Alex Ross
El Rito Media
aross@elritomedia.com

New Mexico Democratic lawmakers on Friday said affordability, healthcare, juvenile justice and banning immigrant detention will be top priorities in the upcoming legislative session.

Speaker Javier Martinez (D-11) of Albuquerque and other Democrats laid out their agenda Friday during a press conference outside the First Choice Community Health Care, South Valley Health Care Center in Albuquerque. The press conference came as lawmakers gear up for the 30-day legislative session that begins Tuesday.

“We will lead the way forward to ensure that we are making life affordable for our families, to build a safe community for all of our children to be able to thrive,” Martinez said.

In New Mexico, 30-day sessions are dedicated to the budget and matters the governor calls for the Legislature to take up.

The session comes as state economists last month projected a steep drop in the amount of new money — revenue coming into the state that is above spending levels for the current budget year — that the state is projected to receive. A report last month by the Legislative Finance Committee predicted the state will take in $105 million in new money, representing a $329 million downward revision from their August estimate.

House Majority Floor Leader Rena Szczepanski (D-47) of Santa Fe said that despite the slowing revenue growth, New Mexico enters the session as “the envy of many states.”

She said lawmakers backfilled health and food assistance programs during two special sessions this fall. That includes allocating $17.3 million to fully cover the cost of federal enhanced premium tax credits that expired at the end of the year, up through the current fiscal year that ends June 30.

“We were the only state to do that,” Szczepanski said. “We’re going to continue to do that as long as we can and as long as we have to.”

Szczepanski announced House Democrats will put forth a comprehensive healthcare agenda, which includes expansions of both the rural provider tax credit and the state’s Medical Student Loan Repayment Program and legislation to allow New Mexico to join the interstate medical licensure compacts. The compacts, she said, will expand options in telehealth and provide healthcare professionals licensed in other states with a more streamlined path to work in New Mexico.

Lawmakers will also make what Szczepanski called “targeted” changes to the state’s medical malpractice laws, and a bill will be introduced to protect the assets of physicians in medical malpractice cases.

Amid an aggressive crackdown by the Trump administration and the use of controversial tactics by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, Democrats also promised to reintroduce a bill that would prohibit New Mexico counties from entering into contracts with the federal government to detain people on alleged civil immigration violations.

In the last regular legislative session, such legislation, known as the Immigrant Safety Act, passed the New Mexico House but stalled in the Senate. Martinez said the bill will be reintroduced in the first days of the session.

“It’s going to be House Bill 9, and it’s going to move quickly,” he said.

House Majority Floor Whip Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-15) of Albuquerque said measures will also be introduced to ensure ICE agents can be identified and held accountable and prevent certain routine surveillance data from being used by ICE against immigrants.

Democrats said they also look forward to addressing crime and public safety by increasing oversight of firearms dealers, cracking down on weapons trafficking, continued investments in law enforcement and improving behavioral health services.

“When it comes to juvenile justice, we must address the core issues and not fall for the false promise of easy solutions,” Hochman-Vigil said.

Policies that will be considered, she said, will include measures to hold juveniles accountable but also more funding for programs that steer youth away from crime.

Other issues Democrats said they hope to take up include a bonding bill to repair roads across the state and a proposed constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would create a commission of experts to appoint the leadership of the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department.

Legislative reporter Alex Ross can be followed on X @alexrosstweets.

Alex Ross
El Rito Media
aross@elritomedia.com

A Republican state lawmaker is planning to prefile several bills on juvenile crime she hopes will win the backing of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

The proposals by Rep. Andrea Reeb (R-64) of Clovis include expanding the circumstances under which youths can be sentenced as adults and how long the state can have jurisdiction over young offenders.

Reeb told El Rito Media on Wednesday that two bills were prefiled and another four were introduced Friday, the deadline for filing legislation ahead of the 30-day legislative session, which begins Tuesday.

Under the New Mexico Constitution, 30-day legislative sessions focus on the state budget, and lawmakers may consider only bills supported by the governor. Reeb does not know whether her bills will get on the governor’s agenda, but said early indicators suggest Lujan Grisham will direct legislators to act on juvenile crime.

“So, I’m hoping that will open the door for mine to be discussed,” Reeb said.

