City of Santa Fe Employee Charged with Murdering Co-Worker

Police charge city employee with murdering co-worker

An altercation between two City of Santa Fe employees ended in the city’s first homicide of the year. State Police yesterday charged 31-year-old Karl Rougemont of Santa Fe with first-degree murder, along with negligent use and unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon. According to an affidavit filed yesterday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court, at approximately 5:11 pm on Monday evening, Santa Fe Regional Dispatch reported a road rage incident on St. Michael’s Drive and Cerrillos Road. Santa Fe County Sheriff deputies arrived on scene and detained Rougemont, and state police arrived and rendered aid to Christopher Vigil, 40, who had at least one gunshot. Vigil was taken to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Based on both witness interviews and video footage, police learned Rougemont and Vigil had been driving westbound on St. Michael’s, stopped and exited their vehicles and, at some point, Rougemont shot Vigil. According to a state police news release, New Mexico State Police Investigations Bureau agents are working to determine the series of events that led up to the shooting, including collecting evidence and conducting interviews. The Santa Fe New Mexican reports a union leader says the city was aware of tension between Rougemont and Vigil; City Manager John Blair described the incident as a “horrible tragedy,” but said the city does not comment on either ongoing police investigations or personnel matters.

Gov signs tax reform bill

Taxes on social security income? Gone. Taxes on tampons? Gone. Those are just two of many impacts from House Bill 163, which Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed yesterday. The exemption on social security income—capped at $100,000 for single filers and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly—is expected to save seniors more than $84 million next year. No word on how much the gross receipts deduction for feminine hygiene products will save folks, but here’s some back story on why it’s an important development. The bill also cuts the state’s gross receipts tax rate by an eighth of a percent starting July 1, 2022, increasing to a quarter-percent reduction on July 1, 2023; it’s the first time the state’s gross receipts tax rate has been cut in 40 years. Some child tax credits, income tax rebates and other provisions also are part of the bill. “New Mexicans, like all Americans, are feeling the pressure of rising costs,” the governor said in a statement. “Coupled with the state’s robust current financial situation, there is no reason we shouldn’t be taking every action to cut costs for New Mexican seniors, families and businesses—and today, we are doing just that.” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, one of the bill’s cosponsors and an ongoing advocate for tax reform, called the bill in a statement “a critical first step towards the comprehensive tax reform New Mexico needs.”

Primary election filing deadline shows competitive races for June

Yesterday’s 5 pm deadline for political candidates in the June 7 primary election reveals a dozen open seats in the state Legislature, plus several competitive local races. State Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, faces Santa Fe County Commissioner Henry Roybal and Ryan Erik Salazar. Two Democrats hope to replace House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who is not running for re-election: His chief of staff, Reena Szczepanski, and Francisco Lopez. Four Democrats will vie to replace Santa Fe County Magistrate Judge George Anaya in Division 2: Dev Atma Singh Khalsa, John Baca, Melissa Y Mascarenas and Michael Roybal. Three Dems hope to replace Roybal on the Santa Fe County Commission: Orlando Alfonso Romero, Justin Greene and Jon Paul Romero; and two candidates will challenge District 3 County Commissioner Rudy Garcia: former Santa Fe Community College Dean Camilla Bustamante and City Councilor Chris Rivera. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza also faces an opponent in the Democratic primary, from Santa Fe Police Lt. David Webb.

Gov. Lujan Grisham calls for gas tax relief

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham yesterday joined five other Democratic governors in a letter to Congressional leaders supporting federal legislation that would suspend the federal gas tax until the end of the year. The letter, co-signed by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, says The Gas Prices Relief Act (introduced in both the US Senate and US House) would “alleviate the consumer cost of rising gas prices while protecting the federal government’s capacity to make infrastructure investments.” The latter would be accomplished, the letter says, by authorizing the US Department of Treasury to transfer general fund dollars to replace the temporarily lost revenue of a halted federal gasoline excise tax. “At a time when people are directly impacted by rising prices on everyday goods, a federal gas tax holiday is a tool in the toolbox to reduce costs for Americans, and we urge you to give every consideration to this proposed legislation,” the letter reads. The letter arrives as gas prices hit record highs, presenting, as the Washington Post notes, “a potential political headache” for Democrats. Some Republican lawmakers are calling the gas tax suspension proposal a “gimmick,” such as US Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, who tells the Wall Street Journal, “Otherwise it’s just coincidentally a reprieve between now and after the election. I think anyone can look at that and see it for what it is.”

COVID-19 by the numbers

March 8:

New cases: 177; 514,170 total cases

Top three counties: Bernalillo County with 37; San Juan County with 23; Santa Fe County with 20, 10 from the 87507 ZIP code, which ranked third in the state yesterday among ZIP codes with the most new casesFYI, rather than a usual Wednesday briefing, this week’s COVID-19 update will take place at 1 pm, Friday, March 11, New Mexico’s two-year “anniversary” for the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll bring you the details later in the week (once we have them).

Breakthrough cases: According to the most recent weekly vaccine report released yesterday, between Feb. 7-March 7, 44% of COVID-19 cases were among people who had not completed a primary vaccination series; 28.2% were among those who had completed the series but had not received a booster; and 27.8% were among those who were fully vaccinated and boosted. For hospitalizations, those figures change to 61.9%, 18.7% and 19.4%. The percentages shift to 63.9%, 18.7% and 17.4% for fatalities.

