Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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AMARILLO -- A Muleshoe teen has died after being shot in a robbery in Amarillo on March 23. Just after 6 p.m. March 23, Amarillo police officers were called to the 4000 block of Neuches for a shooting. It was there they found Juan Angel Simental Jr., 17, who appeared to have been robbed and shot, according to an Amarillo police report. Simental was taken to a nearby hospital with life- threatening injuries. He died March 24. Lamar Tirson, 17, and a 14-year-old were arrested...
The net effect of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signing Senate Bill 64 into law March 17 is the stroke of her pen abolished juvenile life sentences without any opportunity for parole. Depending on the severity of the crime the juvenile committed, a parole hearing would be allowed anywhere from 15 to 25 years after sentencing, instead of up to 40 years. Denali Wilson, staff attorney with the Las Cruces office of the American Civil Liberties Union is pleased with the so-called second-chance law. “It’s been really wonderful to...
CLOVIS – Nathan McIntosh left the mound after the top of the first having escaped a bit of trouble. When he returned to the hill for the second frame, he had the kind of lead that's hard to imagine. Taking advantage of a gusty breeze and just putting the ball in play, Clovis High's baseball team put together a 17-run first inning and cruised past Portales High 18-0 on Friday night at Bell Park. Despite the long time between innings, McIntosh was able to stay on track. He a...
ROSWELL – Clovis Christian’s boys put together a solid showing and finished second by three strokes to host Roswell Goddard in Thursday’ Rocket Invitational golf tournament at the New Mexico Military Golf Course. Led by junior Noah McKay, the Eagles shot a four-man score of 338 to 335 for the Rockets. Clovis High was ninth in the 12-team tournament at 373. McKay was the third medalist in the event, shooting 43-38 – 81. On the girls side, the Lady Wildcats finished third at 367, trailing Alamogordo (344) and Goddard (356)....
HOBBS – Senior R.J. Nora and sophomore Sammy Fuentes led the way for Clovis High’s boys in Friday’s Gene Wells Relays track meet. Nora took first place in the 110 hurdles (14.76 seconds) and triple jump (45 feet, ½ inch), and anchored the 1,600 relay team also including Kaleb Foggie, Josh Mondragon and Kash Roberts to victory with a Class 5A state-qualifying time of 3 minutes, 29.88 seconds. Nora, who currently has the top 5A mark this season in triple jump, added a third-place finish in the 100 in 11.33 seconds. Fuente...
Booked The following were booked into local jail (Tuesday - Friday): Clovis • Shuntae Byrd, 44, failure to appear on a felony charge, possession of a firearm or destructive device by a felon, unlawful carrying of a deadly weapon • Richard Estrada, 35, failure to pay fines • Melanie Noack, 51, probation violation • Charles Davis, 56, failure to appear on a felony charge, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to appear on a felony charge • Darrell Montague, 70, aggravated driving w...
The Curry County Commission discussed the new livestock pavilion at the Curry County Fairgrounds and received updates on the project at their regular meeting on Tuesday. Public Services Director Ben Roberts asked the commission for some direction on how to proceed with several items on the agenda. Roberts first wanted to get a formal vote on whether to proceed with an open or enclosed facility, and the commission voted to have it enclosed. Roberts said it would be an open...
A national expert in the STEM fields will be the keynote speaker at Eastern New Mexico University's (ENMU) 49th annual Student Research and Creativity Conference (SRCC) Thursday. According to a news release from ENMU's Assistant Vice President of marketing and communications John Houser, Rosalyn Hobson Hargraves from the National Science Foundation is the keynote speaker at the conference banquet. Hargraves, Division Director, division of undergraduate education, directorate...
Masks and physical distancing are no longer required in New Mexico courtrooms or jury assembly areas following the expiration of the statewide, pandemic-related public heath order, the state Supreme Court announced Thursday. Additionally, jurors will no longer be required to answer health screening questions to enter a courthouse. Courts will continue to make masks available to any juror who chooses to wear one, but they are not required, according to a statement issued by Administrative Office of the Courts spokesman Barry...
Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on Thursday, making him the first current or former U.S. president to ever be indicted, and throwing a curve ball into his third White House bid. The exact charges were unknown as of Friday because they remain under seal, but they follow a long-running investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into alleged hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels in the run-up to the 2016 election. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly c...
A Clovis area man, a New Mexico Department of Transportation employee, was killed on the job Thursday on State Route 209 just north of Clovis. Gerald Woodard, 58, was a Clovis area resident, according to DOT spokesperson Candace Barela. New Mexico State Police stated in a news release that Woodard was fatally struck by a Dodge Ram driven by a 69 year old man, who was not identified, as Woodard was riding in the back of a DOT truck providing traffic control at an accident scene. The cause of the collision in which Woodard was...
Approval of a proposed Master of Social Work degree program Friday by the Eastern New Mexico University Board of Regents is only one hurdle to be cleared. The program must now receive approval from state agencies, including the New Mexico Higher Education Department, Jamie Laurenz, ENMU’s vice president of academic affairs, told the board. The ENMU board approved the new degree program, but the additional steps to final approval mean the program is not likely to get started before Fall 2024, Laurenz said. Despite a c...
