Legislators pass one bill, end session
New Mexico legislators yesterday convened a special session on public safety as ordered by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, passed one bill with funding for wildfire relief and outpatient treatment, and adjourned. The move followed Democratic leadership announcing, earlier this week, opposition to holding the session due to concerns with some of the governor’s proposals, such as laws geared at competency hearings and panhandling. While the session ended, the tension between lawmakers and the governor did not. In a statement following the session’s end, Lujan Grisham issued a statement saying, “The Legislature should be embarrassed at their inability to summon even an ounce of courage to adopt common-sense legislation to make New Mexicans safer. For those of you who go home to sound of gunshots, who see hypodermic needles in your parks, and the families desperate to get a loved one living on the street the help they deserve, I’m sorry that most of our elected officials didn’t even try.” Lawmakers, in turn, said they had used their time effectively. “In the months ahead, House Democrats will continue our work to bring stakeholders together and develop smart, meaningful solutions that truly improve community safety and access to essential services,” Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque said in a statement.
Advocates praise legislators
Statewide advocacy groups, which had decried Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s proposals for the public safety-focused legislative session, yesterday praised legislators for their work. “We are grateful to see the legislators, who were elected to represent the communities they live in, do the right thing today,” Nayomi Valdez, public policy director at the ACLU of New Mexico, said in a statement. “Providers, advocates, and lawmakers agreed that New Mexicans deserve real solutions, not political theater.” In a news release, Bold Futures, Equality New Mexico, ACLU of New Mexico and the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness also identified proposals they say they would support in next year’s 60-day session, which includes legislation: to develop and implement a Medicaid state plan amendment to create a system of certified community behavioral health clinics; prohibit landlords from refusing to lease housing to tenants whose rent is subsidized by the government; prevent excessive and mandatory rental fees not included in rent; and provide funding for municipalities to build community crisis response teams. “Many of the issues our communities are facing stem from decades of underinvestment,” Bold Futures Public Policey Director Kat Sanchez says in a statement. “A large majority of lawmakers recognize that, and refused to be strong-armed into passing bills that would have harmed our communities. Because of their courage, compassion, and willingness to listen to community advocates and experts, we’re all better off. We know the safest communities have the most resources, and we’ll keep working with legislators to ensure our communities have what they need to thrive.”
NM delegation supports DACA health insurance outreach
New Mexico’s congressional delegation this week signed onto a letter urging the federal Health and Human Services Department to expand its outreach to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients in advance of the open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act health insurance that starts Nov. 1. DACA recipients also are eligible for a special enrollment period through which they can use their benefits starting Dec. 1 if they enroll by Nov. 15. “Given this unique and time-sensitive opportunity, it is imperative that DACA recipients know of this opportunity, are informed about their eligibility, and are able to navigate the registration process so that they can take full advantage of their new access to medical care,” the letter reads. The letter goes on to encourage HHS to employ “paid media outreach, funding to community organizations to disseminate information, and HHS staff time into a targeted outreach program for newly eligible DACA recipients.” The state’s entire delegation signed the letter—led by US Senator Cory Booker, D-NJ, and US Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, along with 84 other members of Congress.
Dailies announce changes
The daily Santa Fe New Mexican this week announced its editor Phill Casaus, 61, will be leaving in August to work as executive director of communications and engagement at Albuquerque Public Schools. Casaus has been editor of the daily paper for seven years and, according to its story, “part of New Mexico’s journalism scene for all or part of six decades.” New Mexican Publisher Patrick Dorsey says the paper will look at internal and external candidates in its search for a new editor. Meanwhile, the Albuquerque Journal this week announced a newsroom restructuring and naming of two co-managing editors. The Journal announced Donn Friedman will serve as assistant managing editor of news and presentation, and Lucas Peerman will be assistant managing editor of sports and features. Executive Editor Patrick Ethridge also said the Journal’s city desk is rebranding as the news desk.”Both will be highly involved in developing the Journal’s content strategy while also working to develop our journalists into the most modern and true form of multimedia journalists,” Ethridge said.
Listen Up
On the most recent episode of digital magazine Public Books’ podcast Writing Latinos, New Mexico-based author Jamie Figueroa, a faculty member at the Institute of American Indian Arts, discusses her new memoir, Mother Island: A Daughter Claims Puerto Rico. In response to a question of how different places in her life have impacted her identity, Figueroa notes, “Growing up in rural central Ohio, my understanding of what it meant to be Latina in that space was pretty nil…coming to New Mexico, Northern New Mexico, especially, it has just felt like Ohio never felt to me a place of home. I know many people say that, you know, from all different backgrounds and I’m cognizant of that.”
Close encounters
Ecopsychologist and author James Reich attended this year’s UFO Festival in Roswell, and returned to Santa Fe to tell the tale for SFR. In his recent cover story, Reich has close encounters with all sorts of folks, including self-proclaimed UFO abductee Travis Walton, who both attended the festival and is the focus of one of the exhibits at Roswell’s International UFO Museum and Research Center. Walton’s story of his 1975 flying saucer encounter, Reich writes, became the 1993 film Fire in the Sky. “I have a lot of people relating to me experiences they had, sightings and even more vivid stories,” Walton tells Reich. “Mostly, people are sincere. In some cases, they’re mistaken, but it’s a very real phenomenon and people are taking it more seriously.” The story also includes Reich’s interviews with and observations of attendees and the festival atmosphere, along with reporting on several of its panels, along with photographs of alien autopsies, UFO swag and canine attendees dressed for the occasion. In the case of the latter, Amelia and Bill Kelly came from Oklahoma with their dogs, one dressed as a flying saucer and the other wearing a tinfoil hat. “I’ve always loved aliens and UFOs,” Amelia says.
Judy Chicago on life (and death)
In an installment for the New York Times’ series The Unstoppables, “about people whose ambition is undimmed by time,” feminist artist and New Mexico resident Judy Chicago, 84, discusses how she remains motivated. “My father—he was a labor organizer—taught me that the purpose of life was to make a contribution to a better world,” she begins. “I wanted to fulfill my father’s mandate. And I wanted to become a part of art history.” To do so, she notes, “I’ve had to be very persistent, that’s for sure. I’ve had doubts, like when the critics came after me when I showed The Dinner Party, I’ve been the target of so much vitriol. It hurt — of course it hurt. But in my family, we had a saying: Give up or get up. One of the things I’ve learned in life is that persistence pays.” Her interests remain the same as when she was young, she says. “I’ve always been very focused, and I continue to be focused. I basically had to go into seclusion in our small house in Belen, NM, to work on text and images for one of my more recent projects. When I work, I require complete silence and concentration.” Chicago also shares her views on aging and death, of which she says: “I don’t think it’s good to have an adversarial relationship” with either. Chicago’s current exhibitions include Judy Chicago: Herstory through March 3 at the New Museum in New York.
Under the weather
The National Weather Service forecasts more storms on the way, with a 60% chance for precipitation today, with showers and thunderstorms likely after 3 pm. The day will be increasingly cloudy, with a high temperature near 88 degrees. Saturday and Sunday both have an 80% chance for storms after noon, with high temps in the mid 80s on Saturday and high 70s on Sunday.
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