On this week's episode of The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, we’re joined by Las Cruces native Aaron Paz, who works for NASA. Aaron is a NASA senior engineer and Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration project manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston. As NASA works toward sending astronauts to the Moon again through Artemis missions, one of the space agency’s primary goals is to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface. Resources like oxygen are crucial building blocks for making that vision a reality. In addition to using oxygen for breathing, it can also be used as a propellant for ..read more

This week, we’re joined by Las Cruces native Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, one of the producers of The Pope’s Exorcist, which was released on April 14 in the U.S. and is in theaters now. To date, the film has grossed more than $60 million internationally. The film stars Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe. Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden. Known by some as ..read more

On this week's episode, we’re joined by Patrick Nolan, executive director of Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. We’ll also be joined by Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), as well as Kyla Navarro, policy and community coordinator for Friends of the OMDP. The New Mexico Legislative Session recently wrapped up and Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks celebrated the legislature’s decision to fund a feasibility study, which is a step towards establishing a new state park in Southern New Mexico. The Broad Canyon Ranch property was acquired by the New Mexico State Parks Division in ..read more

On this week's episode of The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, we’re talking to Patrick Allen, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health. At the end of 2022, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Allen as the leader of the state’s health department following the resignation of Dr. David Scrase. Allen began his work in the department on Jan. 3. Before coming to New Mexico, Allen worked as the director of the Oregon Health Authority. In Oregon, he led the agency’s response to COVID-19 and guided Oregon’s statewide Medicaid plan and behavioral health system. We’ll talk about his pl ..read more

This week, we’re talking to Melanie Majors, the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. FOG was created because citizens have a fundamental right to know what their government is doing, and that includes the right to inspect public records and the right to attend public meetings. FOG works to make sure these rights are strong and available to everyone. Sometimes, this means assisting individual citizens who are denied information by local or state government. It also means strengthening and broadening freedom-of-information laws through legislation and litigation ..read more

On this week's episode, we’re talking to New Mexico Representative Nathan Small, a Democrat from Las Cruces. We’ll be talking about how he has approached this year’s 60-day session of the New Mexico Legislature. We’ll take a look at many of the big-ticket items lawmakers are discussing as they set about crafting an historically large budget. Totaling more than $9.5 billion in recurring spending — an 11.9% increase from the last fiscal year — there is no shortage of ideas on how best to spend that money. And that doesn’t include the one-time, nonrecurring funds that will be doled out this year ..read more

In this week’s episode of The Reporter’s Notebook Podcast, we’re joined by Adrian Hedden, who covers energy, oil and gas for the Carlsbad Current-Argus. As you likely know, time is winding down on this year’s 60-day legislative session. As we’ve discussed in several recent episodes, New Mexico is looking at a record-breaking budget surplus; it could very well be the state’s largest budget in history. And, by and large, we’ve got the state’s oil and gas sector to thank for that. But is the “goose that laid the golden egg” on the chopping block? Several bills put forth this year seek to curb th ..read more

This week, we’re talking to Ted Alcorn, a New Mexico native and a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times, teaches at Columbia University and NYU, and previously worked for the Mayor’s Office in New York City. Ted recently wrote a long series for New Mexico In Depth called “Blind Drunk,” which you may have also read in the Las Cruces Sun-News. It detailed how alcohol is killing New Mexicans at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country — at a rate that’s about three times higher than the national rate, actually — yet the state has largely neglected the growing crisis ..read more

This week, we’re talking to Las Cruces Sun-News Lead Sports Reporter Jason Groves. We’ll talk about everything that has happened in recent weeks surrounding the New Mexico State University’s men’s basketball team — and it’s been a lot. Jason took over coverage of the team just days after the deadly Nov. 19 shooting on the campus of the University of New Mexico, following the departure of former Sun-News reporter Stephen Wagner. Since then, he has covered the team as they struggled to win games. Then, on Feb. 10, things got even less predictable. The Aggies were pulled off a road trip and Hea ..read more

This week, we’re talking to Carissa McGee. In 2006, when she was only 16, she was a star basketball player at Mayfield High School and a Gatorade Player of the Year. But then, everything changed. McGee was charged after police say she stabbed her mother and older sister Marie, who tried to intervene. Both were hospitalized but survived. The details are much more complicated and involve issues of isolation and mental health. But, ultimately, she entered a no-contest plea to charges of attempted murder and was sentenced as an adult to 21 years. At age 17, she was incarcerated at the Western Ne ..read more