This week's news ("Bucks for Busts") focuses on the seven Multi-Jurisdictional (a.k.a. Narcotics) Task Forces conducting busts around New Mexico. To better explain what and where those task forces actually are, SFR's breakdown...
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First of all, let's revisit the ManyEyes graphic we made for the story.
(That's a static version; our browser's a little finicky with the interactive one, which you can access here.) That program also allows us to group each region's aggregate stimulus funding, like this:
All of that doesn't mean much without an understanding of where the regions are. This map, from the New Mexico Drug Enforcement Advisory Committee, delineates the regions:
Each region varies widely in terms of its population, area, income and drug issues. For more information on those, scroll through this handy, highlighted copy of the DEAC's 2010 Statewide Drug Strategy, released this May. (Region descriptions start on p. 12; zoom in if it's too small.)
