Like it or not, there comes a time when you have to name the best film of the year. David D'Arcy says that it's "Moonlight" by Barry Jenkins, which is currently showing at the Center for Contemporary Arts cinema in Santa Fe. Here's his review.

Today is Politics Thursday with Sandra Fish, data journalist for New Mexico In Depth. She and Ellen Berkovitch preview what’s been pre-filed for the upcoming legislative session, where the sky’s the limit for new bills. But the budget deficit also remains sky-high at a projected $600 million.

Last winter marked the warmest December through February on record for the lower 48 states. So what’s in store for us this winter?  Mary Lou Cooper brings us the story.

Yesterday the Taos News reported that the Embudo Valley Library needs support to retain its current level of services such as the services that Lucia Duncan reported on in her October story “It Takes a Library.” Ellen Berkovitch reached Embudo Valley Library director Felicity Fonseca this morning for more on the situation there.

La La Land is a rare species, a studio musical, set in, and often on the streets of Los Angeles.  New Yorker David D’Arcy fought the Oscar awards traffic jams to see La La Land, which opens Christmas Day at Violet Crown. Here’s his review. 

Deborah Begel brings us this part two of her reporting on the opioid crisis plaguing communities and families nationwide, and paths out of the darkness.

Khristaan Villela, director of the Museum of International Folk Art, discusses the Alexander Girard collection and how the designer built it to his own specifications.

Sandra Fish of New Mexico In Depth discusses the resignation of Taxation and Revenue Department Secretary Demesia Padilla.

Apprenticeships, as Jenna Marshall reports in this story for KSFR News, are not very well represented in US employment: Roughly two-tenths of a percent of all workers are apprentices, and those people work mainly in the construction trades. But in New Mexico this seems to be changing thanks to the co-incidence of federal money and state initiatives that are applying apprenticeship training to the workforce needs of both employers, and wage earners in our state.

Note: Interviewee Robert Schwartz co-directs the Pathways to Prosperity Network, which works with states to synch education programs with labor markets.

KSFR recently got a call from Dr. Alison Moriarty Daley of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. She spoke with Jenna Marshall, about the latest recommendations surrounding the HPV vaccine. The HPV vaccine protects against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus and is recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics for children aged 11 and older.

Top-of-the-hour, local news for Wednesday, December 21.

Our new film reviewer is David D’Arcy and this week he covers "Harry Benson: Shoot First" which opened Friday and continues at CCA Cinematheque.

The first decade of the 21st century has had the second largest extent of drought measured by area, and is the first warmest and fourth driest in the record of measuring drought from 1901-2010.  The 2012 census described the entire 1.6- million acre Hopi reservation as farmland, but with only 1688 acres being used as cropland, and the vast majority as range lands. KSFR’s Deborah Begel spoke to Daniel Ferguson, who leads a collaboration between the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona and the Hopi tribe. They discussed the thinking in drought-monitoring and climate science as it applies to the needs of the Hopi.

NM investigative journalist Peter St. Cyr is well known in Santa Fe for his bylines in the Santa Fe Reporter and his multiple awards for reporting. He has a new job as Executive Director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government . "NM FOG" is an organization dedicated to easing the public’s legal right to inspect public records and shining the sun on the workings of government – public government -- at all levels. He spoke with KSFR's Ellen Berkovitch about his new role, and his recent investigation into crooked licensing of medical cannabis operations.

In January 2017, the Santa Fe City Council will vote on whether to appoint a public bank task force. Such a task force would consist of both city finance officials and local bankers and financiers, all appointed by the mayor.

A public bank would be owned by the City of Santa Fe, and run by professional bankers. The city itself would be the bank’s sole depositor and lender.

Public bank proponents see the bank as a way to keep city funds and the interest on those funds inside the community.  Critics, however, are saying that the city should explore other, more efficient ways to invest its money.

KSFR caught up with James Lodes for a more critical perspective on the public bank. He’s a retired loan officer who also served on a regional planning committee in Ohio. He now lives in Santa Fe, and wrote an editorial in the Santa Fe New Mexican that criticized Santa Fe’s move toward public banking.

In January 2017, the Santa Fe City Council will vote on whether to appoint a public bank task force. Such a task force would consist of both city finance officials and local bankers and financiers, all appointed by the mayor.

A public bank would be owned by the City of Santa Fe, and run by professional bankers. The city itself would be the bank’s sole depositor and lender.

Public bank proponents see the bank as a way to keep city funds and the interest on those funds inside the community.  Critics, however, are saying that the city should explore other, more efficient ways to invest its money.