On Thursday, Ben Baker, Lujan Grisham’s public safety advisor, told El Rito Media one of the governor’s top goals is reducing the youth recidivism rate, especially for individuals who commit crimes involving firearms. He said Lujan Grisham expects the issue will be debated by lawmakers in the session.

Reeb’s bills represent the latest push by the longtime prosecutor and former district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties to advance juvenile crime reforms through the Democratic-led Legislature.

Last year, Reeb sponsored House Bill 134, a comprehensive package meant to overhaul New Mexico’s system of juvenile justice. But the measure was ultimately defeated on a 4-2 vote in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee.

Reeb said she is taking a more piecemeal approach this time, hoping that breaking her proposals from last year into separate bills will give them a better chance at passage.

Proposals

As of Thursday afternoon, the website of the New Mexico Legislature showed that two of Reeb’s proposals, House Bills 78 and 79, were prefiled and posted online. HB 78 would allow the juvenile records of a defendant to be more easily accessed for purposes of pretrial detention or sentencing for another crime.

HB 79 would reduce the standard of evidence under which a juvenile’s probation can be revoked from “beyond a reasonable doubt” to the lower standard of “preponderance of evidence.”

Other aspects of Reeb’s push for juvenile justice include proposed changes to the risk assessment tool used in determining whether a juvenile suspect should be held in pretrial detention and another to more closely align the procedure for competency evaluations of a juvenile defendant to those used for adults.

The two remaining bills yet to be filed include one to increase the age at which the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department has jurisdiction over delinquents from 21 to 25. Reeb argues that doing so can provide the state with a longer period to keep youth on probation or provide them with treatment to reduce the risk of youth reoffending.

The sixth measure would broaden the list of offenses under which a juvenile can be sentenced as a serious youthful offender, where a juvenile defendant can receive the same mandatory sentence as an adult.

New Mexico law reserves that designation for youth convicted of first-degree murder, but Reeb wants to add second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, armed robbery and shooting at or from a motor vehicle or into a dwelling or occupied building that results in great bodily harm.

Reeb’s bill would also add involuntary manslaughter, homicide by vehicle, unlawful possession of a handgun and leaving the scene of an accident that causes great bodily harm or death.

‘Balance’ needed

Juvenile crime has been a top priority for Republicans, as Reeb said New Mexico copes with high juvenile crime rates involving firearms and fewer juvenile detention facilities.

“We’re seeing young kids commit crimes, and so we have to adjust to what is happening currently in society,” she said.

Some leading Democrats, such as Speaker Javier Martinez (D-11) of Albuquerque, are skeptical that stiffer penalties are the way to address youth crime.

In a recent interview on New Mexico In Focus, Martinez said he is concerned about juvenile crime, but believes increased behavioral health services, early intervention programs and reforms at the Children, Youth and Families Department are better solutions.

But Reeb said there has to be a balance.

“There are kids that we can change, and we can help, and we can rehabilitate, but then there are some that need to be locked up because they’re dangerous,” she said.

Legislative reporter Alex Ross can be followed on X @alexrosstweets.

Mike Smith
Artesia Daily Press

Twice retired Hagerman resident Benny Griffin embarked on a third career after his wife suggested he needed to find a way to pay for monthly fishing trips.

“The last time I retired was over a year ago and I was really enjoying fishing. I was fishing one week a month, fishing far off in a different state and my wife had been asking me if I had been looking at the checkbook,” he said in a Jan. 8 interview before the lunch hour at his Bar Ditch Bistro food truck.

Griffin said he wasn’t concerned about the money he spent on fishing – until his wife showed him the toll it was taking on family finances.

“It caught me off guard – my fishing was hitting the checkbook pretty hard,” he said with a smile. “She said, ‘You should look at something to offset that.’”

Griffin, 66, did not want to go back to work for an hourly wage. So he cooked up an alternative.

“I had cooked in the past and thought, ‘I’ll just put a food trailer together,” he said.

Good plan, but it caused a problem: “Now, I don’t have time to fish!”

Griffin was a welder in the oil fields of southeast New Mexico. He also operated heavy equipment, drove tractor-trailers and made a living as a carpenter.

He said he has cooked off and on for oil field companies and for fun for 30 years, so it wasn’t a big leap when opened Bar Ditch Bistro in August.

