Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 173
SANTA FE -- George W. Bush was serving his first term as president and the first season of American Idol premiered on TV the last time the governor of New Mexico received a salary increase. Not just the governor but the attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer and state land commissioner haven't seen raises in more than two decades. Three high-ranking Senate Democrats are championing a proposal to give them each a nearly $60,000 raise. Whether the five-figure salary increase should take effect immediately or...
SANTA FE -- A bill updating New Mexico’s high school graduation requirements for the first time in over 15 years has made its way halfway through the legislative marathon. The state House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 64-3 to approve House Bill 126. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Andrés Romero, D-Albuquerque, told members of the House it is designed to keep students invested in high school and give them more options for classes that may speak to their post-school career needs. “We need to reengage,” said Romero, an Albuq...
SANTA FE -- After faltering last year amid pushback from district attorneys, a revised bill that would end life without parole as a sentencing option for juvenile offenders passed the Senate with bipartisan support Wednesday. “When children cause harm in our community, yes, we must hold them accountable. But we must hold them accountable in ways that leaves room for their potential to experience transformation, positive transformation,” said Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez, D-Albuquerque, the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 64....
SANTA FE -- Actor Alec Baldwin pleaded not guilty Thursday and waived a virtual first appearance hearing scheduled for Friday in New Mexico’s First Judicial District Court. The actor is charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the October 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins at Bonanza Creek Ranch while filming the movie Rust. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer set Baldwin’s conditions of release Thursday, which include a stipulation stating the actor cannot consume alcohol or possess firearms. How...
SANTA FE -- First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies has abandoned her attempt to apply a five-year sentencing enhancement to the charges against actor Alec Baldwin and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed. Both still face a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed by a bullet from a pistol Baldwin held during an October 2021 rehearsal on a movie set south of Santa Fe. The bullet also struck and wounded director Joel Souza. The change reduces the...
SANTA FE -- At the halfway point of the 60-day legislative session, New Mexico’s proposed budget is halfway to the governor’s desk. The $9.43 billion spending plan, which includes average 5% pay raises for state government employees and leaves room for rebates for taxpayers, is headed to the Senate Finance Committee after passing the House 52-17 on Thursday. Seven Republicans joined all 45 Democrats in the House in voting to advance House Bill 2. During a three-hour discussion and debate on the spending plan — the highe...
BERNALILLO — Cars manned by anxious parents lined the edges of Bernalillo High School on Thursday after local law enforcement received a false report of a fatal shooting inside the cafeteria. The report may have been a hoax — one of many throughout the state and the nation in the past several days — but that didn’t stop mothers like Miranda Armijo from fearing the worst. “I just needed to get my kids out,” Armijo said as she waited for her son and daughter to emerge from the campus in the small town north of Albuquerque...
The New Mexico State University men's basketball season is officially over as the troubled program deals with an internal hazing incident that had sexual overtones, according to a police report. Just before 4 p.m. Sunday, NMSU chancellor Dan Arvizu issued a statement declaring the cancellation of the remainder of the team's games pending an investigation into allegations of hazing among Aggies players. "This action is clearly needed, especially after receiving additional facts and reviewing investigation reports related to...
SANTA FE -- Alec Baldwin's lawyers are seeking to have state Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, disqualified as a special prosecutor in the criminal case tied to the 2021 fatal shooting on the set of the movie “Rust,” claiming the role conflicts with her position as a legislator. Three lawyers representing the Hollywood actor and producer filed a motion Tuesday in state District Court requesting a judge disqualify Reeb based on a clause in the state constitution they say bars individuals from simultaneously exercising powers in mor...
SANTA FE – Members of the House Transportation, Public Works and Capital Projects Committee got their first look at House Bill 158, which would allow police officers to bring in lab analysts to conduct blood draws on motorists suspected of driving under the influence. The idea, said Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, is to give officers a chance to test motorists for cannabis, which is now legal under state law. "Obviously, we have issues with drivers under the influence of marijuana or other controlled substances," Reeb told the c...
SANTA FE -- The first court hearings in the criminal cases against actor Alec Baldwin and two other people involved in the ill-fated production of the Western film Rust are scheduled Feb. 24, the New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts announced Wednesday. The First Judicial District Court proceedings will be conducted remotely, with separate hearings for Baldwin and film armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — both charged with involuntary manslaughter in the October 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins ...
SANTA FE -- Some 875,000 New Mexicans would get a cut of the state's record revenues under a bill that received unanimous approval during its first legislative committee hearing Thursday. Senate Bill 10, a priority of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, would appropriate $1 billion to provide a one-time tax rebate of $750 for single filers and $1,500 for joint filers. "Taxpayers' budgets are stretched thin due to inflation that includes a higher cost of food, heating, gas and other basic necessities," one of the sponsors, Sen....
It's almost as if Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's Cabinet has sprung a leak. Three Cabinet secretaries have said they were departing within the past week - the most recent being Public Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus, whose retirement was announced Saturday in a news release from the Governor's Office. Steinhaus, a Portales native, follows John Garcia and Dr. David Scrase, who last week said they were leaving the General Services and Human Services departments, respectively....
