Megan Kamerick

A new statewide mask mandate goes into effect Friday, Aug. 20, across New Mexico. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is also mandating vaccinations for anyone attending the New Mexico State Fair in September. She urged officials with the upcoming Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta to take similar precautions.But reporter Shaun Griswold raised concerns about another iconic New Mexico event -- Santa Fe Indian Market.

New Mexico taxpayers have invested over $225 million into Spaceport America and after many years of waiting, they finally saw Virgin Galactic CEO Richard Branson blast into space on July 11th. More flights will follow customers paying up to $450,000 for a seat. The event drew media from around the world. But their ability to cover the flight was severely curtailed.

Two Sites Identified For Possible Soccer Stadium – Albuquerque Journal

A consultant to the city of Albuquerque has identified two potential sites for a soccer stadium to house the New Mexico United Team.

The Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyrighted story that CAA ICON named areas near Coal and Broadway, as well as Second Street and Iron as “preferred sites” for a stadium seating up to 12,000 people.

  University Showcase, 7/16, 8a: The last year of the coronavirus pandemic has challenged communities all over the state. Last November, five students at the University of New Mexico began interviewing people about how they and their communities were coping in the pandemic and how they were forced to find their own resilience.

  The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people around the West, including New Mexico, but the historic drought gripping our region has prompted a 20 percent drop in flows in the river. Reservoirs are drying, with Lake Mead at its lowest levels since it was filled in the 1930s. As scientists incorporate these changes into future projections, an article in Science magazine urges them to plan for even greater declines in the river.

  University Showcase, Friday 6/18 8a: As the coronavirus pandemic took hold in New Mexico in April 2020, Dr. Heather Jarrell stepped into a new role --- interim chief medical examiner at the Office of the Medical Investigator. On this episode, we talk with Dr. Jarrell about how the pandemic affected her office and staff, especially with the ongoing shortage of forensic pathologists here and around the country. She also talks about the need to recruit more young people into the field. 

University Showcase, Friday 5/21 8a: Each year the University of New Mexico recognizes a faculty member with its Community Engaged Research Lecture award. On this episode, Professor Jennifer Nez Denetdale from the American Studies Department talks about her lecture "Dikos Ntsaaígíí  ̶ Building the Perfect Human to Invade: A Diné Feminist Analysis of the Pandemic and the Navajo Nation.”

After more than a year, people are buying tickets and popcorn at The Guild Cinema in Albuquerque. Owner Keif Henley scrambled to re-open when the state revamped its color-coded risk system recently. Bernalillo County was suddenly in the least restrictive turquoise phase.

University Showcase 4/16 8a: From "War of the Worlds" to "The Martian Chronicles," the planet Mars has long held a grip on our popular imagination. But where did these early ideas about vast networks of canals and advanced, and sometimes hostile, civilizations come from?  On this episode we explore the power of mapmaking to create reality, but also the tendency to work out our own problems on Earth by projecting them onto Mars.

Let's Talk New Mexico 4/08 8am: Last week in a special session of the New Mexico Legislature lawmakers moved to legalize recreational cannabis and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is expected to sign the legislation. The changes allows individuals to grow for personal use or to sell with a micro-business license and they create a structure that will gradually increase taxes over time. A separate bill allows for the expungement of criminal records for some past marijuana offenses.

On the next Let’s Talk New Mexico, we’ll look at what the legislation contains, how it structures legalization and the timeline.

  On March 30, the New Mexico Legislature convenes for a special session to focus on legalizing cannabis. A bill made it past the House in the regular session but stalled in the Senate. Reporter Natalie Fertig with Politico covers cannabis policy around the country and has been closely watching the process in New Mexico. She spoke with KUNM's Megan Kamerick her along with my co-host Andy Lyman from New Mexico Political Report for the podcast “Growing Forward: Cannabis and New Mexico.”

The New Mexico Legislature failed to pass a bill legalizing recreational cannabis before the 2021 session ended on March 20. Now Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has called a special session for March 30 to take up the issue. But advocates for traditional and rural communities say despite the equity provisions in the bill that died, there was not enough consideration of impacts on rural communities.

What is the sound of a river in crisis? That’s what a group of artists explore in an installation opening online at the University of New Mexico Art Museum on World Water Day, March 22nd.

  A total of five bills have been introduced in this year's legislative session to legalize recreational cannabis. Despite this being a legislative priority, the New Mexico Senate only began debate on bills on February 27. Meanwhile, House Bill 12 passed the full House and has moved to the Senate.

But the clock is ticking for legalization to happen this year, with the session ending on March 20. KUNM's Megan Kamerick spoke with Andy Lyman with New Mexico Political Report, her co-host on the New Mexico PBS podcast “Growing Forward: Cannabis in New Mexico” to get an update on where things stand and why this push is happening so late in the 60-day session. The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee was slated to take up debate on Saturday, March 6, on recreational cannabis legalization bills. They have since rescheduled that for Tuesday, March 9.