Earlier this week KSFR's Jenna Marshall spoke with Elaine Sullivan, of the public bank advocacy group Banking on New Mexico. She asked Elaine where the city is in this complicated process of public bank consideration.

Congressman Ben Ray Luján called in to KSFR telephone this morning for a conversation about a bill that he sponsored and that passed the House of Representatives last week. The legislation has secured $1 billion in federal funding to combat the opioid epidemic in New Mexico and around the country.

Adobe Airstream Radio is back with our edition for today. In Music we have a segment about the Moroccan band AZA. In visual art we have a segment about Earl Stroh the Taos Modernist.

-The band AZA will perform at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow December 15th. That will be at Gig Performance Space at 1808 Second Street in Santa Fe.

The band on Saturday goes to the Outpost Performance Space in Albuquerque also at 7:30.

Our visual art segment: The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico was established in Taos in 1956 and the seeds for the Wurlitzer Foundation were planted with Wurlitzer’s sponsorship of Earl Stroh.

-Aaron Payne Fine Art will be co-presenting the exhibition of prints and paintings by Earl Stroh with William Talbot Fine Art. Forty Earl Stroh prints will be shown between the two locations. Aaron Payne is at 213 East Marcy St. in Santa Fe William Talbot is located at 129 W. San Francisco Street #C in Santa Fe. An opening reception will be held next Friday December 23d from 5 to 7 p.m. at Aaron Payne Fine Art, and again that address is 213 E. Marcy St.

Last week in Santa Fe the Santa Fe Council on International Relations convened a panel about the international aid sector. One of the participants in An Empathic Globe: The Future of International Aid was Kate Schechter who is president and CEO of World Neighbors. Ellen Berkovitch talked to Kate Schecter in KSFR Studios.

News stories about opioids often highlight increasing numbers of overdose deaths. Yet the costs associated with addiction for families, communities, and society are equally staggering.  Recent New Mexico and national news reports reveal the escalating need for double or triple the number of current foster families to provide a safe haven for the children of addicts.  And research into the brains of parents high on opioids is beginning to reveal how people can detach from and ignore the needs of children. Reporter Deborah Begel has been looking into the problems and some of the solutions to the opioid epidemic.  We begin with an overview of the problem.

Last week brought the news the Albuquerque Police Department is under federal investigation. The allegation is that they edited or deleted video footage of fatal shootings by officers.

KSFR’s Ellen Berkovitch interviewed Attorney General Hector Balderas yesterday about his office’s work to improve procedures for the prosecution of police officers involved in shooting cases in New Mexico.

Top-of-the-hour, local news for Tuesday, December 13.

Top-of-the-hour, local news for Monday, December 12.

Late last week President-elect Donald Trump named Scott Pruitt to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. The New York Times described the Republican Mr. Pruitt as a key architect of the legal battle against Mr. Obama’s climate change policies and believer that climate change is a hoax

We reached Erik Schlenker-Goodrich Executive Director of the Western Environmental Law Center for a reaction.

This month marks 25 years since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Before that the Cold War had gone on since 1947 and defined the existential anxieties of  the 20th century. Fears of a nuclear armageddon that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 came very close to unleashing.

Last week in Santa Fe, Creative Santa Fe launched a new initiative to talk about nukes, called Disruptive Futures. Katie Mast has the story.

AdobeAirstream Radio’s Arts Thursday edition for today December 8th. This is our weekly roundup of what’s happening in visual art, film and music in Santa Fe this weekend.

-Krzystof Kieslowski’s "Decalogue" opens Saturday at CCA Cinematheque.

-The new "Alcoves" show opens Sunday at New Mexico Museum of Art and runs through January 29th.

On Wednesday evening, KSFR’s Dave Marash zoomed in on a county in the north-south stripe across America known as “The Suicide Belt.” The vertical belt includes Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.

Washington Post reporter Amy Ellis Nutt joined Dave Marash on HERE & THERE to discuss the rise in suicides among middle-aged white women in Durango, Colorado, just north of the New Mexico border.

Santa Fe has an aging population, and hospital healthcare is an issue many residents feel strongly about. This past Saturday, a community healthcare forum drew about 100 Santa Feans for a panel discussion and comment period about hospital care in the community.

Two central issues were staffing shortages and outpatient support at Christus St. Vincent, which has been Santa Fe’s only general hospital for the past 150 years. The pending arrival of an outpatient-focused Presbyterian hospital was also discussed.

Jenna Marshall spoke with Diane Spencer of the Community Hospital and Healthcare Study group earlier this week.

