The state sure knows how to kill a party.

An ad in the Alibi prompted an investigation by the state's Special Investigation Division (SID) into Pride Gym, says Jim Plagens, the division's deputy director. The Albuquerque gym, which caters to gay men, has been advertising "Hot After-hours: Fri & Sat, 9pm-4am" on the back-page Billboard section of the paper since October 2004. According to Plagens, the ad made SID suspicious that the gym was illegally selling alcohol after hours without a permit. SID did an undercover investigation of the gym, which resulted in a search warrant and an arrest warrant for Manager Ron Cordova. Plagens would not speak to the nature of the investigation, as it is ongoing.

John Montoya, owner of The District Bar and Grill, is wearing sunglasses to cover his black eye and a cut just over his brow. He got the injury, including scrapes on his arms, Friday, July 7, in a scuffle with police that resulted in the arrest of Montoya, his fiancée Camille Taylor and local musician and Alibi contributor Jenny Gamble.

We here at the Alibi are a privileged bunch when it comes to politics. Every election cycle, we get to sit down face-to-face with all the candidates running for office (well, almost all--there are usually a select few who decide their time is better spent elsewhere). We get to ask them all the questions we can conjure--and we get a real sense of what someone has (or doesn't have) to offer as a potential representative.

Mayor Martin Chavez is a man on a mission. That mission: to stop spending taxpayer money on after-school programs such as the teddy bear club.

A Real Shocker—Everyone loves a good story. Newspapers know this. Unfortunately, sometimes when a story doesn’t seem juicy enough in itself, papers take to “enhancing” said story—a devious act otherwise known as sensationalism.

Finding a balance between protecting America’s borders and not singling out Mexican immigrants seems to be eluding our elected leaders in Washington.

Joan Chittister is a 70-year-old Benedictine nun who’s on fire with the seemingly impossible task of helping us find our way out of the bog into which this nation and this culture have settled.

Dateline: Germany—Police in Berlin last week arrested two World Cup pranksters on suspicion of placing cement-filled soccer balls around the city and urging people to kick them. At least two people injured themselves kicking the rock-hard balls which were chained to lampposts and trees alongside spray-painted messages reading, “Can you kick it?” Police said they had identified a 26-year-old and a 29-year-old and had found a workshop in their apartment where the soccer balls were slashed open and filled with concrete. The two are charged with causing serious physical injury, dangerous obstruction of traffic and causing injury through negligence.

In response to your article on pit bulls [Feature, “Not So Beastly,” July 6-12], I agree that pit bulls are not the problem: People are. I used to be part of the problem because I believed the hype and pushed the anti-pit bull agenda.