This week on New Mexico in Focus, the 2022 Legislative Session wraps up on Thursday, Feb. 17 at noon after a grueling 30-day session. The Line opinion panel discusses what made it through the Roundhouse and on to the Governor’s desk. They also discuss the big-ticket items that fell short or ran out of time and the implications of the final legislative outcomes.

De Haven Solimon Chaffins grew up living with her grandparents on the Laguna Pueblo. The landscape there shaped her view of the world...the natural landscape...and the Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine. That huge open-pit mine is a federal Superfund site and is still polluting water and causing cancers. This week, Chaffins sits down with Our Land Correspondent Laura Paskus to explain how her artwork explores the story of the mine and its impacts. You can see some of her work at an exhibit called ‘Radon Daughter,’ on display at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center through the end of this month. 

The City of Albuquerque has been involved in conversations with Pueblos and Tribes since June, when 215 unmarked graves of unidentified Indigenous youth were discovered at the site of an Indian Boarding School in British Columbia. Correspondent Antonia Gonzales talks with Dr. Theodore Jojola about this difficult history and the current efforts to acknowledge that history and foster healing.

New Mexico in Focus airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) Friday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 20 at 7 a.m., and streaming on the PBS video app.

Segment(s)

Albuquerque’s Indian Boarding School History Correspondent
Antonia Gonzales

Guest
Dr. Theodore Jojola, director, UNM Indigenous Design & Planning Institute

Radon Daughter Art Exhibit Reflects New Mexico’s Uranium Legacy
Correspondent
Laura Paskus

Guest
De Haven Solimon Chaffins (Laguna/Zuni), artist

The Line opinion panel
Algernon D’Ammassa, reporter, Las Cruces Sun-News
Julia Goldberg, reporter, Santa Fe Reporter
Trip Jennings, executive director, New Mexico in Depth

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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