Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 4744
When the Persian king Cyrus the Great established his empire, he divided his holdings into territories or provinces called satrapies. A satrapy was ruled by a satrap who served as a viceroy to the king, but had significant powers of his own. In medieval Europe, satrapies eventually became referred to as vassal states. A vassal state had a mutual obligation to a superior state or empire. Vassal states are generally called client states today. If King Cyrus returned to the...
Much of the American public is understandably stirred up over the suspicious prison death of Putin’s critic, Alexei Navalny. Yet America’s anti-American prison industry is also filled with political prisoners. More than anywhere else in the world, by a wide margin. Including political prisoners like Ross Ulbricht. This doesn’t even count heroes like Julian Assange, held by other governments to appease the U.S. government. Or those heroes living under asylum in other count...
Two news stories last week proved New Mexico has a working class and a ruling class. One was about Santa Fe’s minimum wage, which will increase to $14.60 an hour March 1. That’s a bump of 57 cents an hour. The second story mentioned New Mexico lawmakers approving a bill titled “Legislative Retirement Changes.” A more accurate heading would be: “50% pension increase for sitting legislators.” Our citizen legislators do not receive a salary, so you might wonder how they qualify for pensions. They make the laws, and they have c...
Flat tires. I don’t know anyone who enjoys them. Does anyone enjoy the raucous rumble of tire rubber flapping against the road and your vehicle’s fender wells? Do you relish the opportunity to make the suddenly crucial decision as to how long to glide your once-smooth-now-loudly-limping ride to a stop? You’re actually faced with more than a few decisions that could well be discussed a bit — but not when you have scant seconds to make them. It’s clear that you’re stopping bu...
Pay too much attention to the goings-on in Congress and you’d think our nation is broken. But focus your attention closer to home and you’ll see an altogether different picture. Take the New Mexico Legislature as an example. It just went through a whirlwind 30-day session and got plenty done, and not just for the special interests. The people of our state, both left and right, might actually benefit from our lawmakers’ recent actions. Altogether, 72 bills were passed and now await Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s signatu...
From the Duchess of Sussex and actress Meghan Markle to former Harvard President Claudine Gay to Vice President Kamala Harris, Black women have been the target of severe attacks in recent months. The most recent example are the distasteful comments made by Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas toward his colleague, Democrat Cori Bush of Missouri. Nehls, an acid-tongued conservative, took it upon his shamelessly arrogant self to refer to representative Bush as “loud” and “mo...
As Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, told the floor as debate over this year’s budget wrapped up: “You’re not a poor state. Quit telling other people you’re a poor state.” He’s right. New Mexico is not poor. But what about the people of New Mexico? Among the citizens poverty remains high. According to World Population Review, New Mexico has the third-highest poverty rate in the US. Crime remains troubling and the education system is in dire straits. The state of New Mexico -- me...
I used to save notes I found on the street, on the sidewalk, tucked away in something. I was going to write something, maybe a short story or something, about them one day, but I didn’t. I did write about a few of them. For instance, the love note I saved after finding it in the street a few years ago. At least I think it’s a love note. “Hi Boo! Wot u been? 2 me nuthin. Just chillin –n- thinking bout u so bored. Miss u yo bad (redacted) is green. Did u tell Cheldra sumthin bout Keyshawn –n- dnt let Nekeyla read our notes cuz...
The 345-page Hur Report landed on the Biden presidential campaign like a 345-pound bomb. The report didn’t start out that way, but eventually it got toxic. Hur decided not to charge Biden with anything that had to do with classified documents. In point of fact, due to the Justice Department’s policy that a sitting president can’t be indicted, Hur had no choice. He couldn’t indict Biden. Hur’s statement that, “our investigation uncovered evidence that President Biden willf...
People don’t always do what you want. I’m not even talking about those who decide to rob others at knifepoint, which I’m sure you don’t want them to do. I’m talking about when someone chooses to do their own thing based on different values, preferences, and information. When they make a choice you wouldn’t have made. A choice you might think is a mistake, based on your values, preferences, and information. How we handle these situations says a lot about who we are. Some c...
I just turned 68. Happy birthday to me. It’s been a long and winding road, one in which I’ve stolen from the Beatles more than once. But, hey, what can I say — I was Born to Run! Actually, and with apologies to the Boss, I was born to live through some incredible history. From the unraveling of Jim Crow to the rise of Artificial Intelligence, we baby boomers have seen it all. By the time I got to high school, I was attending an integrated school and getting to know Black people as equals. That may sound quaint today, but b...
After 31 years of providing services for individuals with developmental disabilities, Konnie Kanmore has learned that sometimes it’s the smallest gestures that make the largest impacts. Kanmore is executive director of Absolutely You, a Portales-based organization with branches in Hobbs and Roswell, with a mission of providing “community, support, and assistance residentially and vocationally to individuals with developmental disabilities.” Kanmore contacted me recently askin...
ARTESIA – Clovis High's swimmers posted nine new state-qualifying times in District 3-4 competition on Saturday, capturing first-place in boys team standings while taking second on the girls side. The Wildcats earned a team score of 130 ½ points to outlast Hobbs, which had 121, in the 11-school boys field. Meantime, the Lady Wildcats finished with 117 points to trail only Artesia (135) in the eight-school girls bracket. Clovis boys will send eight swimmers to state c...
Videos of Joe Biden not knowing where he is or saying he just met with a French president who died 25 years ago are not so funny anymore. They’re tragic. And I can’t help feeling embarrassed and sorry for the president. It angers me to see him dodder out in public almost every other day and make a mumbling and confused fool of himself. Biden’s clearly been in the early stages of dementia for several years. It’s getting worse by the week and there’s no pill or treatment...
Driftwood. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure. For my mother, driftwood was treasure. She was a country girl, born and raised in Coke County, Texas, and I remember that, even after she’d been grown and married and had long since left Coke County, she had a love affair with driftwood. At least, that’s what I always called it, and I think she did. It’s quite possible we were using the term inaccurately. I just looked up a definition or a few. One dictionar...
Several years ago, Taylor Swift was far from the femme fatale some members of the MAGA far right now consider her to be. Many conservatives used to revere Swift. In 2015, Republican lawmakers invited the pop icon for personal tours of the U.S. Capitol and offered to provide donors tickets to her concerts. Even Donald Trump stated she was “terrific” and “fantastic.” How times have changed. Swift is now political poison to the right, largely despised for her progressive viewpoi...
There may be no tenet of faith so fundamental to the cult of gun control than the idea that more guns equate to more crime — a theory that was soundly disproven in 2023. Just four years after the biggest recorded one-year spike in our nation’s homicide rate, it looks as if the United States may have just gone through the biggest one-year decline, an impossibility according to gun control activists. There are millions more guns around than there were four years ago, yet the vast majority of cities reported fewer homicides tha...
When you poke a hornet’s nest, you expect to get stung. If that hornet’s nest is filled with young girls in spangles and tutus — and their doting parents — you can expect to get skewered. That is exactly what happens if you criticize the social phenomenon known as Taylor Swift. It is a form of heresy to attack her song catalogue, her lipstick choices and her boyfriends. There is something about Taylor Swift that sticks in my craw, and it has very little to do with her politic...
Throw my brain in a hurricane And the blind can have my eyes And the deaf can have both of my ears If they don’t mind the size. — John Prine I wasn’t blind yet when I had cornea transplant surgery in my left eye a couple of weeks ago, but I’m told that would have likely been my eventual fate. I was diagnosed with Fuchs’ dystrophy, which impacts a thin layer of cells that pump fluid to the cornea. The loss of those cells causes fluid to build up on the cornea, leading to cloudy vision and, over time, blisters that can break...
The world is in chaos. Ukraine is running out of men, material and munitions to fight the war, while the two Zs, Zelensky and Zaluzhnyi, are sparring to see who is in charge. Even with the assistance of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, President Zelensky can’t seem to fire Gen. Zaluzhnyi, who refuses to leave his post. Also in gridlock is the parliament of Ukraine, who can’t pass a mobilization law that will satisfy everyone and still provide the military wit...
I’m not watching television today. It’s impossible for me to care less about a sporting event -- a game -- than I do. A good thing about sports contests: it’s safe to not care. The outcome doesn’t grant the winning team power to threaten my life, steal my property, or violate my liberty. The winners will not inherit an army of career rights violators who imagine their job is to control how the rest of us live. I can ignore the event without danger. I wish all silly contests we...
New Mexico legislators have thrown many billions of dollars at its public school system over the years in an effort to elevate student test scores, graduation rates and attendance records from rock-bottom rankings, with little effect. That’s because public funding isn’t the primary reason students perform far worse, on average, in New Mexico than in most other states — broken or unstable families are to blame. The percentage of children living in single-parent homes in the United States has been rising steadily in recen...
I love to travel. I think most of us do. Until recently, however, I thought I was the only one who absolutely, positively despises the days leading up to a planned getaway. When I pencil in an adventure on the calendar weeks or months in advance, it seems like the best of ideas. But as the departure date grows closer, so does the dread. I know it’s irrational, yet without fail I find myself hoping that my plans will be canceled. Perhaps I’ll break a leg. Maybe the airline wil...
In response to the inordinate amount of time young Americans spend online, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing to curb students’ access to social media sites while at school. The goal of keeping students off TikTok during the school day is undoubtedly worthwhile, but policymakers would be better off taking a simpler and more effective approach: banning mobile phones from schools altogether. It’s by now indisputable that allowing kids to have phones in the classroom harms academic performance — even among those who d...
Chita Rivera, talented American dancer, singer and actress, died a few days ago at the age of 91. I first saw her on the big screen in 1961 in “West Side Story” when I was itty bitty. She was doing a dance number to the movie’s song, “America.” To be sure, back then I didn’t know who Chita Rivera was or understand the pointed lyrics to the song. But the people onscreen were singing and dancing snappily with spirit and I liked it. It’s still one of my favorite movie scenes. Years later I would watch that flick and laugh a bit,...
