Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Articles from the August 5, 2020 edition


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  • Relaxation on long-term care visits to start next week

    The Staff of The News|Updated Aug 6, 2020

    SANTA FE — A partial relaxation will begin next week for family visits at New Mexico long-term care facilities. The changes were announced during a Thursday update on the COVID-19 pandemic from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office. The goal is to have one family visit per month. The changes will be phased in starting with counties that have less than 5% test positivity rate and less than 10 average cases daily per 100,000 residents. Locally, that includes Quay and De Baca counties. In counties that meet the state thr... Full story

  • Masked rider sending a message

    Kevin Wilson, Editor|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    PORTALES - Louella Bourbeaux' 1999 Buick Park Avenue has been a good car to her, almost a companion. Since she first got it 12 years ago, she's driven about 170,000 of its total 269,000 miles. It's comfortable for trips short and long, and its engine is powerful enough to cruise through the mountainous terrain of various Southwest destinations. So when it was pretty clear she was going to need a face covering everywhere she went, she figured her car should be along for the...

  • Jail log - Aug. 5

    Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Booked The following were booked into local jails (Friday-Tuesday): Clovis ∞ Jerry Ingram, 24, child abuse - intentional, criminal sexual penetration in the fourth degree ∞ Michael Morales, 54, driving while license suspended or revoked ∞ Nathan Martinez, 35, probation violation ∞ Selestino Owen, 38, failure to appear on a felony charge, probation violation ∞ Tonya Lucero, 37, probation violation ∞ Amanda Rodarte, 36, failure to appear at time and place stated in citation ∞ Oscar Trujillo, 26, failure to pay fines ∞ Isaia...

  • Meetings watch: Clovis City Commission

    Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Clovis City Commission Regular Meeting: 5:15 p.m. Thursday, North Annex, Clovis-Carver Library, Clovis Agenda: ∞ RECEIPTS OF PETITIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS Clovis Board of Realtor's Housing Update, President Gayla Brumfield, Vicki Reyes ∞ CONSENT AGENDA This item is placed on the agenda so that the Commission, by unanimous consent, can designate those routine agenda items that they wish to be approved or acknowledged by one motion. If any proposal does not meet with the approval of all Commission members, or if a citizen so...

  • Wayland Baptist coach dies at 100 years old

    Don Williams, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Harley Redin coached Wayland Baptist for the back half of its national record 131-game winning streak and had his powerhouse teams inducted last year into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Those are among high points in a landmark career that made him a trailblazer for women's athletics. Redin died Saturday in Plainview, according to an announcement from Wayland Baptist University. He was 100 years old. Redin was a charter member of the Women's Basketball Hall of...

  • Pages past - Aug. 5

    Updated Aug 4, 2020

    On this date ... 1970: Bill Southard, a native New Mexican who had edited the newspaper in Pratt, Kansas, the past three years, had been named managing editor of the Clovis News- Journal. News-Journal Publisher Charles Fischer said Southard would succeed George Prothro who was returning to college. Southard, a journalism graduate of Eastern New Mexico University, was married and had three children. Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens. Contact: [email protected]...

  • Local municipalities receive total of $26,270 in grants

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    SANTA FE — Three local municipalities received a total of $26,270 in New Mexico Clean and Beautiful grants for the 2020-21 fiscal year. New Mexico Arts, the state’s arts agency, announced the funding as part of $1.5 million in state and federal awards to nearly 200 arts organizations, schools, tribal governments and municipalities. The money is funded through the state general fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the federal CARES Act. The following local entities received money: • City of Clovis ($11,470): The a...

  • Curry officials talk fire departments, infrastructure

    Kevin Wilson, Editor|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    CLOVIS — With four meetings in July, the Curry County Commission had already knocked out most of the business it otherwise would have tackled in its first August meeting on Tuesday morning. With a light agenda, commissioners spent most of the 40-minute meeting discussing rural fire departments and infrastructure concerns. After some back-and-forth during the virtual meeting, the commission unanimously voted to approve a 45-day extension to Griego and Sons for work on the Ranchvale Fire Department building. County F...

