Veterans of the redistricting process say it’s consistently fraught with political infighting—not just between the two parties, but also among members of the same party. And a heated 2010 election season—which vaulted Republicans into power—is widely considered a litmus test for both public sentiment and partisan assertiveness.

The economy is in the tank and New Mexico faces a $400 million budget shortfall. A new governor has taken office and a wave of change will soon crash across all state agencies and trickle down to impact schools and youth services. Not only that, but the state’s political boundaries are shifting. Oh, and the federal government is eying New Mexico as the nation’s new nuclear bomb factory—as well as the final resting place for the nation’s accumulated waste from nuclear power plants.

We wrap up 2010 with a look back at the top stories that shaped the roller coaster of the last 12 months. True, not all of these stories woke us at 3 am with our teeth chattering. But the pervasive sense of seditious intent from the powers that be did fuel our thinking as we wrapped up the year. So we present not just the top 10 stories, but our own take on the conspiracies behind them.

At 6:40 am on a Saturday in November, the sun lingers below the mountains, and the temperature in Santa Fe lingers below freezing. We are waiting for la camioneta, the 15-passenger van that makes the 12-hour trip from Santa Fe to Chihuahua, Mexico, four days a week.

In northern New Mexico, military aircraft flying 500 feet above the ground scatter livestock; people are startled by B-1 bombers refueling at higher altitudes. Many also see C-130s practicing approach and departure maneuvers from the Taos Regional Airport; the aircraft don’t touch down, local residents say, but they practice their moves repeatedly.

Earlier this fall, the US Department of Transportation released a report that indicates New Mexico, in figure after figure, is a dangerous place to drive. The state has a crash rate that is 63 percent higher than the national average, more traffic fatalities per 100,000 people than any other state in the Southwest and an overall ranking as the 11th most deadly place to drive a car.

While political pendulums are expected to swing, the rapid shift in the zeitgeist since 2008 is enough to give even the most sanguine of observers a bad case of whiplash. And for those of us who are less-than-sanguine at the prospect of a Republican takeover of Congress--not to mention New Mexico’s executive branch--abject fear might more accurately describe our attitude going into the Nov. 2 election.

Twenty-one months after Barack Obama was inaugurated on a wave of hope for change in America’s politics and policies, at least two important and seemingly contradictory things can be said. There has been a series of significant progressive reforms and the nation’s politics are more toxic than ever.

Thousands of New Mexico’s elderly are likely to live out their lives in nursing homes, and approximately 12,000 currently reside in the state’s 68 long-term care facilities. Like most states, New Mexico faces the problems of staff shortages and high turnover in these nursing homes—but at significantly higher rates.

Love it or hate it, the oil and gas industry is as much a part of modern New Mexico as red and green chile. But let’s be honest: Without strict regulation, it also coughs haze into once-blue skies, can contaminate groundwater and private wells, upsets landowners, and poses a threat to public health.