Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The diagnosis fell on Clovis native Lexi Cross like an anvil out of the sky. "You have Type 2 diabetes," her endocrinologist told her last summer at a doctor's office in Roswell. First came "shock." Then confronting her own mortality at 40 years old, followed by an alarming thought of not being there for her four kids, particularly her child with epilepsy. At the time, Cross had said she knew her health habits weren't the greatest. Exercise was contained to weekend softb...
It wasn't just that Laura Araiza's lacking health habits left her "feeling tired of feeling tired." Rather, this lethargy festered into her not being the parent she wanted to be for her four kids. She couldn't play with them. She was "sad all the time." And was prone to snapping. "They weren't getting a good side of me," said Araiza, a native of Clovis and stay-at-home mom. It all came to a head on a family vacation last summer. While at a water park in Dallas, Araiz...
The truck door closed with a thud. The engine awoke. And off Ronnie Montague went. His calloused hands clutched the steering wheel of his Chevy while guiding it through uneven terrain before arriving at a water well on his 1,000-acre irrigation farm, located near Cannon Air Force Base. As droughts have turned water scarcity from a problem to a full-blown crisis, this well is one of many that has declined over the years in Curry County and beyond. “Can’t be worried about it la...
The goal for Manuel Romero, 17, is to purchase a truck that'll help him get to Texas. From there, he hopes to minister a wedding between his two friends. The question is how could he amass the funds to do it. His answer? A yard sale. "I started a month ago," he said from his usual post; the sidewalk outside his grandparents' home on Clovis' Seventh street between Prince and Main. He said he's made "$200" and has weathered the blistering sun that's resulted in "heat sickness...
Willow, a black bear at the Clovis zoo, let out a terrifyingly vicious growl as the tranquility around her was suspended. A stark contrast from Willow's sister, Bailey, who just wanted tussle on a blistering hot summer day. Willow and Bailey are 16-year-old black bear sisters who share a cage at the zoo. Their differing personalities make for a colorful if complicated relationship. Tayli Freed, their zookeeper, described Bailey as "people friendly," "sweet" and in constant...
Take a look at the photo of that cat. Notice anything interesting? In case you can't, it has extra toes, which makes it a polydactyl kitten. Six just like it were dropped off at the Clovis Animal Shelter on July 23. Workers there said they've never received an entire litter of them before. "There's not a ton of cats actually out there with extra toes," said Jacob Pullen, who works at the shelter. Otherwise known as "mitten kittens," the unique felines have a cult following...
At a Prince Street convenience store, at least every day – sometimes more – a curious customer will ask Gem Rainer about his first name. "Is it really Gem?" they'll float while purchasing gas. "How'd you get the name Gem?" they'll say while he scans their Red Bull. Rainer, who's built like an offensive lineman, but has the warmth to cheer you up after a bad game, is happy to tell them. But prefaces it with, "This is a true story." He does that because he knows its obs...
Five years ago, Clovis' Ashleigh Cooper had never lifted weights regularly. Flash forward to July 20, and there was Cooper, body bronzed and chiseled, being told by a judge who helped crown her the 2024 West Texas Wellness Champ, that she's a body building "pro in the making." On Saturday, Cooper will compete in Phoenix with sights set on a path she hopes could lead to becoming an International Fitness and Body Building Federation pro. "Her comment saying that I'm a wellness...
Last Wednesday, Joann Luscombe, her aunt, Frances Simon, and her father, Buddy Prince, gathered at Muffley's Funeral Home in Clovis. They were there to proofread the obituary for their long lost relative, Sgt. Sam Prince -- a Clovis native whose remains were recently found after he died 82 years ago as a prisoner of war in the Philippines. The obituary for Sam Prince, a member of the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment, reads more like a history book than a personal story. That's...
These days, when Tom Schoneman makes the roughly six-hour drive from his Texas home to Earl and Tom's – his spiraling cannabis retail shop in Clovis – he often finds himself "consumed" by stress. Low profits have forced him to recently let go of three full-time workers who used the income to support their families. He said he feels like he "failed them." "Physically, mentally, emotionally, from a point of anxiety, I've never been this under the gun and felt this kind of pre...
Patsy Delk nodded yes, slowly and deeply, when asked if she was overwhelmed by putting together the Curry County history museum. "Lots of sleepless nights," the president of the High Plains Historical Foundation would say. Delk is confident the museum at the Curry County Fairgrounds will be ready for its debut on Aug. 13, the first day of the county fair. But the clock is ticking and so much still needs to be done. If Delk and others can complete it, they'll succeed in tw...
Shortly before being picked to finish seventh in the 10-team Lone Star Conference, members of Eastern New Mexico University sat center stage at the LSC football media day to discuss the difficulty of last season and excitement for the upcoming one. “We were competitive. Close, but no cigar,” said ENMU head coach Kelley Lee of last season. Lee, who’s entering year two of his second head coaching stint at ENMU, mentioned how seven of the games were decided by a touchdown. This meant ENMU, which finished 5-6, could’ve been “9...
