New Mexico in Focus (A Production of NMPBS)

This week, questions are swirling for Santa Fe's Institute of the American Indian Arts as the school's federal funding is threatened to be cut. Robert Martin, president of the institute, gave Senior Producer Lou DiVizio his perspective on the school's importance to indigenous culture and its uncertain future. In March, the New Mexico Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission named Dannelle Ki...

This week, we dig into this year's ongoing fire season. Since New Mexico's fire season began this spring, about 25 local jurisdictions have imposed some level of fire restriction. In May, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency due to the state's severe drought and increased fire risk. Source New Mexico reporter Patrick Lohmann speaks with State Forester Laura McCarth...

City Councilor Nichole Rogers ran for her seat in 2023 in part on a platform of improving policing. Rogers speaks with NMiF Host Nash Jones about how she and her constituents’ relationship with APD stands as the consent-decree era ends. Podcast Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Nash Jones Guest: Nichole Rogers, Albuquerque City Councilor for District 6

Longtime civil rights lawyer Mark Fine has monitored the situation at APD for years. Fine joins Executive Producer Jeff Proctor for a long-view perspective on how effective federal intervention has been in tamping down APD's culture of aggression.  He also talks about some of the under-discussed benefits of the reform effort — with transparency at APD topping that list. Host: Lou DiVizio Corre...

When Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller appointed Harold Medina as APD chief in 2020, the department was still not fully in charge of itself, having blown past the deadline to end a court-approved settlement agreement the city signed with the U.S. Department of Justice six years prior. DOJ investigators had identified a deeply embedded culture at APD that led to the unconstitutional use of excessive for...

This week on the podcast, we explore what the end of federal oversight at the Albuquerque Police Department means for the city. Today's episode features the parents of a man who Albuquerque Police shot and killed on April 12, 2011, when two plainclothes detectives killed 27-year-old Christopher Torres, shooting him three times in the back in his family's backyard. Since that day, his paren...

A new exhibit called 'the bomb' has opened at the University of New Mexico's Zimmerman Library. The exhibit takes visitors through a series of images, archival footage and film clips documenting the unsettling history and uncertain future of the world's most dangerous machine: nuclear weapons. KUNM News Director Megan Kamerick sits down with the exhibit's two creators and a uni...

In September 2023, Jacob Johns was shot will attending a celebration of Rio Arriba County’s decision to delay installing a statue of Spanish conquistador and war criminal Juan de Oñate. Now, Johns and another demonstrator are suing county officials for allegedly failing to keep them safe. Searchlight New Mexico’s Joshua Bowling, who was first to report on the lawsuit, sat down with Johns in our st...

Lou DiVizio opens the show with news from around the state. Then, we turn our attention to federal cuts made to AmeriCorps, the government agency that's trained generations of Americans to help others. Until recently, AmeriCorps employed thousands to help others statewide — from Taos to Ruidoso, and in cities and pueblos in between. Now, the federal agency is a shadow of what it once was, as m...

Nash Jones examines civil rights and immigration in New Mexico during Donald Trump's first 100 days in the White House. Nash speaks with Marshall Martinez of Equality New Mexico and Deanna Warren, an attorney with the ACLU.  Warren and Martinez consider how Trump's second term has changed federal policy regarding civil liberties and the communities their organizations serve. Then, Nash ask...

Correspondent Gwyneth Doland interviews NMPBS General Manager Franz Joachim, who lays out the facts on what President Trump's executive order to end federal funding for public media could mean here at home. The dam that creates the El Vado Reservoir on the Rio Chama Tributary is leaking — and in dire need of repair. Correspondent Elizabeth Miller recently spoke with water management expert Adr...

Many of New Mexico's state programs rely heavily on both federal funding and staffing. Recent cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency are putting many of those programs in jeopardy. Senior Producer Lou DiVizio recently sat down with Bill McCamley, a Democratic former state representative and cabinet secretary, to ask how those cuts will impact New Mexicans.  Host: Lou DiVizio...

