Month: May 2012

National news media are focusing heavily on Beto O’Rourke’s stance on marijuana legalization, despite the fact O’Rourke said he will not champion the issue. “What I have promised the people of El Paso is I am not running to legalize marijuana. I am not running to make the drug war front-and-center in El Paso’s agenda,

Though most of Tuesday?s primary races resulted with a clear winner and loser, there were other elections across the Borderland where the outcome was not as cut-and-dry. The race for Precinct 3 County Commissioner is one of a handful of Democratic primary races advancing to a runoff scheduled for July 31. The two men emerging

Below is a list of schools that will be serving breakfast and/or lunch during the summer. ABC-7 has received this information from El Paso, Ysleta, Socorro and Canutillo school districts. EPISD The program is open to children from 1 to 18 years and there is no eligibility requirement. Although dates and serving times may vary

AT&T killed prepaid plans for the iPhone, but come June 22 Cricket will be selling the iPhone with a $55 month-to-month unlimited voice, text and data plan. Read more about the plan here.

Old people do not stink, scientists have found. A large-scale study of people who wore things in their armpits and then had other people smell those things concluded that “the underarm odor of 75-to-95-year-olds was judged to be less intense and far more pleasant than the scent of either young or middle-aged adults.” Read more

The City of El Paso’s Animal Services shelter and Humane Society of El Paso will have half-price adoption prices June 1-17. The special price is due to the shelter having 500 animals and the Humane Society reaching maximum capacity, putting healthy, adoptable animals at risk, according to City officials. In light of this situation, these

Texas Department of Transportation officials were met by out spoken and angry community members during a meeting Wednesday night to discuss a massive construction project on Alameda Avenue from Concepcion to Glenwood. “I pay your salary, you do what I want, not what you want,” hurled one resident at a TxDOT official once the floor

Sunland Park residents have had a tough couple of months. Many city leaders have been arrested, charged and/or accused of corruption, the state took over City Hall because its finances were in such bad shape, and now dozens of residents are dealing with big changes on their water bills. “I don’t understand it,” said Manuela

The El Paso Electric Company (EPE) Board of Directors on Thursday announced that Thomas V. Shockley has been appointed the Company’s permanent CEO. Shockley has been serving as interim CEO since the resignation of David W. Stevens. In making the announcement, Kenneth Heitz, Chairman of the Board said in a statement, “Under Tom’s leadership over

Carlos Leon, the former El Paso Police chief, has won the race for El Paso Commissioners Court Precinct 1. Leon has 6,544 votes (55 percent) compared to 3,600 votes (30 percent) for Liza Montelongo and 1,826 votes (15.25 percent) for Jaime Romo. For complete election results, go to Election Results

Chente Quintanilla and Vincent Perez are headed to a run-off in the race for the El Paso County Commissioners Precinct 3 which was vacated by Willie Gandara Jr. with 191 of 191 precincts reporting. Rodolfo ?Rudy? Loya, and Dora Oaxaca also were vying for the seat. Quintanilla has 3,504 (37 percent), Perez has 2,571 (27.09

Three more errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball doomed the Diablos chances to even up their series with the Kansas City T-Bones, as El Paso fell in game two by a final of 9-6. The Diablos answered nearly every scoring frame for the T-Bones with ones of their own, but Kansas City put

Late Wednesday afternoon Rep. Silvestre Reyes finally conceded the primary race for the 16th Congressional seat to challenger Beto O’Rourke. But ABC-7’s request to speak with Reyes or a member of his campaign about the reasons for the defeat was denied. ABC-7 did catch up with O’rourke and County Elections Administrator Javier Chacon to talk

Beto O?Rourke has defeated incumbent Congressman Silvestre Reyes in the Texas Democratic primary. O’Rourke received 23,248 votes (50.47 percent) and Reyes received 20,427 votes (44.35 percent). A candidate needs to win more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off election. After speaking to his supporters Tuesday night, Reyes talked to the media

Several national media have taken notice of Beto O’Rourke’s win over Silvestre Reyes in the May 29 Texas Democratic primary. Many of the posts have focused on O’Rourke’s stance on drug reform involving discussing the decriminalization of marijuana. Click on the links to read what they’re saying about the race across the country. Drug-legalization Democrat