  • Education digest - Aug. 5

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Expo to be held as drive-through event Pattern Energy will hold its third annual back to school expo as a drive-through event Friday. The event will be held 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until the 1,000-bag supply is exhausted, at the Clovis Civic Center. Students must remain in vehicles to receive the bag of school supplies. Businesses that wish to include a flyer in the bags must bring their flyers to the Clovis/Curry County Chamber of Commerce by noon Wednesday. Information: 575-763-3435. Schools scheduling belonging pickup...

  • Teens prep for stock show

    Lily Martin, Staff writer|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    It's showtime. Future farmers across Curry County are hustling to get their livestock ready after their stock show was approved and finalized by the Curry County Commission on July 28. While the effects of the pandemic are becoming more widely visible, local teens have been working through it all summer while raising their animals in hopes of showing this fall. "I've been having to work pretty hard to get them back in shape. Before the pandemic and everything I was working...

  • Faith: Please bring on the merciful needles of dental work

    Curtis Shelburne, Religion columnist|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    “I think I made a mistake.” Those, I’m told, were the words on a note a dying 20-something-year-old wrote to his nurse before he expired. He was referring to his, as it turns out, suicidal decision to attend a “COVID party.” I’m tempted to write, “Duh.” But it’s bad form to “duh” a guy who admits his own unforced error and pays such a high price for his own idiocy. And it’s not like the rest of us are immune to occasional stupidity and subsequent pain. I write those words wit...

  • Faith: Lots of love, laughter and baked goods in my family

    Patti Dobson, Religion columnist|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Gavin the Wonder Kid has joined the world of kid messenger. I didn’t know such a thing existed until a neon green oozy background popped up on my phone, and The Dad’s mini me filled the screen. Briefly, Gavin turned into a 2020-version of a lava lamp. Trippy. When the screen and my eyes settled, there was Gavin in all his 6-year-old glory. We chatted about nothing and everything. One of us was seasick. All of it was important. He said we were going on an adventure. I was tre...

  • Wright transferring to University of New Mexico

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    CLOVIS — After just one season of Division III athletics, former Clovis Wildcat Montez Wright is making the jump to Division I after announcing over the weekend he would transfer to the University of New Mexico. Wright, a two-sport star at Clovis High, did the same at Aurora University during his freshman season. As he heads to Albuquerque, he has decided to put football on the shelf. “I was just thinking of my career in both, what I’ve accomplished more in,” Wright told The News. “That was track.” In the Northern At...

  • Michael Walton named Hall of Honor nominee

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    PORTALES — As both a coach and a player, Michael Walton protected the house for the Eastern New Mexico University football program. Now he’s been invited into the Lone Star Conference’s house. The LSC named Walton as a 2020 LSC Hall of Honor nominee on Tuesday as recognition for his playing and coaching career in the conference. He and Texas A&M-Commerce women’s basketball great Britney Jordan were selected for induction by a panel of LSC athletic administrators and will be honored this fall. “Michael Walton and Britney J...

  • A little bit about that time Selena played in Clovis

    David Stevens, Publisher|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    I collect historical tidbits that interest me from area newspapers. Here are a few from Augusts past: • Aug. 1, 1901: The first newspaper in the Clovis-Portales area was published in Portales. The Progress told us a team of horses had recently stampeded through town, spooked by the sight of a dog dashing down the street with a sack tied to its tail. • Aug. 4, 1994: Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the biggest name in Tejano music, sang at Clovis’ Boot Hill saloon. More than 800 pe...

  • Opinion: If virus goes, it will be by science

    Tom McDonald, State columnist|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Past behavior predicts future behavior. We’re creatures of habit but we’re also capable of learning from our mistakes and improving our behavior. Right now, with this pandemic, we could go either way. We could learn from our missteps and do a better job containing COVID-19 through mask wearing, social distancing and other precautionary behaviors, or we could ignore what’s been working in other countries and continue to allow it to spread across the U.S. until a vaccine is developed and publicly distributed. Dr. Anthony Fauci...

  • Opinion: Feeling a little envy as rover escapes to Mars

    Los Angeles Times|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Let’s get out of here. Who hasn’t thought that at some point in the past four months, as we hunkered down in our homes, brooding and restless but with no place to go? The pandemic shuttered our offices and made the idea of venturing anywhere more ambitious than a grocery store seem like a perilous journey. Any trip that required a flight or a stroll among the masses — even masked — seemed an unreasonable risk. So is it any wonder, in our longing to get away from this virus-riddled existence, that we have found an escape...

