ADA Advocate Terri O’Hare, UNM Theatre Professor Emeritus Jim Linnell, Paid Leave Debate

This week on New Mexico in Focus, host Gene Grant talks with ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) advocate Terri O’Hare about what it’s like to navigate Albuquerque as a person with a disability. Jim Linnell, UNM Theatre Professor Emeritus, is the author of “Take It Lying Down: Finding My Feet After a Spinal Cord Injury.” Linnell was six months from retirement as the dean of UNM’s College of Fine Arts when he suffered a freak accident that left him almost totally paralyzed. In his book, and in his frank discussion with correspondent Megan Kamerick, he chronicles his struggle to regain independence as he looks back over his life and ponders his future. Gene Grant and The Line opinion panel discuss Bernalillo County’s passage of a new paid leave law and the Albuquerque City Council’s look into whether a similar “leave for any reason” law would work for the city. The Line panelists also talk state spending, as New Mexico predicts another whopping surplus headed into the next fiscal year. The Line’s final topic is the GOP’s hope of flipping New Mexico from a blue to a red state in 2020.