The Eastern New Mexico News - Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Well, as Carol Burnett used to say, I’m so glad we had this time together. I’ve written about 1.6 million words as a columnist. This 600 or so will be the last. I’m retiring... — Updated 12/17/2022

On Dec. 3, Donald Trump finally crossed the Rubicon. That is, he took to his social media platform and, for the first time, issued an explicit call to abolish the U.S. Constitution... — Updated 12/10/2022

Joe Engel died last month. It’s unlikely you will know the name, especially if you don’t live in Charleston, S.C., his hometown since 1949. Joe never wrote a great novel or... — Updated 12/3/2022

“Here you come again, just when I’ve begun to get myself together...” — Dolly Parton He’s back. Granted, he never really left. Unlike other former presidents, Donald... — Updated 11/26/2022

A few words on the silence. As you doubtless recall, many of us regarded the midterm election with existential dread. The path from there to the end of American democracy seemed all... — Updated 11/19/2022

Sometimes I wish white people could be Black. Not forever, mind you. Maybe for just a few weeks like John Howard Griffin, the author of “Black Like Me,” who darkened his skin an... — Updated 11/12/2022

An 82-year-old man sustains a skull fracture from a predawn home invasion, and you think it’s funny? Or that it’s fodder for another dumb conspiracy theory? What did you do... — Updated 11/5/2022

Honestly, Tony, my first instinct was to ignore you. That’s become my go-to when readers ask me, as you did in a recent email, to prove to their satisfaction that, “Republicans... — Updated 10/29/2022

Apparently, Craig Ridley somehow ceased to be a human being. That’s the only possible explanation for what he endured in a Florida prison. Five days in his cell, paralyzed, trappe... — Updated 10/22/2022

It was the “National Weekend of Bigots.” At least, that’s what Ana Navarro called it Monday on “The View.” It was as good a description as any for the soul-draining... — Updated 10/15/2022

We’re all in this thing together. Or so we like to say. But Ron DeSantis’ hypocrisy just punched a hole through that ideal. In 2013, when Hurricane Sandy devastated New Jersey,... — Updated 10/8/2022

“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou Maya Angelou, meet Herschel Walker, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. Here he is on... — Updated 10/1/2022

Immigration is the last thing this is about. If conservatives really wanted to fix immigration, they could have done so years ago. Certainly, the broad outlines of a workable... — Updated 9/24/2022

President John F. Kennedy committed America to landing on the moon in a speech on Sept. 12, 1962. It was spring. The calendar said otherwise, yes. But, as has been argued before in... — Updated 9/17/2022

MAGA Republicans think Joe Biden is being mean to them. You read that right. Followers of Donald Trump, a man who denigrates his rivals as SOBs, sickos, dummies, losers, wackos and... — Updated 9/10/2022

“There’s a choice we’re making. We’re saving our own lives.” — from “We Are The World” Yes, this is early. That ritual where the columnist assigns the year a theme... — Updated 8/20/2022

“Dare we hope?” That was the rather plaintive response of a man on Twitter when news broke that Kansas voters had rejected an attempt to remove the right to abortion from their... — Updated 8/13/2022

Back in the day, his FBI file dubbed him “an arrogant Negro.” But then, people often mistook principle for arrogance whenever African Americans insisted on justice. Sometimes,... — Updated 8/6/2022

We’ll get to the Nazi flags in a moment. First, however, let us turn to Merriam-Webster for clarification of a point I recently made in a column that left a few of you vexed. It... — Updated 7/30/2022

They called it “massive resistance.” That, some of you may recall, was what Virginia dubbed its campaign of defiance of Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court... — Updated 7/23/2022

Our story so far... The Extreme Court just gutted reproductive rights, shredded a New York law that helped keep guns out of public spaces for more than a century, and crippled the... — Updated 7/16/2022

So what does all this tell us about justice? “All this” meaning the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell got 20 years and R. Kelly got 30.  It was, make no mistake, an indisputably... — Updated 7/9/2022

This is not just another setback. Anyone who’s lived long enough has seen the Supreme Court issue a ruling they didn’t like. This is not that. No, what made the ruling that fell... — Updated 7/2/2022

ABC News thought it was -- in the words of George Stephanopoulos -- “too ugly” and “too dangerous” and declined to show it on air.  So Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted it... — Updated 6/25/2022

“Everybody plays the fool.” — The Main Ingredient, 1972 I won’t bother reasoning with you. As I’ve said before in this space, it’s my opinion that you folks who support... — Updated 6/18/2022