Chronicle Closes

Last Issue

An award winning local paper closed its doors after its blindsided staff issued their final paper. Second homeowners and residents of the Village of Angel Fire were in absolute shock. And very angry.

The closing if the Chronicle and the Raton Comet left Colfax County, New Mexico without a newspaper of record. The parent company which owns the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Taos News claims local residents did not support the lessor papers and offered subscribers to convert their subscription to the Taos News.

The banner of the Santa Fe New Mexican founded in 1849 declares proudly that it is locally owned and independent. And yet it feels that is not necessary for the survival of its acquisitions. Most subscribers to the Chronicle say the New Mexican made a lot of mistakes since it bought the paper. First it tried to merge the Raton Comet into to the Chronicle. They were too far away in airy fairy Santa Fe to know we hate each other. There has been an underground movement for almost two decades to divide Colfax county in half. And we do not like the Taos News (or Taos really). We resent that we shop there but no one from Taos ever comes here. And all the Taos Galleries have a Taos artist only policy. But most importantly Raton is ranch country and we are the mountains. Taos is the other side of the mountain.

And under the less than independent standing the Chronicle brought in editors and reporters from far and distant cities. People who did not know anyone here and who seemed to resent being here. A small, local paper needs above all loyalty of its readers. And it needs to be local. Locally Owned and Independent to borrow a phrase from the Santa Fe, New Mexican. Its staff needs to understand and belong to the community. Northern New Mexicans, it is said, do not even talk to newcomers until they have been here two years. Why should we read what they wrote?

Everyone has an opinion as to why the Chronicle failed even after giving Raton its own paper. You hear the digital age bantered about but there are still a lot of people not connected, who want their news in a concrete form like paper. They want to sit in the coffee shop to work the puzzles, point out the picture of their granddaughter graduating from middle school to their friends, and discuss the editorial with the editor who they have known for years and lives next door when they come in for their double cap to go. And the local businesses in this tourist town, the ones that advertise, want a paper which says Angel Fire and not Taos on its banner.

It helps if you know it is not Angle Fire or Eagles Nest. And that Sangre de Cristo does not have an H.

Why should we mess up the west? Again

Mount Taylor by Dave Arnold

I lived and went to school in Albuquerque during the 1960's when the power brokers were beginning their destruction of the west with the building of the Glen Canyon Dam. They argued very few people went there and ergo who would miss it. And the greater good was to provide energy for the area and prevent the flooding of the Colorado River and build a great recreational reservoir. The fight to stop the Glen Canyon Dam and a proposed other three dams along the Grand Canyon was spear headed by Ansel Adams and the newly formed Sierra Club. It is Ansel's images which remind us of what is buried beneath the waters.

We did not stop Lake Powell, we personally get no power from it, and the Colorado never flooded below that point because the Grand Canyon controlled it naturally. But the environmental movement did stop the other dams proposed. I have heard rumblings on the net that the dam proposals are getting active again.

This is so wrong and so is the proposed largest US Uranium mine on Mt. Taylor. Thousands of people daily in Albuquerque watch the sun set behind this 11,000 foot peak which includes sacred lands for several First Americans. However, you hear the argument that nobody cares about the back side. I have seen the backside. My sister has off roaded on the back side. And it can be argued that the west central area of the state looks at dawn from its backside.

My sister took me to the San Mateo area behind Mt. Taylor in 2011. It is an area open to mining for coal and uranium even though much of it is government land. There are also huge ranches in the area and a sparse population.  It was formed by the same volcanic activity that made Mt. Taylor and is mineral rich. And it is beautiful! That seems to get lost in this whole argument about Canada and Japan needing our uranium. I cannot post pictures of the forests on the back of Mt. Taylor but I urge everyone that can to do so. Please link in a comment to this blog.

I can however personally post my photos of the mysterious and beautiful San Mateo landscape.

Goblins by J. Binford-Bell

Red formations by J. Binford-Bell

Sandstone cliffs by J. Binford-Bell

 This area held by the BLM is used for camping, hunting, grazing of cattle and protection of wildlife in the area. And photographers. It is abused only by geologists looking for mining areas. They obviously want to open new uranium mines even though we have not cleaned up the mess from the old ones mostly closed in 1990 and we still have not a clue what to do with spent uranium fuel rods, etc. It is relatively safe hidden in the earth so let's destroy the earth and dig it up.

