Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The prep football season is over, but it remained a topic of conversation Thursday at the New Mexico Activities Association's latest board of directors meeting. There was a bit of a two-pronged discussion Thursday — one focused on the quality of facilities that are hosting playoff games, and another (and lesser) give-and-take about whether higher seeds should possibly be allowed to start hosting postseason games in every round and not just through the quarterfinals. That second item didn't have much traction Thursday. "...
Ten days after his starting power forward was shot and hospitalized after a 3 a.m. shootout on the University of New Mexico campus that left a UNM student dead, New Mexico State University basketball coach Greg Heiar was apologetic Tuesday, and said he takes responsibility for what happened. It was the first time the first-year Aggies coach has spoken publicly about the shooting. He, and the school, remain tight-lipped about what, if any, discipline has been taken on players who snuck out of their Albuquerque hotel the...
Just weeks after buying the Sandoval Signpost, Albuquerque city councilor and cannabis consultant Pat Davis bought the Edgewood Independent with his publishing company CTRL+P. Davis now owns four papers: the Corrales Comment, and The Paper, as well as the two recently purchased papers. Davis said buying another paper wasn't on his "radar," but former Independent owner Leota Harriman reached out to him recently about taking over the Independent. Unlike the purchases of the Sandoval Signpost and the Corrales Comment, Davis...
A Hobbs man is accused of using his former employer's gas card to rack up more than $1.2 million in gasoline charges over several years since leaving the company. David Rochel, 50, is charged with six counts of fraudulent use of an illegally obtained credit card of over $20,000 and one count of theft of a credit card in the case. An attorney for Rochel could not be reached Tuesday. Although the fraudulent charges were ongoing for years, court records show more than $120,000 in diesel fuel was charged to the company card...
The 2022 New Mexico State Fair recorded 475,318 visits, making it the third best-attended fair since 2012, when the fair went from a 17-day format to an 11-day schedule. How that translates to revenue won't be known until mid- to late-November after all the bills have been paid and final numbers are tallied, said State Fair General Manager Dan Mourning. Still, he was confident that "revenue was up," adding that vendors of liquor, food and merchandise all reported booming sales throughout the fair. Last year, visitors were...
SANTA FE — There weren't many surprises during Friday's televised debate when it came to Michelle Lujan Grisham and Mark Ronchetti's stances on abortion, crime and education. But the incumbent Democratic governor and her Republican rival found some unexpected common ground on the issue of homelessness, with both saying they would crack down on certain activities while expanding services to those willing to utilize them. Specifically, Lujan Grisham said she would push for legislation to restrict panhandling and criminal t...
An altered image of darkened hands cutting a white child's hair sure does appear to play on racist fears and should be denounced by the political party that created it. The Republican Party of New Mexico recently mailed flyers to voters in several state House districts showing a barber with darkened hands. "Do you want a sex offender cutting your child's hair?" the flyer asks. The flyers cite two unsuccessful bills related to occupational licenses and accuse House Democrats of voting to allow convicted sex offenders to obtain...
SANTA FE — With Election Day less than six weeks away, Republican Mark Ronchetti continues to hammer away at Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's record on crime. In a recently launched TV ad, Ronchetti criticized a Lujan Grisham executive order from April 2020 that, over two-plus years, authorized more than 700 inmates to be released early from prison due to the COVID-19 pandemic, provided they met specific criteria that included being scheduled for release within the next 30 days. A spokeswoman for the Democratic governor said t...
Article V of the state Constitution says a person must have “resided continuously in New Mexico for five years” prior to the election to be eligible to serve as governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, attorney general or commissioner of public lands. But Article VII of the state Constitution says no one absent New Mexico while employed in the service of the United States or the state shall lose residency in New Mexico, no matter how long they’ve been gone. The state’s Uniform Military and Ove...
New Mexico lawmakers in recent years have passed laws expanding background check requirements for firearm purchases and allowing guns to be seized from individuals deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others. But with the state’s firearm violence rate still high, many voters want lawmakers to enact additional gun control measures. Specifically, 72% of voters surveyed in a recent Albuquerque Journal Poll said they support increasing the minimum age to buy an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21, while 73% said t...
SANTA FE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's reelection campaign is hitting GOP rival Mark Ronchetti with an unexpected attack with just over three months until Election Day — that he supports "defunding the police." The assertion is based largely on comments Ronchetti made during a May primary election debate, but the comments appear to have been taken out of context and Ronchetti's campaign called the claim a "flat-out lie." During the KOAT-TV debate, Ronchetti accused the Democratic governor of making it more difficult for...
Both of the main candidates in New Mexico's race for governor are making their children a visible campaign presence. Most recently, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's reelection campaign on Monday launched a TV ad that features her eldest daughter talking about her family's struggles after Lujan Grisham's first husband died of an aneurysm while jogging in 2004. The governor's daughter, Taylor Stewart, says in the 60-second ad that Lujan Grisham was forced to balance being a single...
A 50% increase in K-12 English language arts and math achievement by the 2025-26 school year might seem aspirational, until you realize where New Mexico is starting from. At last count, prepandemic, just one in five N.M. students was proficient in math and one in three proficient in reading. If those numbers were still accurate — doubtful with the learning loss remote education inflicted — reaching these goals would mean just one in three students will be able to do math and only half will be able to read at grade level. But...
