After the Washington Independent’s David Weigel reported on the waning Tea Party movement late last week, both the Carlsbad Current-Argus and the Alamogordo Daily News follow up on  local tea partiers over the Independence Day holiday.

Meanwhile, a Taos home has been given the highest energy efficiency award from the U.S. Greenbuilders Association. The builders, who live in the uber-green house, “wanted a traditional-looking house. Not something that looks like an Earthship.”

On the agriculture beat, out-of-this-world help may be coming to New Mexico nut growers.  NMSU, along with Texas A&M and University of California-Davis, have been awarded a three-year grant of nearly $870,000 to study satellite images of nut crops in order to predict problems that could affect crop yield and quality.

And lastly, the Associated Press is reporting on what is being done in New Mexico to preserve the culture and heritage of urban Native Americans.  Many educators have stepped up and are offering Native language courses across the state to help preserve  language and cultures in the classroom.
NMI’s Danielle Bauer contributed to this post.