Councilors to debate nudity issue

Santa Fe city councilors voted Wednesday to set a Sept. 15 public hearing on a proposed ordinance that would make it illegal for women to expose their nipples, among other provisions governing public nudity.

Mayor David Coss and Councilors Ron Trujillo, Matthew Ortiz and Carmichael Dominguez are sponsoring the measure. Meanwhile, the council's three female members have all expressed concern about the ideas.

Councilor Patti Bushee said Wednesday that she cast the sole vote against setting a public hearing because the language in the measure wasn't ready.

Councilor Miguel Chavez said after the meeting that he's unlikely to favor the revision of an existing ordinance because it sets a double standard.

Coss has said he introduced the proposal in an effort to prevent a group participating in the World Naked Bike Ride from returning to Santa Fe. About 20 cyclists in various stages of undress rode in June around the downtown area. Organizers said they moved the event here from Albuquerque because they feared that city's code put them in danger of arrest.

Gallery, artist's sister settle over copyrights

A federal court has approved a consent decree ending a lawsuit between the sister of Tommy Wayne "T.C." Cannon and a Santa Fe art gallery over one of the late Kiowa artist's works.

Joyce Cannon Yi of La Mirada, Calif., last year sued the Zaplin-Lampert Gallery, 651 Canyon Road, and owners Mark Zaplin and Richard Lampert. Yi claimed the gallery commissioned and sold woodblock reproductions of Cannon's 1975 oil painting Self Portrait in the Studio without her knowledge, consent or compensation to her as heir to her brother's estate.

Cannon died at age 31 in an automobile accident in 1978.

According to a news release from Fredericks Peebles & Morgan, the Sacramento, Calif.-based law firm that represented Yi, the gallery must return to Yi all woodblock reproductions and artist's proofs.

"I intend to vigorously defend T.C.'s copyrights and intellectual property interests, not just in this instance, but going forward I intend to insure that T. C.'s copyright and intellectual property interests are protected and enforced," Yi said in the release.

Zaplin and Lambert were not available for comment late Wednesday.

Substation locale tabled pending visit

The Santa Fe County Commission late Tuesday tabled a vote on a proposed location for an electrical substation to serve the Buckman Direct Diversion.

Commission Chairman Harry Montoya said the members decided they needed to visit the site near the corner of Caja del Rio Road and County Road 62 before voting.

He said Public Service Company of New Mexico portrayed the substation as a small facility to the commissioners, but diagrams obtained by a neighbor depicted it as much larger.

Andrew Leyba and Caroline Semon, two of the proposed site's neighbors at Tuesday's hearing, said PNM originally planned to build the substation a mile away, near the Buckman water-treatment plant. They said PNM moved the site closer to their homes, and county staff initially approved the change without notice to the neighbors until March. After they complained, the County Development Review Committee rejected the new location. The commission must uphold or reject that decision.

The issue won't be revisited until Sept. 14. Montoya said Tuesday's closed-door session after the public hearing was simply to deliberate in private. No date has been set for the site visit.

Police classify death as overdose

A 31-year-old man found dead in a home in the 600 block of Garcia Street on Tuesday died as the result of a drug overdose, according to a preliminary exam performed by the state Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque.

Santa Fe police were investigating the death after a coworker found the man dead around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said police would await further toxicology reports from the OMI before commenting on the case.