Latest news with #Searchlight
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dems are quietly forming a think tank to help them win again
At a private meeting last month, a top Democratic strategist pitched party leaders and donors: We need to break down ideological lanes and reject interest group agendas if we plan to win again. Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), used the retreat to preview his new policy research and messaging hub, called Searchlight. Its goal: push the Democratic Party toward the most effective, broadly popular positions regardless of which wing of the party they come from, with an eye toward 2028, according to five people who have spoken directly to Jentleson and were granted anonymity to describe private conversations. Seth London, an adviser to major Democratic donors, is working with Jentleson on the effort. The think tank's mission, as described by these people, is an explicit rejection of purity tests Jentleson sees as holding the party hostage, the most famous of which became fodder for a highly effective ad Donald Trump used against former Vice President Kamala Harris during his campaign to recapture the presidency. Searchlight — a name inspired by the birthplace of Jentleson's former boss, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — comes at a precarious moment for a Democratic Party looking to revive its deeply unpopular brand and eyeing a comeback in the 2026 midterms. One person directly familiar with the project, granted anonymity to describe private details, said its aim will be to create 'an institutional space where Democrats can think freely and put those ideas out into the world.' 'That doesn't exist right now because anywhere else, you're going to get those ideas sanded down from one angle or another,' the person continued, adding that it wasn't going to be driven ideologically or 'on a left-right binary scale,' but rather 'draw on the best ideas wherever they come from.' Jentleson explained the group to top Democratic donors and officials, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and other congressional members, according to those people. The confab, dubbed 'Wildflower,' was hosted at a swanky resort of the same name in upstate New York, where it also drew several potential 2028 candidates, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego. Some of Jentleson's pitch, these people said, was already laid out in a New York Times op-ed published soon after the 2024 election loss. He urged Democrats to declare 'independence from liberal and progressive interest groups that prevent Democrats from thinking clearly about how to win' and to reject the 'rigid mores and vocabulary of college-educated elites.' He urged elected officials to not be afraid of alienating powerful groups that dictated much of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. London, too, penned a post-election strategy memo that called for 'a complete rejection of race- and group-based identity politics.' 'Voters do not break down among the perceived ideological lines that a lot of Democrats are drawn into by the interest groups,' said a retreat attendee granted anonymity to discuss a private event. 'The machinations of the party force people into boxes, and if this is a vehicle to get those new ideas out there, outside those lanes that automatically limit the breadth of voters you're able to reach, then I think a lot of people would welcome that.' But the fight over the Democratic Party's future is well underway, and Searchlight is the newest entrant into an already crowded scene of Democratic groups looking to shape the 2028 presidential primary. At least some of those who heard Jentleson's pitch were frustrated that it sounded duplicative of other efforts. Just this week, Welcome PAC, a moderate-focused group, is holding 'WelcomeFest,' a day-long event they describe as 'the largest public gathering of centrist Democrats.' Several speakers at WelcomeFest, including Slotkin and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), also attended Wildflower. 'They're saying, 'we need a moderate voice, because we're losing everyone and we have to come back to the center and get away from woke, identity politics,'' said one Democratic donor adviser who heard Jentleson's pitch. 'They want to become a research and communications hub for that, which is great, but we already have a bunch of entities who do that.'
