By Jake Arnold
 
The odd-number year "local elections" (some city councils, school boards, and conservation districts statewide) are scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, but early voting for those contests is now underway at two Rio Arriba County locations--the Rio Arriba county clerk's "warehouse" facility on Calle Don Diego in downtown Española (near the Plaza, Convento and Bond House Museum) and the county clerk's office in Tierra Amarilla. 
 
Several other early voting locations will be open for those wishing to cast ballots before the actual election beginning October 21 and October 24, depending on the location:
 
Hernandez Community Center (10/21)
 
Jicarilla Apache Tribal Building in Dulce (10/24)
 
Ohkay Owingeh Senior Center (10/24)
 
Santa Clara Pueblo Senior Citizens Building (10/21)
 
The last day for early voting at all these locations is Saturday, Nov. 4, 2023.
 
The Mesa Vista school district covers portions of Rio Arriba and Taos Counties.
 
The Espanola school district covers portions of Rio Arriba and Santa Fe Counties.
 
Information regarding early-voting locations for voters residing in those counties is available from the respective county clerks of those counties.
 
Two candidates are vying for an Española Board (members elected according to a specific geographic district) seat for the Abiquiu/Medanales/Hernandez area:
 
Incumbent Jeremy Maestas and challenger Dale T. Salazar.
 
Maestas is the Rio Arriba County manager and has previously held a variety of appointive, administrative positions in county and City of Española governments. The county commissioners appointed Maestas county manager after they dismissed former county manager Lucia Sanchez, a political ally of Rio Arriba Sheriff Billy Merrifield, earlier this year.
 
Salazar’s previous run for elective office was opposing Alex Naranjo for a seat on the Rio Arriba Board of County Commissioners in 2022.  In that election Salazar received a remarkable number of votes as a write-in candidate, but lost to Naranjo 1,127 (31%) to 2,507 (69%) in the general election.  Salazar was the campaign manager for Merrifield in his successful race to fill a vacancy in that office in 2022.  
 
In compliance with recent changes in state statues regulating these add-year local elections, the Mesa Vista School Baird ballot has a new format never utilized previously.
All Mesa Vista School Board seats are now “at large” districtwide and candidates do not run for a specific at-large “position” as in the past.  Three at-large seats are up for election this year and five candidates are seeking those seats.   
 
The ballot for those seats allows a voter to cast votes for three candidates (or just one or two if that should be the voter’s preference—no “ranked choice” order of preference selection is included on this ballot).  The top three candidates receiving votes are then elected.
 
Some incumbent Mesa Vista board members, whose terms are expiring, are not seeking reelection.
 
The five candidates seeking those three Mesa Vista eats are:
 
Anthony Xavier Vigil of El Rito (incumbent Mesa Vista School Board president)
 
Edwin J. Gurule of Tres Piedras (longtime Mesa Vista school bus driver)
 
John Garcia of Ojo Caliente (former board member defeated for reelection a few years back)
 
Juan J. Manzanares of La Madera
 
Daniella Irene Gallegos of El Rito
 
Both the Espanola and Mesa Vista ballots also include questions asking voters to approve or reject proposed the issuance of general obligation property tax bonds.
 
Also on the ballot are Chama Valley and Dulce school board seats as well as seats on two soil & water conservation districts covering portions of Rio Arriba County.
 
A complete list of all statewide local offices up for election this November is available at one of NM Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver’s official website pages.
 

By Brian Bondy
 
I don’t know, but I thought robots and AI would be just a perfect combination. What could go wrong?

Robots have been around for a long time. A really long time. You should look at the history of robots CLICK HERE. 

It’s a great review of some of the inventions through the ages considered to be part of the robot’s making.

I like the Automatons the best. Very mechanical, clockwork mechanisms, especially the one’s that write and look a bit human. Check out Wikipedia’s story of them CLICK HERE. 
​
Okay, so the reason I’m writing this article is because a reader of the AI article mentioned the replacement of human jobs by AI. Since it’s already happening, and since robotics have been replacing humans for decades, I thought I’d poke around for some interesting things that have happened and I found one, in particular. One of my favorite YouTube science people had a video purported to be of an Elon Musk related robot. This particular beast was doing some things new to the humanoid robot world, and I thought I’d put that video..

