Blog Posts

Think Again: Watering Day

7/7/2026

Today we share a recent episode from another excellent KTAL show - Black English Vernacular.

Co-hosts Shahid Mustafa and Tameika L. Hannah bring an on the ground - farmers-eye view of the water situation in our community and our state. The show touches on drought, municipalities, infrastructure, water agreements, agriculture, history, culture, Project Jupiter, and what our future looks like.

Local Vibes Live: For Me For You

7/3/2026

Local Vibes Live hosted For Me For You, a Las Cruces alternative rock band three years into building a sound that draws from the Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Breeders, and Incubus, among others. Vocalist Micaela, guitarists David and Emmy, bassist Ethan, and drummer Tony talked with hosts Alex Brinkley and Casey Chacón about the band's origin - Tony and David jamming together for years before the current lineup came together - and their three-track EP Three Steps Forward, recorded late one night in the KTAL studio. The conversation also touched on their forthcoming full-length, The End of the Bit, a 12-track LP recorded at a home studio the band set up themselves, due out later this year.

Mesilla Valley Sports Show: Organ Mountain Girls Golf's Championship Journey

7/2/2026

This episode of the Mesilla Valley Sports Show featured Organ Mountain High School Girls Golf Coach Tim Madigan and student-athletes Alyssa Serna and Shae Dibiaso, who reflected on the team's journey to the New Mexico state championship and their preparation for the High School Golf National Invitational. The guests discussed the rapid growth of the Knights' golf program, the discipline and teamwork required to compete at a championship level, and the unique mental challenges of high school golf. Serna and Dibiaso also shared their individual experiences balancing academics with competition, while Coach Madigan described the culture of commitment and support that helped transform the program into one of the state's best. The conversation offered an engaging look at the dedication, resilience, and camaraderie behind a championship season - and the excitement of representing New Mexico on the national stage.

Speak Up Las Cruces: Flock Cameras & Civil Liberties

7/1/2026

Las Cruces Police Chief Jeremy Story, citizen activist Derek Pacheco, and Flock Safety representative Paris Lewbel joined Peter Goodman and Nancy Baker for a conversation about the city's automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras. Story and LaBelo made the case for the technology's immense investigative value, citing a 2021 kidnapping/assault arrest and a road rage shooting conviction made possible by specific vehicle leads. They highlighted unalterable audit trails, case-number requirements for searches, and New Mexico's newly enacted Senate Bill 40 as robust safeguards against local law enforcement misuse. Pacheco strongly pushed back, arguing that mass dragnet surveillance is inherently unconstitutional regardless of internal rules, pointing out that citizens cannot 'opt out' of public tracking. He further warned of broader geopolitical vulnerabilities, noting that state-level data can be weaponized or leaked, citing Israel's use of Iranian surveillance infrastructure. The debate also covered the community mapping network DeFlock, the strict legal boundaries preventing data sharing with federal immigration agencies, and the hypothetical risk of a less scrupulous administration utilizing the 43 local cameras against journalists or political dissidents.

Speak Up Las Cruces: Jerome Davis on Radio, Race & Incoherent Ramblings

7/1/2026

Jerome Davis, host of KTAL's Return of Son of Incoherent Ramblings, joined Peter Goodman and Nancy Baker to talk about his show, his radio career, and the state of American race relations. Davis, who got his first radio job in Pensacola in 1974 and worked for the NPR outlet in Colorado Springs before landing in Las Cruces by way of a post office job, described his show as a mix of music you won't hear elsewhere - Lowell Fulson, Dexter Gordon, Paul Robeson - and frank conversation about race, history, and politics. The discussion ranged from the willful forgetting of Reconstruction to the ongoing rehabilitation of the Confederacy, the shifting definition of racism across generations, and Carter G. Woodson's hope that Black History Month would eventually make itself unnecessary by being absorbed into an honest telling of American history.

Speak Up Las Cruces: Drs. John Andazola & Dolores Gomez on Primary Care & Medical Residencies

7/1/2026

Drs. John Andazola of La Clínica de Familia and Dolores Gomez, board chair of the New Mexico Primary Care Training Consortium (NMPCTC), joined Peter Goodman and Nancy Baker to discuss the vital role of primary care and medical residencies. The central public policy argument is that where doctors train is where they ultimately practice, with family medicine residency programs retaining up to 70% of graduates in their local communities. Las Cruces's own Southern New Mexico Family Medicine Residency Program, established in 1996, has graduated 164 residents, with 90 staying in New Mexico and 35 currently practicing in Las Cruces across ERs, clinics, and hospitals. The conversation also highlighted national underinvestment in primary care, which receives just five cents of every healthcare dollar, and celebrated New Mexico's recent $24 million legislative commitment to funding graduate medical education. Both guests advocated for family medicine as the foundation of community health, emphasizing that 'upstream' preventive medicine dramatically reduces the expensive 'downstream' costs of hospital-based care.

