Morning Word
House Republicans create health care parental consent form
New Mexico House Republicans yesterday released what they are describing as a “notification and consent” form for parents, contending that in its most recent session “the New Mexico Legislature passed a series of bills that sever parental notification regarding several controversial topics.” Those “topics,” specifically cited on the form, include the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Act and the School-Based Health Centers Act. The form allows parents or legal guardians to check off certain items about which they require prior notification, including “any health care services, referral for services, class, lesson, instruction, curriculum, assembly, guest speaker, activity, assignment, library material, online material, club, group, or association” concerning “transgender ideology, gender affirming care or gender identity.” Similar notifications are listed for abortion, family planning, contraception and mental or psychiatric care. During an Albuquerque press conference yesterday, Rep. Luis Terrazas, R-Silver City, denounced both the bills cited on the form, saying they “cut at the very fabric of the family unit, and undermine the rights (that parents have) when it comes to their children.” HB 7 sponsor Rep. Linda Serrato, D-Santa Fe, tells the Albuquerque Journal her bill does neither: “It simply says that you can get gender-affirming and reproductive health care and that they can’t persecute you or prosecute you.”
Main library reopens
After closing July 5 for plumbing problems, the Santa Fe Public Library’s main branch reopens at 10 am today. According to a news release, repair work on damaged carpeting and minor cosmetic fixes will continue, with a small section of the library collection “sectioned off for the repairs.” In addition, the city says the repairs “may generate some added noise.” Speaking of repairs, work also continues on West Alameda Emergency Culvert Replacement Project, which has kept the busy roadway closed since April, much to the ongoing aggravation of local drivers. In its weekly Orange Barrel Report, city officials say the project is at “100% design, funding has been approved, and a purchase order has been issued.” Construction contractor GM Emulsion apparently moved the final utility line from the site last week and scheduled surveyors in order for construction to start this week. The current rough estimate for reopening the road continues to be either next month or September.
County Ethics Board seeks members after resignations
Santa Fe County this week put out a call for new members for the volunteer Ethics Board. According to the notice, the five-member board’s primary duty is to enforce the County Code of Conduct. The Board of County Commissioners appoints members, who serve two-year terms, subject to reappointment thereafter. The board meets at the call of the chair not more frequently than monthly and not necessarily every month. The deadline to apply is 5 pm, July 24. The call for new members follows what the Santa Fe New Mexican reports as the resignation of former board member Michael Rosanbalm, who criticized county commissioners’ approach to ethics, reportedly writing in a letter that he didn’t think “our County Commissioners view ethics as an overarching principle of behavior for themselves or the County.” Some of Rosanbalm’s consternation stemmed from debate over the financial limits placed on gifts county officials, employees and volunteers could receive, with Rosanbalm and some other commissioners wanting the limit to be set at $100 for tickets to a public event; commissioners set the limit at $250. In addition, the board has reportedly not received any valid complaints, with a county spokesperson telling the paper of the five complaints the county has received since 2017, none have fallen under the ethic’s board jurisdiction.
Report: NM red-flag laws remain under-utilized
CNN reports on the use of so-called “red-flag” laws across the US, spotlighting New Mexico and a murder-suicide last year in Albuquerque. That event serves as an example in which officials could have removed a weapon from someone they perceived as dangerous under the state’s red-flag laws, but did not. New Mexico’s Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act was signed into law in 2020. CNN says its review of red-flag laws nationally “identified major obstacles even in states that have embraced” such laws, including “resistant law enforcement officers, stickler judges and a general lack of awareness and education.” New Mexico, the story posits, offers “perhaps the starkest example of the unfulfilled promise” of red-flag laws: “Since its enactment in 2020, New Mexico’s red flag law has been invoked less than 35 times.” Moreover, the state had two mass shootings in May: in Farmington and Red River. The state’s law, is “not being used in any meaningful way,” gun-safety advocate Sheila Lewis, who works with New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, says. “It’s really depressing.”
Listen up
Long story shortish: The initial version of yesterday’s newsletter included the deets for local band Chaco Soul’s Plaza show last night, but when computer issues resulted in a slew of lost work, that brief inadvertently never made it back in, much to our regret. However, it’s not too late to check out the band—fronted by local musician Chaco Taylor—which just released its EP Matador, a Latin soul/hip-hop crossover, also featuring Miguel Velasquez on drums, Chris “Context” Pacheco as MC and a number of of other New Mexico musicians, including Justin Bransford, Justin Lindsey and Justin Crews. And speaking of the Plaza shows, Feliz Y Los Gatos headlines today’s 6 pm show; check out the band here.
Writing Oppenheimer
Christopher Nolan’s greatly anticipated movie Oppenheimer opens here in less than two weeks (tickets are on sale at both Violet Crown and the Center for Contemporary Arts). Meanwhile, the epic biography on which the film is based, the 2005 Pulitzer Prize-winning American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, is receiving renewed attention. The New York Times delves into the 25-year journey behind the book’s publication, which includes the story of how, when J. Robert Oppenheimer’s son Peter refused a formal interview, Sherwin “brought his family to the Pecos Wilderness near Santa Fe, saddled up a horse and rode to the Oppenheimers’ rustic cabin, wrangling a chance to talk to the scientist’s son as the two men built a fence.” And Bird, who visited the movie set while the crew filmed in Oppenheimer’s original cabin in Los Alamos, recalls astonishment at Cillian Murphy’s resemblance to his subject, even yelling at the actor: “Dr. Oppenheimer! I’ve been waiting decades to meet you!” Speaking of Bird, he writes a new essay for the New Yorker regarding Oppenheimer’s role as “the chief celebrity victim of the national trauma known as McCarthyism,” and the story behind Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s decision last December to nullify the 1954 revocation of Oppenheimer’s security clearance.
Make the lists
Artsy’s list of five artists on its radar for July includes Santa Fe-based painter Margaret R. Thompson, whose “misty, narrative paintings offer a sense of balance—between fantasy and reality; landscape and interiors; figuration and abstraction; calm and excitement,” Artsy writes. She creates her work not just with oil paint, but also a variety of other materials, such as sand, turmeric and raw pigment. Thompson currently has work in a two-person exhibition, Eidolon at Tyger Tyger Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina; a group exhibition, Reverdie, at Arusha Gallery in Edinburgh; and will be in a three-person exhibition at that gallery’s London location this November. And, on a completely unrelated note, the Smithsonian magazine rounds up the “best spots to go freshwater diving or snorkeling” in the US, and old landlocked New Mexico makes that list as well, thanks to the Blue Hole in Santa Rosa, described in the story as “a sapphire in the desert,” providing not just clear waters for scuba-diving instructors, but also “a century’s worth of divers’ kitschy mementos.”
The air is so heavy and dry
The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day with a high temperature near 91 degrees; east wind 5 to 15 mph becoming northwest this morning. Don’t look for a cool-off anytime soon, but this New York Times story about the Southwest heat wave pairs well with this Associated Press story about the risks of extreme heat and this 40-year-old Bananarama song.
Thanks for reading! The Word wishes she had one of these Dolce & Gabbana hats.
