Month: March 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) – A State Department spokesman says the decision to authorize family members of U.S. consulate employees in six northern Mexican cities to leave those areas was made days before Saturday’s fatal shootings of three people associated with the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez. Spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the decision – announced Sunday

March 14, 2010 The Department of State has issued this Travel Warning to inform U.S. citizens traveling to and living in Mexico of concerns about the security situation in Mexico, and that it has authorized the departure of the dependents of U.S. government personnel from U.S. consulates in the Northern Mexican border cities of Tijuana,

A local teacher is asking for your help after she lost all of her belongings in a fire. Cynthia Gutierrez is the band teacher at Ranchland Hills Middle School, Hillcrest Middle, Del Norte Elementary, and Bel Air High School, and lost all of her belongings due to a fire at her apartment complex. An account

Emergency crewsrescueda hiker who became stranded Friday afternoon in the Franklin Mountains. According to theElPaso Fire Department’s Mario Hernandez, the hiker, a 56-year-old male, was going fromMcKelligon canyon to Transmountain but never arrived at his destination. The EPFD’s John Conchasaid fire crews made contact viacellphonewith the hiker, who was uninjured. Mountain rescue crews eventually reached

By ABC-7’s Daniel Marin As theUTEP Miners took on Tulsa in the Conference USA men’s basketball semifinal, fired-up Miner fans watched the game across the Borderland. Some of them watched on campus at UTEP. The fans gathered at the Mine Shaft, the bar and grill inside the student union, and a huge screen was set

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press Writer RENO, Nev. (AP) – Jahmar Young drove the lane for a basket with 3.8 seconds on the clock to give New Mexico State a wild 80-79 victory over Nevada in the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference tournament Friday night. Troy Gillenwater had 21 points, Wendell McKines 16 and

UTEP bounces Tulsa 75-61 TULSA, Okla. (AP) – Playing on short rest did not slow down No. 25 UTEP in the Conference USA tournament. UTEP finished its second-round game against UCF late, which concerned coach Tony Barbee about an early afternoon semifinal against host school Tulsa on Friday. But the Miners came out ready and

It’s a huge Sunday for Miner and Aggie fans. Both UTEP and NMSU have made it into the Big Dance – the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. On Thursday, March 18, UTEP will face Butler in San Jose, California in the first round of the tournament. UTEP is the 12th-seeded team in the tournament, while Butler

UPDATE: The UTEP Miners will play Butler in San Jose, California Thursday, March 18thin the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. UTEP is the 12th seeded team in the tournament, while Butler is the 5th seeded team. It was a rock star reception for the UTEP Miners at the El Paso International Airport

Traffic investigatorssay a woman who died in an car wreck in Northeast El Paso early Saturday morning had her cellphone in hand when rescuers pulled her body out of her car. The crash happened shortly before 4am at Dyer and Ellerthorpe. According to El Paso Police, 22-year-old Monica Viscarra may have been speeding when her

Emergency crews rescued some lost hikers Saturday in McKelligon Canyon on El Paso’s northeast side of the Franklin Mountains. A search-and-rescue team from the El Paso Fire Department was trying to bring the hikers down during the rescue; dispatchers say the hikers were uninjured. This is the same area where another hiker got lost Friday.

By ABC-7 Reporter Ken Molestina EL PASO, Texas – The man accused of impersonating an El Paso Fire fighter had even the people who sold him his uniforms duped into thinking he was legit according to the owner of Uniforms of Texas. Hector Ayala said, “It bothers me because he kind of deceived us. For

By BARRY MASSEY Associated Press Writer ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – Republican Susana Martinez has earned the top position on the June primary election ballot for governor by outdistancing four other candidates at a party nominating convention. Martinez, the Dona Ana County district attorney, received almost 47 percent of the votes of GOP convention delegates on

By ABC-7 Reporter Veronique Masterson EL PASO, Texas — She’s someone who would give everything she had to help a person in need. Now Reverend Berthola House is giving a little independence to one El Paso woman she met while at the flea market last weekend. The woman’s husband tells ABC-7 she’s been paralyzed from

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – A hospital official says former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is recovering after being hospitalized in the South Korean capital with stomach pains. Severance Hospital spokesman Lee Sung-man said Saturday that Kissinger would be released on Sunday. He did not give any further details. The 86-year-old Nobel Peace Prize