Politico
14 hours ago
- Business
- Politico
Dems are quietly forming a think tank to help them win again
At a private meeting last month, a top Democratic strategist pitched party leaders and donors: We need to break down ideological lanes and reject interest group agendas if we plan to win again. Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), used the retreat to preview his new policy research and messaging hub, called Searchlight. Its goal: push the Democratic Party toward the most effective, broadly popular positions regardless of which wing of the party they come from, with an eye toward 2028, according to five people who have spoken directly to Jentleson and were granted anonymity to describe private conversations. Seth London, an adviser to major Democratic donors, is working with Jentleson on the effort. The think tank's mission, as described by these people, is an explicit rejection of purity tests Jentleson sees as holding the party hostage, the most famous of which became fodder for a highly effective ad Donald Trump used against former Vice President Kamala Harris during his campaign to recapture the presidency. Searchlight — a name inspired by the birthplace of Jentleson's former boss, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid — comes at a precarious moment for a Democratic Party looking to revive its deeply unpopular brand and eyeing a comeback in the 2026 midterms. One person directly familiar with the project, granted anonymity to describe private details, said its aim will be to create 'an institutional space where Democrats can think freely and put those ideas out into the world.' 'That doesn't exist right now because anywhere else, you're going to get those ideas sanded down from one angle or another,' the person continued, adding that it wasn't going to be driven ideologically or 'on a left-right binary scale,' but rather 'draw on the best ideas wherever they come from.' Jentleson explained the group to top Democratic donors and officials, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin and other congressional members, according to those people. The confab, dubbed 'Wildflower,' was hosted at a swanky resort of the same name in upstate New York, where it also drew several potential 2028 candidates, including former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego. Some of Jentleson's pitch, these people said, was already laid out in a New York Times op-ed published soon after the 2024 election loss. He urged Democrats to declare 'independence from liberal and progressive interest groups that prevent Democrats from thinking clearly about how to win' and to reject the 'rigid mores and vocabulary of college-educated elites.' He urged elected officials to not be afraid of alienating powerful groups that dictated much of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. London, too, penned a post-election strategy memo that called for 'a complete rejection of race- and group-based identity politics.' 'Voters do not break down among the perceived ideological lines that a lot of Democrats are drawn into by the interest groups,' said a retreat attendee granted anonymity to discuss a private event. 'The machinations of the party force people into boxes, and if this is a vehicle to get those new ideas out there, outside those lanes that automatically limit the breadth of voters you're able to reach, then I think a lot of people would welcome that.' But the fight over the Democratic Party's future is well underway, and Searchlight is the newest entrant into an already crowded scene of Democratic groups looking to shape the 2028 presidential primary. At least some of those who heard Jentleson's pitch were frustrated that it sounded duplicative of other efforts. Just this week, Welcome PAC, a moderate-focused group, is holding 'WelcomeFest,' a day-long event they describe as 'the largest public gathering of centrist Democrats.' Several speakers at WelcomeFest, including Slotkin and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.), also attended Wildflower. 'They're saying, 'we need a moderate voice, because we're losing everyone and we have to come back to the center and get away from woke, identity politics,'' said one Democratic donor adviser who heard Jentleson's pitch. 'They want to become a research and communications hub for that, which is great, but we already have a bunch of entities who do that.'
Globe and Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Searchlight Assigns Flin Flon North Project to Canadian Gold Corp.
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 2, 2025) - Searchlight Resources Inc. (TSXV: SCLT) (OTC Pink: SCLTF) ("Searchlight" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with Canadian Gold Corp. (CGC) to option the Company's Flin Flon North project to CGC, for total compensation of $130,000 cash and $200,000 in CGC shares. The Flin Flon North project includes five claims covering 5,644.6 hectares, located 10 km north of Flin Flon, Manitoba (Map 1). The project is held by Searchlight under an option agreement with GEM Oil Inc. signed July 9, 2019 ("GEM Option"). Searchlight is assigning 100% interest in the GEM Option to CGC, for financial considerations outlined below. Terms of the Option Agreement Under the terms of the Option Agreement, and subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange, over a four-year period CGC will be required to make the following cash and share payments to exercise the Option. Under the terms of the