artdirector@sfreporter.com
Morning Word
State police collect more than 1,000 guns at buyback
New Mexico State Police on Saturday held gun buyback events in Albuquerque, Española, Las Cruces and Farmington, ultimately collecting 1,289 guns from all four locations. “This was another proactive event where people could voluntarily turn in unwanted guns as a means to help minimize gun violence, reduce suicides, accidental deaths and injuries where guns are involved,” State Police Chief Troy Weisler says in a statement. DPS held a previous gun buyback event in November, from which it collected 439 guns. “State Police is committed to safeguarding every community we serve, and as such, we will continue to utilize every resource we have to reduce gun violence,” Weisler says. People voluntarily and anonymously handed in the unwanted firearms and received Visa gift cards in return. Specifically, police collected 150 handguns and 422 rifles and/or shotguns from Albuquerque; 27 handguns and 64 rifles and/or shotguns from Española; 136 handguns and 307 rifles and/or shotguns from Las Cruces; and 42 handguns and 108 rifles and/or shotguns from Farmington. Ten of the guns on Saturday were stolen weapons. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last month cited the gun buybacks among other statistics connected to her previous executive orders intended to reduce gun violence in the state. Those figures are being tracked on a statewide gun violence dashboard.
AG: NM false electors can’t be prosecuted under current law
Attorney General Raúl Torrez on Friday said the five Republicans who filed false election certificates in the 2020 presidential race, declaring Donald Trump the winner, can’t be prosecuted under state law. But he’s recommending state lawmakers make changes to state law so such actions could be prosecuted in the future. “It is disgraceful that New Mexicans were enlisted in a plot to undermine democracy and thwart the peaceful and orderly transfer of power,” Torrez said in a statement. “However, like the fake electors in Pennsylvania, their misconduct is not subject to criminal prosecution under current state law. That’s why I am asking the governor to give a message to the New Mexico Legislature to address the issue during the upcoming legislative session and amend the election code to give our prosecutors greater latitude to prosecute these types of cases in the future.” The upcoming 30-day legislative session, which opens Jan. 16, is limited to financial matters, with other topics subject to the governor’s discretion. Torrez’s office says his predecessor referred the investigation into New Mexico’s false electors to federal authorities in 2022, but did not receive a determination. As reported last month, false elector schemes in seven states are a key element in current indictments against the former president. Torrez’s office then initiated its own investigation, which “revealed that Trump’s team and campaign provided the fake certificate, along with instructions for completing and submitting the document, to five electors designated by the Republican Party of New Mexico. However, unlike the documents the campaign sent to other states declaring the fake electors to be the actual electors of their states, the New Mexico document purported to certify electoral votes only if the signatories were later determined to be the legitimate electors for New Mexico,” the report says.
LFC releases budget
Members of New Mexico’s Legislative Finance Council on Friday released their proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, which suggests slightly reduced spending than Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s prospective budget, which she had unveiled the day prior. The LFC’s $10.1 billion represents a 5.9% increase over last year, versus the governor’s $10.5 billion proposed spending, which would be a 9.9% increase. Some highlights the LFC points out in a news release include: $4.42 billion for New Mexico’s public schools; $783 million for early childhood services; $134 million for Medicaid services; $20.1 million to develop the state’s child welfare workforce, in the form of a multiyear expandable trust; and an additional $2.9 million to the Department of Public Safety, in addition to increases for the courts, district attorneys and public defender. The committee’s spending plan reserves would be 30% of planned spending; the governor’s plan keeps reserves at 34.2%. “After two years of record-setting income, the FY24-25 budget is a reminder that we must meaningfully invest in programs that truly help and work for New Mexico, while simultaneously protecting the state from future revenue shortfalls,” LFC and Senate Finance Committee chairman, state Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, says in a statement. “The committee’s recommendation ensures the state never has to ride the oil and gas rollercoaster again by prioritizing essential growth in services that are proven to improve the lives of New Mexicans, creating expendable trusts to address critical future funding needs in the state, and most importantly, ensuring we maintain robust reserves to weather any future rainy days we may experience.” The Legislature, when it convenes Jan. 16, will hold a 30-day finance-focused session following the highest general fund revenue forecast in the state’s history—roughly $3.5 billion in new money—largely driven by oil and gas production, which is expected to decline in the coming years.
