Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — A Portales man was sentenced to two years probation Wednesday following a guilty plea in April to operating as an airman without an airman certificate. According to a release from the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, Keith Alexander Thomas, 44, attempted to fly an airplane from Wisconsin to New Mexico without a pilot’s license. Thomas was also fined $5,000 by Judge C.J. Williams. According to the release, in June 2018 Thomas and another man flew to Wisconsin so the other man could purchase a Cessna plane...
FOOTBALL Prep summaries Thursday Melrose 80, Pine Hill 0 Pine Hill 0 0 — 0 Melrose 64 16 — 80 Scoring summary First quarter M — Michael Cardonita 84 kickoff return (Cardonita run), 11:50 M — Cardonita 65 punt return (Dathan Yeary pass from Josiah Roybal), 9:55 M — Brandon Garcia 32 pass from Josiah Roybal (Dylan Draper run), 7:43 M — Logan DeVaney 52 pass from Cardonita (Yeary pass from Cardonita), 5:52 M — Josiah Roybal 23 run (Nolan DeVaney run), 5:29 M — Dylan Draper 50 run (L. DeVaney run), 4:33 M — L. DeVaney 40 run (Y...
Wow! What in the world happened to you? Anyone who's ever had a black eye knows they're going to answer that question over and over. It's always best to have a really good story at the ready. Since I'm sporting a great shiner since last Thursday let me try a few stories out on you. Answer No. 1: I was walking across the square to get a black coffee at the café when I noticed a big tattooed guy (probably an MMA fighter) assaulting a kind looking grey-haired grandmother. He...
Whether it's in the barn, the hospital or the classroom, Portales native Chelsea Pinedo can always be found working hard. Raised on a dairy, Pinedo grew up working with cattle and has developed a love for the trade and the animals. She jokes that when her parents first brought her home from the hospital, they brought her straight to the barn. Pinedo today works as an OB/GYN technician at Clovis' Plains Regional Medical Center. On top of her job at the hospital, Pinedo is...
Ron Milam was always goal-oriented and self-driven, in college and in the Army. That's how Darwin Pauley remembers him anyway. "Once he set his mind to something, he went after it so promotions were probably easy for him; not for many - but for him. He knew his job. He knew what he was there for. He shined that way and that's the way people saw him," said Pauley who played basketball with Milam at Eastern New Mexico University in the late 1980s. The nation is remembering...
Just about everyone who was aware of the world around them on Sept. 11, 2001, remembers what they were doing when they heard that an airliner had crashed into upper floors of one tower, then another, of the World Trade Center, and then into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., launching the U.S. and allies into an ongoing struggle against terrorism that has continued since then. Here are some accounts of what some area residents remember and what they think about what has happened since: Police Captain Roman Romero Clovis...
We asked readers via Facebook to share their memories of where they were, what they were doing and how they were feeling the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Here are a few of the responses: In Germany, at a school meeting. I was pregnant at the time, past my due date. My parents were actually in the air flying to Germany as the events all day unfolded. My husband who was in the Air Force had no idea what had happened when he arrived at the airport to meet my parents. It was nearly an hour later when he got back to our base when he...
PORTALES - A crowd of around 70 gathered in Portales on the day before the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, and were reminded of the Septembers 10, 11 and 12 of 20 years ago. In a ceremony lasting less than 20 minutes at the parking lot of James Polk Stone Community Bank, Matt Rush took the audience through his memories of 20 years gone by since the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The Friday event, usually held on Sept. 11 but held on the day before with many...
CLOVIS - Clovis' Main Street, and nearly five dozen other places just like it, remembered Saturday how Sept. 11, 2001, changed their lives forever, while honoring those whose lives came to a sudden halt. Curry County Teen Court began its part of the inaugural Flag of Honor Across America Memorial at 9:02 a.m., the time United Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center in New York City. Through the teen court program, Curry County was one of 60 founding communities for the program....
Thousands of Afghan refugees whisked to safety during the massive evacuation that concluded recently experienced their first taste of freedom in New Mexico’s Doña Ana County. The Doña Ana Range Complex, a part of the Fort Bliss Army base that extends into Doña Ana and Otero counties in New Mexico, is being used as a temporary holding site for those evacuated from Afghanistan as part of Operation Allies Rescue. As many as 10,000 evacuees are expected to be processed there. The Department of Defense has said that up to 22,0...
As expected, everyone’s apoplectic about the Supreme Court’s decision not to block the Texas abortion law. It’s no secret I have been advocating for the criminalization of abortion for decades. Many people disagree with me, and that’s OK. It’s a controversial topic, and there really is no common ground, despite what the peacemakers try and argue. And I fully admit that the Texas law is extreme and novel, to the extent that it allows private parties to enforce it. Revolutio...
It was a day that did not end. It went on for days, it went on for weeks, it went on for years. But then you look up and somehow, 20 years have gone, and you realize with a start that you can’t recall the last time you thought of Sept. 11, 2001. “We’ll go forward from this moment,” I wrote. And we did. And we have. So much so that maybe the events of that day begin to feel a little distant. So it’s shocking how easily it all comes back. Indeed, to review the old footage i...
