This week on New Mexico in Focus, Politics Correspondent Gwyneth Doland interviews three journalists to preview the 2025 legislative session in Santa Fe, which begins next week. Trip Jennings, executive director of New Mexico In Depth, Julia Goldberg, editor-in-chief at Source New Mexico and Dan Boyd, Capitol Bureau chief for the Albuquerque Journal weigh in on some of the key issues lawmakers are prioritizing this year.

Doland starts by asking how the state might spend a record $11 billion in state revenue. Then, she shifts to other areas of interest for New Mexicans, including public safety and behavioral health reforms.  

Joshua Bowling, an investigative reporter at Searchlight New Mexico, sits down with state Attorney General Raúl Torrez to discuss the lawsuit over a $1.9 million buyout for Western New Mexico University’s outgoing president, Joseph Shepard. Bowling broke the story of lavish spending and other possible misconduct at the school in 2023. This week, he asks Torrez how the alleged misuse of public money went unnoticed for so long.  

Senior Producer Lou DiVizio interviews educator and Democratic state Rep. Andrés Romero about potential changes to federal education policy. Romero, who chairs the Legislative Education Study Committee, says he’s preparing for possible cuts to Title I funding.  

NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) on Friday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 19 at 7 a.m. and streaming on the PBS video app. 

NMiF Segments
Cutting Down the Golden Parachute 
Correspondent
Joshua Bowling 

Guest
Raúl Torrez, New Mexico attorney general 

2025 Session Preview: State Budget Decisions 
and
2025 Session Preview: Public Safety & Behavioral Health Priorities 
Correspondent
Gwyneth Doland 

Guests
Trip Jennings, executive director, New Mexico In Depth 
Dan Boyd, capitol bureau chief, Albuquerque Journal 
Julia Goldberg, editor-in-chief, Source New Mexico 

Fortifying New Mexico’s Education Priorities 
Correspondent
Lou DiVizio 

Guest
G. Andrés Romero, (D) NM State Representative, District 10, Bernalillo County 

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.