Cannabisville
“A New Mexico bedroom community has become a marijuana boomtown thanks to cannabis buyers from Texas,” the New York Times reports in a story about Sunland Park, New Mexico, a city that “has generally offered few amenities for its roughly 17,000 residents,” but has become very popular with nearby El Paso residents thanks to its cannabis industry. “Cars with Texas plates flock regularly to the many cannabis dispensaries—one with a drive-through, another offering discounts on “Texas Tuesday”—that have sprung up since New Mexico began legal recreational sales in 2022,” the story notes. Purportedly, legalization has turned Sunland into one of the country’s most notable “marijuana boom towns,” a moniker apparently used to describe border locales that cater to residents from states where cannabis is not legal. In fact, Mayor Javier Perea tells the Times some locals even refer to the city now as “the Dubai of marijuana,” while others describe it as “Little Amsterdam.” According to the state Cannabis Control Division’s recently released sales data for December 2023, Sunland Park has had the second-highest in sales for adult recreational use since legalization, and had approximately $4 million last month, following Albuquerque’s $10 million. Santa Fe had approximately $2 million. All told, the state had about $37 million in adult recreational use sales in December—its highest number so far. Medical cannabis sales brought in close to $13 million, slightly more than the month prior.
Listen up
The Institute of American Indian Arts’ week-long evening reading series for its Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program commences at 6:30 pm this evening, with readings through Jan. 12 on campus and available via livestream (links for each night’s livestream available via the previous link). The series features the program’s mentors, along with special guests, including numerous award-winning writers from all genres, including Iñupiaq-Inuit poet dg nanouk okpik, recipient of the 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize for poetry and a Pultizer Prize finalist (Blood Snow); renowned essayist Leslie Jamison (The Empathy Exams); and Bojan Louis (Diné), author of Sinking Bell: Stories and a book of poetry, Currents, to name a few.
Oppenheimer sweeps Golden Globes
Director Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer, which was filmed in and around Los Alamos and Santa Fe, and depicted events seminal to the state’s history, led the winners at last night’s Golden Globes’ award, capturing five awards out of its eight nominations for: director; best dramatic picture; best original score; best supporting role by a male actor (Robert Downey Jr.); and best performance by a male actor (Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer). Murphy recently spoke to the Los Angeles Times about his experience filming the movie, which Downey Jr. claims Murphy described as “the most Irish experience I’ve ever witnessed” after a particularly grueling day that culminated with being locked out of his motel room. Nearly two years later, Murphy doesn’t dispute the description: “We were just staying at motels by the freeway and moving around,” he tells the Times. “It was not glamorous. The way Chris works is that everything is equitable. No one has trailers or personal makeup. Everyone gets in a bus. It feels like independent filmmaking, but on a f—ing grand scale. And that’s the way I enjoy working.” Oppenheimer’s success elevated knowledge of the as-yet uncompensated suffering of downwinders from the Trinity Test and others who worked in New Mexico’s nuclear industry. Legislation that would have provided those workers with coverage under the Radiation and Exposure Compensation Act was recently eliminated from the final version of the annual federal defense bill. Axios Latino reports those victims don’t intend to give up, and are currently touring with a documentary about their plight, First We Bombed New Mexico, to raise awareness.
Paying tribute
The New York Times offers a slightly belated obituary for the Santa Fe Opera’s former and second General Director Richard Gaddes, who died Dec. 12. Gaddes, who was 81 when he died, also served as general director of the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, which he founded. As for his time in Santa Fe, that began when the opera’s founder, conductor John Crosby, spotted him during a visit to London while Gaddes was working at Wigmore Hall, and recruited him, at the age of 25, to become Santa Fe Opera’s artistic administrator. The story notes Gaddes’ seminal role in working to expand the opera’s audience and create outreach to locals with discounted tickets. He also staged a production of The Beggar’s Opera at El Museo Cultural using mostly local performers, the Times notes. The Santa Fe Opera offered an extensive remembrance of Gaddes last month, and is currently seeking new volunteer docents for its forthcoming 2024 season. Training will be conducted at the Santa Fe Opera over seven days in late April and early May, and will center “on in-depth information about the Santa Fe Opera’s history, production facilities, and designs for the five 2024 Season productions La Traviata (Verdi), Don Giovanni (Mozart), Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss), The Elixir of Love (Donizetti) and the company’s 19th new opera, The Righteous (Spears/Smith). The deadline to apply is Jan. 30.
Bundle up
The National Weather Service has us under a winter weather watch until 11 am, with a 50% chance for more snow, along with “patchy blowing snow.” Updated: Santa Fe Public Schools and City of Santa Fe offices and facilities are closed for the day. The day will start out cloudy, then gradually become mostly sunny, with a high temperature near 24 degrees and wind chill values as low as -7. Tonight should be mostly clear, with a low temperature around 5 degrees; wind chill values as low as -14; and north wind 15 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. In light of the extreme cold, the state health department on Friday issued a reminder about potential threats to human health brought on by cold weather, along with safety tips; according to DOH, since Oct. 1, more than 400 cold related emergency department visits statewide and five deaths have been reported.
Thanks for reading! The Word spent the weekend submerged in various 2024 playlists, and particularly loved the one Questlove made for the New York Times. And then she started thinking it would be fun (and maybe a meditative distraction?) if we all made 2024 playlists for one another she could share in this newsletter.