“I enjoy sharing what I do with other people,” Griffin said. “Any time there’s a restaurant that opens, they start out delicious (and) they start out packed. Somewhere when people start complaining, they make it bland. I have decided I am going to make my food the way I like to make it. The clientele will like it not or not.”

Bar Ditch Bistro can be found near the intersection of 13th and West Main Streets in Artesia Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Griffin serves burgers, brisket, Indian fry bread, macaroni and cheese, nachos, and hot dogs – all made fresh daily.

“We make the fry bread every morning. It’s usually ready by the time we open the door. I make chili at all different times. We bag it and freeze it. We do as much as we can as we have time and freeze everything,” he said.

When Griffin began Bar Ditch Bistro, he struggled to find a name that would fit the food truck.

“I flirted with something along the lines of Roadkill because I’m very sarcastic and I have a hillbilly attitude and I don’t really care about people’s softness. I couldn’t make anything in that manner work,” he said.

Griffin settled on a name that fit both the business and him.

“A bistro is a small high-end café and if I got all of my goods out of a bar ditch that would suit me,” he said.

Griffin likes to visit other places in New Mexico and also in Arizona and Texas, so the mobility of the food truck is ideal for him.

“I like the newness,” he said of traveling to locations beyond Artesia. “I like to see how my cuisine suits everybody.”

But home is home, so Bar Ditch Bistro also made appearances last year at the popular downtown Artesia Oil Patch markets that feature food trucks, bakers, crafters and growers.

“My go-to order is brisket, mac and cheese, and the Indian taco,” said Meghan Martinez, event coordinator for Artesia MainStreet. She became a fan after the first bite.

“Bar Ditch Bistro is an outstanding eatery that has come to our community,” Martinez said. “Fresh made fry bread, smoked tender brisket – and it’s all made with a friendly smile every single time.”

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 extension-2361.

Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press

Alex Ross’ first trip out west took him about 2,000 miles from Chicopee, Massachusetts, to Havre, Montana, in a 2004 Chevy Monte Carlo.

It was 2015 when Ross, 41, accepted his first reporting job as a staff writer at the Havre Daily News.

More than a decade and thousands of stories later, Ross joined the team at El Rito Media as the company’s legislative reporter. His first day was Monday, Jan. 12.

The job means Ross will cover the upcoming legislative session as lawmakers from across the state convene in Santa Fe to debate bills and policies and devise a budget for New Mexico. The session starts Tuesday, Jan. 20.

Ross’ stories will be shared across El Rito’s network of five local New Mexico newspapers, including the Alamogordo Daily News, Artesia Daily Press, Carlsbad Current-Argus, Ruidoso News and Rio Grande Sun in Española.

It’s a natural fit for Ross, who most recently worked as a legislative reporter for New Mexico Political Report, a nonprofit, web-based outlet dedicated to state politics.

But mostly the new job is a continuation of more than a decade in journalism and a lifelong interest in news and current events.

It started when he was a baby in his native Worcester, Massachusetts, Ross said. His mother Joyce Ross told him he usually woke up early as an infant and she would put him in front of the TV during the morning news show. He kept watching as he grew older and eventually became fascinated with the news.

“I used to memorize the names of all the news anchors,” he said.

When he was about 11 or 12, Ross said, his early fixation became a true interest in the profession of reporting.

At Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, Massachusetts, he began writing movie reviews for the student newspaper, The Podium, between eighth and 10th grade.

His penchant for writing and storytelling eventually led to an associate degree in communication from Holyoke Community College, along with an internship at Reminder Publications, a free, weekly newspaper in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.

He covered school board and city council meetings at that post and continued such work during a subsequent internship with Turley Publications based in Palmer, Massachusetts, while working on a bachelor’s degree in communications at Westfield State University.

Ross graduated from Westfield in 2010 and faced a reality encountered by many young reporters in the modern era of journalism – with the newspaper industry suffering financially, jobs were hard to find.

To make ends meet he worked at a grocery store and in the administrative office of a local church. But Ross kept sending his resumes, chasing his dream.

“I had interviews, but I was never really chosen. I felt really dejected. I didn’t know if I would ever get into daily, professional journalism,” he said. “Soon, I realized I would have to get out of the area I lived in if I wanted to be competitive.”

