As the June 5 Democratic primary approaches, State Auditor Hector Balderas, who's running for US Senate against front-runner Martin Heinrich, is embracing his "underdog" role. Click here for the video.

Last Friday, he brought a group of children from his hometown Wagon Mound for an education tour publicity event at the Roundhouse. Many of the same kids were featured in his recent ad about public education. Watch highlights of the event below.

MIX Santa Fe awarded $300 to local children's fundraising group Alexandra Ladd's Soapbox Kids last night as the crowd favorite of Royally MIXed

The event at the Palace Restaurant and Saloon was another in a long line of monthly meeting organized by MIX Santa Fe, the local group dedicated to using innovative technologies for increasing collaboration among Santa Fe's most creative and motivated artists and entrepreneurs. 

Last night's award to Soapbox Kids was the result of a vote from the attendees, chosen from the 11 finalist of BizMIX, a larger competition in which the winner may receive $10,000 in prize money, mentorships and business development resources. 

Promoter Tim Franke has informed us via text message that Sunday's Edward Ka-Spel/Phil "Silverman" Knight show at Sol Santa Fe Stage & Grill has been cancelled with the perfromers citing, "unforseen circumstances." Both performers are founding members of underground rock/goth/experimenta/electonica act The Legendary Pink Dots. According to the event's co-promoter Red Cell, "I am heartborken, but [Ka-Spel and Silverman] look forward to seeing us next year."

Quick Note
I will now be implementing a new "5-Stars" Rating system for reviewed games. I know there are people out there reading these, so feel free to agree, disagree, discuss, etc. in the comments section below!

The Gist
Our hero's story picks up 12 years after the events of Max Payne 2 (a game developed by Remedy, a company you may know from the bithcin' Alan Wake games), and our hero is a mess. Having lost his wife and young daughter to mob violence, he's been dulling the pain with scotch and pain killers ever since, and it's been ages since he's even given a damn about his own mortality. Broken and alone, we can barely call his existence a life, but everything changes when Max's fellow ex-cop Raul Passos shows up. Though the past decade—and then some—has been a blur to our protagonist, Passos reminds him they were in the police academy together, and offers Max a job working security detail for a wealthy Brazilian family. Before he knows it, Max is downing pills and drinks in beautiful São Paolo, and enduring the ups and downs of a family with more money than it knows what to do with. It's an easy job until the young trophy wife of his boss is kidnapped, and Max is thrust into the seamy underbelly of the Brazilian drug trade, family and civic politics and—gulp—human organ trafficking. Yikes. As Max comes ever closer to the true cause of the horrific events which surround him, he learns that sometimes you can't trust anyone. The bonds of family are easily broken when an ungodly amount of money is involved, but Max Payne needs to redeem himself, and blasting fools all across Central/Southern America seems as good a way as any.

The Good
If there is one thing the developers over at Rockstar continually get right, it's the writing. These dudes simply don't create games wherein the story takes a backseat. From the opening moments, it's clear that this game is going to be every bit as heavy on the narrative/story as it is on slowing down time so as to shoot some Brazilian death-squad goon in his stupid face. Max has just about hit rock bottom, and watching him slowly kill himself with pills and booze is downright painful. Through a constant internal narrative, we are given an intimate view into the mind of a man so close to madness it is almost terrifying. He blames himself for the death of his family, and simply cannot let it go. It's pretty unhealthy to cling to such torment. At one point, he even remarks, "We were only married a short time...at this point she's been dead longer than I knew her.", and he still cannot heal. Especially interesting is lead writer Dan Houser's ability to understand the dual nature of a tortured addict who must act normal in polite company. On the surface, Max is a hard-working ex-cop who will do whatever it takes to protect the Branco family. Meanwhile, his mind is unraveling, and the trail of bodies behind him says it all.

Developed with Rockstar's proprietary RAGE engine, Max Payne 3 is beautiful from the pores on Max's face to the litter-strewn allies of a São Paolo favela. As more games become detailed to the point of insanity, MP3 takes this to painstaking new levels. Even in corners where one might not tread were it not for the collectable golden guns, there are things to see.

