As a young man, Stuart Hall wanted to be a novelist.

As the projected costs for a mysterious “ghost town” skyrocket, questions about the company’s financials, size and seemingly vague, unrealistic business plans pile up.

“DOH is sick and only you can make it better,” says a robovoice at the end of a voicemail greeting on the local Bullying, Abuse, Retaliation and Fraud Tip Hotline. The unofficial hotline, created last fall for the New Mexico Department of Health employees, is just one of many examples of ongoing dysfunction at the state’s largest agency.

To most who pay attention, Dist. 3 Public Regulation Commissioner Doug Howe is a marked improvement over former commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. Block resigned last September after pleading guilty to various felonies and is currently on probation.

Behind the push toward a national set of “common core” standards in English and math is the attractive idea that every kid in the nation should be more or less reading, writing and arithmeticking at the same level at the same age.

Voters in House District 46, which stretches from Santa Fe up through the northern pueblos to Española and includes parts of White Rock and Chimayó, have grown accustomed to power. Outgoing New Mexico House Speaker Ben Luján, who represented the district for more than 35 years, possessed a legendary ability to control the Legislature and defend northern New Mexico. But by next session, all of this will change.

On May 15, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission voted to grant a protest, lodged by a branch of the federal Department of Energy, that questions whether New Mexico Gas Company is adequately prepared for another weather event like last winter’s deep freeze—and whether it could have prevented the major service interruptions that devastated much of the state last year.

The campaign to unseat longtime state Sen. Phil Griego, D-Los Alamos, is heating up with allegations that Griego used campaign contributions for illegitimate purposes—NFL tickets, golf, personal credit card bills and new tires for his car. In 2010, Griego didn’t even have an opponent—yet according to challenger (and former Santa Fe County Commissioner) Jack Sullivan, he raked in and then spent tens of thousands of dollars.

In attempting to fill the vacancy left by outgoing president Sheila Ortego, Santa Fe Community College has narrowed down the field of applicants to six promising candidates—though a closer look at some casts their accomplishments in a different light.

He may live in one of the safest counties in one of the safest states in the country, but that doesn’t stop Gary Slider from carrying a handgun with him everywhere he goes. He’s been doing so for the past 35 years.