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THE NEW MEXICAN Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Former LOCAL NEWS Española Radio host organizes march with guns mayor eyes city’s top job Former Santa Fe resident says July 4 protest in nation’s capital will be a ‘non-violent event’ By Tom Sharpe
The New Mexican
Libertarian radio host Adam Kokesh, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for New Mexico’s 3rd Congressional District in 2010, is trying to organize a July 4 march on the nation’s capital by 1,000 people with loaded guns. “This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent,” Kokesh wrote on a new Facebook page. “Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.” Two years ago, Kokesh, who hosts a radio and Internet pro-
gram called Adam vs The Man in the Washington, D.C., area, was arrested for dancing at the Jefferson Memorial to protest a ban on dancing there. Kokesh grew up in Santa Fe, the son of Marla and Charles Kokesh. The elder Kokesh was a California venture capitalist who moved to Santa Fe in the 1990s to buy the Santa Fe Horse Park, but ran into financial misfortunes, including foreclosures on the horse park and his home. In 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged him with misappropriating $45 million in investor funds — a case that remains in negotiation. Charles Kokesh recently sold Dakota Arms, a rifle-manufacturing plant in Sturgis, S.D., to the Remington Co. Adam Kokesh, 31, was dismissed from the Marines in 2007 for protesting the war in Iraq. He
was removed from the 2008 Republican National Convention for protesting during John McCain’s accepAdam Kokesh tance speech. A fan of Ron Paul, Kokesh ran against Farmington oilman Tom Mullins for the Republican nomination for Northern New Mexico’s seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mullins took 70 percent of the primary vote, then lost by 14 percent to Democratic incumbent Ben Ray Luján. Kokesh was not available for comment. But he appeared Monday on Infowars.com, an Austin, Texas-based radio and Internet program hosted by the gravely voiced, conspiratorially minded, anti-gun-control Alex Jones who praised Kokesh for his “Open Carry March on Washington.” “I’ve never done it because I am convinced they’ll send in pro-
vocateurs and stage something to demonize gun owners,” Jones said. Kokesh began by calling his proposal “an armed revolt against the American government — make no mistake about it.” He said participants in his planned march would carry loaded rifles and shotguns “slung across their back so their hands are not anywhere near” their weapons as they march from Virginia, where guns can be carried openly, across the Arlington Memorial Bridge into the District of Columbia, where openlycarried guns are generally illegal. Once inside what Kokesh called “the district of criminals,” the marchers will head down Independence Avenue to the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the White House, before returning to Virginia, according to the event’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ events/252728144871259/?ref=3. Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.
SITE Santa Fe announces its 2014 biennial exhibit
People gather Monday to hear the announcement of SITE Santa Fe’s biennial exhibition in 2014, Sitelines: Unsettled Landscapes, at the Farmers Market building in the Railyard District. JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
Connecting the Americas By Michael Abatemarco
The New Mexican
S
ITE Santa Fe announced Monday the return of its signature international biennial which will be focused on contemporary art from the Americas. Sitelines: Unsettled Landscapes, which opens in July of 2014 “is an exhibition series that makes connections between Santa Fe’s later histories and regions throughout the western hemisphere,” said Jane Dees, SITE’s assistant curator. Further Sitelines exhibitions will follow in 2016 and 2018 and collectively the biennial series is called Sitelines: New Perspectives on the Art of the Americas. “Our work will be artist-centric, investigative, and experimental,” said Dees. The organization’s last biennial was the well-received, animation-based exhibit The Dissolve that premiered in 2010. Amid last year’s speculation about SITE’s decision not to host a biennial in 2012, the contemporary art venue announced an
exhibition called More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness, developed with a similar international scope as previous biennials. More Real? opened in July of last year and was a joint project between SITE and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Irene Hofman, SITE’s Phillips director and chief curator, maintained that last year’s hiatus from the biennial model was only temporary and announcement of a 2014 biennial has been highly anticipated. “For SITE’s new biennial exhibition, we bring new focus to the geography that links us to two continents, many countries, many languages and cultures, many histories and many experiences,” she said. “Just a few miles from here is the Pan-American Highway, a network of nearly 30,000 miles of road that links Alaska to Argentina. Today we announce that the new focus of our biennial exhibition will be on contemporary art from the Americas.” SITE’s 2013 summer season begins with the introduction of an ambitious series of experimental exhibits with short runs called SITElab in a section of SITE’s lobby devoted
to exhibits. The SITElab exhibits will feature community-based projects, previously unseen contemporary work coming directly from the studios of contemporary artists, and interdisciplinary exhibits. SITElab shows will remain open when the rest of SITE is closed for installation of new exhibits in the main exhibition spaces. SITElab 1.0 opens on Saturday, June 8, with the work of Italian artist Marco Brambilla’s Creation, a 3-D video collage of clips sampled from hundreds of obscure and mainstream films. Opening at SITE on July 13 is an immersive installation by Enrique Martínez Celaya titled The Pearl. It is a multi-sensory experience merging sights and sounds with olfactory sensations and combines painting, sculpture, and video. The Pearl will be accompanied by an exhibit of Martínez Celaya’s prepatory drawings. SITE”S current offerings, State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970, Mungo Thomson: Time, People, Money, Crickets, and Linda Mary Montano: Always Creative, are up through May 19.
In brief
Nursing home reports norovirus The Santa Fe Care Center put some of its patients in isolation this week due to an outbreak of norovirus. No one from the nursing home at 635 Harkle Road responded to messages from The New Mexican after a woman called to say she had been turned away from visiting her father Monday. Kenny Vigil, a public informa-
Section editor: Howard Houghton, 986-3015, hhoughton@sfnewmexican.com
ease Control. Highly contagious, it is spread by contaminated food or water, or by touching contaminated surfaces.
