Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Monday is the fourth anniversary of Gov. Lujan Grisham’s first public health emergency dealing with what was then the start of the COVID 19 pandemic. Although restrictions varied widely throughout the next three years, the public health emergency did not end until March 31, 2023. Under New Mexico’s public health emergency laws governors have wide discretion to make policies unchecked by the Legislature or any other elected body. Objectively, it is hard to see any sig...
When Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro engaged in a legal battle with the Little Sisters of the Poor over their refusal to subsidize birth control for their employees, I got very angry. As a Catholic who takes her faith seriously and an asylum lawyer who knows a little something about religious persecution, it seemed to me that the then-attorney general was violating the rights of some women who just wanted to be left alone to serve God’s glory. Of course, there are those who w...
After having her Bernalillo County gun ban overturned by the court, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tried to do it the right way. She put together an impressive public safety package of proposed legislation that addressed not only guns but also bail reform, sentencing, and police pay and recruitment. If passed, it would have been a huge step toward addressing our state’s gun violence epidemic. New Mexico ranked seventh in the nation in gun deaths, according to a 2020 report by Johns Hopkins, which found that firearms were the lea...
In February 2023, at the first anniversary of the Ukraine war, Gen. Mark Milley told a news conference, “Russia is now a global pariah and the world remains inspired by Ukrainian bravery and resilience. In short, Russia has lost — they’ve lost strategically, operationally, and tactically.” That sentiment has been repeated ad infinitum by Joe Biden, Jake Sullivan, Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin. At the second anniversary, during a House Armed Services Committee hearing...
“There ought to be a law.” I am disappointed every time I hear that sad phrase. It’s an admission of failure -- both intellectual and ethical. If the only solution someone can see is to call for more government violence -- through legislation -- either they aren’t thinking clearly, or their ethical core is broken. Either way, it’s a problem. Many times when I hear someone say this phrase, there is no real crisis, only something they don’t like. This is a problem, not with th...
Marlowe J. Churchill heard about his family's greatest tragedy many times growing up. He didn't really feel it until he visited the gravesite for his murdered great aunt and her eight children in Farwell in 2017. Tears ran down his cheeks when he placed his hands on the gravemarker and followed the letters of the nine names carved into the stone. "It surprised me, it really did," Churchill said about the emotion that raced through him when he first encountered his ancestors. "...
“When I was 24 years old, I was pretty sure I had all the answers.” So said one of my dearest and, I think, wisest friends. He’s the kind of guy I always enjoy talking to, not least because in the midst of our “shooting the breeze” laughter, he always gives me something to think about. He’s lived a lot of life and taken both its deepest joys and most difficult sorrows with the kind of faith in God that I aspire to have myself. After making the statement, or confession,...
I’m glad I grew up before cell phones were so much of a thing. I think the pressure of having every moment, good or bad, recorded for the world to see would be too much. I already have a blooper reel, in my mind, of all the less-than-smart things I did as a kid. Sort of like having a personal “Ridiculousness” of missteps, trips, and fails. I’m not a fan of having my own photo taken to begin with, especially when it’s for something goofy. Growing up, I would turn out my grandm...
OK, Nikki Haley. Sing along with me, the Republican Party and the great Kenny Rogers: You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, Know when to walk away, know when (NOT) to run. It’s long past time for you to drop out of the race for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination. You’ve been called repeatedly and you’ve still got a losing hand. Donald Trump has humiliated your political butt in primaries across the U.S. But you still don’t know wh...
Back in the 1970s, when dinosaurs roamed the land, I coached basketball in an inner-city league in Nashville, Tenn. Inspired by “The White Shadow” television show at the time, the Black teenagers on my team named themselves the Shadows because I was the only white coach in the league. We lost every game that season. Even though we had a standout team captain who worked the post and led the team with natural skills, a guy we all called J.C., we just couldn’t pull off a single win. Of course, we didn’t lose because I was whi...
Being the ever-menacing carnival barker that he is, former president Donald Trump said the four criminal cases he faces have garnered him significant support from Black voters. Why? He claims due to the historic injustices Black Americans have endured at the hands of the criminal justice system, they can identify with his legal dilemma. “I think that’s why the Black people are so much on my side now because they see what’s happening to me happens to them. Does that make sense...
The Lady of the House has been enjoying “The Lassie Channel” since she found it out there in the great television universe. One afternoon there was an episode where everybody was in a dither because Timmy, the kid on the show, had appendicitis. “I haven’t heard much about appendicitis anymore. Do we still have appendixes?” I asked out loud. “I hear they’re treating appendicitis with antibiotics these days,” The Lady of the House said. “Seems they were always cutting those things out when they got infected. My mom told me sh...
Wayne Moore may be best remembered as the coach who led the Eastern New Mexico University women's basketball team for 22 seasons - from the fall of 1980 to the spring of 2002 - amassing an impressive 318-259 overall record. But for those of us who grew up in Roosevelt County in my era, he's also well-remembered as a towering gentle giant of a coach who oversaw the boys' teams at Melrose High School - but who also never failed to offer an encouraging word to any kid who needed...