The voice acting sets a new benchmark for authenticity. As the titular Max, actor James McCaffrey has the perfect, i-am-going-nuts-but-i-can-still-play-it-cool timbre. And though the writing is over-the-top, it's meant to be that way. Rockstar has attempted—and succeeded—in creating a gritty crime drama for a modern gamer audience with a semi-sick blood lust and little to no attention span.

Way back when, developer Remedy's time-slows-way-the-eff-down mechanic was a fresh means to add cinematic flavor to the original MP games. Since then, plenty of games have employed this trick, but Rockstar's updated version is—dare I say it—near perfect. Whether you're jumping around a corner in slo-mo, or simply pulling off head shots, the ability to slow Max and his enemies down never gets old. The developers have even implemented a sort of "bullet-cam" which activates as you take out the final villain in the room. By holding down a button, the player is free to either slow the action down or let it play out at a normal speed. Many were the moments when I phased in and out of bullet-time to add cinematic drama to my experience.

Character models are absolutely incredible down to the smallest detail. Whether it is taking note of impurities on Max's face, or checking out the tendons tighten on an NPC's exposed foot, Rockstar's RAGE engine outshines plenty of its competitors (sorry, Unreal...I still love you).

The Multiplayer
This game is almost worth if for multiplayer alone, the modes of which range from simple solo and team deathmatch to capture the flag-type objectives and the highly publicized Gang Wars. Each mode is highly fun, and you shouldn't be surprised if it's suddenly 3 am and you've been fired from your job.

The mechanics rest someplace between GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption. Players are given the option to enter lobbies which employ either soft-lock aiming (this means your crosshairs/reticule will sort of magnetize to your foes) or free-aim (you're on your own). As I play games to have fun and don't plan on adding, "I'm great at free aiming during online gaming." to my resume anytime soon, I played mostly the former. Players new to 3rd-person action games will be glad to know there are rookie lobbies in which those playing are below a certain level of skill, and thus you won't be stuck losing to a bunch of people who seem like they were born with a controller in their hands. As you rack up the kills, more modes become available, as well as weapons, weapon attachments, perks, body-armor, etc. Maps provide a little something for everyone be you a close-quarter master or a long-range face blaster. It's a little tricky at first, but it won't be long before you're utilizing a stripped-down version of the bullet time mechanics to pull of the perfect head shot.

One of the cooler elements of online play is the new vendetta system. Should an adversary kill you two or more times, you will gain the ability to declare a vendetta against them. At this point, their location is revealed on your mini-map, and taking them out nets bonus XP. It's a pretty elegant solution to the age-old, "who's better?" conundrum, and the multiplayer narrator provides pretty awesome, "That dude got put in his place!" commentary.

The Bad
For some, MP3's very linear plot will be a turnoff, especially as Rockstar's previous current-gen outings (GTAIV, Red Dead Redemption) have been full-on sandbox awesomeness. It seemed there was always a cinematic cut-scene interrupting the action, and this got old fast. You will get used to it, but for a game to so constantly take control away from the player seems like an odd choice. 

There are brief first-person sniper moments in which the aiming suddenly switches to the stick you've been using for movement. This was confusing, and I never truly got the hang of it. Eventually, I avoided guns that might have been cool, but employed this stick-switch weirdness, and I can't believe that's what the developers would have wanted.

But really that's it. Those two things. Those two things are my only complaints. Well done, Rockstar!

The Bottom Line
Max Payne 3 takes some time to get going, but once it does it becomes something truly special. It's a risky move to release a game so dialogue heavy in today's gaming climate, but what are video games if not a completely immersive form of story-telling? Once again, the dudes at Rockstar have crafted a story that examines the grey areas of morality, and provide us an anti-hero who isn't always good or right, but is always human. In this day of games crammed with super-human soldiers and all-powerful demi-gods, it's nice to have a character who is mostly rooted in reality. We'll forgive your utter lack of respect for physics, Max. If you can be patient and accept the constant cut scene interruptions, and pay close attention to the complex plot (well, complex for video games, anyway) you will be rewarded with one of the best-written and most exciting games to come out since Rockstar's own Red Dead Redemption.

The Grade
Let it be known to all men, that Max Payne 3 receives 4 and one-half out of 5 stars!

Max Payne 3

Developer: Rockstar Studios

Publisher: Rockstar Games

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC

Rating: M

Cost: $59.99

 Last week, SFR reported on New Mexico's update of its concealed-carry reciprocity with other states. While the Department of Public Safety says its recognition of 19 states hasn't changed throughout the process, a screenshot from its website in late April shows otherwise.

