Searchlight New Mexico

WNMU regents ax Joseph Shepard’s severance and teaching contract | Searchlight New Mexico Unanimously, the newly appointed regents at Western New Mexico University have approved a plan to strike down former President Joseph Shepard’s previously

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.

Fact-checking miracles: inside the multiyear effort to canonize Sister Blandina Segale | Searchlight New Mexico The Vatican may grant sainthood to a nun who knew Billy the Kid, tended the sick, taught children and advocated for immigrants. Making that happen requires a unique blend of faith and boots-on-the-gro...

@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.

“They didn’t want to see us” | Searchlight New Mexico New Mexican downwinders, receiving financial compensation for the first time, reckon with the ongoing tragedy of the Trinity bomb detonation — and fight to ensure remembrance

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...

Another life lost in New Mexico’s foster care system | Searchlight New Mexico Makamy Anderson’s death is the most recent tragedy to come to light amid a string of deaths of children in the state’s care.

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...

When a call for help ends in gunfire | Searchlight New Mexico 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

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

Joseph Shepard sued by the New Mexico State Ethics Commission | Searchlight New Mexico In addition to staying at five-star resorts, buying luxury furniture and traveling the world on the taxpayers’ dime, former Western New Mexico University

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.

"They poisoned the world" | Searchlight New Mexico A new book by New Mexico-born author Mariah Blake explains how a previously unknown Manhattan Project program ushered in the age of toxic “forever chemicals”

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...

Bringing dark money to light | Searchlight New Mexico New Mexico Safety Over Profit successfully fought against medical malpractice reform during the 2025 session. A state commission now says it broke the law.

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.

Is the oil and gas boom harming New Mexico’s students? | Searchlight New Mexico Fossil fuel revenues bankroll education spending in this state, but schools exposed to industry pollution face environmental risks that can affect children’s health and performance.

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.

The boots on Buck Jackson Road | Searchlight New Mexico New Mexico is the second-largest oil producer in the U.S., behind Texas. Drawing immense wealth from the Permian Basin, the state relies on a workforce — often Latino men — who are subjected to harrow...

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

Protect and serve: Did county officials enable Ryan Martinez’s violent actions at a 2023 protest in Española? | Searchlight New Mexico Two survivors have filed suit against Rio Arriba County office-holders, alleging that their civil rights were violated when they failed to control dangerous conflicts surrounding the proposed reinstal...

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

The Searchlight team is growing | Searchlight New Mexico Santa Fe-based Molly Montgomery comes aboard as a full-time reporter covering topics that include land use, the environment and immigration

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."

An infamous group of Russian-linked hackers appears to have launched a crippling cyberattack on WNMU | Searchlight New Mexico For nearly two weeks, Western New Mexico University’s website and digital systems have been held hostage by what officials in internal emails have called

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.

Accountability goes missing at The MASTERS Program | Searchlight New Mexico A prominent charter high school in Santa Fe easily earned five-year renewal from the state of New Mexico — despite red flags about its current administration

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...

A teenager takes his life in foster care | Searchlight New Mexico Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, 16-year-old Jaydun Garcia took his own life at a makeshift home for youth who lack foster placements.

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.

Friends described Jaydun Garcia as a kid who was always there for other foster kids who needed someone to talk to. His roommate at the Albuquerque group home discovered him in the bathroom after his suicide.

A teenager takes his life in foster care | Searchlight New Mexico Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, 16-year-old Jaydun Garcia took his own life at a makeshift home for youth who lack foster placements.

For years, experts have warned CYFD that its practice of housing foster kids in group settings, without adequate mental health care, was putting kids in grave danger. Last weekend, a teenage boy died. searchlightnm.org/a-teenager-t...

Darkness visible: the University of New Mexico’s archive on the sexual abuse of children by priests | Searchlight New Mexico A collection of documents about clergy abuse in this state — housed at UNM’s special collections library — is a major step forward for victims, but there’s more to be done.

“The first time I saw one of the stories from the proofs of claim, I was like, ‘I have to stop,’” UNM archivist Portia Vescio told Searchlight. “If we put everything online, then people could look at the materials from the safety of their own homes."