Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Ah, Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of them all. As its name implies, it’s a day to give thanks for our many blessings. And for me, it’s family time up in the mountains, in a lodge we rent out every year for a long holiday weekend reunion. This year, we’ll be grieving the loss of a loved one, celebrating the youngest among us, reconnecting as a family and going home exhausted from all the fun. And then there’s politics. I’ve already been warned not to be bringing it up, and I said I’ll try. I’m not a bit happy with Tr...
When Amazon billionaire and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos decided not to allow his newspaper to endorse Kamala Harris for president, a quarter million readers canceled their subscriptions. Now this esteemed newspaper is suffering from a credibility crisis that may never recover under Bezos’ compromised ownership. Something similar happened to Fox News back in 2020, when the network essentially called the election for Joe Biden while their most loyal viewers were drinking in Donald Trump’s Kool-Aid and denying the rea...
This column is to the progressives out there who, once again, saw their hopes for a better world thwarted by the election of Donald Trump. All is not lost. Trump could still self-destruct, especially if he actually does what he promised to do. His affinity for tariffs is a good example. More than likely, they will raise prices and undercut American jobs, and that surely won’t sit well even with his MAGA base. And his mass deportation promises will undercut our economy by taking away workers doing jobs that “true” Ameri...
When I was young, I didn’t know how good I had it. My family wasn’t rich, but we had enough. My parents loved their children unconditionally, taught us the value of service and gave us all a foundation for lives well lived. Moreover, I grew up with a hero in the house — my father. He wasn’t a war hero, a great athlete or television star. Instead, he was a good and decent man who made sure our home was filled with love and laughter, and I never stopped looking up to him as an example of how someone should live their life. W...
Here we are, on the cusp of one of the most consequential elections in American history, with the choices for president as different as night and day. Three big questions remain: Who will win the presidency? Which political party will win control of the U.S. Senate and House? And what will the losers do after the winners emerge? Polls and pundits tell us it’s too close to call in the presidential election. I expect Kamala Harris to win the overall popular vote, just as the Democratic candidate has in every presidential e...
Heroes are easy to find but hard to keep. Especially when we’re young, we need our heroes, or positive role models if you prefer, as examples of what courage, sacrifice and success are all about. We typically start with our parents, superheroes in our young eyes, while our imaginations gravitate toward mythical beings like the Man of Steel, the Dark Knight or, yes, that proverbial cowboy riding through a time when right was right and wrong was wrong and what you did, not what you said, was who you are. Parents and action figu...
Set aside for a moment the devastation that has hit the Southeast after back-to-back hurricanes. Turn instead to what’s happening in our little corner of the planet. Studies suggest the human body can’t survive outdoors in sustained temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit or more. And yet, Phoenix, Ariz., just endured a summer that included 56 days of 110-degree temps. And here it is October and they’re still cooking under 100-degree days. Over here in New Mexico, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration repor...
Every now and then, someone comes along who makes a unique contribution to the world in which he live. Kris Kristofferson, who died recently at age 88, was that sort of man. Kristofferson hit Nashville and the country music scene in the 1970s, first as a broom-pushing songwriter on Music Row, then as a gravel-voiced singer/songwriter on the Nashville scene, and finally as a movie star in Hollywood. But before all that, he was a standout athlete in rugby, football and boxing, a Rhodes Scholar and an Army officer. He was even...
In this “calm” before the storm that is this year’s election, let’s take a break from the partisan banter to recognize some thinkers in our midst. Think New Mexico turned 25 this year. Regular readers of this column know it’s a favorite of mine; I’ve written numerous times about how this nonpartisan and intellectually independent think tank focuses not only on New Mexico-centric issues but on proposing practical solutions as well. I like the way Executive Director Fred Nathan and his team take on the issues — first by identif...
Other than the presidential election and a super-tight congressional race down south, it’s a fairly tame general election in New Mexico. It could have been a more consequential year, with a mid-term, term-limited governor struggling to keep her party in lockstep on issues like crime containment and school calendars — while every seat in both the state House and Senate are up for election. Currently the New Mexico Senate is run by the Democrats, who command a 27-15 supermajority. All 42 Senate seats are up for election thi...
Other than the presidential election and a super-tight congressional race down south, it’s a fairly tame general election in New Mexico. It could have been a more consequential year, with a mid-term, term-limited governor struggling to keep her party in lockstep on issues like crime containment and school calendars — while every seat in both the state House and Senate are up for election. Currently the New Mexico Senate is run by the Democrats, who command a 27-15 supermajority. All 42 Senate seats are up for election thi...
Now that the dust has settled over the Sept. 10 presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, I’m ready to call the election for Harris. And not just because of the debate. There’s also Taylor Swift, the superstar childless cat lady who cleverly endorsed Harris immediately after Harris wiped the floor with Trump. If you don’t see the significance of the Swifties, you haven’t been paying attention to pop culture. We’re talking hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, millions of whom will be voting right here in t...
I heard a report the other day that the St. James Hotel in Cimarron is closing. Another Wild West landmark goes down. The St. James is where I got the best steak I’ve ever eaten, but that wasn’t so long ago, when its owners’ focus was more on fine dining than cowboy accommodations. Back in the day, it was a rough and rowdy place, to say the least. Lots of shoot-em-ups, dozens of killings — one estimate I read had the total at 26 dead. Traveling lawmen and notorious outlaws frequented the place, and stories have been passed...
