Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Twenty five years ago this month marked the end of the five-and-dime era: F.W. Woolworth's called it quits after more than a century. The once mighty retail pioneer announced on July 17, 1997, that its 400 remaining stores, a fraction of what it operated in its glory days, would close for good. In the pre-Dollar General era, Woolworth's dotted the nation and four continents with stores and famed lunch counters. Woolworth's opened its first 5-cent stores in Utica, N.Y., and...
A New Mexico native and former Eastern New Mexico University player and coach has been hired as Clovis High School’s new head football coach. Andrew McCraw, 35, a native of Lovington, accepted the position effective July 1, according to a news release from Clovis schools. McCraw most recently was head coach at Belen High School last year where he led the team to a 7-4 record and a brief playoff run. McCraw was offensive line coach and academic coordinator at ENMU from 2017 t...
Much of New Mexico has been on fire this month, and firefighters continue preaching to anyone who will listen – one spark can set off a massive blaze. “The grassland wildfires right now just have us on edge,” Clovis Fire Chief Mike Nolen said Tuesday. “There is no humidity, the fuel loads are all high. As soon as we get a report, we’re throwing everything we’ve got at it. I’m praying for rain every day.” All around the state, it’s the firefighting equivalent of Whack-a-Mole. Though crews continued to gain ground on four bl...
The news of New Mexico state police pay raises is apparently having a ripple effect across the state. The effect on local law enforcement was mentioned at the most recent Curry County Commission meeting. A report has come from the western side of the state in Grant County that during an April 14 regular meeting of the Santa Clara trustees, district 39 state Representative Luis Terrazas spoke about raises in State Police salaries. Terrazas expressed support for the State Police, but highlighted the “unintended c...
Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a disaster declaration for 16 Texas counties where severe storms swept through Monday, tearing open schools and leveling homes. A least one person, a 73-year-old Grayson County woman, died and more than a dozen, including 10 in Grayson County, were injured, The Associated Press reported. The first significant weather event of the spring also dropped nearly 6 inches of snow across parts of the Texas Panhandle and left eastern New Mexico wet and windblown. Monday and Tuesday saw wind gusts in the...
Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin was convicted Tuesday of illegally entering the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021. A federal judge, however, acquitted Griffin on charges he engaged in disorderly conduct during the riot in which supporters of President Donald Trump attempted to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. Sentencing is scheduled June 17. Griffin faces a maximum of one year in prison. Griffin’s trial in Washington, D.C., was the second held in connection with the siege. Ear...
Clovis and Portales public school graduation rates improved in 2021 and both had higher rates than the state average. That’s according to statistics released this week by the New Mexico Public Education Department. In Clovis, the four-year graduation rate among high school seniors was 77.9% in 2021, compared to 70.4% in 2020. In Portales, the rate improved to 82.1% from 78.3%. Texico, Melrose and Floyd also saw rate increases. Grady, Elida and Dora rates decreased slightly, but all remained well above the statewide a...
Wintry weather will persist throughout New Mexico this week, with several storm systems that could bring rain, snow, wind and extremely cold temperatures. Clay Anderson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque, said winds will be the major concern today. “Because of that, especially across eastern New Mexico, we could see some critical fire weather conditions,” Anderson said. Today’s high temperature in Clovis-Portales is expected to top out near 60, with wind gusts up to 40 mph. A stron...
SANTA FE -- District Attorney Andrea Reeb was optimistic a month ago, hopeful that New Mexico lawmakers would be cracking down on crime this legislative session. More than halfway through the 30-day session, she’s now frustrated. “Nothing is happening. Nothing is getting through,” she said Tuesday. Lawmakers, in the face of rising violent crime across the state, last month introduced multiple bills aimed at reducing that crime, including pretrial detention issues and eliminating a statute of limitations for secon...
New Mexico reported nearly 15,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday and 33 additional deaths, pushing the statewide toll to 6,292 since the onset of the pandemic. The magnitude of new cases was down a bit compared to what the state was reporting last week. The state set records for the number of new COVID cases on three consecutive days to end last week, including two days that surpassed 6,000 new cases per day. Of the 14,898 cases reported Monday, which included cases found over the weekend, 351 of them were in Curry and...
The National Weather Service claims snowfall across eastern New Mexico is possible by New Year’s Day. But don’t expect much. “If we get anything it might be Saturday,” said Dan Heerding, Clovis’ emergency management director. “(T)he La Nina is keeping everything to the north.” La Nina weather patterns lead to drought in the Southern U.S. While some local areas saw traces of rain on Monday night, it’s been nearly 80 days since the region has seen measurable precipitation. National Weather Service reports chances of mois...
If you’re dreaming of a white Christmas, make sure you’re also dreaming of a far-flung trip because eastern New Mexico’s weather forecast isn’t calling for any snowfall over the holiday weekend. Two conditions are required for snowfall — precipitation and temperatures of 32º or lower. The National Weather Service is predicting a 0% chance of precipitation this week, and low temperatures are in the high 30s for the weekend. Todd Shoemake, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque, said snow this...
