Spaceport America, South Valley Shootings and the Legislature Topics on this Week’s New Mexico in Focus

This week on New Mex­ico in Focus, sup­port­ers of Space­port Amer­ica say they have struck a deal that will pro­tect com­pa­nies work­ing at the South­ern New Mex­ico facil­ity from friv­o­lous law­suits. The move could pave the way for more devel­op­ment at the taxpayer-funded space­port, but will polit­i­cal maneu­ver­ing mean a fail­ure to launch?

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 dis­cusses the South Val­ley shoot­ings that took the lives of five fam­ily mem­bers and for­ever changed the life of the accused shooter, the family’s 15-year-old son. Will the killings renew calls for addi­tional gun con­trol mea­sures? The Line exam­ines the idea and speaks to law­mak­ers who have filed bills both lim­it­ing guns and expand­ing their availability. 

The Line also looks at a joint-session of the Leg­is­la­ture, designed to give law­mak­ers a clear view of the prob­lems faced by pub­lic retire­ment accounts. The fix needed to shore up the badly-lagging pen­sion funds could cost hun­dreds of mil­lions and affect thou­sands of cur­rent and for­mer pub­lic employees.

Guests
• Rep. Zach Cook, R – Rui­doso
• Rep. Nora Espinoza, R – Roswell|
• Rep. Miguel P. Gar­cia, D — Albuquerque

Line Guests
• Dede Feld­man, for­mer New Mex­ico Sen­a­tor
• Al Park, for­mer New Mex­ico Representative

Line Pan­elists
• Dan Foley, for­mer New Mex­ico House Repub­li­can Whip
• Sophie Mar­tin, edi­tor in chief, New Mex­ico Law Review 

Cor­re­spon­dent
• Matt Grubs, NMiF producer 

Host
• 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.