Searchlight New Mexico

Searchlight New Mexico is a nonprofit news organization that operates without political bias, focusing on investigative journalism and public service to benefit the people of New Mexico.

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New Mexico sues a group that lobbied against malpractice reform

1 week ago | searchlightnm.org | Ed Williams

The state’s ethics enforcement agency is taking a dark money group to court for alleged violations of New Mexico’s Lobbyist Regulation Act.
Water is Life | Searchlight New Mexico

3 weeks ago | searchlightnm.org | Molly Montgomery

Often called the “lifeblood of northern New Mexico,” acequias are collectively tended, democratically governed irrigation ditches, primarily located in the north-central part of the state. The term acequia can refer either to the ditch or to the collection of people who rely on it to irrigate their crops. Those people are called parciantes.
Acequia managers and conservationists in conflict over beavers

3 weeks ago | searchlightnm.org | Molly Montgomery

Twice last year, in the spring and fall, water burst from the Rio Santa Cruz and poured into the tiny northern New Mexico community of Santa Cruz, between Española and Chimayó. It cracked concrete ditch liners and spilled into houses and a trailer park. Irrigators along the streams are frustrated and worried about the time and money that beavers could cost them.
The Searchlight team is growing

1 month 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.
An infamous group of Russian-linked hackers appears to have launched a crippling cyberattack on WNMU | Searchlight New Mexico

2 months 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.
Accountability goes missing at The MASTERS Program | Searchlight New Mexico

2 months 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...
The battle against federal ownership of New Mexico’s public lands | Searchlight New Mexico

2 months 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.
A long tradition of anti-federal wrath

2 months 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.
New Mexico’s open records law survives an unusual day in court

2 months ago | searchlightnm.org | Alex Heard

On March 31, the courtroom of First Judicial District Court Judge Matthew Wilson had a lot of lawyers on hand, in the room itself and on screens mounted above the benches and seats. I counted five people on one side, four on the other, with several more joining remotely.
The Gene Hackman estate is right to worry about public release of images from the scene of his death | Searchlight New Mexico

Mar 26, 2025 | searchlightnm.org | Alex Heard

An attempt by the estate of Gene Hackman to stop release of information generated by investigations into the deaths of Hackman and Betsy Arakawa-Hackman has been successful in the short term: on Monday, March 17, a state district judge in Santa Fe granted a restraining order that temporarily blocks public distribution of certain materials that the estate hopes to keep private.