Artesia catcher Brant Usherwood takes out a Grants runner in then second inning. Artesia would win the doubleheader 10-5 and 18-0 on Saturday.
Artesia Bulldogs baseball team open the season with a pair of wins
Artesia catcher Brant Usherwood takes out a Grants runner in then second inning. Artesia would win the doubleheader 10-5 and 18-0 on Saturday.
Scenes for Artesia’s 73-33 win over Bloomfield at the Bulldog Pit
Column:Lady ’Dogs never quit this season
JT Keith
Artesia Daily Press
jtkeith@elritomedia.com
The Lady Bulldogs basketball team didn’t take the easy road this season, have a clean bill of health or the perfect lineup. As they faced adversity, they laced up, huddled up and fought every night like the season still belonged to them.
The team has had more momentum swings than a Disneyland roller-coaster. They dropped three straight games. Won seven straight. Hit the floor again with three more losses. Then picked themselves up and won two when it mattered most. When most teams would have folded, they refused to be done.
A week ago, MaxPreps.com ranked them No. 18, with a playoff field that includes only 16 teams. People were already talking about softball and track season. But the girls didn’t hear any of it. They believed there was still something left to chase.
They rebuilt their season on heart, hustle and hard-nose basketball, the kind that can’t be taught and most teams never find until they’re pushed.
Point guard Brooklyn Fuentes became the engine of the team, slicing through defenses and attacking the lane. Jenna Whitmire, finally healthy, brought back her fearlessness and reminded the team how to win tight games. Ashton Craft turned the second half of the season into her own highlight reel, rebounding and scoring when the team needed it. Gracen Kuykendall returned from injury and immediately reclaimed the paint, altering shots and setting the tone.
Then came the grit crew: Avery Frederick, who battled 6-foot-5 Lovington center Abbi Shouse without blinking. Zaleigh Greer, who defends like every loose ball is hers. Peyton Barela, a steady defender and fearless driver. Desiray Savoie, instant energy off the bench. Jordan Rone, the three-point lifeline who hits big shots when it matters.
The Lady ’Dogs built their comeback on defense. They set a mission: Don’t let opponents reach 40 points. Make every shot tough. Make every possession matter. Some nights they won with it. Some nights, like after a 39-36 loss to Portales, they proved the formula works even without a win.
What matters is they never quit.
They racked up more victories than last season, 14, and were one win away from a district tournament championship Friday night. Until their loss to Goddard, the postseason was a real possibility.
What doesn’t show up in MaxPreps rankings is this: Artesia found itself at the moment most teams fade. They learned how to fight together. How to trust each other. How to win ugly, win late and win when people expected them to crumble.
Through three major injuries, one season ender, slumps, setbacks and pressure, they still stood tougher than when they started.
If you want a story about heart, grit and a group of girls who refused to bury their season before the season buried them, this is it.
The Lady Dogs aren’t done. They’re just now becoming who they were meant to be.
JT Keith can be reached at 575-420-0061, or on X @JTKEITH1.
Opinion: State’s legislative schedule and structure are locked in the past
Sherry Robinson
All She Wrote
In my time covering the Legislature, I watched thoughtful deliberations for the first few weeks of a session. After that the pace picked up, the days grew longer, and hearings stretched into the wee hours and filled weekends. In the final week, hoarse, exhausted legislators were still trying to move legislation, but many a good bill – maybe one you cared about – died because the clock ran out.
This is no way to run a railroad, I thought year after year.
New Mexico’s Legislature is locked in an outdated schedule and structure. Sessions are 60 days in odd-numbered years and 30 days in even-numbered years. Short sessions are devoted to the budget and whatever governors choose to add. It takes reforms and solutions years to lumber through such a system. And our “citizen legislators” are unpaid except for a per diem of $202 a day.
I believe it’s one reason New Mexico remains poor.
It’s been this way since 1964, when the length was changed from 60 days every other year to the current system. Meanwhile, other states extended their sessions and paid their legislators. By 2023 New Mexico had the nation’s only unpaid legislature.
