Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Stuck in a lingering COVID-19 pandemic and with emerging problems like inflation, many Americans don't care about last year's Capitol riots in Washington. And they certainly care more about economic issues than marking the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 debacle. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Americans would rather be able to visit loved ones (without a mask) or profit from a functioning supply chain than analyze the root causes of the Capitol riots. It is important to note, however, that the Electoral College roll...
Former Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan, already a convicted felon, pleaded no contest Wednesday to a charge accusing him of interfering with a March 2020 operation by Española police officers who were serving a warrant on his friend, former Española City Councilor Phillip Chacon. Under the terms of Lujan's agreement with 9th Judicial District Attorney Andrea Reeb, a special prosecutor in the case, state District Judge Bryan Biedscheid sentenced Lujan to 364 days on the misdemeanor count of resisting, evading or o...
SAN ANTONIO — Maybe, come spring, they'll tell us. The players themselves will have had time to think about it, process it and come up with an answer to the question. Why did they find themselves now? Of course, they may not want to. Or, perhaps, they'll be told not to, because who needs the headlines and the headaches. It's hard to know. Easy to know? All season long, Lincoln Riley's Sooners appeared unmotivated, uncertain, unclear, in a fog, lost. Never was Oklahoma as good as it ought to have been. Never did the Sooners t...
CLOVIS - The 2022 Clovis municipal election will have one of the most loaded ballots in recent years, even with the mayor's race still two years down the road. A year of transition for the city, through commission actions and transitions, means voters will have a March 1 ballot with six races and four potential changes to the city's founding documents. Coming up in 2022, voters will be asked for up-or down votes on four changes to the charter: • Increase the signature r...
SANTA FE — Curry County and Clovis made quite the mark on the weekend COVID-19 case report from the New Mexico Department of Health. The county posted by far its highest weekend total since the state began consolidating those reports. The county recorded 246 new cases of COVID-19 between Christmas Eve and Monday, fourth among all New Mexico counties. The top three counties were Santa Fe (248), Dona Ana (277) and Bernalillo (960). All three of those counties have more than triple Curry's population, with Bernalillo County h...
John Madden was so much more than a Super Bowl-winning coach, legendary broadcaster and someone who built a video-game empire. He was a regular guy. "What made him so popular was that he was so genuine and so accessible," said Al Michaels, who worked in the ABC and NBC broadcast booths with Madden for seven years. "In traveling around the country, John had a great connection with city folk, rural folk, with farmers, with people out there doing the grunt work. He just had this...
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A good many game watchers tuned in to the Liberty Bowl on Tuesday night expecting to see one team run up the score. And sure enough. Texas Tech folded, spindled and mutilated Mississippi State, 34-7, just the opposite sort of runaway from the one so many were forecasting. Mississippi State came in with the No. 3 passing offense in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and the Red Raiders held the Bulldogs to their lowest point total of the season. Only Alabama...
One year ago, a violent, racist mob stormed the U.S. Capitol in a brazen attempt to overturn the 2020 election. We deserve the truth about the causes behind the attack that left numerous fatalities and many others seriously injured. However, the reverberations from the attack on our democracy continue beyond Jan 6. Since the 2020 election, at least three election-related threats have continued: the former president's "Big Lie" about who won and the specter of partisan...
Once upon a time, the word “liberal” was used to describe people who were “generous,” “open-minded,” and “accepting of other opinions.” It was closely related to the word “liberty.” This description no longer applies to political liberals. Describing their backward-thinking as “progressive” or their nightmarish denial of reality as “woke” is equally ridiculous. This doesn’t mean they are always wrong. I agree that everyone has value, but their value has nothing to do with...
The Grand Miracle. That’s how C. S. Lewis described the Son of God coming “in the flesh” at Bethlehem. And he writes, “The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation.” If anyone had asked me, I might at first have been inclined to say that the “central miracle” is Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, his atonement for our sins, and his glorious Resurrection. And it certainly would be hard to over-estimate the centrality of those events. The message of the apostles...
The 1986 hit movie "Hoosiers" depicted a small-school Indiana basketball team that improbably won the state championship, defeating bigger-enrollment schools along the way. Forrest in southern Quay County can boast a real-life version of "Hoosiers," except the Pirates won the state title twice in the early 1930s and might have done it a third time if misfortune hadn't struck. Forrest's state title treks might sound like the stuff of fiction. However, tangible evidence of...
ANSON, Texas — The Farwell Steers rolled into the semifinals of Anson’s 10-team tournament on Monday with a pair of wins, routing Post 73-25 and getting past Wellington 46-43. The Steers (13-2) were slated to face Class 4A Sweetwater (11-8) in the semifinals on Tuesday, then play for either third place or the championship to wrap up the two-day event. Farwell had no trouble with the winless (0-11) Antelopes, building a 44-14 halftime lead. Sophomore Corey Stancell led a balanced Steers attack with 15 points, while senior Jua...
TEXICO - Craig and Jaylyn (Cooper) Cook may not have known they were meant for each other right away, but it didn't take long. Coming into contact for the first time during Texico's holiday basketball tournament in 2009, each caught the other's eye. Now, they're not only married with a 20-month-old son, Kyce, but they also are the head basketball coaches at Texico High School - Craig for the boys, Jaylyn for the girls. A list provided to The News by the New Mexico Activities...
