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Morning Word
NM Gov will back Biden
Amid ongoing uncertainty about whether President Joe Biden will remain Democrats’ presidential candidate, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tells the Albuquerque Journal she will stick with the president if he remains in the race. The New York Times reported on July 3 Lujan Grisham had been among governors meeting with Biden following his June 27 debate with Donald Trump and had reportedly said Biden was in danger of losing New Mexico. Lujan Grisham also was not among those governors quoted in statements of support sent out by the Biden campaign in the days that followed. “What I said in that July 3 meeting (was) New Mexico is a bellwether state, we’re very predictive, and our Hispanic voters are very predictive, and if people have questions that you aren’t thoroughly answering ... here’s maybe some more information you and your campaign, and your family (need to consider),” the governor tells the Journal. That being said, it looks like Biden will remain in the race and “New Mexicans should expect me to fight for him,” Lujan Grisham tells the paper. The presidential race “is about moral rights and wrongs. So New Mexico should expect me to turn the tide here for us.” Members of the state’s all-Democrat congressional delegation have also expressed support in varying degrees for the president, with US Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-NM, saying, “Joe Biden will be reelected President of the United States. He’s not a convicted felon. He should stay in the race.” US Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, however, issued a more measured statement describing Biden as “the most accomplished president of my lifetime” and “a genuinely wonderful human being.” Nonetheless, Heinrich says, “what I care most about is the preservation of our democracy.” As of press time, none of the all-Democrat delegation appeared to have commented on Biden’s news conference yesterday nor called for the president to drop out of the election.
Baldwin trial day 2: gun and bullets
The crime scene technician from the Oct. 21, 2021 fatal shooting of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins spent most of yesterday on the witness stand testifying about how the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office investigated in the aftermath of the shooting. The second day of actor Alec Baldwin’s trial for involuntary manslaughter in the case primarily focused on the live bullets found in the gun, the source of which remain undetermined. During cross examination, defense attorney Alex Spiro grilled Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office Crime Scene Technician Marissa Poppell about investigators’ efforts to locate the source of the live ammunition. Baldwin, who held the weapon, could receive up to 18 months in prison if convicted, and has maintained he did not fire the weapon. Spiro also asked why investigators took approximately a week to conduct a search warrant on the prop truck on Bonanza Creek Ranch—located approximately 18 miles south of downtown Santa Fe—which served as the set for the film. Italian arms manufacturer Alessandro Pietta—who made the revolver Baldwin held—testified, as did marketing firm owner Justin Neal, who works with Pietta and the Early and Modern Firearms Company in North America. Both testified the gun underwent quality control procedures following manufacturing. The trial continues today at 9:30 am. Watch yesterday’s hearing here.
FEMA: Help for flood victims available
New Mexico’s monsoon season, while bringing welcome moisture to the state, is also creating havoc for residents living in areas struck by wildfire. As the Washington Post vividly reports, a deluge of rain earlier this week upended Ruidoso’s efforts to recover from the South Fork/Salt fires, and underscored “the growing climate risks to tourist-dependent towns.” Construction worker Bjorn Adolpho captured on video numerous instances of the damage flooding caused this week in the town, which would normally be filled with tourists this time of year. “If no one comes to town and no one’s spending any money, these guys are going out of business,” Adolpho tells the Post, which notes that “some residents are leaving, too.” Burn-scarred soil causes flash flooding, the National Weather Service says, because it can be as water-repellant as pavement. As such, the Federal Emergency Management Agency yesterday issued a news release for residents in San Miguel County impacted by the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire who are now grappling with flooding. Residents without flood insurance, the claims office says, can apply for compensation. “Because the recent flooding is a cascading impact from the 2022 fire, anyone affected by the flooding should know that there are resources available,” Director of Operations for the New Mexico Joint Recovery Office Jay Mitchell says in a statement. “If you do not have flood insurance, are partially covered, or your flood insurance has not yet taken effect, you should work with the Claims Office to either begin a Claims Office claim or pursue additional compensation through an existing Claims Office claim to receive compensation for damages from the floods.”
Celebrating all abilities
Nonprofit Disability Pride New Mexico will host the state’s first disability pride parade, followed by a festival, in downtown Santa Fe tomorrow, July 13. The parade begins at 9 am at 131 Cathedral Place and ends at City Hall on Lincoln Ave., where a disability flag-raising ceremony will take place at 10:15 am. The festival, which runs until 2 pm, will include entertainment from the Pojoaque Youth Hoop dancers, DJ Herrera, singer Christina Pera and more, along with community booths and outreach. Disability Pride New Mexico President Eli Fresquez says the event is aimed at raising awareness for all types of disabilities, including those that may be less visible, such as “behavioral mental health disabilities and neurodivergent disabilities.” A lawyer specializing in disability rights, Fresquez says he sees the notion of disabilities as a “social construct,” given that everyone may encounter physical or other challenges in the course of their lives. “It’s really the human condition,” he says. “You’re really only temporarily abled, because if you live long enough, you’re most likely going to have some disability, whether it’s hearing loss or sight loss or other kinds of disabilities.” And within the “dynamic field” of disabilities, two major paradigms come into play, he notes. “One is the medical model that really tries to fix the person and solve whatever the problem is. And often really needed when it comes to disease, things like that.” But there’s also “the social model, which is really looking at, ‘how do we improve society? How do we use things like universal design in order to help all people be able to be to live up to their potential and be inclusive?’” The event helps mark July’s Disability Pride month, and precedes the Santa Fe disability awards ceremony July 27 at the Drury Hotel.