In a stab at modernizing, lawmakers this year passed a bill to pay themselves, but they failed again to lengthen sessions. Both steps are necessary.
House Joint Resolution (HJR) 5 allows voters to decide in November whether to approve a salary of $64,140 beginning in 2029. The amount is the median income in New Mexico in 2024. That’s not an average but a midpoint between lowest and highest. The cost would be about $7.6 million a year.
New Mexico’s payment would be on the high side. The average salary for state legislators in 2025 was $47,904 a year, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Rep. Cristina Parajón, D-Albuquerque, and other young, female sponsors talked about how difficult it was to balance jobs, family, student loans and legislative duties. Republicans and a few Democrats opposed HJR 5 in both chambers. Some feared that candidates would run for the paycheck and not to serve the public, while others just didn’t think it was a good use of taxpayer dollars.
HJR 5 is based on Alabama’s system. Nobody would say Alabama is governed by free-spending liberals, but that state pays its legislators $62,212 a year for a session that’s three and a half months long – more than twice the length of ours. Arizona sessions are six months, Colorado’s are four, and Texas meets four and a-half months, according to NCSL.
While the salary would help out current legislators, the question we should be asking is: How do we get better decision making? The answer is more time to hear and study bills.
But that half of the reform failed again. In HJR 6 Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, made his fourth try to get yearly sessions of 45 days. (Attempts by others to get yearly 60-day sessions have also failed.) McQueen also wanted legislators to be able to introduce their bills without governors setting limits on short sessions. An analysis by New Mexico In Depth showed that nearly half of this year’s bills didn’t make the cut.
”If I don’t get a bill passed in a 60-day session, I’m effectively done for two years, because I can’t automatically run it in a 30-day session unless I get permission from the governor,” McQueen told KUNM radio last year. “I’m in my 11th year in the Legislature. I’ve worked under two governors from different parties, and I’ve never received (permission) from a governor.”
Forty-five days is still way too short, but even this small change met defeat. The bill sailed through the House and died in the Senate, which is exactly what happened to his measure last year.
Republicans understand that our short calendars are bad for them. In 2021 Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, carried a bill like HJR 6, and he was a co-sponsor this year with McQueen.
What we’re talking about here is a more professional legislature that spends significantly more time in session. If our citizen legislators are honest, many would admit that they have merged the sessions with their personal and work lives and really don’t want to spend more time in Santa Fe on the people’s business.
McQueen has said New Mexico isn’t doing as well as it should because issues facing the Legislature are really complicated, and “you’re not going to solve these complicated issues in 60 days.”
Sherry Robinson is a longtime New Mexico reporter and editor. She has worked in Grants, Gallup, the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Business Weekly and Albuquerque Tribune. She is the author of four books. Her columns won first place in 2024 from New Mexico Press Women.
Tony Jackson to come to the Flickinger Alamogordo
Flickinger Center for Performing Arts
He’s served our country as a Marine and enjoyed a successful career in the banking industry, but with one listen to Tony Jackson’s new album, “I’ve Got Songs to Sing,” it is obvious country music is his true calling.
With a distinctive voice that embodies country’s best traditions yet teems with an infectious energy that propels the genre into the future, Jackson is an old country soul in the body of a rising superstar.
Is it premature to see Hall of Fame material in a guy who’s just releasing his first album?
Not if that guy is Tony Jackson. To put it plainly, Jackson is the most talked about singer in Nashville today and one of the most gifted singers ever to grace country music. Rolling Stone magazine cited Jackson’s latest single, “County Road,” naming it among the 10 Best Country and Americana Songs to Hear Now, stating “fiddle, harmonica, pedal steel guitar fill this less known James Taylor salute to the rolling ribbons of backwoods blacktop, but it’s Tony Jackson’s voice – which could easily pass for Taylor’s classic croon – that packs the biggest punch.”
