The COVID pandemic has thrown many people into financial crisis and has spotlighted how important adequate shelter is to health. This week on New Mexico in Focus, correspondent Megan Kamerick talks to law professor and housing advocate Serge Martinez about housing as a human right and how to stem the flood of evictions once the moratorium is lifted.
This month’s installment of Our Land looks back to an early 2020 conversation between correspondent Laura Paskus and Eugene Herrera, former governor of the Pueblo of Cochiti. Now, in 2021, Sen. Martin Heinrich’s plans to reintroduce a bill to change Bandelier National Monument into Bandelier National Park. While other northern New Mexico Pueblos support the measure, leaders at Cochiti still oppose it. Former governor Herrera tells why the people of Cochiti believe such a designation would damage spiritual and sacred sites.
Gene Grant and The Line opinion panelists talk about newly elected Republican Congresswoman Yvette Herrell’s objection to certifying electoral college votes for President-elect Joe Biden. They then debate the fines imposed on Legacy and Calvary megachurches for packing their Christmas services beyond capacity limits and not enforcing mask mandates. The Line panelists also voice their opinions on Albuquerque’s passage of the CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination based on ethnic hairstyles or head coverings like burqas.
New Mexico in Focus is involved, informed, in-depth media airing weekly on New Mexico PBS. The program debuts Friday nights at 7 p.m. on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME-HD) and appears online shortly thereafter. The show rebroadcasts on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME-HD) Sundays at 7 a.m. and on NMPBS 9.1 (WORLD) on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m.
In Focus Interviews
Housing Rights and Evictions
Correspondent
Megan Kamerick
Guest
Serge Martinez, professor, UNM School of Law’s Economic Justice Clinic
Our Land: Cochiti Pueblo Opposes National Monument Expansion
Correspondent
Laura Paskus
Guest
Eugene Herrera, former governor, Pueblo of Cochiti
The Line Opinion Panel
Justine Fox-Young, former NM state representative
Giovanna Rossi, president, Collective Action Strategies
Kristelle Siarza, Siarza Social Digital
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.”
The producer of New Mexico in Focus is Matt Grubs, with Kathy Wimmer, associate producer. The NM PBS Public Affairs executive producer is Kevin McDonald.
The McCune Charitable Foundation provides NMiF funding, along with viewers like you.
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