New Mexico in Focus (A Production of NMPBS)

This week on New Mexico in Focus, correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks with President Biden’s top tribal affairs adviser, PaaWee Rivera. The son of former Pojoaque Pueblo Governor George Rivera is working to advance Native interests as tribal communities emerge from the pandemic.

The Line opinion panel looks at population news from the Census Bureau and the Legislative Finance Committee. Recent reports show the state lags its neighbors in population growth, with key parts of the population leaving New Mexico during their prime years.

The Line also discusses a report from Searchlight New Mexico that revealed the state Department of Children, Youth and Families has been using an encryption app to communicate about cases and departmental strategy. The app deletes communications and shields work from the public eye. Now, the state attorney general says he’s asked his lawyers to look into the practice.

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Advising Biden

This week on New Mexico in Focus, the co-hosts of the NMPBS podcast Growing Forward speak with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham about New Mexico’s new recreational cannabis laws, which legalize the practice starting at the end of June, with sales to begin a year from now. The package also provides for expungement of certain cannabis-related crimes. The governor called a special session to push the legislation over the finish line and signed the bills into law shortly thereafter. Then, the pair speaks with former Gov. Gary Johnson, who was an early champion of legalization. The then-Republican took a lot of heat for his stance two decades ago and for his prediction that legalized cannabis was on the horizon. 

As the world celebrates Earth Day, environment correspondent Laura Paskus reflects on how we relate to the world that we inherited from our ancestors and borrowed from our descendants.

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Growing Forward with Governors

Look Up on Earth Day

On New Mexico in Focus… The once lively theaters of New Mexico have been quiet since last March. No performances. No ticket sales. No paychecks. There might yet be light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, but the year-long closures have actors and theatrical management worried about what’s next. NMiF fellow Bryce Dix sits down with the Albuquerque Little Theatre’s Henry Avery and local actor Hasani Olujimi to chat about their concerns and how venues have been making ends meet.

The Line opinion panel looks at the governor’s final legislative action and correspondent Laura Paskus examines environmental measures from the lawmaking session – both those passed and those put off another year. 

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New Environmental Laws

The Future of Theater in New Mexico

On New Mexico in Focus… The Line opinion panel zeroes in on the bills being signed (and not) by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Friday marks the deadline for the governor to approve legislation. Anything not signed, vetoed or singled out for a line-item veto is automatically vetoed after that. The governor put her name to numerous significant bills, and the group discusses what they mean for New Mexico in the coming months and years. 

Host: 

Health Secretary Dr. Tracie Collins

Our Land: Changing Rio Grande

There Must Be Other Names for the River

On New Mexico in Focus…

The Asian American community held a rally in downtown Albuquerque this week in response to an increase in violent and harassing incidents across the state. That surge mirrors what is happening all over the country in the wake of charged and divisive language about the COVID-19 virus. It was just about two weeks ago that eight people were killed, six of them females of Asian descent, in a mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia. Police officials were reticent from the start to call the shootings a hate crime. Host Gene Grant talks with members of the local Asian American/Pacific Islander community about how bad things have gotten here in New Mexico, and what can be done to turn the tide.

Diversity has also been a huge challenge for years when it comes to local news coverage. Those concerns include not only the diversity of faces that deliver the news, but also the types of stories that are told. Gene Grant recently sat down with Albuquerque’s first African American president and general manager at a major news station, Lori Waldon of KOAT-TV. The two talk about the importance of who tells our stories and what those stories say about our communities.

Gene Grant also sits down with three people at the center of a major development on the local public health front. The University of New Mexico Hospital was recently certified as the state’s first comprehensive stroke center. They discuss how this new designation will lead to faster and effective treatment for stroke patients, not just in Albuquerque, but across New Mexico.

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Rise of Asian American/Pacific Islander Violence 

Diversity in the Local Media Landscape

UNM Hospital’s Comprehensive Stroke Center

This week on New Mexico in Focus, the clock struck midnight on legislation that would have legalized adult-use cannabis in New Mexico. But shortly after the 2020 legislative session wrapped, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced a framework for a bill that could win approval was in place and she would be calling a special session in just a matter of days to push the legislation over the finish line. We get the very latest from our “Growing Forward” podcast team and learn more about why New Mexico’s approach is unique.