Since his highly praised May 2017 debut album release, “Tony Jackson,” the affable singer has already been invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry (multiple times) and CMA Fest, and has appeared on several important national TV shows. His initial videos from the album have garnered over 62 million Facebook views and 1.1 million shares seemingly overnight while Jackson tours tirelessly in support of his debut album and material from his new album.
WHO: Tony Jackson
WHAT: Seventh concert of the 2025-2026 Premiere Series of the Flickinger Center
WHEN: Saturday, March 7, 2026, at 7 p.m.
WHERE: Flickinger Center, 1110 New York Ave., Alamogordo
TICKETS/INFO: $20-$45, available at the Flickinger Center website: https://www.flickingercenter.com or call (575) 437-2202 or walk up Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Bulldog boys No. 2 seed in state tourney
JT Keith
Artesia Daily Press
jtkeith@elritomedia.com
For six weeks, the Artesia boys basketball team sat atop the 4A rankings as the No. 1 seed. The run ended with a 64-63 loss on the road to the Portales Rams on Feb. 3, dropping the Bulldogs to the No. 2 seed heading into the state tournament.
Now, the Bulldogs (22-5) will face the No. 15 seed Bloomfield Bobcats (15-12) at the Pit at 6 p.m. Saturday.
“The way the numbers fall out and the way they used the seeding selection, I feel No. 2 was where we were going to be,” coach Michael Mondragon said. “I like our draw and where we are at. We just want a home game at the end of the day.”
Mondragon, now in his 12th season, has led the Bulldogs to the state tournament every year he has been the head coach.
Mondragon said the seedings do not matter at this time of the season. The important thing is to be in the tournament and win the state title.
“Now, you can throw all the seeding out in New Mexico, no matter what,” Mondragon said. “We must focus on Bloomfield first, and then, once we reach the Pit in Albuquerque, anything is possible.”
Mondragon said these teams are fighting for their tournament lives and will come ready to play. For his Bulldogs to have a No. 2 next to their names means they get a home game and can play to reach Albuquerque.
On the Bulldogs’ side of the bracket are teams they have faced during the regular season: Pojoaque Valley, Hope Christian and Goddard. The Bulldogs will face the winner of Gallup and Silver, and they have not played either team.
Mondragon said that they have watched Bloomfield play Hope Christian in the semifinals of the Hope Christian Tournament.
Mondragon said an early scouting report on Bloomfield shows that they like to play fast and want to get up and down the court. On defense, look for the Bobcats to pressure the Bulldogs full-court.
Mondragon said the Bulldogs’ schedule was built for this purpose: the state tournament. The Bulldogs can play fast or slow, but the tournament will boil down to Artesia executing the fundamentals and playing good defense.
“We have to limit their (Bloomfield’s) touches,” Mondragon said. “I think we will have a big advantage inside. We have to impose our will and take care of ourselves. If we do that, I like where we are going to be for the entire state tournament.”
JT Keith can be reached at 575-420-0061, or on X @JTKEITH1.
Where ‘the best’ rest
Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press
achedden@currentargus.com
State veterans cemetery coming to Carlsbad via $8M in federal funds
Mack Dyer served for 21 years in the U.S. Army. He fought in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
Dyer 55, retired from the service in 2009, and today works in the oil and gas industry. But he said he’ll never forget his time in the military and the sacrifices of others who served alongside him.
Veterans throughout New Mexico deserve their own resting place, Dyer said, out of respect for their service to the nation.
“We have to honor the sacrifice veterans made to fight for this country,” said the Roswell veteran, who also serves as senior vice commander of the New Mexico Veterans of Foreign Wars. “If we don’t recognize the past, we’re doomed to fail.”
A 10-acre plot of land on Fiesta Drive next to Sunset Cemetery in Carlsbad will meet that need as the site for a state-operated veterans cemetery in New Mexico’s rural southeast corner. When fully built out over the next half century, the cemetery will be the final resting place for thousands of deceased service members.
The New Mexico Department of Veterans Services presented its plans for the “50-year” project Wednesday, Feb. 25, during a public forum at the Carlsbad American Legion.
