Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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A former Clovis police officer charged with drug trafficking and as an accessory to residential burglary turned himself in to authorities on Friday. Frank Careri, 34, under criminal investigation since February 2023, was charged July 26. Since he was out of state at the time, prosecutors gave him until Friday to turn himself in. Court records show Careri was booked into the Curry County Detention Center and released on a personal recognizance bond. Careri waived his...
On this date ... 1941: Clovis was about to become the “most important cold storage point” in New Mexico, according to Railways Ice Co., which was constructing cold-storage lockers. Facilities under construction in Clovis would ultimately contain storage for 55 carloads of produce, including butter, eggs, poultry and fresh vegetables, the Clovis News-Journal reported. Nearest comparable cold-storage facilities were in Oklahoma, Denver and El Paso, officials said. 1942: Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, was hon...
Editor's note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials. Quentin Ray is district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties. Q: Two high-profile crimes have been committed in Clovis over the past year and outside prosecutors have become involved in both. Tell us what you know about the status of the prosecution of the Walmart fire suspect and the man accused of killing two women, shooting a child and kidnapping a baby at Ned Houk Park. A: Both...
Nobody has ever accused me of being some sort of cockeyed optimist. Any rose tint that may have once colored my spectacles has faded due to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. I’m a kind of a hope-for-the-best, plan-for-the-worst kind of guy. On the other hand, every morning when I wake up and pour a cup of coffee in me to get my heart started, I feel blessed. In casting a jaundiced eye over the current world situation, it seems to me that we are neck deep in a p...
One would be hard-pressed to think of a vice president in recent memory placed under as much of a political microscope as Kamala Harris. She can hardly sneeze without someone, somewhere analyzing or dissecting her every move. And let’s not get started on how some of her critics attack her supposed “strange” laugh. Some on the right have insinuated Harris slept her way to the top. Some, including Donald Trump, falsely claim she’s not really Black because her father is light-ski...
Homelessness isn’t as far away from home anymore. January “point in time” counts show that New Mexico’s unhoused population has been growing in recent years, while nationally it’s at a 15-year high. Last year’s count found a 48% increase in New Mexico’s homeless population from a year earlier, and this year’s count showed a 62% increase. This is more than a perception; it’s a reality. It’s not just in the cities these days. Where I live, along Interstate 40 in Santa Rosa, we get our share of transients, sometimes hoofing or h...
Editor's note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials. Toni Whitecotton is the Roosevelt County Fair secretary. Q: Let's talk county fair dates. When does the fair start/end, when are deadlines for submitting entries and how does one go about entering crafts, critters, etc.? A: The Roosevelt County Fair dates are set for Aug. 20-25. Livestock entries were closed on July 26, but there is still time to enter for team roping, which is Aug. 21. You...
On this date ... 1940: More than 6,000 New Mexico farms were being serviced with electricity. “This means that nearly 15% of the farms of the state or about one farm out of seven is now receiving high-line service,” a New Mexico Extension Service spokesman said. 1941: Farmers Electric Cooperative announced plans to string 35 miles of power lines over the next year. “All the new wire will be laid in territory immediately around this area and will be designed to fill up the gaps in the existing coverage,” said project Superin...
On this date ... 1947: The bodies of two Clovis men had been found in the cabin of their chartered plane, which crashed about 20 miles from their destination of Eagle Nest Lake. Jimmie Gressett and John Hardisty, both 21-year-old pilots, were planning to go fishing. Officials said their plane crashed into the side of a narrow canyon near the top of a mountain. 1950: Final plans for the new Portales Hotel were in the hands of the Lambie Construction Co. Orders were being rushed for all materials needed to complete the...
Editor's note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials. Roy Rice is Clovis' police chief. This email exchange focused on school safety. Q: School starts again in just a few days. How are you feeling about student safety locally? Are the area districts doing all they can to prevent campus violence? A: I feel the schools are doing quite a bit to ensure student safety. I have attended meetings and training sessions for the staff to enlighten them on...
If you've traveled U.S. 60-84 through Melrose, chances are you noticed the grain elevator. And if you stopped to take a look around, even better chances are that you met Brenda Allen, who has managed Melrose Grain & Elevator for about seven years. Allen is from Melrose and graduated MHS in 1983. She and her husband decided to take on this service to give back to the small community. Q: What did you imagine yourself doing when you were younger? Did you think you'd always stay...
Some wag once remarked there are 100 people in America who honestly believe they are more than qualified to be president of the United States. These people are called United States senators. Kamala Harris used to be one of them. Having said that, let’s look at what is happening in the Democrat Party, their presidential nomination and their coming convention. If you listened to President Biden’s short speech as to why he stepped down from his certain lock on the nom...
What a change in the political landscape, with Joe Biden’s cancellation and Kamala Harris now topping the Democratic ticket. Suddenly, Donald Trump is the decrepit old man in the race. The best thing the 78-year-old Trump has going for him are sound bites. Listen to one of his stream-of-consciousness rants in its entirety and you’ll see what I mean. His record-setting (in length) Republican National Convention speech was three times longer than his prepared speech, and 10 times more nonsensical. His ramblings show his age...