The Line opinion panelists will also discuss the slew of landmark bills that did make it through the 60-day session, including a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to pull more money from the Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood and K-12 education programs. There were also major reforms to liquor license laws, a medical aid-in-dying measure, redistricting reform and the repeal of a state abortion ban. The panelists also delve into accusations from female lawmakers of hostile treatment within the halls of the Roundhouse and the fate of several good government issues facing lawmakers in a one-of-a-kind virtual legislative session. 

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Cannabis Legalization Update from Growing Forward Podcast 

New Albuquerque Police Department Leadership

This week on New Mexico in Focus, The Line opinion panel looks at all the that has been accomplished so far in this unique, virtual legislative session. The panelists will also delve into what work has yet to be done, and what measures may run out of time when the session ends at 12pm on Saturday, March 20.

Correspondent Antonia Gonzales also gets reaction to Deb Haaland’s history-making accomplishment. She is joined by tribal leaders, a business owner and youth advocates to discuss the importance of representation but also how indigenous communities will be holding Sec. Haaland accountable in her new role.

Our Land correspondent Laura Paskus continues our series on local reaction to President Joe Biden’s Climate Change actions. This week it’s Jon Goldstein, from the Environmental Defense Fund. Goldstein works on oil and gas issues, including how to reduce methane emissions from the industry. He also served as the Energy, Minerals and Natural Services Department Secretary under former Governor Bill Richardson.

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Deb Haaland Makes History, Native Community Reacts

Environmental Defense Fund on Climate Change Action

Correspondent: Laura Paskus, NMiF environmental reporter

This week on New Mexico in Focus, The Line opinion panel addresses Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s decision to open New Mexico to full-time, in-person learning by April 5. Largely a local-control matter, the request nevertheless has the attention of school districts, which seem anxious to comply with the request. The panel looks at the role of unions in the return to school, as well as the matter of vaccinating newly prioritized educators, despite no additional vaccine allocations from the federal government. 

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Biden’s COVID Supply Chain Pick

This week, New Mexico in Focus features the top medical aide to President Biden and noted infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Correspondent Antonia Gonzales talks to Dr. Fauci about how, despite shouldering a disproportionate burden of COVID-19 infections, Native tribes are leading the way in vaccination rates. Dr. Fauci explains what states can learn from tribal nations and talks about the timeline for vaccinating students, many of whom are not eligible for any of the currently approved vaccines.

Sen. Martin Heinrich joins correspondent Laura Paskus to talk about the bill he introduced to create a 21st Century Conservation Corps Act. It’s modeled after the Civilian Conservation Corp of the 1930s and would put people to work on landscape restoration projects, urban and community forestry programs and more.

The Line is all about the Legislature, as lawmaking enters its final weeks in Santa Fe. Momentum appears strong for a measure that would legalize recreational cannabis. The question is: Which measure? Meanwhile, consumer advocates say a plan to rein in short-term lending practices that’s not yet five years old just isn’t working. A new bill to further cap interest rates has passed the Senate, and The Line assesses its prospects. Finally, whatever happened to police reform? The opinion panel looks at the Civil Rights Act and its potential impact on criminal justice.

Host: Gene Grant

Line Panelists:

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Native Vaccination Success

A New Jobs Plan and a Familiar Model

This week, New Mexico in Focus features reaction to confirmation hearings for Interior Secretary-designate Deb Haaland. The New Mexico congresswoman spent parts of two days this week in front of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources defending her stance on fossil fuel production and parrying thrusts from conservative senators, some of whom called her environmental stance “radical.” Correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks to a group of prominent Native women about the hearings, then The Line opinion panel offers its thoughts.

The combination of a limited housing supply and a high demand for rental properties in Albuquerque is causing a surge in rental prices, which is frustrating some tenants who are looking for somewhere to live that fits both their needs and their budget. NMiF Correspondent Megan Kamerick talked with tenant Thomas Hughes about his difficulty finding somewhere suitable to live, and to UNM Law Professor Serge Martinez about how these increases are especially problematic for younger and lower-income people.

The Line opinion panel also looks at the choices in front of school boards across the state as they decide whether to return students and educators to school buildings for the remainder of the school year. The recent decision by Albuquerque Public Schools to allow a limited return, but stay mostly online made headlines, but the APS board’s choice doesn’t stand alone among New Mexico school districts. The group also looks at the advancement of the budget on the House side of the Legislature. After a disastrous prediction as the pandemic settled in, the state’s economy has bounced back somewhat and lawmakers are looking to spend more than they did last year.

Host: Gene Grant

Line Panelists:

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Native Community Reacts to Haaland Hearing

Pandemic Compounds Housing Problems