Stock pond by J. Binford-Bell

Vista of the valley from one of the cliff walks

Another poly-chrome cliff by J. Binford-Bell

My sister recording the beauty of the area

It was so quiet the day were were there in October. It was the New Mexico of my youth when you could hear the ants crawl if you listened. And the sky was such a vivid clean blue. Mining roads up and down through here to the proposed biggest uranium mine in the world just across the valley would ruin that. And leave a patina of dust all over the beautiful rocks, choking the life out of vegetation that struggles with the arid environment.

Just because you have not been there do not let them destroy it. Or contaminate the aquifer for all the residents in the area and anywhere on the aquifer. The closed uranium mine near Milan just a few miles south is already doing that. And the uranium is not even for us.

We should be afraid - very afraid

Michael Astorga was given the gift of life imprisonment yesterday by a jury selected for the death penalty phase of his trial. The jury reported in the morning that they were hopelessly deadlocked and very afraid. The asked for police escorts and protection. The judge sent them back to continue deliberations and later in the afternoon they returned the verdict of LIFE plus 13 years for the murder of Deputy Sheriff James McGrane. He still faces charges for the murder of Candida Martinez. 

But Michael Astorga is goring to jail where he has been before and wants to be because he can still control his gangs in jail. The jury that placed him there hope he will be merciful. The jury that found him guilty of the murder of Deputy McGrane is scared.

Michael Astorga has been committing violent crimes since he was a teenager. He was arrested in 1994 for battery. In 1996 he and his brother were charged with first degree murder—his brother was convicted but Michael walked. He has a long list of other crimes including another battery charge, property crimes, and a long list of drug crimes including trafficking—usually while carrying a deadly weapon. 

In 1998 he was sentenced to prison for eight different felonies—but we released on good behavior only six years later. After this release, in March 2005, he was arrested for violating parole, but was released again in June 2005. Then, in November 2005 a warrant was issued for Astorga’s arrest for shooting Candida Martinez in the head. She died a few hours later and Astorga walked out of a meeting with his parole officer just a few hours after the warrant had been sworn out for his arrest. 

Michael did not flee New Mexico. Albuquerque was his home turf. He was pulled over for a routine traffic stop by Deputy Sheriff James McGrane. Astorga shot him leaving McGrane’s wife a widow and his children fatherless. He should not have been free to murder Candida Martinez or Deputy McGrane. If our criminal justice system worked he would have been in jail as a repeat offender. Or sentenced to life after the 1996 murder with his brother. Or serving his full sentence for the eight felonies he was found guilty of in 1998,

Astorga has no redeeming social values. He is not going to be rehabilitated and become a contributing member of society. During the death penalty phase of his murder trial for Deputy McGrane he called character witnesses including the Archbishop of Santa Fe, who didn't show up. And his attorney's claimed extenuating circumstances. It would be funny if it was not so serious for our society. Justice is broken. Very broken. He can be bought as in the case of O.J. Simpson or forced by threats in any direction the defendant and his friends want.

Astorga should not be allowed to serve his life plus 13 years in a New Mexico prison. He should be exchanged with another prisoner like him in another state. Take him as far away as possible from his Bros and the system he has learned so well to manipulate.

Little State, Big State

I have done Red State/Blue State but now I would like to do Big State/Little State. Hillary is making the case repeatedly that while she has gotten fewer states than Obama she has gotten the big states which makes her more electable in the Presidential race. So what about us little states? What about our issues?

They never seem to be covered by any candidate on a national level because they do not have enough electoral punch. So our issues like flooding and the state of the levees on the Mississippi which runs through a bunch of little states is ignored. Or the drought which has plagued the west where I live and its effect on the level of the lakes like Powell and Mead which is used to generate power for power leeches like Los Angeles and Las Vegas. All the states that contribute to that future hydroelectric source are small states. We want a national referendum on water and power but we get out voted by the big states that waste both.

