Analyzing New Polling Data in Key State Races, Las Vegas Water Crisis & Navajo Novelist Releases Acclaimed Thriller

This week on New Mexico in Focus, Gene and the Line Opinion Panel and talk through new polling data showing Democrats with big leads in several state races. The panel also discusses the rollout of a new tool meant to reduce overdose deaths – fentanyl tests strips. Plus, the panel assesses the dire situation in Las Vegas where ash and wildfire debris have contaminated the city’s drinking water source.

Correspondent Antonia Gonzales sits down with a Navajo novelist to talk about her new book ‘Shutter,’ which follows a young woman from the Navajo Nation who becomes a forensic photographer. Author Ramona Emerson also explains why she thinks it’s so important for indigenous people to tell indigenous stories.

Our Land Senior Producer Laura Paskus explores heat waves with University of New Mexico Professor Blair Wolf. Professor Wolf studies how birds cope with the heat, directly and through behavioral changes, and how declines in some bird communities are associated with increased warming.

Host: Gene Grant

The Line opinion panel: 
Algernon D’Ammassa, investigative & enterprise reporter, Las Cruces Sun-News
Rebecca Latham, CEO, Girl Scouts of New Mexico
Dede Feldman, fmr. New Mexico State Senator

Segments:
‘Shutter’: Behind Navajo Novelist’s Debut Book
Correspondent: Antonia Gonzales
Guest: Ramona Emerson, author, filmmaker, Diné

Heat Waves & Bird Deaths
Correspondent: Laura Paskus
Guest: Blair Wolf, University of New Mexico, Department of Biology