Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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Four people were discovered dead in a Clovis home following a fire early Thursday morning. Neighbors tried unsuccessfully to rescue the victims, who were all believed to be living in the home in the rear of a house at 511 N. Wallace St. “I can still hear the screaming,” Gary Hernandez said. Hernandez owns the property. “I couldn’t do anything.” Hernandez said the structure used to be a garage but it was turned into a home. Anna Dutton, Hernandez’s sister, said her mother live...
The process to try Sean Lannon on charges that he killed four people in New Mexico in 2021 began last week when New Jersey officials served the convicted killer with an arrest warrant issued by the southwestern state. Lannon, who is currently in the Garden State Youth Correctional Facility in Burlington County, was served with a warrant related to three of the four New Mexico killings, according to court documents. Lannon, 48, of Grants, New Mexico, pleaded guilty last year...
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...
New Mexico is comprised of 121,697 square miles. With more than 300 days of sunshine a year, it’s easy for New Mexicans to get out of the house and visit an area around the state. Luckily there are 35 state parks, which can be pure fun to explore. Here’s a list of the parks located in the southeast quadrant of the state: Bottomless Lakes State Park Located just 14 miles southeast of Roswell, it is home to non-motorized boating in your kayak or canoe, camp, fish, picnic, swim, hike, go birding. The unique lakes are sin...
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...
Monday *Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Wednesday *Eastern New Mexico University Regents — 1 p.m., Hacienda Conference Room, Hotel Santa Fe, 1501 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe. Information: 575-562-2121 *City of Clovis Finance Committee – 2 p.m., Clovis City Hall small conference room, 321 N. Connelly, Clovis. Information: 575-763-9654 Thursday *Clovis City Commission - 5:15 p.m., North Annex, Clovis-Carver Public Library, 701 N. Main St., Clovis. Information: 575-769-7828 Saturday *Eastern New Mexico Amateur Radio Club ann...
Monday *Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day *Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. march and rally – 9 a.m., Potter Park, 601 Epsilon, Clovis, to St. John Baptist Church, 1215 Gila, Clovis. Program at church following the march; speaker: Pastor Kent Creamer. Sponsored by the Clovis Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission. Information: Yvette Gardner-Pickett at 575-749-4529 or Constance Williams at 575-777-4721 *Martin Luther King Jr. celebration: “A Legacy of Strength: A Future of Action” – 5 p.m., march from Memorial Building, 200 E. Seventh...
Larry McMahon, who turns 80 this month, is weighing whether to undergo a major surgery. Over the past five years, his back pain has intensified. Physical therapy, muscle relaxants, and injections aren’t offering relief. “It’s a pain that leaves me hardly able to do anything,” he said. Should McMahon, a retired Virginia state trooper who now lives in Southport, N.C., try spinal fusion surgery, a procedure that can take up to six hours? (Eight years ago, he had a lumbar laminectomy, another arduous back surgery.) “Will I...
On this date … 1945: Eleven Clovis police officers, nearly the entire force, had resigned in protest of the anticipated removal of Chief Leonard Pinnix. Capt. Nelson Worley was one of the 11 who quit. City officials announced the next day that J.W. Manning would be the new police chief. Before year’s end, commissioners had ousted Manning and his successor, Roy Ansley. Worley was appointed the new chief on Nov. 22, 1945. Allegations of prisoner abuse and a stolen car plagued the brief administrations of Manning and Ans...
Booked The following were booked into local jails (Tuesday - Friday): Clovis • Hunter Mote, 28, probation violation, concealing identity, driving while license suspended or revoked, failure to display registration plate • Kristopher Morris, 27, failure to pay fines • Marvin Tzoy, 27, failure to pay fines, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Concepcion De Matias, 49, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Oscar Silva, 36, driving while license suspended or revoked, vehicles without required equipment • Jose Navarro-Es...
The image of a Ukrainian woman preparing for the Russian invasion of Ukraine by making Molotov cocktails with an AK-47 assault rifle in her lap inspired Greg Rapp of Clovis to develop a board game based on opposition to fascism. Rapp, who teaches English and Political Science at Clovis Community College, has developed other games for distribution via the Internet, he said, but none have succeeded like this current game based on fighting fascism, called “Bella Ciao!” The title is included in lyrics to an Italian rev...
Amarillo – Denny Turner of Texico, New Mexico, has been selected as a participant for the 2023 American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Ranching Heritage Young Horse Development (YHD) Program. The AQHA Ranching Heritage YHD program showcases the horses bred and raised by AQHA Ranching Heritage members by matching weanlings with AQHYA members. According to a press release from AQHA youth in this program are engaged in the horse industry at a fundamental level that is both f...
With an upcoming legislative session around the corner, I thought I’d check in with my favorite think tank, Think New Mexico, about its plans for this year’s Roundhouse romp. In case you’re not familiar with this group, Think New Mexico is a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank that examines issues impacting New Mexicans’ lives then pushes for specific legislation to address nagging problems. Samples of its successes through the years abound: taking and keeping the state’s sales tax off food, redirecting state lottery r...
