Gov. Lujan Grisham Sets Big Agenda for Legislature Amid Protests

Gov. Lujan Grisham lays out agenda, interrupted by protests

New Mexico’s 30-day sessions are confined to financial matters, along with any topics designated by the governor. In her State of the State address yesterday during the first hours of the session, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham laid out an ambitious agenda that would likely challenge even a 60-day session. In addition to the package of public safety and gun control measures she previewed last week, the governor also announced initiatives relating to infrastructure, homelessness, health care and education. The infrastructure proposals include a $500 million in severance tax bonds to create a Strategic Water Supply, an initiative the governor announced last month while attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Dubai. She’s also proposing dedicating 2% of the state’s Severance Tax Permanent Fund to invest in companies developing “advanced energy technologies” such as hydrogen. Climate change activists, along with pro-Palestinian protestors, interrupted the governor’s speech three times and were escorted out while doing so. The governor stopped speaking during the disruption and said: “It takes courage for a young person” to speak up “whether it’s in the right place or not...this is a state and this is a country that protects people that don’t share your exact opinion.” During another interruption, she encouraged attendees to applaud the protesters: “The world is complicated,” Lujan Grisham said, “and far too many young people find themselves” in “a situation where it’s very hard to have clarity about the right steps forward.” The governor also said she would be pushing for an expansion of school days to 180—a controversial proposal backed by the state Public Education Department. “We are a small state with big ideas,” Lujan Grisham said in her final remarks. “We’re an expansive state packed with creative energy. A state with the courage of our convictions and the determination to see them through. More than our resources, it is our spirit that allows us to take on challenges not with half-measures and band-aids, but with action that meets the moment and builds the future.” Democratic House leaders yesterday morning also unveiled their agenda, which includes support for some, but not all, of the governor’s gun control proposals.

Domenici’s daughter running for Heinrich’s Senate seat

Nella Domenici, whose father Pete Domenici was New Mexico’s last Republican to hold a seat in the US Senate, launched a campaign today against Democrat US Sen. Martin Heinrich. Pete Domenici served six terms in the US Senate, beginning in 1972, when he was the first Republican in nearly 40 years to represent the state in the US Senate. Domenici retired in 2008 and died in 2017 at the age of 85. “My family’s roots run deep in New Mexico and it is here that I have always returned,” a statement on Nella Domenici’s campaign website reads. Domenici’s LinkedIn profile describes her as a “senior financial and operations executive, board director and philanthropist,” who currently serves as a board member on committees for Cognizant Technology Solutions and asset management company AllianceBernstein. In her website bio, Domenici says she attended Georgetown Law School and Harvard Business School. Her website praises New Mexico’s “abundant natural resources, cultural diversity, rich traditions, hard-working people, and leading national laboratories and military installations,” but says “sadly, our leaders in Washington and Santa Fe have failed us. The cost of living is up, we have a crime and drug crisis, the border is wide open, and our public education system is leaving our kids behind.” Nella Domenici is one of nine children Pete Domenici fathered; in 2013, he admitted he was the father of Adam Paul Laxalt, as the result of an affair with a lobbyist. Laxalt previously served as Nevada’s attorney general and ran unsuccessfully for that state’s governor in 2018 and for US Senate in 2022. His Laxalt relatives, in both races, denounced his candidacies and endorsed his opponents. According to Politico, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair US Sen. Steve Daines, R-MT, issued a statement backing Nella Domenici’s campaign, saying her “experience at the highest levels of business, commitment to securing our border, and passion for improving education make her a strong candidate to flip this seat.”

Court: Tribes have jurisdiction over casino lawsuits

Tribal courts have authority over lawsuits brought by visitors to tribal casinos, the New Mexico Supreme Court ruled yesterday. That ruling stemmed from a case in which an employee of an electrical company and his wife sought damages from an injury he sustained at Buffalo Thunder in 2014 when a loading dock door struck his head. As explained in a news release from the courts, a district court dismissed the lawsuit in 2017 for lack of jurisdiction, and the couple appealed. When the Court of Appeals reversed the district court, Buffalo Thunder asked the state Supreme Court to review the decision. The Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals’ decision and ordered the lower court to dismiss the lawsuit. In the court’s opinion by Chief Justice C. Shannon Bacon, the justices determined “under contract law the jurisdiction shifting of claims to state court ended because federal court rulings in two cases involving New Mexico Indian tribes triggered the termination clause” in a section of the gaming compacts with tribal entities. Those two cases involved a personal injury claim regarding the overserving of alcohol at a casino at the Pueblo of Santa Ana and a slip-and-fall lawsuit brought by a visitor to a Navajo Nation casino in San Juan County. Lawyer Richard Hughes, who filed a brief on behalf of Santa Ana and Santa Clara pueblos, tells the Associated Press yesterday’s ruling comes after to years of “fighting state court jurisdiction over these cases…so it’s the end of a long struggle to keep state courts out of determining tribal affairs.”

