First off, we start with Democracy for New Mexico blowing the whistle on some corporate lobbyists, and with good reason — they are filling up congressional hearings by paying off the homeless and other individuals hurting for money. Despite obvious problems, many nonprofit officials, public interest groups and your average Joes are unable to gain entry into important hearings.

Then we move to another local blogger’s concerns: Mario Burgos criticizes the way lawmakers are handling the aftermath of the four teen deaths in a tragic Santa Fe DWI case. As many are looking to changing teen driving laws, Burgos writes:

The problem here is not teen drivers. The problems is that we allow habitual drunks to get back on the road time and time again instead of locking them up.

He believes teens should be overseen by parental supervision and drunk drivers should be left to the police.

From teen driving laws to the education of New Mexico kids, educator and blogger Scot Key follows up on the plan to reward “effective” teachers. Although this new legislation plans to hand out a total of $446 million for the Teacher Incentive Program, see what Key means when he writes:

Numbers look big until you look at other big numbers.

Let’s move away from the disgruntled and suspicious to a blog wishing us all a “Happy Nuke Day.” The SFReeper posts a video from July 16th, 1945, as 64 years ago today, the Atomic Age began outside Alamogordo with the Trinity Test Site. Watch the video to get some insight to this famous quote:

“‘Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all felt that one way or another.” – Dr. J Robert Oppenheimer.

After that wild ride, I’ll leave you with something a little more relaxing:  check out a Duke City Fix’s post on one local woman’s take on “Pursing the Pecos.” Get the scoop on the the Pecos Wilderness  Area of the Santa Fe National Forest with personal narrative and a few photos.