New Mexico has more than 5,400 untested rape kits—the highest per capita backlog of any state. In fact the backlog of rape kits in NM is almost double that of Michigan which is the next worst state.

New Mexico State Auditor Tim Keller released a statewide special audit of the “rape kits” on Tuesday in ABQ. Hannah Colton of KSFR was there.

On Monday at the State Capitol in Santa Fe, community college educators, state legislators and New Mexico state officials gathered. They were there to hear about the first two years of federal funding for eleven New Mexico community colleges delivering certificates and basic skills training to students who didn’t finish high school. The programs prepares students to fill high paying healthcare jobs.

The Santa Fe Community College is the lead institution. Ellen Berkovitch was at the Capitol to learn more.

In another labor story, Santa Fe County is at an impasse with the firefighters’ union after a year of contract negotiations. The local International association of Fire Fighters 4366 has gone public with a dispute over payscale, sick leave, and overtime.

Jenna Marshall speaks with Pedro Nandino of the local IAFF 4366.

Santa Fe County officials did not grant an interview, but their communications coordinator sent the following email:

"Santa Fe County has a competitive pay and benefits package that compares favorably to other departments in the region.  Santa Fe County has also made consistent and sizable investments in the Fire Department, and is better positioned now to provide emergency fire and medical services than ever before. 

For example: 

• Santa Fe County’s current career staff totals 77, which is the best we have ever been staffed in the history of the Santa Fe County Fire Department.
• Santa Fe County supports more paid career firefighters than any other County Fire Department in New Mexico, with the exception of Bernalillo County.
• In the last seven years, Santa Fe County has built new fire stations to provide our career staff with modern and comfortable living quarters. We have also upgraded a number of volunteer stations to provide safer and more efficient working environments for our more than 250 volunteers.
• We continue to modernize our fire and EMS fleet and maintain one of the best and most comprehensive fleets in New Mexico.
• We added three Shift Training Captains in September 2016 to improve and increase the level of fire and EMS training delivered to field staff. This was requested by the Union and fulfilled by Santa Fe County.

With regard to turnover, in the last two years, Santa Fe County has lost nine firefighters.  This does not equate to anywhere near a 40% turnover rate, and is lower than the national average turnover rate. 

With regard to resident safety, Santa Fe County is attempting to realign its staff to those areas of the County generating the highest emergency call volume.  This is an appropriate move to match resources with need.  In addition, Santa Fe County has a robust volunteer program, meaning that trained volunteer firefighters and EMTs are available and able to help respond to high call volumes or extraordinary events. 

With regard to the union’s last proposal, it would not have helped deliver “high quality service” or “improve public safety”, as the union claims.  Rather, the union wants to be paid overtime if taking vacations and other paid leave.  In other words, it wants paid leave to count as hours worked for overtime purposes.  This would come at a cost to the taxpayer, without increasing the number of staff available to respond to calls."

The full-time faculty of Santa Fe Community College are taking steps toward forming a labor union. Friday marked a particularly big step, as faculty organizers delivered 90 signed unionization cards to the New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board. Professor Marcy Eannarino is heading up unionization efforts through the American Association of University Professors. She dropped by KSFR’s studios yesterday to give us an update.

SFCC President Randy Grisham told KSFR at an outside event that he did not yet have a comment about the faculty’s unionization.

Top-of-the-hour, local news for Tuesday, December 6.

Standing Rock erupts in victory celebrations! So the headlines proclaimed yesterday after the Army Corps of Engineers announced it was denying the Dakota Access Pipeline an easement to route the pipeline under Lake Oahe (O-AH-EE) and portions of the Missouri River that provide the Standing Rock Sioux’s water supply.

The pipeline developers responded with an official statement of their intent to "complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting."

Santa Fe civil rights and social justice attorney Jeffrey Haas is in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. Haas is part of legal team representing the water protectors. They have been in place in encampments in Cannon Ball since April to protest this pipeline. They were joined yesterday by several thousand military veterans. Ellen Berkovitch reached Jeffrey Haas by phone this morning.

Top-of-the-hour, local news for Monday, December 5.

Creative Santa Fe has launched the Disruptive Futures summit to frame a global discussion in Santa Fe about nuclear weapons and the nuclear threat. The summit kicked off last night with a conversation between former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Dr. William J. Perry, and journalist Eric Schlosser. In 2013 Schlosser authored Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Incident and the Illusion of Safety, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History.

Former Defense Secretary Perry told Schlosser and the audience at The Lensic last night that the nuclear danger today is more acute than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

KSFR reporter Rob Morlino interviewed Dr. Perry on Saturday.

