When bullets pinged on metal seats overhead, Hobbs Police Chief Chris McCall decided the platform under which he and his wife Kelli had belly-crawled may not be safe enough. The McCalls were in a crowd of about 22,000 concert-goers in Las Vegas, Nev., around 10 p.m. Sunday when a gunman, later identified as 64-year-old retired accountant Stephen Craig Paddock of …

Mayra Garcia, 20 of Lovington, has been stuck in Caguas, Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria hit the U.S. territory on Sept. 20. Mayra moved to Puerto Rico to play in a professional volleyball league. Her flight back home has been cancelled four times, and she plans to try to catch a plane out of Puerto Rico to Dallas Thursday. Mayra …

Fifth Judicial District Judge William Shoobridge heard gunshots Sunday night as he and his wife Cindy, local real estate broker, were climbing into their bed in Las Vegas. They didn’t know until Monday morning, the judge’s birthday, that 59 people had died and more than 500 more were injured in the nation’s worst mass shooting in recent history. “We were …

Hobbs first responders worked the scene of  a two vehicle accident between a Sedan and a Denali on Grimes Streets, in front of Albertsons, Monday. The Sedan rolled over after it was allegedly clipped by the Denali that was turning onto Grimes from the Albertsons’ parking lot. A woman and a four year-old girl were in the rolled over Sudan. …

A canvass of brick and mortar about 30 feet high and 130 feet wide in downtown Hobbs invites grade school children to a painting party this week and next. Contracted by the Lea County Center for the Arts, Oklahoma-based artist Bob Palmer, Ph.D., said he enjoys working with the kids to paint murals. “Not only do I feel like I’m …

If someone were nominating Joe Walker for a prominent space in Heaven, they would be making an old-fashioned “man who” speech. Walker, who died Monday at the age of 86, was the man who started life in Wellington, Texas, the son of hardworking parents who bought a bakery they operated through the dark years of the depression of the 1930’s. …

“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s make some noise” — those words are how Abel Arriaga, a Hobbs resident and local DJ, is trying to make it big as a boxing ring announcer. Arriaga has caught a break in the boxing industry by being hired as the ring announcer for a Roy Jones Jr. Boxing event on Friday at Gilley’s in Dallas …

Hobbs High senior Cesar Cervantes, 17, suffered one of the biggest setbacks a teenage boy can face and yet he is still on track to graduate with his class next year and, with a little luck, walk again. On July 16, Cesar was swimming in his family’s above ground pool when he dove in and broke his neck. His mother …

In February 2003, Pilar and Maria Limas moved into their new Habitat for Humanity home and were given 20 years to pay off the mortgage — they did it in 15, and are the first Habitat for Humanity family to fully own their home. Habitat for Humanity officials and board members plan to celebrate the Limas family from 4-6 p.m. …

When Cooper the CASA dog passed way in late November, it created a void that was felt by everyone who had met him. From the children with the CASA of Lea County program to those at juvenile detention. From the employees at the Lea County Treasurer’s office who met with Cooper for only a few minutes before his work at …