A former member of the Albuquerque Journal’s Editorial Board wrote about the paper’s unusual endorsement process this year. Denise Tessier says she’s heard from candidates who were not interviewed, though the paper endorsed in those races.

It eats up a lot of time to set up meetings and talk to busy candidates face-to-face. But we did it. In races where we were unable to speak with the candidates, we didn’t endorse. Read our Election Guide. We hope it’s helpful. We should have clips from those endorsement interviews available online shortly.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 2. Got logistical questions? Here’s a Voter FAQ.

Tessier also says our local daily used to give the edge to candidates with the most experience. This year, it worked out differently. For instance, the Journal endorsed Republicans Susana Martinez, Jon Barela, Tom Mullins and Matt Chandler.

I didn’t really, either. But ... wow. (Lots of N-word in there. May not be SFW.) She’s tried to make nice after the fact and backpedalled. Even her apology is ugly.

So far, she hasn’t been fired. She should absolutely be fired.

The slur—repeated 9, 10 times?—was only part of the fountain of sewage in this radio show. She said the black caller was overly sensitive and shouldn’t have married a white man if she didn’t have a sense of humor. Dr. Laura added that she’d hoped once we had a black president, people would stop whining about race. Also, “don’t NAACP me”?!?

But back to the N-word: It’s not OK to use racial slurs unless the speaker is part of the culture in question and reclaiming that word. The end. I know many people have disappointing opinions to the contrary. In this unmelting melting pot, we should all probably try not to be jerks. Avoiding the N-word and other slurs seems simple enough, but apparently that’s been a real problem for right-wing shock jocks.

I despise being denied documents as much as the next reporter. Thomas J. Cole at our conservative daily paper penned this column, frustrated that he couldn’t get his hands on records showing which doctors in the state are recommending patients to New Mexico’s medical marijuana program.

So the state’s secretary of health, Dr. Alfredo Vigil, wrote a response. This all comes to me from Tracy Dingmann over at Clearly New Mexico.

The premise of Cole’s column is that only a few docs in Colorado sign off on most of the medical marijuana certifications in the state. He wants to know if that’s the case here, too.

When I interviewed Dr. K. Paul Stoller last year, he pointed out that it’s dangerous for physicians to make these recommendations. Marijuana—even when legalized for medical use by a state—is still illegal under federal law. Plenty of doctors won’t take the risk in fear of losing their DEA license, which allows them to prescribe medication.

So that might explain why only a handful of physicians in Colorado and New Mexico are willing put their neck on the line in this way—and why they might not want their names in the papers.

Further, the Journal’s Cole also fails to recognize that the doctors sign off on certifications, but it’s actually up to the medical director at the Department of Health to approve a patient and issue a registry ID card. Regardless of which physician a patient sees, all applications are red- or green-lighted by the state.