Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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AMARILLO - Stanley Lark, an original member of The Fireballs, died Aug. 4 from complications related to bone cancer. He was 81. Memorial services are scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church in Raton. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Johnson Mesa Church, the Raton Museum or the Norman Petty Studio in Clovis where Lark and The Fireballs recorded. Lark, born July 27, 1940, in Raton, took to music early and joined the Night Riders at age 13. He...
The first day of school for students in the Floyd Municipal School District happened without a noticeably significant level of empty seats, Superintendent Damon Terry said Monday. The opening of the school year followed weeks of disputes with the Public Education Department’s requirement for all elementary school students to wear a face mask in school. The Floyd school board decided in a July 26 meeting to make the PED’s COVID-19 mitigation practices optional, and declined to change its stance in an Aug. 2 special mee...
SANTA FE — In an attempt to put low-income workers on more solid financial footing, New Mexico lawmakers in recent years have approved a minimum wage increase and a paid sick leave requirement, among other policies. The newest debate on the horizon could center on guaranteed basic income, a policy that provides low-income residents with regular financial payments. At least two New Mexico cities — Las Cruces and Santa Fe — are already considering, or moving forward with, targeted guaranteed basic income pilot projects and s...
CLOVIS — The 50-Plus Olympics will hold registration Aug. 24-26 at the Roy Walker Community Center for next month’s Clovis Area 50-Plus Olympics. Registration will be 8 a.m.-11 a.m. Aug. 24-25 and 4 p.m.-7 p.m. Aug. 26 at Roy Walker Recreation Center. Registration requires a $20 non-refundable fee and also includes a door prize entry. The following events are scheduled for the local games: • Sept. 9: Pickleball, 9:30 a.m., Roy Walker Recreation Center • Sept. 14: Recreation events, 8:30 a.m., soccer field on East 14th St...
I’m back in the saddle again. Sometime during the COVID-19 pandemic (first edition, 2020), once we got back to in-person worship at our church, I started singing a “special” song each morning as sort of a “call to worship.” Last Sunday, I found the “saddle song” quite tempting (but no). As I mentioned in my last column, even though we’d taken prudent precautions, my wife and I managed to jump the line and get in right at the first of the COVID-19 (delta variant) editio...
Booked The following were booked into local jails (Friday-Tuesday): Clovis • Victor Loya, 35, possession of a controlled substance (two counts • Tony Kitts, 63, failure to pay fines, failure to appear • Blythe Johnson, 24, negligent use of a deadly weapon, shooting at dwelling • Michelli Viola, 36, DWI • Kelly Hall, 64, aggravated DWI, careless driving • Tonya Morgan, 39, aggravated DWI, probation violation • Kelsey Kendall, 20, driving while under the influence, racing on highways • Troy Shaw, 57, failure to appear • Israel...
After more than a month without a COVID-19 related death, Curry-Roosevelt counties recorded three such deaths last week. In addition, Clovis’ Plains Regional Medical Center has recorded two deaths this week related to the virus. The New Mexico Department of Health on Monday announced 1,309 new infections of COVID-19 over the weekend, bringing the total case count to 215,098 since the beginning of the pandemic. The counts included 52 new cases in Curry County and 21 new cases in Roosevelt County. Of the Curry County cases, 4...
As rational thinkers since at least the time of François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire, have pointed out, it’s dangerous to be right when those with power are wrong. This is because it’s always dangerous to disagree with anyone who suffers from the delusion that they have the right — or some imaginary political authority — to force you to act as they believe you must. Especially when they reserve the power to punish those who disagree. Just look what happened...
All this talk about infrastructure has me thinking about one of my favorites: Interstate 40. Sure, it’s not as nostalgic as old Route 66, which it mostly follows out West, or as homespun as highways 64 and 70 as they cross the South. But as a baby boomer born in the 1950s, I sort of grew up with I-40. For better and worse, it was built in the ‘60s and ‘70s to become a 2,559-mile “superhighway” spanning the continent and running through much of my life and times. I was born in Ozark, Ark., a small mountain town alongside...
