Judge Lets Gov. Lujan Grisham Gun Ban Stand—for Now

Gun ban at parks, playgrounds remains—for now

US District Judge David Urias yesterday rejected requests to block Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s current executive order banning weapons from parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. The governor renewed the order last Friday through Nov. 3. Urias previously had granted on Sept. 13 a temporary restraining order of broader restrictions on weapons she had enacted, which prompted an update that narrowed the measures. Urias ruled that while two of the defendants had standing to challenge the portion of the order as it related to parks, they lacked standing to request injunctive relief for playgrounds, and other plaintiffs lacked standing in both instances. “There is no question that the Second Amendment protects the possession and carrying of firearms for self-defense in the home and in public,” Urias writes, “but, as the Supreme Court has explained, it is not absolute.” The US Supreme Court, the decision continues, has recognized “schools as sensitive places” and case law has already established the connection between schools and playgrounds. As such, Urias concludes, the plaintiffs—who include a variety of pro-gun organizations and individuals—”have not proved a substantial likelihood of success on the merits regarding their challenge to the temporary restriction of firearms on playgrounds.” In response to the ruling, the governor last night issued a statement describing herself “pleased” by Urias’ decision: “Just as in schools, our children deserve to learn and play without fear,” she said. “Our families need to know that their safety is our priority.” While Urias blocked a restraining order, the legal challenges to the order remain pending.

Council approves water sale to country club

Santa Fe city councilors last night unanimously approved the sale of potable water to Santa Fe Country Club following problems in the spring with the city’s sewage plant. As described in a recent memo from Public Utilities Director John Dupuis to City Manager John Blair, problems with the “biological treatment process” at the Paseo Real Water Reclamation Facility led to “elevated levels of bacteria,” in the treated wastewater sent to the country club, along with the Municipal Recreation Complex and the Marty Sanchez Golf Course. All three facilities used potable water for irrigation over the summer and plan to continue to do so until grass goes dormant in mid-October or November, Dupuis told the council at its meeting last night. While the effluent had been delivered to the club for free under a prior agreement, city policy requires officials to charge for potable water use. While District 1 Councilor Renee Villarreal lamented the situation, saying she didn’t want “potable water to be irrigating our golf courses if we can avoid that.” District 2 Councilor Sig Lindell noted the city already is in mediation over litigation it filed against the country club last year. “I don’t want us to be in another situation where we’re headed toward court,” Lindell said. “It’s not good for anybody.”

La Familia makes cuts; US Sen. Luján discusses health care

La Familia Medical Center will be making approximately $2 million in cuts and laying off 17 people right away in response to increased costs, its chief development officer tells the Santa Fe New Mexican. Those cuts and layoffs won’t include its 25 medical, dental and behavioral health care providers, according to the story, but salaried employees will take either a 10% pay cut or can work 10% less. The news follows the center’s previous hiring freeze, policy changes and employee unionization. Meanwhile, this week, Albuquerque-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Iowa-based UnityPoint Health announced they will no longer be pursuing a partnership. “Our goal for this partnership was to strengthen local, not-for-profit healthcare in the face of mounting cost pressures across the industry,” Presbyterian Health CEO Dale Maxwell said in a statement. “We will continue to explore new ways to address these structural shifts in healthcare so we can invest in clinical innovation and our workforce. We will remain focused on building a sustainable path forward to serve New Mexicans for generations to come.” US Sen. Ben Ray Luján toured Presbyterian Medical Services’ new Santa Fe Southside clinic yesterday, and held discussions throughout the day on health care challenges in the state, such as staffing. PMS Director of Legislative Affairs Larry Martinez says despite its recruiting work, it primarily relies on nurse practitioners and physician assistants due to the national shortage of doctors and physicians, with behavioral health practitioners “probably the most critical area in terms of shortage.”

