Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The proposal to make Clovis a “sanctuary city for the unborn” is back on the agenda for Thursday’s regular meeting of the Clovis City Commission. The ordinance, aimed at preventing abortion clinics from securing business licenses in the city, was tabled by a 7-1 vote early this month. Commissioners said they were concerned about litigation costs since abortion is legal in New Mexico. District 3 Commissioner David W. Bryant, who voted against tabling the issue, requested it be placed on Thursday’s agenda under “new business....
The New Mexico Legislature recently created a task force to study the feasibility of consolidating the state’s prison and county jail systems. Grace Philips, general counsel for New Mexico Counties, was scheduled to make a presentation on the findings Tuesday. The task force did not “recommend unification of New Mexico’s corrections systems, concluding that unifying New Mexico’s county detention and state prison systems, at this time, is not a responsive solution to the specific challenges faced by criminal justice partner...
Booked The following were booked into local jails (Friday - Tuesday): Clovis • League Clay, 46, failure to appear on misdemeanor charge • Jason Sanchez, 26, reckless driving, battery against a household member, aggravated assault, criminal damage to property • Venton Gooden, 45, probation violation, possession of a firearm or destructive device by a felon • Darrin James, 38, resisting, evading or obstructing an officer • Paul Osorio, 40, failure to pay fines, failure to appear on a felony charge, failure to appear on misdem...
New Mexico House Republicans recently moved to overhaul their leadership team, after a southeast New Mexico lawmaker decided to abandon his bid to retain the party’s top post in the State Legislature. In leadership elections in Albuquerque, members of the House Republican Caucus tapped Aztec state Rep. Ryan Lane to be the next House Minority Leader when they convene on Jan. 17 for the 60-day legislative session. “I am incredibly humbled and honored to share that yesterday my friends and colleagues in the NM House Rep...
ROSWELL — A Denver-based company is working with four counties and two municipalities in the area to develop a $44.5 million regional mental and behavioral health treatment center in Clovis, a facility that government leaders think could serve a key role in reducing prison populations in the area. The presentation by Initium Health to Chaves County commissioners Thursday was a corollary to a discussion during the same meeting about challenges facing county detention centers in New Mexico. “Unfortunately, as you know, New Mex...
I am writing, or trying to write, in a turkey-induced stupor. Well, that’s at least partly correct. But not, I think, the turkey part. Our family had a really nice Thanksgiving. I hope you and yours did, too. Into a relatively normally sized house we crammed more folks than the house was designed to easily accept. The grandkids buzzed around like happy little bees, playing with the dog (who is never happier than when the kids are home and now seems to be in a stupor of his o...
The Curry County administration has announced the Curry County Adult Detention Center (CCADC) has been reaccredited by the Adult Detention Professional Standards Council of New Mexico Counties. According to a news release CCADC initially received accreditation in late 2017. The accreditation is good through December 2023, at which time, CCADC will receive another assessment. Re-accreditation is attained by those county detention facilities who demonstrated implementation and adherence to the 190 Adult Detention Professional...
PORTALES -- Roosevelt County Manager Amber Hamilton’s contract extension and pay raise is up for another vote at the county’s next commission meeting, on Monday. Hamilton on Nov. 22 was given a $15,000 per year raise making her annual salary $112,000. She also received a two-year contract extension. Commissioners approved the pay raise by a 4-1 vote and the contract extension by a 3-2 vote. District 4 Commissioner Tina Dixon voted against both measures. “I had no idea we were even going to discuss it [Hamilton’s contrac...
Another Texas Tech home football game, another walk-off field goal in overtime, another storming of the field. The first two were in the bright sunshine and mid-80s of September, and the final one in the cold and mid-30s of nighttime November. It can be argued if two of them were actually worthy of such postgame fan spillage, but what can’t be argued is the fight and grit from the Red Raiders that got them to that point. The last one was the regular-season finale on T...
TEXICO — Four players combined for 34 points on Monday night as Texico’s girls opened their season with a 43-33 victory over Mescalero. Texico’s boys completed the sweep in their opener, handing the Chiefs a 63-38 loss in the second half of the twin bill. The games were also the first of the season for Mescalero. Senior Emma Whalen and sophomore Desiree Holman had nine points each for the Lady Wolverines, while senior Maya Holman and junior Kaya New scored eight apiece. Texico built a 25-15 halftime lead and played the Lady C...
ALBUQUERQUE — Clovis High’s wrestlers opened the 2022-23 campaign on Saturday in the 12-team Volcano Vista Westside Kickoff tournament, with the boys finishing second in their four-team pool at 2-1 and then splitting two matches in a round-robin against other second-place finishers. Meantime, the Lady Wildcats were eighth of nine teams, scoring 14 points. Volcano Vista took team girls team honors with 192 points to 153 1/2 for runnerup West Mesa. On the boys’ side, the Wildcats defeated Grants 54-12, lost to Volcano Vista...
PORTALES - Senior guard Eze Dike didn't mind that his Eastern New Mexico University men's basketball squad struggled at times against NAIA member University of the Southwest on Saturday. The good news for the Greyhounds is they finished strong and pulled away to a 72-64 win over the Hobbs-based Mustangs at Greyhound Arena. "These are the kind of games I like," said Dike, who is actually a graduate student after transferring from Ivy League member Yale this season. "It shows...
