Six months ago, SFR reported on allegations that some New Mexico Public Education Department officials had improper educator’s licenses. Since then, PED has maintained that there’s never been a licensing problem. But prominent officials are raising questions about whether PED adequately dealt with employees’ concerns and urging better oversight in one of the state’s largest departments.

Last week, a tourist stopped in to the Hobbs Chamber of Commerce looking for a local attraction: a “ghost town” used to test futuristic technologies. Chamber of Commerce employee Tiffany Bishop had disappointing news for the visitor: The ghost town doesn’t exist—yet. But on April 3, the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation took a big step closer to fruition.

On April 1, 1998, the cover of the Santa Fe Reporter underwent the most significant redesign in its then-24-year history. Now, 14 years later, we’re doing it again.

On the evening of March 28, Sheila Louis walked into Christ Church Santa Fe with no place to stay, no money, untreated back pain from a recent car accident and overflowing anger about her situation.

If state appellate judges uphold the rulings of their predecessors in a three-year-old lawsuit, New Mexico may be on the hook to pay millions—if not tens of millions—of dollars to current and former state employees.

New Mexico Land Commissioner Ray Powell, a bolo-tie-wearing veterinarian with a friendly, deliberate demeanor, previously held office from 1993-2002 (hence the retro file photo!) and was reelected in 2010. SFR met with Powell recently to discuss how the state’s public trust lands are being used—and what that means for Santa Fe.

A major new federal study shows that New Mexico’s 1,000 underground miners face increased cancer risks from exposure to diesel exhaust—and that existing exhaust limits may not be enough to protect them. But thanks largely to a little-known industry group called MARG, little if anything is likely to come of this new information.

Five years ago, state agencies were in an uproar over New Mexico’s new online accounting system, known as SHARE. They blamed it for financial misstatements, unaccounted-for federal funds and other mistakes. In one high-profile case, the Federal Highway Administration threatened to cut off crucial funding when the New Mexico Department of Transportation failed to properly reconcile its federal funds with SHARE data.

The designers at local firm Anagr.am, a team that includes former SFR opinion columnist Zane Fischer, didn’t have Santa Fe Mayor David Coss in mind when they devised a hypothetical Santa Fe metro map, but they may as well have.

On March 17, approximately 800 delegates from around New Mexico packed the halls of Albuquerque’s Crowne Plaza Hotel for the state Republican Party’s preprimary convention.