S. Korea secures title in Little League World Series Sports, B-1
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Parking dispute gives city chance to show heart
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had complained about or 50 years, Connie Hernández parked any traffic problems in the same space caused by cars parked alongside her gift shop outside Hernández’s on Old Santa Fe Trail. shop. More important, city workers admit that Then a city employee nobody — including arrived one day this them — even knew month and took away about a parking ban in Hernández’s parking Milan that area. No-parking spot and three others Simonich signs that the city had that had been available Ringside Seat posted years ago were for her customers. He faded beyond recognisaid parking next to tion and always ignored. Hernández’s store was outlawed, and that it was choking “We hadn’t enforced it in a access to a residential neighborlong time,” said Albert Martinez, hood on Pino Road. operations manager for the city Parking Division for 10 years. Until recently, though, nobody
Connie Hernández, who owns the Old Santa Fe Trail Gift Shop, recently lost her longtime parking space and wants the city to restore at least two spots. MILAN SIMONICH THE NEW MEXICAN
By Rukmini Callimachi The New York Times
Held for nearly two years in a prison run by an affiliate of alQaida in Syria, an American freelance writer was unexpectedly freed Sunday, following extensive mediation by Qatar, the tiny Gulf emirate and United States ally that has successfully negotiated the release of numerous Western hostages in exchange for multimillion-dollar ransoms. Relatives of the freed hostage, Peter Theo Curtis, 45, said that while they were not privy to the exact terms, they were told that no ransom had been paid. Yet his surprise liberation by the alQaida affiliate, the Nusra Front, came less than a week after the decapitation of another American journalist, James Foley, held by a different and even more radical jihadist group, the Islamic State. Curtis’ release was likely to raise further questions about what, if any, concessions should
Please see RINGSIDE, Page A-4
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake strikes the heart of California’s wine country Sunday, damaging famed wineries and injuring dozens. PAGE A-3
One-two punch helps in polio fight New research suggests health workers try both the oral and injection vaccines to boost immunity. LIFE & SCIENCE, A-7
REVIEW: SANTA FE FIESTA MELODRAMA
Al-Qaida affiliate frees American it held in Syria Qatar plays key role in journalist’s release
Hernández, who turns 89 today, needs a cane to walk even short distances because of virulent arthritis. She says getting to work has become a labor unto itself. Now she has to park in a different lot behind her business. It’s a longer walk along a choppy path with more traffic. She says she no longer feels safe trying to navigate her way to her small store. Why, she asked, can’t the city give her back the parking spaces that were so innocuous the bureaucracy didn’t even realize they existed until a few weeks ago?
Strong California earthquake rattles wine country
Playful production takes on local politics, people
INSIDE u Britain says it is close to identifying suspect in American’s journalist’s beheading. PAGE A-3
be made to militant groups holding Western nationals. The beheading of Foley, which shocked and enraged much of the world, also may have spurred Qatar to press more intensively for Curtis’ release. Foley’s death, apparently at the hands of a masked Islamic State guard believed to be British, which was filmed and uploaded on YouTube, came after European nations and organizations had negotiated the liberation of more than a dozen of their citizens held in the same cell as Foley for ransoms averaging more than $2.5 million, according to former hostages, their families negotiators and officials involved in their releases. News of Curtis’ release came as British officials said they were close to identifying Foley’s suspected killer, based on voice-
Please see FREES, Page A-8
Antony Berzack, left, plays a schoolteacher who vows to teach an 80-year-old third-grader, portrayed by Cliff Russell, right, to read in a state run by retention-driven Gov. Thoothanna Dinero’s, portrayed by Felix Cordova, center. The Santa Fe Playhouse’s annual Fiesta Melodrama pokes fun at local politics, people, policies and Zozobra. LUKE E. MONTAVON/THE NEW MEXICAN
Pasapick
Off-kilter show leaves nearly no subject untouched, to mixed laughs By Robert Nott The New Mexican
www.pasatiempomagazine.com
O
nce upon a time, men acted with chivalry, women displayed dignity and politicians exuded trust (well, maybe that was a very long time ago). But none of that is the case this year in The Santa Fe Playhouse’s annual Fiesta Melodrama, alternatively titled Game of Groans or Last Train to Artsville or Zozobra for Dummies or Hot Massage
Chamber music festival finale Music of Telemann, Piazzolla and Kodály; performers include oboist Liang Wang, violinist Benjamin Beilman and cellist Ronald Thomas, 6 p.m., Lensic Performing Arts Center, 211 W. San Francisco St., $10-$75, 988-1234, ticketssantafe.org or 982-1890, www.santafechambermusic.com.
Today Some sun; an afternoon thunderstorm is possible. High 82, low 56. PAGE A-10
on the Sexually Oriented Express or No Country Music for Old Men. The first title fits it best, the third one is pretty accurate and the last one makes no sense at all given the content. Directed by Andy Primm and written by a cadre of anonymous scribes who, given the overall quality of the jokes, may do best to stay in hiding, this melodrama takes comedic potshots at politicians, the quality of public education, the New Mexico Rail Runner Express, Zozobra, slimy masseurs, the
Albuquerque Police Department, the city’s plastic-bag ban and some local restaurants. But in opening fire on just about everything eligible for spoofing, the show fires a lot of blanks. The plot: Train conductor Bertjack Baggypants (Malcom Morgan) is transporting Zozobra’s head on the Rail Runner in an effort to get it to Santa Fe in time for its annual burning. On that same train is the evil Namaste
Please see MELODRAMA, Page A-4
County invites public to test voting machines New equipment on display at open house By Daniel J. Chacón The New Mexican
Santa Fe County voters will cast their ballots on new voting machines during the November general election. But voters and any other member of the public can get a sneak peek and even test vote on the new machines starting this week.
Index
Calendar A-2
The county’s Bureau of Elections is holding an open house at its warehouse, 2600 Galisteo St., from 1 to 5 p.m. weekdays through Sept. 5, although it’ll be closed Monday, Sept. 1, in observance of Labor Day. “It’s new technology, and we want to make it as easy a transition as possible for everybody,” Eric Barraza, interim chief deputy clerk, said Thursday. The new voting machines are not yet capable of handling ranked-choice voting, which Santa Fe city voters approved in
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Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010 News tips: 983-3035
2004. Also known as instant runoff voting, ranked-choice voting allows voters to rank candidates to elect a single winner from a field of candidates when no one gets more than half the votes cast. “They’re not ready for rankedchoice voting right now, but they’re developing software, and the last I heard it was supposed to be out in 2015, late 2015,” Barraza said. Mayor Javier Gonzales said he supports ranked-choice voting and that he’s going to try to get
Crosswords B-5, B-9
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El Nuevo A-5
it in place for the next municipal election. “It’s important that people running for office have a mandate to lead, and the only way that can be achieved is through ranked voting where the ultimate winner has the support of a majority of the electorate,” he said. Barraza said he doesn’t know whether the Secretary of State’s Office, which purchased the voting machines, took city voters’ wishes into consideration before
Rick Padilla, system lead worker for the Santa Fe County Bureau of Elections, explains how to vote using one of the new ImageCast voting machines Friday. CLYDE MUELLER THE NEW MEXICAN
Please see VOTING, Page A-8
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