SANTA FE -- State Supreme Court Chief Justice C. Shannon Bacon delivered the first State of the Judiciary address in four years Tuesday, telling a joint session of the House and Senate that New Mexico's court system is "battered and bruised, strong, resilient, creative, committed and caring." In a session where crime legislation is already piling up at the Roundhouse, Bacon highlighted the rights of the accused in her approximately 30-minute speech, reminding lawmakers of the foundational ideals of the justice system. "We...
SANTA FE -- New Mexico taxpayers who received rebates in 2022 are likely to see another round of payments. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said late last year she wanted to use part of the projected $3 billion in new state revenues to provide $750 to individual taxpayers and $1,500 for couples who file jointly. She announced Wednesday the introduction of Senate Bill 10, sponsored by four Democratic lawmakers, which would fulfill her wish. The bill would appropriate $1 billion to provide payments to about 875,000 taxpayers who...
A routine budget bill to pay staff salaries and fund other operations of a legislative session usually sails through both chambers of the Legislature when lawmakers reconvene in Santa Fe every year. Not this year, though. The so-called feed bill, the first piece of legislation considered by both chambers, continued to sow division between Republicans and Democrats on Thursday over a $2.5 million special appropriation to fund a study on the feasibility of creating district offices for legislators with full-time staff. As it...
SANTA FE -- Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s push to ban assault weapons in New Mexico may dominate the Legislature’s discussion on guns. But it will have company. Several gun-related bills have been or will be introduced in this year’s 60-day session, promising a battle royale over the role of guns in a state with a long history of gun ownership — and a searing violence problem. “There’s a lot of appetite to do this,” said Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe. “Every single day we hear something else in the news about what is g...
All state government and public school employees in New Mexico would get a 4% raise and all taxpayers would receive a $750 rebate before July under Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s executive budget recommendation for the 2024 fiscal year. The governor’s $9.4 billion spending plan, unveiled Tuesday, represents a nearly 12% increase over the current fiscal year. The executive recommendation would maintain reserves at nearly 35%, which the Governor’s Office said are among the highest in state history. The proposed budget, which...
An Albuquerque lawmaker who has tried in the past to pass legislation to limit a gun’s magazine capacity is sponsoring a similar bill in this year’s legislative session. Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, on Monday introduced House Bill 50, which would make it a fourth-degree felony to possess or transfer a magazine capable of holding 10 or more rounds. House Bill 50 includes an appropriation of $1.5 million for fiscal year 2024 to support provisions of the act, including the funding of additional local and sta...
Increasing required learning time for students in New Mexico’s public schools would be a big step toward boosting achievement — but only if the effort were combined with flexibility for districts and higher-quality instruction, educators and advocates say. “Extending instructional time is not the initiative that’s going to provide the solution to have better outcomes,” said Hilario “Larry” Chavez, superintendent of Santa Fe Public Schools. “I think it’s a combination of extending the instructional hours or time, but the qua...
SANTA FE -- A Santa Fe jury awarded more than $66 million in damages last week in a case filed by a Los Angeles cameraman who suffered a spinal cord injury on a New Mexico movie set in 2016. The award — which includes $36 million in punitive damages — is among the largest in state history. Plaintiff James Razo, 55, said the jury's verdict Friday was "a huge emotional relief" and would help him put the life-altering incident behind him. "I can finally begin my healing journey," he said in a phone interview Tuesday. Razo sai...
SANTA FE -- New Mexico lawmakers are reviving a long and so far unsuccessful effort to pay members of the state Legislature a base salary. A proposal to ask voters to amend the state Constitution to establish a citizens' commission on compensation, which would have the authority to set legislators' salaries, is in the works for the upcoming legislative session. The push to end New Mexico's status as the only state in the nation whose legislators are unsalaried is part of a larger effort to modernize the Legislature. Other...
It was a sight so rare it might have been historic: a moose — yes, a moose — skipping along Hyde Park Road toward the Ski Santa Fe parking lot on Sunday afternoon. A video captured by a Santa Fe family heading home after a ski trip shows what could be a 1,000-pound animal moving in sync with the holiday song "Let It Snow," playing on their car radio when the beast trotted by. "That thing'll kill you," driver Adam Ronan says in the video as the moose passes his car. "We couldn't believe it," added his wife, Theresa Ronan, who...
Most Republican and Democratic legislators agree on at least one thing: The unpredictability of critical oil and gas money that fuels the state's budget demands lawmakers set aside a hefty cash reserve. Revenue projections, strapped to the fortunates of oil and gas, often rise like a rocket — and can plummet like a falling star. Still, the state's reserve funds remain a source of contention, with some lawmakers pushing to save more for a rainy day and others eager to invest as much as possible into improving state services o...
After a bruising midterm election in which Republicans not only failed to make gains but lost their only congressional seat in the state, Steve Pearce will try to hold on as chairman of the New Mexico GOP for a third term during an internal election Saturday in Las Cruces. Pearce, a former congressman and state representative who has served as state Republican Party chairman since losing the 2018 gubernatorial race, is facing four challengers, including a conservative radio host with a loyal following and a former state...
