Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 1614
My unsolicited advice for this year’s graduates is simple: Move slow and fix things. In 2014, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg coined the phrase “move fast and break things” to describe the mentality of our new 20-year-old tech-sector corporate leaders who believed all human knowledge gained over the centuries had been made obsolete by quantum computing. “The idea is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough,” Zuckerberg explained. He expounded on the idea during a college lecture. “A lot of times people are ju...
The 2023 New Mexico legislative session was generally disappointing for New Mexicans who wish to see much-needed K-12 education reform. However, it was not a total loss. In fact, one bill did pass that could help thousands of New Mexico families pay for educational options that work best for them. Without a single “no” vote during the 2023 session, HB 342 will soon be the “law of the land.” The bipartisan bill was sponsored in the House by Republican Minority Leader Ryan Lane and by Democrat Majority Leader Peter Wirth in the Senate. It was sig...
I’m continuing from my last column, examining modern transgender ideology. At the outset, let me stress that I’m not attacking individuals. As far as I’m concerned, you do you. I wish you the best. I’m critiquing the ideology that encourages so-called “transitioning” for children. I wrote that the modern movement is based on a neo-platonic idea that the physical world we live in does not define “reality.” It’s what you feel in your heart or choose to believe. That’s what’s really real. This is true even when the idea in your head is flatly c...
We lost a legend last week. Bill Kelly, one of our region’s best offensive-minded college football coaches of all time, died Saturday. The Amarillo Globe-News reported Kelly, 75, died in Amarillo after an extended bout with pneumonia. The North Carolina native will be most remembered by many for his three seasons coaching at then-West Texas State University, from 1985 to 1987. His Buffs went 18-13-1 before Kelly stunned many in the sports world by switching careers at age 40. He spent his last four decades as a criminal defense attorney. I...
Ute Pipeline not a long-term solution I have analyzed the effects that the Ute Lake pipeline would have had on the water available in Ute Lake using the actual historical daily United States Geological Survey data from the year 2007 to 2023. I am a Texas certified public accountant with many, many years of data analysis experience. The ENMWUA proposes to draw 16,415-acre feet through the pipeline each year. Using the 16,415-acre feet a year is equivalent to 44.97-acre feet per day. I simply calculated what each day’s lake reading would have bee...
AOC and her Green New Deal buddies in the Biden government are not just winning their crusade against fossil fuels. They’re also wrecking the country – appliance by appliance. Our washing machines, refrigerators and microwaves have already been made less efficient and more expensive because of new federal standards pushed by fanatical environmentalists who think like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Not long ago, government regulators were caught planning to outlaw gas kitchen stoves in new homes and apartments because they make climate change wor...
Springtime has arrived as indicated leaves on the mesquites, which also means that it’s planting time for summer crops. After the great flood, God promised that as long as the Earth endures, seedtime and harvest would continue (Genesis 8:22). For that to come about, God provides all we need to grow crops, including sunshine, rain, the seed and even the agricultural knowledge (Matthew 5:45; Deuteronomy 11:10-16; 2 Corinthians 9:10; Isaiah 28:23-29). No matter how busy we get, we must never forget God’s providence and generate a return on tha...
I’m told ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool that can answer questions. So I gave it a try. Me: Who is David Stevens, publisher of The Eastern New Mexico News? ChatGPT: David Stevens is a journalist and the publisher of the Eastern New Mexico News, a daily newspaper based in Clovis, New Mexico. He has been with the newspaper since 1998 and has served as publisher since 2011. Fact check: The Eastern New Mexico News is not a daily paper. It publishes twice a week. I started working here in 2001, not 1998. I became publisher in November 2...
In the campaign commercial President Joe Biden released to announce his re-election campaign, there was one individual who was prominently displayed – Kamala Harris. Since the moment Biden selected her as his running mate in July 2020, there has been no shortage of commentary about Harris and her role as vice president. No honest person can dismiss the fact that being a woman of color has been a political handicap for her. As a woman of color and a biracial one at that, Harris has to deal with the twin evils of “Jim Crow and Jane Crow.” The ter...
Haven’t we seen this never-ending story before? It’s just that the politics have flipped. When we had Democrats in power in the House, all we heard were bad stories about Donald Trump. All we heard from Democrats and their parrots in the major media was how Trump supposedly broke a bunch of laws and should be impeached, imprisoned or hanged for things like colluding with the Russians, dodging his taxes and golfing too much. One by one, those fake stories would fizzle out and nothing would happen. Then congressman Adam Schiff – my representative...
File this one under “Nothing new under the sun.” An ancient idea has resurfaced in the current cultural phenomenon of transgenderism. I’m not seeking to insult individual people, dealing with serious issues, who have been made in the image of God and thus deserve to be treated as neighbors. As Christ taught, let’s love them like ourselves. I’m looking at the ideology that is argued for on college campuses and social media, like TikTok. This is the argument that everyone should accept transgenderism as good, normal, and worthy of great sup...
This has been a tough year for losses. In February, my husband Wayne lost his brother, George, to Alzheimer’s. Then, a day before the fifth anniversary of my dad’s passing, Wayne’s dad, George Jeston Head, died, leaving us mired in a pit of grief. There are so many similarities between our two fathers. Both had very distinct visions of right and wrong. Both served their countries proudly, without question. Both were spiritual men of honor and integrity, who loved their families without hesitation. Often, Wayne would look at his father, and s...
