Citing “greed, self-dealing, and arrogance,” Raúl Torrez announced a civil suit aimed at recovering the $1.9 million buyout awarded to WNMU’s outgoing president
Joshua Bowling
Joshua Bowling, Searchlight's criminal justice reporter, spent nearly six years covering local government, the environment and other issues at the Arizona Republic. His accountability reporting exposed unsustainable growth, water scarcity, costly forest management and injustice in a historically Black community that was overrun by industrialization. Raised in the Southwest, he graduated from Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Posted inFeatured
Christmas behind bars
One year ago, all eyes focused on living conditions at New Mexico’s largest juvenile jail. We haven’t looked away.
Posted inFeatured
After a year of scrutiny, Joseph Shepard to resign as WNMU president
Joseph Shepard is out as president of Western New Mexico University after more than 13 years on the job. The university Board of Regents unanimously voted to terminate his contract on Friday, although both sides said the decision was mutual. Shepard and the regents have been under the microscope for more than a year after […]
Posted inFeatured
State auditor slams lavish spending at Western New Mexico University. Will leaders face any consequences?
Nearly a year after Searchlight New Mexico first exposed WNMU President Joseph Shepard’s big spending on international flights, resort stays and exotic furniture, a new government report accuses university officials of violating policy and wasting a huge amount of taxpayer money.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Inside the shoplifting bust of Albuquerque Journal editor Patrick Ethridge
The editor of New Mexico’s largest newspaper has lost his job for stealing groceries at a Walmart. Public and private records obtained by Searchlight New Mexico paint a clear picture of what happened. What remains a mystery is why.
Posted inRelated
A powerful political player
Racetrack executives and members of the New Mexico Racing Commission have given hundreds of thousands to local political campaigns in recent years
Posted inRelated
As race days decline, tracks bet big on casinos
New Mexico’s horse racing industry holds nearly half the races it did in the 1990s. Despite that decline, it remains a formidable source of revenue.
Posted inPolitics
Racehorses, slot machines and election campaigns
Politicians, businessmen and cartel operatives have all benefited from the hundreds of millions of dollars New Mexico’s horse racing industry brings in annually. Those who have criticized it say it’s cost them.
Posted inCriminal Justice
An inmate went on a hunger strike. So the jail shut off his tap.
Three days without water: “I almost lost my mind.”
Posted inCriminal Justice
Basic math errors. Faulty statistics. Conclusions that don’t add up.
Amid a plethora of inaccurate reporting, Albuquerque celebrates the end of a nearly 10-year federal consent decree.
