Serving Eastern New Mexico and West Texas
New Mexico State Police police Sunday morning animal control officers euthanized 53 roosters they said they seized while smashing a cockfighting operation in southwest Clovis. By Sharna Johnson: CNJ staff writer Police said the scene of an illegal cockfighting event in Clovis on Saturday night was littered with about 100 dead birds and many more […]
Ruby Burden of Portales holds a rooster that she’s working with so he can be handled. Burden and her husband, Badger, raise and fight gamecocks. They say it’s apparent the sport of cockfighting will soon be outlawed. (Freedom Newspapers: Karl Terry) By Karl Terry: Freedom Newspapers Crowing roosters can be heard through the open back […]
By CNJ staff The state Senate voted Thursday 33-11 in favor of a cockfighting ban in New Mexico. Of the 11 dissenting votes, two were representatives for Curry County — Clint Harden, R-Clovis, and Stuart Ingle, R-Portales. Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs, voted for the ban. Harden said he objected because the measure was unnecessary. Harden said […]
By Ned Cantwell: State columnist Comes now the argument that just might shape the dimensions of the cockfighting debate this coming statehouse session once legislative leaders hunker down and Gov. Bill Richardson throws his considerable weight in whichever direction he intends to throw it. From Cotton City, which Google places near Animas, a grandma gamer […]
By Ned Cantwell: State columnist Here’s what we need to do. We need to schedule one final cockfighting derby, the Superbowl of Cockfights, pitting the top fighting roosters from New Mexico against the best Louisiana has to offer. We’ll call it Bloody Sunday I. Throw up some temporary bleachers in a remote field 25 miles […]
By Ned Cantwell: State columnist A couple of friends who no doubt had crushes on their childhood grammar teachers were carping recently about newspaper writers who split infinitives. They didn’t mention names, but I could sense their glances darting to me when I wasn’t looking. Feigning disinterest, I was mentally cataloguing all the infinitives I’ve […]
By Ned Cantwell: State columnist Her days are numbered, this 2006 regular session of the 47th Legislature. Our senators and state reps are in Santa Fe working hard, trying to figure out how to spend a $5 billion budget. Also under consideration is a “junior budget” expected to grow to $45 million by the time […]
By Ned Cantwell New Mexico was a somber place indeed as her inhabitants focused their gaze on Santa Fe during the legislative session. Coffee klatch conversations were more tense, less jovial. The pace of life continued, but it was not without a nervous twitter in the air. Much was at stake as our state representatives […]
By Tony Parra: Freedom Newspapers Lawmakers have once again decided to consider banning cockfighting. Why? The sport is a Mexican-American tradition, and a New Mexican tradition. New Mexico and Louisiana are the only two states in which cockfighting is legal, but that’s no reason to ban it. Animal-rights activists contend cockfighting is a form of […]
Ned Cantwell: CNJ columnist Don’t get me wrong. If I had a name to drop, I’d drop it in a New York minute. That is a quicker measurement of time, apparently, than a New Mexico minute, but I’ve not figured out why. So the following is not to be critical of Bill Richardson. Rather, it […]
Ned Cantwell: CNJ columnist We’ve only just begun. Already New Mexico legislators are pondering legislation that would make it illegal for us to watch Desperate Housewives while driving to our favorite food joint for the family’s traditional Sunday night Nellie Burger feast. Our elected poobahs are on a tear up there in Santa Fe, having […]
By Ned Cantwell: CNJ columnist Sure, I’m irritated. Wouldn’t you be? This is the year cockfighting is going to get clawed to death in the New Mexico Legislature. You just know it has to happen. All this folderol about two birds celebrating a blood bath of cultural heritage is about to be exposed for the […]
by Ned Cantwell Those of us who have fought long and hard to eliminate cockfighting in New Mexico saw our crusade take on an ample new profile with the addition of Pamela Anderson to our cause. Har. Har. Har. Ample new profile. That will be the last cheap reference to the busty attributes of the […]
By Ned Cantwell The conversation was in a faraway place with a refined, obviously well-to-do London couple and the setting was such that chit chat is called for even if you have nothing to chit chat about. It’s fun talking to Brits because most of their statements end up as questions even if they are […]
Ned Cantwell You probably don’t care much what I think as we enter a new year, but I’ll tell you anyway. >About New Mexico Politics: Aside from watching the state GOP shoot itself in the foot, political junkies will have to amuse themselves with watching the money changers. The upcoming 30-day session limits itself to […]
