Oil workers in New Mexico are subjected to harrowing conditions that lead to death, injury, disease and terrible tolls on mental health and family life.
New Mexico
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
An intimate look at New Mexico’s lowrider culture
Photographer Gabriela Campos takes you on a ride showing the scene as poetry in motion.
Posted inMay 2025: The Art of the Cruise
The Cybertruck is all tricks and no truck, a musky Tesla fail
Tesla’s baking sheet on wheels rides fast in the recall lane toward a dead end where dysfunctional men gather.
Posted inArticles
The crusade to end federal public lands in New Mexico
Howard Hutchinson, a private property rights activist, leads a coalition that’s quietly organizing a county-level rejection of the Antiquities Act.
Posted inArticles
Contamination threatens the last source of clean groundwater in west New Mexico
The toxic legacy of Cold War uranium mining and milling has shattered lives, destroyed homes and created a pollution problem for an entire region.
Posted inArticles
Days before Trump took office, Interior approved oil and gas leases for land bought during 2019 public auction
Company can begin to issue plans for drilling near Chaco Canyon buffer zone on Navajo Nation allotment.
Posted inFebruary 2025: Immigrant Stories
‘If we center Indigenous birthing people as the standard for protection, then everybody’s protected’
#iamthewest: Giving voice to the people that make up communities in the region.
Posted inArticles
EPA takes unprecedented step to remove uranium waste from the Navajo Nation
The decision opens the door for new ways to manage uranium pollution on tribal land.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
The aftermath of the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon Fires
Devastation is hard to face, but
turning away is harder.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
Can Farmington hide from its legacy of anti-Indigenous violence?
It’s a reservation border town problem, not just a local one.
Posted inDecember 2024: Land as Reparations
2024 was a year of wacky Western weather
When assessing the region, not much was normal but climate change.
Posted inArticles
Key Senate and House races remain uncalled across the West
A dramatic shift by Latino voters toward Trump helped create a red wave.
Posted inNovember 2024: The Once and Future Prairie
The future of New Mexico’s beloved bosque
In a warmer, drier climate, restoration has its limits.
Posted inOctober 2024: Latino Vote
The downballot issues driving the West’s 2024 elections
From climate and public lands to shifting political allegiances, the region faces critical choices at the ballot box.
Posted inArticles
How carbon removal can help curb wildfires and build houses
Local governments in the Four Corners back homegrown carbon-removal projects.
Posted inArticles
The New Mexico utility that wants to go all in on green hydrogen
The project, like the larger green hydrogen economy, will need to overcome skepticism from local communities and funding challenges.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
Indigenous celebration of Hanford remembers the site before nuclear contamination
At the fourth annual Hanford Journey, Yakama Nation youth, elders and scientists share stories about a land that is a part of them.
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
A silicon revival in the West
Is the region ready to produce the world’s most advanced technology?
Posted inAugust 2024: In the Wake of the Floods
How New Mexico made child care free for most families
The state, long known for its challenges with child wellbeing, is now a leader in early childhood education.
Posted inArticles
When grasshoppers attack
Is the cure for grasshopper outbreaks worse than the disease?