About 100 local veterans attending the meeting gained insight into the project and plans for the cemetery over pizza, hot dogs and beer served by American Legion staff.
“I think it’s something that’s going to be great for all veterans. It’s long overdue,” Dyer said. “It’s an earned benefit for everyone in this room. It will provide a solitary place for our nation’s best to rest.”
An ‘aggressive plan’
The first phase of the cemetery will be paid for with an $8 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, assuming design plans are completed this fall, said Edward Mendez, New Mexico director of veterans benefits.
That money is for the first 1,500 burial sites – 500 in-ground burials, 500 cremation sites and 500 pre-placed crypts. The funds also will be used to install a memorial wall, administration building and committal shelter.
Mendez said work will likely begin in January or February of next year and take about 16 to 18 months to complete. When the first phase of the cemetery is filled up, he said the state will apply for subsequent grants to build out the site over the next five decades to accommodate thousands more interred veterans.
Using an additional five acres donated by the city of Carlsbad for future expansions, Mendez said, the cemetery should have enough space to meet demand for 50 years.
The money is available through the VA’s Veterans Cemetery Grant Program, which offered the funding to New Mexico. The offer initiated a process that requires the state to achieve multiple milestones in the design phase, leading to 100% completion of plans by Sept. 30.
When the phase-one plans are approved by the VA, Mendez said, New Mexico will be able to hire a contractor chosen through a competitive bidding process. When the state and the contractor agree on a final plan, and the VA approves, the grant funds will be awarded and work can begin.
“It is a robust and aggressive plan, but we’ve done it before,” Mendez said. “We kind of know what we’re doing. As long as we’re on track we think we’re in good shape.”
‘Unfinished business’
Carlsbad’s veterans cemetery will be the fourth built in New Mexico by the state, joining completed cemeteries in Angel Fire, Gallup and Fort Stanton.
The state created plans for all four in 2014 when the VA program began but faced delays caused by a lack of funds, said Jamison Herrera, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Veterans Services.
“It’s been an uphill battle, with a lot of back and forth,” Herrera said. “There was some consternation as to if we would ever get this project done. This is a big step in the right direction.”
State veteran cemeteries are open to all veterans in New Mexico, and adding one in Carlsbad will provide access to veterans throughout the southeast region of the state, cutting down on travel times for funerals and ceremonies, said Carlsbad Mayor Rick Lopez.
The rural southeast corner of the state is often left out of public funding projects, Lopez said, despite providing large portions of New Mexico revenue via the oil and gas industry.
He said the region’s veterans deserve a cemetery just like those in northern New Mexico.
“Sometimes, I feel like Carlsbad is forgotten about by the state. We are here to announce now that we are not forgotten,” Lopez said. “This is a super important project for us. Establishing a cemetery here in Carlsbad will provide a closer option for our veterans and their families. That access is important.”
State Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R-55) said the cemetery was a priority of hers since taking office in 2010, and the state of New Mexico owed it to the Cavern City for the many current and former residents who sacrificed for their country.
“It’s a little shocking that it’s taken so long, but it’s important that we get this project done,” Brown said. “This, to me, is unfinished business.”
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
Prairie chicken no longer ‘endangered’
Adrian Hedden
Carlsbad Current-Argus
achedden@currentargus.com
A grouse native to the plains of southeastern New Mexico lost its federal protections after outcry from industry supporters and decades of debate.
The Wednesday. Feb. 26, announcement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service came in response to a federal court order in Texas last year and was the final step in removing federal protections and restrictions to development on lands where the bird was believed to dwell.
The lesser prairie chicken was listed as endangered in November 2022 in its southern distinct population segment (DPS), which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service used to describe the bird’s southern range in southeast New Mexico and West Texas.
The chicken’s northern segment, covering portions of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma and the northern Texas Panhandle, was listed as threatened.
Endangered status means the agency believes a species’ extinction is imminent. The listing requires a federal recovery plan be put in place while often setting aside lands for habitat critical to recovery.
Threatened status indicates an endangered listing may soon be warranted.
