The race to become New Mexico’s next governor has been fraught with eligibility questions, jabs over policy copycatting and misleading campaign advertisements. But candidates agree on one thing: New Mexico requires drastic change to improve outcomes for its most vulnerable children.
CYFD says it put a stop to kids sleeping in agency office buildings. Instead, it's been sending kids to live in youth homeless shelters — and refusing to pick them up when they're in danger.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the state Children, Youth and Families Department, alleging it used an overly broad reading of state statute in refusing to disclose key records during an investigation into systemic issues.
searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-a...
A new lawsuit accuses a New Mexico child welfare investigator of tracking a 17-year-old runaway to El Paso, where he improperly took custody of her infant daughter and brought the child back to New Mexico.
The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department has yet to release a public dashboard that would report various child welfare metrics. Lawmakers last year ordered the department to create one.
In recent years, a handful of private, nonprofit treatment foster care agencies operating in New Mexico have received hundreds of referrals for youth whose needs are too severe. The vast majority of the cases have been rejected, with the denials posing a conundrum for CYFD.
New Mexico's Children, Youth and Families Department, where a high turnover rate for years has left workers with crushing caseloads, also has been plagued by allegations of threats, retaliation and bullying behavior, according to current and former employees.
#cyfd #childwelfare #newmexico
New Mexico’s state auditor determined the Children, Youth and Families Department misused millions of dollars of a legislative appropriation meant to expand children’s behavioral health services, according to a letter to the Legislative Finance Committee last month.
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs slashed New Mexico reimbursement rates for home health aide services by 19% between 2025 and 2026. Caregiving agencies, state officials and members of Congress say the cut will result in reduced access to care.
New Mexico made strong progress in its goals to reform its troubled foster care system last year and is ready to start work on another set of goals, the state and plaintiffs in a landmark child welfare lawsuit said Monday.
NEW: Western New Mexico University's new Board of Regents unanimously voted to void former President Joseph Shepard's $1.9 million severance and 5-year teaching contract
Whether — or how — the school recovers that money remains to be seen.
Blandina was known for steering outlaws away from violence, saving a man from lynching and pushing officials to provide health care. She was an immigrant who created a settlement house for immigrants. If the Vatican canonizes her, she’ll be the patron saint of immigrant children.
@searchlightnm.bsky.social's Molly Montgomery did a great job on this story about the campaign to canonize Sister Blandina Segale, a nun who did a lot for New Mexico during its Wild West days. Whether you're a believer or skeptic, there's much to admire in her life. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-c...
For the first time, New Mexico’s downwinders have become eligible for government compensation. But many of them will suffer from Medicaid cuts, even as spending on nuclear weapons skyrockets. That now amounts to 84 percent of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s total annual costs.
Today is the 80th anniversary of Trinity. At 1 P.M. Eastern, the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium will dedicate the first permanent public marker to the New Mexicans who died or were made ill by radioactive fallout that nobody told them was coming. searchlightnm.org/trinity-bomb...
Just over a month after the death of Jaydun Garcia at a CYFD facility, another teenager in foster care, 17-year-old Makamy Anderson, took her own life. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-c...
A new lawsuit in the 2024 fatal police shooting of teenager Elijah Hadley could shed light on a persistent problem in New Mexico: an outsized portion of police violence begins with a welfare check
NEW: In a lawsuit quietly filed Friday, the NM State Ethics Commission accuses former WNMU President Joseph Shepard of misappropriating money meant for an ADA-compliant project and spending it instead on a patio for his daughter's wedding reception.
New at @searchlightnm.bsky.social: our own Molly Montgomery spoke with @mariahblake.bsky.social, author of “They Poisoned the World,” an important new book about the history and toxic legacy of “forever chemicals.” (Which were an outgrowth of the Manhattan Project.) searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-p...
New at @searchlightnm.bsky.social: During its lobbying campaign in the 2025 session, New Mexico Safety Over Profit demanded “corporate transparency” for hospitals. Now the State Ethics Commission is suing the dark money group for violating transparency laws. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-s...
@searchlightnm.bsky.social enjoyed collaborating with @apnews.com on this important story. Many thanks.
Natural gas from New Mexico has led to cleaner air for much of the country, and has brought huge amounts of money to the state budget. But students whose schools sit near gas wells are paying a price for those gains.
New at @searchlightnm.bsky.social: Fossil fuel revenues bankroll education spending in New Mexico, but schools exposed to industry pollution face environmental risks that can affect children’s health and performance. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-s...
@searchlightnm.bsky.social is grateful to our colleagues at @highcountrynews.org for co-publishing this important story. See more of their work at www.hcn.org
Impacts on workers aren’t carefully tracked, and labor laws aren’t consistently enforced. If harm is considered, it’s usually only after a violent accident has occurred. But there’s a slower toll on workers’ mental and long-term health. This is a story about that cost.
New Mexico is the second highest oil producing state in the U.S. It’s heavily dependent on the industry: around 40% of the state's general fund comes from oil and gas operations. But state government seems to be doing little to protect the workers who generate this income.
NEW: The oil & gas industry in New Mexico’s Permian Basin subjects workers to brutal conditions. Molly Montgomery takes an unforgettable look at the lives of men whose jobs lead to death, injury, disease and terrible tolls on mental health and family life. searchlightnm.org/new-mexico-p...
Jacob Johns and Malaya Peixinho allege that Rio Arriba County sheriff's deputies left the scene of the anti-Oñate protest in 2023, moments before Martinez shot Johns
The lawsuits have the potential to test the relatively young NM Civil Rights Act, signed into law in 2021
