Forbes has just released its ranking of the best states for businesses and New Mexico came down dead in the middle: 27th, right there between Arkansas and Alabama. Virginia moved to the number one slot, while Rhode Island sunk to the bottom.

Here’s how New Mexico ranked in the five key categories:

Business costs: 26

Labor: 32

Regulatory environment: 31

Economic climate: 11

Growth prospects: 6

Quality of life: 48

So, the good news is that commerce is going to expand, but we’re still a shitty place to live.

The Albuquerque-Santa Fe corridor did not make Forbes.com’s “America’s Most Stressful Cities.” Nor did any other city in New Mexico.

The evaluation was based on a combination of economic and environmental factors, including the median home price drop, unemployment rate, air quality and number of sunny days.

Here are the top 10:

1 Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, IL-IN-WI
2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
3 New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA
4 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
4 Providence-New Bedford-Fall River, RI-MA
6 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
7 Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI
8 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
9 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
10 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA

Forbes Magazine just weighed in on Dahn Yoga, which we’ve covered here before, with a feature in its issue dated August 3.

Forbes leads with the recent Arizona lawsuit alleging fraud and sexual assault, among other things, noting that the “explosive charges” from former Dahn members “threaten what appears to be a highly lucrative enterprise.”

The magazine pins the organization’s global annual revenue at $133 million, and says it could bring in $34 million this year from its US operations.

Dahn’s New Mexico operations appear to duplicate efforts at other branches, judging by the Forbes article. Patterns seem to include obtaining dubious endorsements from public officials and staging “brain education” programs in public schools. The Forbes article concludes thus:

A spokesperson for the New York City Board of Education confirmed that brain education has been implemented in some fashion in 44 New York City public schools in the past year, all at the initiative of individual schools. The board was unaware of the allegations in the Arizona suit.

Update: Dahn Yoga’s press rep, Mike Paul of MGP & Associates PR, didn’t like that I didn’t contact him before posting on the Forbes article. After he emailed, I asked him for a response to the Forbes piece, and here’s what he sent:

“Calling Dahn Yoga a cult is like calling other health and fitness clubs in America a cult. It is absurd! Look for more relevant information regarding the unethical and illegal activities of the plaintiffs to be communicated soon with facts versus fiction. Their credibility is the one in question, not Dahn Yoga.”
Mike Paul, spokesperson, Dahn Yoga