By Leonard Pitts: Syndicated columnist Santa Claus has cancer. It started in his esophagus and spread to his liver. He’s being treated, but chemotherapy has sapped his appetite and energy and he’s down about a hundred pounds. He’s worried about money, too. The treatment costs more than $16,000 a month and his insurance doesn’t cover […]
School officials need civics seminar
July 5, 2006
By Leonard Pitts Jr.: Syndicated columnist The other day, I gave two teachers I know $300,000 apiece. Hypothetical money, that is. If $300k fell out of the sky, I said, and you could use it to improve your school, how would you spend it? Mary Ann, who works at an elementary school in Los Angeles, […]
Conservatives should cringe over Coulter
June 14, 2006
Leonard Pitts Jr. : Syndicated Columnist Apparently, it’s news that Ann Coulter is a nasty piece of work. I had rather thought that was the attraction, at least for those people who find her attractive. So forgive me for being mildly mystified by last week’s headlines about her most recent spasm of trash mouth, i.e., […]
Language doesn’t require legislation
May 25, 2006
By Leonard Pitts: Syndicated columnist For its next trick, maybe the Senate will pass a law regulating the flight patterns of houseflies. That would be about as effective as something senators passed Thursday. The measure, an amendment to the immigration bill under debate, designates English the “national language” of these United States. Of course, that […]
CNJ earns top Panhandle Press Association honors
April 8, 2006
CNJ staff The Clovis News Journal picked up 14 awards on Saturday, including the two top prizes, in the Texas Panhandle Press Association’s 2005 Better Newspaper Contest. CNJ staffers were honored with PPA’s General Excellence award for the fourth time in five years. The organization also presented its Community Service award to the CNJ for […]
State of comedy no laughing matter
March 29, 2006
By Leonard PItts Jr.: Syndicated columnist Lionel Richie always seemed like one of the good guys. I interviewed him many times back in the ‘70s and found him friendly, funny, gregarious, a great guy to be around. So it has always surprised me that his daughter is such an idiot. Maybe I shouldn’t care. There’s […]
Burch, Darrel
February 28, 2006
Darrel Wayne Burch, 63, of Lubbock, passed away Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006. He was born March 26, 1942, in Clovis to Johnny Edward Burch and Nora Miller. He married Viola Verona Coplen on June 15, 1985, in Lubbock, Texas. He was a member of Skyline Baptist Church and a licensed Baptist preacher. He attended school […]
War doesn’t make limiting freedom OK
February 21, 2006
By Leonard Pitts: Syndicated columnist “The enemies of freedom will be defeated.” — President George W. Bush, 2005 “We have met the enemy and he is us.” — Pogo, 1971 The following happened in the United States of America on Feb. 9 of this year. The scene is the Little Falls branch of the Montgomery […]
Laid-back times losing sense of respect
July 26, 2005
By Leonard Pitts: Syndicated Columnist What would you wear if you were invited to the White House? My daughter, all of 14, got this look on her face like I’d threatened to take her to a Motown concert. “Ew,” she said, “do we have to go to the White House?” No, I said. I just […]
Clovis wins top honors for fourth straight year
April 30, 2005
The Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE — The Clovis News Journal won best of show in the smaller-paper circulation division for the fourth straight year Saturday in the New Mexico Associated Press Managing Editors annual contest. The CNJ earned first-place honors in continuing coverage, investigative reporting, columns, sports writing, graphics/illustrations, spot news photo, photo essay and tied […]
Holocaust should not be trivialized
March 2, 2005
By Leonard Pitts Dear Ariana Schanzer: I hope you won’t mind being called out like this. It’s just that I saw your picture last week in The Miami Herald and it made me want to talk to you. In the photo, you’re smiling a giddy smile, dancing cheek to cheek with this equally delighted older […]
Black man freed, but no rejoicing here
January 25, 2005
By Leonard Pitts Yes, his civil rights were violated. He was held without access to an attorney for 10 days. Lawmen threatened his life. His interrogation was filmed and then televised, tainting the small-town jury pool. They did it because it was 1961, because it was Louisiana, and because he was a black man accused […]
Racially targeted champ deserves pardon
January 19, 2005
By Leonard Pitts Jr. Jack Johnson was a black man who often spent his days beating up white men and his nights making love to white women. This, in the first years of the last century. So you can understand why he was a polarizing figure, why newspapers inveighed against him and the government conspired […]
Sommerville, Betty
September 26, 2004
Betty Sommerville Services: Have been held. Mrs. Betty Sommerville, 71, of Clovis, died Friday, Aug. 13, 2004, at her home. She was born on Sept. 29, 1932, in Des Moines, Iowa, to Alma and Alonzo Harter. She attended school in Des Moines. She married Larry G. Sommerville on Nov. 21, 1956, in Las Vegas, Nev. […]
Human Existence is resilient, stubborn
August 3, 2004
By Leonard Pitts, Jr. Wherever we go, a parade follows. It strings out behind us, a march of gangly 10-year-old boys, dusty toddlers clad only in panties, shy girls with watchful eyes, all laughing and reaching and chattering at once. Makes it harder for us to work, for photographer Sarah Glover to frame her pictures, […]
Tyson bankrupt in more than finances
August 12, 2003
By Leonard Pitts Jr. So, how much do you need? Would a million do it for you? Could you get by on 10? A hundred? How about $400 million in cash? It is, of course, the all-American daydream. We’ve all had it, all stood in the shower or driven down the highway mentally spending some […]
