This week on New Mexico in Focus, Executive Producer Jeff Proctor interviews Albuquerque City Council President Pat Davis about delays in council’s handling of citizen oversight for APD. That’s as Mayor Tim Keller is pushing to transfer authority over the system away from the council. The mayor cites staffing woes, a lack of training for police oversight board members and other problems to justify his proposal. Councilor Pat Davis responds and explains why he thinks citizen oversight should be independent from the city’s executive branch.
Over the past decade, former New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission director Norman Gaume has urged lawmakers to fund state water agencies and protect the water resources. Now, as president of New Mexico Water Advocates, he talks with Our Land’s Laura Paskus about the 2023 Water Security Planning Act, some of the serious problems around the state and the need for community-driven solutions.
Founded at the turn of the 20th century, Blackdom was a freedom colony in southern New Mexico formed by Black settlers hoping to escape the Jim Crow South. New Mexico in Focus correspondent Russell Contreras sits down with Dr. Timothy Nelson to talk about his new book, "Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier," which explains how the colony's goals grew and shifted between 1900 and 1930.
Correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks with the director of Free Flow New Mexico, and three other people who have been vital in getting a new ‘period pod’ up and running at the public library branch on Santa Fe’s Southside. It’s one of three 24-hour kiosks in the city providing access to free menstrual products.
NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 5 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.
NMiF Segments
Policing the Police
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guest
Pat Davis, president, Albuquerque City Council
New Mexico’s Water Solutions are Possible—but not Easy
Correspondent
Laura Paskus
Guest
Norman Gaume, NM Water Advocates
Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier, 1900-1930
Correspondent
Russell Contreras
Guest
Dr. Timothy Nelson, Author, “Blackdom, New Mexico: The Significance of the Afro-Frontier, 1900-1930"
New ‘Period Pods’ Aim to Limit Period Poverty in Santa Fe
Correspondent
Antonia Gonzales
Guests
Laurie Merrill, executive director and founder, Free Flow New Mexico
Margaret Neill, library division director, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Israel Haros, Chicano poet, artist, muralist
Selena Fernandez, artist
Host
Lou DiVizio
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.