This week, New Mexico in Focus looks back at how the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped the last four years.

In the first of a two-part interview, Executive Producer Jeff Proctor sits down with Santa Fe-based public defender Jennifer Burrill and Michael Bird, former president of the American Public Health Association, to assess our state and country's handling of the pandemic and where we are now.

Then, Proctor asks Burrill about her bout with Long COVID and the physical toll it has taken. 

This week, U.S. Supreme Court justices heard arguments from attorneys representing New Mexico, Texas, and Colorado. The three states presented a plan to resolve a decade-old water rights case.

Source New Mexico reporter Danielle Prokop joins us from Washington, D.C. to ask how the high court's decision will impact how we share water from the lower Rio Grande for years to come. 

A new study from the University of New Mexico reports dangerous working conditions in the oil and gas industry. Correspondent Elizabeth Miller speaks with Professor Gabriel Sanchez, a study author and executive director at UNM's Center for Social Policy, to ask how the sector's workers might find new jobs in a clean-energy future.

NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) on Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 24 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.   

NMiF Segments
How COVID Has Shaped the Last Four Years in NM 
and
Long COVID in NM and the Pandemic’s Lasting Effects 

Correspondent
Jeff Proctor 

Guests
Jennifer Burrill, attorney, New Mexico Law Offices of the Public Defender 
Michael Bird, former president, American Public Health Association 

Supreme Court Hears Rio Grande Water Rights Case 
Correspondent
Lou DiVizio 

Guest
Danielle Prokop, reporter, Source New Mexico 

UNM Study Finds Dangerous Working Conditions in Oil and Gas Industry 
Correspondent
Elizabeth Miller 

Guest
Gabriel Sanchez, professor and executive director, UNM Center for Social Policy 

Host
Lou DiVizio 

New Mexico in Focus is the New Mexico PBS prime-time news magazine show covering the events, issues, and people 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's 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.

The Neeper Natural History Programming Fund for KNME-TV provides funding for Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present & Future.