Serving the High Plains

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  • Las Cruces superintendent mourned by community

    Staff and wire reports|Mar 3, 2021

    New Mexico's education community was stunned Thursday to learn about the death of Las Cruces Public Schools superintendent Karen Trujillo. Trujillo, 50, died Thursday evening after being struck by a vehicle while walking her dogs. Trujillo had been Las Cruces’ superintendent since September 2019, moving into the position after a long career as a New Mexico educator and researcher who served briefly as the state's public education secretary. Dennis Roch, a former state representative and now superintendent of Logan Municipal Schools, said: "...

  • County clerks ask for primary by mail

    Staff and wire reports|Apr 1, 2020

    More than two dozen county clerks in New Mexico — including Quay County’s — have asked the state Supreme Court for an order that would allow the June 2 primary be conducted by mail. The clerks said they otherwise face an impossible choice — putting voters' and election workers' lives at risk or violating their oath of office. "The state of New Mexico faces a public health emergency unprecedented in modern times," the clerks stated in their petition, filed Monday. Quay County’s Ellen White was among the petitioners. White stated in a letter Tu...

  • DA asks court to rescind contempt order

    Staff and wire reports|Apr 1, 2020

    Tucumcari’s district attorney said he was held in contempt of court after “heeding the governor’s declaration of a public health emergency” and failing to attend a hearing in Carlsbad earlier this month. Timothy Rose is asking the New Mexico Supreme Court to require Judge Lisa Riley to rescind the contempt order, which was issued after Rose’s request to attend the hearing by phone was denied. Tenth Judicial District Attorney Rose had agreed to take on a case in the 5th Judicial District, which prosecutors there were unable to accept because o...

  • Borehole test drilling project abandoned

    Staff and wire reports|May 24, 2017

    The U.S. Department of Energy announced Tuesday it is abandoning a test meant to determine whether nuclear waste can be buried far underground. That’s because of changes in budget priorities, the agency said. But the plan’s critics and supporters, at least in Quay County, all say the battle is far from over. The Trump administration sent Congress a federal spending plan that seeks $120 million to revive the mothballed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. The repository was closed in 2012 after heavy opposition by former Democratic Sen. Har...

  • Racino license still in limbo

    Staff and wire reports|Apr 26, 2013

    Representatives from Raton, Tucumcari and Lordsburg told New Mexico racing commissioners on Thursday they are interested in applying for the state's sixth racino license, even though discussion of that license had been removed from the meeting agenda. The long-delayed and still unfinished La Mesa Racetrack in Raton earlier this week appealed the loss of its racing license to the state Supreme Court, putting the availability of that license in limbo. An unnamed group has also expressed interest in opening a racino in Clovis. It's still unclear...

  • Governor, DA uninjured in plane mishap

    Staff and wire reports|May 24, 2012

    SANTA FE — A private plane carrying Gov. Susana Martinez and Clovis-Portales District Attorney Matt Chandler landed without its landing gear down Wednesday in Santa Fe, but there were no injuries, officials said. The emergency landing took place about 10 p.m. at Santa Fe Municipal Airport. The governor was returning from a campaign event in Tucumcari for Republican state Senate candidate Angie Spears. The Spears campaign paid for the flight, spokesman Scott Darnell said. The governor's husband Chuck Franco was also on board. Martinez told r...