Me xican’s
We ekl y Ma
gaz ine of
Art s, Enterta
PASA DAY
inm ent &
Culture
December
Lobos head to NMSU for second rivalry game
15, 2023
SPORTS, B-1
u Aspen Santa Fe Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ u Gifts for the Grinch on your list u Upstart Readers’ ‘A Christmas Carol’
Vigil planned Saturday in Española for four teens who died in car crash
u Tamale traditions across borders INSIDE THIS WEEK’S PASATIEMPO
LOCAL & REGION, A-8
Locally owned and independent
Friday, December 15, 2023 santafenewmexican.com $1.50
LANL to get $1.76B for nuke program
PUBLIC ED UC ATION D EPAR TMENT
Secretary grilled on proposal to boost class time
N.M.’s delegation backs defense bill but bemoans failure to expand radiation exposure compensation By Scott Wyland
swyland@sfnewmexican.com
Los Alamos National Laboratory is set to receive $1.76 billion from the justpassed military spending bill to cover its plutonium modernization and operations as it looks to produce 30 nuclear bomb cores a year. The record $886 billion military budget request, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, will give the lab a relatively moderate spending bump from the current year’s $1.6 billion for plutonium work that’s at the heart of the lab’s nuclear weapons program. The military spending bill has passed both chambers by wide margins and will head to President Joe Biden, who is expected to sign it. An appropriations bill is required to ratify the funding, but it generally passes without any substantial changes
Request for billion-dollar budget hike overshadowed by debate on local control By Margaret O’Hara mohara@sfnewmexican.com
apartments. Pah is a signed word meaning “finally” or “at last.” “We were all very excited this whole project is finally happening,” said McNiven, who is deaf and works as deputy director for the Governor’s Commission on Disability as her “day job” but spearheaded the Deaf Culture Center project as volunteer work. “After 30 years, you can imagine
The Public Education Department is asking for a 21% increase in its overall budget, from $4.2 billion this year to nearly $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. However, Thursday’s budget request before the Legislative Finance Committee was largely overshadowed by lawmakers’ criticism of the Public EducaArsenio tion Department’s Romero proposed rules, which would require 180 days of instruction for all schools beginning in the 2024-25 school year and impose a new school accreditation process. Lawmakers from all over the state and across the political spectrum denounced the proposal as an infringement on local and legislative decision making. “You’re going to fail at what you’re trying to do at rulemaking,” said committee chair Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup. The hoped-for budget increase of
Please see story on Page A-4
Please see story on Page A-4
GABRIELA CAMPOS/THE NEW MEXICAN
Lisa McNiven and Richard Cole, a resident at PAH! Hiland Plaza apartments in Albuquerque, sign and joke with one another Dec. 1 in the hallway. The affordable housing development is one of only a handful in the country designed for people who are deaf, hard of hearing or deafblind. Cole, president of the Zia Deaf-Blind Association of New Mexico, was one of the original residents of the apartments.
Dream is realized for deaf community
Please see story on Page A-4
After decades of effort, specialized housing opening at Abq. Deaf Culture Center
Washington urges Israel to scale back war in Gaza Biden administration says imprecise tactics leading to too many civilian deaths The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Biden administration officials want Israel to end its large-scale ground and air campaign in the Gaza Strip within weeks and to transition to a more targeted phase in its war against Hamas, American officials said Thursday. Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, met with Israeli leaders Thursday about the direction of the war. Sullivan did not specify a timetable, but four U.S. officials said Biden wants Israel to switch to more precise tactics in about three weeks. The officials asked for anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking. American officials have made that timeline clear to their Israeli Please see story on Page A-6
pasatiempomagazine.com
ALBUQUERQUE n the mid-1990s, 30-year-old Lisa McNiven promised herself she would create a gathering space for the deaf community in Albuquerque — no matter how long it took. Her dream and more materialized this fall with the opening of a $23.6 million, 92-unit affordable housing
I
complex with preference for deaf, hard of hearing and deafblind people, which now houses the Deaf Culture Center of New Mexico. The facility provides event and classroom space, support services and a budding entrepreneurial program for the deaf community. Two years ago, as the final pieces of the project began to settle into place, community members named the complex the PAH! Hiland Plaza
Estate sale Saturday gives look inside ‘Bill’s world’
By Adam Entous, Aaron Boxerman and Thomas Fuller
Pasapick
By Maya Hilty
mhilty@sfnewmexican.com
Former Gov. Richardson’s treasures range from alligator gloves to armor By Robert Nott
rnott@sfnewmexican.com
LUIS SÁNCHEZ SATURNO/THE NEW MEXICAN
Stephen Etre, co-owner of Stephen’s A Consignment Gallery, sets up an estate sale for former Gov. Bill Richardson at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
Classifieds B-8
Please see story on Page A-4
Winter Glow Holiday Stroll on Museum Hill
Today
Obituaries
Holiday card-making, performance of the holiday drama Los Pastores o Pastorelas and the comedy La Pastorela Cómica; 4-7 p.m.; Museum of International Folk Art and Museum of Indian Arts and Culture; free admission.
Sunny and clear. High 39, low 23.
Arcelia “Archie” Baca, 92, Dec. 1 Higinio Cardenas, Santa Fe, Dec.5
PAGE B-7
Richard Gaddes, Dec. 12
More events Fridays in Pasatiempo
Index
When he died in September at the age of 75, former Gov. Bill Richardson left more than a legacy of public service as a congressman, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, hostage-release negotiator and larger-than-life personality. He left behind a lot of pens. “Bill’s world was the world of words,” said Stephen Etre, one of the owners of Stephen’s A Consignment Gallery, as he looked over about 150 of Richardson’s pens on display under a glass case. “He used words to change the world, and these [pens] were his tools,” Etre said.
Etre’s consignment business is holding an estate sale of Richardson’s personal, professional and political belongings from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. And it ain’t just about pens. Richardson loved gloves, including a pair of alligator skin gloves he apparently never wore. There’s a row of gloves on display at the sale. He liked having lots of baggage — not the political kind, the leather kind to carry clothes and other belongings on trips. There’s a table full of them at the sale, including a weather-beaten Bona Allen saddle bag that looks like it hails
Comics B-12
Crosswords B-8, B-11
Design and headlines: Zach Taylor, ztaylor@sfnewmexican.com
Generation Next B-6
Local & Region A-8
Lotteries A-2
Opinion A-11
Sports B-1
Jody Soper, Nov. 29 Jerome Tapia, 52, Pecos Andrew L. Villa Sr., Dec. 8 PAGE A-10
Time Out B-11
Main office: 505-983-3303 Late paper: 505-986-3010 News tips: 505-986-3035
IF YOU GO What: Stephen’s A Consignment Gallery holds an estate sale of personal and professional belongings of the late Gov. Bill Richardson. When: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. Where: Santa Fe Community Convention Center, Coronado Room, 201 W. Marcy St. Info: stephens consignments. com
New meaning for ‘sheepdog’ DNA confirms tribes in Northwest bred dogs to collect wool. PAGE B-7
174th year, No. 349 Publication No. 596-440