The City of Santa Fe got some long-awaited good news in the accounting department late last month.

Its annual audit, filed with the federal Office of Management and Budget on Aug. 27, contains no “material weakness” or failures of compliance.

The sparse, almost pro-forma audit gives no clue as to the City Council's recent ethical dilemmas.

Like any organization that receives a significant amount of federal funding, the city is required to report how that money gets spent and accounted for.

In 2009, the city tracked $7.9 million in federal awards, for everything from a $1.2 million grant for “airport improvement” to a $13,000 award for “historic preservation.”

Atkinson & Co. of Albuquerque was the city’s auditor. Last year, the city paid the company $133,000 for similar work.

View the audit by clicking here, or download the PDF by clicking here.

 Today's Albuquerque Journal has an important story about a key figure in the pay-to-play cases that have dogged Gov. Bill Richardson's administration. Unfortunately, you can't read it without buying the paper (or subscribing). Fortunately, SFR can summarize.

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The dailies had this news today, but they missed one thing: The mug shot.

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Here's a smart use of stimulus funds (compared to some others SFR has reported on): the state of New Mexico will boost food stamp recipients' purchasing power at local farmer's markets, including Santa Fe's.

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New Mexico gubernatorial candidates Diane Denish and Susana Martinez "debated" last night. That is to say, they exchanged empty talking points on television.

"Neither candidate is a brilliant debater," Heath Haussaman writes. He's nearly as polite as moderator Winston Brooks, who failed to elicit anything compelling from either Denish or Martinez.

Watch the video at KNME. For best results, put your PJs on and sip on a glass of warm milk.

Read SFR's recent coverage of the candidate's lackluster economic plans (here) and big money backers (here).

How much money has Advantage Asphalt owner Anthony Montoya, the man at the center of an ongoing corruption investigation, thrown at New Mexico politicians?

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On Aug. 7, Russia's Foreign Ministry accused the US government of breaching treaty obligations by failing to keep a handle on biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, specifically citing well-known security problems at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The US responded by saying it's in compliance with the START arms control treaty, but didn't address Russia's specific allegations, according to The New York Times.

In an email to SFR and others, former LANL whistleblower Glenn Walp writes, "Sad to say, Russia has it right..."

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Anti-nuke protest group Think Outside The Bomb has been in high gear as the anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches.

Right this second, a couple dozen members are chanting and waving signs in the Santa Fe Plaza.

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This just in from Santa Fe County: Commissioners have selected Gov. Bill Richardson's Secretary of Finance and Administration, Katherine Miller, as the next County Manager.

Read Miller's résumé here. She will replace Roman Abeyta, who resigned amid a criminal corruption investigation involving local contractor Advantage Asphalt.

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Attacking plans for an expensive new nuclear facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory, activists with the non-profit Los Alamos Study Group call the project a "monument of folly."

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