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On July 16, the US Senate passed a financial reform bill. Two days earlier, and with less fanfare, the SEC published a new rule banning “pay to play” by investment advisors to public entities. Critics complain the reform bill doesn’t really shake up Wall Street and, as a result, may fail to stop the next crisis.

This year, for the first time, the US government revealed the size of its nuclear weapons arsenal: 5,113 warheads. That’s enough to drop a bomb in every city in the world with more than 100,000 inhabitants and have a few nukes left over

On July 7, investigators from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s and New Mexico Attorney General’s offices raided the business headquarters of Advantage Asphalt, as well as the homes of its owner, Joe Anthony Montoya, who is at the center of a widely publicized political corruption probe.

An estimated 1,200 New Mexicans lose unemployment benefits each week, US Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, told radio reporters in a July 12 press conference.

A top New Mexico lobbyist who is old friends with Gov. Bill Richardson has been accused of benefiting from money stolen from a tribal-owned business. The allegations, which have not been previously reported, are laid out in criminal and civil court records, as well as federal documents.

3,561 is the minimum number of hospitality and food service workers in Santa Fe County who make less than the city’s living wage of $9.85 an hour.

A coup in Española shifted control of a large private army that has won more than $3.5 billion in government contracts, ownership of a trans-Atlantic natural foods empire and, not least, the fate of an influential decades-old religious sect called Sikh Dharma.

With at least 14.6 million Americans jobless, including more than 5,000 right here in the Santa Fe area, one would think a few more qualified candidates might have put in for a steady gig that pays in the low six figures.

Every year when the New Mexico State Legislature convenes, the Roundhouse rotunda fills for “behavioral health day.” The idea is to support the New Mexico Behavioral Health Collaborative, a controversial $1 billion entity, was created in 2004 to dole out state funds for everything from heroin addiction to schizophrenia.