  • Opinion: Let's adapt to something positive

    Kent McManigal, Local columnist|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Humans are adaptable. More so than any creature other than, possibly, cockroaches. It’s our greatest strength. We have adapted to living almost everywhere on the planet and, soon, with the right technology — an adaptation we’ve created — off-planet, too. We’ve adapted to a different diet than our ancestors ate. In some cases, we probably haven’t adapted well enough yet, and our health can suffer the consequences, but we’re getting there. Not all adaptations are helpful. We hav...

  • Plenty of new faces on ENMU baseball team

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    PORTALES — It’s a pretty safe bet you’ll need a program to recognize most of the Eastern New Mexico University baseball team the next time it takes the field. That’s because the team that anticipates joining Greyhound coach Riley Price for his second season, and hopefully first full season, will be comprised of 20 newcomers and 20 veterans. “This is not a typical ratio from year-to-year, but I think we have the right mixture of the two and should make for a pretty special group when we unite toward a common goal,” Pr...

  • Senator asking governor for restriction amendments

    Lily Martin, Staff writer|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    The pandemic has resulted in halting one of the fastest growing parts of New Mexico’s economy — the outdoor recreation industry. A New Mexico senator is asking Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to amend some restrictions in her public health order and let the visitors return. “While we must continue to protect our communities from the spread of COVID-19, other states have demonstrated that this can be achieved in a way that still permits safe and smart tourism.” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, wrote in a July 30 letter to the...

  • Curry seeking road input

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    CLOVIS — Curry County is seeking public input for its five-year plan on roads. The county prioritizes future projects and improvements for county roads, and uses the plan as a guide when applying for grants and legislative appropriations. The plan is available at: currycounty.org Public input will be accepted until 1 p.m. Monday either by email to Road Superintendent Walon Jones ([email protected]) or by mail to 417 Gidding, Suite 100, Clovis, NM 88101. All suggestions will be submitted to the commission for its Aug. 1...

  • NM native to become brigadier general

    the Staff of The News|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    A New Mexico native with Clovis ties is a selection to become a brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force. Col. Neil Richardson recently began his new position as chief of the Air Force Senate Liaison Division in Washington, D.C. He relinquished his responsibilities last month as commander at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst and the 87th Air Base Wing. He will be conferred as brigadier general in a spring 2021 ceremony. Richardson was born in Carlsbad and raised in Santa Fe, and his parents reside in Clovis. He is the first...

  • Court rules in governor's favor

    Ron Warnick, Staff writer|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    SANTA FE — The New Mexico Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled the governor is authorized to impose stiff fines for violations of the state’s public health order during the coronavirus pandemic. The decision from the bench arrived after about an hour of deliberation by the justices following 75 minutes of arguments and questioning of each sides’ lawyers during a videoconference in the court’s chambers in Santa Fe. The decision fends off a legal challenge to the state’s enforcement power as it seeks to continue a ban on indoor di...

  • Vern Witten: Remembering a workhorse

    Betty Williamson, Local columnist|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    Seven years ago - on a February evening in 2013 - the Roosevelt County Chamber of Commerce surprised Vern Witten by naming him Workhorse of the Year. "To be honest," he told the Portales News-Tribune that evening, "I wasn't sure they were talking about me until they got down to the peanut brittle." To anyone else in the room - and frankly, anyone who ever met Witten - the only surprise that evening was that he hadn't already been named Workhorse of the Year at least a dozen...

  • One local business' story: 'A sad year'

    Peter Stein, Staff writer|Updated Aug 4, 2020

    CLOVIS - Danny Jariwala has seen tough times. During the financial freefall of 2008, Jariwala was the general manager of a Howard Johnson's hotel in Brooklyn. These COVID-19 times, though, are more than tough, they're unprecedented. And now Jariwala is more than just a high-ranking hotel industry employee, he has skin in the game as 85 percent owner of the Super 8 and the Best Western hotels on Mabry Drive in Clovis. Jariwala is also a 20 percent partner in an Alamogordo Quali...