Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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New Mexico State police will no longer issue verbal warnings or “cease and desist” orders to businesses that violate the governor’s public health orders. That’s according to Lt. Ramon Terrazas, who informed officers under his command in an email last week. “If the business is found to not be compliant you need to issue the non-traffic citation for violation of a public health order,” the email reads. NMSP Public Information Officer Ray Wilson on Thursday confirmed Terrazas sent the email. “The New Mexico State Police (have)...
Perhaps you've never heard of August Doyle, but his hair was famous. His story played out 50 years ago, which makes today a good day to remember the former airman at Cannon Air Force Base. Doyle grew up in Crosby, Texas, about 25 miles east of Houston, where he graduated high school in 1967. He enrolled at then-North Texas State University, but soon realized "I didn't know anything about college." He was working full-time and taking more than a full load of classes when he dro...
Does the governor have the right to make us wear facemasks, stay 6 feet apart and avoid crowds because some people are getting sick and dying from a contagious disease? It’s a fair question. But probably not the most pressing question we should be considering today. A better one is whether we should wear facemasks, stay 6 feet apart, and follow other “safe practices” recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Ultimately, we each get to decide the answers to those questions. Just ask Curry County Commissioner Seth Marti...
The Roosevelt Brewing Company Tap Room becomes a part of Clovis history at noon on Friday. That's when owner Justin Cole said he plans the next grand opening for the building at 515 N. Main St. You know the place. It's been Sutton's Bakery since 1946. If you'd like to go way back, the location was also home to Clovis Music Shop in the spring of 1930. That's when Denver Pettitt was doing "expert phonograph repairing, furniture refinishing and upholstering," according to a...
Josefita Griego wonders if we could have saved Bob Casey. What if a community search party had been organized at 10:30 that Wednesday night when the 83-year-old man was first reported missing? What if more people had known, sooner, that we all needed to be looking? We may never know, of course. And there’s nothing we can do about it now. But Griego hopes lessons learned in Casey’s death can help prevent a future tragedy. Griego is best known for her community activism, primarily through her “Take Back Your Community” Faceboo...
Born on a mountain top in Tennessee, the greenest state in the land of the free, he was raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree. And he killed him a bear when he was only 3. Davy, Davy Crockett, was the king of the wild frontier — and every boy within the sound of Walt Disney’s voice pretended to be him 65 years ago this summer. For that matter, a lot of young boys fancied themselves Davy Crockett well into the 1960s, and they had the coonskin cap to prove it. “Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier” was released...
CLOVIS - Drones, dogs, hundreds of volunteers on foot and even a helicopter crew came out to search for Bob Casey after he went missing late Wednesday night. The volunteers found the 83-year-old man's body Saturday morning in a field west of Clovis. "With the heat and knowing that he was outside, we were being realistic today that the outcome might not be ideal," said Scott Casey, Bob's nephew. "But it was comforting seeing all the people who came out to help us. Clovis... Full story
President Trump has ideas. New Mexico lawmakers do, too. All the politicians have the same goal: Reform police departments so no more George Floyds are killed over allegations of fake $20 bills. How exactly to achieve this goal is complicated. Our politicians, as always, want to make new laws. What they need to be doing is eliminating some old laws. They can ban chokeholds, employ more officers, reform deadly force policies, supply more military-style weapons ... but none of those ideas will be as effective as reducing the...
Hail, high winds, even one report of a funnel cloud near Floyd, reminded eastern New Mexico on Monday night that it's still storm season. And there was rain. Glorious rain. "I've heard discussion from folks saying the damage was worth it just to get the moisture," said Roosevelt County ag agent Patrick Kircher. "I can't tell you how many people told me they just sat on the porch and watched it rain." Much of the region enjoyed its first significant rainfall since April 14....
Today we have Facebook. But there was a time when upstanding citizens settled their differences face-to-face. That’s what happened 70 years ago this month when a pair of Quay County law officers engaged in a spirited disagreement that media outlets described as a “fracas.” The trouble, according to The Associated Press, began on June 18, 1950, when Clovis District Attorney Richard Rowley signed off on search warrants for a pair of Tucumcari establishments. There was evidence that illegal gambling may have been taking place at...
Remember that time, just three years ago, when Clovis Mayor David Lansford told us there was no choice but to raise taxes? That was just so the city could continue operating without cutting services, he said. Thank goodness we don’t have money problems any more. The city of Clovis has so much of our money now it can afford to entertain us with a fireworks show. City commissioners on Friday night approved spending $10,000 for the big booms. The vote was 6-1, with only Helen Casaus acting like a responsible adult. Curry County...
Our newspaper would never endorse a political candidate who champions big government. There’s a need to be clear about that today because a Republican candidate for Congress recently paid Facebook to link one of our newspaper’s news reports to her campaign page. She was asked to remove the post because it felt like a subtle endorsement of her candidacy. But Alexis Johnson says including our newspaper’s name plate and news coverage as part of her paid advertising campaign is not suggesting the newspaper is endorsing her....
