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Looking back a couple of decades to shades of a post-Roe world
I’ve gotten a chance, a couple of times, to tell the story of my entry into journalism. The first time I told it was at a talk in response to a high school student’s question — maybe an obligatory one asked to earn participation points that day. I was an adolescent when I started what […]
People in the disaster zone have words for Biden ahead of his NM visit
Voters who may have lost homes or just returned to scorched properties in northern New Mexico went to the polls anyway this week to cast ballots for the next round of local leaders who will help shape the rebuilding process. As they did, Source New Mexico reporters spread out up north and stayed most of […]
New Mexico Primary Election Results 2022
After winning the GOP primary for governor by a long shot on Tuesday, Republican Mark Ronchetti will take on Democratic incumbent Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in November’s general election. “We have a governor that has decided that she will look out for the best interests of the elites in Santa Fe instead of you,” Ronchetti […]
NM Primary Preview 2022
As Primary Election Day dawned, firefighting crews battle historic blazes around the state. Many people haven’t voted yet in the primary, and early turnout’s been fairly low statewide. But the people who are elected this cycle will have a lot to do with recovery efforts as whole regions of New Mexico rebuild in the coming […]
NM reacts to leaked opinion showing SCOTUS is poised to end federal abortion rights protections
Hundreds gathered in Albuquerque in front of Downtown courthouses to demonstrate in support of abortion rights on Tuesday night after it was leaked that a majority of U.S. Supreme Court justices are ready to strike down the constitutional right to abortion in the coming weeks. Elected officials weighed in, too, with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham […]
Lujan Grisham calls on local governments to ban fireworks sales around New Mexico
As at least 20 wildfires consumed thousands of acres this weekend, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that she would ask local governments to temporarily ban the sale of fireworks around the state. State government can ban the use of fireworks — and it has — but under the law, banning sales is something that has […]
Legendary author Rudolfo Anaya on banning books
Ten years ago, Bless Me, Ultima was being pulled from the shelves in Arizona classrooms as Tucson’s Mexican American Studies program was dismantled. I was a reporter at Albuquerque’s now defunct alt-weekly. In our rundown brick office, I pulled out the city’s actual phone book. The big old paper version was already like a thing […]
Source NM takes home awards for stories and columns from our first four months as an outlet
There’s not a journalist out there who does it for the awards. That’s maybe hyperbolic, sure. I’m pretty certain though. Still, I’m glad for a chance to celebrate the hardworking and talented Source New Mexico staff and freelancers who made this outlet from scratch — if they’ll tolerate me bragging on them real quick. With […]
Congressional oversight panel to investigate ‘vigilante’ audit in Otero County
Canvassers have been knocking on doors in Otero County as part of what they say is an attempt to verify voter rolls and the results of the 2020 election. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform announced a probe of possible voter intimidation in the southeast New Mexico county as part of a […]
Little earthquakes point state regulators to oil company’s violations
A major oil company pulling crude from quaking earth in southeastern New Mexico was hit with fines and violation notices Monday. XTO Permian Operating LLC faces more than $2 million in civil penalties for what the state says are operational and reporting violations at four Class II injection wells. A dramatic increase in seismic activity […]
Secrecy is a pathogen, too
The Legislature can be dirty. I mean that in a skeevy germ way, and in a lack-of-transparency way. Yesterday, senators approved a substitute bill about pay for chile farmworkers that was only available on dead-tree paper in the capital building itself. In an especially opaque part of the lawmaking process, amendments to legislation are posted […]
TURMOIL AT THE STATE’S BIGGEST JAIL: Staff members flee as crises unfold
It all comes down to the jails. So many of the problems that plague this state land there. Less than a year after former Gov. Susana Martinez knocked out the state’s behavioral health care system, exiting jail Chief Ramon Rustin confirmed what staff members told me in interviews: The Metropolitan Detention Center in Bernalillo County […]