Santa Fe resident Linda Durham was among a handful of activists--en route to Gaza on an aid flotilla--harassed and cited by Greek police in a counterpoint to celebrations of US independence.

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New Mexicans are reacting strongly to Governor Susana Martinez' executive order altering immigration policy as it relates to law enforcement for officers of the state. Martinez' actions follow Albuquerque Mayor Richard Berry's actions drawn straight from the republican party playbook.

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We know, we know: disaster preparedness is boring, survivalists are whack jobs and zombies are a fictional fad unlikely to actually wander the earth sucking out brains and feasting on carcasses.

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Science writer, Santa Fean and enjoyable curmudgeon George Johnson has an entertaining and informative piece up at Slate.com currently.

Johnson climbs to the top of the Santa Fe ski area and spends two hours basking in the intense radiation. Local Wi-Fighter Bill Bruno had assured Johnson that he would be incapacitated by the experience.

Not so, Johnson discovered.

Being a science-minded dude, Johnson went equipped with a handheld meter to determine the power of the menace on the mountain:

"The device...measured the magnetic fields buffeting the mountain," Johnson writes, "which spiked at 100 milligauss, about one-five-hundredth as strong as a refrigerator magnet."

The rest of the article details his extreme efforts trying to get the needle on his device to even budge when confronted with mobile phones and Wi-Fi transmitters.

Johnson blogs regularly on his own site, Santa Fe Review.

1
Court says Santa Fe woman can use Wi-Fi until trial with neighbor who claims electromagnetic signals make him ill.
In other words, legal system says she can keep doing something that is legal.

2
Public hearings will address whether Los Alamos National Laboratory should burn hazardous waste in the open air.
Oh sure—as long as LANL isn’t using Wi-Fi while the hazardous waste burns.

3
City will hold a series of forums on its telecom ordinance.
If you want to watch it streaming on the web…too bad.

4
University of New Mexico and Highlands University will raise tuition.
If you think education is expensive…try education-administrator salaries.

5
Second Public Service Company of New Mexico rate increase goes into effect this month.
Apparently, April really is the cruelest month.

6
New Mexico’s congressional delegation supports Obama’s offshore drilling plan.
’Cause it just sounds better when he says it.

7
It’s allergy season.
You know: the one after pothole season and before tourist season.

As a Santa Fean lobbying for the City Different to be be a preliminary roll-out candidate for Google's gigabit fiber network, it's been depressing to watch Farmington kick our ass in the application process.

The City of Santa Fe's IT department was put on point for this and, near as anyone can tell, it has ignored all offers of assistance from capable partner organizations to help construct a solid strategy and identify and market key strengths.

Early on, Farmington had it together to solicit letters to Google from our shared District 3 congressmen, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan and Sen. Tom Udall.

Now, as the deadline strikes (and yes, SFR will be verifying whether or not the City of Santa Fe actually even got an official municipal application in), Tom and Ben Ray have doubled down on the Farmington bet by participating in a YouTube video that counters Duluth, MN's Al Franken promo. Strangely, Tom and Ben Ray whip up on Al: Farmington is straight up funnier than Franken (don't take that the wrong way, Farmington).

I'm personally a little peeved at our congressmen for pushing Farmington when Santa Fe is a far better candidate, but I don't want to upset Tom Udall, because it turns out he's a ninja: