SantaFe.com

Almost 100 Frito pies are sold every day at the Five & Dime General Store, which celebrates its 10th anniversary Thursday.

Plenty of locals stop by the East San Francisco Street business to get their daily fix, says snack bar employee Lorraine Chavez, who has been preparing and serving the cheesy and spicy Frito Pies for a decade.

Chavez and the entire snack bar staff cook a huge pot of fresh, homemade chili made with ground beef and red Chimayo chile every morning on an electric stove in the store's small kitchen. Beans are added to the chile before three, 4-ounce ladles of the mixture...

Tuesday, May 6, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

Welcoming a new baby is part joy, part work. It can also be lonely if there's no family around.

"We call ourselves the modern-day version of extended family," said Julie Peet, program director for Many Mothers, a nonprofit organization that provides help for new mothers.

And Joyce Bond, 53, knew she was going to need an extra pair of arms— or two or three— when she learned she was going to deliver triplets.

"I'm probably the oldest mom of triplets in New Mexico," said Bond, marketing manager for the city's Public Works Department, who said fertility treatments were involved in the pregnancy.

Saturday, May 3, 2008
by Polly Summar • Journal Santa Fe

Bill Hon has 904 reasons to hope a recently approved parking plan for Santa Fe's Railyard district goes off without a hitch.

Hon, the city's parking division director, has been at the center a contentious debate about how to best allocate and pay for 904 soon-to-be-available parking spaces in the burgeoning Railyard, which will feature a movie theater, commercial outlets, a commuter train stop and the city's farmers market.

Much of the uproar surrounding the Railyard parking stems from the fact the area has been touted as a community-oriented development.

Sunday, May 4, 2008
by Dan Boyd • Journal Santa Fe

Daniel Pedro's family was a little taken aback when he announced his intent to study ancestral human remains.

On the 19-year-old's native Zuni Pueblo, it is taboo for tribal members to handle remains.

But as a budding anthropologist, Pedro said he's been troubled by one method that's used to identify where American Indian remains came from, which involves crushing bone to extract DNA.

There must be a better way, Pedro thought. For three years, Pedro has been working on a computer program that might one day determine the ethncity of skeletal remains simply by analyzing their facial structure.

Sunday, May 4, 2008
by Raam Wong • Journal Santa Fe

Coming from as far as Switzerland and Canada, a few hundred people gathered Sunday afternoon at the College of Santa Fe to celebrate the life of Tibetan Buddhist scholar and northern New Mexico "living treasure" Lobsang Lhalungpa, 80, who died last week in a car crash.

The drab interior of Alumni Hall was transformed into a riot of color with prayer flags and banners, reams of soft fabric and Asian rugs. On a small central stage sat monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in India, surrounding a photograph of a serenely smiling Lhalungpa.

"I want to thank you all in this community for...

Monday, May 5, 2008
by Kiera Hay • Journal Santa Fe

Adventure sports are nothing new for Caroline Colonna of Taos. The 44-year-old mother of four has competed in everything from extreme skiing competitions to triathlons to martial arts events.

But, today, Colonna and 19 others will compete in a race that is as mysterious to the general public as it is to its participants.

"They haven't told us what the events will be like— they want an element of surprise," Colonna said during an interview with the Journal. "But they told us there will be orienteering, kayaking and mountain climbing, and to bring a bike helmet, running shoes, bike pedals,...

Monday, May 5, 2008
by Vince Kong • Journal Santa Fe

Professional chefs love Sheri Mann's kitchen— the butcher-block counters, the gas range, the everything-accessible shelves of cookware and serving pieces. But they're not there to cook. They're there to learn to "present well."

"Chefs these days are celebrities. They need to be able to meet people who come to their restaurants, to go on TV or radio and sell their cookbooks or foods, to talk across the cooking island, if need be," Mann, an exuberant and merry blonde, said recently.

"This isn't a fluffy matter. If they can communicate well, it will make all the difference in their careers. It...

Tuesday, May 6, 2008
by Kate McGraw • Journal Santa Fe

Clayton— the Self-Professed Messiah of a Doomsday Cult Went From Presiding Over His Compound to a Cell at the Clayton/Union County Jail on Tuesday, Courtesy of the New Mexico State Police.

Wayne Bent, aka Michael Travesser, was booked into the jail— where he turned down an offer of juice and a bologna sandwich— on multiple charges of sexual contact with minors.

In an Internet posting before his arrest early Tuesday, he said he had committed no crime and compared his impending arrest to the persecution of Jesus.

Bent, 66, had previously admitted having sex with adult followers and...

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
by Vic Vela and Polly Summar • Journal Santa Fe

Aviva Farber, Santa Fe's budding film star who made a splash as a young temptress in the hit movie "Superbad," will be on the small screen tonight.

Aviva— she goes by one name professionally— has a role in tonight's episode of "Criminal Minds." She plays the daughter in a perfect-looking family that, as the plot develops, turns out to be anything but.

The show airs at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Despite her continued success in Hollywood, Aviva— daughter of Realtor Laurie Farber-Condon and Adobeworks owner Aram Farber— still loves coming home to Santa Fe, she said in a recent interview.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
by Matthew Asher • Journal Santa Fe

With less than one month remaining before the June primaries that will effectively decide a winner, candidates in two crowded Santa Fe County Commission races are still trying to distinguish themselves from the pack.

At a Tuesday night candidate forum that featured more casual banter than pointed questions, that effort took on a personal feel.

District 5 candidate Joe Auburg described how he got the nickname "Bubba" while working for the Pentagon, opponent Stephen Wust talked about the business perspective gleaned from his rubber stamp making business and Ralph Jaramillo sounded a populist...

Wednesday, May 7, 2008
by Dan Boyd • Journal Santa Fe