El Mercado sues Flying Star Café

Owners of El Mercado Center, a shopping center at 511 W. Cordova Road, are suing the Flying Star Café, alleging the Albuquerque restaurant chain broke a lease.

The complaint in state District Court last week says Flying Star officers in 2006 signed a 10-year lease on a space in the shopping center for their first Santa Fe outlet.

In 2008, the complaint says, Flying Star officers notified El Mercado Center that they had entered into a second lease for another location, but would use the El Mercado Center space for another business to be called Satellite Coffee. A Flying Star Café is expected to open in the Santa Fe Railyard near the REI store.

In December, Flying Star representatives notified El Mercado Center that they were unable to open Satellite Coffee because of poor economic conditions, asked to be released from the terms of the lease and subsequently quit paying the monthly rent called for in the lease, the complaint says.

The lawsuit asks a judge to hold Flying Star liable for more than $1.3 million, which it states is the total due in rent through May 2017.

Judge ends Paul Horgan trust

A Santa Fe judge has agreed to end a trust set up in 1995 upon the death of writer Paul Horgan, who twice won the Pulitzer Prize for his books on New Mexico history.

State District Judge Daniel Sanchez on Monday granted the petition for termination filed last week by lawyer Fletcher Catron on behalf of his father and law partner, Thomas Catron, a trustee of the Paul Horgan Trust.

According to the petition, the trust's assets, which include royalties on Horgan books such as Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History and Lamy of Santa Fe, are "insufficient to justify the costs of administration."

The trust's annual income originally was divided among six family members and friends named in Horgan's will, but the income has declined so much that the four living beneficiaries recently agreed to turn over the assets to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., where Horgan taught.

"Despite his greatness as an author, there's nothing that's selling," Thomas Catron said. "It's unfortunate (for) somebody who is as great an artist and author as he was."

State GOP hires Stevens ex-aide

A former press secretary of Alaska's former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens is now the spokeswoman for the New Mexico Republican Party.

The party announced that Janel Causey has been hired as director of communications. Her responsibilities will including handling day-to-day communication operations and serving as the primary liaison between the party and the news media.

Before her appointment, Causey served as deputy press secretary for Stevens, who after serving nearly 40 years lost his re-election campaign last year following conviction on corruption charges.

Causey also worked as a policy analyst for Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican.

Causey earned her bachelor's degree in history from the University of Southern Mississippi and her master's degree at Indiana University. She said Tuesday that her husband is an Albuquerque native.