It turned out to be another rejection, from the Havre Daily News in 2014, that finally led to a job by putting Ross in contact with Daily News Editor John Kelleher, who offered Ross a position months later after the reporter hired instead of him resigned.

That offer led to myriad beats, topics and stories on everything from local politics and crime to human interest features and coverage of northern Montana’s Indigenous community.

Ross was able to interview national politicians such as U.S. Sen. John Tester (D-MT) and former-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and also celebrities in the entertainment industry including Jeff Ament, bassist for famed grunge band Pearl Jam, who grew up in the nearby farming community Big Sandy, Montana.

His time in Montana, Ross said, showed him the value of local, community-driven journalism and the importance of emphasizing local voices and impacts in everything he writes.

It’s an approach Ross said he maintained while working as a breaking news reporter at the Roswell Daily Record for the next seven years, until September 2025 when he took a short-lived job at the New Mexico Political Report.

With El Rito, Ross said he plans to return to his roots as a local journalist, identifying the biggest storylines emanating from Santa Fe but placing emphasis on how the issues affect local communities.

“The larger markets seem to be overwhelming. You’re just a cog in the machine,” Ross said. “Smaller markets are more personal. You get to know people better.”

He will continue to reside in Roswell where he lives with his wife Phalla Ross, 38, and their three children but plans to travel throughout New Mexico, especially to the five communities El Rito represents.

“I just want to provide comprehensive coverage of the Legislature,” Ross said. “I want to continue to do that but also cover other things that are hyperlocal.”

Managing Editor Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.

Staff report

Former Lincoln County Commissioner Rex Wilson was appointed Wednesday, Jan. 7, to fill the District 33 state Senate seat vacated by the resignation of Nicholas Paul.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appointed Wilson, an Ancho Republican, to replace Alamogordo Republican Paul after reviewing nominees submitted by county commissioners representing the 33rd District’s three counties: Lincoln, Otero and Chaves. Wilson will serve until voters to choose a candidate in this year’s Nov. 3 election to complete the four-year term Paul won in November 2024.

Paul resigned Oct. 14, 2025, citing health concerns but offering no details.

“I am humbled and honored to serve the people of Senate District 33,” Wilson said in as statement released after his appointment was announced. “I look forward to getting meaningful things done for my fellow community members and the citizens of our Great State of New Mexico. Let’s get to work.”

After interviewing applicants for the appointment commissioners from each of the three counties submitted a nominee to the governor. Wilson was nominated by Chavez County. Otero County’s nominee was State Rep. John Block (R-51) and Lincoln County’s choice was Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Fischer.

Other applicants for the seat were Ruidoso attorney and former state representative Zach Cook; Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford; Alamogordo resident Ben Luna; Otero County Attorney R.B. Nichols; and Ruidoso lawyer Matthew Wade.

Wilson is a rancher and former southern region director for Presbyterian Medical Services where he oversaw programs in Chaves, Lincoln and Otero counties, according to a news release from the governor’s office. The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association named Wilson its 2017 Cattleman of the Year.

Wilson served on the Lincoln County Commission from 1997 to 2003. His son, Kendal, is currently a Lincoln County Commissioner.

Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer (R-1) praised his newly appointed Senate colleague.

“Rex’s contributions in the Legislature will benefit every New Mexican and he will make a great addition to our New Mexico Senate Republican Caucus,” Sharer said. “I am pleased that New Mexicans in Senate District 33 will have representation heading in to this upcoming Legislative Session.”

Adrian Hedden
Artesia Daily Press
achedden@currentargus.com

A $300 million auction of public land in New Mexico was driven by federal policies more friendly to the fossil fuel industry, officials said.

The Bureau of Land Management on Tuesday, Jan. 6, announced results of that day’s land lease sale in which parcels of public land – mostly in southeast New Mexico – were auctioned to oil and gas companies.

The leases remain active for 10 years or as long as oil or gas is produced. Operators are still required to gain approval from the bureau to begin drilling.

In total, 32 parcels were sold on 20,479 acres in this month’s sale, bringing $328.8 million in revenue to the agency, half of which is provided to the states that host the parcels, read a news release from the Bureau of Land Management.

That’s compared to $76 million brought in by the bureau’s sale in November 2025 and $58 million in a sale last July.

Acting Bureau Director Bill Groffy said the increase in revenue resulted from recent policy changes made by the administration of President Donald Trump after a budget bill known by supporters as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law on July 4, 2025.