Vietnam Project benefit dinner set Counter Culture at 930 Baca Street, will be donating 25 percent of food revenue on Tuesday, May 7 from 5 p.m. to closing to the Vietnam Project. Two board members recently returned from Vietnam where they arranged life saving heart surgery for three children, built 10 houses and repaired one, gave
By Julie Ann Grimm The New Mexican
A list of potential candidates for mayor of Santa Fe grew longer Monday when former Española Mayor Joseph Maestas and others said they are considering a campaign for the post. Mayor David Coss announced last week that he won’t seek a third term in the March 4, 2014, municipal election. Maestas, 52, said in an interview Monday that he is in an exploratory phase regarding a potential bid for the approximately $29,500-a-year, part-time elected office. He praised Coss, with whom he said he “collaborated on progressive issues such as immigration reform, regional economic development and drug interdiction.” The two were elected to their first mayoral term in 2006. Maestas, who served for two years as a city councilor in Española before getting elected as mayor, decided not to seek re-election to that office. Instead, he and his wife, U.S. District Judge Martha Vazquez, in 2010 moved from their former home in Santa Cruz, on the northern Joseph edge of Santa Fe County, to a home Maestas inside the Santa Fe city limits. “On the surface, when a former mayor of Española is considering running for mayor of Santa Fe, I can see how there can be some initial skepticism, but my roots run deep,” said Maestas, a civil engineer who said he plans to retire from his job with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in about a year and a half. “And not only do my roots run deep from a generational standpoint, but I think from a service standpoint. I’m not someone who just got off the bus. … I have experience, and that has got to mean something.” Albuquerque political consultant Neri Holguin is helping Maestas, he said, but he noted that the two have no contractual relationship. Maestas said he’s not collecting or spending money because he wants to reserve the option of using public campaign funds. Santa Fe city councilors first tapped into the city’s public campaign financing system during the last municipal election, but 2014 will mark the first time it applies to a mayor’s race. City Clerk Yolanda Vigil said as soon as candidates make a public announcement of the intentions, they should contact her office to learn about campaign finance rules and restrictions. Holguin has worked for candidates including Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, State Land Commissioner Ray Powell, a number county commission candidates in Northern New Mexico, and for Santa Fe school board members Steven Carrillo and Lorraine Price. Santa Fe’s municipal elections are nonpartisan. City Councilors Patti Bushee, Bill Dimas and Rebecca Wurzburger all said last week that they are considering a run for the mayor’s seat, and state Democratic Party Chairman Javier Gonzales, a former Santa Fe County commissioner, hinted through a political consultant last week that he might run for the city office. First-term Councilor Chris Rivera said Monday that he’s also mulling whether to enter the race. Lifelong Santa Fe resident Josina Campos also said this week that she plans to run for mayor. Campos, who lives in council District 2, said her platform will include “cleaning up City Hall.” The official start to Santa Fe’s city election calendar is Sept. 3, when Vigil said she will release documents to candidates so they may begin collecting signatures on nominating petitions. Candidates for mayor must come up with about 250 signatures of registered voters (half of one percent of the registered voters in the city). Voters are only permitted to sign one nominating position for each ballot position. Those petitions are due back to the clerk in November. Those who qualify for the ballot formally declare candidacy in December. Early voting begins Jan. 28. In addition to the mayor’s race, four of the eight seats on the City Council will be on the ballot: Wurzburger’s District 2 seat and the positions held by Chris Calvert in District 1, Carmichael Dominguez in District 3 and Ron Trujillo in District 4.
Body of woman believed to have died in October found
coconut husk fiber spinning machines and materials to 238 people, handed out sets of exercise books to 793 students, gave bicycles to 11 elementary school students, provided university scholarships to five students, gave school clothes to 202 elementary school students, gave rice to 649 people and arranged monthly assistance for six individuals and families living in very difficult circumstances. The Vietnam Project, founded in December 1999 by Marv Freedman and Janie Oakes, is a nonprofit humanitarian organization
An unidentified woman believed to be dead since at least October was found Monday afternoon. According to the Santa Fe Police Department, the woman was in her 70s and lived at 2501 West Zia Road. Celina Westervelt, the department’s public information officer, said some family members traveling through Santa Fe had stopped to visit the woman and found that she had died. Westervelt said the department believes she had been dead since at least October. An unopened letter postmarked October was found under the door. Westervelt said the woman appeared to be a hoarder as well. Neighbors had complained of a bad smell, but the hoarding was blamed for its origin. Westervelt also said the woman had been otherwise out of touch with her family. The Public Service Company of New Mexico had shut off power to the condo in early February. Tina Tait, manager of the Zia Vista Condominiums, said she had been asked not to speak about the case, but that she could confirm that someone had died in the complex. Moreover, she said the woman had owned the condo for about eight years.
The New Mexican
The New Mexican
“ Our work will be artist-centric, investigative, and experimental.” tion officer for the state Health Department, confirmed that on the recommendation of the department, the Santa Fe Care Center voluntarily put some of its patients in isolation due to the outbreak. “The sick patients have been put in an area together and then the people who are caring for them are only caring for them to try to avoid transmission to the healthy folks,” he said. Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States, causing about 21 million illnesses, 70,000 hospitalizations and 800 deaths a year, according to the Centers for Dis-
Joseph Maestas says his roots run deep, is in exploratory phase of bid
Jane Dees, SITE Santa Fe
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