Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
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The first great coverup involving presidential succession occurred in 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke that left him severely incapacitated. Medical records indicate that Wilson was incapacitated and paralyzed on one side of his body for the remaining 18 months of his presidential term. Whitehouse physician, Adm. Cary Grayson, who had tremendous personal and professional loyalty to Wilson, kept the severity of the stroke hidden from Congress and the...
If you’re concerned about America’s direction, there’s a way to think about it that helps. It’s also true. America is the people, the natural wonders and resources, and the spirit of innovation. America is liberty. The U.S. federal government is the enemy of all those things and not something you should look to for guidance, protection, or answers. The regional and local governments are not on America’s side, either. Being loyal to government is misguided. Or worse. When the...
Perhaps nothing encapsulates the perils of crypto better than Tether Holdings Ltd. Tether is a so-called stablecoin. It addresses one of cryptocurrencies’ greatest drawbacks — extreme volatility — by mimicking the government-issued currencies crypto was supposed to replace. In return for actual dollars, it provides dollar-denominated digital tokens that can be sent across various platforms to anyone, anywhere without touching the regulated financial system. Miraculously, Tether has survived various cataclysms to become the cr...
Last week I was browsing through the New Year’s Day edition of the Portales Valley News from 1925. The front page featured a recap of accomplishments made by Portales during 1924, including paving 12 blocks in the business section of town, completing a new Baptist orphanage, building more than 50 new homes, paving “one mile of concrete connecting the Clovis and Elida highways,” and becoming “a recognized cotton and broom corn center.” Below that was a shorter section t...
Brandon Granger, the son of Texas Republican Rep. Kay Granger, informed the Dallas Express his mother has been battling “some dementia issues late in the year” and had been residing in an assisted-care facility for the last half year. The most recent vote she cast on the House floor was in July, and she has been absent for more than 300 votes since then. While this is certainly alarming news to hear, Granger is hardly an anomaly The median age of senators in the incoming 119th...
Will somebody please tell Donald Trump he won? I’m sure he’s seen the official results by now. I’m sure he knows he’ll be moving back into the White House on Jan. 20. But he’s still acting like he’s on the campaign trail. He’s firing off tweets, trolling his opponents and talking about the United States buying Greenland, retaking control of the Panama Canal and making jokes that he wants Canada to become the 51st state. It’s weird, what Trump’s doing. It’s the Christmas holida...
The election, crime and the climate. I think those are the three biggest stories to come out of New Mexico in 2024. There weren’t any real surprises in the state’s own elections, with all incumbents winning at the federal level and Democrats easily hanging on to power in Santa Fe. But the impact Donald Trump’s election will have on New Mexico will be unmistakable for a border state such as ours. The president-elect’s promise of mass deportations and tighter border security will hit New Mexico families hard, since many ha...
For many years now, almost every year during Christmas, I’ve enjoyed making Charles Dickens’ venerable A Christmas Carol part of my Yuletide celebration. When I was a child, our family always watched a television version of that great tale sometime during the holidays. My sister, an unabashed lover of all things Christmas, made sure that each year our old TV was tuned to the appropriate channel at the appropriate time. As an adult, I’ve enjoyed watching many of those varie...
I once had a mannequin named Ted. Just a petrified, barefoot, one-handed dude who sat in my living room when I lived in Roswell. Ted was a gift from someone I’ll just call “The San Patricio Artist.” The San Patricio Artist did mannequin art. One weird work of the artist was mannequin arms sticking out of the ground in the garden. Many called it “creepy.” I just thought it artistic, but weird. I decided to put Ted out on my front porch sitting in a rocking chair, with his hand raised in greeting. Days later as I got out of my...
The Wall Street Journal recently published a “blockbuster” story that President Biden has been in significant mental and physical decline for the last four years. The WSJ’s headline is such old news, and so out of date, that it reads like it was written in 2022 — when it should have been if the corporate media had been doing its job. “How the White House Functioned With a Diminished Biden in Charge.” “Aides kept meetings short and controlled access, top advisers acted as go-b...
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine notes that, “U.S. policy is centered on realizing and strengthening a democratic, prosperous, and secure Ukraine more closely integrated into Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures.” A June 13 briefing from the White House says in part, “It is the policy of the United States to assist Ukraine in maintaining a credible defense and deterrence capability.” What are the U.S. goals in the Ukraine war? What do we want to accomplish? When do we know that we...
The year is winding down. I hope yours has been good and your next year will be even better. I enjoy the week between Christmas and New Year. It might be one of my favorite parts of the holidays; it feels like a cozy nook to rest in and read a book. For me, it’s a more relaxed time. The hustle and pressure of the holiday have calmed down, but the family holiday fun often lingers a while longer. So do the leftovers. It’s a time to enjoy the present, reflect on the past yea...
Three out of four low-income households in New Mexico struggle with legal issues impacting basic needs like housing, financial stability, access to social and medical benefits. New Mexico’s civil legal service providers handle thousands of cases every year, but a lack of capacity caused them to turn away more than half of the people seeking help last year. The New Mexico Commission on Access to Justice works with civil legal service providers to ensure equal access to the justice system for the most vulnerable in our c...
