Pojoaque Valley tops Raton, goes to district semis Sports, B-1
Locally owned and independent
Thursday, February 27, 2014
www.santafenewmexican.com 75¢
Developer impact fees are back, but at half the cost Council approves waiver for 2 years; Bushee casts lone dissenting vote
A blow to Texas’ gay marriage ban Civil rights leader dies
The City Council, which had set the fees at zero in 2011 to try to stimulate construction spending and create jobs, voted Wednesday to set the fees at 50 percent for the next 24 months. The vote was 7-1. The city collects the impact fees from
By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
Residential builders haven’t been paying the city of Santa Fe any development impact fees for the past two years. For the next two, they’ll only have to pay half of what the costs were before the waiver took effect.
Please see FEES, Page A-4
Henry Casso, who helped found the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was 82. PAGE A-6
A federal judge rules the state’s ban is unconstitutional, handing gay rights advocates a major legal victory and igniting criticism from state officials. NATION & WORLD, A-3
Urgency grows on wildfires As state land commissioner places fireworks and smoking restrictions on state trust lands, experts talk about changing tactics. PAGE A-6
Bag charge out, ban on Patrick Grange was a standout soccer player in Albuquerque. Grange died in April of Lou Gehrig’s disease, and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head, has been found posthumously in Grange’s brain. MARK HOLM/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Albuquerque case marks new front for brain trauma disease — soccer Researchers say former UNM player Grange, who died at 29, had CTE By John Branch
The New York Times
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head, has been found posthumously in the brain of a 29-year-old former soccer player, the strongest indication yet that the condition is not limited to athletes who played violent collision sports like football and boxing. The researchers at Boston University and VA Boston Healthcare, who have diagnosed scores of cases of CTE, said Patrick Grange of Albuquerque represents the first named case of CTE in a soccer player. On a 4-point scale of severity, his was considered Stage 2. Soccer is a physical game but rarely a violent one. Collisions occur, either between players or a player and the ground, but the most repeated blows to the head might come from the act of heading an airborne ball — to redirect it purposely — in games and in practice. Grange’s parents, Mike and Michele, said Patrick, who died in April after being found to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, was especially proud of his ability to head the ball. They recalled him as a 3-year-old, endlessly tossing a soccer ball into the air and heading it into a net, a skill that he continued to practice and display in college soccer and top-level amateur and semiprofessional leagues in his quest to play Major League Soccer.
Please see GRANGE, Page A-4
Matthew Rivera, a clerk at Kaune’s Neighborhood Market, fills Diane Block’s reusable shopping bag with groceries Wednesday. The City Council later Wednesday voted to change a shopping bag ordinance scheduled to take effect Thursday. LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Council ditches paper fee, allows 30-day ‘implementation period’ as law takes effect By Uriel J. Garcia The New Mexican
T
he Santa Fe City Council on Wednesday voted to drop a 10-cent fee in its plastic-bag ban — set to go into effect Thursday — after city lawyers claimed the fee was an impermissible tax. At issue were two proposed amendments, which passed on a 7-1 vote. The changes will remove a requirement that retailers charge a 10-cent fee for paper shopping bags and postpone enforcement of the plastic-bag ban until March 27 to allow a 30-day “implementation period.” “I hate to say it, but I told you so,” said
Councilor Ron Trujillo, who cast the sole vote against the changes. “Who’s to say this [10-cent fee] isn’t going to cost the city a lot more down the road?” Trujillo said he agreed to the amendment to drop the paper bag fee, but he preferred a ban on all plastic bags. The original ordinance, approved by the council in August, will only ban grocery stores and other retail outlets from providing customers with plastic carryout bags that are less than 2.5 mils thick. Restaurants and nonprofits that serve the needy also are exempt. And stores still will be able to provide smaller bags for bulk items such as meat, produce and bakery goods.
Brewer vetoes measure allowing businesses to deny service to gays By Aaron Blake
The Washington Post
I have not heard of one “ example in Arizona where business owners’ religious liberty has been violated. The bill is broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences.”
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer,
explaining her veto of SB 1062
OUR VIEW: It’s crazy season in Arizona. PAGE A-11
Index
Calendar A-2
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a controversial bill Wednesday that would have allowed businesses in the state to deny service to gays and lesbians if they felt that serving them would violate their religious rights. Gay rights advocates had denounced the legislation, labeling it a form of legalized discrimination, and Arizona’s two GOP senators and leading Republican candidates for governor had urged Brewer, a Republican, to veto the bill. Several GOP state legislators who had voted for the measure last week have said since then that it was not the right thing to do. In an evening appearance before reporters in Phoenix, Brewer said the bill “does not address a specific or
Classifieds B-7
Comics A-12
Lotteries A-2
pressing concern” and is not part of her agenda. “I have not heard of one example in Arizona where business owners’ religious liberty has been violated,” Brewer said. “The bill is broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences.” Brewer told the bill’s supporters that she understands their desire to protect religious liberty but that the bill had the potential to cause more problems than it would solve. The legislation was passed last week in response to a ruling by the New Mexico state Supreme Court against a wedding photographer who declined to work for a couple’s same-sex wedding. Supporters of the bill say it was nar-
Please see VETO, Page A-4
Opinion A-11
Police notes A-10
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Brian Barker, bbarker@sfnewmexican.com
Sports B-1
Retailers have said the mandatory fee was a key element of the plastic bag ban. It was meant to serve as an incentive for shoppers to bring their own reusable bags and to reimburse businesses for the higher cost of paper bags. But without the 10-cent fee, consumers will be more likely to use the stores’ papers bags than bring their own reusable bags, some store managers have said. “The bag fee does create a level playing field for businesses,” said Dena Aquilina, the general manager at Beneficial Farms and a city Business and Quality of Life Committee member who helped draft the original ordinance.
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
‘Benchwarmers 13’ Festival of eight 15-minute playlets by local playwrights, 7:30 p.m., Santa Fe Playhouse, 142 E. De Vargas St., $20, ages 17 and under $15, 988-4262, santafeplayhouse.org, runs through March 2.
Obituaries
Windy, cloudy. High 60, low 34.
Carmen Olympia Gerber, 80, Albuquerque, Feb. 23 Lucian Leeds Morrison III, Houston The Rev. Guadalupe Rivera, Feb. 22 Elisa Sanchez, 82, Santa Fe, Feb. 21
PAGE B-6
PAGE A-10
Today
Time Out A-8
Outdoors B-5
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Please see BAN, Page A-4
COMING FRIDAY Who will take home the golden boy? We can’t tell you who they’ll be wearing, but Pasatiempo film critics Jonathan Richards and Laurel Gladden deliver their picks — and predictions — for this year’s Oscar-winners in Friday’s Pasatiempo; also, check it out online at www.santafenew mexican.com/ pasatiempo. The 86th Annual Academy Awards broadcast airs locally starting at 6:30 p.m. Sunday on ABC affiliate KOAT.
Two sections, 24 pages 165th year, No. 58 Publication No. 596-440