New Mexico

Fort Lewis College hosts 10th annual Hawk Tank competition

Published

8 months ago

May 6, 2025

Fort Lewis College hosts 10th annual Hawk Tank competition

Perhaps you’ve heard of the show Shark Tank? Where people pitch their business ideas to big time business people hoping to get a shot.

The Four Corners has its own version, called “Hawk Tank.”

FARMINGTON, N.M. – Perhaps you’ve heard of the show Shark Tank? Where people pitch their business ideas to big time business people hoping to get a shot.

The Four Corners has its own version, called “Hawk Tank.” KOB 4 spoke with this year’s winner about his plan that is now a reality.

“Hawk Tank is their premier business plan competition in the Four Corners area. And the purpose behind Hawk Tank is really just empowering students so we can take their business ideas to the next level. Whatever that may be,” said Michael Valdez, professor of management at Fort Lewis College.

This year, Joey DeMartino is the overall prize winner in the 10th annual Hawk Tank competition for his business is called, Noise Hub.

“I’ve been tethered to music, sound, noise, whatever you want to call it, my whole life. And so it was kind of a culmination of my life, building up this process. And then, since this contest came up, it afforded me the opportunity to actually say, you know, I’m gonna put my energy into a business plan and create something out of this,” said DeMartino.

It’s a full-circle moment for DeMartino. He’s creating notes the business world isn’t used to hearing in the area.

“I feel like being that nobody seems to be as interconnected as I think they could be, it’s a great spot for us to kind of get set up and open the doors and say, ‘Hey, let’s, let’s make this happen. Let’s create kind of our own ecosystem.’ So to speak, with all the different types of creators that we have in this area,” said DeMartino.

The prize money from winning Hawk Tank is going to help DeMartino do just that for his fellow artists.

“Providing the skills, giving access to resources so these participants who want to solve the problems that we have in our community and our country and around the globe, the opportunity to see what that might look like, actually having a viable business and solving those real-world problems,” said Valdez.

“I’m surrounded by talented individuals, talented students that, in my opinion, are the sky’s the limit for them. A lot of them might fall through the cracks when it comes to the industry. That’s kind of where we’re at, is to say, ‘Hey, let’s kind of re-home you, get you set up, and let’s make this happen,’” said DeMartino.

To learn more about Hawk Tank or Noise Hub, you can visit the links below:

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

Published

10 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

22 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

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Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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