Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
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A rural Tucumcari man fatally shot during a confrontation with sheriff’s deputies this spring was legally drunk, according to investigative reports from state police. The local district attorney also determined weeks later that Sheriff Dennis Garcia would not be charged for killing 77-year-old Aubrey James Osteen during the May 14 shootout, stating the use of force by the sheriff “was reasonable and necessary to preserve life” and was justified in defending himself and others. Those details were revealed in 64 pages of reports by New Mexic...
About a dozen people attended a workshop Wednesday at the Quay County Fairgrounds to discuss ideas and fine-tune an update to the county government’s comprehensive plan, including possibly using Tucumcari’s soon-to-close old hospital as a nursing home or residential complex. Facilitators from Albuquerque-based Sites Southwest presided over the workshop. Sites Southwest also is helping the City of Tucumcari update its comprehensive plan, as well. All three of Quay County’s commissioners sat at a table to discuss ideas for updating the plan....
More than 400 Tucumcari High School alumni attended the 52nd edition of the Rattler Reunion, its largest attendance in several years. Rattler Reunion treasurer Kathy Segura said a total of 390 meals were catered for the Saturday night banquet, with THS alums still being registered at the Tucumcari Convention Center minutes before the ceremony. Segura said the estimated total crowd was over 400. "This place has been packed," Segura said. "It's been a very, very good year." Segura said crowds...
La Cita Restaurant in Tucumcari last week earned a $50,000 grant from the Backing Historic Small Restaurants Program administered through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express. A total of 50 restaurants across the United States were awarded the grants. Funds are designed to help "rejuvenate, innovate and expand their legacies, ensuring their cherished legacies endure." According to the National Trust, at least $40,000 of each grant must be used for exterior...
Revelation 1:5 calls Jesus Christ “the faithful witness.” If I can get on my preacher’s soapbox for just a moment: Christians have so focused on the Revelation as a map to the end-times, they routinely miss what the stated purpose of the book is. According to its opening words, it is “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Whatever you think the proper interpretation of the book’s images may be, or what it was meant to predict, it is first and foremost a revelation, a “revealing,” of Jesus. It’s about him, not the antichrist. Revelation’s main...
West Texas A&M University’s chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America won its first-ever Star Chapter Award from its national organization. The award recognizes the chapter’s commitment to the society’s “highest standards,” according to the society. A member of the university’s chapter includes Jenna Lopez, a senior public relations, advertising and applied communications major from Tucumcari. To qualify, the chapter had to fulfill at least eight of 11 categories of contributions to the society, including high school outreach, c...
A Texan man died and three others suffered injuries in a two-vehicle collision Friday night south of San Jon. Anthony Gonzales, 53, of Hereford, Texas, was declared dead at the scene by the Office of Medical Examiner. According to New Mexico State Police public information officer Lt. Philip Vargas, Gonzales was driving his pickup truck north at milepost 23 of Highway 469 about 9:20 p.m. Friday when it inexplicably crossed the center line. Gonzales’ truck collided with a southbound pickup truck carrying three occupants. The three injured people...
On this date ... 1974: President Richard M. Nixon was under extreme pressure to resign from office, much of it coming from his party and friends. Privately, many in Congress predicted Nixon would be out of office — the first president to resign from office — within a short time. Congressmen also stated their unwillingness to grant Nixon immunity from criminal prosecution if he resigned. U.S. Rep. Manual Lujan Jr., once one of Nixon’s staunchest supporters, said he would vote to impeach the president because the evidence gave him no other choic...
Tucumcari Senior Center Wednesday — Eggs, pancakes, maple syrup, sausage, potatoes and onions, vegetable juice, berries. Thursday — Tuna noodle casserole, Italian beans, wheat roll with margarine. Friday — Scalloped potato casserole with ham, stewed tomatoes, wheat roll with margarine, fruit salad with chopped walnuts. Monday — Lasagna, spinach salad with egg, Italian vegetables, wheat roll with margarine, tropical fruit. Tuesday — Chicken penne Alfredo, tossed salad with dressing, seasoned spinach, wheat roll with margarine, banana pudding w...