You can tell how seriously someone takes property rights by whether they support “code enforcement.” “Code enforcement” is a euphemism for government violating residents’ property rights. It’s an inexcusable justification for government to steal property or to violate other rights. Government has no rights and can never be a victim, so government isn’t owed anything for a violation. A “fine” is nothing but legalized theft used to punish. Yes, it’s a common practice but “common” can’t make it right. This sort of behavior has no place in...
A spate of recent shootings serve as a depressing reminder that accidentally ringing the wrong doorbell, driving to an incorrect residence, or mistakenly getting into the incorrect vehicle can be deadly. In Kansas City, 16-year-old honors student Ralph Yarl mistakenly arrived at the wrong home while looking for his younger siblings. There he was shot and severely wounded by 84-year-old Andrew Lester, a chain of events that shocked residents and sent citizens and the country on edge. Lester stated he was intimidated by the young teen’s size and...
Joe Biden lies. He stumbles. He has the beginnings of dementia. Everything Fox News says about his incompetence and his horrible domestic and foreign policies is absolutely true. Everyone knows America will be more prosperous and safe when he is no longer in the White House. But Joe Biden isn’t leaving. He’s decided he can run for re-election in 2024 for one simple reason – the Republican Party nomination is in the pocket of Donald Trump. I’m not a Never Trumper. I voted for him twice and I think he did a good job as president. But like ev...
We were invited to spend spring break this year with family who live at the southern Gulf Coast of Texas. We had a great time, even stopping on the way there and back to visit with various other dear friends and family (also dear to us), but that’s not related to this article. To spend as much time as possible and be there for church on Sunday morning, we left early on Friday, March 17. Those, like us, of Irish descent, and probably many others recognize March 17 as St. Patrick’s Day, which we’re supposed to celebrate by eating corned beef...
The state of New Mexico is unique in both its demographics and geographical features. Our vast land area, diverse topography, and sparse population have proven to be a significant barrier when it comes to broadband deployment and internet connectivity. This affects New Mexicans from the eastern prairie to the Rio Grande Valley. This challenge is particularly evident across low-income communities and on tribal lands. Billions of federal and state tax dollars have been spent on broadband in recent years, but the problems persist because too...
In 1981, Sally Field won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of an ambitious and reckless newspaper reporter in the film “Absence of Malice.” The reporter uses information leaked by a federal prosecutor for a front-page story wrongfully accusing the character played by Paul Newman of the murder of a union boss. The evil newspaper gets away with it because of a 1964 Supreme Court ruling. The film’s title comes from the standard set in the case of New York Times Co. v Sullivan. Former Public Safety Commissioner L.B. Sullivan successfully sued the T...
Violent events in the last few days prove how edgy Americans are. A 16-year-old boy who knocked on the wrong door was shot through the glass by a scared old man. A 20-year-old was shot because she pulled into the wrong driveway. A cheerleader was shot after she accidentally got in the wrong car at a shopping center. Everyone is so on edge today because of the madness and lawlessness they see on TV and the Internet. Every day brings new video of gas station smash-and-grabs, flash mobs looting retail stores, mini-riots taking over streets in down...
But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. — Jesus Christ, in Luke 11:41 This puzzling sentence appears in a discussion about the system of ritual washing that the first-century Jews practiced as a matter of tradition. There were detailed procedures for washing this and that which, they believed, protected their spiritual status. These requirements kept them from becoming defiled, or “unclean.” They had developed these traditions themselves over generations. God had not commanded them. (Funny how t...
It’s the year before a presidential election, which means it’s once again time for a group to call for a unity ticket of a Democratic and a Republican for president and vice president or for an independent candidate to avoid the dysfunction of the parties entirely. The current effort by the No Labels group to get a presidential ballot line in all 50 states for 2024 is being treated as something of a novelty, but we’ve seen something like this in most modern presidential elections. Just four years ago Unite America was proposing a bipar...
When it comes to Big Media news, all eyes this week will be on the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News as it goes to trial in a Delaware courthouse. It’s one of the most significant media trials in decades, with ramifications that strike at the heart of what we call a “free press.” Somewhere in Journalism 101, or maybe it was 201, I learned that a news reporting operation can get away with not telling the truth if it was done without malice. To prosecute a news outlet for an unintended error in reporting would have a chilling effect on those...
My governor Gavin Newsom has finally found an excuse to get out of the state he’s been tyrannizing for the last three years. He’s going around to red states like Florida, telling them how they’re the ones that are doing everything wrong. While Newsom is AWOL, which actually is a good thing for the over-taxed people of California, the state continues to fall apart. Its great cities continue to suffer from high crime and homelessness. Its budget deficit for 2023 is $22 billion. And so many people are moving away that California is leading the c...
I use all kinds of things as the bases for my articles. While considering this one, to be published on April 12, I heard Acts 4:12 read, making me wonder what the other Bible books had for chapter 4, verse 12. So, I checked that out. Of the 66 Bible books, 11 didn’t have four chapters and another four didn’t have 12 verses in their fourth chapter. Two of the latter books, Jonah and Revelation, stopped at 4:11. Because those verses are pretty neat, I’ve included them in this introduction. Revelation 4:11 recognizes God as the Creator, while...
What I remember most about that dark early morning of crouching on the prairie is the rhythmic sound of pounding. It was so loud, I wondered if someone had put a microphone near the skinny legs of the dozen birds dancing on the turf. As the sun rose above the horizon in southeastern New Mexico, the male lesser prairie chickens continued their ritual performance, each hoping to entice a female. They strutted, leaped in the air with feathers spread, and bowed, but the greatest thrill was watching them puff up the garish, red-orange air sacs on ei...