 Rio Grande water released from Caballo Dam on June 1, 2022. The water travels downstream for several days to reach the riverbed running through El Paso, Texas. Releases used to come in March or April, but with less water flowing downstream, managers now wait until nearly the middle of the growing season. (Photo by Diana Cervantes for Source NM) The new special master for the Rio Grande water fight between Texas and New Mexico is asking for an update from all the parties in a scheduled Oct. 23 hearing in Denver.
The U.S. Supreme Court appointed a new judge to supervise the case in July, following the high court’s June ruling that dismissed a potential deal to end a decade of litigation between New Mexico and Texas. Special masters act as a trial judge in cases. They decide issues and write reports to inform the U.S. Supreme Court’s ultimate opinions in a case. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith, appointed by the Bush administration, ordered the parties on Sept. 9 to present the history of the case and suggest the next steps in the resolution. Whether the case goes to trial or back to the negotiation table remains to be seen. The case is officially called Original No. 141 Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado. Colorado is tangential to the lawsuit. The dispute is primarily between Texas and New Mexico. In a 2013 complaint, Texas alleged that years of pumping in New Mexico below Elephant Butte Reservoir took Rio Grande owed to Texas. That would violate the 85-year-old document — a compact from 1939 — that governs how Rio Grande water is split between Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. The Rio Grande Compact also covers treaty obligations to Mexico, and agreements to provide water to regional irrigation districts. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the federal government to join the case. Justices unanimously accepted the federal government’s arguments that New Mexico groundwater pumping threatened the treaty and irrigation water deliveries. After one half of a trial and nearly a year of negotiations, the states — Colorado, Texas and New Mexico — put forward an eleventh-hour deal to end the lawsuit, which included adding a river gage at the Texas-New Mexico border. Attorneys for the federal government and the regional irrigation districts objected to the deal, arguing it added unfair requirements and was void without their agreement. A previous special master recommended the U.S. Supreme Court accept the states’ deal over the federal government’s objections. But in June, the high court narrowly sided with the federal government rejecting the deal, ruling in a 5-4 opinion that the case should continue.
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By Brian Bondy Images courtesy of Jim J and BD Bondy Why, you might ask, would you want to go rock collecting in the dark. Because we were looking for rocks that fluoresce. Last night Carol and I and our friends Jim & Nada went for a pic-nic dinner past La Madera, towards Petaca. We stopped at the side of the road and had dinner, waited for the sun to set, and then went down the hillside to look for rocks. Some rocks you can see in the light are interesting, small geodes with crystals inside, or a banded quartz rock that is pretty. Some rocks though, don’t look particularly interesting during the day, but under UV light, they fluoresce brightly, fiery reds, yellows and purples. Some can be quite beautiful, spectacular even, under the right light.
We had special black light flashlights, and we walked around in the dark shining our UV lights on the ground. Some rocks really light up well, and Jim’s light was a different wavelength than mine. Jim’s light was fantastic and lit up some of the rocks as if they had a fire inside them. We spent about about 45 minutes looking around that area before moving to another hillside along the road. This time the hillside went up. Shining the flashlights on the hillside lit up some bright veins of calcite in the wall. On the ground were some wonderfully bright pieces that lit up yellow, white and blue. While walking along the road something different lit up brightly.  Scorpion Picture
It looks ominous, but it was pretty small, only about an inch long, but plain as can be. I knew scorpions fluoresced as I was in an Ace Hardware in Phoenix several years back and they were selling UV flashlight for that purpose. They even had a tank with a couple of scorpions inside that you could try the flashlights out. After about a half hour at this site it was time to go home. On the way back we wondered at every hillside and road cut, what a UV flashlight would show. I can’t wait to go out again. Let it all hang out By Zach Hively I hate to admit this, but I must, in hopes of getting a reduction on my car insurance rates: I am finally an adult. Perhaps this happens to many of us who survive adolescence. How many? No one knows—because of the stigmas surrounding adulthood, we cannot get accurate reporting of the numbers. Also, we cannot even agree on the medical causes that contribute to adulthood. Clearly it is not age-related. Personally? I thought for years that adulthood happened when you woke up one winter’s morn and discovered that you hate snow  Snow dog for the clicks Pops used to tell me that someday I’d stop loving snow days. He usually said this after shoveling a 300-foot stretch of hill at 5 a.m. and coming back inside to discover me still in bed. His 401(k) did not get snow days, although we’ve since learned it fluctuates according to Ukraine’s sovereignty status. Turns out, we know even less about retirement accounts than we do about adulthood. I accordingly became a staunch environmentalist purely so I could continue loving snow while also remaining unemployed enough to stay home. But we all have our snow, our Waterloo, our downfall. I imagine grocery shopping turns some people into adults. Voting an entire ballot by party. Making small talk about Fridays and Mondays, and failing to even snigger at comments like “Happy hump day!”—these are definite culprits. Granted, there is some liminal space where one ceases to be a child yet still fends off adulthood. I don’t like to call a person in this space a man-child, because it sounds so demeaning and also because man-children don’t qualify for their very own extended warranties. Yet it is a space where a person can earn an advanced degree while also continuing to watch animated Star Wars shows. That place is my home.  Big boy man-child, ca. 2005 Was. Was my home. I still stream Rebels while folding last month’s laundry because I need the dryer for this month’s laundry. It’s different now, though. Something inside me has given way—like an avalanche in my chest, made of a snow-substitute that, when it let go, watershedded me from blissful non-adulthood to … whatever all this crap is. Now before I get nasty letters for digging on adulthood, let me say: adults are human beings too. I can handle being an adult. It’s not a great as skipping straight to old-manhood, when you get extra pockets for candy and people shovel your snow for you. But it has its perks. Namely this: when one’s student loan payments are about to resume—when we’re perpetually on the very real brink of another world war—when people continue to misinterpret the idea of living in a society—when The Book of Boba Fett concludes without ever developing a semblance of plot and The Acolyte gets cancelled before even a second season—I can still dance. This is all I care to do anymore. And it is not an aversion tactic. Adult or no, I am old enough that school did not teach me to avoid being uncomfortable. School, in fact, made me very uncomfortable, particularly during square dancing weeks in PE class. The rest of the school year, our routines and decisions orbited the Golden Rule, which was “Do not do anything resembling anything that might look like you like a girl, lest everyone else make fun of you for it forever.” Then during those two annual weeks of square dancing, we had to link arms—with actual girls. We had to do-si-do. We had to bump butts, in a technique that I am now quite certain Arthur Murray would never endorse. And we were not allowed to shirk these movements, or wear heavy winter coats as buffers. We did this all while making it very clear we believed ourselves held against every precept of the Geneva Convention and its predecessors. I learned very quickly to pray for snow days during square dancing weeks. Then I learned never to dance in public again. And I didn’t. Until I did.  Gavito Tango Festival, The Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles Because at some point, I stopped caring if it was cool. It was fun. And now, because I dance the Argentine tango, other kinds of dancers won’t speak with me because we tangueros are perceived as uppity snobs who look down on all those other lesser dances.