University Showcase, 2/19, 8a: On this episode we explore the concept or reparations with Kathy Powers, who has been studying transitional justice and reparations around the world for years. She’s an associate professor of political science at the University of New Mexico.

The pandemic has been disastrous for many small business owners, but especially for those who opened in the middle of public health orders and lockdowns. Diego Diaz and his family opened Tio David’s Peruvian Flavor last May in Albuquerque’s Nob Hill. But because they didn’t open before February 2020, they were not eligible for any of the COVID-related federal loans or grants for businesses. He has started a crowdfunding campaign for the restaurant.

Let’s Talk New Mexico, Thursday, 2/11, 8a: New Mexico has had a successful medical cannabis program for years, but full legalization for recreational use has proven elusive, even as neighboring states move ahead. This year, however, with the support of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, the state could finally see lawmakers pass a recreational cannabis bill. If the bill passes, what will this mean for New Mexico’s economy? What are the different versions of legalization under consideration in the legislature? And how will legalization impact patients already enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program?

University Showcase, Friday, 01/15, 8a:On this episode we talk with the group Running Medicine, which recently won a national award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that recognizes and honors those in sport who display an innovative and collaborative approach to making their communities healthier places to live. 

Let's Talk New Mexico 1/7, 8a: The coronavirus pandemic has shut down performance venues and music festivals around the country. That's left many musicians with cancelled shows and tours, and struggling to connect with fans and make money.

  The coronavirus pandemic has taken a terrible toll on mental well-being as people cope with isolation, fear and uncertainty. KUNM’s Megan Kamerick talked with Ryan Williamson about his decision to seek therapy for the first time, and clinical psychologist Dr. Gerald Chavez for a segment that originally aired on our media partner New Mexico PBS.

University Showcase, Friday, 12/18 8a: New Mexico and the Southwest are grappling with profound impacts brought by climate change and those will only get worse, so how are we preparing? Journalist Laura Paskus has covered New Mexico’s environment for years and in her new book from University of New Mexico Press, “At The Precipice: New Mexico’s Changing Climate,” she explores the realities of climate change and the havoc it has been wreaking for years in the state.

Tuesday, 12/08, 8a: New Mexico's medical cannabis program has spurred the creation of numerous companies in the state, from growers to dispensaries to production facilities. Advocates for recreational cannabis tout its potential to bring an even bigger economic boom, but there are also unique challenges to running a cannabis-based business.

Tuesday, 12/01, 8a: New Mexico's medical cannabis industry has already produced a number of successful entrepreneurs and companies who could see even more benefits from legal recreational cannabis in New Mexico. On this episode we look at some of the major players in the state. We also explore the barriers to entry to the cannabis industry, a point of contention for those who want legalization to also include mechanisms that help communities most damaged by the war on drugs to share in the largesse of a legal, and lucrative, cannabis industry.

Tuesday, 11/24, 8a: The push for the legalization of recreational cannabis has really picked up in recent years in the New Mexico legislature. In this week's episode, we look back at those efforts to date, and the strategy behind the legislation proposed in past sessions.

University Showcase Friday, 11/20, 8a: On this episode we meet Dr. Tracie Collins, the women selected this month by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to be the new secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health. Collins has served as Dean of the UNM College of Population Health since 2019.

Tuesday, 11/10, 8a:  The New Mexico Legislature will almost certainly take up legalizing recreational cannabis in January. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has made it is a priority, and lawmakers are debating the merits and downsides of legalization.

This is why NM Political Report and New Mexico PBS, with the help of a grant from the New Mexico Local News Fund, launched “Growing Forward” a 10-episode podcast examining cannabis. 

This week, New Mexico voters blew past turnout records of years past, and pushed the state Senate further to the left. That means that in the next legislative session, some policies and plans might be on the table that weren’t before. KUNM's Megan Kamerick spoke with Marjorie Childress, who wrote about the progressive shift for New Mexico In Depth.

  University Showcase Friday, 10/16, 8a: Young people who are caught up early in the justice system often face an array of challenges even before they get into trouble. Those can include untreated mental health problems, substance abuse and dysfunctional or violent home lives.

  Friday, 9/18, 8a: On this episode we talk about the history of Art1 with art historian and author Patrick Frank. In the late 1960s, the University of New Mexico played a key role in bringing together creativity and technology in what was then the nascent field of computer art. Now a new book from Museum of New Mexico Press offers the first in depth account of this early digital creativity -- “Sharing Code: Art1, Frederick Hammersley, and the Dawn of Computer Art.” 

  Tuesday 8/25, 8a: It's been 100 years since the ratification of the 19th Amendment assured women the right to vote in New Mexico and the rest of the United States, and it's been more 70 years since a lawsuit ensured the franchise for Native Americans. But what is the work left undone?