artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
NM presidential nominating committee meets today
A pending lawsuit in US District Court for the District of New Mexico filed by Republican primary presidential candidate John Anthony Castro against Donald Trump and New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver challenges Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s ballot. The suit, filed in September, bases its challenge on the same legal reasoning used in the Colorado case that led to the Colorado Supreme Court earlier this week ruling Trump is disqualified from running for president on that state’s ballot. The Washington, DC-based Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which brought the Colorado lawsuit on behalf of citizens of that state, charged that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment bars Trump from appearing on the ballot based on his incitement of insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and used the same legal argument to support New Mexico citizens who sought the ouster of former Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin in a case that led First Judicial District Judge Francis J Mathew in September 2022 to remove Griffin from office. Couy Griffin has appealed that case to the US Supreme Court, which has not yet said whether it will hear the case. The Trump campaign reportedly has vowed to challenge the Colorado case in the US Supreme Court as well, and that case is likely to end up before the court, experts say. As for Castro, he has filed similar complaints in other states, including Arizona and New Hampshire, which have thus far been dismissed. The New Mexico Presidential Primary Nomination by Committee meeting will be held in person at 10 am today to nominate presidential primary candidates (the public can watch the proceeding via livestream). As for the legal challenge to Trump’s appearance on New Mexico’s ballot, Secretary of State spokesman Alex Curtas tells the Associated Press, “these are constitutional issues and it is not the secretary of state’s role to make this kind of a legal finding in New Mexico. As long as a candidate meets all the administrative requirements to be placed on the ballot in 2024, they would not be excluded from the ballot unless a court with jurisdiction made a legal finding and ordered that person to be excluded.”
SFPD arrests Ortiz teacher in child-porn investigation
Santa Fe Police yesterday reported the arrest of two men following an investigation by its Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. The arrests followed an undercover operation in which both suspects solicited what SFPD characterizes in a news release as “child sexual abuse material of a child under the age of 10″ from undercover detectives. Police arrested Orlando Perea, 21, on Dec. 19 and charged him with criminal solicitation to commit a felony: sexual exploitation of children (distribution). SFPD arrested Pablo Angeles-Guaderrama, 34, on Dec. 21, charged him with same felony, identified him as a math teacher at Ortiz Middle School and notified Santa Fe Public Schools. SFPS placed the teacher on leave immediately and he will remain at that status while the police investigation is ongoing, district Public Information Officer Cody Dynarski tells SFR. “We will be fully cooperative with their investigation,” Dynarski says. Angeles-Guaderrama began working at SFPS in August 2018 as a bilingual teacher at César Chávez Elementary School, later becoming a math teacher at Ortiz. Before that, he worked as a one-on-one Spanish tutor and in 2017 advertised private sessions on Facebook.
Delegation: Extend Caja del Rio comment period
Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation want the National Nuclear Security Administration to extend the comment period for the agency’s draft Environmental Assessment of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Electrical Power Capacity Upgrade project. NNSA is proposing a new power transmission line to run through the Caja del Rio with 30 days of public comment that began Dec. 19 and runs to Jan. 17. In their letter to NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby, US Sen. Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich, along with US Reps. Teresa Leger Fernández and Melanie Stansbury, all Democrats, note the comment period overlaps with numerous federal and religious holidays, along with multiple Pueblo feasts. “We have heard from numerous stakeholders in our state that the current 30-day comment period provides insufficient opportunity for NNSA to gather feedback on its proposal and consult with Pueblos who have cultural and spiritual ties to the Caja del Rio,” the letter reads. Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety has created a sample letter for the public to use to also request an extended comment period, and notes in its coverage of the issue that LANL “has a habit of releasing environmental documents requiring public comment during the winter holiday season.”
New city leaders weigh in on future
The City of Santa Fe will hold its 2024 inauguration ceremony next week from 10 am to noon on Friday, Dec. 29 at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center (201 W. Marcy St.). Incoming Municipal Judge Chad Chittum, District 1 Councilor Alma Castro and District 3 Councilor Pilar Faulkner will be sworn in, along with returning District 4 Councilor Jamie Cassutt and District 2 Councilor Michael Garcia. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be followed by a reception. SFR’s annual double issue—we publish again on Jan. 3—includes interviews with Castro and Faulkner about their plans as they prepare for their new roles. Both tell SFR they hope for appointments to the city’s coveted five-person Finance Committee, although Castro says she doesn’t “have high hopes” Mayor Alan Webber will appoint her. She’s also interested in public safety and water policy, given ongoing problems with the city’s wastewater treatment plant. “It’s not a sexy thing,” Castro says, “but it’s super important not only now, but for generations to come.” For her part, Faulkner tells SFR she has established a “community cabinet” alongside District 3 Councilor Lee Garcia to engage residents in the local government process. “We want to try to hold community meetings every so many weeks to educate the community and share information with them so that they know what’s happening in their city government, and then also to get feedback from them on how the district wants us to solve different issues in the city,” she says.
