Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties said a plea bargain struck Thursday with a retired judge accused of soliciting bribes was a victory for the state's justice system. Retired 3rd Judicial District Judge Michael Murphy pleaded guilty to misdemeanor misconduct in what became known as the "pay to play" case. He was indicted on four felony charges based on evidence presented a grand jury by Matt Chandler, the district attorney for Curry and Roosevelt counties...
SANTA ROSA — New Mexico State Police are investigating after an explosive device was found at a famous diving spot in eastern New Mexico. Sgt. Emmanuel Gutierrez said the state police bomb squad was called out to the Blue Hole on Thursday after a visitor noticed a suspicious device in the fresh-water spring. The park was evacuated, and the bomb squad determined that the device was in fact an explosive. Gutierrez says there were no injuries or property damage. State police divers also conducted a sweep of the water in Blue H...
PLAINVIEW, Texas — Cargill has announced it will idle a West Texas plant and lay off all 2,000 workers because of a tight cattle supply stemming from years of drought. A news release from the Wichita, Kan.,-based company Thursday says the Plainview workers will be laid off Feb. 1. Other Cargill plants in the region, including the plant in Friona, and in other parts of the country will not be affected. The release said the company will work to relocate Plainview employees to its other plants, and existing regional plants w...
Clovis and Portales residents woke to a white Christmas Tuesday morning as the area was sprinkled in less than one inch of snow overnight. Snowfall at the Clovis Municipal Airport began around 2 a.m. Tuesday and stopped around 7 a.m., according to Mark Fettig, a general forecaster at the National Weather Service, Albuquerque. There were no traffic accidents reported in Curry and Roosevelt counties, according to New Mexico State Police and local law enforcement. Fettig said no storm systems will affect the area the remainder...
ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico is getting ready for what could be a significant blast of winter. Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque are warning residents and travelers that the above-normal temperatures and dry weather that New Mexico has been experiencing in recent weeks will come to an abrupt end Sunday. That's when a "potent" arctic front will move across the state, bringing with it cooler temperatures and gusty winds. Snow is expected across the northern mountains and the northeast plains Sunday m... Full story
Peanut butter manufacturer Sunland has expanded its voluntary recall of all products made at its Portales plant, citing the threat of possible salmonella contamination. The announcement comes as the Food and Drug Administration disclosed that it found what it called "objectionable conditions" at the Portales plant in 2010, two years before the current outbreak of salmonella poisoning linked to Trader Joe's peanut butter produced there. The FDA said Friday that a recent inspection found salmonella in the plant that produced...
Postings on a new Facebook page have prompted Clovis police and Clovis Municipal Schools officials to launch an investigation into online bullying. Clovis Police Chief Steve Sanders says no threats of violence have been made on the page, but his officers are looking into whether the posts violate New Mexico's harassment statutes. He says the page is being used to belittle and harass students at Clovis High School. More than 1,600 students are enrolled at the school. Police... Full story
A New Mexico State Police officer on Sunday shot and killed a man at the end of a foot chase in Clovis, officials said. The victim was identified as Benjamin Salgado, 29. State police spokesman Lt. Robert McDonald said the suspect led the officer on a short vehicle pursuit. McDonald said the officer began running after the suspect after he left his vehicle and ended up shooting the man. State Police Capt. Jimmy Glascock said the incident occurred between noon and 12:30 p.m. It happened at or near Clovis' La Vista Inn on... Full story
SANTA FE — Local officials say scaled-back loans from the New Mexico Finance Authority would not have a big impact on obtaining funds for future infrastructure projects. The authority's governing board reviewed a proposal Thursday for limiting a loan program that finances projects such as sewers, roads and other infrastructure in communities. The authority can only make loans using $37 million in cash reserves because it's unable to issue new bonds without a final audit or tap into a $50 million line of credit previously a...
A computer that may have contained the personal information of Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico members was stolen in Clovis, according to a police report. According to the report, the computer was one of two stolen Thursday from a vehicle in a hotel parking lot on Schepps Boulevard. The computers belong to an employee of an Albuquerque CPA firm conducting an annual audit of the state's public pension agency. The computer may have contained PERA member information including names, addresses, financial...
Jimmy Reagan saw a woman on the porch at 1701 N. Wheaton Road on Wednesday night and asked her for money. When she declined, Reagan entered the house and killed 35-year-old Shondel D. Lofton. Jimmy Reagan That's what witnesses have told police about Clovis' second homicide this year. Police say Reagan, 31, shot Lofton in the head and kidnapped two women while fleeing the scene. An armed Reagan was captured a short time later after the shooting. He is being held at the Curry...
ALBUQUERQUE — A dramatic increase in the price of hay and corn and low milk prices are putting some New Mexico dairies out of business. Dairy Producers of New Mexico President Luke Woelber tells the Albuquerque Journal that he knows of five dairies in the eastern and southern part of the state that have closed in the face of feed costs that have doubled in the past few years. The higher feed costs combined with higher fuel and transportation costs means that, for the dairies, the cost of producing a gallon of milk is g...