The lesser prairie chicken is known for its distinctive mating dances during the spring, in breeding grounds throughout the plains of its range known as “leks.” The male birds inflate reddish air sacks on the sides of their heads and extend yellow feathers above their eyes, stamping into the sand to attract females.
This process known as “lekking” can be impeded by industrial infrastructure such as fences or oil wells, according to a 2022 report from the Fish and Wildlife Service, as the prairie chickens naturally avoid tall structures where predators may perch.
The report blamed a rapid decline in the prairie chicken’s numbers on heavy growth in agriculture and energy development throughout the bird’s range.
The grouse’s historical range was diminished by about 90%, the report read, and its population across the five-state range sat at just about 32,00 birds from an historic population believed to top 100,000. Those numbers led to Fish and Wildlife’s listing of the lesser prairie chicken as endangered but with the arrival of a new federal administration, the agency reversed course last year.
The shift began after backlash from the oil and gas and agriculture industries, and allegations the listing and recovery efforts could negatively impact local economies and the industries that drive them.
A federal lawsuit was filed in 2023 by the state of Texas and fossil fuel trade group the Permian Basin Petroleum Association. In August 2025, U.S. District Judge David Counts sided with the plaintiffs, issuing a ruling to vacate the lesser prairie chicken’s endangered status.
In its latest decision published last week to the Federal Register, the interior department said delisting was “necessary to comply” with the court, and that no opportunity for the public to submit comments on the matter would be offered.
This followed an August 2025 motion the Fish and Wildlife Service filed in the lawsuit, asking the court to reverse the agency’s own decision to list the species.
Specifically, the agency said its previous leaders falsely separated the species into two “distinct population segments” (DPS), and that a new listing procedure was needed to correctly apply federal law.
“The Service concedes that it improperly applied its DPS Policy in a manner that tainted the substance of the final listing rule,” read the motion. “Given the seriousness of the error identified, the Service will be unable to correct the rule’s defects on remand short of engaging in an entirely new analysis.”
The apparent alignment between the court and the Fish and Wildlife Service followed an executive order issued by President Donald Trump titled “Unleashing American Energy” as he took office in January 2025.
Trump via the order called on federal agencies to limit restrictions on domestic fossil fuel production. This included multiple endangered species listings that occurred under Trump’s predecessor, President Joe Biden.
“President Trump’s removal of the Lesser Prairie-Chicken from the federal Endangered Species Act list is a long-overdue victory for Texas farmers, ranchers, and energy producers,” said Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in a Feb. 26 statement. “For years, rural Texans stood shoulder to shoulder with the oil and gas industry to fight back against a weaponized federal bureaucracy masquerading as conservation.”
The decision to delist drew uproar from the environmental community with multiple groups arguing the delisting put industry interests ahead of the environment.
“The Lesser Prairie Chicken is a metaphorical ‘canary in the coal mine’ for New Mexico’s grasslands. They need large tracts of native grasslands to thrive, and their numbers have dwindled dramatically over the past several decades,” said Demis Foster with Conservation Voters New Mexico.
“Research also shows that when it comes to ecosystem resiliency, every species matters.”
Jason Rylander with the Center for Biological Diversity called the decision “shameful,” and said that the Center planned to defend the species’ endangered status in court via an ongoing appeal the organization filed against the Texas court’s ruling in the Fifth Circuit U.S Court of Appeals.
It was the Center, then known as the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, that first petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 for the lesser prairie chicken to be listed as endangered.
It was listed as threatened in 2014, but a subsequent lawsuit filed by oil and gas industry groups in federal court for the Western District of Texas in Midland led to a reversal of that decision. The Center filed again to list the species in 2016, and sued the federal government in 2021, leading to the 2022 listing.
No decision was yet issued on the appeal as of Monday, March 2.
“We’ve been fighting for decades to protect these birds because they’re special and they have a right to exist,” Rylander said. “It’s shameful that the Trump administration sees fit to sacrifice these magnificent birds for oil and gas industry profit.”
