Wildcatters wrangle Rio Arriba, Edgewood gets the (water) shaft and state revisits the ethics of investment.

Writer Dave Maass belted in for the 2009 Dustball 1500 and copped rides between some of the 30 teams participating in the 1500-mile road rally across the American Southwest. Launching from El Paso, Texas, teams were handed a manila envelope filled with instructions, directions, visual clues, riddles and math problems that must be solved in order to earn points and, in some instances, find their way.

The “Living God” is unlikely to “open the ground and swallow” Santa Feans at Will Shuster’s Zozobra effigy-burning, according to public safety officials, federal investigators, Zozobra organizers and a biblical scholar.

“If it does open up and swallow anybody, we’re ready to respond if we have to,” says Santa Fe Fire Department Assistant Chief.

SFR doesn’t have a crystal ball, but we do know plenty of New Age prediction experts. Here’s what three of Santa Fe’s most respected prognosticators—none of whom are economists—had to say, via email, about the fate of the economy.

White supremacist Justin Argabright subscribes to the “birther” theory picking up steam across the country. Birthers question the validity of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate and claim he is actually a citizen of Kenya. Initially contained on the conservative blogs, “birther” activists have hijacked public meetings, introduced legislation in Congress and courted the support of CNN host Lou Dobbs.

Don Imus, Academy Awards and Swine Flu

Inmate No. 44521 doesn’t want to be Mark Reyes anymore. The 35-year-old prisoner at Penitentiary of New Mexico has filed a petition to change his name to Monica Meshica Wolf Tenocha, which he says better represents his identity as an Aztec high Satanic priest and an individual coping with gender dysphoria.

Temp work is contracting these days...usually.

Hate groups rekindled in New Mexico, Scott Owens back in court and super death weapons abound.

Public Regulation Commissioner Jerome Block Jr. paid $2,200 more to an elections official and his country-Western band than was originally disclosed on his campaign finance statements, according to court documents filed by the Attorney General’s Office.