When Congress passed its first act to protect American mustangs, it called them “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West.” And even as those mustangs continue—in ever-declining numbers—to roam the mountains and deserts of New Mexico, their domestic counterparts struggle to be the impossible balance between working livestock and human companions, their status shifting from beloved pet to so many pounds of meat in the space of a few minutes on the auction block.

Depending on one’s preferred reality, come 2012, either the stars will choose the next president or the voters will. For the growing numbers who trust anonymous bloggers more than silver-haired CNN anchors, an election is the least important thing 2012 will bring. After all, what is a little campaign next to mass extinction?

In April 2006, with the approval ratings of President George W Bush plummeting, his senior political advisor, Karl Rove, began discussing a plan to turn things around. His strategy: Attack progressive organizations that were registering low-income people to vote and helping them fight corporate power—and claim it was about voter fraud.

In New Mexico, environmental horrors abound. Corporations influence the government’s ability to regulate environmental emergencies, people who might otherwise be allies have faced off against one another in battle, and climate change is already punching its tentacles into the Southwestern landscape. SFR explores the potential, scary science fiction future.

Cathy Maier Callanan, a professional photographer who cofounded the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops, makes her living shooting portraits and wedding albums. But on the side, she uses her craft and passion to help those in need. Her most recent project is Face the Homeless, a series of portraits of homeless adults and children in and around Santa Fe.

In each of the recent, highly publicized domestic violence cases, the couples lived in housing projects, trailer parks and other less-than-chic corners of Santa Fe. This fact appeared to confirm what some already assume. But those who work in the field—knocking on doors after the neighbors hear screaming, consoling a weeping woman afraid for her life—know nothing could be further from the truth.

Every year since 1976, Project Censored has spotlighted the 25 most significant news stories that were largely ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream press. Check out the TOP 10 stories not brought to you by the mainstream news media.

In 2009, staff writer Corey Pein began examining domestic violence in Santa Fe and in New Mexico from a variety of perspectives and through dramatic cases that were under-reported in the mainstream media. What he uncovered is a shocking persistence of domestic violence, habitual abuse and resistance to meaningful reform at all levels of enforcement and treatment for perpetrators as well as insufficient support for victims.

As the economy continues to stagger and the effects of climate change become more obvious, many on the local front lines of the green-jobs movement believe the chasm between rhetoric and reality also grows more discernible. They say the state’s best hope for transformation—environmental and economic—may lie with its youth.

In orbit 13,000 miles above earth, 24 US military satellites with atomic-clock hearts cycle the earth twice a day. In New Mexico,  the Corrections Department relies on this Big Brother-style satellite technology to track the 80 sex offenders currently under real-time electronic supervision.