University of New Mexico faculty voted to unionize this week, which means labor relations in the future will be negotiated through two separate collective bargaining units. The win for the United Academics of UNM (UA-UNM) comes after years of organizing by faculty who say they want fair compensation and better working conditions.

An overdose-reversing medication has become an important tool in preventing opioid deaths. But it’s not as available in Albuquerque as it is in other parts of the state, according to a team of students at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, who released their findings earlier this month.

In each photograph, Joan Myers shows us the West both as we want it to be and as we fear it's become: a plywood buffalo stands before a piñon-dotted mesa, a neon saguaro glows against a starry night, a mountain worthy of photographer Ansel Adams rises over tourists and their lime-green cooler.  In her striking new book, Where The Buffalo Roamed: Images of the New West, the Santa Fe-based photographer asks us how the myth of the West can survive the realities of modern life.

  Let's Talk NM 10/17, 8a:The Day of the Dead has become increasingly high profile in New Mexico over the past few years, with celebrations like Albuquerque’s Muertos y Marigolds Parade attracting thousands of attendees, and traditional practices like the creation of sacred altars to departed loved ones running headlong into not-so-traditional practices like Halloween costumes. But what is the true meaning of Día de los Muertos? And how can people for whom it is not a traditional holiday engage with it in a way that’s respectful of its continued spiritual and religious significance? 

When Dave Payne left the venerable roots band Saltine Ramblers for solo projects he did so without a regular band.  By his second album the Salt Cedar outfit was in place & Payne's writing took on a new trajectory.

As their self-titled album rolled out, they decided to play us as-yet unrecorded songs, plus two covers of New Mexican songs from a distant time.

Recorded in Studio A by John Strader on October 1, 2019, the band are:

Dave Payne: vocals, guitar
Dave Devlin:  electric guitar, pedal steel, dobro, vocals
Cory Minefee: electric bass, vocals
Cheese: drums, vocals

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