GEM Option, 25% of the payments will be made to GEM Oil and 75% to Searchlight. "Searchlight wishes to thank Gem Oil Inc. for optioning the original group of claims that serve as the foundation for this assignment to Canadian Gold Corp.," stated Stephen Wallace, President and CEO of Searchlight. "As a project generation exploration company, this is another successful agreement for Searchlight," stated Alf Stewart, Chairman of Searchlight, "the Company continues to seek deals on its other projects in the Flin Flon Mining Camp." To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: Searchlight Resources Flin Flon Exploration Targets Searchlight is actively exploring two other gold properties in the Flin Flon district: Bootleg Lake: Advanced Exploration, Multiple Drill-ready Targets Brownfields project with three past-producing, high-grade gold mines Includes Rio Mine with 1,500 m of modern, trackless underground workings viable for reopening for exploration and future production 60-80 historic drill holes, plus 6 drill holes by Searchlight Other gold and base metal potential on claims 18 claims (49.4 sq km), with key claims in good standing until 2040 Robinson Creek: Advanced Exploration, Drill-ready Targets Exploration Target of 77,000 to 154,000 ounces gold 70 historic diamond drill holes 18 km from Creighton, Saskatchewan and Flin Flon, Manitoba 10 km from Laurel Lake Gold deposit, owned by SSR Mining 7 claims (2.8 sq km) About Canadian Gold Corp. Canadian Gold Corp. is a Canadian-based mineral exploration and development company whose objective is to expand the high-grade gold resource at the past-producing Tartan Mine, located in Flin Flon, Manitoba. The historic Tartan Mine currently has a 2017 indicated mineral resource estimate of 240,000 oz gold (1,180,000 tonnes at 6.32 g/t gold) and an inferred estimate of 37,000 oz gold (240,000 tonnes at 4.89 g/t gold). The Company also holds a 100% interest in greenfields exploration properties in Ontario and Quebec, adjacent to some of Canada's largest gold mines and development projects, specifically, the Canadian Malartic Mine (QC), the Hemlo Mine (ON) and Hammond Reef Project (ON). McEwen Mining Inc. (NYSE: MUX) (TSX: MUX) holds a 5.7% interest in Canadian Gold, and Robert McEwen, the founder and former CEO of Goldcorp Inc., and Chairman and CEO of McEwen Mining, holds a 32.9% interest in Canadian Gold. About Searchlight Resources Inc. Searchlight Resources Inc. (TSXV: SCLT) (OTC Pink: SCLTF) is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on Saskatchewan, Canada, which has been ranked as the top location for mining investment in Canada by the Fraser Institute. Exploration focus is on battery minerals and gold throughout the province, concentrating on projects with nearby infrastructure. Qualified Person Stephen Wallace, is Searchlight's Qualified Person within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Stephen Wallace" Stephen Wallace, President, CEO and Director Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on assumptions as of the date of this news release. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations. They are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Company's limited operating history and the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Yahoo
Did county officials enable Ryan Martinez's violent actions at a 2023 protest in Española?
Ryan Martinez, the gunman who severely wounded a Native American man at an Española protest against the proposed installation of a controversial Juan de Oñate statute in 2023, is serving the first year of a four-year prison sentence. Now, survivors of that shooting are suing the county officials who they say turned a blind eye to the circumstances that enabled Martinez's violent outburst. Jacob Johns, a 41-year-old Hopi and Akimel O'odham man from Spokane, Washington, who was shot by Martinez during the demonstration, and Malaya Corrine Peixinho, a 23-year-old New Mexican woman who Martinez flashed his gun at, filed lawsuits on Monday against the Rio Arriba County commissioners, the sheriff's office and the county manager. They allege that their civil rights were violated on Sept. 28, 2023, by county officials and sheriff's deputies who knew there was a threat of violence that day, yet were seen 'leaving the demonstration, disregarding the danger and failing to protect protestors.' Jacob Johns outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe on May 12. Nadav Soroker/Searchlight New Mexico The shooting happened during a peaceful protest over the county's proposal to install a statue of Oñate, which had been in storage for years, at the county complex in Española. Community backlash was so strong that the county temporarily postponed the installation. On the morning of the canceled event, protestors flocked to the complex to celebrate. They held an Indigenous prayer ceremony and repurposed the concrete slab, fashioning the base for the statue into an altar decorated with handmade artifacts like corn and squash, woven baskets and pottery. 'Respectfully, I am in full support of your decision to put the statue back up, but strongly do not believe it is appropriate or safe to have the statue placed or relocated in front of the County Annex as scheduled,' then-Sheriff Billy Mayfield wrote two days before the scheduled reinstallation. 