Speak Up Las Cruces: Peter & Nancy Talk About the News (July 1, 2026)

7/1/2026

Peter Goodman and Nancy Baker spent the segment on Watergate as a lens for the current moment. Nancy, who was an undergrad in journalism when it broke and later worked as a reporter, walked through how a bungled break-in led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974, and argued that Ford's pardon taught the GOP crime is survivable. Now JD Vance calls it no big deal.

That led into Trump's newest financial disclosure: over $2 billion in personal income this year, mostly crypto and UAE/Saudi real estate deals. Peter and Nancy called it grift with the mask off.
They also covered fixes for partisanship (ranked choice voting, killing the Electoral College) and New Mexico politics: the vacant lieutenant governorship, plus the state GOP's own treasurer sitting in jail after a fatal hit-and-run. They closed wondering if partisanship has drained the enthusiasm out of this year's 250th anniversary, compared to the real celebration in 1976.

Café con Leche: Travis Owens on Turning TheBank into a Community Hub

6/30/2026

Greg Smith talks with Travis Owens, operator of TheBank, a 16,000-to-20,000-square-foot complex on West Amador, about his plans to turn it into what he describes as Las Cruces' missing community hub. Owens envisions a multi-use venue with six stages, gallery and studio space, a podcast room, a photography wall, game and movie nights, and a garage band stage located in the back garage building, all anchored by an existing dispensary and two Roku television channels he runs, including Cruces Public Access. The conversation also touches on the neighboring Amador Hotel, a potential youth program focused on film and music production, and Owens' personal story: an entrepreneur with autism who runs on a tight routine with minimal sleep and five alarms, door-dashing until 1 a.m. before heading back to the studio to code.

DELVING IN: Jacqueline Saper on Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran

6/28/2026

Stuart Kelter interviews Jacqueline Saper, an award-winning writer, public speaker, commentator, and translator, with columns and essays in national and international publications and interviews in mainstream media in both English and Farsi. We’ll be talking about her memoir, published in 2019, From Miniskirt to Hijab: A Girl in Revolutionary Iran, which chronicles her life from childhood to early adulthood in Iran, which spans the last 16 years of the rule of the Shah, as well as the first ten years following the Islamic Revolution. The book ends, at age 26, with her emigration to the United States with her husband and two children. The memoir provides a highly personalized account of what it was like to grow up in Iran in tumultuous times, a multifaceted story informed by multiple ethnic identities.

Mesilla Valley Sports Show: Tanna Miller on Physical Education and Lifelong Fitness

6/25/2026

This episode of the Mesilla Valley Sports Show featured longtime Las Cruces Public Schools educator, coach, and physical education specialist Tanna Miller, who reflected on a career dedicated to helping students develop healthy, active lifestyles. Drawing on decades of experience as a teacher, coach, and curriculum leader, Miller discussed the evolution of physical education, the importance of teaching lifelong fitness habits, and the challenges schools face in keeping young people engaged in regular physical activity. She also shared stories from her years coaching and mentoring students, emphasizing the lasting impact that supportive teachers and coaches can have on confidence, character, and overall well-being.

<<Previous

Forward>>

Think Again: Watering Day

Local Vibes Live: For Me For You

Mesilla Valley Sports Show: Organ Mountain Girls Golf's Championship Journey

Speak Up Las Cruces: Flock Cameras & Civil Liberties

Speak Up Las Cruces: Jerome Davis on Radio, Race & Incoherent Ramblings

Speak Up Las Cruces: Drs. John Andazola & Dolores Gomez on Primary Care & Medical Residencies

Speak Up Las Cruces: Peter & Nancy Talk About the News (July 1, 2026)

Café con Leche: Travis Owens on Turning TheBank into a Community Hub

DELVING IN: Jacqueline Saper on Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran

Mesilla Valley Sports Show: Tanna Miller on Physical Education and Lifelong Fitness

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