This, for the record, is not true. We embrace all those other lesser dances, in hopes that we can poach some of their better dancers. And while I am tangoing with some newcomer, showing them just how superior our dance is, all my adultish worries disappear. I still have not figured out which calamity peed on my snow and ended my time in pre-adulthood. Honestly, I think it might be the deep-fake version of Luke Skywalker parading as the real Luke Skywalker, himself having to become an adult in charge of tiny Jedi children for the first time. Regardless, I believe the most grown-up choice I can make for myself is to dedicate myself to an art form that will continue to build me up, in my best light, as entirely unemployable.  LA Daily Post
SFNF News: SANTA FE—Fire Managers from the Española Ranger District are preparing and planning for multiple prescribed fire projects tentatively planned for fall and winter. A final decision to proceed with a prescribed fire on the Santa Fe National Forest (SFNF) depends on agency administrator approval, resource availability, and favorable conditions including fuel moisture levels, air quality and forecast weather. Prescribed fires are managed with firefighter and public safety as priority. An informational community meeting is scheduled 5:30-7:30 Wednesday, Sept. 25 at the SFNF Supervisor’s Office at 11 Forest Lane in Santa Fe. During the meeting fire managers will discuss the following projects:
For more information on these projects, contact the Española District Office at 505.753.7331 or visit the office at 18537 US 84/285 Suite B in Española. To learn more about SFNF fire management, visit the SFNF website, NM Fire Info, and SFNF social media (Facebook and X). Abiquiu Lake’s National Public Lands Day volunteer event scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 28, 20249/19/2024  USACE-Albuquerque District public affairs
ABIQUIU, N.M. – USACE-Albuquerque District staff at Abiquiu Lake will host a National Public Lands Day event where the public can volunteer to help improve their public lands, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. The event is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. and end at 2:00 p.m. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. at Group Shelter 3, by the boat ramp. No pre-registration is necessary. The Cerrito Boat Ramp at Abiquiu Lake is located at the east side of the dam, 2 miles west of the Hwy 84 and Hwy 96 junction. All are welcome to participate! Volunteers will be able to participate in a variety of projects including shoreline trash pick-up, building Juniper Titmouse birdhouses, and a plant ID card project for the pollinator garden with younger volunteers. All volunteers are suggested to dress appropriately for the weather, wear sturdy shoes and be sure to bring water, sunscreen, and hats to protect from the sun. Volunteers will also earn a free night of camping. For more information, or details on how you or your organization can participate, go to: https://www.neefusa.org/npld/abiquiu-lake/national-public-lands-day-0 or call the Abiquiu Lake Project Office at 505-685-4371. Why volunteer on National Public Lands Day? Every day of enjoyment that you get recreating in the great outdoors – in activities such as camping, hunting, fishing, biking, hiking, bird watching, and sightseeing – chances are you’re most likely using public lands to do so. Lands that belong to you! National Public Lands Day is a special day set aside where you can give back and show your appreciation for public lands. It is also a day to take pride in the ownership of our precious lands and join in a nationwide effort to improve them for future use. So, lend a hand and play a part in the stewardship of your natural and recreational resources! For more information about Abiquiu recreation please visit https://www.spa.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Recreation/Abiquiu-Lake/ . Follow Abiquiu Lake on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AbiquiuLakeUSACE/
By Trip Jennings
New Mexico In Depth
New Mexico In Depth Executive Director Trip Jennings talked with longtime Voices for Children lobbyist Bill Jordan on Sept. 3, just days after he retired Aug. 30 from more than 30 years spent lobbying New Mexico lawmakers on a variety of issues at the Roundhouse. Trip talked to Bill about his experiences over the decades and together they tried to demystify the Roundhouse for readers and viewers. Thanks for watching. This is the first in an occasional series New Mexico In Depth is doing on demystifying the statehouse and the New Mexico Legislature.
Here is a transcript of the conversation with Bill Jordan. Trip Jennings Hi, everyone! I’m Trip Jennings with New Mexico In Depth. I’m executive director. Thanks for watching. I am joined here with Bill Jordan who until Friday, right, was with Voices for Children. One of the organizations anyone who spends any time around the Roundhouse in Santa Fe — the State House — knows Voices for Children. They’re a very prominent organization that lobbies, as the name suggests, lobbies for children, things that make children’s lives whole and things like that. So welcome, Bill. Thanks so much for appearing with us. Bill Jordan Thanks. Trip. I really appreciate the chance to chat with you, share some stories, some experiences, and maybe we can demystify a few things about the Roundhouse. Trip Jennings I would love for us to be able to at least begin to demystify a place like the Roundhouse, because I do think that it is. It is such and, maybe use the wrong incorrect the word incorrectly, but it in some ways can be so opaque because many of the policies are arcane for folks. And really maybe I’m too much of a nerd, and maybe you are, too. But I find it just extraordinary up there. I just find it extraordinarily interesting. But anyway, thank you so much. I do have some questions I would like to start with, I mean, would you talk about your trajectory because you did not start with Voices for Children. Can you tell everybody here a little about yourself like, where’d you grow up? How’d you grow up? You know? What did you do before? Voices for Children? Bill Jordan Yeah. So I grew up in Kentucky right across the river from Cincinnati very close to downtown Cincinnati and was raised there, Catholic schools all the way through grade school, high school, college, and then a master’s degree in religious studies. So I was steeped in it. I moved to New Mexico about 37 years ago, and it was at that time that I started doing volunteer work for people with HIV and AIDS. That was the late 80s, early 90s. The epidemic was raging at that time and after a few years of volunteering I was asked by the Department of Health to set up a nonprofit that would get community input and help the state develop a plan for HIV prevention and treatment. And I did that for eight years, as the Executive director of the HIV Coordinating Council of New Mexico. And then, in 1998, the drugs were beginning to work really well, and the epidemic really changed, and the drugs showed a lot of promise, and the state decided that they wanted to put all of their money for HIV into making the drugs more accessible to more people. And so we had done enough community planning, creating the state’s plan for HIV, and so the coordinating council was dissolved. Shortly after that I went to work for New Mexico Voices for Children and been there until now. Trip Jennings At some point during your work with the coordinating council, I believe this is right, and tell me if I’m wrong, but you were able to help lobby the Legislature to pass a law for the first needle exchange program in the state. Bill Jordan Yeah, that’s right. We did that. Actually, in the last year that I was there in 1998. We were fortunate enough to get the votes to pass a syringe exchange program for IV drug users. The evidence at that time showed that we could dramatically cut the rate of transmission of both Hepatitis and HIV among drug users, if we could provide them with clean syringes. And you will remember that Gary Johnson was very interested in drug policy. He had a keen interest in that, but he was steadfastly opposed to using tax dollars to provide what was an illegal activity drug use, and he just couldn’t figure, you know, in his own mind he couldn’t get past the idea that we were using state tax dollars for an illegal activity, and he totally got the importance of the public policy in terms of trying to stem the transmission of these two terrible epidemics. So I met with him. We passed the bill through the Legislature and I met with him three times during that 20- day signing period and tried to convince him to sign the bill, and I left his office after the third time, thinking that he wasn’t going to sign it. There was 30 minutes left for him to sign or veto the bill and I got word that he had signed it. Trip Jennings That’s amazing. I mean, also I want to say for the