'By choosing to relocate the Don Juan de Oñate statue, you must look at all the possibilities of the unsafe environment it can create.' Johns saw Martinez, who arrived in a white Tesla and was wearing a red Make America Great Again cap, shouting racial epithets at the Native demonstrators and pacing back and forth. Just before noon, Martinez charged the crowd; Johns hurried to step in front of him and block Martinez's path to the children and elders at the demonstration. Martinez reached into his waistband, pulled out a gun and promptly shot Johns in the chest with a hollow-point bullet, the lawsuit says. 'There were no sheriff's deputies present immediately before and when Martinez shot Johns and pointed his gun at Peixinho,' the suit alleges. He bled on the ground outside the county complex for 10 minutes before emergency personnel arrived. After receiving treatment in Española, he was airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. According to his lawsuit, he briefly died during this trip. In the suit, Johns says he saw a council of spirits who asked him to give a full account of the times in his life when he chose to help other people rather than to look out for himself. Even though his shooter is behind bars, he said, he, Peixinho and their attorney see these lawsuits as a way to hold accountable the public officials tasked with keeping Española safe on that September morning. 'I would like to see the police do their job,' Johns told Searchlight New Mexico. 'I was lying there, bleeding out in their parking lot for 10 minutes, and it wasn't even the sheriff's office that apprehended the shooter — it was tribal police.' Before the shooting, a warning Two days before the demonstration, on Sept. 26, 2023, then-Sheriff Billy Merrifield — who died in April of this year — emailed county commissioners to voice his concerns over the planned relocation and installation of the Oñate statue. It had been taken down from its site in remote Alcalde in 2020, when the nation was grappling with whether to tear down, preserve or otherwise alter statues and memorials that represented controversial figures and movements in American history. Oñate is infamous for his role in the 1599 Acoma Massacre, in which Spanish soldiers under his command killed hundreds of Native people. Men 25 and older who survived had their right foot amputated, according to historical accounts, and were sentenced to slavery. In the 1990s, the right foot of Oñate's statue was cut off by a group that called itself the Friends of Acoma. In the summer of 2020, county workers removed the Oñate sculpture from its perch in Alcalde. Courtesy of Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal Commissioners planned to install the statue — which depicts the conquistador riding on horseback, sword and scabbard at his side — at a new location: the county complex in Española. Such a move, Merrifield warned, could likely end with 'deadly force, which can turn into legal liability/tort claims for the county.' The late Billy Merrifield, Rio Arriba County's sheriff at the time of the shooting. Courtesy of Rio Arriba County 'Respectfully, I am in full support of your decision to put the statue back up, but strongly do not believe it is appropriate or safe to have the statue placed or relocated in front of the County Annex as scheduled,' he wrote. 'By choosing to relocate the Don Juan de Oñate statue, you must look at all the possibilities of the unsafe environment it can create.' Johns' and Peixinho's cases hinge on what the county chose to do with that warning. Their suits say that sheriff's deputies encountered an agitated, cursing Martinez that morning, describing him as 'darting back and forth' and 'acting in an obviously agitated and extremely anxious manner.' 'Due to Martinez's disruptive, antagonistic and provocative behavior, Deputy (Steve) Binns informed Martinez that he needed to leave the scene,' the lawsuit says. According to the suits, an unnamed undersheriff 'then overruled Deputy Binns and told Martinez that he could stay.' Finally, the lawsuit alleges, deputies left the scene. The absence of any armed law enforcement at this gathering is made worse by two things, they argue: the fact that county officials were warned by the sheriff of the day's potential violence, and that the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office building is just a couple of dozen paces from where Johns was shot. 'They were deliberately indifferent,' Mariel Nanasi, their lawyer, told Searchlight. Nanasi is a former Chicago civil rights attorney who now leads New Energy Economy, a Santa Fe–based renewable-energy advocacy group. If either case makes it to trial, the lawsuits have the potential to test the limits of the relatively young New Mexico Civil Rights Act, which was drafted after George Floyd's murder and signed into law in 2021. The legislation did away with qualified immunity as a defense for government officials in New Mexico. In the years since it became law, a number of prominent cases have been filed that relied on the act. Alec Baldwin alleged civil rights violations in a January lawsuit against the First Judicial District Attorney, residents of southern New Mexico alleged violations against the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority and a University of New Mexico basketball player alleged violations after a teammate allegedly punched him. None of those cases have gone to trial. Unlike federal civil rights law, the state act has a cap of $2 million in damages. Alex Naranjo, the former chair of the Rio Arriba County Commission. Courtesy of Rio Arriba County Commission In the aftermath of the shooting, then-county