Deaths: 22, 12 of them recent, including two people from Santa Fe County: a female in her 70s with underlying conditions and a male in his 70s who had been hospitalized and had underlying conditions. Santa Fe County has now had 252 fatalities; there have been 7,010 statewide. Hospitalizations: 181

Vaccinations: 91.9% percent of adults 18 years and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 78.2% have completed their primary series; 44.9% of adults 18 years and older have had a booster shot; 12-17-year-old age group: 71.2% of people have had at least one dose and 61.3% have completed their primary series; Children ages 5-11: 38.9% have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 30.1% have completed their primary; Santa Fe County: 99% of people 18 and older have had at least one dose and 87.1% have completed their primary series.Resources: Vaccine registration; Booster registration Free at-home rapid antigen tests; Self-report a positive COVID-19 test result to the health department; COVID-19 treatment info: oral treatments Paxlovid (age 12+) and Molnupiravir (age 18+); and monoclonal antibody treatments. Toolkit for immunocompromised individuals. People seeking treatment who do not have a medical provider can call NMDOH’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-855-600-3453.

You can read all of SFR’s COVID-19 coverage here.

Listen up

Heating It Up host Cheryl Alters Jamison gets up close and personal with Dr. Field Goods owner/chef/butcher Josh Gerwin, who started out his culinary “empire” with a food truck, prior to opening his brick and mortar restaurant circa 2013. A few years later, Gerwin expanded and opened a butcher shop, where he spends most of his time these days. Gerwin has also more recently set up shop in Albuquerque’s Sawmill market. The Albuquerque outpost specializes in hamburgers (ICYMI, check out Guy Fieri’s visit to Dr. Field Goods for an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives a few years back) and home-made hot dogs, including breakfast varieties. Gerwin talks about his new ventures, as well as his culinary roots, Dr. Field Goods’ continued success and plans for the future.

Oppenheimer filming in NM

Writer and director Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated movie, Oppenheimer, has started filming in New Mexico. The state film office yesterday announced production is underway in Los Alamos (natch) and Abiquiu. Based on the 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and the late Martin J. Sherwin, the film stars Cillian Murphy as the “enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.” The “star-studded” cast includes Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife, biologist and botanist Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer; Matt Damon as General Leslie Groves Jr., director of the Manhattan Project; and Robert Downey, Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a founding commissioner of the US Atomic Energy Commission, and also includes Rami Malek, Matthew Modine, Florence Pugh and a whole lot of other people. The production will employ approximately 190 New Mexico crew members and 1,200 New Mexico background and extras. Universal Pictures will distribute Oppenheimer theatrically worldwide and will release the film in North American theaters on Friday, July 21, 2023.

Taos jam

Young Guv, aka musician Ben Cook, talks with Spin magazine about holing up with his band for a year in Taos, “writing, hiking, cooking and experiencing the paranormal,” an experience Cook sums up with: “There’s just a lot of weird shit out there.” Cook and the band called off their tour in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than return to New York from El Paso, Texas, where they were at the time, they decided to head somewhere relatively isolated: “The idea of Taos, New Mexico, an artsy, hippie-and-artist-friendly paradise a little over two-and-a-half hours northeast of Albuquerque, seemed like as good a spot as any to hunker down and figure out their next move.” Cook and members of his “power pop” band apparently lived in one of Taos’ Earthships next to a “giant pyramid,” where they “met strange local characters,” and put together the songs for the third and fourth Young Guv albums, with Guv III, due out March 11 on Run for Cover Records. Band members say listeners can expect to hear a “desert influence” on the new album. “You can kind of feel the hangover of the late ‘60s and people migrating from California towards communes and stuff in Taos and the surrounding areas,” Tony Price, who helped write and produce the album, says. “You definitely brush shoulders with that. Not just people—you can feel it in certain buildings [and] houses. The Earthship we were in was definitely a product of that generation’s mindset. We obviously have an affinity for music and movies from that era, and you could feel that.”

New MFA at IAIA

The Institute of American Indian Arts this week announced a new Master of Fine Arts program in cultural administration, known as an MFACA. The new program, which will offer two tracks—one with an emphasis on tribal museum and cultural center administration and the other in arts administration—is “the first of its kind focusing on Indigenous Arts and Cultures not only nationally, but internationally,” according to the school. “This new program builds upon strengths already known by traditional Indigenous ways of knowing, and our world-renowned Museum Studies undergraduate program, and it will train students to listen to the voice of the community, which will in turn support community and foster leadership,” IAIA President Robert Martin (Cherokee) said in a statement. IAIA alum Jessie Ryker-Crawford, a professor, and former chair of the Museum Studies Department, took the lead in designing the program and will be serving as interim chair. The Higher Learning Commission recently accredited the program; requirements and application materials are forthcoming.

A short reprieve

No snow today, the National Weather Service says. Rather, look for mostly sunny skies with a high near 45 degrees and “breezy,” with a north wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west 20 to 25 mph in the afternoon (we think that qualifies as windy). Right now, chances for snow tomorrow are high, bringing more much-needed precipitation. Speaking of which, the Santa Fe National Forest yesterday released its schedule of controlled burns for the spring.

Thanks for reading! The Word woke up and went searching for last night’s performance by the Kyiv City Ballet in Paris, after reading about their temporary residence at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Here’s the standing ovation.