artdirector@sfreporter.com
Gun reform bills pass first committee
The New Mexico Legislature’s House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee yesterday passed two bills aimed at reforming gun control in New Mexico on 4-2 votes, sending both to the House Judiciary Committee next. HB 100 would create a 14-day waiting period for purchasing guns. HB101 would ban assault weapons like AR-15s. Both proposals predictably drew numerous advocates and detractors. New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops Executive Director Allen Sánchez spoke in favor of the proposals (right around 2:15 in the linked video): “We bury the victims,” Sánchez said. “I want to repeat that. We bury them. These are real people with real mourning families. We have to start somewhere and I know we can’t all agree on the same thing, but this effort is a real start.” Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham praised the passage of HB101, noting in a statement that while she is “a firm believer in responsible gun ownership...the fact of the matter is that our communities, our families and our law enforcement are put at risk every single day when weapons of war fall into the wrong hands.” State Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, who is sponsoring both bills, also reiterated in a statement that while “most gun owners in New Mexico are responsible,” as long as high capacity weapons are legal, they will be used to hurt people. “We have seen far too many mass shootings carried out using these weapons,” Romero said. “As state lawmakers, we have the power to take this important step to prevent these senseless tragedies.” Several other gun-related bills are also in the queue during this year’s session, which ends March 18. The Albuquerque Journal has a rundown.
Baldwin lawyers want Rust prosecutor disqualified
In a new motion in the Rust case, Alec Baldwin’s lawyers want special prosecutor Andrea Reeb disqualified. A motion filed yesterday argues Reeb’s involvement violates the state constitution because she is a member of the state House of Representatives (R-Clovis). “Reeb is not constitutionally permitted to serve simultaneously as a legislator and a special prosecutor,” the motion reads. “Doing so vests two core powers of different branches—legislating and prosecuting—in the same person and is thus barred by the plain language of Article III of the New Mexico Constitution.” First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies appointed Reeb, a former DA for the Ninth Judicial District, to the case last August. In their motion seeking her removal, Baldwin’s lawyers also turn to Nevada for examples of comparable constitutional violations, noting that New Mexico does not appear to have any judicial precedents “perhaps because no one has attempted such a facially unconstitutional action in this state.” The motion follows involuntary manslaughter charges Carmack-Altwies filed last week against Baldwin and the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed in the Oct. 21 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the Rust set. The film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, accepted a plea deal on the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon; the first hearings for all three have been scheduled starting Feb. 24. “Mr. Baldwin and his attorneys can use whatever tactics they want to distract from the fact that Halyna Hutchins died because of gross negligence and a reckless disregard for safety on the Rust film set,” First Judicial DA spokesperson Heather Brewer said in a statement provided to SFR. “However, the district attorney and the special prosecutor will remain focused on the evidence and on trying this case so that justice is served.”
City Council tackles CHART, guns, development tonight
Tonight’s Santa Fe City Council meeting—kicking off at 5 pm—features the return and introduction of several items sure to be of interest to myriad folks. As SFR recently reported, a resolution will be introduced tonight proposing next steps for the Plaza obelisk, which demonstrators upended on Indigenous Peoples Day in 2020. Councilors will also hear from Mayor Alan Webber on his proposal to support Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s gun reforms, including the proposed ban on assault weapons (a copy of Webber’s proposal does not appear to be available on the city’s meeting information). Councilor Renee Villarreal is slated to introduce a resolution “in support of the investigation and prosecution of the persons responsible for the effort to criminally interfere with or overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack upon the United States Capitol; and calling for the passage of federal and state laws to eliminate the risks of future insurrections and efforts to delay, disrupt, or overturn elections, and to better protect and safeguard the election process.” The council will also resume discussion of the controversial South Meadows development proposal from Homewise that began at its last meeting. You can view the meeting on Comcast Channel 28 and Comcast HD928 or stream it live on the City of Santa Fe’s YouTube channel.
Gov heads to DC; NM Dems respond to Biden
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham left yesterday for Washington, DC to attend the National Governors Association 2023 winter meeting. According to a news release, among other meetings, Lujan Grisham will attend a business session at the White House with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other members of administration leadership; a Western Governors Association meeting with several federal cabinet secretaries; and at noon ET tomorrow will participate in a press conference with governors from the Democratic Governors Association. She returns Sunday.
Meanwhile, New Mexico’s congressional Democrats all released comparable statements yesterday responding positively to Biden’s State of the Union speech last night (here’s the text as prepared). US Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s statement, for example, said Biden had “delivered an optimistic and effective address to the American people detailing the progress made and the work that remains. President Biden and Congressional Democrats delivered a historic investment in our nation’s infrastructure, expanded veterans’ health care, promoted science and innovation, tackled the climate crisis, and cut health care costs. Despite a divided Congress, I am confident that President Biden will continue to find areas to work with Republicans and Democrats to deliver for the American people.” Democratic Party of New Mexico Chair Jessica Velasquez’s statement, on the other hand, also took aim at Republicans, saying they “have shown their hand time and time again. Whether they’re undermining student debt relief or prolonging the exhausting debacle that was Kevin McCarthy’s election to be Speaker, it’s clear that the GOP puts political games and self-interest ahead of policies that put people first. It’s quite remarkable that the Biden-Harris administration was able to accomplish so much while dealing with nonstop dogmatic displays of partisan pandering from the Republicans at every turn.”