commission chair Alex Naranjo — whose uncle, former state senator and local political mainstay Emilio Naranjo, played a pivotal role in securing funding for the Oñate statue back in the 1990s — said the statue wouldn't go up. Within weeks of the shooting, residents of the area sought to initiate a recall against Naranjo. When he challenged it, a judge found that there was probable cause that Naranjo violated the state Open Meetings Act by deciding to relocate and install the Oñate statue outside of the bounds of a public meeting. He has appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in December and has yet to issue a decision. None of the county officials named in Johns and Peixinho's lawsuit would comment Tuesday morning. A long road to recovery Since the shooting, both Johns and Peixinho have faced difficult recoveries. Johns was hospitalized for more than a month and underwent numerous surgeries. Martinez's bullet pierced his abdomen, destroyed his spleen, broke his ribs and collapsed his lungs. Johns said it also damaged his pancreas, liver and stomach. Even after he was sent home to Washington, he carried wound drainage tubes — in his pancreas and liver — for six months. Johns created a visual diary that detailed his medical recovery. The nearly six-minute video captures the raw vulnerability of what it's like to heal from a gunshot wound. It captures the moment Martinez shot him and graphically shows the months of hospitalization and surgeries that followed. At one point, stray bullet fragments are visibly pushing their way out of his body, through his skin. Following one surgery, Johns is stapled up — only to later learn that his body is allergic to the staples. A video diary of Jacob Johns' long recovery from his gunshot wounds. Courtesy of Jacob Johns. Warning: This video contains graphic footage. 'Every laugh, every cough, every movement I could feel the internal tubes touching my internal organs in the most painful, horrible place I could ever imagine being,' he says in the video. After half a year of recovery, he says, he began the long, hard 'internal journey toward healing.' Peixinho knows this journey well. She was just 22 when she saw Johns knocked to the ground and then looked up to see Martinez's pistol aimed at her head. For months after, she said, loud noises triggered her. If she was in a drive-thru, she would recline her car seat and lie down to make sure a stray bullet couldn't find her. If she heard a gunshot outside her house, or a firework, or a car backfiring, the fear came back. 'There were times when I was at work and I'd hear a gunshot,' she recalled. 'I'd crawl into the trunk of my car and I'd be stuck there for hours, so mortified.' Both Johns and Peixinho said there's little solace in the knowledge that the gunman was put away. At the last minute before trial, Martinez accepted a plea deal that put him in prison for four years. Prosecutors dropped a hate crime enhancement that they had previously sought. 'Every single time I look down, I have these massive scars and these big holes in me,' Johns said. 'But it's the psychological stuff that's really been messing with me … I had to agree that my life was only worth four years.' To both survivors, the outcome was a painful reminder of the violence facing Indigenous people. Just three years before Martinez shot Johns and leveled his gun at Peixinho, a man protesting an Oñate statue in Albuquerque was shot in the back four times by an assailant armed with a .40-caliber handgun. Both Johns and Peixinho know that there's no relitigating Martinez's case. But they see their lawsuits as a step toward accountability. 'When law enforcement fails to do their job, it really puts society in danger,' Johns said. 'We really have to have faith that we're going to be protected when we're exercising our constitutional rights. A condensed version of this story is available here. Malaya Corrine Peixinho and Jacob Johns in Santa Fe. (Photo courtesy of Mariel Nanasi) Ryan Martinez, the gunman who severely wounded a Native American man at an Española protest against the proposed installation of a controversial Juan de Oñate statute in 2023, is serving the first year of a four-year prison sentence. Now, survivors of that shooting are suing the county officials who they say turned a blind eye to the circumstances that enabled Martinez's violent outburst. Jacob Johns, a 41-year-old Hopi and Akimel O'odham man from Spokane, Washington, who was shot by Martinez during the demonstration, and Malaya Corrine Peixinho, a 23-year-old New Mexican woman who Martinez flashed his gun at, filed lawsuits on Monday against the Rio Arriba County commissioners, the sheriff's office and the county manager. They allege that their civil rights were violated on Sept. 28, 2023, by county officials and sheriff's deputies who knew there was a threat of violence that day, yet were seen 'leaving the demonstration, disregarding the danger and failing to protect protestors.' The shooting happened during a peaceful protest over the county's proposal to install a statue of Oñate, which had been in storage for years, at the county complex in Española. Community backlash was so strong that the county temporarily postponed the installation. On the morning of the canceled event, protestors flocked to the complex to celebrate. They held an Indigenous prayer ceremony and repurposed the concrete slab, fashioning the base for the statue into an altar decorated with handmade artifacts like corn and squash, woven baskets and pottery. 