CrucesSunNews

This week, we’re doing something a little bit different. I’ll be talking to Walt Rubel, a longtime reporter and editor in southern New Mexico who has covered New Mexico politics for many years — and many of THOSE at the Las Cruces Sun-News.

We’re talking about the 2022 midterm elections, redistricting, and some of the state’s biggest offices up for grabs.

We should note, this podcast was recorded Saturday, Nov. 5.

This week, we’re grateful to be joined by Walt.

Greg Heiar joins the podcast to preview the upcoming season and his first game as a Division I head coach.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking to Sun-News sports reporter Stephen Wagner.

We’re talking about, well, a lot of things. Stephen was recently selected as a voter in the Associated Press Media Poll for college football. The Aggie basketball team just had their first Crimson/White scrimmage, giving us an early look at the team. I want to know what Stephen is thinking of both of these teams as the seasons progress — or, in the case of basketball, as the season approaches.

We’ll also share the latest episode of The Aggie Wagon podcast, to take you a little deeper into the story. It includes some WAC predictions, some off-season recaps and more.

This week, we’re honored to be joined by Stephen, who will talk about his reporting and how he has covered the sports beat as a reporter.

The Reporter's Notebook, Ep. 39: Barbara Hubbard by CrucesSunNews

New Mexico State men's basketball beat writer Stephen Wagner recaps the Aggies' offseason and explains why fans should temper their expectations heading into the upcoming season.

This week, we’re talking to former Las Cruces Sun-News reporter Bethany Raja — who was Bethany Freudenthal when she worked as a public safety reporter at the Sun-News. She now works as a city hall reporter for @WYPR in Baltimore.

We’re talking about Adnan Syed, whose case first rose to prominence because of the first season of the Serial podcast. First, a little history.

Eight years after the shaky case against Adnan Syed became the center of the hit podcast "Serial," prosecutors said Tuesday that DNA evidence suggests Syed is innocent and murder charges against him have been dropped.

Syed was previously convicted in the 1999 killing of Hae Min Lee and served about two decades in jail before the state's attorney's office in Baltimore asked a judge to vacate the conviction in September. At the time, the office said Syed could still be retried for Lee's death.

But the state has now dropped its case against Syed entirely.

"Today, justice is done," Marilyn Mosby, the state's attorney for the city of Baltimore, said at a Tuesday news conference.

This week, we’re honored to be joined by Bethany, who will talk about her reporting, why this case matters to her personally, and how she has covered it as a reporter.

In this week’s episode, however, we’re doing something a little different. We’re talking poetry. Specifically, we’re talking about the role of New Mexico’s Poet Laureate. First, a little history.

In 2014, companion memorials in the New Mexico House and Senate requested that the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs develop a "New Mexico Poet Laureate position and program to foster a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry and to highlight the importance of poetry in the everyday life of ordinary and extraordinary people to the creation of the New Mexico Poet Laureate position."

Lack of funding, however, prevented the recommendation from being implemented.

Ultimately, SB 536 of the 2019 Regular Session of the New Mexico Legislature — signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on April 5, 2019 — allocated $107,000 to the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs for the creation of a state poet laureate program. On January 30, 2020, Albuquerque poet Levi Romero was appointed New Mexico's inaugural Poet Laureate.

This made New Mexico the 46th state to offer an official state poet or state writer position.

Romero served as New Mexico Poet Laureate until Sept. 1 of this year, when Lauren Camp was named as the state’s second poet laureate.

This week, we’re honored to be joined by both Levi and Lauren, who will talk about the role, the importance of poetry in everyday life, and the reward that comes from promoting literacy in the state.

This week, we’re speaking to Algernon D’Ammassa. Algernon is an investigative and enterprise reporter for the Sun-News. We’re talking about the recent Yacone family tragedy — in which local restaurateur Bob Yacone is accused of killing his wife, Kimberly, before engaging deputies from the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office in a shootout that left him injured.

As is often the case in situations like this, official information trickled out at a relatively slow pace. Meanwhile, in the newsroom, we were beginning to put the pieces together much more quickly.

Apart from the tragedy itself, the situation raised a number of ethical questions and prompted many conversations in our newsroom. It was important that our reporting be thoughtful, and that decisions be deliberate. This week, we’ll talk to Algernon about how he approached his coverage of this story — and his coverage of Bob Yacone through the years.

In this week’s episode, we’re speaking to Michael McDevitt, who has covered city and county government for the Sun-News for the past three years, since 2019. Michael will be moving on to a new opportunity in Chicago, where he attended college.

During his three years covering Las Cruces and Doña Ana County, Mike has seen a lot — and has shared his reporting with our community. There was the search for a new city manager, municipal elections, a historic city council election, the city’s first instance of ranked-choice voting, multiple initiatives, a few scandals and so much more.

Michael has been a relentless watchdog reporter and a true asset to the Sun-News newsroom. We’ll miss his keen reporting and attention to detail when writing stories for Doña Ana County readers.

In this week’s episode, we’re speaking to Justin Garcia, who covers public safety for the Sun-News. We’re returning to a familiar topic — talking about the number of police shootings in Doña Ana County this year.

We’ll speak in depth about the most recent shooting. It happened on the afternoon of Aug. 2, after Las Cruces police responded to a shoplifting call at a gas station. Over the next hour, the situation escalated and ended abruptly with 36-year-old Presley Eze killed by a police officer.

It was at least the fifth police shooting within Doña Ana County this year. Does this point to a trend? And, if so, what does it mean?