Free Republic

Group: Topless taboo is sexistCity says shirtless protest can skirt ordinances Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican 8/22/2008 - 8/23/08 An organization that believes in extraterrestrials and claims to have cloned the world's first human wants women to bare their breasts in public today. They'll get no legal arguments from the city of Santa Fe. The Raelian Movement was founded by a sports-car journalist named Claude Vorihon who claims to have been visited by space aliens near Clermont-Ferrand, France, in 1973. Vorihon, who subsequently changed his name to Rael, said the aliens — 3-feet tall with pale-green skin, almond-shaped eyes...

Obstructed mountain views, increased traffic and parking headaches are just a few of the issues neighbors have with a proposed transit-oriented development near Zia Road and St. Francis Drive. Developer SF Brown faced a somewhat hostile crowd at the library of Capshaw Middle School during an early neighborhood-notification meeting Wednesday night. The local firm wants to spend the next 10-plus years building offices, retail space and rental condominiums on the 20 acres it owns on all sides of the intersection of Zia Road with Galisteo Road — where the state has promised to stop commuter trains. But for a number...

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings. Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said. Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city attorney is now checking to see if...

Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings. Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said. Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city...

The largest Gunnison's prairie dogs measure little more than 14 inches long and weigh about as much as a pineapple. Despite their lack of stature, the diminutive critters are posing an obstacle to the $400 million Rail Runner commuter train project as it moves toward Santa Fe. Representatives of several conservation groups testified at a Tuesday public meeting on the Rail Runner that prairie dog colonies along the Interstate 25 median have already been obliterated by state contractors working on the train route. "I'm very concerned about the impact prairie dogs have already suffered," said Nicole Rosemarino, conservation director for...

Governor Richardson is ordering the state Health Department to move ahead with planning of a medical marijuana program. That’s despite the agency’s worries about possible federal prosecution. The department announced earlier this week it would not implement provisions of the law that call for the agency to oversee the production and distribution of marijuana ...

Recent sexual assaults on women in Santa Fe have sounded an alarm in the community. Authorities have pledged to solve the cases and now they are taking their investigation one step further... The Santa Fe County Sheriff's office paid for a full page ad ... Some quick tips include discouraging an attacker by telling him you have a venereal disease or are menstruating. Another tip: keep a whistle on you and try to make as much noise as possible to attract attention. But some women aren't waiting around for advice or taking any chances -- they're buying weapons. Gun sales...

The Santa Fe Police Department is looking at the possibility of recruiting Mexican nationals to fill vacancies on the city police force, say sergeants in charge of training and recruiting. Sgts. Gillian Alessio and Marvin Paulk told the city's Public Safety Committee on Tuesday that they are trying to think outside the box to fill 20 vacancies on the 155-person force. New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy regulations currently prohibit noncitizens from serving as police officers, Police Chief Eric Johnson said later. Alessio told the city panel: ``Every day, we get approached by young men and women from Mexico who are...

<p>Three CD players hidden under a cathedral's pews blared sexually explicit language in the middle of an Ash Wednesday Mass, leading a bomb squad to detonate two of the devices.</p>

SANTA FE— A freeway collision that killed five members of a Las Vegas, N.M., family claimed a sixth victim Sunday— the drunken driver who hit them head-on. A blood test drawn at the University of New Mexico hospital showed that driver Dana Papst had a blood-alcohol content of 0.32 percent, four times the state's presumed level of intoxication, Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano said. Records show Papst had been arrested for DWI at least five times in Colorado, Solano said. Papst, 44, of Tesuque, crashed into the Gonzales family's minivan shortly after 8 p.m. Saturday on I-25 just north...

Having soaked up just about every last bit of limelight from the CIA leak scandal, former GOP-appointed Ambassador Joe Wilson is burning up the campaign trail on behalf of Democrats while apparently planning a full-time move away from Washington, D.C., ROLL CALL reports Wilson and his wife, Valerie Plame Wilson — who was famously outed as a CIA operative by columnist Robert Novak — have told friends that they are ready to quit Washington. One source tell ROLL'S Mary Ann Akers, the Wilsons, the parents of 6-year-old twins, have “settled on” Santa Fe, N.M. "We have entertained for a while...

DETAILS: Washington's high-security-clearance fun couple may not be much longer for this town. Three years after he got into a WMD scrap with the White House and she was unmasked as a spy, the couple are selling their home in D.C.'s Foxhall neighborhood. The five-bedroom Colonial (which they bought new in '98 for $735K) boasts 10-foot ceilings and stunning monument views. Listed for the first time last week at $2.2 million, the price has already dropped slightly, according to their agent's Web listings.