Last month, the state Department of Public Safety started reviewing its reciprocity agreements to make sure other states gun laws matched up with New Mexico's concealed-carry requirements. While the DPS website currently shows that just six states meet all of New Mexico's requirements, DPS spokesman Bill Hubbard says reciprocity isn't limited to them.

"The recognition has not changed with any of the 13 others as we work to be able to find common ground in order to keep recognition in place," he wrote in an email to SFR.

But a screenshot of the DPS website from April 27 contradicts his statements. The screenshot, provided by an online commenter from the previous SFR story posting as "Dusty," shows a list of all 50 states. In it, just four states are marked as recognized in New Mexico. Two others are unclear. The rest are marked as not recognized.

"DPS said they were dropping those states, not 'reviewing' them," 'Dusty' wrote in the SFR comments section. "It was clear on their website that the states were dropped and not recognized."

The states recognized on the screenshot are Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina and Oklahoma. DPS wasn't clear about where it stood with California and North Dakota, stating simply that California's concealed-carry laws are similar to New Mexico's and that North Dakota had received a "written acknowledgement."

Hubbard writes that this was all a mistake.

"It was clear to us immediately that the website was not broadcasting clear or accurate information," he wrote today in an email to SFR.

He maintains that 19 other states are still recognized.

But to others the conflicting information is simply another example of DPS' communication problems in recent months. Steve Aikens, a West Virgina resident who cancelled an upcoming vacation to New Mexico because of the reciprocity audit, says DPS stopped answering questions over the phone with him six months ago. 

"I'm not sure what's going on over there," Aikens tells SFR. "It seemed like they didn't want to say anything. They were getting back to me saying, 'Just look at the website.'"

View the screenshot below:

DPS Reciprocity Screenshot

Document

Pages

Notes

Text

Zoom

CLOSE

Previous for “” Next

p. 1

Loading Loading

p. 2

Loading Loading

p. 3

Loading Loading

Contents

Related Article »

Contributed by: Joey Peters, Santa Fe Reporter

«

Page Note  1 of  4 0

»

To print the document, click the "Original Document" link to open the original PDF. At this time it is not possible to print the document with annotations.

 Military veteran AJ Kessel, who's running a long shot independent bid for US Senate, has collected about 2,000 signatures since he started gathering them in April. He has 16,000 to go by next month if he wants his name on the general election ballot.

"I've got until the end of June to get an inordinate amount of signatures," he tells SFR. "It's extremely hard."

It's three times as many total signatures Republican US Senate candidate Greg Sowards needed to gather in order to get on the GOP primary ballot after failing to receive 20 percent of the vote at the party's preprimary convention in March. And even that was tough.

"It's such a huge undertaking," Karen Sowards, Greg's wife, tells SFR.

Greg is challenging establishment-favorite Heather Wilson in the GOP primary in June. He had to gather signatures from door-knocking and parking lots because public areas don't allow it, Karen says.

"Everybody wants to be neutral on everything," she tells SFR. "When we're out and about at a Sam's Club, if one of the managers sees you doing something about politics they ask you to leave."

Greg Sowards did meet the signature requirement and got about 1,000 more than needed in case any were to be contested. Karen says Kessel will probably have to get 25,000 signatures total in order to be safe.

"I feel sorry for him," she says.

If Kessel has any advantage, it's that he doesn't have to limit his signatures to registered Democrats or Republicans. Still, he has a long way to go before his June 26 deadline. He dubs his campaign "a serious attempt to break into the system."

Kessel, who spent 30 years in the military including stints in the Gulf War and the War in Iraq, has similar libertarian leanings to Jon Barrie, another longshot independent running for the same seat. Both, for instance, support withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Kessel's positions on the issues mainly revolve around reducing the national debt by "cutting from programs that aren't in the constitution." In many ways, Kessel's budget-cutting proposals mirror that of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., by preserving Medicare, Social Security and military spending but cutting nearly everything else. He cites the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Housing and Urban Development department as examples of unconstitutional federal programs.

Perhaps because of his political disadvantage, Kessel also supports public campaign financing.

"Anybody should be able to run for public office," he says. "But it's not that way—you've got to belong to the club."