listeners who don’t know if a bill passes in the last three days of a legislative session, the Governor has 20 days to sign the bill. That’s what Bill is talking about, and it’s extraordinary. If it happens before the last three days, the governor has a much shorter time period to sign the bill. You know I wasn’t here when he was governor, but I’ve met him several times, and I’ve …you know, read up, you know, on the news stories and stuff. What an interesting governor, because he was in many ways. Libertarian means something else today than it did, maybe 25 years ago, I think, to some people. But he really was in many ways a Libertarian, which meant, you know, social policy, probably a little less. He wasn’t that conservative on social policy, but on financial like fiscal stuff, very conservative, I think. Which made him. It sounds like, maybe even ripe for your lobbying. Bill Jordan He saw it as a long term money saver, because we’re talking about two very costly diseases with Hepatitis and AIDS. Trip Jennings Yes. Bill Jordan And so, you know, he got that part, but, also, I think he also saw this as an opportunity to become engaged in the public policy debate around drug use and what it meant. And it was a small thing that he could do without being, you know, too far out on a limb. After all, the Legislature passed it, which was in itself kind of a surprise. They had defeated it several years in a row, and then in 1998, they passed it. Trip Jennings I remember reading about him when I was in another state covering a different statehouse and obviously he ran for president, you know, on some drug legalization policies, as I recall. So, you you got to work with Gary Johnson, which is just a treat to hear stories about that cause. Those of us who have met him know, we know, that he’s a very interesting person outside of the Roundhouse — extreme athlete at some point in his life. And just a really interesting, entertaining guy. So how did you make the transition to Voices for Children? Did you see a connection between what you were doing with the coordinating council, HIV coordinating council, and children. Bill Jordan Certainly for me there was. I mean, after we closed the HIV coordinating council, I went to work for Voices for Children. At that time it was called New Mexico Advocates for Children and Families and then the state formed the Children, Youth and Families Department. And there was some confusion with the name, and so we changed our name from Advocates for Children and Families to Voices for Children. Trip Jennings I didn’t know that the CYFD had been formed that recently. So it was in the nineties. Is that right, or in the early thousands? Bill Jordan I don’t know the exact date. Trip Jennings But it was after you joined Voices for Children. I didn’t know that history, that’s really interesting. Bill Jordan I think so. Trip Jennings Okay. Bill Jordan Timing wrong, at least the confusion got to the point where. Trip Jennings Yeah. Bill Jordan We changed the name, yeah. And I was originally hired to lobby on youth, gun violence, prevention. And I did that for a couple of years, and then was asked to lobby on all of our other issues at Voices for Children as well. And you know, if there’s a connection between the jobs, it was that both of them were about using public policy to help people.and both were focused on a population that needed help. In the first case it was gay men, IV drug users and others who were most at risk of HIV, and in the second case it was about children, especially those from low income families who had little access to healthcare, and some of the other social structures that are needed for families to thrive. And so I think there’s a connection. It was a matter of being in a place where I was able to help out those most in need. Trip Jennings And that that makes total sense. When you frame it that way. Yeah, it’s all children, but especially children who maybe their parents may or their families lack resources. Is that correct? It sounds like that’s correct. Can you talk about some of the issue areas that you have lobbied on for Voices for Children? Because you mentioned youth gun violence, but by the time I met you when I got here in 2005, so I met you mid 2,000s, Voices for Children was lobbying on a lot of issues. At least. Can you name some of those issues that you have lobbied on over the years? Not everyone but ones that really.really you recall. Bill Jordan Yeah, maybe the way I would like to answer that is to talk about how some of that happened, and some of the more memorable moments because they really involve both winning and losing. And I think, as you know, it’s rare for an important piece of legislation to pass the first time it’s proposed. You know a good example of that is the proposal to use a little bit of the Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood. That took 12 years. That idea was born at Voices for Children, and it took 12 years before the Legislature, and the people passed it. And what a difference it’s made! I mean hundreds of millions of dollars now to build out a world class pre-K K, child care, home visiting programs that they’re going to take time to build out. But we have the money to do it because the people wanted it done, and that, I think, is, you know, just one of the one of the heartbreaks for many years, and then sort of elated when it finally passed. And now we’re really beginning to see some of those dollars flow, and the difference that it’s making in the lives of kids and their parents who need to go to work and have to have a place, a safe place for their kids while they’re working. So you know, that’s a great example of one of those that, you know year after year it was heartbreaking. And then just a phenomenal win for the people. Trip Jennings I might have been at the first press conference for this proposal in 2011. I don’t know if that was the first press conference, but I seem to remember it. I tracked that like you said it was 12 years. It was like one year, there were so many votes. Another year there are maybe a few more votes, and then maybe a couple of years. I don’t even know if it got through because of, you know, the governor at the time was not necessarily so keen on it. But yeah, for all those who are watching who don’t know about state houses, even innocuous bills sometimes can take two to three years to get through. It gets kind of complicated when we talk about the Land Grant funds, and when exactly the money, it didn’t actually touch the fund, as I recall it, was going into the fund, and they would just take some of that. But it was really opposed. It was a tough battle for many folks, and it was a monumental effort over more than a decade. Bill Jordan Oh, yeah, monumental. It really was. It’s not unlike a lot of issues. I mean, you know that from being up there, that sometimes you need to build momentum for an issue sometimes. It’s complicated, and it takes a couple of years to get it right. And so, you know, if you’re looking for, instant gratification, the Roundhouse is probably not the place to be. If you are really interested in good public policy, and have the patience to work it and get it right, it can make a real difference. Trip Jennings You know, as you were speaking about that bill, it reminds me that lobbyists have to have at their command, an understanding of key issues. How did that work for you? I mean, did you have to really study these issues closely to be able to lobby effectively. Bill Jordan I lost you for a minute. Trip. I’m back. Are you? Trip Jennings Yeah, can you hear me? Bill Jordan Yeah. Trip Jennings So I was asking, you just reminded me that lobbyists, it’s not just talking to people. You really have to have a command of the issue and / or at least be able to introduce people, lawmakers, to people who have a command of the issue. But even lobbyists. Even those who connect folks have to have a command of the issue. They have to at least be able to form a narrative. Tell a story of how this will help. I mean in some ways as a journalist, and it may be true of lobbyists, I always think covering a state house is like almost earning an additional master’s degree. Because you really learn about so much. Is that how you feel because you’re always studying right, aren’t you studying stuff, different issues? Bill Jordan You know, Trip, that’s especially true for me, because I’m not a policy analyst, you know. Voices has a whole team of folks who are experts at this policy. and they’re the ones who teach me about what is important at the Roundhouse. And so they know the details and they’re able to get in the weeds. But I’m much more of a generalist. And so, the worst nightmare for me is to work with a lawmaker to get them to support something or sponsor it, and then they start asking the really difficult questions that are beyond me. Trip Jennings Right! Bill Jordan Well, folks back at the office who really do