In the days leading up to the primary election in New Hampshire, several voters received phone calls from a voice that sounded like and claimed to be President Joe Biden encouraging them to stay home on election day. It was the first well-publicized use of artificial intelligence in a dirty tricks political campaign, but it undoubtedly will not be the last. The New Mexico Legislature took action this session to get in front of the problem. House Bill 182, which awaits the governor’s signature, amends the Campaign Reporting A...
When is a four-day school week appropriate? The answer is simple: When it meets the educational needs of the students, when it is supported by parents and educators and the community. Why does it have to be so difficult, especially when it works? I have said on the House floor that New Mexico has a hard time dealing with prosperity. When we have an industry providing over 100,000 great jobs, creating billions of dollars of revenue, what does the Legislature do? It attacks, taxes, regulates and imposes anti industry...
What’s a liberty lover to do? Authoritarian government seems to be gaining by leaps and bounds. Again. Did humanity learn nothing over the past hundred years? This time authoritarian government is using captured corporations to crack down on liberty in ways it can’t usually get away with, at least in America, due to that pesky Constitution. Authoritarianism also uses the lies of “safety” and “national security.” A variety of tools, all leading to one miserable place. There is...
I try and avoid writing about Donald Trump, even though I voted for him twice. But sometimes you cannot avoid the elephant in the room, literally. As a preface, I have to admit that I understand why Trump is particularly upset these days. He has been the target of prosecutions that in most cases seem stretched to the legal limits and designed to influence an election. Liberals reject that premise and believe that Trump incited a riot, that he paid “hush money” to a porn sta...
As of today, six states and the Virgin Islands have held their primary elections or caucuses. Early voting for the much-touted Super Tuesday primaries has begun. Fifteen states and American Samoa will vote or caucus on March 5 to determine who will be candidates for the general elections in November. I can’t remember a time when Super Tuesday was this irrelevant. Both the Republican and Democrat candidates have been nominally selected, if not actually chiseled into stone. T...
I never visited the Dan Buzzard Memorial Law Library. And now I never will. The seven-decades-old building behind the Curry County Courthouse was demolished Wednesday morning to make way for a new magistrate court. I've always wondered about that odd little building – what's a law library? – and the man for whom it was named. While looking for those answers, I discovered one far more interesting: The building for more than 20 years was home to Clovis' first real public lib...
Months ago, I jotted down a few words about, well, fools. It was probably a foolish thing to do, likely motivated by my foolishly reading too much news. But here’s what I wrote. “We all at times play the fool. “Only a fool will install each of the bars of his own soul-cell by flaunting freedom for license, trading love for lust, parodying self-less patriotism with mindless populism, mocking virtue’s civility with soul-rot’s untamed tongue, confusing strong opinion with eternal...
The Democrats are trying to put Donald Trump in jail. The Republicans are trying to put Joe Biden in jail – along with the rest of his extended political crime family. Both sides think the only way they can win is by putting their opponent in jail. Is this what our beat up republic has to look forward to as we head for the election in November? The country is not just going to hell in a handbasket, it’s already there. I’m watching an invasion of illegal immigrants parad...
For years, I’ve been calling Donald Trump a snake-oil salesman, but that’s such an antiquated term. Then I heard about the line of shoes and cologne he’s now promoting, and now I’m thinking he’s a telemarketer. And, I must say, he’s good at it. I heard on NPR that his red, white, blue and gold sneakers are selling out. Like the Trump brand itself, they’re getting terrible reviews, but he manages to sell them to his salivating suckers anyway. Trump may be bringing down our democracy, but hey, he’s one of the best pitchmen o...
It should probably come as little surprise that a majority of American millennial and Generation Z women identify as liberal. A Gallup Poll released earlier this month indicated the ideological gap between men and women across various generations has increased over the past few years, and that young women today are much more liberal than young men. Some of their findings: • Women aged 18 to 29 are now 15 percentage points more likely to identify as liberal than men of the s...
I was mindlessly surfing the Internet the other day, looking up this and that, this person, that person and I wondered about Bobby “Big Deal” Thompson, a fellow I knew long ago and far away. Well, he’s dead, he died a few years ago. He was 74. I mostly remember Big Deal for his wedding on the radio. It was back in a little town tucked back in the hills and hollows of Appalachia’s coal country. Bobby was what some might call a “character.” He was loud, he was boisterous, he was funny. Bobby made money in the mobile home...
I’ve always said I would never want to live in a community without a college or a university. The coming weekend provides several reasons why, with a “triple play” of fine arts offerings at Eastern New Mexico University: a heartwarming play, a beloved musical, and an afternoon symphony complete with a visiting conductor. First the play. The ENMU Theatre kicks things off Thursday evening with a one-act show called “Native Gardens.” Written by Karen Zacarías and directed b...
