all the details. Councilors and the public have also raised concerns about the level of government surveillance the vans create, as well as how many of the worst speeding cases in Santa Fe occur on county or state roads, but that the speed vans are only allowed on city roads.
Seeing red
In a case headed to District Court, the defense claims that a Taos County Sheriff's deputy's arrest for alleged domestic assault on his girlfriend was caused in part by her menstrual cycle. Alan Maestas, attorney for Lorenzo Sanchez, says that Sanchez (who's been charged with aggravated assault, battery, and use of a deadly weapon while intoxicated) may have been angry or irritated that night, but that the girlfriend overreacted because she is a woman and has "premenstrual something or other."
Think again, maybe
If you're looking for something to watch on Netflix this evening, maybe don't choose The Dirt. Though SFR's Alex De Vore's review of the new Mötley Crüe biopic did make us laugh, the movie itself sounds pretty terrible.
It used to be a mattress store
Apparently Santa Fe is getting a Chipotle ($). The chain is going in that cool glass-paneled building in the Crossroads Center at St. Francis and Cerrillos, near Susan's Fine Wine & Spirits. Seems the Word must abandon the pipe dream of opening a cat café and dispensary in that space. (No one steal our idea. Maybe we'll do it somewhere else. We're gonna be millionaires.)
Thanks for reading! The Word is just kidding, we don't want to own a business. Open that cannabis cat café with our blessing.