As we in the Southwest all know, water always comes at a price. But in the near future, for residents and businesses on the Westside, that price could get pretty high. Due to a recent feud between New Mexico Utilities, the for-profit carrier for 13,000 users in the northern Westside, and the Albuquerque-Bernalillo Water Utility Authority, a joint public agency, the private company that's been serving the area for more than 30 years may be in trouble. They're currently surpassing their threshold for water rights and that could lead to some costly legal battles.

What a difference four years makes. When Sally Mayer ran for Albuquerque's District 7 Council seat, hardly anyone in the area knew her. Maybe for that reason she had an easy time defeating incumbent Tim Kline. Republicans accepted her as their candidate while Democrats slept.

A few years ago, the city was in big time financial trouble. It had experienced several consecutive years of flat revenue growth (much of it due to major tax cuts enacted at the state level that severely hobbled municipal income) and a simultaneous growth in citizen expectations for services. The result was a crisis.

Dateline: England—Housing developers in Britain have come up with a novel way to move their merchandise: Buy a house, get a free pig. Property developer Jeremy Paxton has promised to supply a fully house-trained Gloucester Old Spot pig to anyone investing in a home on the exclusive Lower Mill estate, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire, southwest England. “It will make a change from having a labrador,” a spokesperson said. The unusual offer has already attracted two new homeowners.

Being one of many folks who have offered housing to evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, I found myself reading the postings of other folks whom had done likewise. As I perused the "comments" section on each posting, I found that a lot of them had certain parameters (never mind those who want payment for their "charity") that made me raise an eyebrow as to why we're doing this at all. "Women only," "Single parents with children," "prefer Christians," "Democrats only," "like to sew"... these are only a sampling of what I read.