Never in my life as a political observer have I ever associated “joy” with a candidacy for any office, much less the presidency. But it’s not the word so much as it is the sentiment the Harris-Walz campaign is trying to tap into — an upbeat view of our future. It’s something that’s been lacking for some time now, although there are still folks out there who see America’s future in a positive light. I recently read a piece by Matthew Yglesias, a “techno-optimist” and blogger/journalist who contends there are many reasons to lo...
In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a lot of federal money coming into New Mexico these days, thanks in large part to the infrastructure bill passed in President Biden’s first year in office. According to the White House, about $5.2 billion has been allocated for around 500 infrastructure projects around the state, including transportation, water and broadband infrastructure. Mostly the funds will be administered through the state, which is still flush with oil-and-gas revenues (although indicators point to a slowdown in the...
Fear and hope, the stuff campaigns are made of. As unique as this year’s presidential campaign is, there’s nothing new about the candidates’ efforts to tap into these two visceral emotions. Each side is trying to scare the hell out of voters by demonizing their opponent and promising to lead us into a better future. And like all other campaigns before this one, the hyperbole runs thick, but I don’t want to create a false equivalency here. Donald Trump is the fearmonger in this race, while Kamala Harris is bringing hope ba...
New Mexico has its own unique culture and lifestyle, but I’m not sure all New Mexicans see it. This state is influenced heavily by its neighbors — Texas, Colorado, Arizona and Mexico. We are clearly impacted and even inspired by these next-door neighbors, in both good and bad ways. Take “chile” and “chili” as an example. I’d wager that residents of the Rio Grande Corridor refer to our beloved “chile” far more than they do on the east side of the state, where Texas infiltrates our state with beef-and-bean-bas...
Homelessness isn’t as far away from home anymore. January “point in time” counts show that New Mexico’s unhoused population has been growing in recent years, while nationally it’s at a 15-year high. Last year’s count found a 48% increase in New Mexico’s homeless population from a year earlier, and this year’s count showed a 62% increase. This is more than a perception; it’s a reality. It’s not just in the cities these days. Where I live, along Interstate 40 in Santa Rosa, we get our share of transients, sometimes hoofing or h...
What a change in the political landscape, with Joe Biden’s cancellation and Kamala Harris now topping the Democratic ticket. Suddenly, Donald Trump is the decrepit old man in the race. The best thing the 78-year-old Trump has going for him are sound bites. Listen to one of his stream-of-consciousness rants in its entirety and you’ll see what I mean. His record-setting (in length) Republican National Convention speech was three times longer than his prepared speech, and 10 times more nonsensical. His ramblings show his age...
Turns out, Democrats have a mind of their own. You can see it in the fallout from Joe Biden’s weak debate performance, when the president showed his age. And you could see it in last week’s special session of the New Mexico Legislature, when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attempted to run roughshod over her party with poorly vetted legislation. It should have been a humbling experience from our second-term governor, who has been getting things done her way for nearly six years now. But instead of coming out, hat in hand, to apo...
By now, most New Mexicans are aware of the case against the movie star Alec Baldwin. It was getting plenty of play both here at home and abroad until, poof, it went away. It shouldn’t disappear so easily. There are more than enough questions still left to answer. The case against Baldwin was dismissed Friday after it was discovered that ammunition from the set of “Rust” had been “misfiled” and was not disclosed to the defense. That was enough to compel Santa Fe’s First Judicial District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer to grant a mo...
About 12 years ago, when I was at the Las Vegas Optic, we worked up a special section on the seven-county region of Northeast New Mexico. Not surprisingly, our lead story was about water. At the time, Las Vegas was facing some serious drought conditions that had slowed the Gallinas River to little more than a trickle, leaving the city — which gets nearly all its water from the Gallinas — with only a couple months of water in reserve. City officials at that time said the reservoirs were only 68% full and sinking. Also aro...
Set aside for a moment Joe Biden’s haunting performance at the debate last week, there was something even more troubling that just took place. It’s not getting as much attention because we’re used to it. The debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is an example of style versus substance. Trump won on style and Biden won, by default, on substance. Biden supporters blamed a head cold on their man’s hoarse voice and subdued manner, while Trump’s supporters declared Biden ready for the nursing home. Meanwhile, Trump used his...
Common sense is not as common as it once was. Used to be, good ol’ horse sense would tell you that if a jury found a businessman turned politician guilty of every damn charge brought against him, he must be guilty. But now, way too many people have suspended their reason to see the convicted felon as nothing more than a victim of some unimaginable conspiracy against him. It makes no kind of sense, but that’s the Republican Party these days. The fact is, Donald Trump paid a porn star to keep quiet about their sordid affair so...
I must admit to a certain grudge against Californians who come rolling into New Mexico with an attitude of superiority over us poor souls. It’s a prejudice I developed after a few years living in the Land of Enchantment, after seeing more than enough arrogant Californians coming in and trying to tell the rest of us how best to live and behave. I’ve held the same grudge against Texas, but developed it years earlier while growing up in Arkansas. But I felt my own attitude of superiority when, within just a few years: the Raz...
