It's your tax dollars at work—the ones you spend on booze, anyway. All operating costs of Bernalillo County's detox program are covered by a $1.7 million grant provided by the Liquor Excise Tax. The Metropolitan Assessment and Treatment Services center (MATS) opened its doors with a three- to five-day detox program on Halloween weekend, 2005. Immediately, there were "heads in the beds," as County Commissioner Deanna Archuleta says.

Come Nov. 7, chances are you’ll see some names on the ballot that you won’t recognize. But if the New Mexico Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission (NMJPEC) has its way, you’ll be well-informed when it comes to judges.

By the time the House of Representatives gets around to voting on 2007’s federal budget on Nov. 13, the midterm elections will already be over. The pomp and circumstance that goes along with any election year will be an afterthought, replaced by the comparatively unsexy task of number-crunching and figuring out the government’s expenditures for next year.

Mirror, Mirror—If you Google Newsed the names "Lance Williams" and "Mark Fainaru-Wada" last week, you would have seen a whole lot of headlines laced with words like "freedom" and "integrity." Mostly, these headlines graced the top of commentaries, spawning by the hour.

To hear Mayor Chavez and his press claque describe it, you would think that our city’s newly enacted Kendra’s Law was a milestone in the advance of civilization—a basic public safety guarantee and a true silver bullet that will end once and for all the peril posed to our community by mentally ill persons.

Way down on the Nov. 7 ballot, below all of the state and county races, there is a proposal that could have a larger impact on our local economy and quality of life than anyone we elect. The Quality of Life proposal asks voters to fund the operation of arts and cultural organizations in Bernalillo County using a 3/16 percent increase in gross receipts taxes. That’s about $50 a year for the average citizen—about what it costs for a tank of gas and dinner these days.

In New Mexico, we’ve developed our own way of testing the “six degrees of separation” theory. Any person can be connected to any other person on Earth through a chain of no more than five acquaintances, so the theory goes. Some call this an urban myth. Scientists have not proven the theory, despite decades of trying.

Dateline: Kentucky--A northern Kentucky man was arrested on burglary charges after breaking into a home wearing only a thong and carrying a knife. Rodney McMillen, 36, was arrested over the weekend after police found a particularly convincing piece of evidence: a videotape of McMillen committing the crime. McMillen allegedly broke into a Fort Mitchell woman’s apartment about 3 a.m. on Sept. 20 clad only in thong underwear and carrying a knife. The woman fended off the attacker, who fled the apartment. At the scene, investigating officers found a videocamera, which McMillen had been using to document his crime. Too cheap to buy a new videotape, McMillen had simply recorded over some old footage of his family. Investigators used the remaining footage to identify McMillen’s relatives. The near-nude burglar was eventually tracked to his mother’s home in Norwood, Ohio. McMillen was lodged at the Hamilton County Justice Center in Cincinnati awaiting extradition to Kentucky.

Eric Griego makes some good points about the need for American workers to compete in the world economy in his commentary, “Wanted: A World-class Workforce," [Sept. 21-27] but a few of his recommendations would be counterproductive at best.