With questions about where a certain South Carolina governor had been for days leading to quite a revelation last week, Albuquerque radio reporter Peter St. Cyr went on the hunt for where our own Gov. Bill Richardson has been.

The short answer: He’s “not hiking naked,” St. Cyr wrote on his blog. But he was out of the state on Saturday and his office isn’t saying where or why. And, starting today, he’s vacationing in Cape Cod.

Meanwhile, NMSU government professor Jose Z. Garcia recently had a chat with Democratic lieutenant governor candidate Linda Lopez when she visited Las Cruces. He has a lengthy piece about the conversation on his blog, and he concludes by writing that Lopez is “worth watching” but will need to “think more carefully about the role of Lt. Governor for the next few years and hone down her case to occupy that office” if she is to have a shot at winning.

And Tracy Dingmann of Clearly New Mexico comments on the state GOP response to the Albuquerque Denny’s murder, writing that the claim that it resulted from immigration policies is “insulting and xenophobic” in her blog “Fear of a Brown Planet?”

Democracy for New Mexico has the goods on a recently conducted poll that found that two-thirds of people in the state’s 2nd Congressional District favor updating the 1872 mining act, which has been a hot topic in New Mexico since U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman introduced the Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (S.796) in April, with his fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Tom Udall as a co-sponsor.

Last, a birthday needs recognized. NMI’s Marjorie Childress wrote on her own blog that she spent the weekend in San Antonio celebrating the fact that she turned “40-something.”

Happy birthday, Marjorie!

NMI’s Danielle Bauer contributed to this post.