Not too long ago, supporters imagined Joe Biden might be the next LBJ, and perhaps they were right — just not how they thought. Biden bears no resemblance to the Lyndon B. Johnson who entered office after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 with a 75% approval rating and over the next couple of years passed a raft of historic legislation. No, if there’s any comparison it is to the LBJ who by 1967 had seen his approval rating dip underwater in a deeply riven country. A...
You know government is out of control when different entities start talking about suing each other over the best way to control people. Freedom lovers are outraged, for example, over the latest COVID-19 vaccine mandates announced by President Biden last week. Biden declared that businesses with 100 or more employees will have to require workers to be vaccinated. Employees who decline the vaccine will have to be tested at least weekly for COVID-19. Texas Republicans immediately urged Attorney General Ken Paxton to file a...
Some random thoughts: On COVID masks and booster shots: What is remarkable to me about government mandating the wearing of masks and taking booster shots for the current virus is the complete lack of any sort of risk assessment for the different groups of people affected. Age differences, health differences, whether or not you’ve had the virus, the diverse groups suing government to halt the mandating; all have no impact on government decision making. Every one of the g...
ALBUQUERQUE — Eastern New Mexico University regents on Friday stressed that following a year of COVID-related shutdowns of in-person learning, another semester of the same was the last thing anybody wanted. But low vaccination rates and high case counts in their university counties have regents concerned, and they said the colleges can't defeat the pandemic on their own. Regents didn't take any action regarding COVID-19 practices at the college, but a discussion item placed on the agenda by Board President Dan Patterson e...
PORTALES — The Portales City Council on Tuesday approved purchase of a new phone system that is currently unbudgeted by regarded as necessary by information technology staff. Public Works Director John DeSha told councilors in the brief meeting that the current Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) is about 15 years old, and it is showing its age to the point various departments have resorted to shopping for replacement parts on eBay. “I find that a little disconcerting,” DeSha said. DeSha presented two options to counc...
CLOVIS — The Clovis Police Department has introduced a mobile app to help residents connect with the department to find information, view alerts, and submit anonymous tips from their smartphone. The Clovis PD app is available for download for free via the Google Play Store, iTunes App Store, or by visiting the Clovis Police Department website at police.cityofclovis.org. “The Clovis Police Department strives to make the City of Clovis a safer place to live, work, and play in by working in partnership with our com...
BOVINA — A Clovis man died Tuesday in an accident at Heartland Co-op in Bovina, officials said. Michael Molden, 51, was moving corn when he “went in the silo and was sucked under the corn,” Bovina Police Chief Joe Orozco said. The accident happened about 3:30 p.m. CDT, Orozco said, and was witnessed by two co-workers. Parmer County Sheriff Randy Geries said elevator workers sometimes have to go in the bins to push grain through. He said Molden went in to help a co-worker when the accident happened....
SANTA FE — A longtime Clovis teacher is among 21 announced Friday as a state ambassador for the 2021-22 academic year, according to a release from the Public Education Department. Silvia Miranda, a reading specialist at Mesa and James Bickley elementary schools, was chosen as a Level II or Level III classroom teacher who wants to advance their profession by learning about state policy, advocating for teacher growth opportunities and keeping the teacher pipeline filled with qualified professionals. Ambassadors were selected th...
CLOVIS — The district attorney’s office announced Friday it would not pursue criminal charges against a man in connection to the accidental death of his 4-year-old son. Barrett Story died Aug. 25 in Lubbock. The day prior, the Curry County Sheriff’s office was dispatched to the home of Justin Story, 34, on State Road 311. “I have reviewed this matter in detail with the Curry County Sheriff’s Office and the Major Crimes Unit,” District Attorney Andrea Reeb said. “After reviewing all the evidence, it is my decision that...
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE — Personnel at Cannon Air Force Base will hold a variety of events this week on base to mark POW/MIA Recognition, according to a release from the 27th Special Operations Wing. According to the release, POW/MIA Recognition Day is held on the third Friday of every September and honors all American service members of past conflicts who are prisoners of war or missing in action — in all, 138,103 prisoners of war and 83,114 missing in action. All service members and community residents with base access are...
ALBUQUERQUE — Eastern New Mexico University fell just below the 5,000 mark for enrollment this semester, with the Portales campus on Friday reporting a fall-to-fall enrollment drop of 5.3%. According to a university release issued as Friday’s board of regents meeting began, the biggest drop among undergraduates was in first-time freshmen and sophomores — each down 21.1%, while the number of juniors declined by 6.8%, and seniors declined by 2.7%. “The greatest drops were in freshman and sophomore (students),” Portales Presiden...
Data suggests New Mexico may be nearing the peak of this latest COVID-19 surge and hospitalizations statewide are likely to go down in the next few weeks, according to Plains Regional Medical Center Administrator Jorge Cruz. But Cruz also said last week he doesn't anticipate that trend will apply to Clovis-Portales. “(W)ith the lower vaccination rate in our region, we may continue to see higher numbers of COVID patients in the hospital,” he wrote in an email as part of a continuing series of questions and answers with The...
With a bit of local tradition, and possibly a new nationwide tradition, eastern New Mexico last week marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Friday saw Portales gather for a morning parking lot event hosted by James Polk Stone Community Bank. The annual event is put on by bank President David Stone to thank local first responders and never forget the events of that day. Speaker Matt Rush, noting the event was held on Sept. 10, spoke of the perfectly normal...