COVID-19 by the numbers
Reported Feb. 7 : New cases: 154; 665,895 total cases. Deaths: eight; Santa Fe County has had 395 total deaths; 8,985 total fatalities statewide. Statewide hospitalizations: 74. Patients on ventilators: four
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent Feb. 2 “community levels” map shows the same four county categorized as “yellow”—medium risk—for COVID-19 as last week: De Baca, Curry, Quay and Roosevelt counties. The rest of the state—including Santa Fe County—is green, aka has low risk. 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
With the Legislature underway, New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney says his agency needs more funding in order to enforce a rule that went into effect last year that aims to reduce ozone-causing air pollution by 260 million pounds a year. KUNM reporter Nash Jones talks with Kenney about his department’s funding challenges and how that plays out in the field. For instance: “If there is an environmental spill in Silver City at the same time that there is releases of pollutants to the air in Carlsbad, while Chama is running out of drinking water, we have to pick winners and losers,” he says, acknowledging: “That is not fair to New Mexicans. It’s also pretty unfair to our department to be put in that position.”
The Pueblo Revolt as comedy
A rolling world premiere is underway in Northern California for the play Pueblo Revolt, described thusly: “A gay Pueblo teen prepares for the Uprising with his older brother, while dealing with a really pesky (and totally inconvenient) crush on the Spanish baker’s son. When history is in the making, what do ordinary people do?” The play is running Feb. 2-12 at the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley and Feb.13-26 at in San Rafael. Playwright Dillon Chitto (Mississippi Choctaw, Isleta and Laguna Pueblo) grew up in Santa Fe “learning the importance of art, culture and traditions,” his bio reads. “In his playwriting, he explores these ideas through the lens of comedy.” Chitto tells the San Francisco Chronicle he wrote the play both from his experiences as a “New Mexico-raised Native American of Pueblo and Choctaw descent,” but also from his years in Chicago attending seminary school. “Having read sacred religious texts—the Bible, the Torah, the Quran—in terms of the universally relatable stories they present, I decided to write the story of my people in terms of these universal paradigms, so that the audience would relate to it as much as possible,” he said. In a news release about the play, Chitto says he’s excited to share Pueblo Revolt with audiences “because it’s an Indigenous story of survival through a comedic lens.”
And speaking of the New Mexico/San Francisco connection, the state Tourism Department announced earlier this week its plans to take its New Mexico True marketing campaign to San Francisco via a $20 million special appropriation included in the Fiscal Year 2024 executive budget recommendation. According to a news release, NMTD conducted a market potential study in 2021 that identified both Los Angeles and San Francisco as viable fly markets. Tourism entered the LA market in spring 2021 and says the state “realized an estimated 80,000 trips and $107 million in visitor spending attributed to New Mexico True advertising in the Los Angeles market” by the end of the 2021 campaign. According to the department’s research, San Francisco travelers “view New Mexico favorably for qualities such as authenticity, interesting history and culture, and great Native and Indigenous experiences.” Tourism Cabinet Secretary Jen Paul Schroer said entering the San Francisco market has been a goal for years. “By bringing New Mexico True into the San Francisco market, we have the opportunity to take New Mexico’s potential for economic development to a whole new level,” Schroer said in a statement.
Hankering for Albuquerque
Regular Morning Word readers have possibly noticed the national accolades pouring in for Albuquerque’s food scene. Bon Appétit enters the conversation with a story by Albuquerque native Eric See, whom we’ve also mentioned more than once as the owner of Ursula, a New Mexican cafe in Brooklyn. Yes, See may live in New York, but his heart remains here. Or, as he begins his story: “New Mexico is the self-proclaimed Land of Enchantment, but growing up here we called it the Land of Entrapment—we wanted to escape the little-town feel of Albuquerque. Now that I live in Brooklyn, I can never wait to go back. For folks visiting for the first time, or those of us who return, the idea of entrapment takes on a much more magical meaning: Albuquerque’s serene beauty ensnares you in such a way that you want to stay forever.” While some of See’s recommendations for staying, eating and enjoying Albuquerque run the usual gamut—Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm, Frontier Restaurant, Duran Central Pharmacy—the depth of knowledge, details and humor he brings makes all the suggestions sound fresh and new. And we’re definitely going to check out Burque Bakehouse the next time we’re in Albuquerque—we might even make a special trip.
The icy fang
Look for some areas of freezing fog today before 8 am. Afterward, the National Weather Service forecasts a sometimes sunny day with a high temperature near 41 degrees and northwest wind 10 to 15 mph. All Santa Fe Public Schools are on a two-hour delay “out of an abundance of caution due to icy conditions in some parts of the district,” including full day Pre-K programs. Morning Pre-K programs have been canceled; afternoon programs are on a regular schedule. The next two days should be “brisk” with temps hovering in the 30s. While you shiver, be sure to check out New Mexico Magazine’s roundup of cozy fireplaces and what to drink while you sit by them.
Thanks for reading! The Word does not have Imposter Syndrome (she feels fairly qualified to write this newsletter), but she enjoyed reading Leslie Jamison’s New Yorker essay about the syndrome because she enjoys (almost) everything Jamison writes.