this inside now, and they will sit with you and testify with you, present the bill, be your expert witness. But yes, you’re right. Lobbying is very much about having to get in the weeds on some really complex issues. Trip Jennings Everything from financing and finances to, you know, how agencies interlock and work together. We at New Mexico In Depth have covered lobbyists as part of a larger project but in many ways lobbyists are our best friends at New Mexico In Depth because people like you have been up there for dozens of years. Any state house — and I would think Congress is like this as well — is a hard place to gain an understanding of and how it works. If any young journalists are watching this video, make friends with lobbyists because yes, they’ll be lobbying on this thing or that thing. But they also talk to one another, right? And they know what’s happening each day of the Legislature like something’s happening in maybe you know a committee over here. How are you able to stay up on everything that’s going on every day. I’m not asking you directly, but you guys really do have to keep up with what’s going on every day of a legislative session. Bill Jordan Yeah, we really do. I mean, you need to know what’s going on with your own legislation and with other legislation that might impact what you’re doing. So I guess what you’re saying is that both lobbyists and reporters … when you’re at the Roundhouse it’s ears open all the time. And yes, you know, a lot of what happens is based on relationships. And so you kind of need to know who’s getting along with, who who is not getting along with. Trip Jennings Very important, very important. Bill Jordan It’s very important, you know. You don’t want to ask the wrong person to help you out with an issue by helping to get someone else’s vote… If they’re not getting along that day. So you know, it’s really important to know who’s supporting, who’s opposing? Who are the swing votes, which legislators do or don’t get along with other legislators. What bills might be in that mix, you know, in terms of their relationship and support or opposition to each other. All of those personal dynamics are just really important. So that you don’t, so that your own bill, and the work that you’re doing doesn’t get caught up in something that’s unrelated to the issue that you’re working on. Trip Jennings Because we know that there have been bills that have been killed because they got in the middle of some kind of turf war, or some kind of personal fight going on between lawmakers. That happens. In my experience, it takes time to build those relationships and know who’s talking to whom? Is that true for lobbyists, too? You really have to build a network of relationships, right, to know who to talk to, and who might know if these two lawmakers are beefing over here, so you may want to stay away from them. That kind of thing, right? It takes time right. Bill Jordan Yes, it does. It takes time to build those relationships and also with other lobbyists, you know. Learning who you can trust. You know, there is often a lot of negotiation about amendments, and who’s gonna offer support for something. And it’s really important to know which lobbyists you can trust, and who is a worthy opponent. In some cases, you know, they’re they’re not hiding something that might be important to the legislation. And you know there’s a lot of lobbyists that I would never support their legislation. I mean it, you know, corporate hired guns that are there to build profits for corporations, or whatever it might be, and yet some of them are really honest brokers. I mean some of them, I trust their word at least. I may not agree with the issues that they’re working on. But as a lobbyist I might trust them. And then there are others that I wouldn’t. Trip Jennings You know, as you say, this is one of the great things that I think that people outside who are not really privy to of the Roundhouse, any statehouse or Congress, is that, yeah, people can disagree. But over time I’ve heard lawmakers say this over and over again to me, which is, hey, I don’t agree with this person, but you know what, they gave me their word, they’re gonna keep it, and I know what to expect. I’ll work with this person on this issue over here, not here, but over here, because they’re trustworthy. And it’s heartening for me as a reporter. Because it’s not the thing that you get during election year, where people are at each other’s throat, and they’re throwing ads at each other. It’s more like, this is governing. And it’s hard work. And relationships are built. And there are people with whom you can disagree on certain issues, but you can agree on others. Right? Same thing with lobbyists. Right? Bill Jordan Yeah, the relationships are really important. And you know, being able to trust one another both lawmakers and other lobbyists is really an important part of the work. Trip Jennings So let me ask you, that’s a segue. I mean, I could talk about that all day long, because I just find that so interesting. But what are the best parts of lobbying? And maybe the worst parts that you found over more than 30 years, you know, lobbying so many issues are, are there certain things that you really enjoyed and you thought they were really great. And others that, you know, were tough. Bill Jordan Yeah, since we’re talking about lobbying, let me let me say a quick word about it, because I think the word often gets a bad rap, because the image that often comes to people’s mind is some wealthy corporate hired gun that’s there to get a tax break for their corporate client. And clearly there are those. The Roundhouse is full of them. Okay, but the Roundhouse is also full of well-meaning folks — lobbyists, advocates, concerned citizens who show up to try to encourage their lawmakers to do the right thing. And there are a lot of really good lobbyists and advocates in the Roundhouse, and I’m really grateful that they’re there to improve education and pass paid family medical leave and raise wages for workers, protect the environment, make sure we have enough clean water, good roads, and fair taxes. All of that is just really important for our communities. Our lawmakers and governor are really doing great work, and it’s been a privilege to be a small part of that. So to answer your question. So yeah, for me, the best part of lobbying is knowing that something I’ve done is actually gonna make a difference in the lives of kids, parents, families, communities. Knowing that I played some small role in making somebody’s life a little bit better is absolutely the best. Trip Jennings And you see tangible evidence of this. It’s not only the bills, but you can be walking around Albuquerque and know that a program has been funded, or there’s tangible evidence for you. As a lobbyist, you can see how this might have changed lives right, or helped alleviate some privation. Bill Jordan Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, you see that. And you know that the system is working as it’s intended to. Lawmakers really are there doing the work of the people and doing their best with what they’ve got to improve chances for kids and families. Trip Jennings You know the thing that I also want to say, Bill, and I still want you to answer about the worst part. But one thing I will say is that what’s striking to me is when you cover politics, as I have done as a reporter, kids are always, you know, in campaigns, front and center. You know, they’re always we gotta do it for the kids. We gotta do it for the kids. And when you get up to a place like a state house or Congress, the feel good stuff is not … I mean, it’s a hard slog. Sometimes it’s a hard slog, and that I’m not disparaging lawmakers or anything. It is just hard work to create policy that might affect the lives of many children, and you know, especially in a place like New Mexico, where there is just so much poverty and … it’s a wonderful, beautiful state. And yet it does have challenges. And so I just want to say that when people hear the campaigns, it’s always about the kids, sometimes the governing is much harder than just saying that stuff. Bill Jordan: Yeah. You know. And we used to say, who’s for kids and who’s just kidding during a campaign season because, you’re right, everybody campaigns on the well-being of kids. And then when it comes down to it, you know what kids need is safety, world-class education, good health care, and all those things cost money and they are pitted against other interests, usually tax cuts. And so yeah, it’s a tough slog. And, you know, a lot of lawmakers really are for kids. And then there are some that are just kidding. Trip Jennings Right, right? And I, you know, over the time I just want to say this as a reporter. You don’t have to respond to this, but I have found people on both sides of the aisle who are very concerned about children. It’s not Democratic or Republican. I’ve just met many genuinely