Photo courtesy kessel4senate.com

You go, girl! 

Barbara Buhler Lynes, who has been curator of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum since 1999 (that's 13 years, no small feat for an executor in this town) resigned May 11th, effective immediately

Lynes simultaneously relinquished her title and position as Emily Fisher Landau director of the Museum’s O’Keeffe Research.  In 1999, two years after the Museum's, Lynes helped develop one of the first museums named for and featuring the work of a single woman. It is still the only one of its kind in the US, featuring work by other prominent female artists including Anne Truitt, Sherrie Levine, Susan Rothenberg (yawn) and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Lynes is considered a leading authority on O'Keeffe's work and is the author of two books on the subject. The Museum's website press release quotes Lynes as saying, “I have greatly enjoyed my affiliation with the Museum and leave with deep admiration for its director, board of directors, staff, and wonderful collections and with all best wishes for its future.” Yet with such an immediate and abrupt departure after such a long tenure, one can only speculate that there may have been "irreconcilable differences" involved. Lynes goes on to say, “Serving the museum has been an illuminating experience, and I look forward to pursuing new projects and opportunities.” After a life's work dedicated to the study of Georgia O'Keefe, what could Lynes possibly do now?

Theatrical S.O.S.

Another tradition in Santa Fe has also ended.  For 30 years, Hogle's Theatrical Supplies served the performing arts community in our town.  Dick and Mogi Hogle "supplied nearly every rock concert, local film, theater, dance recital, and benefit performance in the area, employing local people and serving as a friendly professional asset to our community." Then it closed due to bankruptcy.  Now they need your help to meet unexpected financial obligations incurred from said bankruptcy. There will be a benefit fundraiser for the Hogles from 7-10 pm Saturday, May 19 at El Museo Cultural. Events include an art raffle, free food, and of course, music and performances. For more info, contact Argos MacCallum at 577-2679 or argos@teatroparaguas.org.

Heard of The Clubhouse? This Saturday (May 12) and Sunday (May 13), The Clubhouse is exhibiting the work of its members in an Arts and Crafts Show.

Mary Jackson, supervisor at The Clubhouse, makes sure to note that The Clubhouse, in collaboration with Life Link (a psycho-social rehabilitation center), does not have clients.

“They’re members,” Jackson says, “this is their clubhouse, they have ownership…there’s no hierarchy here.” 

It’s a support community, more or less, of staff and Life Link members. Members, typically, are in recovery for “mental health issues, drug and/or alcohol issues.”  The Clubhouse helps its members through transition. 

“We help people find jobs, do resumes…we go on outings… and offer classes: cooking, yoga, creative writing,” Jackson says.

This is The Clubhouse’s first art show, offering a venue for the members to sell their art: quilts, jewelry, baked goods, carvings, and more.

When & Where: 10am-3pm Saturday and Sunday, May 12 and 13. Free. The Santa Fe Clubhouse, 1318 Luana St., 438-9737

 After a fire on the property smoldered for over 10 years, a Socorro tire recycling facility settled a court order with the state today that includes a civil fine and installation of an anti-pollution barrier.

Southwest Tire Processors' tire scrap yard originally caught fire in June 2000, prompting the federal Environmental Protection Agency to assist in the extinguishing effort, piling soil on the burning rubber. Still, the 20-30 acre area smoldered in some spots until last summer, creating the risk of groundwater contamination from the melting rubber.

In 2003, the state Environment Department filed a court order against STP, alleging the company stored excessive amounts of scrap tires near electrical power lines, creating the fire hazard. As the smoldering site continued to flare up, NMED installed groundwater monitoring wells to check what environmental damage the disaster was causing.

As part of the settlement reached between NMED and STP, STP must put a cover on such storage areas to prevent groundwater contamination. STP is also paying the state a $119,229 penalty.

According to the EPA, runoff from tire fires can contaminate groundwater with lead, arsenic, and carcinogens such as benzene.

 As the company planning to create a "ghost town" to test new technologies narrows down its construction site to Lea County, the unique project is starting to gain national attention.

National Public Radio and Salon.com are some of the national media outlets keeping an eye on the so-called smart city, which has now quintupled its expected price tag. Originally described as a $200 million project, the Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation is now a $1 billion one.

