Hey, lunch lady, what's this on my tray? Who got deported from Roswell? What pulled the plug on red-light cameras? How much do taxpayers spend on spokespeople?

Who Cares About the Killer?

Nobody knew it was coming. Nobody knew Stephen Kazmierczak was going to walk into that oceanography classroom and kill five people. Just like no one suspected something so random and atrocious was going to happen all the other times it's happened in the U.S.

Here are the greasy links your Legislature did—and didn’t—grind out for you

They say it isn't pretty, making laws. A bill gets introduced, vetted in a series of committees, brought to the floor of the House or Senate and voted on. For a measure to become a law, to leave the state Legislature and become part of New Mexicans' lives, it has to pass both the House and Senate. Then the governor has to sign it.

Legislators couldn’t make anything happen in this 30-day session. Why not add a few days?

It's a good thing Gov. Richardson is dragging the Legislature back to work on his health care package. Too bad he couldn't demand they sit in those legislative seats until they got some other work done, too.

Gov. Richardson is upset the Legislature didn’t pass his proposal for health care reform and is threatening to call it back into Special Session to do just that. I have some advice for him (not that he has ever asked for it): Don’t.

I was not always a skeptic. For much of my childhood, in fact, I was a strong believer in most things paranormal and New Age.

Eric J. Garcia

Dateline: China--The price of hamsters has tripled in China since the start of 2008--designated by Chinese astrology as the Year of the Rat. The tiny rodents are considered lucky in the wake of Chinese New Year. The Chinese word for rat, laoshu, covers a variety of animals that can include kangaroo rats, hamsters and moles. Pet shops have been selling out of the animals, even at comparatively high prices of 30 yuan (nearly $5) per hamster. The Xinhua news agency identified hamsters as having a better image than rats or mice, and being more companionable as pets.

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