New Mexico
In search of Oppenheimer's New Mexico
On the highway between Abiquiú and Ghost Ranch is Bode’s General Store – a roadside waystation beloved for its tamales and green chili burgers. It is not so different than it was 80 years ago, when O’Keeffe and Oppenheimer were among its clientele. And during the filming of Oppenheimer, Ybbaro said, it was a standby for cast and crew, too.
Oppenheimer’s invisible legacy
Oppenheimer and colleagues took more than inspiration from these landscapes. Families with land downwind from White Sands or any of the hundreds of uranium mining sites in the region – a community known today as “downwinders” – know the Manhattan Project cost untold lives in New Mexico. In the forthcoming documentary First We Bombed New Mexico, filmmaker Lois Lipman shares dozens of accounts that together paint the picture of “massive cancers and deaths” that swept across the state in the decades after the Trinity test.
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People can still experience the landscapes central to this part of the story, too – if they dare. Places like Hoot Owl Canyon, once called “Hot Canyon” by the government because of its red-hot gamma radiation levels from the Trinity test’s nuclear fallout carried by the wind, are open to the public, Lipman said. There are no recent studies indicating whether the area is still radioactive. But radioactivity in nuclear fallout has a shelf life of 24,000 years – or as some downwinders put it, 7,000 generations.
Like the scenic Pajarito Plateau and Ghost Ranch, Hot Canyon, with its red-rock bridges and pinnacles, is forever linked with Oppenheimer – albeit controversially. Indeed, 18 months after the Manhattan Project started, Oppenheimer is said to have stared out over the desert he loved, and confessed, “I am responsible for ruining a beautiful place.”
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SANTA FE, N.M. — Former New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Jim Ellison is running for governor as a Republican, he announced on social media Tuesday.
Ellison is running on affordability, opportunity and trust in government as the key points of his campaign. His experience includes serving on the NMPRC in 2023 and 2024.
“New Mexico deserves leadership that listens, acts, and delivers results. Our state has enormous potential, but too often that potential is held back by policies that don’t serve everyday New Mexicans,” he said on his website. “I’m running to bring practical solutions, honest accountability, and a renewed focus on the public interest.”
A Georgia native, Ellison has lived in New Mexico for 20 years and currently lives in the Albuquerque area with his wife and two children.
Ellison is aiming to get 5,000 signatures by Feb. 2, to appear on the primary ballot with at least three other Republicans who have announced their candidacy.
Ultra Health CEO Duke Rodriguez announced his campaign in December and recently confirmed to KOB 4 that he received enough signatures to appear on the primary ballot. Rio Rancho Mayor Gregg Hull and New Mexico State Sen. Steve Lanier are also running.
Three Democrats are running – Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman, Former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Former Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A successful University of New Mexico Lobo athletics season and the athletics director’s departure has culminated in players and coaches making moves.
The moves follow a successful 2025 season and the departure of athletics director Fernando Lovo.
Running back coach John Johnson, special teams coordinator Daniel Da Prato and wide receiver coach Colin Lockett are all leaving the Lobos after just one season. Johnson is headed to Iowa State while Da Prato is expected to join Minnesota and Lockett is headed to UCLA, all for the same jobs.
Johnson’s Lobo running backs ran for more than 1,400 yards. Da Prato’s special teams finished top-five nationally in kickoff returns.
Running back D.J. McKinney entered the portal, he confirmed on social media the day the portal officially opened. McKinney rushed for 464 yards and seven touchdowns with the Lobos.
Two players who received all-Mountain West Conference recognition also made moves. All-Mountain West tight-end Dorian Thomas, who caught for touchdowns for the Lobos, entered the portal. Meanwhile, all-Mountain West honorable mention punter Daniel Hughes is set to leave.
Others set to leave include:
- Cole Welliver, backup quarterback who played in one game
- Landon Williams, defensive end who graduated from La Cueva High School
- Randolph Kpai, senior linebacker who is at the end of his college football career without a waiver
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