New Mexico Highlands University was awarded a $2.9 million U.S. Department of Education grant to support students pursuing science, technology, math, and engineering. Gil Gallegos, a professor of computer science and engineering, tells KSFR how the money will be spent.

This week, the U.S. Department of Energy and Los Alamos National Laboratory announced plans to re-package 60 barrels of radioactive waste next spring. The containers have been under surveillance since 2014, when one barrel ruptured and forced the shut-down of a waste isolation plant south of Carlsbad, NM.

Jenna Marshall reached out to the Los Alamos Study Group to ask about the significance of the re-package, and future implications for the national lab. As of air time, there was no response from the Department of Energy.

Top-of-the-hour local news for Friday, December 2.

Edition One of our new weekly roundup of what’s happening in visual art, film and music in Santa Fe this weekend.

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day-- a day to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the first published reports of what would come to be known as HIV/AIDS.  This disease has caused more than 35 million deaths around the world.

In the United States, 675,000 people have died of AIDS-related illnesses. Today, infection is on the decline, but more than 1.2 million people still live with HIV. Roughly 1 in 8 people are not aware they carry the virus.

KSFR's Jenna Marshall spoke to Jim Graham of the Southwest Care Center to discuss the face of HIV and AIDS in Santa Fe and greater New Mexico.

Sandra Fish is our colleague and the data journalist at New Mexico In Depth. She joins us most Thursdays to talk all things politics. Today is no exception.

Yesterday President Elect Donald Trump nominated House Budget Committee Chairman and six-term Georgia Representative Tom Price for secretary of Health and Human Services. The Atlantic reported this morning that Donald Trump’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare began in with this nomination of Price who has been one of the most consistent opponents of the Affordable Care Act in Congress.

Last week Dave Marash interviewed Matthew Reichbach who is editor in chief of New Mexico Political Report on where Governor Susana Martinez has stood on Medicaid and Medicare. More than 40% percent of New Mexicans benefit from the programs.

Defenders of wildlife has been an environmental nonprofit since 1947. It has a new office in Santa Fe and a mission to call the community to action around issues from wildlife trafficking to environmental advocacy and hands on habitat restoration. Katherine Mast has the story.

In a statement released on Thanksgiving Day last Thursday, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico called on President Obama to reroute the Dakota Access Pipeline. Senator Heinrich said that “the recent escalation against members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and those standing in solidarity with them is fundamentally wrong and must be condemned.”

Ellen Berkovitch spoke to the Senator by phone yesterday afternoon.

Today is the global day of giving known as "Giving Tuesday." The Giving Tuesday movement formed in 2012 partly as a response to the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events.

The Santa Fe Community Foundation serves six counties in northern New Mexico. It helps philanthropists and individuals allocate their charitable giving in Northern New Mexico. KSFR asked Santa Fe Community Foundation's Christa Coggins about charitable giving in our community on this #GivingTuesday.

Other resources for donors:

NM Center for Nonprofit Excellence

Share NM

Guidestar

Charity Navigator

Top-of-the-hour local news for Monday, November 28.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro died on Friday at age 90. Castro dominated his country for more than 50 years from the moment he entered Havana in triumph in January 1959 until 2006 when he stepped aside because of illness.

Americans’  knowledge of the Cuban people became greatly constrained after 1961 when diplomatic relations were severed between our two countries. President Barack Obama reestablished diplomatic relations with Cuba in July 2015.

“Anyone who wants to know what Cubans are thinking and doing should read Cuban poetry.” So said Margaret Randall in Santa Fe on November 15th.

Margaret Randall lived and worked in Cuba for 11 years beginning in the 1970s.

Only the Road/Solo El Camino: Eight Decades of Cuban Poetry is Randall’s new poetry anthology published in October by Duke University Press. 

Margaret Randall’s archive of literary journals is included in SITElines 2016. That is SITE Santa Fe’s 2016 biennial dedicated to presenting contemporary art from the Americas. She spoke as part of SITE Santa Fe’s SITE Center programming. Deborah Begel was there.

The Boston Globe has reported that 88 percent of American teens ages 13 to 17 have a mobile phone. Seventy-three percent of the teens have smartphones. And of that number, 24 percent say they go online “almost constantly.”

Robert Nott reported in today’s Santa Fe New Mexican that Monte del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe is almost halfway through its first school-year policy of banning cell phone use at the school.

This is a big issue nationwide as well. Some US classrooms have embraced a teaching shift that finds students practicing BYOD – bring your own device – to school.

