N.M. Budget Woes, Community Volunteering on This Week’s “New Mexico in Focus”

This week the New Mexico Legislature faced the task of making up more than a $650 million budget shortfall in this year’s budget. “New Mexico in Focus” will take you inside the negotiations at this week’s legislative special session and provide insight and analysis of any decisions from the Roundhouse. “New Mexico In Focus” is KNME-TV’s weekly hour-long public affairs show airing on Friday, Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. on KNME-TV channel 5.1 and repeating on Sunday, Oct. 25 at 6:30 a.m.

KNME-TV will also honor New Mexico’s spirit of giving on this episode. Volunteer efforts throughout the state add up to almost 1 billion hours per year. But what compels people to want to give back to their community? And what can be done to get more people involved? Find out in this episode’s special “Making a Difference New Mexico,” a special broadcast brought to you by all three New Mexico PBS stations featuring volunteer programs from across the state, plus interviews with New Mexico Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, and Greg Webb, Executive Director for the New Mexico Commission for Community Volunteerism.

Co-hosted by Gene Grant, columnist for the Weekly Alibi, and independent filmmaker Chris Schueler, “New Mexico in Focus” takes a multi-layered look at social, political, economic, health, education, and arts issues and explores them in-depth, with a critical eye to give them context beyond the “news of the moment.”

Joining Grant on this week’s “The Line” panel is Jim Scarantino, investigative analyst for the Rio Grande Foundation, and Margaret Montoya with the University of New Mexico Schools of Law and Medicine and CUNY Law School.

“New Mexico in Focus” is produced by Kevin McDonald and Kathy Wimmer and closed captioning has been made possible by a gift from Mrs. Elspeth G. Bobbs.

Media Contact: Evy Todd, (505) 277-1812; e-mail: etodd@knme.org