A correctional officer walked into his boss’ office one day and asked a question: What is my job? If the answer was “manager,” then the officer would be entitled to all the commensurate perks: 25-year retirement, a higher salary and not an hour of expected overtime. If not, then the officer was owed time-and-a-half pay for all the overtime hours he worked.

If you missed the last episode of WNYC’s Radiolab, then you missed Geoffrey West, a theoretical physicist at the Santa Fe Institute, explaining his research on city size and behavior.

In 1987, the Santa Fe City Council voted to eradicate Hacky Sacks in the Plaza. Twelve years later, the council decided to re-examine the restriction. Before voting to amend the ordinance banning Hacky Sacks, the meeting was opened to public comment. Seven citizens said they supported allowing Hacky Sack playing on the Plaza. No one spoke against it.

On Sept. 29, child care providers received their first hint of good news after suffering a long bout of budget cuts: $2.4 million in stimulus funds would be used to offset the $13 million slashed from child care budgets in the fiscal year 2011 budget.

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.

Between the fusillades of scathing ad hominem attacks by the state’s gubernatorial candidates, one agreement has been made: the New Mexico Rail Runner needs to be re-examined. At least in car country, the train is easily seen as a charity case.

The man arranging pipes behind the counter of Concrete Jungle looks to the woman next to him when asked if they sell synthetic marijuana, then looks back. “No,” he says. “We have herbal incense,” she adds, liltingly.

On Oct. 12, Matt Hughes, senior vice president of Albuquerque firm Research & Polling Inc., presented the results of a two-week survey of the priorities of 709 Santa Fe County residents living outside the city.

Last month, SFR published a report of the top 10 companies that have Santa Fe connections and have received federal defense money. The No. 10 spot was awarded to Mesa Photonics But Mesa President David Bomse, while acknowledging the contracts, says he’s not a war-profiteer, and that his business “has been hurt by this war.”

While pay-to-play scandals, investment investigations and corruption have made for heated debate in numerous races this election cycle, the race for New Mexico State Treasurer has been notably quiet. That’s a big change from the last election cycle, when high-profile indictments put the office in the limelight.