But there is no nationwide consensus on whether classrooms should be full of phones or free of them. The New York Department of Education lifted a decade-long ban on cellphones in classrooms in 2015. Boston Public Schools prohibit them.  In Santa Fe Public Schools it’s decided by each school’s administration.

Robert Jessen is head learner of Monte del Sol. He said the idea for their ban came from his visit in 2015 to Oakland Unity High School.

Ellen Berkovitch revisits this radio feature that she originally produced for Women's Focus on KUNM. Michelle Obama's second to last graduation speech as First Lady of the United States.

There's a population that is thriving in New Mexico—wild turkeys. Matt Miller of the Nature Conservancy has written that the restoration of the American wild turkey may be quote the greatest wildlife conservation story ever. The birds were on the brink of collapse with a population of just 30,000 about a century ago. Today there are 7 million wild turkeys in the U.S.The NM Department of Game and Fish told Jenna Marshall that its conservation and habitat restoration budget derives in large part from issuing of hunting licenses to those who want to bag their Thanksgiving bird for themselves.

New Mexico, 46% of pre school age children receive federal food assistance benefits-- the largest percentage of any state in the nation. But the face of hunger is not always obvious from the outside. KSFR’s Jenna Marshall visited the Food Depot in Santa Fe last week. The Food Depot largely acts as a redistribution agency of food supplies for food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and youth and senior citizen programs. It also runs a mobile food pantry in northern New Mexico that serves 7000 people a year. Visit the Food Depot dot org to learn more.

Top-of-the-hour local news for Tuesday, November 22.

Our Children’s Trust is an Oregon group that supports youth in bringing legal action in the courts and to state agencies to ensure a stable climate on their behalf of themselves and future generations.

In 2015 a group of 21 young people ranging in age from nine to 20 filed a climate lawsuit in federal court in the District of Oregon against the Obama administration. On November 10th  US District Judge Ann Aiken ruled in favor of the youth plaintiffs.

University of Oregon environmental law professor Mary Wood directs the University of Oregon’s nationally known Environmental and Natural Resources Law Center. She did not have legal involvement in this case. She spoke in Santa Fe last week at a program of the Agrarian Trust, which works to foster land access for next generation farmers. Ellen Berkovitch spoke to her by telephone yesterday.

Last Thursday in Española, Tewa Women United hosted a solar celebration  of their installation of renewable energy. KSFR’s Dennis Carroll was there.

Last Friday afternoon, the full-time faculty of the Santa Fe Community College met for the first time to discuss unionization. Jenna Marshall spoke with a full time SFCC professor who is organizing the faculty's conversation about whether they will join the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

For the second part of Mary Lou Cooper’s series on compulsive gambling in seniors, she spoke with the New Mexico Council on Problem Gambling. The council's annual budget hovers slightly below $1 million. Its funding comes from the gaming industry including state lotteries, tribally owned casinos, racetracks, and nonprofit fraternal orders that  operate slot machines in their facilities.

Last month Minneapolis journalist John Rosengren published "The Casino Trap" in AARP Bulletin. The story focused on aggressive marketing tactics that casinos are using to attract seniors. Rosengren explained that seniors fill off-peak hours in many of the casinos.

Mary Lou Cooper brings us part one of this two-part story.

Tribal members and tribal governments in New Mexico gathered last week at the Res Economic Summit at Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino.

What was on their mind has been on the mind of a lot of Americans: Generating new business. And helping entrepreneurs  to access capital and new markets. News Director Ellen Berkovitch dropped by.

The 2016 elections turned New Mexico's Legislature solidly blue. Sandra Fish, data journalist of NM in Depth, joins Ellen Berkovitch for Politics Thursday.

Earlier this year the Washington Post reported a series of stories on mortality in America, "Unnatural Causes." One of those unnatural causes is the epidemic of opioid abuse that often leads to heroin addiction. Washington Post investigative reporter Lenny Bernstein spoke to Dave Marash on Here and There yesterday about how the opioid epidemic got started, with practices in the pharmaceutical industry segueing into a new focus on pain management in medicine.

In reporting from Khapo Community School on Santa Clara Pueblo as part of our Solutions Journalism Network collaboration, Ellen Berkovitch spoke with teachers, administrators and students. She also reached out to a national education leader at the University of Minnesota, James Bequette, whose field is what is called “culturally responsive education.” It marks an effort to discover how teachers who tend to be white women can be responsive to multicultural classrooms. And how speaking to those students in ways that privilege their cultural understandings can help keep those kids in school.