concerned lawmakers up there. So what is the worst part of lobbying? Let me ask you that, let me put you on the spot. Bill Jordan The worst part is, when you lose on those same issues, you know, the disappointment can be pretty heavy. You know the questioning about what we could have done differently to get the needed votes. All of that is really heartbreaking, particularly when you know you gotta wait a year, sometimes two, to come back and try again. But I will say that having done it for that many years, that it is also often the case that that loss is temporary. And, as you know, it often takes years to pass important legislation. But if the proposal has merit, it’ll gain support, and it’ll eventually pass. That was true with syringe exchange, and it was true with the Land Grant Permanent Fund. It’s been true with all of the amazing improvements we’ve made to our tax system, improving budgets for public education and for healthcare. All of that is, you know, slow to come. And yet, I think we’re on the right track with all of them. Trip Jennings So I wanted to ask you because of the several hundred lobbyists at the Roundhouse you have to be in the top 10% of longevity up there easily, I would think. Bill Jordan You’re not calling me old. Trip Jennings No, no, no, I didn’t mean that all. I’m saying you’re experienced. You’re experienced. I’m someone who believes that, that’s a good thing, you know, having experience. You know. Tom Horan used to say anybody can lobby the first 57 days of a 60-day legislative session. It’s the real lobbyist who lobby the last 3 days, you know. So I would consider you like part of that, you know, coterie of people who understand the importance of lobbying as someone who’s been up there for so long. You know there has been a movement in the last, probably decade to really introduce more disclosure around lobbyists like, how much are they paid? The expenses like for those people who don’t know there is, is, there is, there is wining and dining of lawmakers by lobbyists who are representing certain interests. And there’s been a push to, really, you know, open up how the process works. Even smaller things like, what bills are you lobbying, or what issues you’re lobbying. What’s your take on that after being up there for so long, more than 30 years, and having a sense of the place? Bill Jordan Yeah, well, let me say, we already have to disclose our lobbying expenses. We only have to do it three times a year, but you know, if we meet with a lawmaker over lunch and pick up the cost of that at lunch we have to report that so those expenses are reported. Campaign contributions are also reported already. You know I work for a nonprofit, so I’d be happy for the public to see how my salary compared to those of the corporate lobbyists. Yeah, I wouldn’t mind seeing that myself. Hello! Trip Jennings That is, you have the contracts that that private sector employers have for lobbyists. Public sector, you can go through and request records to get, and it’s somewhat public. You still have to do the work. When I talked about the expenses, I mean the itemized expenses, I mean, there, you know someone who’s been around for a while, we know that sometimes people can say, Well, I paid only this much, we don’t have to report the itemized expenses if we don’t go above this threshold. That’s kind of what I’m talking about. Yeah, that is it. Do you have a sense of that, do you think? Bill Jordan Yeah, I think all of that should be disclosed. Yeah,I don’t have a problem with that. And I, you know, I think that kind of transparency is great, I mean, I think you know, it would be helpful for the public to know exactly what corporate lobbyists are doing. What’s the Chamber doing? Big tobacco, pharmaceutical companies, restaurant owners, big oil, all of them, you know. They’re up there, you know, spending a lot of money on lobbyists and on expenses and on campaign contributions ultimately to try to influence the legislation that they’re that they’re working on. And so yeah, I think it’s important to have all of that disclosed, and I think lawmakers ought to be able to see that, you know, and know exactly who is playing on what team and what they’re, you know, what they’re really doing. And to see, for example, contract lobbyists when they may have conflicts of interest. Trip Jennings Tell the viewers and listeners what a contract lobbyist is. Bill Jordan It’s you know, maybe you’re a small company or a mid size company, you don’t have a full time lobbyist. So you hire someone who knows the process and lobbies for a living and has a lot of clients. And so you hire them on a contract to work on a particular bill and you know, or a particular issue. Trip, you’ve probably seen this where you’ve been in a committee hearing, and a lobbyist will stand up and say, I support this bill, and I’m here for Company X. And then the chair will say, is anybody in opposition to the bill, and the same lobbyist will stand up and say, I have another client who is opposed to the bill, and it’s you know I mean the whole room laughs. Trip Jennings It is how this works. I just wanted for people to get a sense. We have done so many stories on lobbyists, and we might have contributed to this idea that lobbyists are not great. We don’t mean to, because lobbyists were at the founding of the nation. I mean, you can look back and see that they were, you know, people lobbying in the first parts of Congress and stuff. It is not a bad thing; in fact, as I say, as a journalist, they’re some of my best friends up there, because they know stuff, and so I can go to them and say, Hey, what are you hearing? But you just kind of revealed, maybe demystified, some of this. I can’t know someone’s mind or heart. Right? But this is what happens. When you’ve got so many issues, there are people who can argue sort of like a lawyer in law school, you have to be able to argue both sides of something because you need to understand it so well. I mean, it’s extraordinary. There are those moments where the people do laugh. It’s important for the public to know that this happens. And not not that we’re pushing for contract lobbyists to lose business. It’s just that, that is the way it works. I could talk all day with you about this stuff, because I find covering or being around a place like a state house to be like the human condition on display. You’ve got every human behavior there, I think. Sometimes I mean there, there’s not violence necessarily, but there’s so much going on there. I just find it fascinating. I know some people might think it’s like paint drying, but not me. Bill Jordan Yeah. Yeah. I think if there’s one thing you know, when it comes to not just transparency, but the influence that lobbyists have, I would just say one other thing, and that is, there’s a lot of discussion now about a paid legislature and lawmakers getting staff. I think that is critically important. You know, if they’re gonna do the best job for the people, they should be paid something for that. And one of the things that a lobbyist does is actually almost provide staff support for lawmakers. We help them create their talking points, prep for a hearing and that gives us an extraordinary amount of power. And that power probably ought to lie with the lawmaker and their staff and not quite so much with the lobbyists. I mean. I like to think that Voices brings a lot of expertise to the Roundhouse, and we do. But it doesn’t mean that we should, or anybody else should, have that much power to influence legislation without having lawmakers have the staff to vet what it is we all bring. I’m a big proponent of lawmakers having staff and lobbyists, having just a little less power and influence. And I’m not saying that because I’m leaving, I’m saying that because that’s my experience. And I think we want the very best in law making. And that happens when they have professional staff working with them. Trip Jennings I wanna say, too, to add to what you were saying, there are also not just talking points and stuff like this. But I know this because I’ve seen it. You’ve got technical lobbyists who are like experts on a particular proposal, who will actually tweak a law because they have technical understanding of the issue. Some of this stuff is really complicated. To your point, because I did cover another legislature, another state where they did have full-time staff, and they were paid. You know we’ve talked to people who study this, and when you have this situation as you do in New Mexico, lobbyists do have more power. They have power in a lot of places, don’t get me wrong, but they have more power in a place like Santa and Santa Fe because of what you just said. Again a lot of the lobbyists I personally like. It’s not that I think they’re doing a bad job or anything, but it’s to your point. That’s a lot of power. Listen on that note. I want to thank you, Bill, for being with us. I think I went over a little time. I apologize. Cause you are so interesting. Bill Jordan has been a long-time lobbyist for Voices for Children up in Santa Fe. He retired his last day was Friday (August 30th) It’s been delightful talking to you and learning a little more about the Roundhouse. Bill Jordan Thanks, Trip. I enjoyed talking to you, and I wish you luck up there. Trip Jennings I’m gonna need it. Bill Jordan When you, when you head up for the next session. Trip Jennings I may hit you up for coffee or something, so we can have coffee and talk, even though you’re retired. Bill Jordan Anytime, I think my schedule is open. Trip Jennings Thank you everybody for watching and listening. I’m gonna end the recording. By Jessica Rath  Hardneck garlic. Image credit: Epic Gardening Did you know that there are hundreds of different varieties of garlic? I didn’t, and I had no idea that there are two subspecies of Allium sativum, the relative of onions, leeks, chives etc., distinctive because of its pungent odor and taste. It took a visit with La Madera garlic farmer Bill Page and his wife Claudia to divest me of my ignorance. And as it so often happens with these interviews, it was a delight to meet my hosts and experience where they live. The scenery around La Madera is absolutely stunning.  