New hoops coach named, local artist mauled by dogs and ICE detention facility conditions

Leaving Las Cruces

The day following the New Mexico State Aggies men's basketball team's 53-48 loss against Arkansas in the NCAA Tournament's Round of 32, word got out that the Aggies' head basketball coach, Chris Jans, was about to be stolen away by Mississippi State University.

One problem ... The news broke as our Aggies basketball reporter, Stephen Wagner, was at 30,000 feet — returning to Las Cruces from NCAA Tournament coverage in Buffalo, New York. So, on a Sunday morning, Sun-News Sports Editor Jason Groves lept into action.

Jans has been a hot name in coaching circles throughout his tenure at NM State, where he was 122-32 with three NCAA Tournament appearances. To complicate matters, it was recently announced that NMSU's women's basketball coach, Brooke Atkinson, would also not have her contract renewed.

After he touched down last Sunday, March 20, Stephen learned the news. Then, just yesterday afternoon, NMSU made the big announcement — the Aggies hired Greg Heiar as Jans' replacement — a move that will decidedly cause derision among the team, and may lead to an exodus of top-tier players, who outwardly expressed a preference for Associate Head Coach James Miller.

Stephen plans to continue to follow these developments closely. He said:

New Mexico State's search for new men's and women's basketball coaches began last week after New Mexico State Athletics announced Sunday, March 20, that men's head coach Chris Jans had accepted the same position at Mississippi State. The athletic department announced the previous week that women's head coach Brooke Atkinson would not be retained when her contract expires April 30.

NMSU began interviewing candidates for the position this week, and a decision is expected in the coming days, although athletic director Mario Moccia has not established a firm timeline for the hiring process. Associate Head Coach James Miller was among the candidates to succeed Jans as head coach, along with Northwest Florida State College head coach Greg Heiar and Oklahoma assistant K.T. Turner, according to KTSM's Colin Deaver.

Multiple players have said their decisions to stay at or leave NMSU following this season will depend on the hiring decision. Miller received overwhelming support from current and former players and former assistant coaches, in addition to receiving Jans' endorsement.

However, Heiar was selected over Miller, who was an automatic finalist for the position thanks to his role in helping the Aggies to four regular-season Western Athletic Conference championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances in five years. Oklahoma assistant K.T. Turner was also reported to have interviewed for the job.

The question now rises as to whether or not Miller will join Jans on Mississippi State's coaching staff. Jans previously said he was waiting to make announcements regarding his coaching staff at MSU until NMSU decided whether or not to promote Miller to head coach. Multiple players also said their decisions to stay at or leave NMSU would depend on who was hired as head coach, including WAC Player of the Year Teddy Allen, who announced on Instagram shortly after the hiring that he was declaring for the NBA Draft.

Moccia has not mentioned potential candidates for the women's position, although the Sun-News' Jason Groves reported former Wichita State coach Jody Adams-Birch was at Aggies football practice Thursday. This is the second time in his tenure Moccia conducted a men's and women's coaching search simultaneously.

Local artist mauled by loose dogs

A local artist in the Las Cruces community was identified as the victim of a vicious dog attack on the evening of Wednesday, March 16.

Local painter Penny Duncklee, 84, was identified by her family as the victim of a dog mauling outside her home on the 1200 block of 2nd Street in Las Cruces. Her family told the Sun-News Duncklee suffered severe bite marks on her arms. The family also confirmed that Duncklee's right hand up to her elbow had to be amputated. Duncklee is expected to recover from her injuries.

Last week, we learned that one of the dogs believed to have attacked Duncklee was turned over to Animal Control by its owner. It's possible that only one of the two dogs was responsible for the attack, but the investigation remains open.

Our public safety reporter, Justin Garcia, has been covering this story since we learned of the attack. And it's certainly not the first dog story he's had to cover, he said.

Since I arrived in Las Cruces last May 2021, I've been reporting on dogs in public safety coverage. At first, my coverage involved a police officer performing a welfare check who ended up killing a resident's dog. Now, the stories involved a dog mauling a local artist and killing a young boy. One of the questions I've been asking myself this week is "what is the throughline?"

I'm a human (in case you were wondering) and so my brain is wired to see patterns — even if there are none. Buts it's hard to look at this rash of dog attacks and not assume there's a common element to them all. This is a question I plan to ponder over the weekend. Stay tuned, because I have a feeling you haven't the last of my reporting on dogs. Hopefully, the future holds better stories about what the public can do to mitigate dog maulings and dog deaths.

Congresswoman visits private ICE detention facility

Days after a stinging inspection report on the privately managed Torrance County Detention Facility, U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, a first-term Democrat representing New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, made an unannounced visit on the morning of Monday, March 21.

Emerging more than two and a half hours later, Stansbury said the living conditions she saw were not as bad as findings detailed in the report by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General.

"The sinks were working. We did not see mold. The facilities were clean," she said.

But, a few days later, when speaking to Albuquerque's KOB-4, her account appeared to change.

Our statewide reporter, Algernon D'Ammassa, traveled to Estancia for Stansbury's visit — and was perplexed by her later, and seemingly contradictory, account.

Earlier in March, we reported on a damning report by the Homeland Security department's Office of Inspector General about staffing and living conditions at the Torrance County Detention Facility, located in the small community of Estancia, southeast of Albuquerque. The facility has been managed by a for-profit corporation, CoreCivic, since 2019.

The following Sunday, I got a tip that the member of Congress representing Estancia, first-term Democrat Melanie Stansbury was going to use her legal authority to knock on the door and conduct a surprise inspection. After getting the go-ahead from our editor, Lucas Peerman, I set off before dawn on Monday and settled in at TCDF to see what would happen. Maybe the agency would fight the unannounced visit; or maybe the congresswoman would share details about her tour. Stansbury is a declared opponent of private-sector detention contracts.