The Bureau of Land Management holds a meeting tonight in Hernandez, NM to take public input on an application by a Texas power company to construct a new 33- mile electrical transmission line. The proposed line would traverse rural Jacona, Jaconita, and pueblo lands of northern New Mexico. Verde Transmission and its parent company Hunt Power want to construct the 345-volt line to interconnect two PNM substations, one in Rio Arriba county to one in Santa Fe county

A newly organized group opposing the project is Stop Verde Project NM. KSFR’s Jenna Marshall speaks with Dan Valdez, a Pojoaque resident and member of Stop Verde Project.

Ellen Berkovitch speaks to Santa Clara governor Michael Chavarria, who speaks for the pueblo government of Santa Clara in favor of the transmission line. The pueblo governments of Ohkay Owingeh and Pojoaque are also in favor. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, San Ildefonso Pueblo does not want the line to impact its sacred site at Black Mesa, or neighboring El Rancho.

KSFR News has partnered this year with Solutions Journalism Network. The collaborative Small Towns, Big Change project reports on rural communities challenges -- and solutions that are manifesting positive actions. 

The elementary school on Santa Clara Pueblo was formerly the Santa Clara Day School. After a two-year planning process, the  K-6 school has come under tribal control, and became Khapo Community School this July. Ellen Berkovitch reports.

This morning the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its methane rule. The rule marks one of the last Obama administration rules to curb methane emissions from oil and gas production on public and tribal lands. The San Juan Basin has the highest concentration of methane in the US. Environmental experts attribute the emissions to leaking wells and consider methane to be a potent greenhouse gas implicated in climate change.

Today is a National Day of Solidarity with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. For an update on the situation in North Dakota, News Director Ellen Berkovitch turns to Santa Fe civil rights attorney Jeffrey Haas.

In these first days after  the election of Donald Trump as the next US  President large crowds have marched tens of thousand strong in protest across the country. Over the weekend marchers thronged Trump buildings including the future president’s residence -- Trump Tower in New York – where more than 20000 people gathered. In Santa Fe one message resonated strongly: Trump’s vow to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. KSFR’s Katherine Mast reports from a Saturday event at Cheesemongers that brought out 1000 Santa Feans to have their portraits taken in support of immigrants in Santa Fe.

Shane Bauer is an undercover investigative reporter for Mother Jones magazine. Bauer spent several months inside of patriotic militia groups, first training with the California State Militia. Next Bauer spent a week on the Mexican border with Arizona with the 3UP, the 3% United Patriots of Colorado.  He spoke to Dave Marash on Here and There last Monday the day before many U.S. voters went to the polls.

More bad news for smokers. New research out of Los Alamos National Lab quantifies the genetic damage that accumulates with every pack of cigarettes smoked. The research team compared tumor DNA from smokers and non-smokers and identified smoking- specific genetic mutations. KSFR’s Jenna Marshall spoke to Ludmil Alexandrov, who co-authored the study.

Two organizations are teaming up to offer free technology training for veterans next Saturday, November 19 at the Albuquerque Veterans Suite. Jenna Marshall speaks to Veteran Gary Kather and 'Teenior' Maxwell Kasperzak.

The days leading up to November 14 promise a rare opportunity to view the supermoon—the closest, brightest moon since 1948. NASA's Nayessda Castro tells KSFR what to look for.

La Montañita Co-op’s annual board member election is open until November 14. Member-owners reading the board candidate profiles may be wondering what to make of the "board slate interview process" and "code of conduct" referenced atop each profile.

KSFR's Jenna Marshall asks a Gina Dennis—a lawyer, and an incumbent candidate endorsed by the current board and by the take-back movement-- to explain.

"We all said before that if the election went the other way, we hoped Donald Trump and his supporters would get behind Hillary Clinton. It's only fair that we wish him well and do what we can to support him in doing a good job," NM State Representative Brian Egolf tells KSFR's Ellen Berkovitch the morning after the election. Poised now to lead a Democratic majority in the state legislature, Egolf also discusses next steps for NM.

"We all said before that if the election went the other way, we hoped Donald Trump and his supporters would get behind Hillary Clinton. It's only fair that we wish him well and do what we can to support him in doing a good job," NM State Representative Brian Egolf tells KSFR's Ellen Berkovitch the morning after the election. Poised now to lead a Democratic majority in the state legislature, Egolf also discusses next steps for NM.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that 4 million more Hispanic voters are eligible to cast votes than they were four years ago. In the 2012 presidential race, 11.2 million Hispanics voted. Early votes in five states with surging Hispanic populations –Arizona, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, and Nevada – showed that turnout numbers exceeded 50% of this group’s 2012 turnout. Jenna Marshall speaks to Gabe Sanchez of Latino Decisions and the University of New Mexico about this voter bloc in New Mexico.

