The wide availability of the COVID-19 vaccination to any Lea County resident could be here in six months. “I think that because of supply of the vaccine and the number of people who need to be vaccinated, it’ll still be May before we reach a level where most people can be vaccinated,” Nor-Lea Hospital CEO David Shaw said on Tuesday. …

Providing more than a third of the state’s fiscal year 2020 budget, the oil and gas industry came under attack this week from both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Mexico Environment Department. A new analysis from the nonpartisan New Mexico Tax Research Institute reports state revenue from oil and natural gas production in New Mexico totaled $2.8 …

New Mexico schools have been ranked as last of all 50 states. With the closure of in-person learning the state is now worse. Public Education Department Secretary Ryan Stewart recently announced the state has no idea where 12,000 students who were enrolled in New Mexico schools just last year have gone. But while the state may not know, or doesn’t …

A man told police he fired several shots at a vehicle to “save” a kidnapped woman, according to a police report. Christopher Ray Webb, 42, of Hobbs, was arrested Sunday after allegedly shooting at a truck multiple times while it attempted to flee. According to a Hobbs Police Department criminal complaint, a driver and passenger were at a convenience store …

Some folks in the western part of the country hope certain campaign promises are let to slide. A ban on oil and natural gas development on public lands by President-elect Joe Biden would severely harm the economies of eight western states, especially New Mexico, according to a study released Monday. After discussing the report with the News-Sun, state Rep. Larry …

The Wells Fargo branch in Eunice will permanently close its doors in March of 2021. The Wells Fargo branch will close on March 10 at noon. Until then, the bank will operate normal business hours. The nearest Wells Fargo location will be 20 miles away in Hobbs or in Jal. Wells Fargo’s New Mexico Communications Advisor Franchesca Pancham explained the …

The staff at Nor-Lea Hospital had been gearing up for Thursday for weeks. “This team out here today has actually been working and practicing for this day for about two months,” said David Shaw, Nor-Lea CEO from Lovington. What they were warming up for was dispensing the first doses of the new vaccine to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic in …

The beginning of the end may be in sight. That’s the hope at local hospitals, anyway, as the first shipments of the vaccine created by Pfizer-BioN-Tech against the novel coronavirus – the virus that causes the respiratory disease COVID-19 – arrived Wednesday at Lea Regional Medical Center in Hobbs and Nor-Lea Hospital in Lovington, delivered by the New Mexico National …

Lea County had a record eight new reported deaths on Friday due to COVID-19, according to the N.M. Department of Health, bringing the total to 63 deaths for the county. The department reports the eight deaths were: • A female in her 50s. • A female in her 70s who was hospitalized and had underlying conditions. • A male in his 70s. • …

Editor’s note: News-Sun editor Todd Bailey was diagnosed with “aggressive Sarcoma” in his lower left leg earlier this year. After chemotherapy and radiation treatments it was determined having the leg amputated two inches above the knee on Oct. 12 was the best course of action. Todd wrote what can be considered “part one” of this column which was published in …