Epstein case will continue in New Mexico

It ain’t over yet

The most polarizing news of the weekend came along when Jeffrey Epstein, admitted pedophile and bestie of the rich and famous, was found dead by apparent suicide in his jail cell in Manhattan. This hasn't stopped the investigation into sex trafficking at his Santa Fe County ranch, however, especially after accusations from one of the trafficked girls ($ TNM) named former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as one of men with whom she was ordered to have sex.

That’s not how that works

Government agencies all over the state and country are notoriously unwilling to share information, and the New Mexico federal courts are no exception. Jeff Proctor reports for New Mexico In Depth that to keep would-be public documents secret, lawyers just have to click a box; no hoops to jump through, no one checking the work, no order from a judge. Proctor reports even more surprising info in the story (which is also written in his signature snarky-but-not-nasty style, which we always have fun reading).

Spotlight on MMIW

The US Department of Justice reports that the murder rate of Native women is 10 times higher than the national average for all people, and Santa Fe Indian Market is taking notice. Market officials say that the theme of this year's Indian Market, "Rise and Remember: Honoring the Resilience of Native Women," draws attention to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and seeks to empower Native women as a whole ($ TNM).

Get the measurements

New Mexico Political Report reveals that it's virtually impossible to know how much methane is being released into the atmosphere in New Mexico's hotspot at the Four Corners. Neither New Mexico nor the Environmental Protection Agency measure how much gas comes out of the ground, and producers only measure how much is delivered to processing plants. It follows that leakage of one of the most potent and damaging greenhouse gases is going totally unregulated.

Just apply

The nonprofit Earth Care has joined forces with Santa Fe Community College to try and boost enrollment among Santa Fe's Southside population, particularly Hispanic males. While the total number of students at SFCC has declined from 6,520 to 5,432—a 17% drop from 2011 to 2018—the school reminds would-be applicants that you do not need to be a citizen to get financial aid, and that SFCC is a sanctuary school in a sanctuary city.

Start all over

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham famously scrapped the state's teacher evaluation system as one of her first actions in office, and now she's teaming up with teachers and other education professionals to develop a new system ($ TNM). Lujan Grisham said in winter that she would assemble a task force to get the job done by the start of the next school year, so they're running a little late with only a week to go, but officials seem undaunted.

Simple and reasonable

The Santa Fe Police Department, pursuant to an investigation by the Albuquerque Journal, has revealed that it does not track police overtime hours and pay and apparently has no interest in doing so. When the newspaper finally shook loose some documents and totals of money paid out to officers for overtime, the numbers conflicted, and when reporters asked for clarification, a city spokeswoman replied via email, "The problem is not that we don't have the info, the problem is getting that info boiled down into your very simple and reasonable request."

Hung out to dry

Yowza! It was quite a weekend for rain, huh? Friday's performance of The Thirteenth Child at the Santa Fe opera was delayed mid-show due to a downpour that soaked audiences and drowned out the orchestra (no pun intended), and all weekend we dealt either with muggy steam or chilling hail. It's drying out this week, however, and we're back to expecting heat, with a projected high of 87 today and 89 tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! The Word has only one body. Why does she feel the need to own so many clothes? The world may never know.