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Searchlight New Mexico

Searchlight New Mexico

Independent Investigative Journalism

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  • SERIES
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      • Gallup
      • Carlsbad
      • Anthony
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    • Secrecy and Sacred Cows: Turmoil at CYFD
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Avatar photo

Michael Benanav

Michael Benanav is a writer, photographer and digital storyteller based in northern New Mexico. In addition to Searchlight, his work appears in The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, Sierra Magazine, and other publications. He's also the author of three books, most recently the award-winning "Himalaya Bound: One Family's Quest to Save Their Animals — And an Ancient Way of Life."

Posted inEnvironment

In drought-plagued New Mexico, a city loses nearly half its water — to leaky pipes

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav February 15, 2023February 15, 2023

Aging water lines burst near-daily in Truth or Consequences, but funding for repairs has run dry.

Posted inFeatured

Helter shelter

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav September 19, 2022February 7, 2023

New Mexico cities resist building encampments, despite one’s success to the south

Posted inFeatured

Seven years after a spill turns a river yellow, Navajo farmers still seek justice

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav August 3, 2022August 16, 2022

The 2015 Gold King Mine spill sent a toxic plume through the Navajo Nation. Why isn’t restitution in sight?

Posted inFeatured

‘I could go missing tomorrow’

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav July 7, 2022December 14, 2022

A Navajo woman is walking from Arizona to Washington, D.C., as a call to action for her aunt and thousands of other missing or murdered Indigenous people.

Posted inFeatured

Redlined and reeling

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav May 18, 2022November 29, 2022

Here’s what happens when rural New Mexicans are priced out of homeowners insurance. Or denied it altogether.

Posted inEnvironment, Featured

Against the flow

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav December 16, 2021January 12, 2023

For centuries, Picuris Pueblo says its water has been stolen and shunted over a mountain to the Mora Valley — where irrigators claim rights to it, too. Can anyone win this battle?

Posted inFeatured, Health, Politics

Last Rights

Avatar photo by Michael Benanav February 10, 2021July 10, 2022

Legalizing the decision to end one’s life

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Santa Fe, NM 87501

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Searchlight New Mexico is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigative and public service journalism in the interest of the people of New Mexico.

Our mission is to deliver high-impact investigative reporting to inspire New Mexicans to demand action on systemic problems that plague our state.

We believe that great reporting can motivate all New Mexicans to confront racial and economic inequities, government corruption and negligence, and abuses of power.

Searchlight New Mexico is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Our tax identification number is 81-3234552. Your contribution is tax deductible.

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