This week on New Mexico in Focus, correspondent Antonia Gonzales talks with two local advocates about the national attention given to the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis. President Biden declared Thursday, May 6, to be Missing and Murdered Indigenous People’s Awareness Day. His new interior secretary, former New Mexico Congresswoman Deb Haaland, is a member of the Laguna Pueblo and has created a unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs that is dedicated to the crisis. But new federal attention doesn’t guarantee successful results as myriad levels of government try to work together in an effective fashion. 

Early voting has begun in the special election to fill Deb Haaland’s seat in the 1st Congressional District, and the candidates have begun a series of debates on local commercial TV stations. NMiF senior producer Matt Grubs digs in with lengthy interviews with Democratic state Rep. Melanie Stansbury and Republican state Sen. Mark Moores. Expanded early voting locations open May 15 and Election Day is June 1.

New Mexico in Focus airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, May 7 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, May 9 at 7 a.m.   

Segments

MMIW Crisis Gets National Attention 
Correspondent
Antonia Gonzales 

Guests  
Angel Charley, executive director, Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women

Christine Means, MMIW sister and New Mexico task force member  

Republican, Democratic Candidate Conversations in CD1 
Correspondent
Matt Grubs, NMiF Senior Producer 

Guests 
Mark Moores, Republican state senator 
Melanie Stansbury, Democratic state representative

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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