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
Senate committee supports Steve Pearce for BLM director
Adrian Hedden
Carlsbad Current-Argus
achedden@currentargus
Former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce was approved by a U.S. Senate committee to become director of the federal Bureau of Land Management.
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 11-9 on Wednesday, March 4, in favor of President Donald Trump’s nomination of Pearce to run the bureau. The nomination now goes to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
The Bureau of Land Management, a sub-agency of the U.S. Department of Interior, oversees 245 million acres of federal public land along with 700 million acres of underground mineral rights. The acreage lies mostly in 12 states in the American West, including New Mexico, which means the bureau is tasked with overseeing oil and gas development on public land, a key driver of New Mexico’s economy accounting for about half of the state’s fossil fuel.
A Republican from Hobbs, Pearce served seven two-year terms as U.S. House representative for New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District – from 2003 to 2009 and from 2011 and 2019. The 2nd District includes most of southern New Mexico, including its deep-red southeast corner consisting of portions of Eddy, Lea and Chaves counties.
Pearce ran for governor of New Mexico instead of seeking reelection to Congress in 2018, losing to current Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. He chaired the New Mexico Republican Party from 2018 to 2024.
Pearce owned oilfield services company Lee Fishing Tools until 2003 when the business was sold to Key Energy Services.
The committee vote to advance Pearce’s nomination was held without debate, although members questioned the nominee during a Feb. 25 hearing. The vote fell along party lines with all the committee’s Republican members voting in favor while the panel’s eight Democrats and one independent voted against.
The nomination needs 51 votes to be confirmed by the Senate where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority. A confirmation vote has not been scheduled.
Pearce’s prior association with the oil and gas industry was a sticking point for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) who serves as ranking member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and voted against Pearce’s nomination.
During his hearing before the committee last week, Pearce touted his experience in Congress while representing the 2nd District, which includes vast stretches of federal public land in the southern portion of the state.
He said the federal government should collaborate with local communities and the industries they depend on while balancing the needs for outdoor recreation.
“If confirmed, I fully intend to uphold these same principles as BLM director and ensure local input is a key factor in my decision-making,” Pearce said during his opening remarks. “I have also seen firsthand the importance of our public lands and support those missions completely.”
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, Heinrich voiced concerns about Pearce’s past support of selling federal public land and opposing conservation designations such as national monuments.
“When Congressman Pearce testified,” Heinrich said, “he promised that he would not recommend rolling back national monument designations, something which is extremely important to me; and he acknowledged that (the bureau) cannot conduct large-scale selloffs of public lands under existing law, which is correct.
“I intend to hold him to these statements. But I also know that commitments to follow the law by previous Trump administration nominees have proven unreliable at times.”
The vote to advance Pearce’s nomination drew criticism from environmental groups, and support from industry leaders.
Camilla Feibelman, director of the Sierra Club’s Rio Grande Chapter, which covers New Mexico and portions of West Texas, said she was concerned about Pearce’s past support of reductions in national monument acreage and cutbacks to regulations intended to reduce air pollution linked to oil and gas.
“These lands belong to all of us and are an economic engine for our communities,” Feibelman said. “Americans deserve a trustworthy leader who would prioritize managing our cherished public lands for the good of all, rather than selling them off to polluting corporations.”
Dan Naatz, chief of policy for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a national oil and gas trade group, said Pearce’s experience in the federal government, and a “multi-use” philosophy for public lands – including mineral development and conservation – make the former congressman the right choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management.
“It’s important that the head of the BLM understand the multiple use mandate for federal lands management as enshrined in law,” Naatz said. “Pearce’s background in Congress and serving the state of New Mexico qualify him to lead the agency.”
Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.
Your Voice Matters to Your Local Newspaper
Hello, I am Richard Connor, Editor and Publisher of El Rito Media’s five newspapers. Often, when residents see our paper or read our websites, they say, “Oh. Thank goodness we have a local newspaper again.” Many do not realize that we have revived, renovated, and built strong local newspapers in five cities. We are proud of that work, and we want to continue improving. To do that, we need your help.
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