Daniel Montaño
Public Health ReporterDaniel Montaño is a reporter with KUNM's Public Health, Poverty and Equity project. He is also an occasional host of Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Let's Talk New Mexico since 2021, is a born and bred Burqueño who first started with KUNM about two decades ago, as a production assistant while he was in high school. During the intervening years, he studied journalism at UNM, lived abroad, fell in and out of love, conquered here and there, failed here and there, and developed a taste for advocating for human rights.
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A new report looking at each state’s rates of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, better known as COPD, shows New Mexico has seen some of the biggest decreases in the nation over a five-year period, dropping from 6.3% in 2018 to 5% in 2023, and the highest drop in men's rates of the disease. -
The New Mexico Department of Health is offering free vaccinations to children 18 years and under at locations across the state until the end of August. The program is intended to get kids protected, and make sure they meet school vaccination requirements as they head back to the classroom for a new year. -
A new executive director for Healthcare Services has taken the reins at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, and she’ll be taking on huge budget overages when it comes to inmate health care. Using traveling nurses to cover inmates' needs is costing the jail millions of dollars. -
The City of Albuquerque is looking to make it easier to establish Safe Outdoor Spaces for people living on the streets by changing a few key ordinances. Only one space has been opened so far, which is located at New Creations Church in the International District. -
A shooting this morning at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque has left one person dead and another with non-life threatening injuries. New Mexico State Police lifted a shelter-in-place order that began at 5:30 a.m. just before 4 p.m. KOAT reported the U.S. Marshals arrested the shooting suspect in Los Lunas. -
State officials presented Wednesday to lawmakers details on a pilot program that will dispense medications for treating substance use disorder at public health offices. The New Mexico Department of Health has already been providing prescriptions to be filled elsewhere, but this is the first time they will be offering the medications themselves. -
KUNM will lose 12% of its budget, or about $275,000, after the House and Senate passed the rescission bill that was put forth at the request of President Donald Trump. The station’s new General Manager, Jeff Pope, said the cut could have drastic effects, but remains confident the station will find a way to forge ahead. -
Jet fuel leaking from Kirtland Air Force base into the ground beneath Albuquerque was first discovered nearly 26 years ago in November 1999. So some residents may be surprised that the cleanup process has yet to begin in earnest. While some interim measures have been taken to stop the fuel from getting into the city’s drinking water, experts told lawmakers Tuesday that only the first phase of the process, the investigation, is finally nearing completion. -
The New Mexico Department of Health announced Thursday a dog in Grant County tested positive for rabies. It’s the eighth animal in the state with a confirmed case this year. Although rabies is uncommon, it’s still one of the deadliest known viruses. -
Although deaths from cancer have gone down over the last couple decades, the disease remains one of the leading causes of death in the United States, just as it has for the last 75 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An outright cure probably won’t materialize any day soon, but researchers at the University of New Mexico are on the cutting edge of treatment options that show promising results.
