ANDY BROSIG/NEWS-SUN Members of a relatively new after school club at Heizer Middle School in Hobbs got a big surprise recently. The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Club was formed by instructor John Perales to enter the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge, an annual competition designed to introduce middle and high school students to critical thinking skills and project-based learning …

A recent op-ed in in the Hobbs News-Sun extolled the virtues of payouts to the film industry as detailed in a recent study predicting $8.40 of return to the state for every $1.00 spent on the subsidies. This is incorrect. First, the study was not conducted by a legitimate accounting firm such as Deloitte or KPMG, but rather an outfit …

ANDY BROSIG/NEWS-SUN Christmas looks a little different this year in Hobbs. The decorations that for decades have festooned utility poles along the main thoroughfares in the city are gone, replaced on the ground by lighted reindeer, snowmen and more, interspersed with strings of bright white lights wrapped around the trunks of trees. “I don’t understand,” said Dwayne Penick, District 5 …

Gabrielle Arsiage/Hobbs News-Sun Lea County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Kiara Sainz, 26, of Odessa on Dec. 14 after sending three people to the hospital by running over them with her car, while she was intoxicated. On Nov. 27, deputies responded to the 2100 block of East Settles Pass about an accident involving the vehicle Sainz was allegedly driving, hitting three …

Andy Brosig/News-Sun Ruby Hamilton, 3, will be getting what her mother, Kristina, calls the best Christmas gift ever this year from a group started “deep in the desert of southern Lea County.” Even before she was born, Ruby’s doctors knew she was in for a tough road. Diagnosed with Down Syndrome, Ruby was also born with a heart condition where …

Bikes for kids Oilfield Ministry donating bikes to children in need GABRIELLE ARSIAGA Donnie Hill says God has more ways than one of working through people. Though sometimes we may not know it or recognize it at first, God calls us in many ways each day to do his bidding, Hobbs resident and Oilfield Ministry leader, Hill said. And, Hill …

Three legends one ceremony GABRIELLE ARSIAGA NEWS-SUN All of the Lea County Sports Hall of Fame inductees have one thing in common — the impact they made not only in the community, but on the youth. Bob Jackson, Guy Allen and Adrianne Ross were honored as they sat among family, friends, and admirers at Thursday night’s dinner at the Lea …

Hobbsan graduates college in Australia, is aspiring music producer GABRIELLE ARSIAGA NEWS SUN Some people never get the chance to live their dreams — they spend most of their lives living paycheck to paycheck. Others, like former Hobbsan Jose Valdez, got the chance to chase his calling. On Saturday Valdez graduated with three advanced degrees from Hillsong College in Sydney, …

Covenant Health Hobbs Hospital CEO Dan Springer stepping down Dan Springer said telling staff and administration at Covenant Health Hobbs Hospital he was leaving his post as chief executive officer of the facility was one of the toughest things he’s had to do in his career. So, Springer will depart his office for the last time on Jan. 7 — …

LOVINGTON — Many Lea County employees will have extra cash to spend this Christmas and going forward. Newly approved pay increases for safety-related agencies and departments will show up in Dec. 10 pay checks, with the new wage rates having become effective Nov. 21. Rebecca Long, chairwoman of the Lea County Commission, said the increases that for some departments exceed …