Listen up
The holiday season provides the opportunity to catch up on movie-watching, and maybe even see some of the films and shows nominated for the 2024 Golden Globes, airing Jan. 7. On the most recent episode of Film Talk Weekly, host and Santa Fe International Film Festival Artistic Director Jacques Paisner talks with SFIFF Associate Programmer and writer/director Nate Nie about some of this year’s nominations, particularly ones with New Mexico ties, such as—you guessed it—Oppenheimer, which received eight nominations, along with Showtime’s new show The Curse, co-starring Emma Stone, who is nominated for best actress for that show, as well as for her work in the film Poor Things.
There’s no place like home
Speaking of The Curse, designer, writer and educator Samiha Meem provides a meta-modernist analysis of the series—which involves the filming of a reality home-improvement show in Española—for The Architect’s Newspaper, concluding that The Curse presents “a timely unraveling of liberal fallacies. It also traffics in performative ally-ship, both in and out of architecture.” With perhaps less intellectual heft but equivalent verve, Mimi Perez makes a convincing case on the real estate news website CandysDirt.com that an Alamogordo property for sale may in fact be a vampire’s den. Moreover, she uses the listing photographs to demonstrate her thesis that vampires celebrate Christmas. Quod erat demonstrandum! Mining similar cerebral terrain, Condé Nast provides advice for 2024 travel aligned with astrological signs. Aquarians (Jan. 20-Feb. 18), the magazine writes, are “not about to make a beeline to the most overcrowded, overhyped tourist destination anytime soon.” Nonetheless, they “still like a good artsy, fashionable jaunt—maybe just one with a little more niche appeal.” So where they should go? Santa Fe, of course. (The Word, a Sagittarius, should apparently plan to head to Mongolia, so we’ll get on that right away). For those making travel plans not based on the Zodiac, InsideHook rounds up “10 up-and-coming small towns” to visit next year, including Taos, described as a place possessing “a tangible calmness in the air that attracts tourists who strive to ease the mind, body and soul and reconnect with their inner peace.”
And to all a good night
City of Santa Fe offices and facilities close at noon today. Some of them reopen tomorrow (libraries/ rec centers) and then close again on Sunday for Christmas Eve. Government and its attendant services are closed on Monday for Christmas, natch, and even the parking meters are free. The adjusted trash and recycling pick-up schedule can be found here. Lest one imagine bureaucracy isn’t fun, the city also announced this week that Santa Fe Fire Department Chief Brian Moya and Fire Marshal Geronimo Griego have granted city-wide amnesty for farolito and luminaria burning starting at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 24, and ending at dawn on Monday, Dec. 25 (city fire code typically prohibits open burning). The Canyon Road Association’s annual farolito walk begins at sundown Christmas Eve. Santa Fe Trails buses will offer free transport to the walk starting at 4:30 pm on Christmas Eve, with continuous shuttle service between the South Capitol Rail Runner Station and the Santa Fe Visitor Center/Capitol parking lot at the intersection of Old Santa Fe Trail and Paseo de Peralta. Return shuttle service ends at 9:30 pm (but no one waiting will be left stranded, the city says). The Santa Fe Botanical Gardens has a new holiday tradition this year: La Luz de Las Noches, through Jan. 1 (excepting Dec. 24-25), featuring farolito-lined garden pathways, warm seasonal drinks and live performances each night. Don’t sleep on Madrid’s celebration, either, which includes a Christmas-light extravaganza. Read more about that and find other ideas for holiday outings from New Mexico Magazine’s seasonal recommendations. For even more inspiration over the holidays, be sure to grab SFR’s double-issue, which includes the annual directory of “25 things we love about Santa Fe right now.” The holiday edition also sports two weeks of calendar events, including ideas for New Year’s Eve, such as the annual free celebration on the Plaza, complete with fireworks, music and free hot chocolate and bizcochitos while supplies last.
Something wet this way blows
The National Weather Service forecasts the beginning of a multi-day winter storm today, with a 30% chance for precipitation via scattered showers after 5 pm. Otherwise, it will be mostly sunny, with a high temperature near 49 degrees and northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chances for precipitation rise to 90% tonight and continue into Saturday with a combination of rain and snow, though scant accumulation expected. A chance for snow on Sunday before a clear and sunny, albeit cold (as in a high temperature of 32 degrees) Christmas day on Monday.
Thanks for reading! The Word returns Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024 and leaves you with a guide to buying White Elephant gifts; a lexicon of the top climate-change words of the year; and the recent and hilarious Saturday Night Live ABBA Christmas satire. Happy holidays and see you next year!