Pegasus was previously considering land in Doña Ana county, but announced Tuesday it chose land about 15 miles west of Hobbs, in Lea county. Unlike the Doña Ana site, the Hobbs land is mostly county and privately owned, so it won't dramatically affect the state land grant fund that benefits public schools, as the state Land Office originally predicted. 

The CITE will be a fully-developed city, with houses equipped with all utilities, but will be uninhabited. It will be modeled on Rock Hill, South Carolina, which has a population around 66,000 that covers 43 square miles.

Pegasus still hasn't released names of any contractors or partners who will be using the town. Among the types of technologies it now says it will test are self-flushing toilets. Although CITE is touted as a green technology project, Pegasus is a defense contractor with no ties to that type of development. CITE's managing director, Bill Knauf, directed Sandia National Laboratory's national security programs for over 10 years. He has also served on the federal Department of Energy's Weapons Program Modernization Task Force and the DOE's National Task Force on Combating Terrorism.

A friend from Los Angeles told me, "You just have no sense of style. It's not your fault; you're from Santa Fe. People in New Mexico think that Chanel is a television station and Valentino is the dude Valentine's Day is named after."

I take offense to that, my dear Santa Feans.

Here is my rebuttal: I travel a lot. Like, last week I was in New Orleans and next week I’ll be in Minneapolis.

The style of clothing I wore in NOLA is going to be different from the style I am going to wear in the Twin Cities. Point being: where you live impacts how you dress.

Take the television show Portlandia: Whether the stereotyping hilarity is accurate or not, it depicts Portland to be a place of hipster madness. Here is a comic panel by The Oatmeal:

In response to my friend: No, we don’t live three minutes away from the shops on Rodeo Drive; no, we don’t want to buy toy dogs; and no, we don’t like spending our money on over-priced “high-fashion” products. We don’t push our toes around in the sand; we shove them into our hiking boots and saunter around Hyde Park.

That’s how we roll.

As Santa Feans, we’ve got style. We’re a herd of wild… Santa Feans! I can’t objectively label what that is yet, but there’s something good going on here.

 Another year, another primary. On June 5, District 4 County Commissioner Kathy Holian will square up against Victor Baca in the Democratic primary to reclaim her seat.

Holian has been commissioner for three years; Baca, a retired state and county employee, is challenging her. See how both did in the SFR candidate pop quiz below.

The Questions

1. Why are you the best candidate for the position?

2. Roughly how many residents reside in Santa Fe County?

3.County commissioners recently voted 4-1 in favor of a resolution directs staff to create a cost-sharing agreement for the county's portion of building the Aamodt regional water system. At least how much will the county pay for the system, according to that resolution?

4. Santa Fe County’s renewable energy district allows property owners to obtain loans to install green energy in their homes. Up to how long are those loans good for?

5. How many high profile firings have happened at the county jail in the past three months? BONUS: Who were they?

6. The jail is the biggest expense in the county budget. What can be done to reduce its cost?

Kathy Holian, incumbent Santa Fe county commissioner, 59

1. I've been in office now for a little over three years. I'm good at bringing people together to solve problems and I have done a lot of public outreach on my own. I've organized and attended meetings with hundreds of constituents around the county. I also send newsletters to my constituents where I try to write detailed descriptions of the issues.

2. About 145,000.

3. That is not decided yet, the point of resolution to go out how many people would be on the system. We sort of roughly committed ourselves to $7 million to that. We don’t know what size the water treatment is going to be. It's the right step forward. We're doing a lot of community outreach.

4. It's not operational yet. Once this issue is resolved at the federal level we'll be ready to put our program in place. We've been looking to do something like 20-year loans.

5. Three. This wasn’t a firing per se, as all these people are at-will employees. Annabelle Romero, David Trujillo and Ted Pepperas. Their positions were head of corrections, warden and deputy warden.

6. Bringing in more prisoners from other jurisdictions. When you do they are paid for. We currently have 100-150 prisoners from other jurisdictions (and roughly 350 prisoners from our jurisdiction) in the adult detention facility. We’re now at 550 beds.

Victor Baca, former deputy county assessor, 68

1. I am the best candidate for the position because I have more governmental experience. I bring over 30 years of experience at the state and county level.

