Valerie Plame, APD & Shooting Investigation, Medicaid and the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange under the Affordable Care Act

This week, NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS producer Megan Kamerick speaks with Valerie Plame, the former agent with the Central Intelligence Agency who now lives in Santa Fe and has published her first spy thriller, “Blowback.” Plame discusses her new career as a spy novelist, and her articles critiquing the National Security Administration’s surveillance practices. In 2003, the late Washington Post journalist Robert Novak wrote a column, based on information obtained from Richard Armitage at the U.S. State Department, in which he exposed Plame’s covert identity, effectively ending her career. The column came one week after a New York Times opinion piece by Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, which accused the Bush Administration of manipulating intelligence to make a case for invading Iraq. The scandal led to a criminal investigation. No one was charged for the leak itself, but Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to the vice president, was convicted of lying to investigators. His prison sentence was ultimately commuted by President George W. Bush.

The Line opinion panel discusses the growing furor over the shooting of a mentally ill homeless man in the Sandia Mountains foothills by members of the Albuquerque Police Department over a week ago. The video from an officer’s helmet camera of the incident has spread across the country and there are calls to ramp up reform efforts at APD, which is already under investigation by the Department of Justice. Mayor Richard J. Berry chastised his new police chief, Gordon Eden, for stating the shooting was justified. Eden has since backtracked on that statement, but Berry wants DOJ, and possibly the Las Cruces Police Department, to investigate this latest shooting.

The Line also looks at enrollment in Medicaid and the New Mexico Health Insurance Exchange under the Affordable Care Act. March 31st is the deadline for buying a plan on the exchange and state officials are hoping to get at least 40,000 New Mexicans to step up. Only about eight percent of those eligible to sign up have done so, according to a recent study. But 103,000 have enrolled in Medicaid since the state expanded who qualifies for that program. Some worry this will create a lopsided system of health coverage in the state.

GUESTS:
Valerie Plame, Former CIA Agent and Author

LINE PANELISTS:
Rob Nikolewski, Editor, Capitol Report New Mexico/New Mexico Watchdog
Laura Sanchez, New Mexico Green Chamber of Commerce

LINE GUEST PANELISTS:
Richard Rogers, Executive Editor, Santa Fe Monthly
H. Diane Snyder, Greater Albuquerque Medical Association

CORRESPONDENT:
Megan Kamerick, NMiF Producer

HOST/COMMENTATOR: Gene Grant

The Producer of NEW MEXICO IN FOCUS is Megan Kamerick. Associate Producer is Kathy Wimmer. Funding for this program was provided in part by the McCune Foundation.

Episode 739 for air March 28, 2014