Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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As a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in Clovis struggle to raise money to meet an end-of-the-year deadline for kitchen upgrades, some members of the Clovis Christian Ministerial Alliance fear a plan to convert the old Memorial Hospital into a ministry center will cut into funds needed by the Lighthouse Mission. The plan is referred to as the Matt. 25 project. “Right now the Lighthouse Mission is the only shelter for people in need other than the domestic violence shelter and I don’t know of any other place in town that has...
A student group at Clovis High School is bringing a U.S. Congressman to Clovis to help raise money for the Matt. 25 ministry center. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes, led by organizational president Jordan Strebeck, is selling $25 tickets to an April 23 dinner at which Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican from Hobbs, will be the keynote speaker. The event will begin at 7 p.m. at the Hartley Barn. Pearce’s district doesn’t include Clovis, but Strebeck said he has advocated supporting faith-based charities for many years and...
While most area churches are celebrating Easter in some form, the celebrations differ significantly from congregation to congregation. For Father John Rollinson, rector of St. James Episcopal Church, maintaining liturgical traditions passed down for centuries is important. “Jesus said, ‘If anyone would follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.’ Holy Week is a particularly good time to be focusing on the cross,” Rollinson said. “Generally in the Episcopal Church a good percentage of people make a po...
While most Christians in the Clovis area are preparing to celebrate Easter, a few area residents observed the far more ancient Jewish festival of Passover on Monday night and Tuesday. “In the Jewish religion, family is intertwined with the religion. There really is no separation of the religion from the family,” said Capt. Mike Nachshen, who was a Jewish lay leader at another military base before coming to Cannon Air Force Base. “Tradition is the other portion of it; it is a chance to basically tell the story of the exodu...
A fatal truck crash west of Melrose shut down the BNSF railroad and Highway 60/84 for hours on Wednesday while hazardous materials crews worked to remove pressurized gas cylinders containing flammable gases. During the cleanup, officers narrowly averted a second crash when a Ford F-150 pickup truck containing 18 people nearly hit De Baca County Deputy Michael Mussman. After flagging the pickup down, deputies turned all 18 occupants of the pickup over to the Border Patrol on suspicion of being illegal aliens. According to the... Full story
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Military officers rarely cry in public, and commanders crying in front of their troops is even less common. But that didn’t prevent Col. Robert “Rowdy” Yates, outgoing commander of the 27th Fighter Wing and Cannon Air Force Base, from choking back tears with a breaking voice during Friday’s change of command ceremony before hundreds of troops standing in formation in a large hangar at Cannon Air Force Base. “Take care of these people, my people,” Yates said to his replacement, Col. John D. Posner. “I...
Cannon Air Force Base personnel will mark a transition between commanders with a change of command ceremony at 3 p.m. today. The incoming commander, Col. John Posner, was most recently stationed at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The next assignment for the outgoing commander, Col. Robert Yates, will be to a different position at Langley where he is scheduled for promotion to brigadier general. The ceremony will take place in Hangar 208 on base. Attendance is limited to Cannon personnel, invited guests, and others such as...
Meeting with local media for a press conference on his last full day commanding Cannon Air Force Base, Col. Robert “Rowdy” Yates said the last two years have been the best of his life. That ends at 3 p.m. today with a change of command ceremony at Cannon, after which Yates will leave for Langley Air Force Base in Virginia where he is scheduled for promotion to brigadier general in a headquarters staff job. Yates said he will miss flying fighter jets on a regular basis and isn’t looking forward to wearing a dress unifo...
Jonathan Bernd has a message not only for ethnic Jews like himself but also for the gentile Christian community. “Just as my ancestors had to put the blood of the lambs on their doorposts so the Angel of Death would pass over them, we today need to have the blood of the Messiah on the doorposts of our hearts,” Bernd told about 100 people assembled Monday at Central Baptist Church for a “Christ in the Passover” presentation by Bernd, a Boston-based missionary of Jews for Jesus. Bernd, a missionary for the organization since 1... Full story
A 70-year-old farmer from Melrose on Wednesday was sentenced to two years in state prison for vehicular homicide, despite warnings from his attorney that prison time could be a death sentence. District Judge Stephen Quinn decided to go beyond the Department of Corrections' pre-sentencing recommendation that Harry Downey receive five years probation with no jail time. Downey was convicted Jan. 30 of homicide by vehicle in the July 13, 2001, death of Anna Beth Austin, 57, on a road north of Melrose. “Taking into account that M...
When David Walstad, minister of music and senior adults at Parkland Baptist Church in Clovis, was studying music in seminary, he and his wife chose to attend a large church near Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. That decision was partly because they’d never been members of a large church before, but also because he wanted to see how a large church does musical programs. “We saw that what a large church could do would be able to be scaled back to the capabilities of a smaller church,” Walst...
A civilian pilot suvived because Cannon Air Force Base took emergency steps to guide his damaged plane to Cannon’s runways during severe weather on March 12, according to Col. Robert Yates, 27th Fighter Wing commander. “When you have a fellow pilot in trouble you just pull out all the stops to get them on the ground safely and then ask questions later,” Yates said. Col. Lee “Tip” Wight, operations group commander at Cannon, said he got a phone call about 10 that night alerting him that a small, four-seater civilian plane pil...
