This week, New Mexico in Focus addresses Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive order attempting to ban guns in public in Bernalillo County for 30 days. Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Urias struck down part of the order, issuing a temporary restraining order, specifically blocking the ban on carrying firearms. Executive Producer Jeff Proctor and a special panel talk through the governor’s action, her call to the feds for help and the larger issue of gun violence in Albuquerque.   

According to a July report from a nonprofit advocacy group, only five of 14 hospitals in New Mexico are compliant with a federal rule regarding price transparency. The semi-annual report comes from the non-profit Patient Rights Advocate, which began its work shortly after the Hospital Transparency Rule went into effect in 2021. The rule requires hospitals to post five different standard charges for common medical procedures they offer. The rule also requires hospitals to provide patients with an out-of-pocket cost estimator tool or payer-specific negotiated rates for at least 300 shoppable services. For more on their study, Lou DiVizio sits down with Patient Rights Advocate CEO Cynthia Fisher.  

NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, Sept. 15 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 17 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.  

NMiF Segments
Governor’s Public Health Order - Pt. 1: What’s Inside & Opposition 
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor 

Guests
Tom Grover, attorney, former Albuquerque Police sergeant  
Marisa Demarco, national editor, States Newsroom 
Frank Davis, attorney 

Majority of NM Hospitals Noncompliant with Price Transparency Law   
Correspondent
Lou DiVizio 

Guest
Cynthia Fisher, founder & chair, Patient Rights Advocate 

Governor’s Public Health Order - Pt. 2: Lingering Questions 
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor 

Guests
Tom Grover, attorney, former Albuquerque Police sergeant  
Marisa Demarco, national editor, States Newsroom 
Frank Davis, attorney 

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.