With the midterm elections approaching in November, the Republican National Committee is expanding the footprint of what they’re calling their “minority outreach centers” by opening their latest Hispanic Community Center in Albuquerque.

Nationally, almost 500 people are dying daily of COVID-19 on average. In New Mexico, it’s five per day. That’s fewer than two weeks ago and hospitalizations have declined. But the number of counties at the highest levels of the virus rose to 11 this week according to the latest data from the CDC, including Bernalillo. The CDC and state health officials recommend wearing N95 masks indoors, in public settings in such counties, but there are no mandates in place. KUNM’s Jered Ebenreck has this update.

New Mexico has improved in key areas of child well-being but our state is still at the bottom. That’s according to the new Kids Count Data Book for 2022. While much of the information was collected before the pandemic it does measure the impact of COVID on anxiety and depression among kids.

People caught in human trafficking often go unseen by authorities, especially if they’re afraid to seek help. That’s why a new training program is helping law enforcement recognize the signs of trafficking and understand effective ways to intervene. KUNM spoke with Democratic Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez about how these training programs could help missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives as well.

With impending lawsuits over abortion access in the state, more young women are seeking permanent solutions to birth control.

Imprisonment rates are markedly higher in communities of color across the U.S., according to the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit group that advocates for criminal justice reform. And its work to spotlight what it calls “the geography of mass incarceration” has recently focused on parts of the Mountain West.