The last days of December are a fine time to remember how quickly the years slip away. For instance, as hard as it is to believe, we will soon be celebrating (probably the wrong word to use) the fifth anniversary of when COVID entered our vocabularies and turned our world upside down. Even harder to believe for me though, is that this New Year’s Eve marks 25 years – a quarter a century, people – since we huddled around our electronics on Dec. 31, 1999, and wondered what exactl...
Despite a 9-3 start to the season, veteran Clovis High girls coach Jeff Reed knows the Lady Wildcats are probably a ways away from competing with Class 5A's best. Saturday's finals in the Plateau Holiday tournament at Rock Staubus Gymnasium said as much. CHS held its own with Volcano Vista in the early going, but the Lady Hawks' pressure defense and 3-point shooting helped turn the game into a comfortable win for the Albuquerque-based squad, which pulled away to a 66-49...
It was in the year 336 when Jesus’ birthday was declared to be Dec. 25. Roman Emperor Constantine had declared Christianity the empire’s official religion and the church in Rome turned the 25th into a celebration of Christ’s birth, and we’ve been celebrating the day ever since. But celebrating Christmas isn’t the only thing that’s happened on Dec. 25, and with help from The Associated Press and its “Today in History” feature along with the website onthisday.com, here are a few Christmas Day events that stand out: • On Dec....
I was feeling lonely one night about 14 years ago when I made a pact with Andres, the kitten I had just adopted from the Mesilla Valley Animal Shelter: Get me to age 65, and I promise to take good care of you. The plan was to get a dog once I was retired and had more time to care for one, and I made sure to tell everyone that. I shared the snarky attitude toward cats that is so prevalent in modern culture. My first cat was named Pogonip. When he died, my next two were named Substitute and Replacement. I said it was in honor...
This holiday season, whether you raise a toast, or spike the punch or have a drink to take the chill out of your bones, do so thoughtfully. Alcohol may make the seasonal celebrations feel more festive. A drink or two may seem to comfort those whose holidays aren’t particularly joyful. But increasingly, Americans are drinking more than they should, at levels that are likely to cause problems in the long run if not immediately. If alcohol is part of your holiday plans, keep in mind the harm that over-indulgence can do to y...
“Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to something beyond all emotions and feelings,” writes Henri Nouwen. “Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine.” Christmas is choosing for a change to take a look through the right end of the telescope and thrilling to the sight of God’s work written large rather than cringing before a uni...
With Christmas here I’ve pondered some of the ancient memories floating through my head about this time of year. Like the time when I was itty bitty, our family packed up our luggage, left our New York City home (yes, I used to live in New York City) and headed south for Christmas at my dad’s parents’ home in the mountains of Virginia. It seemed like everyone was there: Our family, Uncle Bud, his wife and kids including Cousin Dave and his smelly feet, our grandparents and Aunt Maude and her big voice. What I remember was a...
Immigration is, and will continue to be, a controversial topic. The least controversial aspect, however, is naturalization. Becoming a U.S. citizen is the pinnacle of my practice, and it is the pinnacle of the immigration process. Last week, I was honored to be asked to be the keynote speaker for the swearing-in of 30 new citizens at a courthouse in the suburbs of Philadelphia. These were my remarks: Most people, when asked to give an address before an audience say that “it i...
It’s the night before Christmas, on the High Plains of Texas, And I ain’t getting a Porsche or even a Lexus. But under the tree in a neatly wrapped box, Is my usual present, skivvies and sox. That’s what I got in my days as a child, Gifts were more useful, not rad and not wild. But that’s what we got, usually something essential, Maybe something from Santa, with some help, providential. With a wee stroke of luck, we all got a toy, Girls prayed for dolls, cap guns for the boy...
Have you unhitched your wagon from the dying mule of government? If not, why not? It’s not helping you, in spite of the claims of its public relations team, but is holding you back. You could be better without it getting in your way and siphoning off the labor of your hands to benefit itself. More liberty, more wealth, more health, more self-respect. For many people, talk of the end of political government is crazy. Their ancestors thought any talk of ending slavery -- excuse...
A few weeks after the recent election, New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and said New Mexico has gone from 50th to 17th on child poverty in the nation. This is simply untrue. The governor is conflating the U.S. Census Bureau’s traditional poverty measure in which we remain 50th and its supplemental measure, which includes several federal and state government programs and New Mexico performs better on. To be completely clear, these are very different m...
For at least four years beginning in 1950, when Santa rolled into Portales after Thanksgiving, it was in a sleigh pulled by four real, honest-to-goodness reindeer. According to newspaper accounts at the time, locals turned out in droves to see them. The man behind bringing those real-life versions of Dancer, Prancer, Donner, and Blitzen to the courthouse square in Portales was a Texas rancher named Grady Carothers. Originally from Goldthwaite, in the heart of Mills County,...