In Rio Arriba county that there are three polls on Native American land where anyone registered in the county can go to vote. These include polls in Dulce on the Jicarilla Apache reservation; at  Ohkay Owingeh; and at Santa Clara pueblo. An Ohkay Owingeh polling official said 400 people had participated in early voting, and 150 more voters are expected at that poll tomorrow.

Derrick Toledo has our first story on the Native American vote in New Mexico.

“Citizens should be provided with free unbiased information when they go to vote.”

This from Walker McKusick of voter site Project Vote Smart. The website helps voters sort through were politicians stand on the issues. Mary Lou Cooper has the story.

Here's Brian Sanderoff, the president of Research and Polling Inc., that polls for the Albuquerque Journal. One of only two local polling firms in NM, Research and Polling Inc. also conducts polling that is closely watched by FiveThirtyEight.com, Nate Silver's political and polling site. Ellen Berkovitch reached Sanderoff by phone Thursday to talk about the state of national and New Mexico races that he's watching before next Tuesday.

Election forecasts in the media, or on prediction sites, often express a candidate’s 'chance of winning' as a percentage. But what does that expression actually mean? KSFR's Jenna Marshall joined social scientist Mirta Galesic at the Santa Fe Institute to find out.

The trial of two Albuquerque Police officers for the caught-on-viral-video fatal shooting of the mentally ill James Boyd ended in a hung jury, 9 for acquittal, 3 for conviction of Detective Keith Sandy and Officer Dominique Perez on charges of second degree murder.  Jeff Proctor covered the trial for the NY Times.

In Politics Thursday Sandra Fish, data journalist for New Mexico In Depth, talks with KSFR's Ellen Berkovitch. They discuss the last-minute audit release for the town of Estancia, NM political advertising campaigns, and more.

“Our intent is to be incognito and undercover," Stewart Rhodes said, speaking to KSFR’s Mary Lou Cooper about his group the Oath Keepers whom he has urged to go undercover at polling places on November 8th. The Oath Keepers has representation in New Mexico and is active in most United States. Their membership is said to exceed 30,000. The Southern Poverty Law Center reports the Oath Keepers as one of 998 active, extreme antigovernment groups that it identified in 2015. For the second part of this story, KSFR's Mary Lou Cooper spoke with the SPLC's Ryan Lenz.

In August 2015 the Washington Post reported that shortly after Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president in June, Trump adviser Roger Stone wrote 13-page memo. That memo urged Trump onto a talking point that “the system is rigged against the citizens.”  Trump once uttered the word rigged seven times in just over a minute to describe the US political system.

In August, Trump claims that the presidential election would be “rigged” began to catch fire in his stump speeches, These claims have fed into the views of antigovernment militaristic groups including The Oath Keepers. Elmer Stewart Rhodes, a Yale Law School graduate, founded the Oath Keepers in 2009. The group's manifesto that includes a list of “10 Orders We Will Not Obey.”

On October 25th Rhodes commanded his followers to go undercover to the polls on election day. He spoke to KSFR's Mary Lou Cooper.

In the tight race for Senate District 39, incumbent Republican Ted Barela of Estancia faces Democrat Liz Stefanics. Both candidates were able to make their case at KSFR's studios in Santa Fe. Sandra Fish was the moderator.

Appearing on the election ballot this November 8th is a proposed amendment to the New Mexico constitution. Amendment 1 considers the cash bond system that applies to many indigent defendants in New Mexico jails who cannot come up with the cash to pay bail bond. Investigative journalist Jeff Proctor has published a new report at both New Mexico In Depth and for Reveal – the radio show of the Center for Investigative Reporting --  on the cash bond system that is at issue in Amendment 1.

“The Odds of an Electoral College-Popular Vote Split Are Increasing.” That headline comes from Nate Silver, who this morning posted it on the influential political website FiveThirtyEight.com. Fluctuations in state voting trends reported by pollsters who cover the presidential election can feel like a roller coaster ride, but the outcome of the election does not lie directly with we the people, actually, but rather with the electoral college. Mary Lou Cooper illuminates this 200-year-old system’s mysteries.

In the race for House District 43 that represents Los Alamos, Stephanie Garcia Richard, a Democrat, is the incumbent. Garcia Richard was first elected in 2012.

