Searchlight New Mexico

1 week ago | searchlightnm.org | Alex Heard

Molly Montgomery, a freelance contributor to Searchlight, is joining our ranks as a full-time investigator, and we couldn’t be more excited about what she’ll bring to the organization. I’ve been working with young writers for more than 30 years; Molly’s talent, drive, and professionalism really stand out, making her a prized addition to a very strong group.

3 weeks ago | searchlightnm.org | Joshua Bowling

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 the efforts of a “foreign hacking group.” The university has not publicly addressed the severity of the attack, but documentation obtained by Searchlight New Mexico indicates that an infamous Russian-speaking hacking group is behind the attack and claims to have access to employee payroll data, Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses.

3 weeks ago | searchlightnm.org | Susanna Space

On a sunny Thursday morning last November, parents, students, teachers and administrators filed into Mabry Hall, a large hearing room inside the state education building in downtown Santa Fe. The MASTERS Program (TMP), a charter high school in the city, was up for the renewal of its contract with the state, and members of the Public Education Commission (PEC) — a 10-person elected body that authorizes charter schools in New Mexico — were prepared for a lengthy hearing, the second of two...

1 month ago | searchlightnm.org | Molly Montgomery

In January and February, county governments in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and North Carolina began passing resolutions containing nearly identical language. The resolutions oppose what they refer to as an “abuse” of the Antiquities Act of 1906. Enacted by Congress as people went west and frequently looted from historic sites, the law gave presidents the authority to protect any area on federal lands by declaring it a national monument.

1 month ago | searchlightnm.org | Molly Montgomery

The rise of the Coalition, and Hutchinson’s political evolution, occurred alongside the rise in the 1980s and ’90s of a right-wing land-use movement called Wise Use. The movement took its name from an early twentieth-century debate between Gilford Pinchot, the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service, and John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club. Muir believed that nature is a source of wonder, and that people have no right to profit economically from it.