You get to help choose the top News-Sun stories of 2019. The local Top 10 will be presented in the Jan. 1, 2020, edition of the News-Sun
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For a refresher on the stories, please click the links below:
- Multiple Hobbs businesses were swindled out of money they thought was going to needy children in a fundraiser.
- Real estate sales in Lea County in 2018 broke records, but experienced realtors said there were still too few homes on the market.
- A $330 million potash mine moved forward in southern Lea County.
- The Carl’s Jr. store in Hobbs closed without explanation, less than three years after opening.
- On-street permit parking in the Eagle Park subdivision west of Hobbs High School was restricted to homeowners during school hours after residents presented a petition to the City Commission.
- More than 50 people were evacuated from their homes during a 271-acre grass fire northwest of Hobbs.
- A fracking ban bill was introduced in Santa Fe, but was stopped in the state Senate.
- A Hobbs man and Odessa woman were arrested after having a reported “quickie.”
- The Lea County Commission voted unanimously to become a 2nd Amendment Sanctuary County.
- The Tatum Lady Coyotes claimed the Class A state basketball championship with a 57-48 win over Melrose.
- The New Mexico Attorney General’s office concluded Jal’s city officials violated the Open Meetings Act after the Jal Record filed a complaint in November 2017.
- Two Lea County jail inmates were charged with kidnapping and conspiracy against a correctional officer.
- The Hobbs and Lovington cheerleaders both won state championships at the 2019 New Mexico Spirit Championships in The Pit in Albuquerque.
- The Center of Recreational Excellence (CORE) closed for the second time in under a month for repairs.
- The Lea Regional Medical Center board of trustees announced Dan E. Springer accepted the position of chief executive officer.
- A Hobbs neighborhood near the Texas-New Mexico border was overrun by Lea Country Sheriff deputies and Hobbs police during a hostage situation on Easter Sunday.
- The “broom man” EJ Stokes died at age 69.
- Teenage hijinks nearly turned deadly when a 17-year-old boy shot at another car, striking a teenage driver three times. Teenagers said the shooting was in retaliation for a banana being thrown at their car.
- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission Atomic Safety and Licensing Board denied requests by several petitioners to hold an evidentiary hearing challenging Holtec International’s license application to construct and operate the HI-STORE CISF for spent nuclear fuel about 30 miles west of Hobbs.
- Justin P. Bates, who allegedly shot and killed a Lovington man after reportedly kidnapping the victim with a group of men was charged with murder.
- Lea County advanced to nation’s No. 2 county in oil production after the county produced 14.6 million barrels of oil in January.
- New Mexico Junior College hosted the NJCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
- ExxonMobil announced it would invest $55B in Lea and Eddy counties.
- Chicago-based Invenergy LLC gained authorization from the Lea County Commission to issue taxable industrial revenue bonds at up to $215 million after a public hearing that involved only one speaker from the public in opposition.
- Eden Radioisotopes, an Albuquerque-based startup company, announced an investment agreement with Abo Empire, a Yates Family company, to fund a project to build a reactor of less than 2 megawatts in New Mexico, probably in Lea County.
- Devon Energy Corp. announced plans to open a new office in Hobbs with about 40 employees.
- Querida Maria “Lollie” Padilla was charged after an autopsy revealed her 1-month-old son died as a result of being vigorously shaken.
- Former Lea County corrections officer Amelia Alvarado was arrested for allegedly having sex with an inmate at the county jail. The inmate said he impregnated Alvarado, resulting in a baby girl.
- Hobbs and Lovington schools announced they would start providing free lunches to every student, regardless of income.
- A Romanian husband and wife who begged for cash while using dirty, shoeless children as sympathy props were charged with multiple felonies and temporarily lost custody of their four children.
- Missi Currier was named the new president/CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Lea County, replacing Steve Vierck.
- Five oilfield workers died in a head-on vehicle collision on N.M. Highway 128, shutting down the highway about three miles east of Jal.
- Lucid Energy Group announced it is underway with the development of its next large cryogenic processing plant at its flagship Red Hills Natural Gas Processing Complex in southwestern Lea County.
