Silver City Daily Press and Independent

09/04/2025

If you can’t make tonight’s Cobre-Anthony football game, Randall Allen is live-streaming the game for you now on Daily Press Sports LIVE:

08/26/2025

The staff and students now at the two schools will be consolidated into the district’s two remaining elementary schools next year, with all sixth-graders moving to La Plata Middle School.

Jose Barrios and Sixth Street elementary schools will close at the end of this school year, after a vote by the Silver Consolidated Schools Board of Education at its meeting Monday night. The vote was 4-0 to accept the recommendation of a committee that met this spring to study the consolidation fea...

08/20/2025

The doors of the new Henry V. “La Burra” Morales Recreation Center will be open for the first time Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held July 17, but the opening was delayed in order to hire staff, complete the bathrooms, install internet and telephone services, and complete other details necessary for public use.

By LISA JIMENEZ Daily Press Correspondent The doors of the new Henry V. “La Burra” Morales Recreation Center will be open for the first time Saturday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held July 17, but the opening was delayed in order to hire staff, complete the bathrooms, i...

08/20/2025

UPDATE: U.S. 180 was reopened to traffic at 7:56 p.m.

From the N.M. Department of Transportation at 6:21 p.m.: Tuesday, Aug. 19: ROAD CLOSURE - Cliff Area
U.S. 180 is closed at mile marker 86; traffic is being rerouted on N.M. 211 into Cliff.

08/17/2025

Deputy Alejandro Gomez was charged in the August 2024 incidents, where he was accused by Deputy Marcus Salas of throwing a bunny against a patrol vehicle, causing it serious injury. Video was posted to social media groups of the incident, which took place when Gomez, Salas, Cpl. Cesar Torres and Sgt. Brandon Reese were on patrol near Hachita on Aug. 16, 2024, as part of Operation Stonegarden, a federal grant that pays local law enforcement overtime pay for assisting U.S. Homeland Security with border patrol and drug interdiction.

The four Grant County sheriff’s deputies involved in a case of animal abuse one year ago are being fired, Grant County Sheriff Raul Villanueva confirmed late Friday afternoon. One of the four had not yet been served his notice of termination when the Daily Press contacted the sheriff at about 4:45...

08/13/2025

Tuesday, Brown cited actions by District 2 Councilor Nick Prince and District 3 Councilor Stan Snider at the July 29 council meeting for his decision to retire a year early.

Longtime Silver City Town Manager Alex Brown announced in Tuesday’s Town Council meeting that he will retire at the end of this year, citing a lack of respect from two members of the council. Brown had originally been scheduled to retire last November, but Mayor Ken Ladner negotiated a new two-yea...

08/10/2025

“This really needs to be a wake-up call to every town in this nation that your newspaper could be at risk as well and it is incumbent upon people to start supporting their newspapers through subscriptions and through advertising if we are going to keep critical news in these communities,” Finneman said.

News Media Corp., an Illinois-based publisher, has announced the abrupt closure of dozens of newspapers across five states due to financial problems.

08/09/2025

“We were told Sunday morning the area supervisor and district supervisor called a mandatory meeting,” said shift manager Sara Davis-Maldonado. “They told us they had been watching numbers since March, and we were making sales and labor, food cost and on-time orders, but we weren’t making the money needed [to stay open]. They were looking for a place to build an updated Sonic, but they couldn’t secure a location. The corporate offices made the decision to close us.”

By AARON ROGERS Daily Press Correspondent On Sunday, word began to spread on social media that Silver City’s original Sonic Drive-In on 14th Street — known recently as the “downtown” Sonic — was set to close that evening for the final time, and comments came pouring in about memories from ...

07/31/2025

What that might mean for getting back the $1.9 million severance paid out to Shepard before he departed the job in January is as yet unknown, Regent John Wertheim told the Daily Press after the meeting.

The Western New Mexico University Board of Regents voted Thursday morning to disapprove the separation and faculty appointment agreement with former President Joseph Shepard after determining that the agenda for the December meeting at which it was approved did not meet public notice requirements.Wh...

07/30/2025

“The majority of the Bear Canyon Dam drainage area has burned as a result of the Trout Fire, and it is anticipated that flood discharge and sediment transport to the dam and reservoir will be greatly enhanced for the next several years due to hydrophobic soil conditions,” the report said.

Three years after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham held a groundbreaking to announce $10 million in state funds toward improvements at Bear Canyon Dam, the project is on hold due to the need for more funding. Bear Canyon Dam is just one of 222 high-hazard dams in the state identified by the American Soci...

07/14/2025

Madsen and his wife were delighted to hear that his discovery 28 years ago would play a supporting role in “Jurassic World Rebirth.” Though Hollywood’s portrayal of dinosaurs is often fantastical rather than realistic, Madsen said he doesn’t take it seriously, and enjoyed the movie as the entertainment that it is.

By ANDREW WANG Daily Press Correspondent When moviegoers settled into their seats at the Silco Theatre last night to see the summer blockbuster “Jurassic World Rebirth,” it’s likely that not one of them knew that the discoverer of one of the film’s featured dinosaurs is their neighbor, right...

07/14/2025

The Goose Fire is 110 acres with 55 people and zero containment, according to a release from the U.S. Forest Service. The fire is 18 miles northwest of Silver City, and is active in the southern edge of the Gila Wilderness, according to the release.

Fifty firefighters are working on the Gila Flat Fire, which is 5 miles north of Lake Roberts and 2 miles east of Sen. Clinton P. Anderson Overlook, according to another release from the Forest Service. This fire is 5 acres, and the Forest Service is asking motorists to avoid the area for firefighter safety and access.

Several fires have been sparked by lightning in the Gila National Forest over the past week, spanning multiple ranger districts. The Turkeyfeather Fire was listed at 14,140 acres Sunday with zero containment and 89 people on it, according to an update from the U.S. Forest Service. The fire is 22 mil...