The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, Ep. 58: Senator Soules and the Smell of Roasting Chile

This week, we’re joined by Las Cruces native Jamila Gilbert, who joined Virgin Galactic in 2019 where she has been an integral part of the company, leading internal communications. On Thursday, May 25, she was aboard the Unity 25 suborbital space flight. 

Jamila a­ttended New Mexico State University, studying linguistics, museum conservation, anthropology, and studio art. As a Latina woman of Purépechan-Mexican roots, a visual artist, and a communications professional who speaks four languages, Jamila doesn’t come from a technical or engineering background.

Now, the 34-year-old is the third Virgin Galactic woman to fly to space, joining the first 100 women astronauts in history. She is also among only 16 Hispanic astronauts. 

Later, we’re joined by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to talk about what the successful Virgin Galactic launch and the apparently imminent commercial space flights could mean for the state’s future.

On this week's episode, we’re joined by Rep. Nathan Small, a Democrat from Las Cruces who serves as chair of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. He also serves as vice chair for the Legislative Finance Committee.

David Abbey, the director of the budget and accountability office for the New Mexico Legislature, announced in March he would be retiring from the agency he led for 25 years — through a historic recession, a collapse in the oil economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and a new and unprecedented financial windfall.

Abbey will leave the agency known as the Legislative Finance Committee this summer. He guided the office through the tenure of four governors, earning recognition for ensuring state government solvency in the aftermath of the 2007-2009 Great Recession and many more challenges.

New Mexico is one of about five states where the Legislature prepares its own budget plan, independent of the executive branch.

Now, the search for Abbey’s replacement begins. We talk to Rep. Small about what that will look like, what the LFC will look for in its new leader and why the role is so important.

On this week's episode of The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, we’re joined by Las Cruces native Aaron Paz, who works for NASA. Aaron is a NASA senior engineer and Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration project manager at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

As NASA works toward sending astronauts to the Moon again through Artemis missions, one of the space agency’s primary goals is to establish a long-term presence on the lunar surface. Resources like oxygen are crucial building blocks for making that vision a reality. In addition to using oxygen for breathing, it can also be used as a propellant for transportation, helping lunar visitors stay longer and venture farther.

During a recent test, scientists at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston successfully extracted oxygen from simulated lunar soil. Lunar soil refers to the fine-grained material covering the Moon’s surface. This was the first time that this extraction has been done in a vacuum environment, paving the way for astronauts to one day extract and use resources in a lunar environment, called in-situ resource utilization.

And, I’m not going to lie, I don’t fully understand all of this — the ramifications, what it could mean for future space travel and living someplace that is not the earth — maybe even in our lifetimes.

But that’s why I’m grateful to have Aaron joining us this week. 

This week, we’re joined by Las Cruces native Michael Patrick Kaczmarek, one of the producers of The Pope’s Exorcist, which was released on April 14 in the U.S. and is in theaters now. To date, the film has grossed more than $60 million internationally.

The film stars Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe. Inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, The Pope’s Exorcist follows Amorth as he investigates a young boy’s terrifying possession and ends up uncovering a centuries-old conspiracy the Vatican has desperately tried to keep hidden.

Known by some as the Dean of Exorcists, to others as the Vatican’s Exorcist, Father Amorth was to thousands of people a light in the darkness. A real man who conducted thousands of exorcisms for the Church, Father Amorth was a frontline crusader in the battle against evil who chronicled his exploits in two memoirs that go far beyond the spooky anecdotes to explore the threats to humanity from demons.

Amorth was appointed chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome in 1986 and remained there until 2016 when he died at age 91. In those three decades, Amorth claimed to have conducted over 60,000 exorcisms.

Now, the stories of Father Amorth come to the screen for the first time in The Pope’s Exorcist.

Michael attended Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School and Oñate High School, where he played football for four years and graduated in 1999. He went on to attend the University of New Mexico and Cal State, Los Angeles, where he earned a B.A. in Communications with an emphasis in Film, Radio and Television in 2003.

We’ll talk to Michael about how he became involved in the project, how he got started, how he got to where he is and who helped him along the way. We’ll also talk about what may be next for the young producer.

This week’s podcast discusses sexual assault. If you or someone you know experiences sexual violence, you can find local support via La Piñon's 24-Hour Crisis Hotline at 575-526-3437 or go to www.lapinon.org.

This week, we’re joined by Abrianna Morales. When she was 15, Abrianna was sexually assaulted by someone she knew and trusted. That experience — navigating the legal system, the feeling of isolation, and lack of resources and support — prompted her to create the Sexual Assault Youth Survivors’ Network, a community of survivors, supporters, and advocates “dedicated to building a world without sexual violence where justice is restorative and healing is possible.”

As of early 2022, more than 300,000 people from around the world had visited the organization’s website.

After high school, she went on to attend the University of New Mexico. She is currently a senior majoring in Psychology and Criminology with a minor in Math and will graduate in two weeks. In 2022, she was selected to be a Truman Scholar, one of 58 college students throughout the country who aspire to be leaders in public service.

After graduation, she plans to take a gap year to work on developing the SAYSN and some collaborative projects with the National Organization for Victim Assistance, including a U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women grant to provide training and technical assistance to college campuses invested in preventing sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking.

