New Mexico in Focus Examines Job Loss and the Continuing Drought

This week, New Mex­ico in Focus delves into recent job reports that show N.M. has suf­fered more job losses than any other state in the West. Who is to blame and, more impor­tantly, how can pol­i­cy­mak­ers turn things around?

New Mex­ico PBS’ one hour pub­lic affairs show New Mex­ico in Focus airs Fri­days at 7 p.m. and Sun­days at 7 a.m. on Chan­nel 5.1. The show can also be seen on New Mex­ico PBS Chan­nel 9.1 on Sat­ur­days at 5 p.m.

The Line talks with National Weather Ser­vice hydrol­o­gist Ed Polasko about what some are call­ing the worst drought in half a cen­tury, and looks at Gov. Martinez’s trou­bles in attempt­ing to post state employee names and salaries on the state’s Sun­shine Por­tal web site as well as the depar­ture from the New Mex­ico Foun­da­tion of Open Gov­ern­ment board of GOP attor­ney and oper­a­tive Pat Rogers. Rogers has been a noted open gov­ern­ment advo­cate, but was caught com­mu­ni­cat­ing about pub­lic mat­ters using the pri­vate email addresses of gov­ern­ment officials.

Guest
• Ed Polasko, hydro­logic pro­gram man­ager, National Weather Service

Line Pan­elists
• Jamie Estrada, for­mer U.S. Com­merce Depart­ment offi­cial
• Dan Foley, for­mer New Mex­ico House Repub­li­can Whip
• Sophie Mar­tin, editor-in-chief, the New Mex­ico Law Review
• Laura Sanchez, attorney

Cor­re­spon­dent
• Matt Grubs

Host/Commentator
• Gene Grant

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New Mex­ico in Focus is pro­duced by Matt Grubs and Kathy Wimmer.

Fund­ing has been pro­vided in part by the McCune Foundation.

Media Con­tact: Evy Todd, (505) 277‑1218; email: etodd@newmexicopbs.org.