Hobbs City Commissioner Dwayne Penick was brought to tears Thursday, talking about the new Department of Veterans Affairs Community Based Outpatient Clinic he helped champion for the community. “This has been a long time coming,” Penick told the crowd of dignitaries, veterans and their families gathered to witness the grand opening and ribbon cutting for the clinic in the former …

LOVINGTON – Families live together, eat together, sleep under the same roofs. They always have each other’s backs, and are sometimes at each other’s throats. In especially athletic families, multiple siblings play sports. Often the same sport, at the same time. Sometimes at an exponential level. Such is the case with the Lovington boys soccer team. As the Wildcats made …

Hobbs Fire Department captain, crew wins event called the ‘toughest two minutes in sports’ After years of hard work and training, Captain Rodney Smith with the Hobbs Fire Department has finally been named “King of the Jungle” at the 2021 Firefighter Combat Challenge finals in Ft. Pierce, Florida on Saturday. The finals are dubbed the “toughest two minutes in sports” …

Lea County Sheriff Office investigates, no arrest made A maintenance employee of a local Hobbs business was suspected of being a “peeping tom” after video footage was found on his cell phone. Footage was found of him moving the phone to various areas in an employee restroom in order to film whomever used the restroom. On Oct. 11, Lea County …

LOVINGTON — The Lea County Commission on Thursday finalized a redistricting proposal with minimal changes. With a 2020 Federal Census count of 74,455 residents, County Clerk Keith Manes explained the ideal number in each of five districts would be 14,891. “But you can’t get that because you can’t split precincts,” Manes told the commissioners. Redistricting is required immediately after every …

The Lea County Communication Authority is having staffing issues, according to LCCA director Angela Martinez. The auto-attendant system the LCCA has implemented has allowed the agency to cut back on the number of incoming calls and has lightened the workload of LCCA employees, Martinez told the Hobbs City Commission Monday night. “Our schedules before COVID were five, eight-hour shifts, with …

Newspaper industry association recognizes the Hobbs News-Sun, News-Sun staff  among the best in New Mexico Awards can be a good measure of an individual or organization, if those awards are based on talent, dedication, merit, and hard work. At the New Mexico Press Association 2021 Better Newspaper Contest awards banquet in Santa Fe Saturday night, the News-Sun brought home 14 …

Newspaper industry association recognizes the Hobbs News-Sun, News-Sun staff  among the best in New Mexico Awards can be a good measure of an individual or organization, if those awards are based on talent, dedication, merit, and hard work. At the New Mexico Press Association 2021 Better Newspaper Contest awards banquet in Santa Fe Saturday night, the News-Sun brought home 14 …

EDITOR’S NOTE: News-Sun editor Todd Bailey was diagnosed with an aggressive sarcoma in his left calf in early 2020. In Oct. 2020 Todd had his left leg amputated two inches above the knee in order to fight the cancer. Early last week, while at M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston for a medical procedure Todd was informed the cancer had metastasized …

Making an impact on lives is not easy to do, especially when dealing with adolescents and adults suffering from addiction who tend to not like someone constantly staying on them about getting clean and sober. As a drug counselor and ear to those who have been or currently are knee-deep in addiction, Jared Sloan, counselor with the Community Drug Coalition …