Searchlight New Mexico

NEW: Western New Mexico University's new Board of Regents unanimously voted to void former President Joseph Shepard's $1.9 million severance and 5-year teaching contract Whether — or how — the school recovers that money remains to be seen. searchlightnm.org/wnmu-regents-a…

Blandina was known for steering outlaws away from violence, saving a man from lynching and pushing officials to provide health care. She was an immigrant who created a settlement house for immigrants. If the Vatican canonizes her, she’ll be the patron saint of immigrant children.

@SearchlightNM's Molly Montgomery did a great job on this story about the campaign to canonize Sister Blandina Segale, a nun who did a lot for New Mexico during its Wild West days. Whether you're a believer or skeptic, there's much to admire in her life. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-cat…

For the first time, New Mexico’s downwinders have become eligible for government compensation. But many of them will suffer from Medicaid cuts, even as spending on nuclear weapons skyrockets. That now amounts to 84 percent of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s total annual costs.

Today is the 80th anniversary of Trinity. At 1 P.M. Eastern, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will dedicate the first permanent public marker to the New Mexicans who died or were made ill by radioactive fallout that nobody told them was coming. searchlightnm.org/trinity-bomb-d…

Just over a month after the death of Jaydun Garcia at a CYFD facility, another teenager in foster care, 17-year-old Makamy Anderson, took her own life. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-chi…

A new lawsuit in the 2024 fatal police shooting of teenager Elijah Hadley could shed light on a persistent problem in New Mexico: an outsized portion of police violence begins with a welfare check searchlightnm.org/when-a-call-fo…

NEW: In a lawsuit quietly filed Friday, the NM State Ethics Commission accuses former WNMU President Joseph Shepard of misappropriating money meant for an ADA-compliant project and spending it instead on a patio for his daughter's wedding reception. searchlightnm.org/joseph-shepard…

New at @SearchlightNM: our own Molly Montgomery spoke with @MariahCBlake, author of “They Poisoned the World,” an important new book about the history and toxic legacy of “forever chemicals.” (Which were an outgrowth of the Manhattan Project.) searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-pfa…

New at @SearchlightNM: During its lobbying campaign in the 2025 session, New Mexico Safety Over Profit demanded “corporate transparency” for hospitals. Now the State Ethics Commission is suing the dark money group for violating lobbyist transparency laws. searchlightnm.org/?p=100887&prev…

@SearchlightNM thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with @AP on this important story. Many thanks to @aliaemily, @SMBNewMexico and @sharonlurye.

Natural gas from New Mexico has led to cleaner air for much of the country, and has brought huge amounts of money to the state budget. But students whose schools sit near gas wells are paying a price for those gains.

New at @SearchlightNM: Fossil fuel revenues bankroll education spending in New Mexico, but schools exposed to industry pollution face environmental risks that can affect children’s health and performance. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-sch…

@SearchlightNM is grateful to our colleagues at @highcountrynews for co-publishing this important story. See more of their work at hcn.org.

Impacts on workers aren’t carefully tracked, and labor laws aren’t consistently enforced. If harm is considered, it’s usually only after a violent accident has occurred. But there’s a slower toll on workers’ mental and long-term health. This is a story about that cost.

NEW: The oil & gas industry in New Mexico’s Permian Basin subjects workers to brutal conditions. Molly Montgomery takes an unforgettable look at the lives of men whose jobs lead to death, injury, disease and terrible tolls on mental health and family life. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-per…

Jacob Johns and Malaya Peixinho allege that Rio Arriba County sheriff's deputies left the scene of the anti-Oñate protest in 2023, moments before Martinez shot Johns The lawsuits have the potential to test the relatively young NM Civil Rights Act, signed into law in 2021

A new lawsuit alleges that Rio Arriba County officials violated the civil rights of two protestors by fostering an environment that let Ryan Martinez open fire into an anti-Oñate demonstration in Española in 2023 searchlightnm.org/ryan-martinez-…

Please meet our new colleague at @SearchlightNM, a great young writer from Santa Fe, Molly Montgomery. searchlightnm.org/the-searchligh…