So what are some real world applications for robots taking away human jobs? Certainly the car industry has been using robotics for decades to help build automobiles. The mining industry has been using robotics as well, arguably, that one is a great, but there are thousands of jobs lost to robots for people who may not readily be able to be retrained to do something else, and where would they do that something else anyway? It’s not like every mining town has a whole another industry for folks to work at.
​
Robots are entering the food production market. Watch this short Pizza video Here. ​

While Abiquiu does not currently employ any robots, per se, there are plenty of examples of robotics taking over the food production world, though generally, we are talking about fast food products like pizza and burgers. Still, I remember seeing a bar that didn’t have a bar tender, but a robot that made and served drinks. Or maybe that was in The Shining remake.
While this may seem cutting edge, there are plenty of companies making these robots, and more and more companies buying into them.  Amazon is heavily using robotics, and they pretty much own the world. Like AI, for good and for bad, robotics are here and they aren’t going away, they are just getting started.

Here’s an interesting 20 minute video on 10 restaurants already using robots.
​

By Jake Arnold
 
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies this week renewed her request to District Judge Matthew Wilson for appointment of a special prosecutor in the perjury cases against current Rio Arriba County Board of Commissioners Chair Alex Naranjo and former County Manager Tomás Campos.
 
Both defendants are facing indictments handed up in May by a special grand jury that investigated allegations of corruption/criminal conduct on the part of employees and board members of the beleaguered North Central Solid Waster Authority, (NCSWA) a joint-powers governmental entity created by the county, the City of Española and other units of local government.  Both Naranjo and Campos served on the NCSWA during Naranjo's previous tenue as a county commissioner and Campos' service as county manager.
 
The indictments do not recount any such criminal activity as NCSWA officials, but rather charge both defendants with lying in their respective testimonies related to their knowledge of possible wrongdoing within the NCSWA when they were board members.  The special investigative grand jury was convened pursuit to a citizen petition circulated by Antonio (Ike) DeVargas, a former county official, a longtime critic of Naranjo and numerous other county officials.  DeVargas began his petition-gathering efforts in 2019, when Marco Serna was DA.
 
Carmack-Altweis had filed a notice with the court requesting that either the AG take over prosecution of the perjury cases or that a special prosecutor be assigned to the case.  The DA stated in her initial request of early August (and reiterated in her filing this week) that the relations between her office, DeVargas, and the special grand jury members was so contentious  that the DA could not continue to prosecute these cases. 
 
Carmack-Altweis also identifies a conflict prohibiting her continued involvement in these cases since one of her prosecutors, Douglas Woods, is likely to be a to be a witness in these perjury cases both scheduled for trial in early May, 2024, just a month before next year's primary elections.

In her renewed request, the DA revealed that AG Raul Torrez had declined to take over the case.  Consequently, the DA is asking Judge Wilson to appoint a special prosecutor and recommends that her predecessor, former DA Marco Serna receive that appointment. 
 
The special grand jury, in their report to the court, recommended that additional investigation into what they perceived likely to be internal NCSWA criminal conduct continue since they could not complete such a task before their statutory term of authority to do so ended.   It is unclear if an appointed special prosecutor in the Naranjo/Campos perjury cases would also pursue the perceived internal criminal NCSWA conduct suggest in in the special grand jury report.
 
Serna returned to private practice after choosing not to seek re-election as DA  in 2020 and losing a bid for a congressional seat in the Democratic primary that same year. Later, Serna accepted a position with the statewide NM District Attorney's Association (NMDDA), which is effectively an adjunct agency affiliated with the AODA.  In that role, Serna serves as an auxiliary prosecutor/special prosecutor on behalf of local DAs who may need specialized assistance provided by those agencies. 

Carmack-Altwies has indicated if she will seek reelection as DA next year.
 
Serna recently hinted that he might run for First District Attorney (the position his successor, Carmack-Altweis now holds) again in 2024.  The First District includes Rio Arriba, Santa Fe and Los Alamos Counties.   

A story earlier this month by courts reporter Phaedra Haywood of the Santa Fe New Mexican stated:
 
"... (Serna) said in a phone interview supporters have approached him about again seeking the post.  “It’s humbling,” Serna said. “I have not made any decisions, but if people want to continue to speak to me about it, I’m not going to deny them that. I’m considering all opportunities at this point. ... It’s a big decision, one I won’t take lightly.”

In her letter to Judge Wilson, Carmack-Altweis identifies Serna as a special prosecutor (in his role with the AODA/NMDDA, with a relatively light case load, thereby allowing him to prosecute the perjury cases. Carmack-Altweis also proposes that Serna is familiar with the continuing efforts by DeVargas to have a special grand just convened since Serna was DA in 2019 when DeVargas initiated his petition-gathering.  

Carmack-Altwies asked Judge Wilson to hold a hearing re: her request. The judge has not yet set a hearing date.