Her opponent Sharon Stover, a Republican, declined invitations to participate.  Data journalist Sandra Fish interviewed Garcia Richard earlier this month.

Last Wednesday night Santa Fe City Council voted unanimously, eight to zero, to approve the Local Innovation Corridor Overlay District along St. Michael’s Drive. Work on an overlay district proposal first began in 2011. Then city councilor Rebecca Wurzburger proposed the first ordinance to apply an overlay district to the major roadway which remains today a state highway.

In 2012 a small group assembled by the city’s economic development division worked together on the RE:MIKE festival. The festival demonstrated urban prototyping including stacking shipping containers at the edge of St. Michael’s Village West Shopping Center, owned by Thomas Properties, and also demonstrated renewable energy and landscaping alternatives. RE:MIKE festival organizers included  Kate Noble then of the city’s economic Development division, entrepreneur Zane Fischer and AHA! youth initiative leader Shannon Murphy. Housing developer Daniel Werwath was also on the RE:MIKE Steering Committee and conducted volunteer public outreach about the St. Michael’s Drive corridor subsequently. He spoke to KSFR's Ellen Berkovitch last week.

Voters in Los Alamos face a unique decision this election—whether to keep or eliminate the office of sheriff. If the ballot measure known as “Question 1” passes, Los Alamos would become the only county in the state without an elected sheriff. KSFR’s Jenna Marshall spoke to a Kristin Henderson, a member of the Los Alamos County Council, and to Los Alamos County Sheriff Marco Lucero.

The New Mexico Supreme Court is considering whether to change the state’s copper mine regulations. The state's ‘Copper Rule’ currently grants new rights to mining companies, and loosens restrictions on where copper mines can be dug. Earlier this week, KSFR’s Dave Marash spoke to Douglas Meiklejohn, Executive Director of the NM Environmental Law Center, about the state constitution and the Copper Rule’s potential effects on the environment. 

Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham is one of New Mexico’s three representatives in the United States Congress. Lujan Grisham represents New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District, which covers Torrance County and parts of Bernalillo, Sandoval, Santa Fe and Valencia Counties. This week, as part of an effort to interview candidates on the ballot, KSFR’s Jenna Marshall spoke with Lujan Grisham about her congressional duties.

It’s the season for political TV ads, both naughty and nice. In Politics Thursday, Sandra Fish, a data journalist for New Mexico In-Depth, breaks down the $1.2 million in advertising spending by New Mexico’s candidates for elected office.

St. Michael’s Drive could become more walk-able and live-able if the Santa Fe City Council adopts an ordinance to re-zone the business corridor that runs from Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.  KSFR's Jenna Marshall talks to Mayor Javier Gonzales about the “Midtown Local Innovation Corridor Overlay District,” also referred to as “Midtown LINC.”

The City Council will meet Wednesday, October 26, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. Listen to KSFR for live coverage. For the meeting agenda, visit www.santafenm.gov.

After the August departure of outgoing superintendent Joel Boyd, Dr. Veronica Garcia was asked to serve as an interim superintendent of the Santa Fe Public Schools. In September, Garcia was offered the permanent position. This morning, during an interview with KSFR's Nancy Stapp, Garcia indicated (for the first time publicly) her willingness to remain superintendent beyond her current contract, which goes through 2018.

Their energy seems unbounded, their commitment to the community unparalleled. They are Santa Fe’s Living Treasures.  Four of them were honored recently for devoting their many talents and much of their time to making life easier for some of Santa Fe’s most vulnerable.  KSFR’s Dennis Carroll brings us their stories.

The Santa Fe Independent Film Festival is underway, bringing filmmakers and aficionados from around the world here to The City Different. KSFR’s Jeremy Zeilik has the story.

If you’re considering buying physical gold for its beauty or as a secure investment, beware this bait-and-switch scam. KSFR’s Mary Lou Cooper brings advice about how to safely purchase gold.  

During the third presidential debate, Donald Trump alluded to "millions of people registered to vote that shouldn't be."

KSFR spoke to one investigative journalist who agrees that the 2016 election is rigged. Greg Palast of the Rolling Stone came to Albuquerque this week for a screening of his film/expose "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." In the film, Palast claims that as many as one in seven minority voters could lose their right to vote during the 2016 election, due to an interstate list that names suspected double-voters. He tells us who's on the list, and who's behind it.

In September, two Santa Fe locals won a national competition for entrepreneurs. Ayla Bystrom-Williams and James Hill went to Chicago for the final round of Miller Lite’s Tap the Future Program, and returned with $200,000 to start their business—an alcoholic kombucha  brewery.