NEW MEXICO

Tribe transforms old casino into movie studio

TESUQUE PUEBLO – A small northern New Mexico Native American tribe has opened a movie studio in a former casino that it hopes will lure big productions.

The Tesuque Pueblo recently converted the building near Santa Fe into a movie studio campus called Camel Rock Studios with more than 25,000 square feet of filming space.

The tribe’s lands feature stunning desert and the iconic Camel Rock formation in the red-brown foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and tribal officials said outdoor filming can take place on 27 square miles of the reservation.

The tribe with about 800 members decided to open the studio after scenes from the Universal Pictures western movie “News of the World” starring Tom Hanks were filmed last year in the Camel Rock Casino, which closed in 2018.

Universal’s use of the casino for filming helped convince tribal officials to transform the empty building into studio space, said Timothy Brown, president and CEO of the Pueblo of Tesuque Development Corporation. Also influencing the decision were investments in New Mexico movie studios by Netflix and NBCUniversal in recent years, said Tunte Vigil, Tesuque Pueblo’s business development associate.

No productions are happening now and none are planned for the immediate future because the pueblo and most of the state remains under strict COVID-19 business restrictions. But Brown said that that hasn’t stopped potential productions from contacting the pueblo and asking to reserve studio time.

Tribal officials plan to create internships and movie training programs for Tesuque Pueblo members and hope that the studio will foster a new storytelling movement, Eyer said.

City frustrated by bail reforms, repeat criminals

LOVINGTON – Authorities in one southeastern New Mexico community are frustrated with the state’s bail reforms, saying the justice system is now failing Lovington and residents, business owners and churches are being victimized by repeat offenders who are released from custody.

Police officers tell the Lovington Daily Leader they know many offenders on a first-name basis because they have to arrest them over and over – often for the same charges but different victims.

A constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2016 cleared the way for judges to detain defendants facing felony charges in jail pending trial if prosecutors prove by clear and convincing evidence that the individual is so dangerous that nothing other than detention will reasonably protect public safety.

The change also was aimed at releasing low-risk defendants who otherwise may have remained in jail because they did not have the means to make bond.

In Lovington, police point to Leroy Juarez, 28, who has been charged 26 times in the last two years. He has been arrested for break-ins at a number of churches, a hair salon, a mobile phone retailer and residences.

Juarez was accused of breaking into the First United Methodist Church for the third time June 5. Pastor Matt Bridges spotted Juarez inside the building before he fled. He was later found hiding in a storage shed at a nearby home. Police found four knives on him.

Part of the frustration has been that Juarez has yet to be tried on any charges. Most of his cases have been dismissed after he was found incompetent by a doctor chosen by his defense.

District Attorney Dianna Luce acknowledged the cycle of repeat offenders terrorizing the community, suggesting that in some cases a team of mental health caretakers who have resources and are properly trained might be a better option.

UTAH

Church asks Utah Mormons to wear face coverings in public

SALT LAKE CITY – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has asked all its members in Utah to wear face coverings when in public, a request that comes as confirmed infections in the state increase.

The Deseret News reports that the Utah Area Presidency sent out the request in an email on July 10. The area presidency operates under the authority of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

“Now we ask all Latter-day Saints in the Utah Area to be good citizens by wearing face coverings when in public,” the email said. “Doing so will help promote the health and general welfare of all.”

About 62% of Utah’s 3.1 million residents are members of the church.

Nearly 900 new cases were reported in the state on July 10, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Overall, Utah had 28,223 confirmed cases and 207 deaths due to the virus as of July 11. The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.

NEBRASKA

Meat industry puzzled by China’s import ban for 1 plant

OMAHA – China’s decision to ban imports from a single Tyson Foods poultry plant where there was a coronavirus outbreak has raised concerns about the implications on the U.S. meat industry if the action is expanded to other plants.

Chinese customs officials didn’t hint about expanding the ban in a short statement it issued about suspending imports from the plant in Springdale, Arkansas. The country imposed a similar ban last week on pork imports from a German plant where a number of workers tested positive for COVID-19, but it hasn’t taken action against other U.S. beef, pork and poultry plants that have seen outbreaks among workers.

Jim Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, said he hopes the move won’t hurt the overall relationship with China, which had been improving after a new trade deal was signed early this year.

A U.S. Agriculture Department spokesman said that there is no evidence of the virus being transmitted by food or food packaging.

Sumner said the time it takes for meat produced in the United States to reach China would make it especially difficult for any virus to survive.

Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company remains confident that its products are safe, and it hopes the issue can be resolved in trade talks between the two countries.

KANSAS

Newspaper owner: Sorry for equating mask rule to Holocaust

TOPEKA – A Kansas county Republican Party chairman who owns a weekly newspaper apologized on July 5 for a cartoon posted on the paper’s Facebook page that equated the Democratic governor’s coronavirus-inspired order for people to wear masks in public with the mass murder of Jews by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Dane Hicks, owner and publisher of The Anderson County Review, said in a statement on Facebook that he was removing the cartoon after “some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish leaders in the U.S. and abroad.” The newspaper posted the cartoon July 3, and it drew dozens of critical responses and international attention. A blog post by Hicks the next day defending it also drew critical responses.

Hicks is the GOP chairman for Anderson County in eastern Kansas. The state party chairman deemed the cartoon “inappropriate.” Gov. Laura Kelly, who is Catholic, called for it to be removed and she and other critics called it anti-Semitic.

The cartoon depicted Kelly wearing a mask with a Jewish Star of David on it, next to a digitally altered image of people being loaded onto train cars. Its caption is, “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask … and step onto the cattle car.”

Hicks said Saturday that he put the images together and planned to publish the cartoon in the paper’s next edition.