Everyone is talking about Pennsylvania being the bell-weather state at the moment. I don't live in Pennsylvania. It has its issues and I have mine. I want someone to address a few of my issues for a moment. I want gas prices lower so people will travel this summer. As a beautiful small state we depend a lot on tourism. And how about addressing the state of our infrastructure while at it. The winter has done a number on the aging Interstate system. We have three that transverse our state with trucks going from one big state to another big state and incredible speeds (and no doubt on speed).

I also want to keep our water. And what we just must send to Arizona I don't want to see wasted on another single golf course. They only get 6 inches of rain a year so live with that. (Incidentally since McCain is an Arizona senator and never addressed this issue of Phoenix taking water from the Colorado which is a half state away I doubt he is getting my vote.) And I want all the other states to keep their low-level nuclear waste. Us little states will no longer be a dumping ground. You want nuclear energy so you can keep the power on then you handle your own waste.

Which goes for dams. No more building them on our rivers with promises you are helping save water for our use and generate power for us and then go back on all those promises. Dam your own damn rivers. And I do not care if jet noise is the sound of freedom. If the base for the supersonic bomber is in Texas than you do your low level flybys in Texas. Leave our mountains for us and our wild life. Don't wake us up at 2 a.m. to practice for the mountains of Pakistan.

If you big states don't start playing nice us little states just may ban together and pick up our marbles and start our own game. We may be inconsequential when it comes to counting electoral college votes but I promise you will miss our natural resources and our natural beauty when you have to have a passport to visit.

All the Paintings

All the Paintings
Once inside my head
Prettily conceived
Executed
And refined
Posed around
The studio with care

All the unfinished paintings
Final touches added
Signatures affixed
Photos taken
Frames assigned
Names given
Prices determined

All the paintings
Adorning the walls
Which to take
Which am I too attached to
Not that sure I want to show

All the boxes stacked up
Awaiting my choices
The colorful array
So soon hidden away
Leaving
Bare walls
And empty hooks
Attesting
To all the pretty paintings
Once there.

(c) Jacqui Binford-Bell 2007

The above painting in In Memorial and depicts the New Mexico Vietnam Memorial looking over the Moreno Valley. It is just one of the many paintings I will be displaying at a local fair this weekend. All in hopes that few return home with me to go back on those bare walls.

My Views of the Colorado Plateau

Mystic Passage


I love the Colorado Plateau and it often serves as my muse for my paintings. The following paintings were all created from pictures I took in my travels around various sections of this high mesa area lapping over the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

My subsequent post will feature some of the photographs of landmarks that were used as inspiration for these paintings.

To the left is Mystic Passage which was inspired by Double Arch at Arches National Park in Utah, USA. and one of the most noteworthy and known areas of the Colorado Plateau.

Trail to Arsenic Springs


It is 24 x 18 mixed media on canvas depiction of the Wild Rivers Park on the Rio Grande Gorge in Northern New Mexico; the eastern edge of the Colorado Plateau. And I was practicing stormy skies and a slightly more subdued palate to indicate less than full sunshine. I needed to practice that for the following painting: Escalante After the Rain, which is inspired by my sister's and my house boat trip on Lake Powell. After heavy rains waterfalls formed on the canyon walls and transformed the canyons.



This is the 24 x 36 inch canvas I was so afraid to attempt. I don't think the photograph of this work does it merit because I have put in metallic silver and gold into the waterfalls and a luminescent paint on the slick rock walls of the canyon in the distance.

While I was doing these two paintings I decided to revisit a painting I had done two years ago of Bowtie Arch at Canyonlands Utah. It was taken from a less than successful photograph that I decided to play with on my computer in Photoshop and then print on watercolor paper and add paint to. It sold at its first public viewing and I have sold numerous prints. It is a somber piece. And I was just curious to see if it could be brightened up in keeping with my new style. This is the result.



I call it Coyote Portal II and it is a 14 x 11 mixed media on canvas board.

The Navajos believe that Coyote came up through a hole in the earth and led the people or Dinah to the earth they now inhabit. Looking at this arch in a side area of Canyonlands, Utah I was reminded of this story.

The lands of the Colorado Plateau are indeed magical and inspire a lot of photographers and artists and writers.