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  • Faith: Let us thank God for all the glimmers of join in our lives

    Curtis Shelburne, Religion columnist|Updated Mar 26, 2024

    It’s almost Easter, and here I am thinking about an almost-Christmas ride to the North Pole. I wrote one of these columns about that ride 14 years ago. I just reread what I wrote, and, if you don’t mind, I’ll write some of it again. I started by saying the North Pole was surprisingly warm on that ride, but it was less surprising when you realize that my wife and I and our sweet little 2 1/2-year-old giggling granddaughter were riding from Lubbock to Brownfield, Texas, on th...

  • Opinion: Tax revolt is an encouraging sign

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 26, 2024

    You’d never expect a tax revolt to start in the blue California city of Oakland. But a bunch of angry, over-taxed and under-protected local business people there have said, “Enough is enough.” The owner of a restaurant has called on other Oakland small businesses to stop paying local taxes until their city starts doing what it should be doing – protecting them from a recent wave of robberies and thefts. Big businesses like Tesla or Oracle can escape the madness and high ta...

  • Opinion: Keep an eye on down-ticket races

    Walter Rubel, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 26, 2024

    The geographic political divisions in New Mexico have become so entrenched that both parties have just stopped trying in areas of the state where the other side has the advantage. Of the 42 seats up for election in the state Senate this year, only 15 will be decided in the general election. Democrats will claim 17 seats and Republicans will win 10 without posting a yard sign, shaking a hand, making a campaign promise or kissing a baby. Democrats have apparently given up on the seat they held from 1989 to 2020 when John...

  • Opinion: Starting to feel the effects of getting older

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 26, 2024

    Lately I’ve been thinking about old age, and for good reason. Two close friends of mine, one a few years older than me, the other about three weeks younger, have given me pause about my own future at this point in my life. My older friend died after a heart attack. My younger friend had a bad fall and must now retire into an assisted living facility. They are just two of many fellow baby boomers I’ve known who have either passed on or been overcome with illness or disability. There but by the grace of God go I. At age 68, I h...

  • Cheech & Chong, guard geese: Interesting

    Grant McGee, The Staff of The News|Updated Mar 26, 2024

    Cheech & Chong’s public relations people called Bossman at The News, wanted to know if we were interested in an interview when they came to Clovis. Who grew up in the late 20th century doesn’t remember Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong? The interview became my assignment. “The place’ll be packed,” The Lady of the House predicted. “A crowd? In Clovis?” I said. It was an interesting concept to me. So I visited Mike Wood, Great American, who works at the weed store they’d visit. He was confident there’d be plenty of parking. When...

  • Nothing like a donation you can work for

    Betty Williamson, Local columnist|Updated Mar 23, 2024

    Some of my most dismal high school memories are of those dreaded ventures around Portales attempting to sell yearbook ads. Even as a teenager, it felt to me like we were asking for something we probably didn’t deserve, and even then I knew that every business we walked into was being visited by kids from every other school with requests like ours. That may be part of why I loved hearing about an experience Leslie Creighton had with a student who came into her family’s Por...

  • Opinion: Politics opposite of what I try to do

    Kent McManigal, Local columnist|Updated Mar 23, 2024

    About the most hurtful thing anyone can say about me is to describe my writing as “political.” It wounds me more deeply than almost any other words can. Politics is what someone is doing when they encourage others to vote for or against something. Or someone. Politics is what people engage in when they advocate yet another law aimed at the rest of society or want existing laws enforced more violently. Politics says this politician will be better at running your life than som...

  • Opinion: Draft may be job Americans won't do

    Rube Render, Local columnist|Updated Mar 23, 2024

    I received greetings from my local draft board in 1962. At the time I was serving with the U.S. Marines in Japan. The letter had my correct mailing address, including my current rank, service number and unit as well as FPO, San Francisco, Cal. The FPO stands for Fleet Post Office. The address should have been a clue that I was on active duty. Back in the day, when you graduated from high school, if you were an 18-year-old male, you could almost count on being drafted shortly....