LOS LUNAS — Clovis High’s girls were essentially beaten by a gang of two on Saturday. Junior guard Azalia Mazilia and senior guard Jaydyn Montoya combined for nine 3-pointers and 47 points, and it was just enough to lift Valencia to a 54-49 victory over the Lady Wildcats. Only three other players scored for the Lady Jaguars, none with more than three points. “We had the lead late, but we fouled them and let them shoot free throws to get the lead back,” CHS coach Jeff Reed said. “We’ve got to become a lot more aggressive...
PORTALES — A relatively balanced attack for Eastern New Mexico University’s women got the better of Western Colorado’s mostly one-woman show on Saturday. While senior guard Emmery Wagstaff did her best to keep the Mountaineers in the contest with six 3-pointers and 22 points, she got precious little help from her teammates and the Greyhounds pulled away to a 51-37 victory at Greyhound Arena in their final tune-up before Lone Star Conference play begins this week. Only one other player, sophomore forward Rachel Cockman (8), ta...
PORTALES — There’s no Kylyie Paden in the middle this season as a scoring threat and rim-protector. The three-pronged guard combo of Taris Rippee, Riley Schillings and Teagan Faust has also graduated. Portales High’s girls aren’t exactly starting from scratch, but they do have some holes to fill. “It’ll be a rebuilding year,” 10th-year coach Wade Fraze said. “You can’t lose your top six players and it not be a rebuilding year.” Those four players accounted for approximately 85 percent of the team’s scoring in 2021-22, i...
Drought conditions in Texas and throughout the U.S. continue to take a toll on cattle numbers, with higher calf prices and less beef production projected for 2023, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service livestock economist. “Most of the country is in some form of drought,” David Anderson, AgriLife Extension economist in the Texas A&M Department of Agricultural Economics, Bryan-College Station, told attendees at the recent South Central Texas Cow-Calf Clinic in Brenham. “Drought affects all aspects of the cattle b...
It’s time to polish off that last sliver of pumpkin pie and get ready for a quick pivot into the Christmas season in eastern New Mexico. Local holiday festivities kick off at 6 p.m. Thursday with Portales’ Little Miss Merry Christmas pageant in the Jake Lopez Building at 705 E. Lime St. This is a new location for the Chamber of Commerce event that serves as an annual fundraiser for the white Christmas lights that brighten Portales businesses each winter. A tradition that has...
People are more alike than different. Even those who use politics against you want the same things you want. They want to live their lives the way they believe is best, and they usually believe their way would be best for you, too. The difference is they are pursuing a way you think is not going to work; for themselves or for others. They may prioritize feeling safe over liberty. You may think what makes them feel safe is too dangerous. Maybe they’d put green chilis on e...
The other day I heard a program on NPR discussing how children and youth are taking in the threat of climate change. One teenager spoke of how he became keenly aware of the threat when he had to leave his home as he viewed an approaching wildfire just outside his window. He’s an example of someone who recognizes the threat because he’s had a glimpse of it up close and personally. Other children and youth see it from a distance, like a cloud choking off their future. Anger and depression grow from such a dark view of wha...
Few persons would think of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address as appropriate Thanksgiving-season reading. Many among us, for some strange reason, prefer to imagine him delivering it under a searing sun and in soggy humidity. Perhaps we confuse the month of the battle with the month of the ceremony initiated to honor those who died at the Battle of Gettysburg. Absurdly and challenging the imagination, over 7,000 soldiers died. The fighting lasted three days, from July 1 through July 3, 1863. Lincoln’s spellbinding address at...
On this date … 1835: Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pseudonym Mark Twain for nearly 50 years, was born in Florida, Mo. He was born shortly after an appearance of Hailey’s Comet and famously predicted he would go out with it as well. Clemens died in Redding, Conn., in 1910, the day after the comet made its closest approach to Earth. He was still working on his autobiography, PBS.org reports. 1952: A letter to Santa Claus was published in the Clovis News-Journal from 3-year-old Ken Kemp, who lived at 1101 Lea St. Ken ask...
A coach’s alleged comment to Grady volleyball players that they would “burn in the eternal flames of hell” for various behaviors including “being gay” brought a number of concerned parents to the school’s board meeting on Nov. 21. School Superintendent Keith Durham declined to confirm whether the incident occurred; he also declined to identify the coach in question and would not discuss whether any disciplinary action was taken. “I can’t speak on personnel matters,” Durham said. Mikayla Najera, a Clovis resident who is a...
CLOVIS – Trustees at Clovis Community College took no action Tuesday regarding their president who has been on paid administrative leave since Aug. 3. Trustees met in executive session for about an hour. CCC President Charles Nwankwo did not attend the meeting. The trustees did acknowledge they have received an investigative report they requested from the Albuquerque office of Cuddy & McCarthy. That report was initiated following the board's receipt of letters of "no c...
Area school superintendents are weighing in on talk by state legislators on mandating more school days in the upcoming legislative session. The Fort Sumner school board heard Nov. 21 that two legislative bodies are considering increasing the required number of classroom hours for school districts. Fort Sumner Schools Superintendent Matt Moyer, addressing the board virtually, warned board members to expect extensive discussion about extending the school year. The 60-day session will run Jan. 17 through March 18. Moyer said...
SUNLAND PARK — Customers begin lining up on a hot Friday afternoon in mid-October at Ultra Health in Sunland Park. Just a three-minute drive away, others are pulling into the parking lot of the building that houses the Pecos Valley Production and soon-to-be-open OSO Cannabis Co. dispensaries. At both locations, there’s a familiar sight on this “mellow Friday,” as Ultra Health District Manager Jesus Muñoz puts it: a whole lot of Texans. Those customers have been a driving force in Sunland Park’s successful adult-use...