In the first meeting of the new fiscal year, the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority updated Ute Reservoir tank levels, outlined its 2025 budget, and detailed an upcoming trip to Washington D.C. Over a month, from June into July, the Ute Reservoir showed a loss of about 1.32 inches. According to Jacquelynn Bowens, support services officer, another loss in about 600-acre feet was recorded. Though the levels dipped, Bowens said “this was significantly lower than the usual decrease rate for the time of year.” Mike Mor...
A faulty sensor in a weather-monitoring system was responsible for flights canceled out of Clovis Regional Airport on Sunday and Monday. Airport Director Amanda Brungart said the glitch in the Automated Weather Observation System was providing inaccurate information to pilots, necessitating the shutdown. Operations were back to normal on Tuesday. Brungart said the weekend issues in Clovis were not related to the tech outage that canceled hundreds of flights and delayed thousands more across the nation’s major airports. The c...
Shortly after returning from last week's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Curry County delegate Tina Dziuk voiced confidence that Donald Trump will win the 2024 presidential election. "I think the way everybody saw him react, that he was concerned for the crowd, that he is a fighter," Dziuk said, "... I think that really brought a lot of people together." Dziuk said she feels Trump will be reelected because of a strong debate and RNC performance. Dziuk also said...
Roughly 450 miles from his Portales home, 11-year-old Adrian Abarca clutched a first-place trophy in a Dallas gym. Pride glowed beneath his blonde hair. Could you blame him? His sets helped Next Level Volleyball Club – based in Lubbock – to win a USA Boys Junior National Championship in late June. But in that tournament, which hosted 250-plus boys' teams of various age levels from various U.S. states and Puerto Rico, Adrian's mom, Jennifer, pointed out another reason for her...
Anthony Ortega sprinted eastbound on West Kaywood in Portales before turning south on North Avenue B about 3 a.m. Monday, law officers allege. He left behind a black hat and the man he’s accused of killing: Benigno “Ben” Castillo, 51, according to an arrest affidavit filed last week in Roosevelt County Magistrate Court. Emergency responders transported the unresponsive Castillo from his pickup truck to Roosevelt General Hospital. Not long after, Castillo died there from a gunshot wound to an artery in his upper thigh, the c...
Last month, B.J. Newton showed up to the first meeting for his new magic club with his Kennedy half-dollar coins and magic wand eager to pass on his passion. Ten minutes passed – no one came ... then 30 minutes ... then an hour ... and after two hours no one. So, with his massive hands that once wooed an emir of Kuwait, the magician packed it all up and vanished to his Clovis home. "I figured at least two or three people would show up, you know?" said Newton, 72, who has d...
Last summer, Stan Hodges was in his pickup truck hauling from one Texas oil site to the next. Just him, his truck and the allure of oil money. That was a foreign world for the 55-year-old Hodges: A lifelong college and high school football coach who sacrificed big paychecks for the internal reward of winning, developing young men and the camaraderie of the football world. His transition from the football field to the oil field started in May of 2023. But while he was making a...
Death was rapidly approaching. His once cancer-riddled lungs puffed out his last breaths. Hospice workers occupied his Clovis home. Yet, Hank Baskett Jr.'s face was aglow when his son Hank Baskett III and his grandkids walked in. "You saw the light in his eyes," said the younger Baskett. In that brief moment, he once again exemplified the positivity and magnetic charm that made him a pillar of Clovis for decades. His children -- his own, their kids, and the hundreds of those...
Former Clovis High football coach Andrew McCraw will once again be the offensive coordinator at Eastern New Mexico University, he said last week. McCraw, in a Monday interview with The News, conceded his resignation from CHS didn't have the best timing, just two months before the season begins. "You don't want to disappoint kids. And I did," McCraw said. But he also pointed out, "You got to take the college football job when they offer because I know how hard it is to get...
On a stretch of U.S. 70, where Clovis fades into Portales, sits a yellow fireworks stand. Tractor-trailer rigs whizz by. Wind-whipped plastic flags flutter about. The Fourth of July is rapidly approaching. And inside this fireworks stand is Seth Tischler, a senior airman at Cannon Air Force Base, hoping that a car will veer off into the gravel lot and make a purchase. That's because money from the purchase will help provide Tischler and his Cannon 5/6 private org...
Editor's note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local residents. Clovis' Steve Watkins is an avid pickleball player whose story illustrates the sport's meteoric rise in popularity. Q: Where does your journey with pickleball begin? A: I have a good friend by the name of Mike Willmon. I played softball with him since we were teenagers. I ran into him one day, and he said, "Hey, you need to come out and play pickleball. You're an athlete, you could do this."...
Phillip Smith, pastor at First Baptist Church of Portales, seems to always be solving a complex equation. "There is a discussion going on about the possibility of switching pews to chairs," Smith said. "Aesthetics does communicate something. So do chairs communicate something different than pews? I don't know. I'm working through some of that stuff." As Pride Month winds down, Smith is also trying to figure out how to wisely approach the topic of LGBTQ+ and Christianity as...
Clovis High School on Thursday announced Corey Pickett will take over as head basketball coach for Josh Mattox. Pickett has been a CHS assistant coach since 2020 and the district's fine arts director for the last two years. Pickett was also a candidate for the position in 2018 when the program looked to replace Scott Robinson after he resigned. "After interviewing (Pickett), we determined he was the best fit for our program," CHS Athletic Director Lonnie Baca told The News,...