2. Last time I saw it it was at 157,000.

3. I'm (not) aware of recent resolution. I do know there’s been an estimated cost of $200 million total for the settlement.

4. According to the information I have they’ve been at various periods. They can go as long as 10 years, and some can go as long as 30 years.

5. The three that I know of are the director, the warden and the assistant warden. I think Annabelle (Romero) was doing a fairly good job. I think it was being run well until recently.

6. I don’t think cost can be reduced significantly without hurting staff. And there are medical costs the county has to take care of. The county has to take care of the people on drugs and liquor.

Key

2. 150,000.

3. $7.4 million. The entire lawsuit has been projected to cost $200 million.

4. 20 years.

5. Three: Corrections Director Annabelle Romero, warden David Trujillo and deputy warden Ted Pepperas.

Photo courtesy Kathy Holian.

SITE Santa Fe is recommended for a $75,000 grant to support the exhibition More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness which premiers in Santa Fe in July. The 788 Art Works grants support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

This exhibition features works by an international roster of contemporary artists whose works explore the ways we construct and perceive reality in our everyday lives. More Real? proposes that we now live in an "Age of Truthiness," a time when our understanding of the truth is no longer bound to anything tangible, provable, or factual. Among the 27 artists in the show are Ai Weiwei, Iaigo Manglano Ovalle, Eve Sussman, Vik Muniz, Thomas Demand, Eva and Franco Mattes and Pierre Huyghe. 

I imagine this level of arts funding from the US. Gov't may have been a clerical error.

What's it all about?  The entrance into the building will serve as a disorientation room for the show where visitors will first learn about the themes of the exhibition. Other elements of More Real?  include, a  micro-website, a fictional exhibition orientation video by artist Jonn Herschend, the introduction of QR Codes and audience scripted object labels, and a More Real? Guide to the City of Santa Fe.  All of these components of the exhibition are intended to extend the visitor experience and further engage audiences.

More Real? Art in the Age of Truthiness opens at SITE Santa Fe on Sunday, July 8, 2012 and runs through January 6, 2013. For more information on the opening weekend events on July 6-8, including and the Gala Dinner, please call 505-989-1199 x 22. The exhibition travels to the Minneapolis Institute of Art from March 3 - June 2, 2013 for those of you who either like to do "art tour" or happen to live in the Twin Cities region.

Until next week …

According to an early morning Facebook post from local radio station owner Scott Hutton, longtime Santa Fe promoter/DJ David Lescht passed away Thursday night.

Lescht was best known as the Executive Director for Outside In Productions and its summer music series, the Santa Fe Bandstand, as well as his work as longtime DJ with radio station KUNM. The cause of Lescht's passing is currently unknown, but all of us here at SFR would like to extend our sympathies to Lescht's family and friends. He was 64.

On Friday, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss issued the following statement about Lescht's passing:

Santa Fe lost a great individual with the passing last night of David Lescht. Carol and I were deeply saddened to hear that we had lost David.  We want to express our deepest condolences to his family and his many friends and colleagues. David did so much for Santa Fe and was a key member of Santa Fe’s thriving music scene. His work with Outside In, Youth with Promise and Santa Fe Bandstand was invaluable to all Santa Feans.  Every Santa Fean loves the Summer Bandstand David helped to create. David gave our town many pleasant evenings on the plaza.
 
As mayor, I am confident that David’s work will be continued by his colleagues. City officials will do everything we can to make sure David’s work is honored and that the work he started is continued throughout our community.

 The Albuquerque Journal and the administration of Gov. Susana Martinez announced a settlement today of a lawsuit stemming from an open records request.

Martinez' administration agreed to reimburse the Journal's legal fees after finding that the previous administration failed to produce documents responsive to that paper's request. The office of previous Gov. Bill Richardson should have provided the Journal copies of documents requested in February 2010, Martinez' administration found, though those documents are no longer available and can't be produced at this point.

The Journal's request under the state Inspection of Public Records Act sought records related to the termination of 59 employees of the Richardson administration in late 2009. The Richardson administration did not produce the documents, forward them to other state agencies that should have received the request, or provide a basis for refusing to release them.

 As the United States Marshal Service prepares for "Operation Cleanup," a door-knocking sweep to verify addresses of the roughly 3,000 registered sex offenders in New Mexico, opposition to the plan is heating up. 