Musician Moby recently performed a headline DJ set at the Neon Desert Music Festival in Downtown El Paso. He spent nearly 36 hours in the Sun City and wrote about it in his blog. “… i did have a good 36 hours in el paso to wander around and take pictures of el paso baking

The massive fire in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico continues to grow, making it the largest forest fire in the state’s history. Fire officials said Wednesday the erratic White Water Baldy fire complex has grown to more than 170,000 acres. It’s also the largest currently burning in the country. About 1,200 firefighters from

The New Mexico State baseball team is headed to the NCAA tournament as a 2-seed in Southern Arizona. NMSU will play Louisville on Friday at 5 p.m. Las Cruces/El Paso time. The Aggies earned a #2 seed and will be playing in Tucson, Arizona. NMSU (35-22) was considered a bubble team. However, because of a

Congressman Silvestre Reyes spoke to Beto O’Rourke at 3:28 p.m. Mountain Time Wednesday and conceded the race, according to Reyes’ campaign. Reyes is in Washington, D.C. because his border tunnel bill is set to be signed by President Barack Obama, according to a statement from Reyes’ campaign. Read Reyes’ statement to El Pasoans below: “To

Virgin Galactic, a commercial spaceline, announced Wednesday that its vehicle developer, Scaled Composites (Scaled), has been granted an experimental launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its suborbital spacecraft, SpaceshipTwo, and the carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo. ?This important milestone enables our team to progress to the rocket-powered phase of test flight, bringing us a

Albertsons Market announced Wednesday that El Paso resident Melissa Varela has won the $1 million cash grand prize in the company’s Monopoly Collect & Win Game. Varela shops at the Albertsons on Dyer and collected the promotional game tickets to win the grand prize. “Giving a great customer like Melissa the Grand Prize in our

“An immediate hazard to public safety” was how city inspectors describe a vacant structure structure on the 3500 block of Alameda Avenue to El Paso’s Building and Standards Commission on Wednesday. Words like “decrepit” and “uninhabitable” were also used to describe the building in July 2010, when it was first set to be demolished. Walk

This week?s MANHUNT MONDAY Most Wanted Fugitive is an individual who is deceitfully scheming people out of money. The target has been identified as MARTIN SANCHEZ (44) of Santa Teresa, New Mexico. 2011/2012 In recent months, several individuals have come forward claiming to be Victim?s of MARTIN SANCHEZ elaborate scheme. Complaints indicate SANCHEZ goes around

A faction of city employees and a civil service commissioner are asking for some of the civil service commissioners to be removed, for malfeasance and misfeasance they claim. In dozens of documents obtained only by ABC-7, Civil Service Commissioner Jesus Bautista called for the removal of commissioner Marcia Turner. In the documents, Bautista claims Turner

Billy Abraham is angry at the idea that his building could possibly be taken away. “I (expletive) built this town,” Abraham said. “I’ll be (expletive) damned if I’m going to let some (expletive) Johnny-come-lately come in here and (expletive) us.” City officials say that if a deal is struck between a AAA baseball team and

A wildfire named “El Capitan” is continuing to burn at the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The fire swelled to 500 acres at one point, but new reports are showing the fire is now 50-percent contained. Fire crews battling the blaze from hard-to-reach spots in the mountains have not yet returned to the base camp for

In light of recent attacks in Doa Ana County, horse riders are speaking out about the dangers they face when vicious dogs attack. Jerry Crenshaw told ABC-7 he’s seen more dogs than ever wandering around his home on the East Mesa. “If we can’t ride without constantly searching for dogs. I don’t believe that should

Former Doa Ana County Commissioner D. Kent Evans died Tuesday. He was 68. last served in 2008. He had served for eight on the commissioners court. He had been suffering Leukemia. He was seeking election to the county commissioner’s court. He had been a Spaceport advocate before arriving in Las Cruces. He had also served

Ramon “Spooky” Renteria appeared to have committed suicide on Saturday inside his cell at the El Paso County Jail, according to U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte. Renteria, who authorities say was a Barrio Azteca gang member, was on trial in federal court in the 2010 homicide deaths of El Paso County Detention Officer Arthur Redelfs and