On Sept. 29, child care providers received their first hint of good news after suffering a long bout of budget cuts: $2.4 million in stimulus funds would be used to offset the $13 million slashed from child care budgets in the fiscal year 2011 budget.

Back when people cared about the future, New Mexico was stoked to have Tesla Motors—the high-end electric car company—commit to building a $35-million plant in Albuquerque, for the manufacture of an (somewhat) affordable, mass-produced sedan.

On Oct. 22, State Auditor Hector Balderas released a list of 54 local government agencies—cities, school districts, villages, water conservation districts and the like—that are behind in filing their audits. Some of those named are behind by almost a decade.

On Oct. 12, Matt Hughes, senior vice president of Albuquerque firm Research & Polling Inc., presented the results of a two-week survey of the priorities of 709 Santa Fe County residents living outside the city.

For Deborah DeMack, no news is bad news. DeMack, who has seen the assessed value of her affordable home increase by 65 percent since 2008, is (still) on a mission for answers.

It is an ancient stockbroker, and he stoppeth to shill a book. The grizzled ex-tycoon is Gordon Gekko; his memoir, written after two decades in the clink, is titled Is Greed Good? Viewers of a certain temperament will find this peacocky and specious bout of rephrased backpedaling richly funny—when I did that insider trading, that might have been wrong, perhaps—and they will be rewarded throughout the 133 minutes of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps with loads more literal-minded bet-hedging.

On Aug. 3, the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce trumpeted a new program offering “aggressive discounts” to Chamber members who shop at Office Depot—free delivery on orders of more than $50, and “Special Discounts on Copy, Print and Promotional Items.”

After receiving tips that Steven Henke—who is now head of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, a powerful lobbying group—was “too close” to certain oil executives, federal investigators began looking into the former BLM regulator last year.