Alexa Schirtzinger
Alexa Schirtzinger comes to the Santa Fe Reporter by way of Los Angeles, El Salvador, Taos, New York and a few dusty places in between. She is an avid skier and burrito eater.
Stories by Alexa Schirtzinger
Briefs: Nov. 18
Kokesh claims no connection to corruption and the Gov's budget task force is bunk.
Preaching to Converts
Medical marijuana is finally happening—but distributing it may be the least of New Mexico’s worries. Such was the conceit of the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, which began just days after New Mexico’s Department of Health approved four new medical marijuana producers to field demand from the state’s 755 patients.
Road with a View
It’s a good thing Joe Horace still reads the news. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t know about the city’s plans to redevelop the land he owns on St. Michael’s Drive. Neither, for that matter, would Daniel Masterson, a managing partner at Don Mackey Nissan, or Tom “TJ” Jones, the manager at Payne’s Nurseries & Greenhouses—both of which also are on St. Michael’s.
Indicators: Nov. 11
Kids feel the cutback when recessions hit family spending, but pets don't.
SFR Talk: King of the Hill
Cody Sheppard, the ski patrol director at Ski Santa Fe, grew up in the tropics, but—as the Texans like to say—he got here as fast as he could. After learning to ski back in the 1970s, during college at St. John’s, Sheppard took up ski patrolling. He’s been doing it ever since, and he’s psyched for what looks like a promising ski season.
Back to Nature
The list of things that we forego in a recession—pedicures, pearls and the occasional mortgage—does not include alternative medicine. In fact, herbal supplement sales—along with yoga studios, acupuncture clinics and massage therapy—have proven remarkably resilient in the face of the recession.
Briefs: Nov. 4
Nuclear earthquakes, Joe Shirley and energy efficiency.
Unnatural Disasters
On Monday, the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board released a damning report on the safety of the main plutonium facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The crux of the report is that in the case of a “seismic event,” or major earthquake, along the geologic fault that underlies the lab, the ensuing damage would be more than 100 times the allowable federal standard.
Indicators: Oct. 28
Depressed economies and depressed people allow chocolate sales to soar.
Do the Math
New Mexico legislators may be sighing in relief at the conclusion of an arduous seven-day special session to address the state’s $650 million budget shortfall, but the state’s financial woes are far from over, experts say—especially if its leaders aren’t open to any and all fiscal measures.