Common Cause gives NM a “B” for redistricting

Common Cause New Mexico, self-described as the “leading anti-gerrymandering group,” yesterday delivered a “B” grade to the state for its redistricting process. New Mexico’s “above average grade” came as the organization released a report card on all 50 states’ efforts. The report, Common Cause says, “evaluates public access, outreach and education in each state based on an analysis of more than 120 detailed surveys and more than 60 interviews.” In the case of New Mexico, the state used, for the first time, a Citizen Redistricting Committee that “produced an overall accessible, and participatory process.” (The state Republican Party currently has a pending appeal over a recent ruling in Democrats’ favor in a lawsuit alleging gerrymandering in the 2nd Congressional District.) The report on New Mexico’s process advocates for an “independent, representative redistricting commission,” given that New Mexico’s functions as an advisory committee and ultimate decision-making still lies with the Legislature. “Redistricting is only successful when we the people have influence over our own voting districts,” Common Cause New Mexico Policy Director Mason Graham said in a statement. “Redistricting determines the kind of leaders we elect, and how well they represent our views in Santa Fe and Washington. New Mexico earned an above-average score, but there is still more work to be done. We must ensure that in the next redistricting cycle, our redistricting commission is truly independent and free from political influence.”

Listen up

State government continues to grapple with staffing shortages two years after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the most recent episode of New Mexico In Focus, KUNM reporter and first-time New Mexico in Focus correspondent Nash Jones asks panelists to delve into the scope of the problem, and also discuss its impact on residents and potential solutions. Guests include: New Mexico State Personnel Office Acting Director Dylan Lange; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 18 President Casey Padilla; Patricia Tafoya-Harris, acting director of Human Resources for the City of Albuquerque; and New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions Secretary Sarita Nair.

Judy Chicago’s first NY retrospective

ArtNews interviews New Mexico-based “feminist art icon” Judy Chicago about her new retrospective, Herstory, opening today at the New Museum in New York (through Jan. 14). Described as “the first comprehensive New York museum survey” of Chicago’s work, spanning her 60-year career and taking over three floors of the museum, the show includes an “exhibition-within-the-exhibition,” titled “The City of Ladies,” which will place Chicago’s work in conversation with “other women across centuries in a unique Fourth Floor installation.” Chicago tells ArtNews working with New Museum Artistic Director Massimiliano Gioni on the retrospective helped her clarify why she has been marginalized in her career. “Most people accept the male-centered paradigm as a universal art history,” Chicago says. “It is not. It is an exclusionary art history that has not only omitted women but also artists of color, nonbinary artists, trans artists, and regional artists.” While she can’t “imagine a male artist allowing the work of 80 or 90 other male artists to be in their retrospective,” Chicago says, “Gioni is providing an entire historic context for my work that male artists take for granted and women artists often want to be integrated into.” Chicago and Gioni will be in conversation at a 6:30 pm EST event at a sold-out event at the museum today, which will be livestreamed on the museum’s YouTube channel (4:30 pm MST).

Art for freedom

The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park opening in Montgomery, Alabama early next year will include works by New Mexico artists, the New York Times reports. The park, described on its website as a “17-acre site along the very river where tens of thousands of enslaved people were trafficked,” will include “breathtaking art and original artifacts” that “invite an immersive, interactive journey and provide a unique view into the lives of enslaved people.” The park’s “centerpiece,” the Times describes, will be “a new national monument commemorating freedom: a 43-foot-tall, 150-foot-long wall, angled like an open book and inscribed with more than 120,000 distinct surnames documented in the 1870 census that were chosen by four million Black people emancipated after the Civil War.” Sculptor Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) will have a site-specific commission near the start of the ground’s route that will “pay homage to the site’s Indigenous history.” Artist Nikesha Breeze, co-founder of Northern New Mexico’s Earthseed Black Arts Alliance, says she received a call last year from the Montgomery, Alabama-based human rights organization Equal Justice Initiative, which spearheaded the project, asking if she could recreate her piece “108 Death Masks” as an outdoor installation (read SFR’s coverage of the piece from its 2021 exhibition at Santa Fe’s form & concept gallery). “If there’s anywhere in the world I would want this work to be, it’s part of this narrative with E.J.I.,” Breeze tells the Times. “They’ve gone so far further than anyone in collecting and researching and presenting this story.” The ceramic faces, the story notes, “will be installed at eye level in a single 80-foot line on a wall that visitors will pass just before reaching the monument.”

Sweater weather

The National Weather Service forecasts a windy, sunny day with a high temperature near 63 degrees and west wind 15 to 20 mph increasing to 25 to 30 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 45 mph. As such, NWS has Santa Fe under both a wind advisory and a red flag warning through 7 pm. Tonight: Bring in the plants and the pets, as a freeze warning is in effect from 4 am to 9 am Friday.

Thanks for reading! The Word apparently missed #NationalFossilDay yesterday, but thinks this Paul Noth cartoon remains funny today.