CLOVIS — Monday saw Clovis grab a No. 1 ranking nobody wants. According to the Department of Health’s Monday report of 2,201 new cases of COVID-19, the 88101 ZIP code had the highest in the state with 107. It was one of three ZIP codes with triple-digit cases over the weekend, along with Carlsbad (106) and Hobbs (101). Curry County reported 114 total new cases between Friday and Monday, while Roosevelt County confirmed new 30 cases. The state reported nine new virus-related deaths on Monday, eight in the last few days and...
COVID-19 hospitalizations in New Mexico reached 148 patients Monday — more than twice as many as a month ago. Plains Regional Medical Center in Clovis also reported a spike in COVID-related patients: Hospital Director Jorge Cruz said Tuesday the facility had 12 patients with the virus, including two in intensive care and one pediatric patient. Cruz said seven COVID patients were hospitalized in Clovis on Friday, up from four on July 27 and two on July 22. Cruz said no COVID-related deaths have occurred in the hospital the pas...
The number of COVID-19 patients in New Mexico hospitals increased again last week, reaching the highest peak in more than two months. Health Department officials on Friday reported 148 people were hospitalized in the state with the virus. At the end of June, that number was 64. It's the most hospitalizations in New Mexico in a single day since 155 people with the virus were in state hospitals on May 20. The numbers also are rising in Clovis, though not significantly. Plains...
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in New Mexico has increased 89 percent in the past four weeks, according to the state’s Department of Health. The state reported 64 COVID patients were in New Mexico hospitals on June 30. That number was at 121 on Tuesday, the highest single-day total since May 26 when 130 were hospitalized. The rise in hospitalizations happened on the same day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance to recommend that even fully vaccinated individuals wear masks in p...
New Mexico is expected to close out a wet July with another rainy week - except for the east side of the state. Daily rain and thunderstorm chances will be concentrated in the state’s western half and northern mountains, said Scott Overpeck, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Albuquerque. “We still need to be on our toes with the heavy rainfall threats with flash flooding,” Overpeck said. “Especially in our areas that have already seen a lot of rainfall, it won’t take much for ... the arroyos to fill...
Curry and Roosevelt counties, like many others across the state and the nation, are reporting increased numbers of COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. Through Friday, Curry County had reported 81 new cases in July, three more than it recorded in all of June. Sixty-eight new cases had been reported since July 9. In Roosevelt County, 29 new cases had been reported in July through Friday. Roosevelt recorded 19 new cases in June. Amarillo and Lubbock health officials last week also reported an increase in COVID-19 cases as well as...
Taking a ride in a hot air balloon was something that Clovis native Susan Montoya always wanted to do, one of the adventures on her bucket list that she talked to friends and coworkers about. So when word came down that the assistant principal at Albuquerque's Georgia O'Keeffe Elementary School was transferring to another school, teachers and coworkers took it upon themselves to make that dream come true. They chipped in to purchase a balloon ride for Susan and three guests...
In the mid-1970s, Charles E. Becknell, then in grade school, attended one of the first official Juneteenth celebrations in New Mexico. At the time, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery was an obscure one to many people outside the Black community. "The Black community always knew about Juneteenth," said Becknell, 53, now head of the Africana Studies program at the University of New Mexico. "It was and is a celebratory experience for native African New Mexicans." "Ask the average New Mexican if they know it's a state...
SANTA FE — New Mexico added more than 110 fatalities to its official COVID-19 death toll Monday as the Department of Health announced the completion of an audit of public health records. The adjustment pushed the state’s coronavirus-related deaths to 4,245 — a jump of 114 fatalities since the final report of last week. All but one of the deaths — that of a man in his 60s from Bernalillo County — was due to the audit of health records, according to the state figures. David Morgan, a spokesman for the Department of Health, s...
Warm, dry weather has fueled multiple wildfires across New Mexico this week, but forecasters are hoping a midweek storm will provide some relief to the drought-stricken state. The best chance of rain in eastern New Mexico is today, though thunderstorms are expected to be isolated. High temperatures are expected in the upper 60s today and Thursday in the Clovis-Portales area, with rain chances 30-to-40 percent today. But the region will quickly dry again Thursday as winds are expected in excess of 40 mph. Rain chances fall off...
Low temperatures, snow and high winds will sweep across New Mexico today, including the Clovis-Portales area. Daniel Porter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a “deeply cold air mass” will drop statewide temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below normal today. “That’s going to set the stage up for significant snowfall accumulations, because the atmosphere will be plenty cold enough to support snow for most locations across New Mexico,” Porter said. Eastern New Mexico is expected to see less than an inch of s...
New Mexico could see about $9 billion as part of the virus relief package President Biden signed on Thursday. And more than $23 million is earmarked for government entities in Curry and Roosevelt counties. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said the exact amount New Mexico will receive is still being calculated. But the $9 billion within the 628-page bill includes $2.5 billion for New Mexico governments; individual benefits most people in the state will qualify for; grants for businesses and farmers; $1.2 billion to school...
New Mexico could see about $9 billion as part of the virus relief package President Biden signed on Thursday. And more than $23 million is earmarked for government entities in Curry and Roosevelt counties. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said the exact amount New Mexico will receive is still being calculated. But the $9 billion within the 628-page bill includes $2.5 billion for New Mexico governments; individual benefits most people in the state will qualify for; grants for businesses and farmers; $1.2 billion to school...