A high-ranking Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office official and three other first responders battling a small wildfire in northern New Mexico were all killed when the helicopter they were in crashed Saturday evening in a remote area near Las Vegas. A sheriff's office spokeswoman said the crew had been "providing bucket drops and other air logistics needs to fire crews on the ground" prior to the crash. The BCSO helicopter - dubbed Metro 2 - crashed about 7:20 p.m., spokeswoman...
SANTA FE — The day Roe v. Wade was overturned, Republican Mark Ronchetti said he would pursue a 15-week abortion ban — with some exceptions — if elected governor of New Mexico. But Ronchetti’s longer-term goal, according to the pastor of an influential mega church, would be to end abortion in the state, not just after 15 weeks of pregnancy — remarks that have roiled the governor’s race and been seized on by supporters of Democrat Michelle Lujan Grisham as abortion emerges as a defining issue of the campaign. In a sermon this...
Before she was elected governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham acknowledged the state’s system of allocating elk licenses was unfair to N.M.’s resident hunters. But instead of empowering the New Mexico State Game Commission to implement a more equitable system, Lujan Grisham has fallen back on a tired tradition of using unchecked gubernatorial power to preserve the status quo, a system that makes New Mexicans an afterthought in harvesting — and protecting — the wildlife that belongs to them. This isn’t a new criticism, nor exclu...
An 85-page U.S. Forest Service review of the origins of the Hermits Peak Fire suggests the biggest wildfire in state history was caused in large part by a breakdown in protocols. But the review also revealed a troubling culture problem within the service. The review conducted by the Forest Service itself said a local team faced pressure to “accomplish the mission,” possibly leading to the crew to take greater risks in a rush to catch up on prescribed burns after postponements in many burn projects due to the COVID-19 pandemic...
The same day an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, two students were found with guns at Albuquerque-area schools. The boy who allegedly brought a handgun to Cleveland High School in Rio Rancho on May 24 was arrested, booked into the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention Center and the incident was summarily cloaked in secrecy. The 14-year-old boy who allegedly brought a gun fitted with an extended magazine filled with 20 hollow-point bullets to Volcano Vista High...
SANTA FE — New Mexico turned deep blue over the last decade as Democrats dominated races for U.S. Senate and the state’s presidential electors. But Republican Mark Ronchetti will have one bit of history on his side as he challenges Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham this fall. Since 1990, the party in control of the White House has lost every governor’s race in New Mexico. Lujan Grisham herself crushed a Republican opponent in 2018 as Donald Trump held the presidency. Brian Sanderoff, president of Research & Polli...
SANTA FE — Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus is giving up some of his day-to-day job duties as he handles a personal health issue, state officials say. Steinhaus, who’s 68, said he expects to pull back from travel around the state as he transitions to a less-intensive role leading the department. In an interview Monday, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Steinhaus said they had talked earlier that day about a personal health matter involving the secretary. In response, the governor said, her administration will make cha...
Art Schaap remembers the day in 2018 when people from Cannon Air Force Base knocked on his front door and asked to test his water. The Clovis dairy farmer had seen airmen use firefighting foam during training exercises. But he soon learned that toxic chemicals from that foam had leaked off-base into the groundwater beneath his land. "That's when the nightmare began," he said. In the years since, Schaap found himself unable to sell the cows' contaminated milk or meat. He has...
Customers had more than five on it, as the state said cannabis businesses realized about $21.1 million in recreational sales in the month of May. Medical cannabis sales did $17.4 million — combining for a total sales month of about $38.5 million, according to data released by the state’s Cannabis Control Division on Thursday. The sales number for both recreational cannabis and medical cannabis were slightly lower than in April, when adult-use sales began and when the state realized nearly $40 million between the two. In Apr...
SANTA FE - With wildfires igniting around New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called on state residents to heed evacuation orders and brace for a long fire season. In a weekend briefing, the governor said there were 20 active wildfires burning in 16 different counties around New Mexico - or in nearly half the state's 33 counties. "It is only April and yet we are seeing fire spread ... that we have only ever seen in late May or June," Lujan Grisham told reporters. She also...
Bosque School students came face to face with living history Monday — namely one of New Mexico’s last remaining Holocaust survivors — who came to teach them about the different sides of humanity. Around 40 juniors gathered in a visual and performing arts hall to listen to the story of Andy Holten, a docent for the New Mexico Holocaust Museum who between 1943 and 1944 lost the vast majority of his family to the genocide that claimed the lives of 6 million Jews. “I’m incredibly glad to have had this opportunity, since we...
It’s something when your work rises to the level of a bumper sticker. In Rio Arriba County and the Española Valley, the “Shut Your Trapp” decals refer to the family that founded the scrappy Rio Grande SUN in 1956. Owners and publishers Robert E. and then Robert B. Trapp have not only stressed watchdog journalism, but successfully sued or settled open meetings or records lawsuits against just about every governmental agency in Rio Arriba County, making their SUN one of the most aggressive newspapers in the state. And it’s b...