  • Opinion: Sunshine, public comment needed for open government

    Walter Rubel, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 23, 2024

    Most Americans think we have the right to attend public meetings and let our elected officials know what we think about how they’re doing. There is no such right in New Mexico. Our open meetings law requires that accommodations be made for the public to attend and listen to meetings of the city council, county commission and other government boards and commissions. But, there’s nothing that says we have the right to speak at those meetings. It’s up to each board to set its own rules. Typically, elected leaders under...

  • Faith: Our God always divinely aware of 'the time'

    Curtis Shelburne, Local columnist|Updated Mar 19, 2024

    As I begin to write, I’m about 10 minutes away from hearing a beautiful sound. In 10 minutes, our chiming wall clock will ring out a quarter past the hour. You won’t notice, but I’m listening, and I’ll be pausing for a moment. You see, our clock has been away, taking time for a bit of a sabbatical for its health. For decades, it has been hanging on our living room wall and, as long as I remember to wind it, it has quite precisely and faithfully fulfilled its sweetly toned c...

  • Opinion: Katie Britt speech an embarrassment

    Elwood Watson, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 19, 2024

    It was “The Stepford Wives” meets “The Handmaid’s Tale.” More than a week later, people are still talking about the State of the Union response given by Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, which has been widely mocked by politicians and pundits alike. It certainly didn’t require the skills of a futurist to realize her less-than-stellar efforts would result in a raw and ruthless parody on “Saturday Night Live.” One Republican pollster called Britt “creepy,” while a national Republican...

  • Opinion: Republicans need to go on offensive

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 19, 2024

    Republicans are never going to impeach Joe Biden. I wish more Republicans would beat that fact into their skulls. Just as Democrats weren’t able to impeach Donald Trump because they didn’t control the Senate, Republicans are never going to impeach Biden for the same reason. It doesn’t matter how corrupt Biden and his family are, how he has allowed 8 million illegal immigrants to invade our Southern border or how mentally out-of-it he is. Biden will never be impeached and M...

  • Opinion: PED decision could mean good year for GOP

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 19, 2024

    In the great red-blue divide that is America these days, we live in an atypical state. New Mexico is not as politically divided along rural and urban lines as other states. For years now, Democrats in New Mexico have dominated politics in enough rural counties to add to their “urban” majorities in Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe. Meanwhile Republicans have held a grip on other rural area and many smaller cities, with a lock in the southeastern corner of the state, a region deep in agriculture and rich in oil and gas...

  • Our ancestor stories tell us about us

    Grant McGee, The Staff of The News|Updated Mar 19, 2024

    I find it strange how some folks don’t know or care about their ancestors … what they did, how they lived, what they accomplished. I think that’s just sad. When I think about “my people” who lived long ago, I believe we honor them by knowing a bit about them. I learned a lot about some of my ancestors from my father’s mother, my grandma, a great storyteller. Grandma was one of seven children of an iron ore mining company superintendent and his bride. Grandma was from the Appalachian Mountains in western Virginia near the We...

  • Opinion: Document reveal already covered

    Rube Render, Local columnist|Updated Mar 16, 2024

    On the first of March, The Wall Street Journal published an article by Max Colchester, Thomas Grove and Janes Marso. The headline read, “Document From 2022 Reveals Putin’s Punishing Terms for Peace.” A secondary headline read, “Draft peace deal drawn up shortly after Russia’s invasion shows Ukraine was confronted with becoming a neutered state.” The article discussed the peace negotiations held in Istanbul between Ukraine and Russia during March and April of 2022. What caught...

  • Opinion: Politicians just don't get Bill of Rights

    Kent McManigal, Local columnist|Updated Mar 16, 2024

    Politicians tend to get every answer wrong. They also ask the wrong questions because they view everything through the warped lens of government supremacy. Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, is a prime example. Politicians are squaring off for or against TikTok, an addictive digital drug from China. Some, including Crenshaw, are looking to ban TikTok in America or force it to become an American company. Like the other digital drug, Facebook. TikTok can be harmful to the...

