By Frost McGahey

One witness from the Special Audit Report:

“I sat on the edge and the sofa fell, I fell on the floor…there was a time when that sofa actually had a concrete block under it. This should not be what a President’s home looks like.” 

On multiple occasions, State Auditor Joseph Maestas attacked Dr. Joseph Shepard for “lavish spending”. SearchlightNM continued the campaign focusing on $16,000 for a couch.

From Searchlight:  “Our reporting revealed that, among other things, Shepard had used nearly $28,000 of taxpayer money to buy luxury furniture from Seret and Sons, a Santa Fe store known for exotic pieces and high price tags.” The pieces mentioned were a couch and built-in cabinets. 

Blue Fire November 12, 2025

Acres: 35
Location: 18 miles NE of Glenwood, NM
Personnel: 4
Containment: 0
Cause: Unknown

Glenwood, NM, Nov. 12, 2025 – The Gila National Forest is responding to a wildfire on the western edge of the Gila Wilderness. The Blue Fire is approximately 35 acres and is located south of the community of Willow Creek and north of the Whitewater Baldy Trail #172. The fire is burning within the Whitewater Baldy Complex fire scar west of the 2025 Turkeyfeather Fire in very steep, rugged, and inaccessible terrain in the Gila Wilderness.

By Roger Lanse

On Friday, Nov. 7, 2025, at 5:23 p.m., Silver City Police Department officers were dispatched to Walmart, 2501 E. Highway 180, to a battery call. According to a Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority blotter, the reporting person stated two younger men, possibly juveniles, picked up two gallons of milk and threw it (them?) over into another aisle, striking a 47-year-old female customer. The customer has a red mark and a sore arm, the RP said, and does want to report the assault. The RP stated he and the customer are currently in the soup aisle.

Officers were on scene by 5:28 p.m. and completed checking the status of the customer, the reporting person, and two other males at 5:52 p.m.

By Roger Lanse

Silver City Police Department officers were dispatched to the Our Paws Cause Thrift Shop, 703 N. Bullard Street, on Thursday Nov. 6, 2025, at 1:46 p.m. to a suspicious person call. According to a Grant County Regional Dispatch Authority blotter, the caller stated as she was getting into her car a man started walking rapidly toward her, so she got into the car and locked the doors. The man came up to her car and stared at her through the window, she said, and he had a machete in his sleeve.

The caller described the man as a short Hispanic with a mustache and wearing a leather jacket and black cowboy boots. She said, the blotter stated, the man headed on foot toward the Morning Star store – unknown where he went from there.

NMASIC has been made aware of a G4 (Severe) Geomagnetic Storm that may impact critical infrastructure around New Mexico. The sun has emitted several powerful solar flares, including one X-class flare, the most powerful category of solar flares, two M-class flares which are classified as moderate, and 25 common solar flares. This coronal mass ejection (CME), is associated with an X5.1 solar flare and is anticipated to arrive and partially impact earth starting around mid-day Wednesday and lasting until possibly Friday. See attached for further information.

A G4 geomagnetic storm is considered severe, and its impacts on 
critical infrastructure can include the following:

By Roger Lanse

Ezequiel Ricoy, now 60 years-of-age, of Luna County, was convicted by the Sixth Judicial District Court on March 28, 2024, of first-degree murder involving the 2022 homicide of his son-in-law, Brandon Kern. Subsequent to that conviction, Ricoy was sentenced  by Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Jennifer DeLaney to a life sentence plus nine years.

Ricoy appealed that decision. 

According to a Nov. 10, 2025, opinion, The New Mexico Supreme Court denied Ricoy’s appeal and affirmed his conviction on the charge of first-degree murder.