It was a bit of a stakeout, complicated by CoreCivic's decision to boot journalists off the property. We waited for hours at the side of a county road, watching with growing unease as a storm moved in from the north. Sure enough: By the time Stansbury emerged from the facility and spoke with us, icy cold rain and hail were coming down. I filed that story, while soaking wet, from the nearby public library.

I asked Stansbury directly whether she had been shown everything she wanted to see, and she said she was granted full access. We later learned this was not the case, as the congresswoman modified her account of what happened as we pressed for more details about a detention center with a history of complaints about its treatment of detainees (including asylum applicants who are not accused of crimes, yet were subjected to imprisonment in places like this) and corner-cutting on personnel and maintenance.

Chaparral residents, business clash over new cannabis laws

Residents of Chaparral opposed to the location of a planned cannabis production facility and retail shop won a major victory Thursday, March 24, at the Doña Ana County Planning and Zoning Commission when the board denied a special permit allowing the business to open.

Following hours of testimony from concerned residents of the unincorporated community just north of El Paso, the commission unanimously voted not to approve an application for a special use permit at 205 Paloma Blanca Drive from Manuel Cervantes, who had proposed to open a cannabis microbusiness on the 3.5-acre parcel.

Cannabis microbusinesses may grow up to 200 mature plants, manufacture and package products and operate retail on site.

Neighbors were not happy, and they made that clear. Reporter Michael McDevitt has covered this issue for the Sun-News since becoming aware of it.

This week, I covered a conflict between a unified cohort of residents and neighbors in the unincorporated community of Chaparral and an owner who had proposed to open a cannabis production and retail microbusiness in a residential area. For me, it seemed to mark one of the first major disputes between communities and where these new, soon-to-be legal businesses would plant themselves across the state.

The permit was denied after attendees voiced a mix of seemingly reasonable concerns — such as pedestrian safety being impacted by traffic flow, lack of sidewalks and lack of street lights in the area, and concerns stemming from more moral foundations — degenerates use cannabis, and kids will get hooked, to name a few.

I attended an evening neighborhood meeting March 22 in Chaparral where I heard dozens of people speak about why they opposed the business, as they prepared to present to the county's planning and zoning board March 24. The same concerns I heard in that room were conveyed during the zoning meeting, and the residents’ views overwhelmed the arguments of the business owner.

I then spoke with Ben Lewinger for some more context. Though Lewinger heads the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, he had advice for all sides of the situation. His most important piece of advice was for prospective cannabis entrepreneurs — do your ground game before you go before the county zoning board, he said. Conversations with the community show transparency, help reduce stigma and misconceptions about the industry and can ensure a more successful integration into the existing economy of a community, he argued.

As the state legalizes sales beginning this Friday, expect similar fights to pop up statewide, I’d say.

NMSU, tribes tussle over future development

Members of the Piro-Manso-Tiwa tribe and New Mexico State University faculty are speaking out to caution the university from developing sacred land without tribal consultation.

NMSU's Aggie Uptown would be built on 36 acres of land east of Interstate 25 and south of University Avenue, close to the western edge of Tortugas Mountain — also known as "A" Mountain or Turtle Mountain — a pilgrimage site for the tribe that first settled the area.

Aggie Uptown would feature restaurants, cafés, retail and residential spaces.

Diego Medina, a member of PMT, sent a letter to NMSU asking the university to consult with the tribe before going forward with the development and to also support the tribe in its efforts to become federally recognized.

Our education reporter, Miranda Cyr, has been following the issue closely — and she's not done, as several unanswered questions remain.

We first heard about the conflict with Piro-Manso-Tiwa from Dr. Jamie Bronstein, an NMSU professor who's always active in university happenings. She reached out to our reporter Algernon D'Ammassa, who often covers longer investigations like these, but I really wanted to look into the situation. Aggie Uptown is a project that has been going on for years at this point, but this conflict has arisen just since 2022 began. Justin Bannister, NMSU spokesman, mentioned that he believes the construction of the Maverick gas station, which is quickly approaching, may have initiated the concern at this time.

It seems like Diego Medina, a member of PMT who has been actively involved, truly trusts that the university will be consulting the tribe. So far, there has been no real confirmation that consultation will happen, but the faculty are advocating hard for it. I'm looking forward to what happens next with NMSU. I've been informed that another meeting will be planned soon, so I'll be on the lookout.

LISTEN: The Reporter's Roundup podcast — Collaborative Journalism

In this week’s episode, we’re talking collaborative, solutions-based journalism. We’ll be joined by Diana Alba Soular — a former reporter for the Sun-News — and my former co-worker — who is now Project Manager of the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative, and Reyes Mata III, a reporter for the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative and a freelance reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. For the past year or so, he has written the Border Report, which you’ll often find in Sunday’s edition of the newspaper and online at www.lcsun-news.com.

At the Sun-News, we’ve been involved with the Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative from the ground up; in 2021, loyal readers may recall Walt Rubel’s coverage of a very unusual Legislative session — due, in large part, to the COVID-19 pandemic.

And that brings us to the Collaborative’s next steps — a deep dive into solutions-based journalism, looking at how COVID-19 has impacted southern New Mexicans and the steps forward — toward recovery, rebuilding and resilience. Reyes will be tasked with covering that effort for news outlets across Southern New Mexico through his new role at the Collaborative.

But what is solutions journalism? And what will this mean for readers of the Sun-News? We try to explain that.

Damien Willis is a Lead Reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at 575-541-5443, dwillis@lcsun-news.com or @DamienWillis on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Chris Jans leaves, artist mauled, Stansbury inspects ICE facility