Santa Fe lawyer Jason Flores-Williams, who's teamed up with Reform Sex Offender Laws New Mexico to keep an eye on the federal sweep, says the plan amounts to nothing more than a "publicity stunt." The intent is to make sure that registered sex offenders are living in the address marked on the sex offender list, but to Williams it's a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

"You're dealing with the US Government coming in and saying, 'We don't need a warrant to come into your house,'" Williams tells SFR. "At the end of the day, it's harassment."

Local law enforcement already deals with this issue by keeping in constant contact with those registered on the sex offender list, Williams says. He adds that the list oftentimes includes people who've already done their legal due.

"This is a stigmatized group," Williams says, citing "19-year-olds having sex with 15-year-olds" as an example of some of the people who make the list. "It includes a lot of people who made a mistake when they were 20 and are now 35 and trying everything they can do to live a normal life." 

Many agree that New Mexico needs to reform its sex offender laws. In 2000, the state changed its laws to require all sex offenders, including those who were convicted and sentenced long before the state registry was created, to register with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety. 

Last year, Santa Fe Solace Treatment Center Executive Director Diana McWilliams told SFR that the current system is flawed.

"It is unfortunate that we have a black-and-white law when there’s a lot of gray in dealing with human behavior," she said last May.

Sex offender laws have come under scrutiny in other states as well.

You guys want to kill some Nazis? Of course you do.

The Gist
Sniper Elite V2 is the new 3rd-person shooter from developer Rebellion Games and publisher 505 Games. I didn't play the original Sniper Elite, so I couldn't really speak to the series' overall quality and/or values. I can, however, say that this game is pretty alright. Players inhabit into the shoes of—you guessed it—an elite sniper during the closing days of World War 2. The Germans are on the run and everything seems peachy for the allies. That is, until the US government discovers Hitler's plans to launch V2 rockets at just about everything everywhere. Armed with a few explosive tricks and your trusty scoped rifle, you must traipse across Europe in an effort to kill the V2's engineers and destroy any chance the Nazis have of killing everybody everywhere. There's a twist (of course there is) as you find out there may be more to your simple "blast fools!" mission than meets the eye. Will it be rough going? Yes! Will you kill everyone in your way? You bet!  Can you save the world? Probably!

The Good
The high point of Sniper Elite V2 is the game's slo-mo x-ray kill cam. That's a mouthful, but to simplify it, well-placed shots trigger slow motion cinematics of skull-shattering, teeth-rendering, heart-bursting awesomeness. We all hate Nazis, right? So what better way to stick it to those jerks that a few bullets to the face (I particularly enjoyed shooting those bastards in the eyeball). This is the type of insane gore that protest groups might cite as a reason to ban video games, but so long as you aren't showing it to children it's rather enjoyable. Missions run the gamut from "stealthily infiltrate this bomb factory and only snipe fools when a loud enough noise will hide the sound of your gun"  to "set up the explosives, get to the vantage point, shoot the explosive, run like hell!" There's enough variety to be found that the game never really gets stale. Sure, you wind up doing the same thing an awful lot, but the developers have done a wonderful job with pacing so you're never stuck in the same mission type for long. The developers have also thrown in collectible items in the form of stolen gold you must seek out and bottles of wine you must snipe. Every game needs its collectibles these days, so why not a sniper sim? Anyway, this game lets you kill all sorts of Nazis and Communists, and if that's not American we don't know what is. Joking aside, if you ever get bored from shooting Nazis, you'll know something is wrong. Hardcore gamers will enjoy the harder modes which takes things like gravity, wind resistance and the coriolis effect into account. In other words, your crosshairs might be on that commander's melon, but unless you work out the math involved with the aspects listed above, he's gonna go home to his children...you can't let that happen!

The Bad
The graphics found in Sniper Elite are just ok, especially when stacked up against similar 3rd-person titles like the Socom series. Both the hero and his opponents are minimally detailed if you look close enough (on a 50-inch plasma there was noticeable weirdness) which caused this gamer to believe Rebellion just didn't have a whole ton of money to work with. Whether you're sniping Nazis or Russians, enemies have the vision of genetically modified cats, which is to say you'd damn well better be patient and hide well, because those fucking Nazis can pretty much see through walls, cars, crates, et al. The realistic manner in which our hero takes damage may be a delight to certain types of hardcore gamers, but for those of us that play for an escape from reality, it sure is frustrating to restart checkpoint after checkpoint because that one dude was hiding behind a mailbox when we were surveying the area with our sniper scope. Multiplayer does exist, but after several fruitless attempts to join the few modes available I simply gave up. Finding collectible wine bottles and gold bars is hard as hell.