Among myriad provisions in the bill was a clause reducing the royalty rate companies pay on the value of oil and gas extracted on federal land.

Former President Joe Biden, Trump’s predecessor, hiked the percentage companies pay on each barrel produced from 12.5% to 16.67% in 2022. The 2025 budget bill lowered the rate back to 12.5%.

Groffy said the lower rate supported increased oil and gas development and also encouraged interest in developing energy on federal lands, advancing “the bureau’s ongoing commitment to fulfill President Trump’s mandate to unleash American energy.”

“This is expected to spur additional leasing and drilling activity, which in turn supports increased domestic energy production and strengthens U.S. energy security,” read a statement from the bureau.

Where were the lands leased?

About 95% of the lands offered Jan. 6 were in southeast New Mexico – 19,527 acres, according to the Bureau of Land Management’s sale notice published in August 2025.

Of that total,18,403 acres (94%) were offered in Eddy County with 1,118 acres offered in Lea County.

The remaining 83-acre portion of the New Mexico lease sale was split with single parcels in Rio Arriba and Sandoval counties in northwest New Mexico. Another 120 acres were offered for lease in Oklahoma.

Eddy and Lea counties make up New Mexico’s portion of the Permian Basin – the nation’s busiest oilfield – which New Mexico shares with Texas.

The Permian produced about half of the 13.8 million barrels generated per day as of October 2025, according to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration.

Groups debate royalty rate

Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said the boom in Permian Basin oil production should mean higher returns for New Mexico taxpayers.

Citing a Jan. 6 report from government watchdog and national nonprofit Taxpayers for Common Sense, Deubel said that if Biden’s16.67% royalty rate had been applied to the Jan.6 sale, the leases would have generated more than $100 million in additional revenue for American taxpayers.

The report contended that lowering the rate meant a “loss” of about $110 million in the recent lease sale and a total of $600 million in unrealized revenue from federal oil and gas lease sales since the rate was reduced.

Deubel said the higher rate did not slow down oil and gas production in New Mexico during the two years it was in effect.

New Mexico was the second-highest oil producing state in the U.S. last year and the state accounted for 79% of production on federal land, read the Taxpayers for Common Sense study. New Mexico accounted for 88% of the growth in oil production on federal land in 2024, according to a July 2025 study from the American Petroleum Institute.

Meanwhile, state economists reported the industry brought in about half of the New Mexico’s budgeted revenue last year, which Deubel said illustrated the importance of fossil fuel operations to New Mexico and the need to “maximize” financial returns.

“We completely understand the need for oil and gas production. We all use it in our daily lives and New Mexico is reliant on revenue from the oil and gas industry,” Deubel said. “It’s just unfortunate that we are leaving so much money on the ground.”

Missi Currier, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association – a trade group that frequently lobbies for oil and gas interests – warned that if costs such as royalty rates get too high, companies will leave New Mexico for neighboring Texas.

The Permian Basin straddles the border between southeast New Mexico and West Texas.

Currier said oil companies could shift their operations across the state line, tapping into the same oil reserves but drilling where less land is government managed and subject to federal royalty payments.

“The recent adjustment to federal royalty rates helps maintain New Mexico’s competitiveness in attracting investment,” Currier said. “Lower rates provide an incentive for companies to continue operating here, which translates into jobs for New Mexicans, billions in state revenue, and reliable energy for the nation.”

And despite lower royalty rates, Currier said, expanded oil and gas production will prove a more valuable benefit by increasing the volume of fossil fuels extracted.

“If rates are set too high, companies may reduce investment or shift operations elsewhere, resulting in fewer royalties overall,” she said. “A balanced approach ensures that development continues, revenue flows to schools and communities, and New Mexico remains a leader in energy production.”

Deubel agreed that collaboration among state and federal agencies, industry and the environmental community was crucial. He said achieving a balance would ensure the state gets the revenue it deserves while protecting the economy and the environment.

“The idea is not to increase the royalty rate until they leave the state but to maximize the benefit to the people of New Mexico from this high-intensity oil and gas extraction,” Deubel said. “We should be inching up until we hit that threshold where industry might consider leaving the state, but not cross it. Our leaders need to find that number. We’re not there yet.”