Month: January 2014

The cleanup from last week’s storms is wrapping up in most of El Paso County. In Socorro, the difficult decisions and cleanup are just beginning. Sussana Snowden spent Friday digging out her home from a mountain of hardening mud. Snowden lives in a house on Coker Road a stone’s throw from North Loop Road. The

Some El Paso Independent School District employees mentioned in connection with the cheating scandal are getting letters from the Texas Education Agency. EPISD Board of Managers President Dee Margo told ABC-7 “the letters are the TEA’s response to the evidence in the Weaver report.” That’s the audit EPISD commissioned to investigate the extent of the

Residents in Socorro are still dealing with the aftermath of last weeks rain and floods. The City of Socorro has declared a local disaster. The city manager toldABC-7 that allows the city to access private roads and aid in clean-up. ABC-7caught up with some of those families hardest hit. Some residents of Socorrowere covered in

It’s the conversation some parents dread, sex education. The New Mexico Department of Health has launched a service that allows parents and teens to ask questions of their own before having “the talk” though cell phones. The new text message service is called ‘BrdsNBz’, a play of words from ‘the birds and the bees’. New

One person is in the hospital after the car they were driving fell off an overpass in south-central El Paso. The incident happened just before 2:30 a.m. near the intersection of Piedras and Durazno. It’s not clear how the car fell off the overpass and into a business area. There is no word on what

Detectives with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the deaths of a couple in Northwest El Paso County Wednesday night. According to the sheriff’s office, at 7:50 p.m. Wednesday deputies found a man and a woman dead inside a home in Westway. Witnesses at the scene told ABC-7 the incident is a murder-suicide.

Despite several open records request asking to turn over the personal emails of city representatives that dealt with official business, former Mayor John Cook said city attorneys never gave council direction as to whether the elected officials should turn over the requested documents. Stephanie Townsend Allala, who’s been critical of the process the city took

It’s taken five years of planning, clearing land and construction. On Wednesday, the first store opened for business in the City’s newest shopping center. Dick’s Sporting Goods held a soft opening at the new 600,000 square foot Fountains at Farah. There are 540 Dick’s Sporting Goods across the country — including one in Las Cruces.

Twenty years ago, a new Border Patrol initiative to prevent illegal immigration changed the border and created tension. “We here especially in El Paso have been accustomed to people going back and forth across the river forever – since the Spaniards crossed the river and our families are intertwined,” said Larry Francis, who was El

The city has released more personal emails from current and former representatives, emails they previously refused to disclose for nearly a year. After looking through the emails of the previous city council, a couple of correspondences are worthy of reporting, specifically one including District 5 Rep. Michiel Noe. It’s a picture of council members taken

In a surprising move, City Council voted well-known El Pasoan Leonard “Tripper” Goodman off the Downtown Management Board of Directors. Goodman is known for his role in promoting the recent quality of life bonds.He was named “El Pasoan of the Year” by the El Paso Inc. newspaper back in January. Goodman is also chairman of

Last week’s rains provided a peek at what’s working in El Paso when it comes to the new Stormwater Utility and what still needs to be fixed after hundreds of homes were destroyed during Storm 2006. One project the Stormwater Utility is pointing to that worked well during last week’s downpour is Northeast El Paso

The City of El Paso is trying to indefinitely delay action on the lawsuit related to the release of the emails of city representatives dealing with the ballpark and other city business. That’s according to Bill Aleshire, the first amendment attorney representing local government watchdog, Stephanie Townsend Allala. Thursday morning, there’s a hearing in an

It was called Operation Blockade. Border Patrol agents formed a human barrier to prevent illegal entry into the United States, instead of trying to catch illegal immigrants once they were in. When it was implemented back in 1993 – 20 years ago this week – it had an immediate impact on the local economy. “A

Twenty years ago the presence and role of the U.S. Border Patrol on the border with Ciudad Juarez was suddenly ramped up, changing the way an entire generation of border residents crossed in and out of the United States. It was a Sunday morning in El Paso on Sept. 19, 1993 when people noticed U.S.