Last week, during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, Abrianna was featured in a video on the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ website.

We’ll talk to Abrianna about SAYSN, her experience as an advocate, how COVID-19 impacted her life in surprising ways, her future plans and more.

On this week's episode, we’re joined by Patrick Nolan, executive director of Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. We’ll also be joined by Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), as well as Kyla Navarro, policy and community coordinator for Friends of the OMDP.

The New Mexico Legislative Session recently wrapped up and Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks celebrated the legislature’s decision to fund a feasibility study, which is a step towards establishing a new state park in Southern New Mexico. The Broad Canyon Ranch property was acquired by the New Mexico State Parks Division in 2008 to be a destination for outdoor education. It also holds potential as a foraging and nesting habitat for various avian species. Due to budget cuts during the previous administration, the property was never opened to the public.

Friends of the OMDP hopes to establish Broad Canyon Ranch as a state park for the safe public access to Slot Canyon, north of Las Cruces, and the Rio Grande corridor. This destination has increased in popularity the past few years but sits on the edge of state-owned land and national monument land.  Due to this reason, accessing this destination became contentious for trespassing concerns, treading on state land to access federal lands. With funding provided through the “Junior Bill,” Sen. Steinborn and Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) were able to allocate money to fund the study.

We’ll talk about the challenges this could help overcome, how it’s a necessary first step to create a state park, what the current situation looks like and how we got here, and what exactly the “Junior Bill” is.

This week, we’re joined by Dr. Molly Malloy, an associate professor, retired reference librarian and American specialist at NMSU and a member of this year’s J. Paul Taylor Social Justice Symposium’s organizing committee. We’ll also be joined by Spencer Herrera, an associate professor of Spanish at NMSU, who chaired this year’s organizing committee.

“Justice for Journalists” was the theme of this year’s symposium, which took place Wednesday and Thursday, April 12th and 13th on the university’s campus. The symposium offered a special tribute to the late J. Paul Taylor, a revered New Mexico legislator and longtime educator who founded the symposium.

Taylor passed away Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, after celebrating his 102nd birthday last August. NMSU’s College of Arts and Sciences established the symposium in 2005 when Taylor suggested bringing resources of the university and community together to address areas of concern for underserved populations in the region.

We’ll talk about this year’s theme, panel discussions, keynote speaker and why “Justice for Journalists” is a particularly timely and poignant conversation to have in 2023.

On this week's episode of The Reporter's Notebook Podcast, we’re talking to Patrick Allen, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health. At the end of 2022, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Allen as the leader of the state’s health department following the resignation of Dr. David Scrase. Allen began his work in the department on Jan. 3.

Before coming to New Mexico, Allen worked as the director of the Oregon Health Authority. In Oregon, he led the agency’s response to COVID-19 and guided Oregon’s statewide Medicaid plan and behavioral health system.

We’ll talk about his plans and priorities for the department as the COVID-19 public health orders expire. New Mexico’s COVID-19 public health order expired Friday, March 31. Meanwhile, the federal government plans to end the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency on May 11, 2023. 

In this week's episode, we’re talking to Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima, who recently delivered his 16th and final State of the City address. Miyagishima was first elected mayor of Las Cruces in 2007 and is currently in his fourth, four-year term. In November, he announced that he would not seek a fifth term.

While this is certainly not an exit interview — as he will still lead the city for months to come — we thought we should touch base on what he feels he has accomplished, as reflected in this year’s State of the City address. There have been ups and downs, for sure — moments of turmoil. But the mayor largely focused on how his vision for Las Cruces has been carried out, so far, during his 16 years in the office.

Before running for mayor, Miyagishima served as a Doña Ana County Commissioner. He also served as a city councilor. In August 2013, Miyagishima unsuccessfully applied to become Doña Ana County Manager.

This week, we're grateful to have the mayor joining us.

This week, we’re talking to Melanie Majors, the executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government. FOG was created because citizens have a fundamental right to know what their government is doing, and that includes the right to inspect public records and the right to attend public meetings.

FOG works to make sure these rights are strong and available to everyone. Sometimes, this means assisting individual citizens who are denied information by local or state government. It also means strengthening and broadening freedom-of-information laws through legislation and litigation. And it means educating the public and public officials about the letter and spirit of sunshine laws.

With New Mexico’s 60-day legislative session having just wrapped up, several bills of interest were winding their way through the legislature — bills that would have a tremendous impact on transparency and the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act.

For instance, Senate Bill 63 — sponsored by Sen. Bill Tallman, an Albuquerque Democrat, would shield the names of applicants of high-level government jobs, including city managers, school superintendents and police chiefs. Tallman contended the bill’s passage would attract a better pool of candidates. We’ll talk to Melanie about FOG’s opposition to that bill and what became of it.

Another proposed bill, House Bill 232, would revise New Mexico’s public records law to exempt from release certain cybersecurity records and law enforcement video of death notifications, nudity or certain other images. It would also require people requesting law enforcement video to include either a police report number, computer dispatch number or a date range. A request using a date range would need to include the officer’s name, time or location of what the requester is seeking. While FOG was involved in discussions surrounding the bill, the organization did not formally oppose the changes.