La Madera Mountains. Image credit: Jessica Rath Bill grew up in Denver, Colorado, together with his younger sister and brother. They were raised mainly by his mother, an unconventional and sophisticated individual who took her children to Europe for several years, so they could be exposed to different cultures and learn foreign languages. After more than two years at Swiss boarding schools where he learnt fluent French, Bill returned temporarily to the U.S. and got a Bachelor’s degree from Claremont McKenna College in California. He got married and went back to Europe for a year, but it ended in divorce in the late 70s, after 16 years. In October 1985, Bill married again, and when Claudia, his current wife, closed up her business in 1994, they moved from Denver to La Madera. They bought into a family compound of 30 riverfront acres with a brother of Claudia’s, Nick, her sister Leza, and Leza’s husband Daryl. In March 1995 they had finished building their house and moved in. Do you remember the showing of the documentary Navalny in El Rito, a while ago? Part of the work actually happened at Claudia and Bill’s house. The film’s editor, Langdon Page who secured an Oscar for his team, is Bill’s son. His other son, David, is Executive Director of the non-profit national advocacy organization Winter Wildlands Alliance. Right from Day One Claudia and Bill got involved with the Acequia Association. There was an irrigation ditch, but it was dry. They had to resurrect the ditch, and with the help of a neighbor they got the water flowing again.  Acequia. Image credit: Jessica Rath “At various times I've been the Secretary, Treasurer, or the Mayordomo, or the President, or whatever, on and off for all those 30 years, and so has Claudia, and so has Daryl”, Bill told me. “People at the bottom of the ditch have to take more responsibility than the people at the top of the ditch if they want the water. That means, if nobody wants to be President or Secretary or Treasurer, or whatever, we are the ones that have to do it”. I was curious – how does one become a garlic farmer, I wondered. “Well, after my father saw this place, he said, ‘Bill, I think you ought to grow garlic’. I had no experience with garlic, but I was inclined towards agriculture, so I thought – , why not give it a try? I bought 20 different kinds of seed garlic and tried them out in little patches until I narrowed them down to three varieties which were doing well in this area. The three I ended up with all grow nice, big bulbs and they are all pungent and spicy. The Hispanic community loves to use them in their salsas. As soon as I started growing them out, I got carried away, and at one point, we had over 10,000 head in single planting”.  Hardneck garlic. Image credit: Epic Gardening. Twenty different kinds? I thought there was only garlic. One kind. All the same. Bill had a lot of explaining to do. “No, there are a lot of different kinds of garlic. Add the fact that people like big bulbs, so they buy something that's not even garlic. They buy elephant garlic, which is technically a leek. But all the rest of the garlic is divided into softneck garlic and hardneck garlic. They're two separate genetic strains of garlic. I eliminated the soft necks, because their main advantage is for people who want to make garlic braids, because their necks are soft”. “I have three varieties. One is called Red Rezan, another one is Romanian Red, and then there is a German Brown”, Bill continued. “But there are hundreds of different varieties with lots of different tastes; some are mild, some are bland, some are big, some are small”.  Rows of hardneck garlic. Image credit: Jessica Rath Hardneck garlic works well for smaller restaurants, Bill explained. They’re much easier to peel and each head has only three to six bigger cloves, compared to a head of softneck which can have up to 20 cloves. “When you want to sell garlic to restaurants, it's very nice to offer them hardneck garlic, like the kind that I grow”. Bill’s mentor was Stanley Crawford, the well-known garlic farmer and author who lived in Dixon. He died last year, which was a great loss to the garlic community, Bill said. But there was a big difference between the two: Stanley didn’t grow garlic for its culinary value but used it as a decorative item. “He would harvest lots of softneck garlic and hire people from Dixon or Embudo to help him dry it and braid it, and then he would put a ceramic medallion on each braid. He could get way more money for his garlic than I could, selling them at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, because people like the chile ristras, and they like to hang a garlic braid next to their ristras. He was able to sell them for what amounted to at least $5 a head. But I wanted to grow garlic that was culinarily interesting”. And then Bill told me about the legal battle which took Stanley Crawford to China, New York, and Washington. Most of the garlic sold in this country, about 85% of it, comes from China. As long as the buyer knows this and can decide which one to buy, that’s fine. But Stanley found out that some of the garlic which is sold by Christopher Ranch, a garlic supplier from Gilroy, California (known as the Garlic Capital of the World) originates from China but is sold under the Christopher Ranch label.  Hardneck garlic. Image credit: Jessica Rath “So Gilroy gets to import Chinese garlic under the Christopher Ranch name, and they never pay tariffs. Nobody can investigate them for dumping garlic when China has too big a harvest and they're drowning in garlic. They can sell it for 10 cents a head here, and make a lot of money”, Bill told me. I was shocked to learn this, of course. There is also a Netflix documentary, Garlic Breath – Episode Three of the Series Rotten, which shows how Chinese laborers work under deplorable conditions, that the Chinese companies manage to avoid paying import tariffs, and that the cheap garlic then is sold under the California company’s label. Christopher Ranch, of course, denies everything. I tried to find out whether this legal dispute has been resolved, without success. “These days I grow the same three varieties, but I only plant 700 cloves”, Bill continued. “Last year, it might have been 800 or 1000, but basically, I have no energy left for sitting at a Farmers Market selling garlic. I could probably sell it in bulk, but I don't have the people to do the harvesting. It takes quite a few people to harvest and hand-cure it so that it lasts a long time”. “Currently I grow just for friends and family, to give away, and to keep my strains. I tell people, I would rather have them buy for planting than for eating. I'll go ahead and give you ten heads if you promise me to plant six of them and just eat four. The problem always is that people buy ten heads and they end up eating it! Which is too bad, because everybody ought to be growing good garlic. It's easy to grow, one of the simplest crops there is, really. You plant it in October and you harvest it in July. It doesn't take much water. You water it once when you plant it, and you don't have to water it all winter, and you start again watering it in the spring”. We went outside and Bill showed me his garlic field. I noticed all these curly things – what are those?  