- Solaris Water Midstream announced the company has started the development of its Bronco facility, a recycling and blending facility in Lea County.
- Jal city officials set a 6-month moratorium on RV parks.
- The New Mexico Department of Public Safety announced that state police were beginning joint highway patrols with Lea County sheriff’s deputies, following two fatal crashes in Lea County in July that claimed the lives of eight people.
- Hobbs police chief Chief McCall called it a 20-year career, announcing his retirement. John Ortolano, a 21-year veteran employee of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, was hired as the city’s 25th police chief.
- United Airlines announced direct flights to and from Hobbs to Houston and to Denver beginning in October.
- Lubbock-based Covenant Health System announced it will build a $52 million hospital in Hobbs, with expectations to reduce patient trips to Lubbock for many medical services.
- Former Lea County Commissioner Ken Batson, who was instrumental in bringing a state prison facility to Hobbs, died unexpectedly at his home.
- One inmate at the Lea County Correctional Facility was stabbed multiple times, one was beaten unconscious with a skull fracture, another prisoner was severely beaten, and a fourth inmate was assaulted in a string of assaults in August that resulted in the Hobbs prison being placed on lockdown.
- Hobbs school enrollment kept growing, with 11 of 19 Hobbs schools considered over-capacity based on 2018-19 data.
- Three people were shot and killed at a backyard party in Hobbs.
- Hobbs City Commissioner Dwayne Penick pleaded no contest to three charges stemming from two altercations at his shopping center.
- A 17-year-old Hobbs girl was arrested on a charge of homicide by vehicle after her teenage friend was thrown from the hood of car in the parking lot of a Hobbs restaurant.
- A 2-year-old girl died after being left inside her babysitter’s vehicle at City Hall for several hours.
- Diego Armando Garcia, the fourth suspect in the Feb. 3 murder of Josue Orosco, was arrested in Texas after a police chase that covered more than 75 miles.
- A car that crashed along the side of a motel building in October was the scene of the city’s eighth homicide and 11th homicide victim in Hobbs this year. Police officers found Eric Noel Carrasco, 26, of Hobbs, sitting in the vehicle’s driver’s seat suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
- Lea County officials in October declared judicial complex contractor Albuquerque-based HB Construction in default of its contract.
- Extensive roofing repairs were made at the CORE in October, about 16 months after the $63.5 million landmark facility opened to great fanfare.
- A Eunice teenage girl was killed in a collision between an all-terrain vehicle and a pickup. A second teenage girl also from Eunice was airlifted to a Lubbock area hospital.
- The New Mexico Department of Transportation announced the designation of a 45-mile safety corridor on New Mexico Highway 128. Fines for speeding and other moving violations will be doubled in the safety corridor that extends from near the Texas state line to mile marker 5.
- The Eunice City Council passed a resolution to publicly reprimand Councilman Terry Bettis.
- A unanimous vote by the New Mexico Junior College board set in motion a plan for the renovation of the Caster Activities Center estimated to cost $12.1 million.
- Helen Hovey, the treasurer of a local church who allegedly wrote checks and used a church debit card for personal benefit, was charged by Hobbs police with embezzlement.
- More than three-fourths of Hobbs schools voters approved a $30 million general obligation bond for a new Southern Heights Elementary School and to partially pay for a career technical education facility on the Hobbs High School campus.
- Eunice schools voters by a three-fourths majority approved a $32.5 million general obligation bond to construct a new middle school and a gymnasium.
- Top executives and city officials broke ground a mile east of Jal for the new multi-million-dollar Criollo Lodge man camp investment.
- The Eunice Cardinals football team won their third-straight state championship Saturday with a 56-27 win over the Texico Wolverines at Cardinal Stadium.
- The Lea County Detention Center no longer honors ICE detainer requests for inmates, and now requires warrants from ICE to detain inmates.
- After meetings of a charter commission, Hobbs city leaders voted to take the issue of runoff elections to voters again in 2020.
- Anthony Breeding, who reportedly wanted to prove himself to a Mexican drug cartel, allegedly shot and killed Jose Angel Rivera.