On Tuesday, Feb. 5, Santa Fe voters will have the opportunity to elect two new members to Santa Fe Public Schools’ Board of Education.

Many of us didn’t know much about Mali until a few weeks ago. Some of us still don’t. Hell, my cousin was a Peace Corps volunteer there, and all I really knew was that it was huge and hot, with uncommonly friendly people.

Last weekend, a few SFR staffers traveled to San Francisco for a conference. We were there to learn about digital development in the news industry, but I had another goal: unlocking the secret to creating a vast and vibrant food and drink scene in Santa Fe.

Last week, Gov. Susana Martinez kicked off the 2013 legislative session with her third “State of the State” speech. Many of the themes were so familiar—education, jobs, taxes, etc.—that SFR decided to compare them to her 2012 speech via word cloud, a graphic that sizes words according to how often they appear.

Tom Udall gets about halfway to SFR’s conference room before an advertising rep stops him to ask what’s wrong with Congress.

“It’s a mess up there,” Udall admits, shaking his head. Then he tells her a story about his wife’s similar frustrations: “She said, ‘I wouldn’t vote for any of you guys again, either!’”

They both laugh.

It’s a cold morning in January, and Udall wears a scarf thrown over one shoulder of his gray suit. A slight man of 64, he wears his sandy, graying hair combed to one side and speaks matter-of-factly, fixing a steady gaze on whomever he’s talking to. When I offer him something to drink, he asks for hot water.

Hashtag: The definitive hashtag for all things legislative, #nmleg includes posts by state lawmakers, lobbyists, reporters and gadflies.

By now, you’re probably familiar with the big issues—jobs, education reform, tax reform, campaign finance, the state budget, etc. But many state lawmakers have filed bills that have nothing to do with those issues—and in some cases (but not all), that’s a good thing.

New Mexico needs jobs. The state has lost roughly 40,000 jobs over the past five years; last year, even as the rest of the country recovered, New Mexico lost another 4,800 jobs.

Around noon on a clear, chilly December day, Steve Schmidt stands in front of his custom-built barbecue smoker in an empty lot on Cerrillos Road, country music playing from a small radio, the aroma of meat and hickory smoke filling the air.

Five Questions
Everything you wanted to know (didn’t you?) about the impending fiscal cliff