DENVER (CNS) -- A journey that began last year in Mexico and will end in Orlando, Fla., in August made Denver its latest stop May 5-7. A silver cross containing relics of six of the 25 Mexican martyrs canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000 has been traveling under the auspices of the Knights of Columbus. Each of the six -- Sts. Pedro de Jesus Maldonado, Luis Batis Sainz, Jose Maria Robles Hurtado, Mateo Correa Megallanes, Miguel del la Mora de la Mora and Rodrigo Aguilar Aleman -- was a priest and a member of the Knights of Columbus....

Navy Junior ROTC cadets say it’s not uncommon to be called “Nazis� or “baby killers� as they walk the hallways of Santa Fe High School. Their classmates are largely anti-military , and school officials discourage students from participating in the program, they say. “We’re not welcome here,� Cadet Marin Espinoza said. He said ROTC members are routinely harassed by other students who get especially impolite before ROTC events. On Saturday, cadets discovered what they called the latest example of that hostility. The unit’s 20 drill rifles and only Navy sword were stolen just before a drill competition in Farmington. In...

Fifteen-year-old Chelsey Campbell will take your prayers and well wishes, but you can keep your pity. She doesn’t want it. The former Santa Fe High School cheerleader and softball player would rather focus on trying out for cheerleading again in March, instead of the cancer that has invaded her lungs, liver, pancreas and spine. She’s more interested in defying the odds doctors give people with that kind of cancer — a 1 in 10 chance — than in feeling sorry for herself. “When you think of cancer, you think of death, but I don’t,” said Campbell. “I’m going to live...

Taos County administrators plan to talk next week to one of their Adult Detention Center officers — an unidentified employee who released an inmate Dec. 22 without first checking his paperwork. Jerry Trujillo, who is now at large, was arrested Dec. 12 by Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Wardlow on three counts of burglary, one count of larceny and two counts of criminal damage to property. Trujillo was being held pending a preliminary hearing scheduled Dec. 23. He did not attend that hearing. There are two open warrants against Trujillo. Victor Robles, one of two assistant county managers, did not know what...

Sorry, Bugs Bunny, you had it right the first time. Don't take that left turn at Albuquerque, or you might end up as hypocritical as the hometown Tribune newspaper. Their one-sided talk radio coverage would have the Warner Bros. character asking, "what's up, doc?" While quick to attack Rush Limbaugh and "right wing" talk radio this weekend, the Tribune has to date apparently said nothing about Air America's sleazy funding scandal, where $875,000 in taxpayer funds seem to have been diverted from an inner-city community center, to the liberal radio network. That's despite the existence of a local Air America...

<p>SANTA FE -- Gov. Bill Richardson says he didn't make a final decision to declare a state of emergency on the New Mexico border until after flying over the area by helicopter.</p> <p>It was not so much what he saw on that flight over the border area near Columbus that persuaded him to act, but what he didn't see.</p>

A Los Alamos whistleblower scheduled to testify before congress later this month is now in the hospital, according to news reports. Auditor Tommy Hook was brutally beaten by three or four anonymous assailants who allegedly ordered him to keep quiet. On Saturday night, Hook went to a Santa Fe bar ostensibly to meet a person claiming to be a fellow Los Alamos whistleblower that called that night. When the person did not show, Hook left the bar after consuming two drinks. Whistleblowing auditor Tommy Hook before and after the beating. (CBS News photos) In the parking lot, he was yanked...

An Albuquerque couple says Santa Fe police roughed them up on their wedding night. Alexandra and Terry Claus had just gotten married at an Albuquerque public library and were driving to a lodge for their honeymoon when Santa Fe police pulled them over. Terry Claus said police accused him of driving drunk, but he passed a field sobriety test and wasn’t arrested or ticketed. “And they said this is your wedding gift from us, that we’re not taking you to jail,” he said. “I wasn’t even intoxicated or anything.” So, Alexandra Claus said, she broke down. “The policemen didn’t seem...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - This postcard-pretty tourist town peppered with art galleries, trendy restaurants and turquoise jewelry shops calls itself "The City Different" in recognition of its quirkiness, diverse population and progressive politics. But ever since a 21-year-old man was beaten unconscious by a group of men allegedly yelling anti-gay slurs, some people are wondering whether the city isn't a little naive about its self-image. Amyel Oliveros, a gay 17-year-old, said he thinks twice about the route he takes home from school and worries that his plaid scarf might clue in strangers to his sexuality. "I thought for a...

This past Friday, Santa Fe City Councilman Dave Pfeffer went to the county courthouse to change his party affiliation from "Democrat" to "Republican". Below is a copy of the remarks he made before doing so: ON BECOMING A REPUBLICAN Why a City Councilor leaves the Democratic Party 10:00AM, Friday, March 4, 2005 Santa Fe County Courthouse, 102 Grant Avenue, Santa Fe, New Mexico Thank you all for coming out this morning. Before we go inside the courthouse, I’d like to make a brief statement. Although a Democrat, I was elected to the nonpartisan Santa Fe City Council three years ago...

City Councilor David Pfeffer, a Democrat who angered members of his party and delighted local Republicans by endorsing and campaigning for President Bush in last year’s election, will complete his break with his party today. Pfeffer, who represents the northside District 1, said Thursday that he will change his party registration today at the Santa Fe County Courthouse . “The Democratic Party used to be the party of the people, the party of minorities, the party of people like myself,” Pfeffer told a reporter. David Pfeffer City councilor says the Democratic Party used to be the party of the people,...

With the stroke of a pen, City Councilor David Pfeffer switched sides Friday, leaving his Democratic Party colleagues behind and joining the GOP. "People tell me that, after about 30 years in Santa Fe, I must have seen a lot of changes. Well, I have," Pfeffer, reading from a prepared statement, said Friday during a press conference outside the Santa Fe County office building where he officially switched parties. "I've seen good folks go from acceptance of one's differences to intolerance; from respect to disdain; from peacefully getting along to outright hatred; from multicultural coexistence to profound elitism; from civilized...

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - Santa Fe's "toilet tax," designed to offset water use by new businesses in the desert town, has some businesses wanting to flush the system entirely. Two years ago, the city passed a law requiring new businesses to install low-volume toilets, which use 1.6 gallons of water per flush as opposed to conventional toilets, which use 3.6 gallons. Depending upon the size of the business and its potential water use, the city often makes owners buy $350 "credits" that pay for the installation of low-water-use toilets in other parts of the city, such as older...

WASHINGTON, DC – Santa Fe City Councilman David Pfeffer, a Democrat for Bush, today issued the following statement: “Democrats across New Mexico are supporting President Bush because of his clear agenda for a safer world and a more hopeful America. President Bush has nearly tripled the amount of homeland security funding since taking office and federal funding for state and local first responders is up 680 percent since 2001. John Kerry’s troubling pre-9/11 approach to the War on Terror stands in stark contrast to the President’s forward-looking strategy of bringing the fight to the enemy. New Mexico voters aren’t going...

SANTA FE (AP) - Santa Fe police say an anti-war protest turned physical at a site where the state Department of Transportation is considering banning demonstrations. The scuffle broke out Friday between an anti-war protester and the sole pro-Bush protester on a traffic island at a busy intersection. Robert DiGiulio, who carried a sign comparing President Bush to a Nazi, says Richard Corrow hit him in the face and knocked him out of his wheelchair. But Corrow, whose sign offered a $1,000 reward to anyone who can prove Bush lied about Iraq, says DiGuilio started it by screaming at him...

After years of constant turnover, Optical Insights had had enough of the "Santa Fe Shuffle." Citing increasing difficulty hiring, training and retaining good employees in the City Different, the optical instrument firm closed its doors June 25 and moved to Tucson. Observant readers may have noticed the firm, which in 2003 appeared in the top position on the Flying 40, an annual list of the state's fastest-growing tech companies, wasn't on this year's list at all. "We struggled for many years dealing with the work-force issues in Santa Fe, and it got to a point where we couldn't find a...

Two Chinese diplomats, away from their Los Angeles consulate improperly, recently sped their vehicle past a Los Alamos National Lab guard post near classified facilities in what United States officials think was ian intelligence mission, the Washington Times has learned.The diplomats, identified as Hua Yu and Bo Lai, were on an intelligence mission that is raising new worries of Chinese nuclear spying against the United States, according to US officials familiar with the incident.Pajarito Road is the site of two sensitive facilities. One is the Critical Assembly Facility known as Technical Area 18, the other is the Plutonium Reasearch facility,...