'Respectfully, I am in full support of your decision to put the statue back up, but strongly do not believe it is appropriate or safe to have the statue placed or relocated in front of the County Annex as scheduled,' then-Sheriff Billy Mayfield wrote two days before the scheduled reinstallation. 'By choosing to relocate the Don Juan de Oñate statue, you must look at all the possibilities of the unsafe environment it can create.' Johns saw Martinez, who arrived in a white Tesla and was wearing a red Make America Great Again cap, shouting racial epithets at the Native demonstrators and pacing back and forth. Just before noon, Martinez charged the crowd; Johns hurried to step in front of him and block Martinez's path to the children and elders at the demonstration. Martinez reached into his waistband, pulled out a gun and promptly shot Johns in the chest with a hollow-point bullet, the lawsuit says. 'There were no sheriff's deputies present immediately before and when Martinez shot Johns and pointed his gun at Peixinho,' the suit alleges. He bled on the ground outside the county complex for 10 minutes before emergency personnel arrived. After receiving treatment in Española, he was airlifted to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. According to his lawsuit, he briefly died during this trip. In the suit, Johns says he saw a council of spirits who asked him to give a full account of the times in his life when he chose to help other people rather than to look out for himself. Even though his shooter is behind bars, he said, he, Peixinho and their attorney see these lawsuits as a way to hold accountable the public officials tasked with keeping Española safe on that September morning. 'I would like to see the police do their job,' Johns told Searchlight New Mexico. 'I was lying there, bleeding out in their parking lot for 10 minutes, and it wasn't even the sheriff's office that apprehended the shooter — it was tribal police.' Two days before the demonstration, on Sept. 26, 2023, then-Sheriff Billy Merrifield — who died in April of this year — emailed county commissioners to voice his concerns over the planned relocation and installation of the Oñate statue. It had been taken down from its site in remote Alcalde in 2020, when the nation was grappling with whether to tear down, preserve or otherwise alter statues and memorials that represented controversial figures and movements in American history. Oñate is infamous for his role in the 1599 Acoma Massacre, in which Spanish soldiers under his command killed hundreds of Native people. Men 25 and older who survived had their right foot amputated, according to historical accounts, and were sentenced to slavery. In the 1990s, the right foot of Oñate's statue was cut off by a group that called itself the Friends of Acoma. Commissioners planned to install the statue — which depicts the conquistador riding on horseback, sword and scabbard at his side — at a new location: the county complex in Española. Such a move, Merrifield warned, could likely end with 'deadly force, which can turn into legal liability/tort claims for the county.' 'Respectfully, I am in full support of your decision to put the statue back up, but strongly do not believe it is appropriate or safe to have the statue placed or relocated in front of the County Annex as scheduled,' he wrote. 'By choosing to relocate the Don Juan de Oñate statue, you must look at all the possibilities of the unsafe environment it can create.' Johns' and Peixinho's cases hinge on what the county chose to do with that warning. Their suits say that sheriff's deputies encountered an agitated, cursing Martinez that morning, describing him as 'darting back and forth' and 'acting in an obviously agitated and extremely anxious manner.' 'Due to Martinez's disruptive, antagonistic and provocative behavior, Deputy (Steve) Binns informed Martinez that he needed to leave the scene,' the lawsuit says. According to the suits, an unnamed undersheriff 'then overruled Deputy Binns and told Martinez that he could stay.' Finally, the lawsuit alleges, deputies left the scene. The absence of any armed law enforcement at this gathering is made worse by two things, they argue: the fact that county officials were warned by the sheriff of the day's potential violence, and that the Rio Arriba County Sheriff's Office building is just a couple of dozen paces from where Johns was shot. 'They were deliberately indifferent,' Mariel Nanasi, their lawyer, told Searchlight. Nanasi is a former Chicago civil rights attorney who now leads New Energy Economy, a Santa Fe–based renewable-energy advocacy group. If either case makes it to trial, the lawsuits have the potential to test the limits of the relatively young New Mexico Civil Rights Act, which was drafted after George Floyd's murder and signed into law in 2021. The legislation did away with qualified immunity as a defense for government officials in New Mexico. In the years since it became law, a number of prominent cases have been filed that relied on the act. Alec Baldwin alleged civil rights violations in a January lawsuit against the First Judicial District Attorney, residents of southern New Mexico alleged violations against the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority and a University of New Mexico basketball player alleged violations after a teammate allegedly punched him. None of those cases have gone to trial. Unlike federal civil rights law, the state act has