Education
Lt. Gov. Howie Morales visits with kindergarteners at the Boys and Girls Club of Otero County in Alamogordo during a visit on April 25, 2023.

‘The whole world is a classroom’: Morales visits Alamogordo Boys and Girls Club

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Fresh from a day of school, the children came into the club in groups, all standing in a line waiting to be checked in at the Boys and Girls Club of Otero County in Alamogordo. Today may have started out normally for the children participating in the afterschool programs at the Boys and Girls Club but today was different. Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, a former teacher, visited the Club and played with the children including handing out snacks during snack time. The visit was to see after school programs in action after $20 million was added to the state’s budget to help after school programs like Boys and Girls Club. “We’re very thankful for the after school funding,” Boys and Girls Club of Otero County CEO Pamela Cisneros said.

AppleTree Educational Center

‘They’re making it look like we’re the evil people’

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The parents of one boy who was molested in Truth or Consequences want their former acquaintances and current neighbors to know one thing—they’re not bad people. “That’s what I’m pissed off about,” said the father of the boy. “They’re making it look like we’re the evil people and it ain’t right.”

The father’s son was molested by Alejandro Hernandez, a now-24-year-old man who pleaded guilty to two counts of inappropriate contact with boys he was in charge of at a Truth or Consequences Boys and Girls Club last year. Now, the parents of one of those boys are suing Hernandez’s former employer, Rebecca Dow, who runs the organization. The boy and his parents are identified in the lawsuit only by initials.

2016 elections

House candidate faces deposition in civil case after ex-employee’s child rape conviction

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A candidate for the state House of Representatives will have to answer questions about one of her former employees who pleaded guilty to raping one child and molesting another, according to a ruling by a district judge. The ruling comes after Rebecca Dow, a Republican looking to win election to a House seat in Truth or Consequences, allegedly stonewalled the mother of one of the two child victims from seeking information about the employee who molested her child. That employee, Alejandro Hernandez, worked for the Sierra County chapter of the Boys and Girls Club. He is now serving a six-year prison sentence for harming both children. Dow is president and founder of Sierra County Boys and Girls Club as well as the president and CEO of AppleTree Educational Center in Truth or Consequences.