Scapes. Image credit: Epic Gardening “That's what we call the scapes. They’re part of the hardneck garlic. You want to pick these when they're young and small, and you can just chop them up and mix them with vegetables and eggs and salads. It's pungent and spicy. The plant gets more energy into the bulb and will be bigger if you cut this off”. Are you growing any other crops, I asked Bill. “I’ve always grown a lot of rye, and quite a bit of wheat. And I grow vetch because it puts nitrogen back into the soil and reproduces lightly. We're getting into what's called no till planting, where you don't worry too much about weeds or anything else. You just plant right into a pasture or a meadow every year, and then arrange to harvest it. It's a sloppy, messy way of planting, but it's much better for the soil”.  Sparky exploring. Image credit: Jessica Rath. “There's a big machine that you can borrow from the Farm Service Agency or from what's called the East Rio Arriba Soil and Water Conservation District, a big machine that is called a No-till Seeder. So it's built to plant your seeds, vetch or carrots, anything you want. It's got about ten to fifteen seed compartments, one right beside another, and the seed goes down through the cutter knives and gets planted. And you can vary the depth of each seed”. That sounds very impressive, so much easier for the farmer! “It took a day and a half to plant all of our land. The whole place is 30 acres, but the plantable area is about ten and a half acres. And with the no-till planter I could plant it all in a day and a half”. Without this machine it must have taken two or three times as long, I bet… “We also grow other vegetables, because Claudia has wanted to. This year, she planted some potatoes. And she planted some beans. Your biggest problem is that elk or deer come to your garden and eat it all! Claudia planted a row of beans, 300 feet long on some of these terraces, and it takes a small herd of deer or small herd of elk two or three nights to eat them after they get to a certain size. And then it's all dead. It's very discouraging”. There’s no way to keep them out, but at least they can’t get at the potatoes.  Claudia, Bill, and Claudia’s sister Leza. And Sparky What a lovely and informative afternoon this was. My embarrassing ignorance about garlic has finally been fixed. It is such an essential ingredient of cooking all over the world that it deserves more attention than I gave it. Thank you, Bill, for taking the time to show me around.
And if you want to grow your own garlic – I’m sure Bill will help you. I went home with a head which I will plant this coming October.  Writer-director-producer Christopher Nolan surveying the New Mexico landscape for Oppenheimer locations. Photo by Melinda Sue Gordon, Courtesy of Universal Pictures. When Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon crossed the New Mexico desert in Oppenheimer, they did it by Dragon. That’s the nickname of a locomotive — part of the Sky Railway co-owned by Game of Thrones mastermind George R.R. Martin and New Mexico entrepreneur Bill Banowsky — that thrust Murphy’s Robert J. Oppenheimer and Damon’s Colonel Leslie Groves to their destinies and became one of the key Oppenheimer locations. It was one of countless resources that Christopher Nolan’s Oscar-magnet origin story of the atomic bomb found on location in New Mexico, dubbed the Land of Enchantment. Enchanting is exactly what the state proved to be for a production that took advantage of its sweep and history, giving the historical biopic the immediacy of a speeding train. “We’re blessed out here these days. Production after production after production — it’s a great place to be,” says David Manzanares, who helped find key locations for Oppenheimer. He spoke to us phone by phone recently from another New Mexico set, for a project he couldn’t disclose just yet. Oppenheimer is largely the story of how Groves and Oppenheimer developed the A-bomb in total secrecy. But these days, New Mexico is where filmmakers go to build hit movies and shows — with at least a little secrecy. A wide array of locations are at their disposal, from twinned natural wonders to anonymous offices to trains named for mythical beasts. Our own research bears out filmmakers’ sense of awe: On our latest list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker, Santa Fe is at the top of smaller cities, and Albuquerque is second among big cities.  1940s period cars at Ghost Ranch. Courtesy of David Manzanares. Manzanares remembers the day in 2021 when his friend Todd Christensen, the former head of the New Mexico Film Office, first reached out to him about a 1940s-set New Mexico project. Christensen couldn’t reveal much more than that — “we respect each other’s NDAs,” jokes Manzanares — but he soon thought of a perfect place. It turned out to be one of the most stunning Oppenheimer locations. New Mexico, Manzanares explains, is in his blood. Growing up, he always thought of himself as simply Spanish. But when his son Maximiño came home from college, asking about his background, they began to investigate their Indigenous roots, and found that their connection to the land was “as old as the dust.” “This is where they’ll bury me,” says Manzanares, who has also worked on New Mexico locations for films including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Magnificent Seven, and Hostiles. “It’s a really cool feeling to have — a sense of connection.” One crucial section of Oppenheimer required an empty, panoramic shot of the future site of Los Alamos, where the physicist and his team would build the bomb. But on the same day, Manzanares recalls, the filmmakers also needed to film the completed town, against a nearly identical backdrop.  David Manzanares. Courtesy of David Manzanares Manzanares suggested locations in Ghost Ranch, near Abiquiu, where he grew up, about an hour away from Santa Fe. He is the field producer for Ghost Ranch, which until Oppenheimer was perhaps best known as the home and frequent subject of painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Ghost Ranch features breathtaking vistas, streams, plains, and monolithic cliffs, with nearby mesas, red rocks and Abiquiu Lake.The film took advantage of the area’s natural beauty for scenes of horseback-riding and camping — as well as its Los Alamos set. Buildings that appear in the film are now available for other productions, and can be toured, by appointment, by the general public. Top-Secret Oppenheimer Locations Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer in Ghost Ranch, one of the key Oppenheimer locations. Universal Pictures. For the scenes where Oppenheimer is grilled in a small, shabby office of the Atomic Energy Commission, the film needed the opposite of wide-open spaces. The production found a nice, crowded office in downtown Santa Fe’s PERA Building — named for the Public Employee Retirement Association. In the film, the drab office masks the ruthless trap set by Oppenheimer’s jealous nemesis, Lewis Strauss — played by Robert Downey Jr. But in reality, the walls of the PERA Building hid from the general public a soon-to-be Best Picture winner populated by Nolan and some of the most famous actors in the world. Soon, the trucks and trailers in a nearby parking lot drew the attention of people who inundated Santa Fe Film Commissioner Jennifer LaBar-Tapia with questions. When MovieMaker first named Santa Fe as the No. 1 small town on our list of the Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker — a position it has held for two years running — we called LaBar-Tapia “part sheriff, part cheer captain, and all rock star.” She’s also a pretty good detective, it turns out, when it comes to sussing out imposters. “I was starting to get calls from people that claimed they were from our local newspaper,” she says. “And of course, I can’t say what’s happening.” She knew they weren’t really reporters, she says, because they were calling her office line — and real local reporters have her cell number. She’s also a pretty good detective, it turns out, when it comes to sussing out imposters. “I was starting to get calls from people that claimed they were from our local newspaper,” she says. “And of course, I can’t say what’s happening.” She knew they weren’t really reporters, she says, because they were calling her office line — and real local reporters have her cell number. When it comes time for a project to announce its presence in New Mexico, it’s up to the state film office — aka Film New Mexico — to handle the formal announcements. There have been a lot in the last 15 years — from Breaking Bad to Better Call Saul to the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to the Tom Hanks Western News of the World. Boldfaced names don’t just visit — several live in Santa Fe, where they appreciate the scenery, the 300 days of sunshine each year, the thriving art scene, and the distance from Hollywood. It is a refuge for many, including Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, and George R.R. Martin. But only one of the three bought a train. The Wolf and the Dragon The Dragon by night. Courtesy of Sky Railway. For years, the Santa Fe Southern Railway, which runs 18 miles from Lamy to Santa Fe, had up-and-down financial fortunes. But some of its greatest moments were captured on film.
