@algernon I enjoyed your article. I was considering that part of the state sponsored coyote plan could also be a money laundering scheme. State of Florida money is paid to DeSantis cronies to kidnap the migrants, or maybe he gets a cut of the payments. #asylum #immigration #NewMexico #DemingHeadlight

An #editorial: Our community earned praise for our humanitarian response to #migrants in 2019. What a profound insult to us that Florida's state-sponsored coyotes would use our runways to kidnap human beings over our heads.

https://www.demingheadlight.com/demingheadlight/news/2023/06/07/state-sponsored-coyotes-insult-deming

#Sacramento #asylum #RonDeSantis #Florida #immigration #NewMexico #DemingHeadlight

"It is often considered pejorative to call someone an amateur. We are as confused about this as we are about the meaning of “leisure” (to be in command of one’s own time, which is not the same thing as being idle)."

My latest column for the #DemingHeadlight, on the necessity of doing things we love and pushing back against a social system that insists on monetizing every endeavor.

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/06/02/living-by-loving/

#leisure #life #theatre #amateur #Professionalism #philosophy #etymology #capitalism

P.S. Here is one of those stories.

“…you are talking about things that are so far over our heads,” (County Manager) Brice said while struggling to conclude his presentation, as a resident stood and yelled at the commissioners about federal immigration policy: “This is on you! You have blood on your hands!”

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/05/18/interruptions-slow-luna-county-commissioners/

#publicmeetings #journalism #LunaCounty #NewMexico #DemingHeadlight

Brinkmanship on the #DebtCeiling is not governance. Editorial from the #DemingHeadlight: https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/28/playing-chicken-default-not-governance/

Run a story about city projects and roads people have been asking about, then step back and marvel at all of the self-taught engineers whose talents and insights have been overlooked all these years!

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/25/city-focuses-drainage-rec-projects/

#LocalNews #DemingHeadlight #PublicComment #civics

After a lawsuit detailing allegations of sexual assault within the #NMSU basketball team went public Wednesday, it is reasonable to ask whether we should keep referring to this as #hazing rather than using words like trauma, sadism or assault.

Editorial in the #DemingHeadlight:

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/21/dont-call-hazing/

As a postscript, one reason it will continue in news articles online is SEO, which perpetuates it when it appears in the body of articles.

Arguing that #NewMexico, and indeed the United States broadly, missed an opportunity to construct something positive out of the #COVID19 pandemic: A case for #publichealth as a prominent ethical value.

An editorial from the #DemingHeadlight

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/21/covid-19-new-phase-lost-opportunity/

A local defense attorney stopped by the #DemingHeadlight to chew the fat. He asked me why I write about "human trafficking charges" when the statute refers to alien smuggling.

Because I don't like calling people #aliens and avoid doing so.

I don't like referring to people as "#felons," either. I've committed misdemeanors, yet I'm not labeled a "misdemeanant" for life.

In #journalism, the way we write about these things makes an enormous difference, and people who hold power notice.

Editorial from the #DemingHeadlight says, time for newsrooms to make their post-#Twitter plans, and do it publicly.

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/18/time-newsrooms-make-post-twitter-plans/

#journalism #twittermigration

The #NewMexico State Auditor is asking to see #ColumbusNM's corrective action plan following its horrible financial audit.

Also, when Mayor Salas returned late from his vacation, another village official alleges he was in such a bad mood that he verbally threatened her.

Reporting from the #DemingHeadlight:

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/14/columbus-official-alleges-mayor-threatened-police-report/

A local resident wrote by hand asking to see death notices in the #DemingHeadlight.

I wrote back. #localnews #newspapers

A cryptic social media message from our #DemingNM school superintendent inspired an editorial about why #localnews is preferable to online rumor mongering. #DemingHeadlight https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/14/online-rumors-versus-real-news/

A broadband project announced yesterday involves installing 49 miles of fiber optic in #LunaCounty #NewMexico, bringing service to #ColumbusNM and remote areas south of #DemingNM.

822 locations sounds like a modest number but it belies the geographic scope of the undertaking, mostly covered with federal #COVID19 money and some matching money by the provider.

And they say they'll have it done in a year, which is bold.

Story from #DemingHeadlight:

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/04/01/rural-broadband-project-will-connect-columbus-luna-county/

#FTTP #broadband

If you purchased a trailer, quad, two-seater or any product requiring title from a #TractorSupply store in #NewMexico since Feb. 28, you're going to have to return it.

From the #DemingHeadlight:

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/03/29/tractor-supply-pauses-sales-trailers-new-mexico/

New from the #DemingHeadlight: A #ForestService road leading to a popular trail in the #Gila National Forest in #KingstonNM now has a locked gate closing off access to the Aldo Leopold Wilderness boundary.

The new owner of a private parcel of adjacent to the forest has closed off a swath of #publiclands, infuriating local residents while local and federal officers say there may or may not be any recourse.

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/03/21/landowner-locks-access-popular-gila-trail/

The village of #ColumbusNM #NewMexico is in trouble. Trustees have permitted management at town hall to deteriorate to the point that basic services are dangerously underfunded. The village's annual audit presented 28 findings with several material weaknesses, and has not even been discussed in open session.

The village's credit rating and access to capital funds could be in jeopardy next.

Reporting from #DemingHeadlight:
https://www.demingheadlight.com/demingheadlight/news/2023/03/18/columbus-trustees-wade-budget-financial-problems

Editorial from the #DemingHeadlight on #felonymurder:

"...felony murder has been used as a net to convict and confine people peripherally involved in fatal crimes throughout the United States. A task force created by the Minnesota legislature recently found that charges of aiding and abetting felony murder disproportionately targeted Black and Brown defendants, as well as younger people: 63 percent of them under the age of 25 and 9 percent under 18."

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/03/17/re-examine-felony-murder-doctrine/

#nmleg #justice

Today is the anniversary of the March 9, 1916 attack on #ColumbusNM ordered by #PanchoVilla.

I took a dip into the archives to research how #localnews reported on the raid and its aftermath at the time. This included reporting by the #DemingHeadlight (which is still around) and the Columbus Courier (which is not).

Some of it is hard to read now.

https://www.demingheadlight.com/2023/03/10/columbus-scene-daring-raid/

#journalism #MexicanRevolution #history #propaganda

Sunday morning in #localnews: I am home with my kids while my wife works her Sunday morning job. People contact the #DemingHeadlight via FB messenger wondering what’s going on at the IHOP. That’s how I learn something is going on at the IHOP. And I have to wait because I’m not bringing my toddler to the scene of a fire or crime or whatever the heck. Local emergency agencies don’t like us and don’t offer information easily. So I go when I can and report what I find out when I can.