Lou DiVizio opens the show with some headlines from around the state. Then, Correspondent Gwyneth Doland asks Michael O'Donnell, director of UNM's Bureau of Business and Economic Research, how President Trump's cuts to federal programs will make their mark in our state. And, Lou speaks with Steve Jones, a certified public accountant and Republican candidate running for Congress, about...

To commemorate sexual assault awareness month, correspondent Antonia Gonzales sits down with three advocates from the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women about their work in tribal communities. Host: Lou DiVizio Correspondent: Antonia Gonzales (Navajo) Guests: Tiffany Jiron (Pueblo of Isleta), Executive Director, Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women Charolette Gonzales (Diné...

Lou DiVizio interviews the Archbishop of Santa Fe John C. Wester about the death of Pope Francis this week. Wester shares stories of his own personal interactions with Pope Francis, what he will remember most about Francis' papacy and his hopes for the selection of a new Pope.

Lobo men's basketball has welcomed a new head coach. Eric Olen, who spent the last two decades running the show at U.C. San Diego, accepted the position to be the University of New Mexico's 23rd men's basketball coach earlier this week. Senior Producer Lou DiVizio speaks with Albuquerque Journal sportswriter Geoff Grammer about Olen's approach to basketball, as well as the legacy o...

Lou DiVizio shares some headlines from across the state including an update on the measles outbreak in southeastern New Mexico. Then, Albuquerque Journal reporter Algernon D'Ammassa updates us on the investigation into last month's mass shooting in Las Cruces that killed three teenagers and wounded more than a dozen other people. Executive Producer Jeff Proctor asks D'Ammassa how the p...

Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered Socorro County to pay $2 million to Jessie Chavez, a man who accused jail guards and officials of essentially torturing him in solitary confinement during two stints of incarceration in 2022 and 2023.  Steven Robert Allen, an attorney and director of the New Mexico Prison and Jail Project, represented Chavez. In their one-on-one conversation, Executive P...

For years, journalist Ted Alcorn has written about alcohol-related deaths in New Mexico and the many efforts made in Santa Fe to reduce that number by increasing the state's alcohol tax rate. House Bill 417, introduced during this year's session, would have increased the alcohol tax rate and raised tens of millions of dollars for a prevention and treatment program. Although there was early...

Searchlight New Mexico reporter Joshua Bowling sits down with Levi Monagle, an attorney who has represented survivors of Catholic sexual abuse. That includes about 140 cases exposed during the recent bankruptcy proceedings against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. During that time, the church created a public list of 83 credibly accused priests — a list that Monagle says is woefully incomplete. Host: L...

This week, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland sits down with two groups of journalists to discuss the ins and outs of this year's 60-day legislative session. Hundreds of bills made their way through the Roundhouse — Gwyneth asks why only a few dozen landed on Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk. Reporters Danielle Prokop of Source New Mexico and the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Margaret O’Hara bre...

Lou DiVizio takes you on one last trip to Santa Fe as the 60-day legislative session wraps up. Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland asks state party leaders what legislative priorities did and didn't make it through during this year's session. Gwyneth speaks with state representative Nicole Chavez about the failed bill and her personal perspective on juvenile crime. An immigration lawyer...

Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland interviews state Sen. Mimi Stewart about her bill that would fund future climate change projects and asks what the state is doing to prepare for possible federal retaliation over DEI policies in state government and at Universities. Last fall, a state audit report found more than $360,000 in questionable travel and purchases by the president of Western New Mex...

Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland interviews state House Speaker Javier Martínez about all things Roundhouse-related: the state budget, a proposed paid family leave bill and a series of bills aimed at overhauling the state's long-troubled child welfare system. Then, House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong tells Gwyneth what she thinks the state can do better to help smaller businesses. And tw...

Lou DiVizio sits down with a UNM researcher to discuss a study that found high levels of microplastics in the human brain.  Host: Lou DiVizio Guest: Dr. Marcus Garcia, University of New Mexico Health Sciences  For More Information: UNM Researchers Find Alarmuing Levels of Microplastics in the Human Brain - UNM