  • Opinion: Challenge of this election surviving without hate

    Tom McDonald, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 16, 2024

    The biggest challenge to this election year will not be deciding between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Ninety percent of us already have our minds made up on that. No, the biggest challenge will be surviving the campaign and election without coming to hate each other. Granted, some of us already do. Some can’t differentiate between a person’s politics and their humanity. I know families in which one person no longer speaks with another family member because one of them drank the Trump Kool-Aid or the other is preaching Wokeness...

  • We're going to miss you, Santa

    Betty Williamson, Local columnist|Updated Mar 16, 2024

    But for one missing college credit back in 1967, it's quite possible that Don Criss would have never met his wife, settled in eastern New Mexico, helped create and establish our local public television station, and become a beloved member of this community. On top of that, more than 40 years of children in Portales and surrounding areas would have missed out on a Santa Claus who welcomed them with open arms, and kept their parents groaning with the corniest collection of...

  • Faith: Christ is our loving friend and savior for eternity

    Curtis Shelburne, Religion columnist|Updated Mar 12, 2024

    One of my three favorite daughters-in-law has written a children’s book called “The Rowly Growly Bear.” Not in print yet, it soon will be, and I’m very proud of what she’s done. Danetta is a great wife, mother, and teacher, and a good while ago, she began writing this sweet book. It’s based on a story her father spun for her when she was just a small child. The main character in the book is a little bear — the “Rowly Growly Bear,” of course. And the little bear is looking f...

  • Opinion: Republicans must fight hard to gain Senate

    Michael Reagan, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 12, 2024

    A miracle occurred last week in California’s U.S. Senate primary race. In a deep Blue state where Democrat voters outnumber Republicans 2-1, Steve Garvey, the former L.A. Dodgers star, ran against three Democrats and came in a close second to Democrat Congressman Adam Schiff. Garvey, a conservative Republican, finished behind Schiff in California’s crazy “jungle primary,” where voters are allowed to vote for any candidate regardless of party affiliation. That means in the gen...

  • Opinion: GOP has lost a lot in following Trump's course

    St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Syndicated content|Updated Mar 12, 2024

    Anyone hoping Republican voters around the country would use Super Tuesday to slow their party’s careening trajectory toward the Trumpian cliff now must face facts: It’s over. Donald Trump’s near-total sweep of Super Tuesday states, and challenger Nikki Haley’s subsequent campaign suspension last Wednesday, means that, barring some epic surprise, American voters on Nov. 5 will be faced with a presidential rematch that most don’t want. Even among the many Republicans out there who recognize Trump’s obvious unfitness f...

  • Boarding house didn't work out

    Grant McGee, The Staff of The News|Updated Mar 12, 2024

    Some time ago I was pedaling my bicycle through an old section of Clovis, passing some houses that surely dated back a hundred or so years ago. I wondered if some of the big, old, rambling hulks had once been boarding houses. A boarding house is a place where people rent rooms … like someone might rent an apartment … .and part of the rent goes for “board” or meals with the boarders sitting around a big table chowing down. I once pondered having a place at an old-fashioned boarding house many years ago. I wouldn’t have been...

  • Opinion: New laws aren't ethical solution

    Kent McManigal, Local columnist|Updated Mar 9, 2024

    “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...

  • Publisher's journal: Blood relative explores century-old murders

    David Stevens, The Staff of The News|Updated Mar 9, 2024

    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. "...

  • Participating in Fifty-Plus Olympics hard bargain to beat

    Betty Williamson, Local columnist|Updated Mar 9, 2024

    As bargains go, it’s hard to beat the one being offered this month by the folks who volunteer with Clovis Area Fifty-Plus Olympics. For a $20 bill (or two $10s, a fistful of $5s, or any combination of your choice) anyone who is age 50 and older can register, participate in up to 10 different sports (many with multiple events), nosh on drinks and snacks, and even attend the end of season awards banquet in May. On top of that, for first timers that $20 also covers a t-shirt e...

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