Featured Stories
Devastating loss led state suicide prevention coordinator to her role
The moment she met Brett Miller, Clarie Miller knew he would change her life. Then Clarie Brown, she returned to Albuquerque — where she grew up — from Maine in 1998, planning to visit family and get a glimpse of the mountains. While in town, Clarie was set up on a blind date with someone else…
Woman preserved and celebrated Comanche language
Forty years ago, after Karen Buller gave birth to her daughter, the head nurse at the Santa Fe Indian Hospital stopped by Buller’s room when her shift ended. “She came in to see me and see my baby,” recalled Buller, who is now the board chair at the Santa Fe Indigenous Center. “And she said,…
A tale of several governors: Women at work in New Mexico’s top office
When Soledad Chávez de Chacón became the first woman to govern New Mexico — albeit briefly — in 1924, she was aware of the gravity of the role. Just a few years after earning the right to vote and the right to hold public office, Chávez de Chacón was serving as secretary of state when chance…
Immigrant families in Texas have gone into hiding after latest Trump administration policy
Sara had been preparing for a radio interview earlier this month to promote her plans to open an at-home child care center in Central Texas when she learned that a new federal immigration order rendered her ineligible for legal status. Sara, an undocumented Venezuelan who applied for asylum earlier this year, canceled the interview and…
New Mexico’s only female lieutenant governor reflects on long career
During her time as the state’s first female lieutenant governor, Denish focused on tackling early childhood issues and payday loans.
100-plus years of New Mexico women in politics
1912: New Mexico becomes the 47th state admitted to the Union. 1917: Suffragist Nina Otero-Warren is appointed superintendent of Santa Fe County schools. She would win a race to retain the position in 1918. 1919: Congress passes the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. It guarantees “the right of citizens of the…
Searchlight begins a new chapter
Eight years ago, I embarked on the most ambitious project of my journalism career: I had been offered a job as a reporter at a startup called Searchlight New Mexico, a new, independent newsroom dedicated to investigative reporting on the most critical issues facing our state, with a special focus on New Mexico’s children and…
UNM Health Sciences seeks $600 million cash infusion for medical school building
What does a new medical school cost these days? About $600 million, if plans to reconstruct the University of New Mexico School of Medicine are any indication. Dr. Mike Richards, executive vice president of UNM Health Sciences Center and CEO of UNM Health System, presented before the powerful Legislative Finance Committee on Wednesday requesting state money…
Early Childhood Department pitches $1.2B budget as it grows child care access
Amid an expansion of New Mexico’s child care assistance program to universal access, the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department pitched a $1.2 billion budget for the coming fiscal year to the Legislative Finance Committee on Tuesday. The proposed spending plan, which includes an additional $160.6 million to expand a state-subsidized child care program…
CYFD asks for $422.3M in coming fiscal year to fill jobs, meet other requirements
Amid mounting pressures from a landmark child welfare case and lawmakers’ concerns, the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department pitched a $422.3 million spending plan for the coming fiscal year to the powerful Legislative Finance Committee on Tuesday. The ask, which the agency said was an overall 4.7% increase over the current fiscal year’s…
After three decades in the Roundhouse, Senate powerhouse Mimi Stewart unwavering
What keeps her running for reelection is what prompted the retired teacher to run for office in the first place: education and the environment.
Health
New Mexico seeks $1 billion in federal rural health care dollars
The New Mexico Health Care Authority has requested $1 billion in federal funding to bolster rural health care, with the goals of expanding access to specialty care and chronic condition management, strengthening training programs for providers and building a statewide health care data system. The state submitted a 128-page application dated Nov. 4 to secure…
Hepatitis C tends to run rampant in prison. A group of New Mexico inmates help keep it at bay.
Dr. Karla Thornton noticed a troubling pattern. Starting in 2004, Thornton, an infectious disease expert at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, was tasked with helping train medical providers working in the state’s prisons to treat hepatitis C, a blood-borne liver disease that can cause serious damage if left untreated. But new infections…
New Mexico Health Care Authority pushes for $116M state budget increase amid federal funding changes
The New Mexico Health Care Authority is looking for a boost in state funding for fiscal year 2027, as the agency continues to grapple with the anticipated effects of a federal reconciliation bill signed into law in July. Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo appeared before the powerful Legislative Finance Committee on Monday to request…
child & Family Welfare
CYFD again relying more on placing children out of state, to advocates’ chagrin
More than 100 children in New Mexico’s foster system are in homes and treatment facilities in other states, according to numbers provided by the state Children, Youth and Families Department this week. The numbers mark the latest uptick in a practice the agency was directed to curb years ago through the landmark Kevin S. child…
CYFD makes some gains but unlikely to meet recruitment goals
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department is unlikely to meet several targets laid out by an arbitrator in a landmark child welfare lawsuit, according to numbers presented during a Monday hearing in the case. The agency expects to have 132 net new caseworkers by the end of the year, an amount chief operations…
Babies exposed to drugs taken into CYFD custody reaches triple digits, department says
About 100 infants in New Mexico have been taken into state custody so far under a new initiative aimed at safeguarding newborns with drugs or other substances in their system. The state also has worked to improve communication with hospitals and work out kinks in the plan, leading to better safety and treatment for vulnerable…
Government
Progress in politics: Politicians say New Mexico Legislature more welcoming to women
On the bottom floor of the state Capitol in Santa Fe — beneath the public galleries and art displays — the walls are lined with portraits of former legislators. Overwhelmingly, those lawmakers were men. The first woman to join their ranks was Bertha Paxton, a Doña Ana County Democrat elected in 1923. “I just cannot…
LANL’s toxic chromium plume migrates to pueblo, New Mexico Environment Department says
A decades-old toxic chromium plume from Los Alamos National Laboratory has migrated onto San Ildefonso Pueblo land, the New Mexico Environment Department announced Thursday. There is “no imminent threat to drinking water” on the pueblo or in Los Alamos County, the Environment Department said in a statement. But the new groundwater testing results “are conclusive…
The progressive who’s riding into the wind
Even in blue New Mexico, state representative Angelica Rubio is seen as idealistic — but her strong stances have also helped cross political divides
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