We’re going to feel this just-ended legislative session in the pocketbook, in our schools and elsewhere. New Mexicans will certainly feel it when those $500 rebates arrive. Last year, lawmakers doled out similar taxpayer payouts, but this one sets no ceiling on your income, so everyone who filed a 2021 tax return, regardless of income, should get one. Expect to receive yours sometime this summer. Most of us will feel at least something in the $1.2 billion capital outlay funding bill approved by lawmakers this year, since t...
The financial sector has been under intense scrutiny after the failure of two large financial institutions that specialized in high-risk industries, such as the cryptocurrency sector. Some depositors in local communities might be wondering what this means for their hard-earned money. But consumers − and policymakers in Washington − must distinguish between community banks, which have been serving consumers and small businesses on the High Plains, and these large banks with a much different business model and risk pro...
Last month, what has been called everything from “troubles in the banking sector” to a “banking crisis” became apparent when the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank notified shareholders the bank needed to raise $2.25 billion after suffering substantial losses. This precipitated a run on the bank and bank regulators placed the bank into Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. receivership. Shortly after that, the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the FDIC announced that New York-based Signatu...
With $3.6 billion at its disposal the New Mexico Legislature had the chance of the century (and possibly the last century) to enact sweeping reforms of the state’s tax structure. The idea, seemingly as professed publicly by those from across the political spectrum, is to diversify the state economy to be less reliant on the vagaries of oil and gas prices. Unfortunately, even with a positively mind-blowing 42% single-year budget surplus on top of robust spending growth in r...
Many situations come around on a regular basis. Christmas, summer heat, days of blowing dirt, utility bills, and election seasons with their political schemers all come back time after time like clockwork. Expect them. I don’t understand the people who seem genuinely surprised every time one of these regularly occurring events crops up again. Do they have no long-term memory? These are the people who are scrambling around in a panic when one of these things is happening t...
The average Tesla-driving, iPhone-using suburbanite isn’t spending a lot of time worrying about tractor software payloads. They should, though. Fixing a broken-down farm tractor used to take just a wrench set and some elbow grease. Now repairs might require a mobile-device interface, online diagnostic tools and secure software updates, too. And that stuff isn’t just sitting around in the barn. It’s mostly held at a shrinking number of manufacturer-authorized dealerships. As a result, simple breakdowns that in the past might...
Texico is not the only municipality in eastern New Mexico on an “At Risk” list from State Auditor Joseph Maestas. Also on the “At Risk” list are Santa Rosa, Tatum and Vaughn. According to the just-published list of “At Risk” entities, Texico has not submitted an audit since 2020. Santa Rosa, Tatum and Vaughn last filed audits with the state auditor in 2021. Texico City Clerk Connie Harrison was unavailable for comment on the matter. According to a press release from Maestas, the list alerts public agencies that have not fi...
The Clovis Municipal School Board is expected to make a decision on middle school redistricting in April. The CMS Board met for their monthly meeting for March Tuesday evening. Much of the discussion at the meeting centered on the upcoming changes involved in the establishment of the Sixth Grade Academy at Marshall. The school will house the district's sixth graders starting this fall. Seventh and eighth graders who would've gone to Marshall will be sent to Gattis and Yucca...
In their regular meeting Tuesday, the Portales City Council voted 4-3 to deny the Portales Communications Center Agreement that was provided to the council by the Roosevelt County commission. This motion will “stop all administrative services the communications center provides to the Sheriff and accept no financial support from Roosevelt County” effective April 30, according to City Manager Sarah Austin. However, the communications center would continue their respective PSAP (public safety answering point)/E911 duties and...
A popular program offered by Clovis Municipal Schools (CMS) will be offered again this year. “Camp Wildcat” received a significant amount of positive feedback after last year’s program. Attendees at CMS school board meetings last year heard of the popularity of Camp Wildcat and how the program had no empty spaces. According to a news release from the CMS administrative office, Camp Wildcat is a summer youth program for students currently in grades Kindergarten through seventh. The program will run for four weeks which, accor...
What is the history of Ned Houk Park and its dam site? Ned Houk Park is named for the long-deceased Clovis mayor and city commissioner known affectionately as “Mr. Ned.” Houk was born in Missouri in 1882 and died in Clovis in 1968. He was Clovis’ mayor from 1931 to 1933 and again from 1951 to 1953. A Clovis News-Journal article about Houk’s death in May, 1968, mentioned his service on the Clovis City Commission for 17 years. He has also been described as “a well-liked Clovis business owner who operated H&H Grocery in the 20...
Former President Donald Trump was indicted Thursday by a New York grand jury in an alleged hush-money payment scheme. It's the first time in U.S. history a former president has been indicted on criminal charges. The News asked area residents for reaction: • Don Reid, retiree, Vietnam veteran, entrepreneur, lives in Clovis. "I have never seen one person scare the entire Congress as bad as President Trump has," Reid said Thursday. Reid described the indictment as "just another w...
New Mexico’s Supreme Court on Friday issued an order that temporarily blocks enforcement of the anti-abortion ordinances Clovis and Roosevelt County passed last year. The city of Clovis, Roosevelt County and Hobbs are listed as respondents in the case. All five justices concurred. The court granted the request in response to state Attorney Gen. Raul Torrez’ emergency writ of mandamus filed Jan. 23. The court directed all parties to submit briefs addressing legal issues. The court’s order reads: “… (T)he county and city ordi...