American healthcare is too expensive. Exhibit A is a new study of Americans’ medical debt published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That debt is twice as large as had previously been estimated — $140 billion in collections as of June 2020, compared to an earlier estimate of $81 billion. And it disproportionately affects the dozen states like Missouri that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Despite a referendum that approved Medicaid expansion, and the fact that the federal gov...
On this date … 1951: Portales-area residents had been invited to a “new way of living.” The host was the Amana company, which made refrigerators and freezers for the home. “Fresh tasty food in your Amana is like money in the bank,” a newspaper ad read. The frozen food demonstration was scheduled for Aug. 14 in the basement of Portales' Methodist Church. The Amana brand was founded in Iowa in 1934. By 1947, the company had manufactured an upright freezer for the home. A side-by-side refrigerator was introduced in 1949. Ama...
PORTALES — The Citizen Redistricting Committee will hold a satellite meeting today at Eastern New Mexico University, and invites public input for drawing new congressional, legislative and Public Education Commission district maps. The meeting will be held at the Portales campus' Zia room as a satellite meeting along with the meeting at the ENMU-Roswell branch's Technology Center. The meeting will be held virtually at Zoom meeting 825 1664 2991, passcode 247365. The call-in number is 346-248-7799. The public meetings a...
CLOVIS — Curry County will hold a meeting for public input on its Infrastructure and Capital Improvement Plan Aug. 19, according to a county release. The meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Curry County Commission Chambers at 417 Gidding St. Residents of Curry County are invited to attend and provide input. The ICIP process encourages entities to plan for the development of capital improvements so that they do not find themselves in emergency situations but can plan for, fund, and develop infrastructure at a pace t...
Wednesday • 4 p.m.: Military appreciation meal for active duty, Oldest House in Curry County • 4 p.m.-10 p.m.: Antique showcase, exhibits open • 4 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.: Tumbleweed Crossing Wild West comedy stunt show • 5 p.m.-midnight: Carnival ($1 rides) Thursday • 10 a.m.-2 p.m.: Special Needs Day • 4 p.m.-10 p.m.: Antique showcase, exhibits open, GoldStar Tribute Wall (Mounted Patrol Arena) • 4 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m.: Tumbleweed Crossing Wild West comedy stunt show • 5 p.m.-midnight: Carnival ($30 wristband, 4/$80 with coup...
MELROSE — The New Mexico Department of Transportation's District Two will begin a pavement improvement project this month on eight miles of U.S. 60/84 in Curry County. The pavement preservation project, which will run from mile marker 360 to 368, should be completed later this fall, weather permitting. The project will require single-lane closures and some delays between 7 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays. Motorists are asked to watch out for workers in the area and adhere to temporary signage. Information: nmroads.co...
PORTALES — After plenty of haggling and some striking of clauses, the Roosevelt County Commission approved its ordinance dealing with cannabis manufacturing, sale and consumption. The ordinance, approved during a two-hour meeting Tuesday, only covers the unincorporated parts of the county. Any cannabis manufacture, sale and consumption within Portales city limits falls to the Portales City Council and the ordinance it will discuss in its Aug. 24 meeting. The News covered the meeting virtually. According to the ordinance: ...
Remember what the weather was like on the High Plains on Christmas Eve of 1992? Iva Stewart of Clovis does. "It was snowing and icy," she told me as she recalled that evening from 29 winters ago. "About the middle of the night," Stewart told me, "somebody knocked on our door and said, 'The newspapers are ready.'" The late-night caller was from the Clovis News Journal. He told Stewart that the next day's newspaper was printed, and that she needed to get cracking and get them de...
PORTALES — The Portales Municipal School Board voted 4-1 Monday in favor of approving state Public Education Department guidelines, which require elementary school students wear a face mask while in school. Board member Rod Savage, after making a long statement about the New Mexico constitution, cast the lone vote to make face coverings optional for students. About 100 people attended the meeting on Monday, many of whom expressed their displeasure with mask mandates in the public comment period. The News covered the t...