Politics seems to appeal to people who are addicted to drama. How else can you explain two years of hand-wringing over an insurrection that never happened? Or the recent election disasters and fights over which side are the real fascists? Those flames are fanned by people who don’t want the drama to end. Political drama turned a new cold virus into a worldwide histrionic meltdown, undermining trust in medicine and related scientific fields. It was a goldmine of drama. Can the...
Not all conspiracy theories are created equal. The same people who pride themselves on rigorously insisting on the facts -- ideally, explained in the dulcet tones of an NPR anchor -- are happy to embrace conspiracy theories supportive of their own worldview. This is why the idea that Russian disinformation on social media influenced or even decided the 2016 election has gained such purchase, even though a new study finds, unsurprisingly, no evidence for it. The overwhelming fo...
Editor’s note: The following reader reaction is in response to the city of Clovis passing an ordinance on Jan. 5 that is designed to prevent abortion clinics from opening in the city. Free will part of debate If abortion becomes illegal, what is the real outcome? Is it preventing a life being terminated before first breath, before seeing first light of day? Perhaps. What’s the real long-term outcome? A shortage of foster parents, an increase of child abuse and neglect, most definitely. God gave man free will because he lov...
Just one year ago, trustees at Clovis Community College unanimously extended the contract of President Charles Nwankwo through February 2024. There was no great debate, no public hint anything was wrong in the relationship between the college’s fifth president and its trustees or faculty. Last week marked five months since Nwankwo was placed on paid leave pending an investigation spurred by votes of “no confidence” from three CCC employee groups. He’s being paid $506.85 per day to stay away from work. It’s way past time trus...
One word summarizes the 2022 year in eastern New Mexico’s weather: dry. The year saw just 9.78 inches of moisture at the Agricultural Science Center north of Clovis. That’s nearly 9 inches less than the region’s annual average, according to usclimatedata.com. The ag center statistics showed below-average moisture each month of 2022, with only July (2.41 inches) and October (2.94) exceeding 2 inches. August is usually the area’s wettest month at 3.43 inches, but August 2022 saw just 1.05 inches of rain, records show. The regio...
Portales City Council voted at its meeting on Tuesday to replace an ordinance having to do with the placement of accessory buildings, such as carports, in the process of updating its planning code. City Manager Sarah Austin said the director of planning and zoning has been working on updating these ordinances and this was one of those. The new ordinance will minimize the setback requirements. The council approved a variance to allow a carport at 117 Colorado Drive, which would not have been required if the item had been...
Albuquerque - This week, the New Mexico Primary Care Association (NMPCA) and its Board of Directors announced that Yvette Ramirez Ammerman has taken the helm as the organization’s new Chief Executive Officer. NMPCA is a nonprofit 501(c)3 corporation representing 19 member organizations that operate more than 200 medical sites including the La Casa Health Clovis Clinic. Ammerman previously worked at NMPCA as an employee and Executive Director from 1994 – 2000. Previously, she worked for the National Association of Com...
Clovis Municipal Schools are looking for area residents who are interested in volunteering at the system’s schools. According to a CMS news release, those who are interested in becoming a volunteer begin the process by attending one of the volunteer training sessions. During that session, training leaders will go over what is required of CMS volunteers and applicants complete all of the necessary paperwork needed to become a volunteer. According to the news release training sessions will be held at the CMS central office a...
Curry County Commissioners listened Thursday when they were presented with a plan for cleaning up PFAs contaminated water from land near Cannon Air Force Base. By the end of the day they had a letter drafted in support of the plan. The story emerged during the public comment section of the commission’s regular meeting, one in which dairyman Art Schaap, a man who’s dairy operation was destroyed by the contamination leaching into his groundwater, expressed frustration over very little having been done about the situation. Sch...
It is unlikely that Clovis’s new anti-abortion ordinance will be tested until if and when the New Mexico Legislature takes action regarding local government options under state law, Clovis City Attorney Jared Morris said. Morris said on Monday the legislature could “strip county and municipal governments of the right to make exceptions to the state law,” which currently allows abortion. When the legislature legalized adult-use recreational cannabis production and sales, he said, the legislation included language that prohi...
An eastern New Mexico group is looking to force a vote on Clovis’ newly passed anti-abortion ordinance. “They brought it to me Tuesday,” City Clerk LeighAnn Melancon said of the initial petition form. The group, Eastern New Mexico Rising, following the city charter, has just under a month to collect signatures of 20% of the voters who cast ballots in the last municipal election. The last election attracted 1,346 voters, meaning the group must secure at least 270 valid signatures from registered voters. The petition would then...
After hearing more than two hours of alternating speeches favoring and opposing a proposed anti-abortion ordinance, the Roosevelt County Commission on Tuesday gave final approval to the ordinance on a 4-1 vote. The opposing vote came from District 1 Commissioner Dennis Lopez, who urged the commission to delay action on the ordinance to allow commissioners to get a sense of action the New Mexico Legislature might take in its 2023 session, which begins Tuesday, regarding abortion and local opposition to the state’s official p...
