A lockdown has some particularly difficult aspects beyond the expected everyday boredom.

One of those can be taking care of vital needs, such as refilling medications, lab drop offs and laundry. In White Cliffs resident Karen Nieto’s case, she and one of her daughters are essential workers. Nieto works at U. S. Renal and her older daughter works at Red Rocks Care Center.

She says she has been in numerous arguments with state police and Gallup police because she needs to get her scrubs washed.

New Mexico State Police Officer Dusty Francisco looked into Nieto’s complaint May 4 and said essential workers can go in and out of Gallup with a letter from their essential workplace...

Gallup’s third lockdown will include several changes. One will be a need for face masks.

City Manager Maryann Ustick told the Gallup Sun May 7 that all Gallup residents will be required to wear a cloth face covering when they are inside a business, non-profit or government building. That new requirement was just a suggestion by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham in her most recent public health order.  Now it is mandatory in Gallup.

The mask for customers was requested by Mayor Louis Bonaguidi and announced by the governor. The ordinance will be coming up on the city council agenda May 12.

The curfew will include a lock down of roads for non-residents until May 8 at 8 pm. That means...

A family of four has to relocate after a fire engulfed the house they rented over the weekend in South Gallup.

Gallup Fire Department firefighters were dispatched to the 1200 block of South Puerco, east of New Mexico State Road 610, just after 6 pm May 2 in reference to a brush fire.

Crews from the Gallup Fire Department arrived within five minutes, discovering a fire along a backyard fence and trees, ultimately spreading to a two-story home on the property.

“There were very high winds coming from the west that made this fire almost impossible to put out,” said Fire Chief Jesus Morales, who was on the scene. “It was basically an inferno that was just consuming the...

An ordinance that calls for requiring McKinley County residents to wear masks in public to slow the community spread of COVID-19 was brought back before the Board of Commissioners during their May 5 meeting.

The ordinance had previously been brought up at an April 30 special meeting, but no action was taken on it at the time.

The purpose of the ordinance is to provide aid to essential businesses that choose to require patrons, employees and persons on their property and the adjacent public areas to wear and use masks or face coverings to slow the spread of the virus.

People who are caught violating the ordinance will be subject to a penalty fine of between $100-300 per...