Krista Robbins begins her mornings in her backyard with her coffee tucked in one hand and her medicine in the other. Her body shakes—the sign of an oncoming anxiety attack—but she says three or four puffs of medical marijuana are enough to curb her symptoms for the next four to five hours.

For the past three weeks, revelations that staffers in Gov. Susana Martinez’ office were using private email addresses to discuss state policy have hit the headlines, alarming open-government advocates and giving liberals ammunition to lob at the Republican administration and its top-level advisor, Jay McCleskey.

Reactions around New Mexico to the June 29 US Supreme Court decision upholding most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) followed predictable partisan lines.

Three years after allegations of fraud first surfaced at the New Mexico Department of Health, the state’s second-largest agency is still dealing with the aftermath.

Large, empty rooms form the entrance to Lucky Bean Café in Sanbusco Market Center, the commercial mall located just north of the Railyard that houses mostly high-end boutiques. A couple of signs display arrows pointing to the café, which is tucked in the corner of a 25,000-square-foot room. While Lucky Bean’s owners maintain that their business is fine, the empty rooms surrounding the cafe hint at a deeper problem in the city.

Four years, four schools, one location. That’s the promotional tagline for Santa Fe Community College’s proposed Higher Education Center, which will allow students to earn bachelor’s degrees without leaving Santa Fe. There’s only one catch: For months, SFCC has been blocked from actually building the center—and if the state has its way, the center may never be built at all.

“DOH is sick and only you can make it better,” says a robovoice at the end of a voicemail greeting on the local Bullying, Abuse, Retaliation and Fraud Tip Hotline. The unofficial hotline, created last fall for the New Mexico Department of Health employees, is just one of many examples of ongoing dysfunction at the state’s largest agency.

To most who pay attention, Dist. 3 Public Regulation Commissioner Doug Howe is a marked improvement over former commissioner Jerome Block, Jr. Block resigned last September after pleading guilty to various felonies and is currently on probation.

Voters in House District 46, which stretches from Santa Fe up through the northern pueblos to Española and includes parts of White Rock and Chimayó, have grown accustomed to power. Outgoing New Mexico House Speaker Ben Luján, who represented the district for more than 35 years, possessed a legendary ability to control the Legislature and defend northern New Mexico. But by next session, all of this will change.

He may live in one of the safest counties in one of the safest states in the country, but that doesn’t stop Gary Slider from carrying a handgun with him everywhere he goes. He’s been doing so for the past 35 years.