LITTLEFIELD — Especially in a low-scoring game, it’s hard to survive a drought which lasts nearly a quarter. Off to a seven-point lead early in the second stanza of Monday’s first-round Wildcat Classic matchup against Tulia, Portales High suddenly went dry for nearly the final 6 1/2 minutes of the half. In the end, it cost the Rams. While the Hornets only managed three points in that stretch, it was enough to keep them close. They took the lead with an 8-0, fourth-quarter run and held on late for a 47-45 victory. On Tuesd...
LITTLEFIELD — Forgive the Portales High girls if they weren’t totally ready at the beginning of Tuesday’s quarterfinal matchup against Springlake-Earth in Littlefield’s Wildcat Classic. After all, the game did start at 8:30 a.m. — New Mexico time. It took the Lady Rams a while to get untracked, but they finally started to pull away late and beat the Class 1A Lady Wolverines 58-42. Senior guard Taris Rippee scored 20 points while senior post Kylyie Paden finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and four steals for Portales...
PORTALES — After discussing matters related to retaining and keeping employees for much of the year, the Roosevelt County Commission took actions that sweeten compensation for detention officers and raise the pay of county employees in general. On Dec. 21, the commission, by unanimous votes, added a cost of living increase for employees and agreed to pick up additional percentages of Public Employee Retirement Act contributions. On Dec. 7, the commission approved a hiring and referral incentive program for the detention c...
The Family Dollar store in Tucumcari and an employee are being sued for negligence after a now-deceased woman tripped and was injured because the store’s walkway allegedly was obstructed. Sharon Valencia of Tucumcari filed the complaint Dec. 15 in Tucumcari district court on behalf of the deceased Frances Chavez, her mother. Megan Salazar was identified in the lawsuit as a store employee at the time of the accident. The lawsuit states Chavez was visiting the Family Dollar on Nov. 27, 2020, and that the store and Salazar faile...
On this date … 1951: An increase in reports of dogs destroying property had prompted an “intensive campaign” to rid Clovis of strays. Police Chief John Droke was warning dog owners to make sure their dogs were licensed and wore their licenses. Dog catcher Juan Chavez had impounded 28 dogs in the past two days and only one was tagged, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Stray dogs were kept in the pound at the city zoo for 10 days before being destroyed, Chavez warned. Pages...
Seems to me, 2021 began on Jan. 20. That’s when Joe Biden was sworn in as president. Because of Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results, opposition to Biden’s election turned into an attempted coup on Jan. 6, followed by the most hurried and justified presidential impeachment in U.S. history (that’s what should happen whenever a sitting president tries to remain in office by force). By the time Biden’s inauguration came around, Washington, D.C., was a fortress of security — the violence had been quelle...
As part of our holiday festivities this year, we pried open two leathery pomegranates one afternoon, and shared those shimmery jewel-like seeds as we visited. Pomegranates are a special treat, a fruit that always seems exotic and out of place in eastern New Mexico. I don't remember ever having one in our home when we were growing up. Instead — and curiously — the occasional pomegranates that I encountered came from a most unlikely place: the old Dora Grocery run by Opal and...
When Joe Biden took over as president, millions of Americans were relieved to finally have a leader who could be counted on to consistently shepherd the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in a coherent and fact-driven way. But Biden’s record has been far from spotless. Yes, any president was going to struggle with a political movement that bizarrely conflates getting vaccinated against a deadly disease with surrendering personal freedom, and whose leaders include the governors of the second- and thi...
The Guadalupe County Commission on Dec. 16 approved an agreement with De Baca County to reserve up to 24 beds for Guadalupe's adult inmates. Guadalupe County Sheriff Lorenzo Mata said the agreement applies to the new jail that De Baca is building. Construction is expected to be complete in January or February. “It's going to be my main area” for housing county inmates, Mata told the commissioners. Mata and County Manager Rose Fernandez told commissioners the contract was initially for a full year, but De Baca County pul...
PORTALES — The city of Portales in 2021 welcomed opportunities to bring back popular events that had been suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic did not go away. The city also wrestled this year with ushering in a new industry based on the New Mexico Legislature’s legalization of recreational cannabis use in the 2021. Retail sales of recreational cannabis are expected to begin on or before April 1. The city also revised its council districts to accommodate findings of the 2020 U.S. Census, and ann...
The National Weather Service claims snowfall across eastern New Mexico is possible by New Year’s Day. But don’t expect much. “If we get anything it might be Saturday,” said Dan Heerding, Clovis’ emergency management director. “(T)he La Nina is keeping everything to the north.” La Nina weather patterns lead to drought in the Southern U.S. While some local areas saw traces of rain on Monday night, it’s been nearly 80 days since the region has seen measurable precipitation. National Weather Service reports chances of mois...
CLOVIS - It was a year of gains and losses, and Curry County was certainly part of that condition in 2021. James Ridling, the newest commissioner for the county, died Sept. 19 from complications with COVID-19, just over eight months after he succeeded term-limited Ben McDaniel in the District 2 seat. "Some people are nice, but he was a really, really great individual," Commission Chairman Robert Thornton said of Ridling, who defeated J. Albin Smith in the primary and ran...