By ABC-7’s Jill Galus Provocative phone calls, underage sexting and everything in between. Las Cruces Police say that’s what a 21-year-old man, now in jail, was doing with underage children. The arrest came after a three month investigation. We all use the Internet, but parents need to pay special attention to what sites their kids

Authorities in New Mexico are launching what they call the “Spring Super Blitz” – a campaign to crack down on drunk driving. The “Spring Super Blitz” begins Friday, March 12, continuing daily through Sunday, March 28. The New Mexico Department of Transportation andlaw enforcement agencies throughout are making this campaign known through increased DWI checkpoints

By ABC-7’s Jill Galus Last week, ABC-7 showed you a homeless compound just below Interstate 10 in Las Cruces. New Mexico Department of Transportation officials said it was a safety issue and gave the homeless living there a week to get out. After more than a week though, the homeless veterans and their compound are

El Paso Police and Crime Stoppers are looking for a suspect wanted in several aggravated robberies in east El Paso. According to police, the suspect entered the Family Dollar store at 9612 Montana on Monday, March 1st shortly before 9pm, using a black semi-automatic handgun to rob the store. At the time of the robbery,

By ABC-7’s Daniel Marin Many of us like to take long walks – it helps to clear the head or burn off a little stress. But how about walking from California to Miami? Meet Allie Stevens, a Vietnam veteran and ex-limo driver from Oceanside, California, who gave up everything but a lightly decorated rickshaw, and

By JEFF LATZKE AP Sports Writer TULSA, Okla. (AP) – Kelvin Lewis scored 28 points and Houston surged past No. 25 UTEP down the stretch to claim its first NCAA tournament berth in 18 years with an 81-73 victory in the Conference USA tournament title game that snapped the Miners’ 16-game winning streak. National scoring

El Paso Police will be on the lookout for underage drinking Friday night. From 10pm through 3am, as well as next Friday, March 19, police will conduct a city-wide campaign to prevent underage youth from drinking and driving. According to police, the Underage Drinking Initiative is sponsored through a grant from the Safe Communities Program.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Cell phone use has contributed to thousands of Texas automobile accidents since 2005, according to records obtained by a San Antonio television station through an open-records request. WOAI examined the Texas Department of Transportation database and found that investigating officers cited cell phone use as a contributing factor in more than

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) – Gunmen burst into a wake in the border city of Ciudad Juarez on Thursday and opened fire, killing 5 young men and wounding five others, including a 10-year-old girl. The wake was being held at a private home for an 18-year-old man who had been shot to death in his

By ABC-7’s Veronique Masterson Family and friends are mourning the loss of an off-duty Border Patrol agent, who died in a gruesome crash early Thursday morning. The crash happened just after 3am on the 12000 block of Edgemere in far East El Paso. The victim, 25-year-old Osvaldo Munoz, played football and graduated from Gadsden High

By ABC-7’s Jill Galus The cellphone ordinance will soon take effect in El Paso, but in Las Cruces, it’s been more than a month since the ban on talking or texting behind the wheel has been in place. But some are still not heeding the ordinance. ABC-7 spotted one woman driving, left hand holding a

Authorities arrested and charged a man Thursday for impersonating a firefighter. According to the El Paso Fire Marshals Office, investigators from the El Paso Fire Department responded to Bel Air High School after receiving word a man had told school administrators, teachers, and security he was an investigator with the EPFD. The man, 24-year-old Jaime

El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a fire early Wednesday evening in San Elizario. The deputies were dispatched around 7:10pm. When they arrived at 760 Herring off of Socorro Road, they found a white one-story structure home fully engulfed in flames, and they also noticed a television set inside the living room had been

The Owasso High School band has been asked by UTEP toperform for them during this year’s C-USAtournament which gets underway today in Oklahoma, according to KTUL-TV in Tulsa. The band is playing for the UTEP women’s and men’s basketball teams. UTEP’s pep band which was not able to make the trip because of the cost

By ABC-7 Reporter Celina Avila EL PASO, Texas -A local businessman remains in the El Paso County Detention Facility after he was arrested three weeks ago. Oswaldo Kuchle, a co-owner of Aromarestaurant in West El Paso,had a bond hearing Tuesday at the federal courthouse Downtown. Kuchle is accused of cheating the government into lending him