Morning Word: South Capitol Offense

Creeper
As South Capitol residents gathered at the Rose Park last night to learn basic self-defense tactics, Santa Fe police said they think a recent crime in which a man fondled himself in a woman's doorway is connected to a series of similar crimes last summer. A woman at home with her children chased off the man last week, breaking a stick over his back as he scrambled off.

Martinez supports monument review

In a letter to US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said

to review and possibly downsize a group of newly designated national monuments. Those include the Rio Grande del Norte near Taos and Questa and the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in Las Cruces.

BP pulls jobs from New Mexico

BP America, the resource giant many people know because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, plans to

, cut 40 jobs and transfer the rest of the employees to Durango. The company will keep drilling in New Mexico, though.

Shooting suspect tells his story

Damian Herrera, the man police say pulled the trigger on Northern New Mexico's deadliest crime spree in years, says his stepfather shot Herrera's mother and brother. Herrera told police he then wrestled the gun away from his stepfather and shot him. That's a

from that given by Herrera's sister, who says she witnessed the shooting. Herrera is accused of killing two more people—strangers—that day last month.

SFR's cover story this week looks at a curious question

: What can we as Earthlings be proud of? The institute's InterPlanetary project kicks off next week and asks artists, writers, thinkers and others to consider the future of humankind from a interplanetary perspective.

A recent decision by the Cochiti Pueblo to fence off tribal lands in response to what the Pueblo considers abuse by the public has put the village of La Bajada

. The fence blocks a road and access to a water supply. The Pueblo has allowed villagers to use a right of way, but they say that's not enough.

Councilor Joseph Maestas says he'll ask his colleagues on the City Council to reconsider their decision to postpone using the instant-runoff voting system in the March 2018 city elections. The system

, but there's a fudge factor Santa Fe has been using to delay implementing ranked-choice voting. Maestas says the system may now be cheap enough and simple enough to finally put it into use.

As you may have noticed. And it

.

Santa Fe Reporter