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Morning Word
City puts the kibosh on GC3 soccer proposal
A controversial proposal to partially repurpose the Genoveva Chavez Community Center’s ice rink for arena soccer is too expensive right now. So says the city, in a news release yesterday, following what it describes as “a comprehensive review.” The soccer proposal, which the city announced early last December as essentially a done deal, would have brought, through a collaboration with team owner David Fresquez, the newest member of the Major Arena Soccer League 2 to Santa Fe. Fresquez tells SFR that in the several months he’s been in talks with the city, no one raised financial concerns. “Never once was I told about the financial constraints,” Fresquez says after hearing yesterday’s news. “Never once.” The city’s December announcement, as SFR reports in its cover story this week, set off a series of confrontations between soccer proponents and the city’s devoted ice-skating community. “Unfortunately, we got ahead of ourselves because we want to create more soccer opportunities in Santa Fe,” Mayor Alan Webber said in a statement yesterday. “We’ve been trying hard to see if it could work, but after conducting a comprehensive review of existing GCCC programming, listening to the ice community, and assessing our many competing recreation needs, we’ve come to the conclusion that the soccer team won’t work at the ice rink at this time.” Webber said he nonetheless supported bringing arena soccer to Santa Fe: “We need to continue to work on the opportunity and, in the meantime, look for another venue where Mr. Fresquez’s team can get going, build its support base, and establish itself as a new entry into the Santa Fe sports community,” he said.
Baldwin lawyer: NM destroyed Rust gun
One of Alec Baldwin’s lawyers on the Rust case kicked off yesterday’s scheduling hearing by telling First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommers that the state had destroyed the gun at the center of the case. Baldwin, who was both actor and producer on the film, and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed face involuntary manslaughter charges for their roles in the Oct. 21, 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set. “The court, I don’t think is aware of this point, but I think I should tell the court that the firearm in this case…was destroyed by the state,” Alex Spiro said during yesterday’s hearing. “That’s obviously an issue and we’re going to need to see that firearm, or what’s left of it.” Neither Baldwin nor Gutierrez-Reed were required to attend yesterday’s hearing, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts. District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies did not address the allegation regarding the gun during the hearing, but provided a subsequent statement to news media denying Spiro’s statement: “The gun Alec Baldwin used in the shooting that killed Halyna Hutchins has not been destroyed by the state,” spokesperson Heather Brewer said. “The gun is in evidence and is available for the defense to review.” Brewer noted that Spiro’s statement might have referred to “a reference to a statement in the FBI’s July 2022 firearms testing report that said damage was done to internal components of the gun during the FBI’s functionality testing. However, the gun still exists and can be used as evidence.” The next hearing is set for March 27 and will address Baldwin’s lawyers’ contention that special prosecutor and state Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, should be disqualified from the case because her status as a legislator violates the state constitution.
State Senate OKs updates to NM “right-to-die” law
The state Senate yesterday on a 38-0 vote updated New Mexico’s Refusal of End-of-Life Options Act, Senate Bill 471, to allow any health care provider “who objects for reasons of conscience” from participating. The Albuquerque Journal reports Sen. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, one of the bill’s sponsors, believes the update addresses points raised in a lawsuit filed against the state last year in federal court by New Mexico Dr. Mark Lacy and Christian Medical & Dental Associations. In a December 2022 news release from Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing Lacy and the Christian medical association, ADF Senior Counsel Mark Lippelmann said New Mexico’s law, passed in 2021, “is unlawfully compelling physicians to speak a certain message about assisted suicide, even if they object for reasons of conscience or faith. The Christian doctors we represent believe that every life is sacred and full of inherent value, and that assisted suicide ends an innocent human life without justification. The government should not force doctors to surrender their religious, moral, and ethical convictions.” According to the Journal, state records show more than 130 people in New Mexico took life-ending medication last year, the first full year the law has been in effect.
