Tax on booze and smokes, City nixes Xmas pick up but welcomes more marijuana and the IRS can't find you when it owes you money.

You say "panini"..., messin' with the 'Fria and the ongoing argument about, um, domestic violence.

On paper, The Men Who Stare at Goats sounds like a winner. As Bill Django, Jeff Bridges revisits his The Big Lebowski Dude persona to play a love-bead-draped, bearded, über-groovy alt.soldier who believes psychic communication and dancing can win hearts and minds better than guns and bombs.

An early pre-Halloween snowfall in Santa Fe sent us all scurrying into our sweater drawers and required the reluctant firing up of pilot lights around town. While November returned us to more moderate temperatures, the snow on the mountain leaves no doubt: The first official day of winter isn’t until Dec. 21, but we’ll be fully into the swing of that picturesque season by then.

It may be the most important local official you don’t get to vote for (at least not right away)—a person who can ruin lives with the thwack of a gavel. At 8:30 am on Nov. 5, a select group of 17 men and women will meet at the courthouse on Catron Street in Santa Fe to evaluate the candidates to replace retiring 1st Judicial District Judge James Hall.

Overheard at Corazón and in Eldorado.

Tax increases, lottery increases, financial corruption increases, pessimism increases, but at least Heather Wilson isn't running for Governor.

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.

Getting the facts straight on domestic violence, getting the resources straight on homeless shelters and the argument over whether columnist Zane Fischer is smart or stupid.

Yes, this may be it, the last of the Halloween documentation. Our photographer for the night was Jonathan Tercero, who has done the last few parties we’ve had and is very awesome. The creepy barber chair set-up was put together by Mike Ranft, with props from Hogles.