It was featured in the 2008 Ed Harris Western Appaloosa, as well as one of the most impressive episodes of Breaking Bad, “Dead Freight,” which features a train heist of methylamine. In 2019, Bill Banowsky and Martin joined together with other investors to purchase the train line. They had become friends because Banowsky owns businesses in the Santa Fe Railyard, including an 11-screen movie theater, while Martin owns a single-screen theater in the rail yard. “This was a dying railroad that was about to go out of business,” Banowsky recalls. “They approached me and they approached George about the idea of us stepping in to save the railroad.” Banowsky was hesitant at first. But Martin, he recalls, “just lit up, like a kid — and was all about having a railroad.” He recalls Martin saying: “This railroad that we’re buying comes with two locomotives. We’ll paint one like the head of a wolf and one like the head of a dragon. And we’ll have fire coming out of the dragon’s mouth and the wolf will howl!” The railroad gives even more authenticity to Oppenheimer: Lamy, a stop between Los Angeles and Chicago, was the actual arrival point for scientists coming to work at Los Alamos in the 1940s. Additionally, the sequences shot on board the train cars literally propel the dramatic exchanges between Oppenheimer and Groves. “The trains were actually moving, and so the background that you see is the New Mexico background adjacent to our tracks,” says Banowsky. “It’s all the train moving in real time.” And like the film’s Los Alamos set at Ghost Ranch, the trains are now open to the public. Banowsky and Martin rebranded their venture as the Sky Railway, refurbished the cars, hired an artist to paint them, and developed events including music performances and a Murder on the Orient Express-style experience.The once-struggling railroad has now had a financial turnaround, he happily reports. “It’s a live entertainment venue on rails that has become a very popular tourist stop,” Banowsky says. Main image:  From left: Lukas LeDoux, Nicholas Taylor and Natalia Tealer produced "Dark Silhouettes,” which has been selected for the New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase. “Dark Silhouettes” screens in statewide competition Saturday, September 14
NNMC ESPAÑOLA, N.M. — "Dark Silhouettes,” a film produced by Northern New Mexico College (NNMC) Film & Digital Media Arts students Natalia Tealer, Lukas LeDoux and Nicholas Taylor, has been selected for the New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase. The showcase, which features film screenings and an awards ceremony, takes place from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M. The event is free to the public. The New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase is sponsored by the New Mexico Film Foundation, San Juan Community College and Eastern New Mexico University. “Dark Silhouettes” will be competing against films from college film programs around the state. Northern students have won awards in this competition three times in recent years. "Dark Silhouettes,” comes out of film professor David Lindblom's Voice and Documentary Filmmaking class, where students closely examined three films: "italianamerican" by Martin Scorsese, "Little Boy" by Danny Lyon and "Meshes of the Afternoon” by Maya Deren." For a final project, students produced a short film using techniques, devices and production values similar to those in the films. The New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase is a statewide film screening event that celebrates and showcases the amazing talents of New Mexico's college and university film programs. Submissions from around the state are judged over the summer. The showcase is a festival, networking event and awards celebration all in one. The event is free to the public, but RSVPs are recommended. ### Cutline: From left: Lukas LeDoux, Nicholas Taylor and Natalia Tealer produced "Dark Silhouettes,” which has been selected for the New Mexico Student Filmmakers Showcase. About Northern: Northern New Mexico College has served the rural communities of Northern New Mexico for over a century. Since opening in 1909 as the Spanish American Normal School in El Rito, NM, the College has provided affordable access to quality academic programs that meet the changing educational, economic and cultural needs of the region. Northern is an open-admissions institution offering the most affordable bachelor’s programs in the Southwest. Now one of the state’s four regional comprehensive institutions, with its main campus in Española, Northern offers more than 50 bachelor’s, associate, and certificate programs in arts & human sciences, film & digital media, STEM programs, business, education, liberal arts, and nursing. The College has reintroduced technical trades in partnership with two local unions and five public school districts through its new co-located Branch Community College, the first of its kind in the state’s history. Northern is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and has earned prestigious program specific accreditations for its engineering, nursing, education, and business programs. Learn more at https://nnmc.edu/. _______________ Arin McKenna, M.F.A. Staff Writer/Reporter Communications & Marketing AD 128 505.747.2193 arin.mckenna@nnmc.edu Northern New Mexico College 921 Paseo de Oñate Española, NM 87532 www.nnmc.edu By Zach Hively Long may they stand. Piñon trees are more patient than I am. Famously, they produce cones and nuts in cycles—every three to seven years, the internet tells me, which tracks with my undoubtedly flawed observations on my near-daily walks. So, my delight simmered over when, earlier, this summer, I saw the cones starting to form in the ’hood. I waited. I knew the birds would get theirs. I knew the ground needed its share. But I wanted some too. I finally, finally, let my fingers dive in. They got sticky with pine sap that I couldn’t wipe on my clothes, could only rub in sand. I plucked a half dozen nuts from one young tree, just to taste, just to delight. Imagine the feeling of cracking open your first wild-plucked piñon nut in years, and biting into the nothing inside. What could I do but laugh? You can’t reasonably expect anything from a piñon tree except that it keep on standing longer than any human ever has—and even this, painfully, isn’t certain anymore. In honor of the piñon shells, here’s a poem from the vault for the trees. (This poem is untitled, as are all the poems in Owl Poems [2022, Casa Urraca Press]).  I might outlive the piñon forests
in these mountains, in my desert. We are not meant to live longer than whole swaths of trees. Long enough to believe we always have more time, enough of it to kill some just to get through it, too much to comprehend what it’s worth. My older dog can admire a pine stick for an hour, which I spend begging for him to stay four, five more years. I cannot spoon him and swoon at his sleeping without hearing the hole, like a flooding well, he’ll leave with me when he’s gone. And he will be—gone. He knows it, and he chews a branch. I know it, and I distract myself trying to get a signal. Five more years —a miracle for him, while I might yet outlive the piñon forests in these mountains, in our desert. Someday, I will want to die, to leave my own hole, to answer the owl, earn her trust, find myself outlived by the trees we have left. |
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