This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ. Two Albuquerque residents were startled as they waited for a friend at a Circle K on Wednesday when—over the loud-speaker of a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office truck—they were ordered to leave. “Get the fuck outta here,” they reported hearing. “Get the fuck outta here, or I’m […]
Author Archives: Bethany Raja, City Desk ABQ
Bethany Raja was born in Westerly, Rhode Island, and grew up between Homer and Anchorage, Alaska, where she spent summers camping, fishing and playing under the midnight sun, and winters waiting for the school bus under the dancing green and blue Aurora Borealis.
Raja published her first story during journalism school at the University of Alaska, Anchorage in 2013, and since 2015, has been working as a full-time journalist in print and digital mediums.
Her first full-time journalism job was as the crime, courts, breaking news and education reporter at the Roswell Daily Record, in New Mexico. She then worked for a short time in La Grande, Oregon, where she covered education. From Oregon, Raja moved to Kauai, where she covered crime, courts, breaking news and county/state government, and then moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where she was the sole crime, courts and breaking news reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News, a USA Today Network paper. She then transferred to the Newport Daily News, where she covered housing, real estate and education.
While in Las Cruces, Raja was awarded a spot at the John Jay/Henry Guggenheim Crime Reporting Fellowship, and was recognized as one of the, “Best of Gannett 2020,” for her reporting that year.