New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is driving another wedge in Holtec International’s hope to build a nuclear waste facility in a remote area of Lea County, close to Eddy County. Referred to as the Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) and supported by Lea County Commissioners and the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance (ELEA), as well as…

Communities and counties in southeastern New Mexico, like Hobbs and Lea County, that have adopted ordinances limiting access to reproductive healthcare are learning that the restrictions they have placed on providing such services are null and void. On Thursday, March 16, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law HB7 – the Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health…

Alexis Avila, the teenage mother accused of throwing her alive newborn in a trash bin in Hobbs on January 7, 2022, will be tried in Lea County on the criminal charge of “Child Abuse Causing Great Bodily Harm” – a first degree felony. On Monday, March 13, judge William G. W. Shoobridge, of the Fifth…

The plan to store radioactive nuclear waste in an uninhabited area of Lea County has been on the drawing board since 2018. In August of that year, Lea County Commissioners passed a resolution (PDF) supporting Holtec International’s efforts to build its Consolidated Interim Storage Facility (CISF) in a remote region of the county. Then again…

The Federal Government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is expected to auction for oil and gas lease a total of 12 parcels of land – approximately 916 acres – in southeastern New Mexico and Oklahoma by the end of this year. Two of the parcels – comprising slightly over 124 acres – are located in…

The story of Hobbs teenager Alexia Avila allegedly throwing her alive newborn into a trash bin located behind Rig Outfitters and Home Store in Hobbs on January 7 of last year was covered by news outlets all across New Mexico, the entire nation and even overseas. Now that her trial, scheduled to take place in…

Earlier this month, Hobbs Police Chief August Fons presented a summary of his 2022–2023 Hobbs Police Department (HPD) Annual Report to commissioners and the public at the February regular meeting of the Hobbs City Commission. Chief Fons reported that since 2021 statistically crime has risen in Hobbs (population 42,425) 9%. Chief Fons also remarked that…

State Representatives Cathrynn N. Brown and Jimmy Mason, who both represent Lea County, have come together with Rep. Greg Nibert, Rep. Candy Spence Ezzell and Rep. Jim Townsend to introduce House Bill 223 – the funding of certain highway projects in Lea, Chaves and Eddy counties. The five legislators, all Republicans, represent the New Mexico…

Three bills, if passed, by New Mexico’s legislators during their 2023 regular session will reform the almost 90-year-old New Mexico Oil and Gas Act.  The sole goal of the Act since its inception in 1935 has been to protect the state’s oil and gas resources for the benefit of the Land of Enchantment. The well…

On Friday evening, February 3, a fatal hit and run accident took the lives of 33-year-old Joshua Jackson, of Hobbs, and Californian Octavia Throssel, age 27. According to a Hobbs Police Department (HPD) press release, the incident took place just after 6:00 pm, on West Apache Drive in Hobbs. The press release states that an…