SANTA FE — A private plane carrying Gov. Susana Martinez and Clovis-Portales District Attorney Matt Chandler landed without its landing gear down Wednesday in Santa Fe, but there were no injuries, officials said. The emergency landing took place about 10 p.m. at Santa Fe Municipal Airport. The governor was returning from a campaign event in Tucumcari for Republican state Senate candidate Angie Spears. The Spears campaign paid for the flight, spokesman Scott Darnell said. The governor's husband Chuck Franco was also on b... Full story
SANTA FE — A private plane carrying Gov. Susana Martinez and Clovis-Portales District Attorney Matt Chandler landed without its landing gear down Wednesday in Santa Fe, but there were no injuries, officials said. The emergency landing took place about 10 p.m. at Santa Fe Municipal Airport. The governor was returning from a campaign event in Tucumcari for Republican state Senate candidate Angie Spears. The Spears campaign paid for the flight, spokesman Scott Darnell said. The governor's husband Chuck Franco was also on b...
ALBUQUERQUE — There's no question it's dry in New Mexico. Many will argue that's an understatement, including Gov. Susana Martinez. She has issued a drought declaration covering all of New Mexico. Tuesday's move will make it easier for communities, farmers and ranchers to secure federal funding. Much of the state suffered from drought last year. This year, maps by federal forecasters show all off New Mexico is experiencing some form of drought, from abnormally dry to exceptional. Martinez says fire danger is high, r...
SANTA FE — New Mexico's statewide average high school graduation rate slipped to 63 percent last year, but the Public Education Department said Friday it had changed the graduation calculation to meet a federal mandate. Students are tracked from the time they are freshmen and the latest figures show that not quite two-thirds of the class of 2011 received their diplomas in four years, according to the department. The average graduation rate was 67.3 percent for the class of 2010 and 66.1 percent in 2009, but those were based o...
SANTA FE — New Mexico's statewide average high school graduation rate slipped to 63 percent last year, but the Public Education Department said Friday it had changed the graduation calculation to meet a federal mandate. Students are tracked from the time they are freshmen and the latest figures show that not quite two-thirds of the class of 2011 received their diplomas in four years, according to the department. The average graduation rate was 67.3 percent for the class of 2010 and 66.1 percent in 2009, but those were based o... Full story
ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico remains in a slog toward economic recovery. The Albuquerque Journal reports that economic data for the second half of 2011 shows New Mexico's job creation numbers are troubling but may be improving. The state's personal income numbers are encouraging, unless you count business owners' income. And unemployment numbers have been a moving target. The data reported by the newspaper and compiled by the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research suggest that the state's economy is i... Full story
ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico remains in a slog toward economic recovery. The Albuquerque Journal reports that economic data for the second half of 2011 shows New Mexico's job creation numbers are troubling but may be improving. The state's personal income numbers are encouraging, unless you count business owners' income. And unemployment numbers have been a moving target. The data reported by the newspaper and compiled by the University of New Mexico Bureau of Business and Economic Research suggest that the state's economy is i... Full story
Myra Dingman, a 1992 Clovis High School graduate who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., was working from home Friday when a Navy jet crashed into an apartment building just three miles away. "I didn't hear it (crash). A friend texted me, and right away I went online to see what happened," said Dingman, who moved to Virginia Beach 12 years ago to attend Regent University, where she earned her doctorate in organizational leadership. "We have an outdoor pool with a really high deck. We stood on it and we could see the black smoke."...
Myra Dingman, a 1992 Clovis High School graduate who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., was working from home Friday when a Navy jet crashed into an apartment building just three miles away. "I didn't hear it (crash). A friend texted me, and right away I went online to see what happened," said Dingman, who moved to Virginia Beach 12 years ago to attend Regent University, where she earned her doctorate in organizational leadership. "We have an outdoor pool with a really high deck. We stood on it and we could see the black smoke."... Full story
Gov. Susana Martinez has vetoed $105,000 in projects from Curry County's capital outlay request totaling $960,000. The biggest cut by Martinez on Wednesday was $100,000 requested to help pay for county road improvements. She also vetoed a $5,000 request for a sign at the Lincoln-Jackson Family Center in Clovis. Projects in county's request approved by the governor: - $177,000 for land purchases to help expansion at Cannon Air Force Base. - $278,000 earmarked for pipeline construction in the Clovis effluent reuse project. -...
Tech. Sgt. Matthew Schwartz, 34, of Cheyenne, Wyo., was among three servicemen killed Jan. 5 when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Helmand Province's Shir Ghazi, the Defense Department said Saturday in a news release. Schwartz was an explosive ordnance disposal specialist assigned to the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Schwartz moved to Cheyenne in 2006, when he was transferred to F.E. Warren after a stint at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, the Wyoming...
Tech. Sgt. Matthew Schwartz, 34, of Cheyenne, Wyo., was among three servicemen killed Jan. 5 when their vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device in Helmand Province's Shir Ghazi, the Defense Department said Saturday in a news release. Schwartz was an explosive ordnance disposal specialist assigned to the 90th Civil Engineer Squadron at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. Schwartz moved to Cheyenne in 2006, when he was transferred to F.E. Warren after a stint at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, the Wyoming... Full story
DES MOINES, Iowa — The U.S. Department of Agriculture will close 259 domestic offices, labs and other facilities as part of an effort to save $150 million per year, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday. While the closures and other cost-cutting steps will affect the USDA headquarters in Washington and operations in 46 states, the savings will be relatively small in the context of the agency's $145 billion budget. The closures follow a review of USDA operations done as part of the Obama administration's effo... Full story
