Museum Hill in bloom: Botanical Garden opens soon Local news, C-1
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Wednesday, July 17, 2013
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FORT MARCY BALLPARK
Cheri Kee and David Duhigg toast each other in the beer garden at Fort Marcy Ballpark during a Fuego game July 5.
Panel OKs expanded beer garden Plan may alter alcohol sale rules for 2014 Fuego season
By Julie Ann Grimm
The New Mexican
Members of the city’s Public Safety Committee support a plan to expand the area for alcohol consumption at Fort Marcy
Ballpark during Pecos League games. The advisory committee voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend approval of the proposal. Councilor Ronald Trujillo and Mayor David Coss want the city
to eliminate rules that require a “beer garden” segregated from the rest of the seating area with a fence and instead allow alcohol consumption in the entire
JANE PHILLIPS THE NEW MEXICAN
Please see BeeR, Page A-6
Steeling for more rains ex-cop
cleared in death of wife After 10 hours of deliberations, jury reaches verdict; woman’s father says ‘justice not served’ By Russell Contreras The Associated Press
Darius Chacon of SouthWest Design LLC clears an area of mud and ash Tuesday at a private home off N.M. 63 in Pecos Canyon. The crew is in its ninth day of work helping Tres Lagunas prepare for floodwaters. PHOTOS BY JANE PHILLIPS/THE NEW MEXICAN
Santa Cruz Lake: Managers fear Jaroso Fire fallout
Pecos Canyon: ‘Worst of worst’ flooding Sunday isn’t the end
By Staci Matlock The New Mexican
By Kathryn Worrall
three weeks, the department has dumped about 200 yards of debris there. Garcia hopes that after the material is tested, that it can be reused for fertilizer or to help prevent erosion. Tres Lagunas, a private community mainly of second homes, five of which are historic, is surrounded by burn scars and very susceptible to flash floods. The
Thousands of Northern New Mexico gardeners and farmers who depend on the small Santa Cruz Lake for irrigation water were already having a tough year due to drought. Now they face the high likelihood of major damage to the lake, dam and irrigation works from debris, ash and floods expected from a nearby wildfire burn scar. The Jaroso Fire has burned more than 11,000 acres in the Pecos Wilderness. Rain on the west side of the burn scar is expected to wash logs and debris into Santa Cruz Lake and could flood small downstream villages, such as Cundiyó and Rio Chiquito, north of Santa Fe. Storm runoff from the burn scar could also affect the upper Pecos Canyon. Jim Snyder, a hydrologist with the specialized Forest Service team that
Please see FLOODINg, Page A-4
Please see FALLOUT, Page A-4
The New Mexican
T
hough Pecos Canyon’s roads are almost clear of debris left behind by the flash floods Sunday evening, New Mexico Department of Transportation Staff Manager Richard Garcia hardly believes their work is over. “This is the last of the last,” Garcia said as dump trucks loaded debris from near the Terrero General Store. “Now we just wait for the next heavy rain.” Since a 15-minute downpour propelled 2 feet of topsoil, ash, burnt branches and boulders down onto N.M. 63 on Sunday, Garcia and his team of 11 men have worked 24/7 to clear the three-mile stretch of road between Tres Lagunas and Ter-
State Transportation Department crews clear N.M. 63 on Tuesday after recent flooding in Pecos Canyon. The crews have been working around the clock.
rero. “When we first got called in, we just cleared the road,” Garcia said. “Then we came back and moved the debris.” A snowplow was used to push debris to the side, and the Department of Transportation now has backhoes and dump trucks collecting the debris and dumping it at a patrol yard near Rowe, where the department stores equipment. Over the past
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
‘La Donna del Lago’ Mezzo-soprano Joyce di Donato in Rossini’s love story set against the turbulence of 18th-century Scotland, 8:30 p.m., Santa Fe Opera; tickets, 986-5900.
Index
Calendar A-2
Classifieds D-3
Obituaries Alfredo Esquibel Jr., July 14 Josephine Ipiotis, 86, Santa Fe, July 14 Hernanda Angelina (Angie) Medina, 87 July 13 Rosa C. Martinez Montoya, 99,
Comics C-8
Lotteries A-2
Picnic in style
July 15 Lillian G. Salazar, 75, July 15 Josephine M. Sanchez, 80, Santa Fe, June 27 Ronald Corey Stark, 69, Santa Fe, July 12 PAge C-2
Opinion A-5
An opera tailgate party? Hit the right note with swanky fare. TAsTe, D-1
Today Thunderstorms. High 77, low 54
BERNALILLO — A former Albuquerque police officer was acquitted of murder on Tuesday in the death of his wife after a trial that contained salacious revelations about his extramarital affairs with coworkers and further tarnished the reputation of the troubled police department. Levi Chavez, 32, was accused of killing his hairdresser wife with his police-issued handgun and making it look like a suicide amid a crumbling marriage that Levi Chavez included a love triangle at her hair salon and the husband carrying on affairs with numerous women. Chavez clutched rosary beads in court Tuesday and made the sign of a cross after the verdict was read. “I told y’all from the very beginning I was innocent,” he said. Chavez also embraced his attorney, David Serna, who said, “What did I tell you?” Chavez’s family surrounded him and they prayed. Prosecutor Bryan McKay declined comment after the verdict. He had sought life in prison.
Please see CLeAReD, Page A-4
Hollywood won’t heed call to tone down violence A year after Colorado shooting, bloody films, video games reign By Jocelyn Noveck The Associated Press
NEW YORK — It was a year ago this week that the sickening sound of gunfire rang out at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo. The mass shooting reverberated painfully in Hollywood, and how could it not? It happened at the movies. Five months later, the horrific massacre of firstgraders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., launched yet more reflection — about gun control, certainly, but also about entertainment content, particularly violent video games said to be favored by the killer. And yet, in the year since Aurora, seemingly little has overtly changed in the area of violence in entertainment, save the notable musings of actor Jim Carrey, who tweeted misgivings about his latest film after Newtown: “Now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence,” he wrote. And some ask: If nothing changes now,
Please see HOLLYWOOD, Page A-4
PAge C-6
Police notes C-3
Interim Editor: Bruce Krasnow, 986-3034, bkrasnow@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Cynthia Miller, cmiller@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
Time Out C-7
Travel C-5
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Four sections, 28 pages 164th year, No. 198 Publication No. 596-440