Waldorf plans second act as charter school

Following its unexpected closure last summer and amidst negotiations with Santa Fe Prep to sell a portion of its campus, the former Waldorf School also is now trying to become a charter school. The Waldorf Board of Trustees sent a notice of intent to the Public Education Department Jan. 9 to apply to become a public charter school, which would be renamed Sangre de Cristo Public Waldorf School. Next, a full application must be submitted to the state’s Charter Schools Division by July 1, and state officials would next decide by Sept. 1 whether to approve the application. Board Trustee Jayita Sahni tells SFR in an emailed statement the board’s “first priority” is refunding “tuition to our families through the sale of the high school parcel” and says it has made “made some progress on that front in recent days and have communicated this to our community.” At the same time, the statement notes, the board “has also started the process of exploring a re-emergence of Waldorf education in Santa Fe. We have recently welcomed some new board members who are actively engaged in figuring out what that re-emergence looks like.” In its notice of intent, the board says it expects a charter version of Waldorf “to draw students” from all five ZIP codes in Santa Fe County as well as from surrounding communities in Northern New Mexico, rural communities and tribal lands, with a projected enrollment of 275 students based on Waldorf’s highest enrollment record from the 2006-2007 school year.

Listen up

Retired reporter Steve Terrell provides today’s entry in the 2024 Morning Word Playlist Project. And you’re in luck because he also hosts KSFR’s Terrell’s Sound World on Sunday nights so you can find even more music from him each week. Submit your own five-song playlist (any genre from any era) here.

1.”Try It” by The Standells: “These guys were so much more than just ‘Dirty Water.’ These guys even appeared on The Munsters to sing a Beatles song.”

2. “Don’t Try It” by Sam the Sham & The Pharaohs. “These guys were so much more than just ‘Wooly Bully.’ This band combined Memphis soul, the ‘60s garage rock sound of the their era, plus a little touch of Tex Mex.”

3. “Pretty Big Mouth” by Count Five: “These guys were so much more than ‘Psychotic Reaction’…”

4. “I Wanna Come Back (From the World of LSD)” by Fe Fi Four Plus 2: “Fuzzed-out 1967 psychedelia from Santa Fe!”

5. “96 Tears” by Question Mark & The Mysterians: “I’m breaking my own rule here by selecting this band’s biggest hit. But I was there in New York in 2010 when the band (all original members!) did their signature tune and were joined on stage by the one and only Ronnie Spector.”

NM-filmed body-building film heads to Sundance

The forthcoming filmed-in-New-Mexico movie Love Lies Bleeding is among the 20 anticipated films fro the 2024 Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 18-28), Rolling Stone magazine says. The magazine describes the movie as “the hot ticket” at this year’s Sundance, and describes “Rose Glass’s follow-up to her brilliant 2019 debut, Saint Maud” as “a torrid tale of love, sex, and crime, possibly in that order.” Variety magazine reports this week Love Lies Bleeding was also just added to the Berlin Film Festival’s Special lineup (Feb. 15-25). The film completed principal photography in Albuquerque in August 2022, employing approximately 150 New Mexico crew members, 25 New Mexico principal actors and about 600 New Mexico background talent. At the time, the producers, in a state Film Office news release, said they were “thrilled” to have the state as a “cinematic backdrop,” noting that New Mexico “is a scenically vibrant and culturally rich southwestern state and an ideal place to center our film.” As for the film, it’s described as “a romance fueled by ego, desire and the American Dream.” The plot, via Rolling Stone: “Lou (Kristen Stewart) runs a gym in New Mexico and falls hard for Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a bodybuilder hoping to make it big on the competitive circuit in Las Vegas. Their romance is threatened by the fact that Lou’s dad (Ed Harris) has connections to the underworld, which ends up dragging the couple into some dangerous situations.” Stewart spoke recently with Variety about the film and how she became a “queer trailblazer.” The movie releases March 8; watch the trailer (with some distinctively New Mexico scenery) here.

Gooped in NM

According to CNN, it’s not too late to book a winter vacation if you’ve “had enough of the cold weather.” Its top list of the 10 best spots for a last-minute getaway includes Santa Fe where, at the moment, it’s 19 degrees. No matter! CNN recommends coming here for “spiritual and cultural immersion,” and notes winter as a good time to beat the crowds. The aforementioned cultural immersion is available at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and on Canyon Road; day trips to any of the Eight Northern Pueblos “provide a glimpse into the Native American traditions that are ingrained in the area” and presumably with that glimpse some level of “spiritual immersion.” CNN recommends staying at La Fonda while visiting Santa Fe for a winter getaway. But not so fast! Thrillist provides a list of Vrbo rental homes that now come stocked with free Goop products. Kind of. According to Thrillist, Goop partnered with Vrbo and “handpicked 15 favorite vacation rentals across the country and stocked each of them with $500 or more of complimentary Goop products.” Last week, special bookings launched for travel dates in March wherein, “the first three bookings” will receive Goop products when they arrive. And yes, one of those favorite rentals is in Santa Fe. The 15 properties are divided into categories for romantic, family and girls’ getaways. “An adobe with a cedar hot tub” on Canyon Road made the cut for a romantic getaway. As of press time, the $450-per-night rental still had March availability, but we were unable to ascertain whether the free Goop products remained available (in fairness, we made almost no effort to do so). Says Thrillist: “The homes will each have Goop products tailored to each type of trip.”

Catch the sun

The National Weather Service forecasts a sunny day, with a high temperature near 42 degrees and north wind 10 to 15 mph becoming west in the afternoon..

Thanks for reading! Had she seen it in time, the Word would have included Niecy Nash-Betts’s Emmy acceptance speech yesterday, but better late than never.