Listen Up
New Energy Economy, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and No False Solutions are all co-sponsors for today’s 6 pm event with science journalist Justin Nobel, author of Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It. “My journey into this topic started when an Ohio community organizer told me someone made a liquid deicer out of radioactive oilfield waste for home driveways and patios that was supposedly ‘Safe for Pets’ and had been selling it at Lowe’s,” Nobel writes in an author’s note about the book, which was the result of a 20-month long Rolling Stone magazine investigation (read an excerpt here). Today’s free event takes place at the store (202 Galisteo St.) and via Zoom; register here.
Out of this world
The Washington Post reports police pulled over lifelong alien fan Steve Anderson four times as Anderson drove from Indianapolis to last weekend’s annual UFO festival in Roswell. Anderson traveled there in a 1991 Geo Metro refitted to look like a flying saucer. Adam Carnal, a deputy in Crawford County, Missouri, pulled Anderson over on Interstate 44 when the vehicle committed a lane violation and tells the Post as he approached, “the top of the cockpit lifting to reveal two people sporting green, alien-like glasses. The driver raised a hand and gave Carnal a Vulcan salute, the famous gesture from the TV series Star Trek. ‘I come in peace,’ Carnal said the man told him.” The 67-year-old Anderson tells the Post he’s loved aliens since he saw his first flying saucer when he was 8. He’s accustomed to being pulled over, he says, and “often hands over a gag driver’s license identifying him as ‘Al Ien’ and tells officers that he’s from the planet Krypton, before handing over his real identification.” The Crawford County Sheriff’s Department posted about the incident on Facebook, sharing photos and writing, “Well, you never know what will be traveling through Crawford County but this one was a little out of this world. These friendly humanoids, who have come in peace, are heading west to Roswell, NM for a festival. There was a brief conversation about his out of space, correction, out of state registration, but he assured us that he would take care of that issue when he returned to Krypton. He was also warned about our strict enforcement of warp speed on the interstate and to keep his phasers on stun only while traveling.”
Travelogue
As mentioned in this newsletter earlier this week, Travel & Leisure’s readers once again named Santa Fe the second best city in the US in the magazine’s annual world’s best awards. Santa Fe also landed on the magazine’s list for readers’ favorite destination spas, with both Ojo Caliente spa (it’s actually unclear if they mean the Santa Fe location or the OG, as both are noted) and Ten Thousand Waves making the cut. T&L also includes Santa Fe on its list of spots for birthday travel, specifically mentioning Santa Fe as a prime location for solo birthday travel. Ojo Santa Fe receives another name-drop, as “the perfect getaway, especially for a solo birthday trip or a quiet retreat with a loved one.” Elsewhere in the industrial travel magazine complex, The Travel includes White Sands in its list of “national parks for beginner-friendly adventure travel.” The American Southwest’s deserts’ “excessive heat, arid conditions and generally inhospitable climate” normally might not be the best place for newbies to explore, but White Sands has several features making it more accessible, the story says. “Hikers can explore the mesmerizing white dunes on relatively easy trails, such as the Dune Life Nature Trail and the Interdune Boardwalk (which lets visitors wander across the dunes from the safety of a story wooden walkway).” For advice from closer to home, New Mexico Magazine spotlights three hikes to learn more about the area’s watersheds. That includes Santa Fe, where the Santa Fe Watershed Association leads five-mile group hikes a few times per year. “This watershed is unique in its layers of cultural history and ecological history, but also in the unique service that it provides to the city,” Santa Fe Watershed Association Executive Director Mori Hensley tells the magazine. “There aren’t many cities that are so intimately connected to a headwaters watershed.”
Come rain or shine
According to the National Weather Service, chances for storms—and threats to flooding in the state’s burn scars—remain low to moderate throughout the weekend, before ramping up in the middle of next week. In Santa Fe, look for a 30% chance of scattered showers and thunderstorms today, mainly after 3pm, with increasing clouds, and a high temperature near 90 degrees. Both Saturday and Sunday have a 20% chance for isolated showers and thunderstorms in the afternoons, mostly sunny skies otherwise and high temperatures in the low 90s.
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