Wednesday-Saturday — Quay County Fair. The annual event at the Quay County Fairgrounds in Tucumcari will feature all sorts of livestock shows, plus fine arts and home arts competitions in the exposition center. The fair concludes with the annual Junior Livestock Auction on Saturday night. To add an item to the calendar, email [email protected]...
Homelessness isn’t as far away from home anymore. January “point in time” counts show that New Mexico’s unhoused population has been growing in recent years, while nationally it’s at a 15-year high. Last year’s count found a 48% increase in New Mexico’s homeless population from a year earlier, and this year’s count showed a 62% increase. This is more than a perception; it’s a reality. It’s not just in the cities these days. Where I live, along Interstate 40 in Santa Rosa, we get our share of transients, sometimes hoofing or hitchhiking their wa...
One would be hard-pressed to think of a vice president in recent memory placed under as much of a political microscope as Kamala Harris. She can hardly sneeze without someone, somewhere analyzing or dissecting her every move. And let’s not get started on how some of her critics attack her supposed “strange” laugh. Some on the right have insinuated Harris slept her way to the top. Some, including Donald Trump, falsely claim she’s not really Black because her father is light-skinned and her mother was from India. The founder of Pastors for Trump,...
Last week our lame duck President Joe Biden came out of hiding and called for some major changes in how the U.S. Supreme Court operates. His proposals — another election-time pander to his party’s progressive base – were liberal, pie-in-the-sky ideas that everyone knows will never materialize in the real world. They included getting Congress to impose term limits and a binding code of ethics on justices, neither of which could get the required votes in a divided Congress. Biden’s most foolish idea of the week, however, was his call for a const...
The avian flu apparently stayed away, but the chickens and rabbits arrived in larger-than-usual numbers last Thursday in an earlier and abbreviated version of the Quay County Fair. The rest of the Quay County Fair that features beef, swine, sheep, goats, home arts, crafts and other shows is scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday this week. The poultry and rabbit shows were moved to Aug. 1 for precautionary reasons after an avian influenza outbreak in neighboring Roosevelt County and in the...
New Mexico State Police lifted a Silver Alert for a Tucumcari-area man after he was found last week in the Oklahoma City region. NMSP issued the Silver Alert in early July for Carmel Cresenciano Jasper, 76, who had been last seen on May 30 at the Circle K convenience store on South First Street near Interstate 40 in Tucumcari. Quay County Sheriff Dennis Garcia said Oklahoma City police found Jasper in that city in good health. Garcia said he wasn't sure how Jasper ended up in Oklahoma City or...
More than 600 voters registered in Quay County may need to update their voter-registration information before the general election in November. According to a news release from the Quay County Clerk’s Office, the New Mexico Secretary of State will send a voter-address confirmation postcard to 680 voters in the county who have been identified as having possibly moved and did not update their registrations. The postcards would be sent no later than Aug. 7. State law requires the Secretary of State to send a notice to possibly relocated voters b...
These calls were made to the Tucumcari-Quay Regional Emergency Communications Center from July 29 to Aug. 4: July 29 — 12:08 a.m.: Assault and battery in 1100 block of East Smith Avenue, Tucumcari. — 4:48 a.m.: Domestic disturbance at South Seventh Street and West Nobles Avenue, Tucumcari. — 9:28 a.m.: Accident in 1900 block of South Mountain Road, Tucumcari. — 11:18 a.m.: Disturbance in 300 block of South Third Street, Tucumcari. — 5 p.m.: Intoxicated subject at East Evans Avenue and South Second Street, Tucumcari. — 5:45 p.m.: Vandalism in 14...
These individuals were booked into the Quay County Detention Center from July 29 to Aug. 2: — Damian Rodriguez, 42, Tucumcari, aggravated driving while under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug (refusal) and open container. — Michael Paul Chacon, 45, San Jon, charge not listed. — James Pero, 71, Tucumcari, charge not listed. — Ethan Mullins, 27, Clovis, contempt of court. — Pancha Rivas, 21, Tucumcari, probation violation. — Rachell M. Gotschall, 30, Tucumcari, contempt of court. — Larry Steven Pierce, 71, Tucumcari, contempt of c...