Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Days remaining in session: 28 Eyebrow-raising introductions: It's customary for lawmakers to introduce their loved ones to the public on opening day of the Legislature. Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, raised eyebrows Tuesday when he introduced his. Pirtle, who is in the midst of a divorce from the mother of his three young children, showed up with a new baby and a former legislative staffer he introduced as his partner. In the final days of last year's legislative session, Pirtle was thrust into an embarrassing scandal when...
SANTA FE -- Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham laid out an ambitious agenda for this year's 30-day legislative session that includes a slew of new gun control laws and more money for health care, education, infrastructure and housing. Much of the governor's hourlong State of the State address Tuesday was focused on ideas she unveiled earlier this month, either in her budget proposal or in a package of public safety-related bills. The governor went off script several times, though, when her speech was interrupted by chants from the...
Question: What's toothy, about 73 million years old, and hails from south-central New Mexico? The answer: A new species of dinosaur, discovered by a team of paleontologists associated with the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. The new species, known as Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, is an older relative of the world's most famous dinosaur — the Tyrannosaurus rex. The discovery, published by a group of researchers spanning New Mexico, the U.S., Canada and England, fundamentally changes paleontologists' u...
Lawmakers and advocates for a statewide program offering paid family and medical leave for workers hope an overhauled bill in this year's legislative session will assuage concerns in the business community and gain enough support to cross the finish line. Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, said at a news conference Wednesday lawmakers are putting together a "stronger bill, better bill," with changes that could increase its chances of success. Many small-business owners spoke against a similar Senate proposa...
In a recent meeting about upcoming stories, the Pasatiempo editorial staff discussed ways to put Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the spotlight. Only a handful of New Mexico communities hold events tied to the holiday. Perhaps that’s not a surprise in a state whose population was 2.7% Black in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. One could argue that the late civil rights leader should be celebrated regardless, but I’ve lived in enough states to understand that locally cherished celebrations often reflect the dem...
SANTA FE – State lawmakers have unveiled a $10.1 billion budget proposal they say will help keep New Mexico on sound financial footing if the oil and gas boom that pays for almost half the state’s spending cools down in the coming years. Their proposal is about $400 million smaller than the fiscal year 2025 budget Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham unveiled Thursday in advance of the 30-day legislative session starting next week. The goal, members of the Legislative Finance Committee said during a news conference Friday, is to bui...
New Mexico is one of only a few states that doesn’t outlaw necrophilia outright. State Rep. Stefani Lord wants to change that. The Sandia Park Republican said she started drafting a bill after learning during a crimes against children seminar that New Mexico hasn’t criminalized the sexual desecration of human remains, which made it difficult to prosecute what she called a horrific case. “Somebody in law enforcement brought up a case where someone was raped after they were murdered, and they could not charge [the suspect] with...
Lawmakers grappling with the issue of gun violence endorsed a number of proposals — including imposing a 14-day waiting period to purchase a gun and prohibiting carrying or using guns near an Election Day polling site — at a committee meeting Tuesday at the Capitol. The endorsements made by members of the interim Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee don't necessarily mean the bills will win enough support to pass during next year's legislative session, But they do put a spotlight on legislation that could be heard dur...
The head of the state Department of Finance and Administration gave lawmakers some good news Monday when he told them yes, there is a Santa Claus: New Mexico can expect nearly $13 billion in recurring revenue for lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to enjoy come January. Citing the famous New York Sun editorial "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus," Wayne Propst, secretary of the state Department of Finance and Administration, told members of the Legislative Finance Committee on Monday the forecast of nearly $12.768 b...
The Public Education Department is asking for a 21% increase in its overall budget, from $4.2 billion this year to nearly $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2025. However, Thursday's budget request before the Legislative Finance Committee was largely overshadowed by lawmakers' criticism of the Public Education Department's proposed rules, which would require 180 days of instruction for all schools beginning in the 2024-25 school year and impose a new school accreditation process. Lawmakers from all over the state and across the...
A Republican-led challenge to New Mexico’s congressional maps appears to be over. Ash Soular, spokeswoman for the state GOP, wrote in an email Wednesday that the party has no plans to pursue a rehearing “at this time” of the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding the districts. That means the case, which has been playing out in the state courts since after the new maps were approved by lawmakers in 2021, ends in a victory for Democrats and the current lines will remain in place. In late November the state Supreme...
New Mexico’s highest court will soon decide whether local governments have the right to restrict abortion in the face of state laws protecting abortion access. Attorney General Raúl Torrez, who is challenging several conservative eastern New Mexico cities and counties that have passed anti-abortion ordinances, said during Wednesday’s state Supreme Court hearing that such ordinances are “preempted by state law.” This doesn’t just apply to abortion, Torrez said — other laws, such as the state’s legalization of recreational c...
Federal and state grants adding up to $1 million have given the city of Clovis a chance to finish renovations of the 1919 Lyceum theater. The Lyceum has been closed since a theater group departed in 2013. With the new funding, city officials hope to reopen it in about a year. The Lyceum is one of three historic downtown Clovis theaters in various stages of revival. The Mesa and State theaters, both also closed for years, reopened in 2021 after renovations, although the State...