a cap of $2 million in damages. In the aftermath of the shooting, then-county commission chair Alex Naranjo — whose uncle, former state senator and local political mainstay Emilio Naranjo, played a pivotal role in securing funding for the Oñate statue back in the 1990s — said the statue wouldn't go up. Within weeks of the shooting, residents of the area sought to initiate a recall against Naranjo. When he challenged it, a judge found that there was probable cause that Naranjo violated the state Open Meetings Act by deciding to relocate and install the Oñate statue outside of the bounds of a public meeting. He has appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in December and has yet to issue a decision. None of the county officials named in Johns and Peixinho's lawsuit would comment Tuesday morning. Since the shooting, both Johns and Peixinho have faced difficult recoveries. Johns was hospitalized for more than a month and underwent numerous surgeries. Martinez's bullet pierced his abdomen, destroyed his spleen, broke his ribs and collapsed his lungs. Johns said it also damaged his pancreas, liver and stomach. Even after he was sent home to Washington, he carried wound drainage tubes — in his pancreas and liver — for six months. Johns created a visual diary that detailed his medical recovery. The nearly six-minute video captures the raw vulnerability of what it's like to heal from a gunshot wound. It captures the moment Martinez shot him and graphically shows the months of hospitalization and surgeries that followed. At one point, stray bullet fragments are visibly pushing their way out of his body, through his skin. Following one surgery, Johns is stapled up — only to later learn that his body is allergic to the staples. 'Every laugh, every cough, every movement I could feel the internal tubes touching my internal organs in the most painful, horrible place I could ever imagine being,' he says in the video. After half a year of recovery, he says, he began the long, hard 'internal journey toward healing.' Peixinho knows this journey well. She was just 22 when she saw Johns knocked to the ground and then looked up to see Martinez's pistol aimed at her head. For months after, she said, loud noises triggered her. If she was in a drive-thru, she would recline her car seat and lie down to make sure a stray bullet couldn't find her. If she heard a gunshot outside her house, or a firework, or a car backfiring, the fear came back. 'There were times when I was at work and I'd hear a gunshot,' she recalled. 'I'd crawl into the trunk of my car and I'd be stuck there for hours, so mortified.' Both Johns and Peixinho said there's little solace in the knowledge that the gunman was put away. At the last minute before trial, Martinez accepted a plea deal that put him in prison for four years. Prosecutors dropped a hate crime enhancement that they had previously sought. 'Every single time I look down, I have these massive scars and these big holes in me,' Johns said. 'But it's the psychological stuff that's really been messing with me … I had to agree that my life was only worth four years.' To both survivors, the outcome was a painful reminder of the violence facing Indigenous people. Just three years before Martinez shot Johns and leveled his gun at Peixinho, a man protesting an Oñate statue in Albuquerque was shot in the back four times by an assailant armed with a .40-caliber handgun. Both Johns and Peixinho know that there's no relitigating Martinez's case. But they see their lawsuits as a step toward accountability. 'When law enforcement fails to do their job, it really puts society in danger,' Johns said. 'We really have to have faith that we're going to be protected when we're exercising our constitutional rights. A condensed version of this story is available here. This article first appeared on Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Express Tribune
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
A sequel for early 2000's indie comedy 'Napoleon Dynamite' is reportedly in the works
A sequel to the beloved 2004 indie comedy Napoleon Dynamite is reportedly in the early stages of development at Searchlight, according to Matt Belloni of Puck. The original film, directed by Jared Hess, was an unexpected cult phenomenon, known for its deadpan style, offbeat humor, and complete disregard for traditional storytelling. It centered on an awkward teen in rural Idaho and, despite its modest $400,000 budget, managed to rake in $46 million worldwide, later achieving iconic status through DVD sales and streaming. While many have wondered if its unique charm could ever work again in today's cinematic landscape, it appears the creators are serious about giving it another go. Jared Hess, now fresh off directing the upcoming Minecraft movie, reportedly has the leverage to bring the sequel to life. And it seems the original cast is on board: Jon Heder, who starred as Napoleon, has made it clear he'd return—but only if Hess is attached. Efren Ramirez, who played Pedro, also said 'everyone wants a sequel,' and 'the door's not closed yet,' hinting at genuine interest in revisiting the characters. The original Napoleon Dynamite wasn't built to start a franchise, it felt more like a glorified student project that accidentally caught fire. Its appeal was strange, specific, and perfectly timed. Whether lightning can strike twice remains to be seen, but for now, it looks like Napoleon and Pedro might be preparing for one more shot at greatness.
