@searchlightnm.bsky.social
Searchlight New Mexico is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to investigative and public service journalism in the interest of the people of New Mexico. Follow our latest reports at searchlightnm.org
New Mexico’s state auditor determined the Children, Youth and Families Department misused millions of dollars of a legislative appropriation meant to expand children’s behavioral health services, according to a letter to the Legislative Finance Committee last month.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs slashed New Mexico reimbursement rates for home health aide services by 19% between 2025 and 2026. Caregiving agencies, state officials and members of Congress say the cut will result in reduced access to care.
New Mexico made strong progress in its goals to reform its troubled foster care system last year and is ready to start work on another set of goals, the state and plaintiffs in a landmark child welfare lawsuit said Monday.
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.
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.bsky.social'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-c...
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...
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-c...
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
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.
New at @searchlightnm.bsky.social: our own Molly Montgomery spoke with @mariahblake.bsky.social, 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-p...
New at @searchlightnm.bsky.social: 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 transparency laws. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-s...
@searchlightnm.bsky.social enjoyed collaborating with @apnews.com on this important story. Many thanks.
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.bsky.social: 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-s...
@searchlightnm.bsky.social is grateful to our colleagues at @highcountrynews.org for co-publishing this important story. See more of their work at www.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 Mexico is the second highest oil producing state in the U.S. It’s heavily dependent on the industry: around 40% of the state's general fund comes from oil and gas operations. But state government seems to be doing little to protect the workers who generate this income.
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-p...
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
Meet our new colleague at @searchlightnm.bsky.social, a great young writer from Santa Fe, Molly Montgomery. searchlightnm.org/the-searchli...
In an image shared with Searchlight, one employee’s laptop screen displayed a ransomware message. “We have downloaded compromising and sensitive data from your system/network ... If you refuse to communicate with us and we do not come to an agreement, your data will be reviewed and published."
Publicly, Western New Mexico University has simply said it’s “working through technical issues,” but employees’ computers are displaying threatening messages signed by a notorious group, Qilin, that claims to have access to employee Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses and more.
Meanwhile, administration costs at the school jumped from $166,000 to nearly $500,000 between 2021 and 2024. In the spring of 2024, the head of school, Karla Haas Moskowitz, was earning $145,000.
One parent complained to the state that the school withheld special education services from her son. Two teachers filed a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging that they had both been retaliated against when they attempted to bring problems with special education to light.
New at @searchlightnm.bsky.social: How did The MASTERS Program, a prominent charter school in Santa Fe, breeze through its renewal process with state officials amid allegations—including a lawsuit—citing serious problems with its performance and leadership? searchlightnm.org/masters-prog...
In the wake of reporting by @searchlightnm.bsky.social and other news organizations, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez announced today that the state is opening an investigation into the recent death of a teenage boy in New Mexico’s foster care system. searchlightnm.org/a-teenager-t...
Despite years of promises to provide foster homes and mental health care to kids like Jaydun, countless young New Mexicans with serious mental health needs have continued to live in CYFD office buildings, group homes and youth homeless shelters.