Booby traps left behind after a hostage standoff in Friona prompted local officials to call Cannon Air Force Base on Sunday for help. SWAT officers discovered the devices when attempting to enter the parsonage of First Baptist Church of Friona after fatally shooting Robby Lynn Vaughn of Muleshoe, the man they say took the Rev. Mark Stovall and his family hostage on Saturday. “The suspect had pulled the doors off some of the interior doorways, taken all the cabinets off the kitchen walls and screwed them into the door f... Full story
It’s been a year since the war in Iraq began. While many servicemembers assigned to the initial assault have rotated back home, some are still deployed in Iraq, some have been sent there more recently and others have just recently returned. Here are some of their stories. n n n Julian Urioste, a senior airman assigned to Warner Robbins Air Force Base near Macon, Ga., got a foreign trip right after Thanksgiving, courtesy of the U.S. Air Force — a 90-day deployment to Iraq. That meant he missed spending Christmas and New Yea...
A Portales resident spent part of Thursday morning making emergency calls to relatives in Spain to make sure none of them were among the more than 190 killed and 1,400 injured there by a series of terrorist bomb attacks. “We called up and, thank God, nobody was injured,” said Martin Keane, a graduate student at Eastern New Mexico University. Keane’s mother is Spanish. He’s a dual citizen of both the United States and Spain, having been born in the Spanish capital of Madrid and coming to New Mexico when his father was assigned...
Area law enforcement agencies received free gun locks on Tuesday from the National Shooting Sports Foundation. Local residents can pick up the safety locks at the Portales Police Department or the Roosevelt County Sherrif’s Office. Portales Police Capt. Lonnie Berry said he has about 800 safety locks that will fit almost any gun. “It’s a child safety issue,” Berry said. “We’re hoping we can take care of quite a few people.” Berry said the locks were awarded thanks to a grant from the Department of Justice. Curry County...
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Cannon’s 27th Fighter Wing added another award in February to its increasing stack: the Colombian trophy, given each year to the base rated best in the Air Force for safety. The nomination documentation submitted by Cannon Air Force Base cited a long list of accomplishments, including flying 15,239 sorties with 20,940 hours in the air without a single crash, serious injury, or property damage incident over $1 million. According to the documentation, about a fifth of that activity was during war... Full story
The judicial district covering Curry and Roosevelt counties is one of only three in the state with no type of drug court for nonviolent offenders. Ninth Judicial District Judge Teddy Hartley would like to change that. Drug court is a program that imposes strict probation conditions and mandatory treatment and work programs on nonviolent drug and alcohol offenders. It also offers the opportunity to avoid jail time. “I personally believe this is a very, very, very important project and I think when you see the results, y... Full story
NOTE: An article with a response by a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations follows this story. When a missionary to the Islamic world told Pastor Rob Hollis of First Baptist Church of Texico that he’d be available to speak, the church jumped at the chance to offer a presentation on Islam to the community. On Sunday, David Witt of the Voice of the Martyrs organization, a ministry that a number of church members have supported for years, will lead seminars at 9 and 10:15 a.m. at the church. “Because we do... Full story
Painful. Violent. Graphic. So was described “The Passion of the Christ,” which opened at theaters around the country on Wednesday. Mel Gibson’s new film about Christ’s death played to sellout crowds at Clovis’ North Plains Cinema — emotional, appreciative crowds who applauded its realism. “It’s graphic,” said Pastor Rob Hollis of First Baptist Church in Texico. “I would encourage parents, if your children are going to see it, to see it with them and to have a good talk with them afterwards about what it means.” Hollis said... Full story
When Col. Robert Yates leaves Cannon Air Force Base for his new post in Virginia, he’ll carry with him a new title: “brigadier general (select).” Yates’ name was included on the list of promotions to one-star general released Tuesday morning by the Air Force, and while he won’t get to replace the eagle on his lapels with a star for at least a year and a half, Yates said the promotion will help him do his work at Langley Air Force Base more effectively. Yates said he expects attaining the rank of general officer will be helpfu...
Co-workers and friends expressed shock and disbelief Monday, following the apparent suicide of Clovis Community College instructor William H. Windley Jr. Police said Windley, 32, of Portales, purchased a gun and ammunition on Friday afternoon at the Beaulieu Brothers Pawn City store in Clovis, then shot himself in the head in front of about 10 customers and employees. Officials at both Clovis Community College, where Windley taught, and Eastern New Mexico University, where he attended school, are holding memorial services...
Col. Robert “Rowdy” Yates, commander of the 27th Fighter Wing at Cannon Air Force Base, has announced that he will soon be leaving for Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. Langley is the headquarters of Air Combat Command, the major command of the United States Air Force that includes the 27th Fighter Wing. In e-mail correspondence with the Clovis News Journal, Yates said his new role at Langley will be “Special Assistant to the Air Combat Command Director of Operations.” Yates’ replacement, Col. John Posner, will be coming... Full story
Longtime Portales businessman Marshall Stinnett said the Base Realignment and Closure process needs to concern Portales leaders, not just those in Clovis who are closer to Cannon Air Force Base. “We have 150 Air Force housing units down here,” Stinnett said. “If we have any economic expansion in the Clovis area it helps other communities. Just as with the cheese plant, it will help our community as well.” That’s part of why he serves on the New Mexico Military Base Planning Commission, a group established by the New Mexic...
For those serving in the military, 2003 will go down as the year America went to war. Day after day in late 2002 and early 2003, television screens and newspaper front pages were filled with scenes of spouses, parents, and sometimes children waving goodbye to departing service members. More often than not, those troops headed toward a massive buildup of forces in the Middle East confronting Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Cannon Air Force Base went to its highest possible security level within hours of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist a...
