This week on New Mexico in Focus, Gene Grant and The Line Opinion Panel discuss the recent developments in the U.S. Interior Department’s decision to withdraw oil and gas leases from Chaco Park and the surrounding 10-mile area. Plus, the panel reacts to the protest that disrupted Interior Sec. Deb Haaland’s planned visit to the area. 

Grant and The Line also talk through a planned policy change at Albuquerque Public Schools that would prevent prospective students with past expulsions or other disciplinary issues from enrolling in the district’s schools. 

The panelists debate some of the concerns surrounding the policy, including the possibility that it could push more kids through the cracks and into the criminal justice system. Finally, the panel takes a look at the state’s $500 million settlement with Walgreens over the pharmacy chain’s role in the opioid epidemic.  

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Pride celebrations in New Mexico’s capital city. 

Santa Fe is marking the occasion with a series of events that will eclipse any previous Pride festivities in the city. NMiF Senior Producer Lou DiVizio speaks with the executive director of the Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance, Kevin Bowen, to ask about what went into this year’s planning, and why New Mexico continues to be a welcoming place for the LGBTQ community.  

In Michelle Otero’s latest book, Vessels: A Memoir of Borders, she tackles a complicated family history. In conversation with Our Land’s Laura Paskus, Otero talks about the process of writing as an act of healing.

New Mexico in Focus airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, June 16 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, June 18 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.     

NMiF Segments
Santa Fe Pride’s 30th Anniversary 
Correspondent

Lou DiVizio 

Guest
Kevin Bowen, executive director, Santa Fe Human Rights Alliance 

Writing as Healing 
Correspondent
Laura Paskus 

Guest
Michelle Otero, author, “Vessels: A Memoir of Borders” 

The Line Opinion Panel
Martha Burk, political psychologist, author 
Shaun Griswold, editor, Source New Mexico 
Merritt Allen, Vox Optima Public Relations 

Host
Gene Grant

New Mexico in Focus is the New Mexico PBS prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people that are shaping life in New Mexico and the Southwest. NMiF takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic health, education, and art issues, and explores them in-depth with a critical eye to give them context beyond the "news of the moment."

NMPBS Executive Producer, Public Affairs, is Jeff Proctor. New Mexico in Focus Senior Producer for Public Affairs is Lou DiVizio. “Our Land” Senior Producer is Laura Paskus. The producer of New Mexico in Focus is Antonio Sanchez and Co-producer is Kathy Wimmer.

Funding for New Mexico in Focus is provided by the McCune Charitable Foundation and Viewers Like You.

Funding for the Your New Mexico Government Project comes from the Thornburg Foundation and New Mexico Local News Fund.

Funding for Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present & Future, is provided in part by the Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV.