Charlie Ledbetter was about 11 years old when he came to eastern New Mexico with his family from Lawton, Oklahoma, in 1907. The Ledbetters settled in the Blacktower community — where Cannon Air Force Base stands today — and spent their days farmi...

I was cleaning out older newspapers, which is a frequent occurrence when you work at a newspaper. My bookshelf needed space, and space could be had by pushing the last three years of archives into the recycle bin. But wait, something here goes back...

Election Day is behind us, which means we no longer have to suffer through the endless television commercials and countless mailers dripping with nasty political attacks. But it also means we’ve got a new governor about to take the reins of our...

I believe in nonviolence. But I have not always been successful at practicing my belief. Looking back on my life, I have had a fair number of skirmishes. Growing up, I loved to wrestle. Sometimes the matches would get a little heated but about the ti...

Historians estimate more than 115,000 Americans died in the first modern-day Great War we’ve come to call World War I. That casualty list included about 500 in New Mexico; dozens from our part of the state have been identified as killed in action o...

SANTA ROSA — If there’s anything the baby boomers did well, it’s music. We rocked. Of course, rock and roll wasn’t born entirely out of our generation. It was the byproduct of all sorts of musical genres, including and especially rhythm and...

The Attorney General’s Office is warning women who competed for the Miss New Mexico crown, sash and scholarship that they may be at risk of financial exploitation — a caution that could have national implications. AG Hector Balderas is expected...

I have lived in the South my whole life. My father was a descendant of slave owners. My mother’s family was too poor to own slaves, but her ancestors did not oppose slavery. As a grade-school child before integration, all my buddies used the “N...

I still remember the feelings I had around this time of year when I was a senior in high school. With only one semester remaining before I’d be going out into the world alone, I felt such a sense of impatience to move to that next part of my life....

Clovis supports proposed racino Regarding Wednesday’s report in The News that State Rep. Randal Crowder said the racino issue has “literally ripped the city of Clovis in half:” I am greatly disappointed to learn our elected officials are ignori...

Some parents of Portales public school students are upset with school officials. They think someone should have told them about a threat of violence as soon as that threat was received — not after the threat was contained. Those parents are not...

Did you hear there’s a caravan of migrants coming to our country? Watch the right news reports, and it seems imminent. Let’s unfurl some of the mysteries about the caravan. How many people are in the caravan? There are about 7,000, most of them...

President Donald Trump has announced his first potentially strong action against America’s inordinate prescription drug prices — the first that could meaningfully lower Medicare drug spending. The idea is to narrow the gap between U.S. prices...

Some special interest groups would have us believe crime increases on Halloween night. This might be true, or not, depending on many factors: the weather, the night of the week, whether communities offer organized activities, etc. All we know for...

SANTA ROSA — Getting old sucks. At least that’s what I’ve heard. OK, I’ll admit it. I’m getting there myself. I’m 62 years old — but I’ve always been about 10 years younger, in maturity, than my actual age. In my teens, I rebelled aga...

Racino no-brainer for economic development When I first heard New Mexico would award a racino license, I was excited for Clovis. When I moved here in 2014 — and acquired two hotels in 2015 — I was told a hard truth: Curry County’s gross-receipt...

In a horrifying moment, joy was shattered. The members of Tree of Life Congregation came together in uplifting prayer Saturday morning in what they thought was the safest of places — their synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh. It...