CrucesSunNews

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about an annual event that has returned to our area after a two-year, COVID-inspired hiatus. That’s the Spaceport America Cup — which was recently described by someone in our newsroom as March Madness for aspiring rocket scientists.

We talk to Las Cruces Sun-News reporter Algernon D’Ammassa — who regularly covers the Spaceport, its anchor tenant Virgin Galactic, and related topics — and to photojournalist Meg Potter, who is relatively new to New Mexico, about their experiences covering the first day of the event.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about Pride month — celebrated every June — the time of year when we recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals have had on history. Celebrated in various countries around the world, Pride celebrations take a variety of forms, from parades and parties to proms and protests. Since the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ liberation movement in the 1970s, hundreds of independent Pride events have sprung up in cities worldwide, each distinctly local and generally tied in some way to the foundational Stonewall Riots in June.

After 50 years of Pride celebrations, these events have become so varied that you can usually find a way to celebrate that feels best to you, whether it’s the raucous jubilation of the NYC Pride parade, or the massive crowds that attend World Pride — held in a different city every two years.

The Stonewall riots started with a police raid on a hot summer night in Greenwich Village. In the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, police stormed the Stonewall Inn, a well-known gay bar, arresting patrons and forcing them into waiting police vehicles. But a nearby crowd grew restless and angry, and eventually someone started spurring onlookers into fighting back. They pelted the police, forcing homophobic cops to retreat, and aggressive street confrontations continued over the next few nights.

The Stonewall riots are generally viewed as the beginning of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.

We’ll talk to Las Cruces residents Kat Sanchez, J.T. Perez, and Casey Combs about why — more than 50 years after Stonewall — it’s important to continue observing Pride month.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about recent conversations about homelessness and crime in Las Cruces. Business leaders recently organized a forum to address a gap they say the city council created by ignoring the issue of homelessness and property crime citywide.

On June 2, the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce, the Las Cruces Association of Realtors and the Las Cruces Home Builders Association hosted a forum for business owners to discuss concerns about theft, vandalism, substance abuse and homelessness in Las Cruces. The forum was held at the Home Builders Association event hall.

On Monday, June 6th, many showed up to speak during the public comment portion of the Las Cruces City Council meeting to address the same issues.

This week, we talk to Las Cruces Sun-News reporters Justin Garcia and Michael McDevitt — and photojournalist Meg Potter. Michael covers city and county government for the paper; Justin writes about public safety, cops and courts. We’ll talk about the issues expressed by the business community, the stats behind crime, locally — based on a recent Sun-News analysis — and what stories we’ll be following in the coming weeks.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about education.

We talk to Miranda Cyr, who has covered education for the Sun-News for the past couple of years. Miranda is a Report for America fellow; Report for America is a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. An initiative of the nonprofit media organization, The GroundTruth Project, it is structured to harness the skills and idealism of an emerging group of journalists plus the creative spirit of local news organizations.

Last week was Miranda’s final week with us. She’ll be leaving Las Cruces to join the staff of the Register-Guard in Eugene, Oregon — where she’ll also cover education. We wanted to talk to her about some of the biggest stories she’s covered during her time here, some of the throughlines in her reporting, and what we should be looking for as we move forward.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the shooting of 75-year-old Amelia Baca by an officer from the Las Cruces Police Department. Family members say she suffered from signs of dementia — which was undiagnosed. 

When police arrived, they say they found the elderly woman holding a large kitchen knife in each hand. Videos obtained by the Sun-News show that Baca was shot as she took a step toward the responding officer.

Our efforts in reporting this story have been rife with transparency issues, stemming from the City of Las Cruces and the Las Cruces Police Department. Days passed before the department acknowledged the fatal shooting. Eventually, they named the victim. And our subsequent records requests shined a little more light on what happened that Saturday before Easter.

There are a lot of issues to dissect in this — both in our reporting and in the facts of the case. Why did Amelia Baca have to die? Why weren’t less-lethal measures used? Unfortunately, we don’t have the answers to THOSE questions. Someday, we might. The incident is still under investigation by the Doña Ana County Officer-Involved Task Force.

We’ll talk to Justin Garcia, who covers public safety for the Sun-News, about this story — and the challenges of covering it.

In this week’s episode of The Reporter's Notebook, we’re talking about interesting figures in Las Cruces. Anita Rockett, for instance, is 69 years old. Nearly 50 years ago, she almost lost a leg in a boating accident. Since then, she has run countless marathons, and in June, she hopes to complete her first Ironman Half Triathalon.

We’ll talk to Sun-News reporter Leah Romero, who has reported these stories for the newspaper. Florence Hamilton, who just turned 100 years old, is a great storyteller. She uses her talent to share Black history. Newly-established Las Crucen Lyn Barrett explores her personal battle with Dissociative Identity Disorder in her new book, "Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory.”

Barrett, 74, arrived in Las Cruces in early March from her longtime home in Upstate New York — a move made for closer proximity to children, grandchildren and warm weather. Jenny Matsler of Las Cruces has collected dozens of medals during her years involved with Special Olympics New Mexico. This summer, she will get her first opportunity to compete during the national games in Orlando on the state’s bocce team. David Hill, a Las Crucen, recently summited Mount Kilimanjaro on his second attempt, three years after suffering a debilitating injury. They all have interesting stories to share.

Thanks for listening this week, and remember you can subscribe to The Reporter's Notebook from the Las Cruces Sun-News on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart, TuneIn, Stitcher — and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking about the local economy as a number of interesting factors collide. On one hand, the nation’s economy is shrinking as inflation and other factors drive up gas prices — creating a pinch at the pump and at the supermarket. Las Cruces certainly isn’t immune to these large-scale factors — but, according to one economist we spoke to, we may be a little better insulated.

We’ll talk to Sun-News reporter Algernon D’Ammassa, who has followed several facets of this story quite closely. We’ll talk about the state’s recent legalization of the sale of recreational cannabis, the nationwide nursing shortage and other factors.

And, finally, we’ll talk to Meg Potter — the newest addition to our newsroom. Meg is a photojournalist — or, a visual journalist — who just started last week. We’ll talk about her experience, her motivation, and settling into life in a new city in the desert southwest.

In an emergency episode of The Aggie Wagon Podcast, Stephen breaks down the state of NMSU basketball over the last month, what the new coaching hires mean for the program and what effect they've had on the rosters.

In this week’s episode, we’re talking collaborative, solutions-based journalism. We’ll be joined by Diana Alba Soular — a former reporter for the Sun-News — and my former co-worker — who is now Project Manager of the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative, and Reyes Mata III, a reporter for the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative and a freelance reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. For the past year or so, he has written the Border Report, which you’ll often find in Sunday’s edition of the newspaper and online at www.lcsun-news.com.

At the Sun-News, we’ve been involved with the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative from the ground up; in 2021, loyal readers may recall Walt Rubel’s coverage of a very unusual Legislative session — due, in large part, to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And that brings us to the Collaborative’s next steps — a deep dive into solutions-based journalism, looking at how COVID-19 has impacted southern New Mexicans and the steps forward — toward recovery, rebuilding and resilience. Reyes will be tasked with covering that effort for news outlets across Southern New Mexico through his new role at the Collaborative.

But what is solutions journalism? And what will this mean for readers of the Sun-News? We try to explain that.

New Mexico State has drawn UConn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Stephen breaks down what you need to know about the Round of 64 matchup, and former Aggie assistant Keith Roberts joins the show to discuss what goes on behind the scenes.