The Bottom Line
Sniper Elite probably won't take home any awards, but its ability to breathe semi-fresh air into the WW2 shooter genre is fairly impressive. I went in with the express desire to shoot Nazis in the head, and that's exactly what I did. There are a few tricks and surprises to be found that make the overall experience worthwhile, but in the end I found myself aching to play superior games like Medal of Honor: Airborne or Call of Duty: World at War. Given the game's $50 pricetag (that's around ten bucks cheaper than most new releases for all y'all not in the know), it's at least worth a trip into the crumbling streets of Europe to put an end to that stupid iron curtain and their bullshit rockets.

Platforms: 360, PS3, PC

Developer: Rebellion Games

Publisher: 505 Games

Rating: M

Cost: $49.99

Yes, the books are still better

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
JRR Tolkien
George Allen & Unwin
$12
I have long believed that, in order to create a great film from a great book, the director has to be a true nerd. Peter Jackson is the quintessential lover of Middle Earth and represents what Lord of the Rings fans want: accurate representation. Hopefully, we’ll be able to say the same of The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, which will be portrayed in two films beginning next fall: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the former opening in December 2012 and the latter in December 2013. Favorite characters return, and new characters—including dwarves, dragons, shape-shifters and goblins—find their way into Middle Earth’s history. Thus begins the story of how Bilbo Baggins came to be Bilbo Baggins—a brave warrior on a great quest to find a treasure guarded by the dragon Smaug. Above all, The Hobbit and its film counterparts portray Bilbo’s original retrieval of a certain small, golden ring. 

Snow White
Jakob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
Illustrated by Charles Santore
Sterling
$16.95
Snow White was originally a Brothers Grimm tale from 1812. In most Grimm versions, the queen takes matters into her own hands, while Snow is endlessly surprised that someone wants to kill her. Disguised as a peddler, the queen attempts to suffocate Snow by pulling her laces too tight. Disguised as an old woman, she combs Snow’s hair with a poisonous brush. Each time, the dwarves, unnamed in the original tale, save her life. Finally, Snow hesitates to eat an apple given to her by a farmer’s wife (guess who), but is convinced when the wife takes a bite for herself. Snow falls into a deep sleep, and the dwarves place her in a glass coffin, presuming she’s dead. The prince is enamored with her corpse and purchases the coffin (girl included). When his servants stumble, however, the apple lodges from her throat. At their wedding, the queen is made to dance in heated iron shoes until she dies. The Snow White and the Huntsman—a film slated to come out this summer—hinges on the original idea of a huntsman who, sent to kill Snow, instead becomes enamored with her. But in the film, feminism reigns as Snow learns the art of war, adorned in shields instead of dresses. Both versions are dark: In The Huntsman, the queen desires Snow’s heart for the eating. 

Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë
HarperCollins
$8.99
Emily Brontë rolled over in her grave in 2010 when, in hopes of taking advantage of the Twilight frenzy, HarperCollins decided to revamp its paperback editions of Wuthering Heights (and Pride and Prejudice, and Romeo and Juliet) with a new design. A classic design for a classic, you say? I wish. Instead, Wuthering Heights has now been identified on the cover as “Bella and Edward’s Favorite Book” (as in the Twilight film series’ lead characters). All my qualms about Twilight aside—the obsessive behaviors, the death of feminism, the amateur writing, the forbidden sex—I’m disturbed that a classic like Wuthering Heights, a story of all-encompassing love that is ultimately doomed and ruins everyone’s lives, should have to stoop so low. In Wuthering Heights, Catherine, in an unhealthy relationship with Heathcliff, has an ever-passionate personality; Twilight’s Bella Swan is an empty hole to be filled by any young girl. Wuthering Heights took strides forward in literature, and even frightened many with its severe depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Edward can steal Heathcliff’s words to romance Bella, but Stephenie Meyer should not steal Brontë creations to romance teens.