Dona Ana County commissioners voted unanimously Monday morning to seek emergency disaster fund relief from the state. The funding would be used to pay for repairs due to weather damage that occurred in La Union, N.M. last week. There are concerns that the dam still has a huge hole and any more rain will cause

A 46-year-old motorcyclist was injured late Sunday night in a collision in the Lower Valley. El Paso Police say Arturo Alvarez was driving his 2004 Harley Davidson motorcycle eastbound on Alameda in the left lane when he made contact and sideswiped a silver Pontiac Firebird that also was traveling eastbound. Police investigators say that after

It was a beautiful day in more ways than one for many Fort Bliss families. They welcomed back their mom’s and dad, returning from Afghanistan. These soldiers were gone for nine months and are very happy to be back home in the borderland.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Fort Bliss Soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. Staff Sgt. Robert E. Thomas Jr., 24, of Fontana, Calif., died September 13, at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, of wounds suffered during a non-combat related incident on April 21, 2013 in Maiwand,

The Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Transportation Policy Board is pushing forward a bike share program, despite the state’s refusal to release federal money to fund most of the project. The Federal Highway Administration on Friday again said the bike share program meets the criteria for the $1.8 million in federal funds. The federal dollars flow through

The new superintendent of the troubled El Paso Independent School district wants an outside auditor to help restore trust in the district after state investigators failed to uncover a widespread cheating scheme. “Certainly that was a big part of it,” said Juan Cabrera, Superintendent of EPISD. “Other districts in Texas have potentially had problems and

El Paso police have identified the pedestrian struck and killed by a vehicle early Friday as 39-year-old Victor Perez of the 1100 block of Lomaland. Police say that at about 2:07 a.m. Friday, Perez was crossing Lee Trevino on food and not in a crosswalk when he was struck by a southbound Chevrolet Malibu. The

El Paso County Sheriff’s officials said Thursday that there was no place to release water that could be pumped out of flooded areas because nearly all of east El Paso County remained flooded. Spokeswoman Angelica Becerra said only two Lower Valley Water District trucks were pumping out water in the area surrounding San Elizario schools

El Paso Water Utilities’ stormwater system has been pressed into action by this week’s rain storms. The utility apologizes for the inconvenience experienced by commuters Wednesday morning when I-10 flooded in the Copia Street area. Crews pumped stormwater from an adjacent pond and cleared the area of debris to alleviate the flooding. Traffic was flowing

Wednesday’s heavy rain halted much of the construction activity at the downtown ballpark. Project Engineer Alan Shubert said there are usually about 150 crew members working on the project but on Wednesday, only about a dozen workers continued construction. “There’s very little construction that we can do today because of the mud,” said Shubert. Shubert

Some business owners are suing the city of El Paso, claiming a city project is costing them customers and money. The City started a reconstruction project on San Antonio Ave. in Downtown El Paso in May 2012. It was supposed to wrap up in November but delays have extended the project until early next month,

The Santa Teresa Country Club, including its two run-down golf courses, were on the auction block for the second time this year Monday in Dona Ana County. Despite minimum bids starting at just $236,000 dollars for the larger golf course and $115,000 for the smaller one, there were no bidders for the Santa Teresa Country

Sept. 10, 2013 Update: Fifty of 208 dogs found in a home in Chaparral, New Mexico were euthanized at the home on Monday due to their aggressiveness. Volunteers who came to the scene reported finding dead dogs stacked in the trash with no food or water found on the scene. Many of the dogs even

Arturo Valtierra-Payan was indicted this past Wednesday on the additional charges he faced in connection with aggravated sexual assaults and burglary of habitations in the Manhattan Heights area of El Paso. The new indictments include charges for three aggravated sexual assaults and three burglary of habitation charges. These cases represent three victims. Valtierra-Payan was previously

“We initially got the first open records request it seems like years ago,” said former city representative Susie Byrd. This fight has been brewing for a year now. El Paso attorney Stephanie Townsend Allala filed anopen records requestfor all communication between city representatives, city officials and El Paso’s Triple-A Team, including emails on personal email