Adjusting budgets to salvage rural health care

Health care is one area of life where one size does not fit all. That can be a real problem for small, rural communities like McKinley County, which rely on local hospitals for a full range of care – some of which isn’t available locally.

Fixing the situation won’t be easy and it’s going to take commitment, a panel of local providers told a community audience Sept. 10 at an event sponsored by Community Health Action Group.

Attendees were treated to a screening of the activist film American Hospitals: Healing a Broken System, which asks the question: “How can we incentivize hospitals to provide the highest quality care with the...

Welcoming a new family member into a home or taking care of a partner or elder is demanding under the best of circumstances, but it’s doubly difficult for workers who have to do their regular jobs all day, then provide care in between workdays.

The Southwest Women’s Law Center is getting behind efforts to pass a state Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, holding listening sessions around the state to take the temperature of residents and employers and gather comments to refine a bill for the 2024 legislative session. The same bill died in a House committee last year, but advocates are hoping for a better reception in the next session.

The bill would require workers to pay $5 per...

McKinley County Sheriff voices his disapproval

SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced on Sept. 8 a new public health order that outlines immediate actions aimed at quickly reducing gun violence and illegal drug use in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.

The recent shooting deaths of a 13-year-old girl on July 28, a 5-year-old girl on Aug. 14, and an 11-year-old boy on Sept. 6, as well as two mass shootings this year spurred the governor to declare gun violence a public health emergency on Sept.7. The Sept. 8 public health order includes directives to curb the gun violence and drug abuse that the governor has declared to be public health emergencies.

“As I said [on...

SILVER CITY — It is not every day that a professional film crew makes its way to Silver City. This fall, though, Western New Mexico University will be in front of the lens on the TV series The College Tour. The first college or university in New Mexico to be on the show, WNMU will be the sole focus of the half-hour episode, scheduled to be available for streaming next spring.

Now in its 10th season, The College Tour is a T.V. series created by Emmy-nominated and multi-award-winning producers. The series tells the story of colleges and universities across the country.

Each episode of The College Tour focuses on a single college or university. Hosted by Alex Boylan, who won CBS’s...