The state Supreme Court affirmed a District Court judge’s decision that said while Democratic lawmakers tried to dilute Republican voting power in one of the state’s three congressional districts, their efforts did not equate to gerrymandering. Pending a potential rehearing, Monday’s ruling means the redistricted boundaries will remain in place. The state’s highest court issued a four-page decision on the case Monday morning, a week after it heard oral arguments on whether Senate Bill 1, approved in a special session in late...
The state Supreme Court has rescheduled a date to hear oral arguments in an appeal of a case involving allegations Democrats in the Legislature purposefully redrew a redistricting map to give the party a better chance of winning the 2nd Congressional District. In an order issued Tuesday, the court rescheduled the date from Nov. 21 to Nov. 20. In a ruling earlier this month, 9th Judicial District Judge Fred Van Soelen of Clovis held Democrats “succeeded in substantially diluting their opponents’ votes” by dividing the GOP’s...
A state district judge has ruled that while Democratic lawmakers may have worked to dilute Republican voting power in one of the state's three congressional districts, their efforts did not rise to the level of "of an egregious gerrymander." The ruling by Ninth Judicial District Judge Fred T. Van Soelen of Clovis struck a blow to the plaintiffs in the case, including the Republican Party of New Mexico, who sued in January 2022. The GOP argued the Democratic-majority Legislature purposefully redrew the map for the 2nd...
SANTA FE -- Democratic state lawmakers are pushing ahead with a plan to revive a contentious proposal to establish a paid family and medical leave program in New Mexico during next year's 30-day legislative session. Supporters of the proposed legislation — which cleared the Senate but stalled in a House committee in the final days of the 60-day session earlier this year — hope Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham will add it to the call but believe it could still come up for consideration as a budget issue in 2024. Unlike 60-day ses...
A state district judge has ruled that while Democratic lawmakers may have worked to dilute Republican voting power in one of the state's three congressional districts, their efforts did not rise to the level of "of an egregious gerrymander." The ruling by Ninth Judicial District Judge Fred T. Van Soelen of Clovis struck a blow to the plaintiffs in the case, including the Republican Party of New Mexico, who sued in January 2022. The GOP argued the Democratic-majority Legislature purposefully redrew the map for the 2nd...
Attorney General Raúl Torrez sent a letter Tuesday to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, alerting her he will not defend her office in any lawsuit challenging her executive order temporarily suspending the right to carry firearms in Albuquerque. The governor announced the order Friday after declaring the state in a public health emergency due to a high rate of run violence. She cited a series of shootings that have killed New Mexico children. The order, in effect for at least 30 days, has led to several lawsuits challenging its...
SANTA FE -- Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Friday announced a new public health order that, she said, will ban people from carrying firearms, either open or concealed, in Albuquerque and throughout Bernalillo County for the next 30 days, regardless of whether they have a permit. Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, issued an executive order Thursday evening declaring gun violence a public health emergency. During a news conference Friday, she said she expects legal challenges to the public health order and expressed uncertainty about...
New Mexico's COVID-19 fortunes — which seemed so promising only a few weeks ago — are beginning to darken, state health officials said Wednesday. Just as health care experts and hospital leaders exhaled in relief in July with a decline in the number of COVID-19 cases, an official with the state Department of Health said New Mexico is now following a national trend of increasing infections. "The trends will be the same with cases rising and hospitalizations ticking up slowly as well," Health Department spokesman David Bar...
It’s official: New Mexico will spend another year at the bottom of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2023 Kids Count Data Book’s child well-being rankings. For the fourth time in five years, the state ranked 50th nationwide in the data set, an amalgamation of economic well-being, health, education and family demographic data released Wednesday from all 50 states. Despite the state’s poor showing, Amber Wallin, executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children — the statewide children’s advocacy organization that collects Ki...
Jerry Apodaca was a football player at the University of New Mexico, and that sense of competition never evaporated when he traded his shoulder pads for a real contact sport: politics. Determined and gritty, Apodaca parlayed his background in athletics, the insurance business and two terms in the state Senate into the highest office in New Mexico. A Democrat, he was elected governor in 1974, the first Hispanic to head the state in the modern era. Apodaca died Wednesday morning following what may have been a stroke at his...
SANTA FE -- As the state Taxation and Revenue Department prepares to start sending out the latest batch of tax rebates, thousands of New Mexicans are still waiting to receive last year’s checks. Some 16,000 rebate checks sent by mail bounced back as undeliverable, and an additional 18,000 have been sidelined by errors in 2021 tax returns. “We’re working really hard to get this money into the pockets of New Mexicans as quickly and as efficiently as we can because we know New Mexicans are struggling with inflation, high price...
SANTA FE -- Anti-abortion ordinances adopted by elected officials in two cities and two counties in a conservative region of southeastern New Mexico violate the state constitution’s Bill of Rights, making them invalid, Attorney General Raúl Torrez wrote in a legal brief. “The ordinances’ singling out abortion for licensure and other regulation, in contrast to other medical procedures, violates the Equal Rights Amendment’s protection against pregnancy-based discrimination,” Torrez wrote, according to a draft of the brief, file...