On this date ... 1960: Stroud’s Food Market at 523 S. Ave. C in Portales offered bacon for 49 cents per pound. Cans of peaches were 25 cents, Cokes were six for 29 cents, and 8-inch fruit pies were three for $1. 1960: Clovis dedicated its new Salvation Army building at Second and Axtell streets. Construction cost $24,500 and was funded with private donations locally and through the Salvation Army, the Clovis News-Journal reported. 1968: Dorothy Worrell of Clovis and Lou Hardy of Tulia had won their second straight B...
After all the speculation about whom he would choose, Donald Trump selected JD Vance, the junior senator of Ohio, as his running mate in the presidential race. A former “public affairs” marine turned venture capitalist, Vance rose to fame in 2016 with the publication of “Hillbilly Elegy,” an engaging narrative that detailed his challenging and adversarial upbringing in poverty-stricken southwestern Ohio and his later experiences at Yale law school. The book became a national b...
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should have saved herself from being roasted for 4 hours and 40 minutes last week by justifiably angry members of the House Oversight Committee livid over the failures of the Secret Service to prevent the shooting of Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally. She should have resigned rather than sit there and make the situation worse. Instead, she quit later. Trump thankfully survived, but rallygoer Corey Comperatore died, as did a lot of the agency’s credibility and Cheatle’s rep...
Roosevelt General Hospital will soon offer pediatric occupational therapy services as well as echocardiogram readings. At their regular meeting Tuesday, hospital CEO Kaye Green told the board that RGH signed the lease for the space where the pediatric occupational therapy services will be provided. “It’s across the parking lot from our existing physical therapy space and on the same side as our speech therapy leased space on South Avenue O,” Green told the News. The space is in need of minimal renovations, according to Green...
On this date ... 1951: A pioneer railroad conductor died in the Clovis hospital. Samuel L. Sutter, 69, of 1216 Main, had fallen ill the same afternoon. He came to New Mexico in 1900 to work for the Santa Fe Railway at Las Vegas. He went to work on the Belen cutoff when construction started in 1906 and made his permanent home in Clovis in 1910. He worked 48 years for the Santa Fe until his retirement as a conductor in 1948. 1960: Area softball players were preparing for the weekend Clovis Jaycee Invitational tournament at...
Editor’s note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials. Sarah Stevens has been the general manager for the Clovis Civic Center since June 2023. Q: What is the actual purpose of the Clovis Civic Center? A: The purpose of the Clovis Civic Center is to provide an event venue for members of the community. These events include banquets, balls, meetings, conferences, quinceañeras, weddings, reunions, birthday and retirement parties. Also, we provide in-house events that the community is welcome to at...
Joe Biden’s plan for regime change in the Kremlin has taken a disastrous turn since its inception in 2022. The innumerable sanctions placed on Russia have failed to destroy the economy, the ruble is not rubble, the Wagner group takeover led by Yevgeny Prigozhin failed to ignite rebellion in military units, governmental organizations or the general populace, Putin was reelected with over 80% of the vote and the war is going badly for Ukraine and their NATO allies. Rather t...
Roosevelt County has received grant money to install turf around the Courthouse in an effort to beautify the downtown area in Portales. As part of the New Mexico Clean and Beautiful grant program, Roosevelt County hopes this project will "meet the objective to improve green spaces and maximize sustainable landscaping," Carla Weems, special projects coordinator for the county said. While the county submitted an application for $36,440, Weems said only $12,025 was awarded. "The...
On this date ... 1950: A Seagraves, Texas, man was arrested by Texas Rangers on suspicion of stealing cattle near Texico. Investigators received a tip the Seagraves man may have been involved in multiple area cattle thefts and they soon learned he'd spent time in prison for similar cattle thefts. The suspect was identified as the man who sold a stolen cow and steer to a rancher near Hugoton, Kan. 1956: New Mexico Gov. John Simms was in Clovis to speak to Kiwanis Club members...
Turns out, Democrats have a mind of their own. You can see it in the fallout from Joe Biden’s weak debate performance, when the president showed his age. And you could see it in last week’s special session of the New Mexico Legislature, when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attempted to run roughshod over her party with poorly vetted legislation. It should have been a humbling experience from our second-term governor, who has been getting things done her way for nearly six years now. But instead of coming out, hat in hand, to apo...
The political world was shaken by the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Footage from the event showed Trump clutch his right ear and go down after gunshots rang out. Quickly rising to his feet amid a phalanx of U.S. Secret Service agents, Trump pumped a fist at the crowd as blood seeped from the side of his head. The agents responded swiftly to protect the former president and shot the apparent attacker, a registered Republican, to death. From the...
Over the five years I’ve been in journalism, I’ve conducted many interviews. Because I graduated from Eastern New Mexico University out of the communication department, you can imagine I spoke to Department Chair Patti Dobson often. And yes, interviewed her multiple times; whether it was for an assignment or even in my professional career if the news related back to ENMU. Learning of Dobson’s passing on Friday really was a heavy weight for me to carry. And undoubtedly so, for all of Dobson’s other students. In a voice m...