Insubordinate teenagers dragged Clovis Main Street for at least 50 years. Parents forbid the practice, cops harassed the perpetrators, the city even tried to make up laws to discourage the ritual — nothing worked, until gas prices started doubling in the 1980s. That worked pretty good, followed by options for electronic forms of entertainment, and so kids don’t drag Main much anymore. But their rebel grandparents still do, at least once a year. The annual Clovis Draggin’ Main Music Festival will be without the music festi...
The Hawaiian shirt O’Rion Petty wears as a member of the New Mexico Civil Guard is not a coincidence. He supports the “boogaloo,” an anti-government movement that Fox News and others have described as “on the verge of a second civil war.” Petty, 32, of Clovis, is captain of the NM Civil Guard’s Curry County company, which made its presence known last week at rallies protesting police treatment of black people. The NMCG’s mission, according to Petty, is to defend citizens and their private property if violence breaks out. H...
CLOVIS - They call themselves the New Mexico Civil Guard for Curry County. Their stated mission: Defend citizens and their private property. "We will not allow businesses in our community to be put through the pain we've seen nationwide," their Facebook page reads. "The protests are necessary, we fully understand that, and to an extent the violence is necessary, but we will not allow that violence to be directed at our citizens and their property." The group, headed up...
Let us make our own decisions, we said. We can be responsible, we said. And so, just in time for Memorial Day weekend, after two months with much of the state, as well as the nation, in government lockdown, we were essentially freed to do what we said we didn’t need no stinkin’ government to do for us. We were allowed to protect ourselves from the coronavirus as we see fit. As we should have been since the first case was confirmed this winter. Based on the crowds at the outdoor recreation areas and the restaurants and the...
This weekend was supposed to celebrate the region’s trailblazers. The annual Pioneer Days parade, rodeo, reunions and more were scheduled Thursday through Saturday until we were all thrown by the coronavirus. So that makes today a good day to remember Clovis’ first Pioneer Days, on June 5, 1935. The Clovis Evening News-Journal, one of the event’s major sponsors, reported 15,000 people were in town that Wednesday. That’s significant because the town’s population was about 9,000 at the time. A parade kicked off festiviti...
With Election Day scheduled June 2, it’s time to ask candidates a favorite question: What’s the purpose of government? Many are stumped and need a little time to think about it, apparently having never before considered the issue. The correct answer, as established by the authors of The Declaration of Independence, is short and sweet: The purpose of government is to secure the rights bestowed upon us by the Creator — life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We can appreciate additional details, but that’s the gist of it,...
CLOVIS - After two decades of dressing eastern New Mexico, Dillard's department store is planning to close its North Plains Mall location. Dillard's has been the southside anchor for the mall since 2000. It moved into its current location soon after Walmart left the mall spot in 1999. Clovis' store manager Christopher Addison confirmed the store's closing, but said additional information would have to come from corporate offices. About two dozen shoppers were gathered outside...
Rich, poor, tall, short, masked, unmasked — most of us have one thing in common: We love a good county fair. Let’s hope it happens this year. Curry County commissioners in the next few weeks will have to decide if the COVID-19 pandemic will prevent us from celebrating one of our favorite annual community festivals. Deadlines for vendor contracts are coming up and — if signed — County Manager Lance Pyle said taxpayers could lose more than $100,000 if the virus prevents us from enjoying the livestock shows, tejano music and car...
PORTALES — When the Heartland Continuing Care Center resident first learned on Friday that she’d tested positive for COVID-19, she was none too happy about it. “She gave us an earful,” Heartland CEO Ranelle Tweedy said of the 96-year-old woman’s reaction to the news. “She said nobody was going to tell her she had this silly virus.” Tweedy said the resident, whom she would not identify because of privacy laws, had not felt sick before or after she was most recently tested on May 12. The positive result — the first involving...
A few thoughts on the pandemic, the state’s latest directives, and being responsible for ourselves: • The governor on Wednesday announced she’s relaxing more of her public health orders aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19. Most retail businesses can open again, with limits on capacity. Also, the governor says everybody has to wear a mask in public unless they’re eating, drinking or exercising. To be clear, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s one-size-fits-all commandments have been irresponsible and devastating to small bus...
JCPenney on Friday filed for bankruptcy and announced it will “reduce our store footprint to better align our business with the current operating environment.” A company spokesperson declined to say if the Penney’s in Clovis’ North Plains Mall would be among those impacted. “We don’t have a list to share and will disclose specific store details and the timing in the coming weeks,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “Stores will close in phases throughout the Chapter 11 process — and the first phases of closures, includi...
Parmer County’s per-capita rate for COVID-19 cases is well above Texas’ state average. But county officials are not tying those cases to the Cargill meat-processing plant near Friona. “I can’t tell you how many total cases have come out of Cargill,” Parmer County Judge Trey Ellis said on Tuesday. “I just know that out of the 21 I’ve been told about (in Parmer County), there’s only two out of Cargill.” Ellis said one confirmed case of the virus has been reported in Farwell, five have come out of Bovina and the rest are in t...
I collect historical tidbits that interest me from area newspapers. Here are a few from Mays past as reported by newspapers in Portales: • May 2, 1910: The Roosevelt County Herald reported Portales was installing "a very comprehensive system of water works, sewers and electric lights," and also working to build cement walks. Another city need was for more trees, which would "doubtless be fixed as soon as the city is able to supply water," the paper reported. • May 3, 194...
