Public Health New Mexico

When a liver is available for donation anywhere in the country, there are federal rules that dictate who gets it. The sicker you are, the sooner you get one. 

Those rules were updated this year and they’re supposed to help more folks get that life-saving transplant. But the new rules might not make things better for everyone.

The Trump Administration earlier this year proposed changes to a section of the Affordable Care Act that spells out civil rights protections. The new rules issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would loosen requirements and give health care providers more say over when they provide interpretation and translation services, and to whom.

A pump-and-treat system is the main way that Kirtland Air Force Base has been cleaning up a jet fuel spill they discovered back in the ‘90s. For years, the treated water has gone either straight back into the aquifer or to the base’s golf course. Now, Kirtland is seeking permission for a third option—to dump water into the nearby Tijeras Arroyo.

We’ve been exploring the difficulties New Mexicans face when they need a liver transplant, like the fact that we don’t have a place to get one in the entire state. 

That means it can be challenging just to get on a liver transplant waitlist. 

If you live in New Mexico and you need a liver transplant, you better pack your bags because you can’t get that surgery anywhere in the state.

As kids head back to school soon, districts must contend with a new state law allowing students with a medical marijuana prescription to take their medicine at school. New Mexico health and education officials are working to iron out details like how schools will store medication and who can administer it.

Kirtland Air Force Base will host an open house Thursday evening about their efforts to clean up groundwater contamination from a decades-old jet fuel spill. 

A second man has accused former Santa Fe mayor Louis Montaño of child sexual abuse in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Santa Fe Boys & Girls Club. Montaño was the director of the youth organization, then called the Boys Club of Santa Fe, when the alleged abuse took place.  

Let's Talk New Mexico 7/18 8a: Thousands of New Mexicans with intellectual and developmental disabilities have waited years to get access to group homes, therapies and other services. We’ll discuss the plan Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced this month to get everyone off the waitlist for the developmental disability (DD) waiver program over the next six years. Have you or someone you know been on the waitlist? What would it take to get everyone the services they are eligible for in a timely fashion? Email us your thoughts at LetsTalk@kunm.org, or call in live during the show.

If you are staff at the University of New Mexico, you haven’t been offered paid leave when you have a baby or adopt a child – until now.

UNM’s paid parental leave policy went into effect this month. Part-time and full-time staff employees at all UNM campuses can now take four weeks of paid leave when they welcome a new child into their family as long as they’ve been at UNM for at least a year.

The New Mexico legislature this spring passed increases in education funding, in response to a judge’s order saying the state has violated the constitutional rights of at-risk students. Last week, attorneys for the plaintiffs filed a notice with the court saying the state has not done nearly enough.

Hundreds of protesters gathered Tuesday in downtown Albuquerque to demand an end to inhumane conditions in detention centers at the U.S.-Mexico border. It was part of a nationwide response to federal immigration policies that have separated family members, led to migrant deaths in detention and sought to limit who can seek asylum in the U.S.

Negotiations continue between UNM Hospitals (UNMH) and the union that represents about 4500 of its nurses, aides, housekeepers and other workers. The union is holding out for better compensation in their new contract, which is meant to begin July 1st.

A village of tiny homes for folks experiencing homelessness in Bernalillo County has officially nailed down a location.