Virginia Cunningham/News-Sun TATUM — The Tatum Town Council voted two to one at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting to cancel the special election and have the question of a fifth council member placed on the November ballot — and that move could land the town in more legal hot water. Tatum resident Rusty Ramirez voiced his displeasure with the vote, saying …

Andy Brosig/News-Sun With school enrollment in Hobbs projected to reach as much as almost 11,000 students by the 2027-28 school year, Hobbs Municipal Schools is continuing its plans to increase capacity at the district’s three middle school campuses while adding a fourth campus, probably on the north side of town. The district Facility Assessment Community Team met at the district …

Gabrielle Arsiaga/News-Sun LOVINGTON — Jeremiah Garcia, 22, of Hobbs, allegedly burglarized two vehicles and was in the process of breaking into a third when Garcia was arrested on March 22 and charged with two counts of burglary of a vehicle, breaking and entering, two counts of possession of burglary tools, all fourth-degree felonies; and two counts of criminal damage to …

Gabrielle Arsiaga/News-Sun Throughout the month of March, White Sands Healthcare residents have been raising money by placing pink plastic flamingos in people’s front yards. The funds raised go towards residents’ activities, lunches, and trips around town. “With that money, it’s for the people that we have who aren’t fortunate enough to have money or families involved in their lives,” Activities …

By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico’s governor on Friday signed legislation aimed at keeping spent nuclear fuel produced by commercial U.S. nuclear power plants from being shipped to the state, just hours after the measure cleared its final legislative hurdle. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham wasted no time adding her signature after the New …

Gabrielle Arsiaga/News-Sun The Hobbs Animal Adoption Center is dealing with staffing shortages and as a result has had to cut their operating hours and cease vaccinations and surgeries. Hobbs Police Department Public Information Officer Reanna Alarcon said the City of Hobbs is working on restricting positions within the facility. “The animal attendant positions that (HAAC) has in the facility, they’re …

Virginia Cunningham/News-Sun TATUM — A special election will be held in Tatum to decide if a fifth council member should be added, after a resident-led petition received more than the required amount of signatures. The petition required 5 percent of registered Tatum voters to sign the petition in order for it to be validated and adopted. The petition gathered approximately …

Dorothy N. Fowler/News-Sun Joseph Cotton and his wife, Melva, were on their way to Louisiana when they stopped to visit her family in Hobbs in 1981. “Two days later, I went to work for Kirkmeyer Electric,” Cotton said. “We had planned to go back to where my family lived, in Louisiana, but when we got to Hobbs, we just stopped …

Dorothy N. Fowler/News-Sun Joseph Cotton and his wife, Melva, were on their way to Louisiana when they stopped to visit her family in Hobbs in 1981. “Two days later, I went to work for Kirkmeyer Electric,” Cotton said. “We had planned to go back to where my family lived, in Louisiana, but when we got to Hobbs, we just stopped …

Curtis C. Wynne/News-Sun LOVINGTON – Charging a federal agency with making “the narrative fit the desired outcome,” the Lea County Commission on Thursday took issue with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The FWS recently issued a final rule listing the lesser prairie chicken as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, effective on March 27. After hearing former …