Thursday morning briefing: Tax Day, music for a cause and Jackie Robinson

Good morning and happy tax day. It’s Freedom New Mexico’s Thursday briefing.

Pay up

State and federal taxes are due today.

Local post offices aren’t staying open late.

But you can get that return post marked on time if you drop it off before midnight at boxes outside the post offices in Clovis and Portales.

Music for a cause

A benefit concert to help with medical bills for Kevin Gardels is scheduled for 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday at the Memorial Building in Portales.

Admission is free, but donations are to be accepted.

Performers are Andy Mason and Friends, The Unlikely, Johnny and Jill Mulhair and Friends, and Thousand Year Reign.

Gardels, a communications instructor at Eastern New Mexico University, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2002.

More music

The Clovis High School Freshman Academy is performing their spring concert at 7 p.m. today at Marshall Auditorium.

It’s free and open to the public.

This day in history

On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson, age 28, became the first African-American player in Major League Baseball when he stepped onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn to compete for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Robinson broke the color barrier in a sport that had been segregated for more than 50 years.

Here’s the rest of the story:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/4/15

Weather

Today — Rain’s a good thing...isolated showers and thunderstorms in the morning...then scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s.

Tonight — Keep it coming...mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 40s to lower 50s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.