This week on New Mexico in Focus, executive producer Jeff Proctor talks with Trip Jennings, executive director of New Mexico In Depth, and Emma Green, program coordinator with the state’s Public Education Department, about a pilot program aimed at reducing student expulsions. Jeff asks how the plan takes a new approach to school discipline and is rooted in a philosophy called "restorative justice."
New Mexico in Focus correspondent Antonia Gonzales speaks with Navajo anti-nuclear activist Leona Morgan to discuss how the state's history of uranium mining and nuclear testing has caused irreparable damage to Indigenous communities across New Mexico. Morgan also talks about her thoughts on Christopher Nolan's film, “Oppenheimer,” and how it ignores that history.
In a segment that first aired in December, Our Land Senior Producer Laura Paskus and Mike Eisenfeld of the San Juan Citizens Alliance showcase how industrialization near the Chaco Park area persists — even with the federal government's decision in June to put in some protections for a 10-mile zone around the park.
Finally, Jeff and senior producer Lou DiVizio talk about the future of New Mexico in Focus as the show moves forward following the departure of host Gene Grant.
NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 20 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.
Host
Lou DiVizio
NMiF Segments
NM Public Schools Continue Restorative Justice Pilot Program
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor
Guests
Trip Jennings, executive director, New Mexico In Depth
Emma Green, program coordinator, New Mexico Public Education Department
Nuclear Impacts on Indigenous Communities in NM
Correspondent
Antonia Gonzales
Guest
Leona Morgan (Diné), anti-nuclear activist
Beyond the Park: Industrialization of the Greater Chaco Landscape
Correspondent
Laura Paskus
Guest
Mike Eisenfeld, Energy and Climate Program Manager, San Juan Citizens Alliance
Looking Ahead Toward the Future of New Mexico in Focus
Correspondents
Lou DiVizio
Jeff Proctor
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.