Prep beats Ruidoso, advances in state soccer tourney Sports, D-1
Cool contemporary northeast-side residence on the market Home, inside Santa Fe Real
Estate Guide
Nove mbe r 2013
Locally owned and independent
Forest Service admits error
Sunday, November 3, 2013
www.santafenewmexican.com $1.25
Cool ContEm poRaRy thE CommER Cial maRkEt
SANTA FE STUDIOS
The agency concedes its claim to a cemetery that was part of an 1806 land grant. PAgE C-1
Wildfire lawsuits Landowners, insurers and pueblos seek compensation after Las Conchas Fire. PAgE C-1
A big part to play Five years after the state and county helped to advance the project, the facility is working to fulfill its obligations and taxpayers are waiting to see how their investment will pan out
Warming effects A leaked report on climate change predicts more illness, wars, natural disasters. PAgE A-6
Lawmakers set to revamp criminal code Bipartisan effort strives to fix outdated, inconsistent laws By Steve Terrell The New Mexican
For the first time in decades, the Legislature is preparing to tackle a complete rewrite of the criminal code, a job expected to take two years. Both Democrats and Republicans agree that the laws — amended piecemeal over the years — are inconsistent, sometimes impose unfair penalties and should provide for more diversion programs, drug courts and GPS monitoring to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison. A bipartisan group of eight legislators — led by two former prosecutors — will soon begin the task. While issues of crime and punishment often can be bitterly divisive and break along party lines, in this effort, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle seem to have found common ground. Democratic
Please see CODE, Page A-5
Ernesta, a Mexican gray wolf who used to live at the Chicago Zoological Society’s Brookfield Zoo, was sent to New Mexico last year in an effort to boost the species’ wild population. ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Plan to extend protection of wolves in N.M. raises hackles By Julie Cart
Los Angeles Times
ALBUQUERQUE — In the small, rural community of Reserve, children waiting for the school bus gather inside wooden and mesh cages provided as protection from wolves. Parents consider the “kid cages” a reasonable precaution. Defenders of the wolves note there have been no documented wolf attacks in New Mexico or Arizona. Fears of wolves attacking humans, they say, are overblown and the cages nothing more than a stunt. In 1995, the reintroduction of Canadian gray wolves into the Northern Rockies ignited a furor. Now that acrimony has cascaded into the Southwest, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to extend Endangered Species Act protections for an estimated 75 Mexican wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona.
Brothers Conrad and Lance Hool, owners of Santa Fe Studios, are shown Wednesday in one of the sound stages at the facility, which is located south of Santa Fe on N.M. 14. PHOTOS BY LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
By Phaedra Haywood The New Mexican
W
hen a family of Hollywood producers came to Santa Fe asking for public funding to build a film studio in 2008, state and local officials rolled out the red carpet. Over the next two years, the project received $20 million in public incentives, including a $10 million state economic development grant created by a legislative appropriation pushed through by then-Gov. Bill Richardson. He had known the filmmakers — brothers Lance and Conrad Hool — since their days playing Little League baseball together in Mexico City. Santa Fe County sold the brothers a piece of land in a specially created media district for them to build the studio, and it supplied the plot with about $3.6 million worth of high-speed Internet connections, road improvements and water. The county also agreed to guarantee a $6.5 million construction loan to the Hools for the endeavor. Five years later, studio and county officials are calling the project a success, saying it is on track to meet the job-creation goals that were a requirement of all the public subsidies it received. Among the major productions that have been shot there are the 2013 comedy We’re the Millers, starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. But it may be too soon to pop the
Sleep in Sunday Don’t forget to set clocks back one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday.
Calendar A-2
Classifieds E-9
Lotteries A-2
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AP
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Inspired by the silver screen Santa Fe resident Eric Gustafson’s love of cinema took him from the Bronx to high society. NEIghBOrS, C-8
Please see WOLVES, Page A-5
Index
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11 12 1
Neighbors C-8
Opinions B-1
Police notes C-3
Editor: Ray Rivera, 986-3033, rrivera@sfnewmexican.com Design and headlines: Kristina Dunham, kdunham@sfnewmexican.com
The county guaranteed a $6.5 million construction loan to the Hools for the studio.
Champagne cork. A closer examination of the studio’s numbers and the government’s less-than-stringent protocols for verifying them indicate the studio still has a lot to accomplish before taxpayers can be assured they’ll see a return on their investment. In 2011, the first phase of Santa Fe Studios was completed on a 65-acre tract of land off N.M. 14 south of the city. The state-of-the-art development includes two 20,000-square-foot sound stages, with ceilings high enough to allow an airplane to be suspended inside, as well as office suites, hair and makeup facilities, and a
4,600-square-foot “mill” building, where sets are constructed. In exchange for the public backing, the Hool brothers and Lance Hool’s son, Jason Hool, agreed to train a local workforce and provide 500,000 hours of above-minimumwage jobs within six years. According to Santa Fe County — which is charged with tracking the job-creation requirements in the deal — the studio has created about 200,000 job hours, or just under half of those required.
Obituaries Pauline T. Brown, Oct. 1 Maria Socorro Lopez Garcia, 87, Oct. 11 Stanton H. Hirsch, 90, Santa Fe, Oct. 29 Mark Lawrence Martinez, 62, Oct. 12 Lucy Sandoval, 91, Oct. 29 Jefferson “Jeff” John Stratton Jr., Santa Fe, Oct. 21 PAgES C-2, C-3
Real Estate E-1
Sports D-1
Please see PArT, Page A-4
Pasapick www.pasatiempomagazine.com
Today Partly sunny. High 60, low 33.
Santa Fe Kirtan Fest Music, yoga, film and sacred dance; Railyard Performance Center, 1611 Paseo de Peralta, and Center for Spiritual Living, 505 Camino de los Marquez; santafekirtanfest.com.
PAgE D-6
Time Out/puzzles E-16
Main office: 983-3303 Late paper: 986-3010
Six sections, 48 pages 164th year, No. 307 Publication No. 596-440