NM delegation seek Forest Service accountability
Democrat US Reps. Gabe Vasquez and Teresa Leger Fernández want the US Forest Service to detail the preventative measures in place to ward off future disasters as a result of prescribed burns. Vasquez, who represents the state’s 2nd Congressional District and Leger Fernández, who represents the 3rd, articulated their concerns in a letter to Forest Chief Randy Moore, referencing last year’s Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fires, which began as prescribed burns and became the largest wildfire in the state’s history. “A disaster of this proportion cannot happen again,” the letter reads. “To help restore trust in preventative measures and ensure the safety of our constituents, we request answers to the following,” Vasquez and Leger Fernández write: “How are prescribed burn notices to local governments and adjacent landowners being communicated to ensure our constituents receive timely notices of fires? Has protocol been modified regarding burn piles to prevent smoldering fires from reigniting? What measures is your agency taking to ensure fires remain contained?” US Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, also kept the spotlight on New Mexico wildfires this week, introducing Mora County Commissioner Veronica Serna during a Wednesday Senate Budget Committee in order to emphasize New Mexico’s need for ongoing recovery funding from the fire. “When a once-in-a-lifetime wildfire and flooding hits a small town like Mora, the consequences are devastating–not just emotionally, but also their impact on the community’s budget and resources,” Luján said. When asked about the challenges during the fire and subsequent flooding, Serna noted that “the residents in Mora County are used to dealing with wildfire,” but the early fire, drought and high winds created unprecedented challenges. “We evacuated people and they expected to be gone two or three days,” Serna said. “Five weeks later, they were still out of their homes.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported March 9: New cases: 241; 670,929 total cases. Deaths: two; Santa Fe County has had 400 total deaths; 9,061 total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 73. Patients on ventilators: seven
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent March 9 “community levels” map shows the entire state with green—aka low—levels. Corresponding recommendations for each level can be found here.
Resources: Receive four free at-home COVID-19 tests per household via COVIDTests.gov; Check availability for additional free COVID-19 tests through Project ACT; CDC interactive booster eligibility tool; NM DOH vaccine & booster registration; CDC isolation and exposure interactive tool; COVID-19 treatment info; NMDOH immunocompromised tool kit. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453. DOH encourages residents to download the NM Notify app and to report positive COVID-19 home tests on the app.
You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.
Listen up
Lit Hub Radio’s Thresholds writer interview series spotlights Santa Fe poet Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota Nation), author of the collection Whereas, which won the National Books Critics Circle award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. In a conversation with guest host Mira Jacob, Long Soldier, who received her BFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts and an MFA with honors from Bard College, talks about “her transformation during pregnancy, learning to open up to the possibilities of the world, and how she makes a space for ease in order to make a space for creativity.”
Indigenous design
As part of a special design section, the New York Times interviews University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning Chairman Chris Cornelius (Oneida) about his pathway toward Indigenous architecture. Founder of the design firm studio: Indigenous, Cornelius began exploring his ideas earlier in his career by designing smaller projects for the Oneida. Then, in 2003, architect Antoine Predock asked Cornelius to collaborate in designing the Indian Community School in Franklin, Wisconsin. “We designed these varied learning environments to be as noninstitutional as possible in order to rethink how Indigenous students can learn in noncolonial settings,” Cornelius tells the Times. His “big independent break” arrived in 2017, when he won the Columbus, Indian J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize and built a pavilion called “Wiikiaami,” leading to a speak gig at Yale University. These days, at UNM, the story notes, Cornelius “leads conversations about the lessons of Indigenous architects from the past: how to design domestic environments with more communal and flexible spaces, and how to use materials that are more appropriate to a local climate or culture.”
An eye toward spring
As the weather report below indicates, this weekend is likely to bring a mix of sun, clouds, rain, snow and wind. In other words, it’s (almost) spring! During some of those warmer, dryer moments, it might be fun to get outside. At 8:30 am, Saturday morning, the Randall Davey Audubon Center offers a free guided bird walk (and you can check out which birds have been spotted of late here). At 1 pm Sunday afternoon, the Santa Fe Botanical Garden offers its public garden tour, free with admission ($7 adults/$5 for kids through March) and free to members (and now is a good time to join, as the Botanical Garden’s rates will rise April 1 for the first time in five years). If you can’t make it this Sunday, mark your calendars for next Sunday, March 17, when the gardens host a free Community Day from 10 am to 4 pm. Speaking of gardens, Santa Fe County has just announced a partnership with Reunity Resources to provide free composting systems on a first-come first-serve basis for those home gardens; applicants must have a valid county solid waste permit to be eligible and applications are due by March 31 (we learned most of this from the county’s March sustainability newsletter). And since we’re planning for the future: The seed library at the Southside Library reopens March 25. Looking for even more seed resources? Edible New Mexico has a list of them. Which reminds us: Edible New Mexico’s sister publication, The Bite, has a don’t-miss guide to dining via the Latin American food trucks on Airport Road (complete with vegetarian suggestions), if you’d like to get out and about but also get some grub this weekend.
Spring forth
As noted, the official start of spring is still two weeks away, but spring weather? It’s here: The National Weather Service forecasts increasing clouds today with a high temperature near 60 degrees and south wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Those clouds might lead to scattered showers tonight after 11 pm, and a 50% chance for showers on both Saturday and Sunday, with temperatures dropping into the high and low 50s, respectively. Those rain showers might turn into snow on Monday before temperatures rise back into the 60s.
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