SANTA FE— Count alien abduction as yet another way the capital city upholds its rep as the City Different. Massachusetts filmmaker Laurel Chiten said she was "blown away" in December when maybe as much as half of a standing-room-only Santa Fe audience who saw her film "Touched" raised their hands to say they'd had personal interaction with aliens from other worlds. "Touched" is a documentary about people who say they have experienced alien abduction and contact. It was screened at the Santa Fe Film Festival in December with sold-out showings. "I was kind of blown away. ... The film really...

Gay? Gray? How about Santa Fe? Construction will begin in a few months in Santa Fe on a retirement and assisted living community for gay and lesbian seniors, developers said. The project's organizers think the high desert plains and the city's welcoming attitude will turn the northern New Mexico area into a perfect spot for gay and lesbian seniors who want to spend their golden years around others who understand their sexual orientation. "Ever since gay people started coming out of the closet in the 1970s, they have been talking about what to do when they get old. Well, we're...

David Bowser for The New York Times The sculptor John Sherrill Houser standing beside the head of the horse that the explorer Don Juan de Oñate will ride in a monument planned for El Paso. Some historians dispute savageries attributed to Oñate. SANTA FE, N.M. — Four hundred years after he colonized what is now New Mexico for Spain, Don Juan de Oñate (half of him, anyway) lies here with scattered pieces of his horse as if dismembered on a battlefield of titans. But by the end of next year, if all goes according to plan, this helmeted giant will...

Santa Fe Living Wage Put On Hold Judge Issues Temporary Injunction Against Increase POSTED: 7:17 PM MST December 18, 2003 SANTA FE, N.M. -- The living wage proposal for Santa Fe won't be taking effect in January, after all. Judge Daniel Sanchez Thursday granted a preliminary injunction against the controversial city ordinance. It would have raised the minimum wage in Santa Fe from $5.15 an hour to $8.50 an hour Jan. 1. The injunction delays the new ordinance only until the issue can be permanently resolved in a court. A group of business owners is suing the city to...

Thursday, July 31, 2003 Offenders Sentenced to Tai Chi By Jeremy Pawloski Journal Staff Writer     Santa Fe Municipal Court might be the last place you would expect to find offenders meditating with needles in their foreheads amid candles and mood music as they learn to balance their chi.     But this is Santa Fe.     And it's where Municipal Judge Frances Gallegos has placed offenders enrolled in her new alternative sentencing program— a tai chi class complete with a Japanese-style tea service and meditation aided by acupuncture.     Instructor Mark De Francis, a doctor of oriental medicine who works...

This morning the am radio talk guy said that the dance performance of New Mexico kids which Laura Bush will attend is the target of protestors who hate the Bush presidency. They are attacking the organization which is putting on the production...(a good noble art loving group who is doing something for kids) Swastikas have been sent and the woman who heads up the organization has been told that she has the blood of innocent Iraqi children on her hands ... This raises the question in the Santa Fe liberal community whether to be nice to the children doing art...

SANTA FE — First lady Laura Bush on Friday smiled and clapped her way through a rollicking children's dance performance she called "inspiring and uplifting." Celebrating the new home of the National Dance Institute of New Mexico, 500 youngsters — from tots to teenagers — stomped and strutted and jumped and wiggled to a rousing musical score. "I'd like to congratulate every one of you for being so terrific. . . . I think you all are a real inspiration," Mrs. Bush told the children, who gathered on the stage after the performance. Blocks away, scores of people gathered to...

Group of peace activists agrees not to protest when first lady Laura Bush attends a children’s dance recital this week in Santa Fe Fourth- and fifth-grade students from Turquoise Trail Elementary School practice their parts in the upcoming Jo Kid for President on Tuesday at the National Dance Institute of New Mexico. First lady Laura Bush will attend a performance Friday. - Wes Pope | The New Mexican Ever since word got out in March that first lady Laura Bush might attend the gala grand opening of the National Dance Institute Dance Barns, the nonprofit organization has been overwhelmed with...

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- For more than two decades, artist Lynda Feman has watched locals struggle to make ends meet while money rolled into this picturesque resort that caters to the champagne tastes of tourists. Santa Fe is impossible," said Feman, peddling her ceramic artwork on Santa Fe Plaza. "I've lived here for 25 years and I'm maxed out. It needs to change." The frustration has led to a fight pitting some of Santa Fe's biggest employers against its poorest residents over the nation's most sweeping "living wage" ordinance. Approved last month during a heated meeting of the City...