Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Responding to calls from stranded drivers with broken-down cars is a regular feature of the job for New Mexico State Police. But Officer Justin Hare, who was shot and killed while on duty Friday morning, was known for taking that task to the next level. "If he saw a car or a pickup on the side of the highway, he was always stopping to try to help them," said Jason Goen, a Tucumcari mechanic and tow truck driver who regularly worked alongside Hare for years. "When you call out...
SANTA FE -- A proposal to create a state-run paid family and medical leave program in New Mexico cleared its first hurdle Wednesday after passing a committee on a party-line vote. But if the debate before the House Health and Human Services Committee was any indication, the Paid Family and Medical Leave Act seems poised to face much of the same opposition that has stalled it for the past five years: criticisms that the plan will hurt small businesses, that it's written too broadly and that it leaves itself open to abuse. The...
It was January 1987. It would be the year of "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" and "Walk Like An Egyptian," but first, a Republican lawmaker from New Mexico's arid eastern Plains was about to break the state political norms. He was going to move in with a Democrat. Stuart Ingle, the Portales Republican, and Tim Jennings, the Roswell Democrat, had plenty in common. Both were party moderates and former students of New Mexico Military Institute. Both had agricultural roots,...
Portales Mayor Ron Jackson plans to resign at the end of the year due to health reasons, he announced at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Jackson is nearly two years through his current four-year term. He was elected mayor in 2018 before winning re-election in March 2022. He was also previously a City Council member from 2002 to 2014. City Manager Sarah Austin said city councilors will appoint a new mayor until the next election. Jackson told The News on Tuesday that he has b...
Portales’ “baby box” is one step closer to reality after city councilors on Tuesday signed a pact with an advocacy group that’s been raising money for the project. The device, which would be installed at the Portales Fire Department, is a climate-controlled box in which a baby younger than 90 days old can be safely and legally surrendered. The project has been in the works for more than a year, according to Angie Smith, a Portales resident who chairs Right to Life of Roosevelt and Curry counties and is president of the sta...
If you met Henry "Hank" Bayless on the streets of Clovis in his prime, you might have thought: this is not someone to mess with. A towering 6 feet 4 inches, he often wore a black leather jacket over a black T-shirt, his long hair held back in a ponytail. Longtime friend and reality television star Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman liked to say Bayless resembled a modern-day Doc Holliday. It wasn't an act. Hank was a military veteran who went on to become, as one local...
Curry County will do without an official assessor for at least a while longer. After the abrupt and as-of-yet unexplained resignation of former Assessor Randa Jesko last month, county commissioners met Tuesday with four candidates to replace her on an interim basis. After discussing, commissioners decided to give themselves until at least their next meeting to make an appointment. “I want to make sure that I make the best informed decision that I can,” said Commission Chair Robert Thornton. The appointed assessor will fil...
The owners of an ax-throwing venue and shooting range facility outside Clovis won approval for a restaurant liquor license from Curry County commissioners Tuesday. That was despite safety concerns raised about the facility’s emergency exits, access between the two areas, and the wisdom of having alcohol on-site next to a firearms business. Clovis Axe, which shares ownership with Albuquerque-based firing range and gun dealer Calibers Shooting Sports Centers, requested a restaurant liquor license, which would allow them to s...
A Roswell state representative and a longtime Elida rancher are finalists to fill a vacancy left by the resignation of longtime state Sen. Stuart Ingle, winning nominations from three of the five counties covered by the state senate district this week. County commissioners from Curry and De Baca counties have nominated Rep. Greg Nibert, the Republican representative for House District 59, to replace Ingle, who resigned last month after serving in the state Senate since 1985. Roosevelt County, meanwhile, is supporting Elida...
The former longtime leader of a Baptist church-affiliated children’s home in Portales and a Clovis contractor are both facing criminal charges in connection with an alleged scheme that police believe allowed them to bilk the charity of over $1 million over several years. David Randall “Randy” Rankin, 71, executive director of New Mexico Baptist Children’s Home for more than a decade, is charged with 28 felony counts of fraud, one of forgery and one of disposing of stolen...
