NMiF 2025 Rewind Part 2: Mayoral elections; APD oversight ends

This week, New Mexico in Focus revisits some of the biggest stories and headlines of 2025.

This year, NMIF broke down the mayoral elections in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. In a conversation that first aired in December, host Nash Jones sat down with two former city councilors to explore Tim Keller's successful run for an unprecedented third consecutive term as Albuquerque mayor. Then, in a discussion that first ran in November, a journalist and a political science professor considered why voters chose to promote City Councilor Michael Garcia to be next mayor of the state's capital city.

In 2014, Albuquerque city leaders and the US Department of Justice signed a settlement agreement after a federal investigation found an unconstitutional pattern of excessive force by the Albuquerque Police Department. Eleven years later, a federal judge dismissed the agreement after determining city police had complied.

In a special two-episode series that first aired in May, NMIF explored what the end of federal oversight at APD means for the city. Parents Steve and Renetta Torres told Executive Producer Jeff Proctor about their push for reform at APD after two plainclothes detectives shot and killed their son 14 years ago. Then, Nash Jones sat down with Police Chief Harold Medina to discuss the changes he's made to the department and the deeper issue of what federal investigators called its "culture of aggression."

The Cibola County Correctional Center is one of three prisons in New Mexico that hold immigrants for ICE - US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In this piece that first ran in August, reporter Cailley Chella spoke to several men locked up in Cibola County, as well as a group of local volunteers working to make sure they feel seen.

This summer, Congress approved President Donald Trump's request to strip away the next two years of funds previously allocated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. As a result, our local public television station and about 1,500 others - along with the national PBS and NPR networks - will no longer receive federal funding starting in October 2025.

In this conversation that first aired in July, NMIF invited two local opinion columnists to continue a debate that has been heard in Washington, D.C. for years: Should taxpayer dollars fund public broadcasting? Since our funding is caught up in this debate, NMiF put up several firewalls to avoid a conflict of interest. Trip Jennings, executive director of New Mexico in Depth, hosted this two-part conversation with Santa Fe New Mexican opinion page editor Inez Russell Gomez and Albuquerque Journal editorial contributor Jeff Tucker.

In a segment that first ran in July, Cailley Chella took viewers to the Trinity Site in Southern New Mexico, where a new sign now stands to acknowledge the human toll of the nuclear bomb that first exploded there 80 years ago.

NMiF airs on NMPBS 5.1 (KNME HD) on Friday, Jan. 2, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 4 at 7 a.m. and streaming on the PBS video app. Involved, informed, in-depth media: watch New Mexico in Focus again online shortly thereafter.

Host
Nash Jones

Segments
How Did Tim Keller Win a Third Term as ABQ Mayor?
Host
Nash Jones

Guests
Eric Griego, UNM professor of practice, former city councilor
Greg Payne, attorney, former city councilor

Santa Fe City Councilor Michael Garcia Gets Promoted to Mayor
Correspondent
Nash Jones

Guests
Eric Griego, UNM professor of practice in Political Science
Carina Julig, city reporter, Santa Fe New Mexican

APD Shooting Victim's Parents on Their Push for Police Reform
Correspondent
Jeff Proctor

Guests
Renetta Torres, son killed by APD in 2011
Steve Torres, son killed by APD in 2011

APD Chief on the DOJ-Mandated Reform Effort
Correspondent
Nash Jones

Guest
Harold Medina, chief, Albuquerque Police Department

Nonprofit Advocates for Asylum Seekers in NM Private Prison
Correspondent
Cailley Chella

Guests
Dani Figueroa, VIDA volunteer
Celia Dollmeyer, VIDA volunteer
Kelly McClowsky-Romero, VIDA voordinator
Elvis Salcedo, asylum seeker detained in Cibola
Victor, asylum seeker detained in Cibola

Federal Funds Cut to Public Broadcasting
Correspondent
Trip Jennings

Guests
Inez Russell Gomez, opinion editor, Santa Fe New Mexican
Jeff Tucker, opinion contributor, Albuquerque Journal

New Sign Marks Trinity Site's 80th Anniversary
Correspondent
Cailley Chella

Guests
Tina Cordova, co-founder, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium
Jay Coghlan, executive director, Nuke Watch NM
Melissa Park, executive director, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Mary Martinez White, member, Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium

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. Host and producer of New Mexico in Focus is Nash Jones. Producer is Antonio Sanchez. Multimedia journalist is Cailley Chella.

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. Funding for Our Land: New Mexico's Environmental Past, Present & Future is provided in part by the Neeper Natural History Programming.