Month: January 2014

ABC-7learned new information about the 22-year-old man killed at his home in Central El Paso. NeighborsABC-7 spoke withsaid the man police found deadwas Jose Castanon,friends called himT-Rex. “Very, very quiet neighborhood, nothing ever seems to happen here, traffic is always very very calm, very quiet all around,” said next door neighbor Paul Martinez. Butthat all

Police arrested three suspects in El Paso’s fifth homicide of the year. Around 2 p.m. Friday police said 22-year old Jose Castanon was found dead inside his home on the 2600 block of Hamilton. Officers were called to the scene for an “unknown problem” when they found Castanon’s body. An investigation by the crimes against

Country music lovers shut down Main Street in Las Cruces for the first-ever country music festival. Hundreds of country music fans attended the first night of the weekend-long event. When the weather started to cool down, people started letting loose. People of all ages were dancing and singing in the street. Local businesses like the

Some Bowie High School graduates are hoping to motivate current Bowie students to go to college. The Bowie Alumni Association has started a mentoring program to motivate current Bowie bears. The president of the association, Jaime Rodriguez, said the fact that Bowie has been considered the “mecca” of the EPISD cheating scandal, spurred action from

Three Fort Bliss soldiers died after an improvised explosive device attack Tuesday in Afghanistan, Fort Bliss officials said. Fort Bliss identified two of the soldiers as 24-year-old Spc. Mitchell Kirk Daehling from Dalton, Mass.; and Spc. William Joseph Gilbert, 24, from Hacienda Heights, Calif. The name of the third soldier has not been released. The

Children living at a Central El Paso apartment complex have been testing positive for dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. State inspectors advised parents to have their children tested for lead poisoning after investigator’s tests of the Trowbridge Apartments showed the complex had lead and asbestos throughout the property. “It makes me sad,”

Some educators believe border school districts are at an inherent disadvantage because of the high number of students who don’t know English well. The federal government conducts Adequate Yearly Progress reports on schools every year. The federal benchmarks are meant to measure student progress. If a school has at least 50 students with limited English

UPDATE: UTEP street closures begin Monday morning. Construction crews have installed fencing in the center of campus to begin a year-long project to make the University of Texas at El Paso a pedestrian-friendly campus. Vehicles will no longer be allowed to drive through University Avenue or Hawthorne Street. On Monday morning, the Texas Department of

Art Franco is still the mayor of Anthony, Texas despite his attorney saying he would resign at Tuesday night’s meeting after pleading guilty to a state charge last week. Franco pleaded guilty last week in district court to tampering with government records and was sentenced to three years probation. He was charged after he understated

The clean up continues for the central El Paso building that was destroyed in a massive fire last week. Meanwhile, building owner Hector Barragan said the bills are piling up. Barragancurrently pays a security company to guard the property 24 hours a day. His building housed apartments, a bar and the Pipo Academy of Hair

More people vote in West El Paso and in the Upper Valley, while Central and the Lower Valley lag behind in voter turnout. A new map on the county elections page shows how many people in every precinct voted for each candidate. The map illustrates a decades-long trend: west El Paso dominates city-wide election results,

Good news came May 14 for civilian workers at Fort Bliss and other military facilities across the U.S. The Pentagon said it plans to furlough about 680,000 of its civilian employees for 11 days through the end of this fiscal year. The shortened furlough period would begin no earlier than July 8. Budget cuts from

The clothes, books and furniture left after-hours at Goodwill donation centers have always been an easy target for those with sticky fingers, but Goodwill spokesman Mark Huerta said theft is on the rise at locations across El Paso. “Here in El Paso we are…a little bit more poverty stricken, I guess. So there is probably

ABC-7’s I-team is confirming the name of the mother whose five-month-old daughter was left in an SUV and died, in a local high school parking lot. Wakesha Ives, 37, and her family are grief stricken, family members said. Police say the infant was left in the car while the mother was inside of the school.

Fireworks have been rare in El Paso County. In 2013, it could be much of the same. Earlier this year, there was concern from El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar that state legislative moves could limit her county powers to ban fireworks. At the time, she said that she would likely “ask the court again.”

El Pasoan Eddie Garcia has a brand new college diploma and something most fresh grads don’t: a $25,000 gift from his university. During his graduation this weekend, Garcia received Emory University’s Lucius Lamar McMullan Award for his service to others. The story below details Garcia’s accomplishments. It was published by Emory News: Emory College senior

The City of the Crosses is now part of the six-digit club. Sometime between July 2012 and April 1, the population of Las Cruces surpassed the 100,000 mark. “This is tremendously important news for us as a community,” said Mayor Ken Miyagishima in a statement. “It signals a continued healthy economy, and proves Las Cruces

Hyundai of El Paso president Oscar Leeser almost had it. Early voters took him beyond the 50 percent plus one vote needed to win the mayoral seat without a runoff. However, Saturday voters changed the game and put City Representative Steve Ortega back in the game. Campaigning started all over again Sunday night on ABC-7

All the campaigns and all the support it takes to run an election can carry a hefty price tag. ABC-7looked up finances on both Oscar Leeser and Steve Ortega. According to Ortega’s campaign finance reports he started collecting political contributions inOctober 2012. Up until eight days before the election the reports show Ortega collected $239,779.

As election night 2013 came to a close, a familiar theme for years past surfaced. Voter turnout was down. Dating back to 2008, the average turnout in El Paso County for election day is around 23 percent. If you take out presidential and congressional election cycles, the number dips much lower. More than 350,000 people

CITY OF EL PASO, PROPOSITION 1FOR (A FAVOR) 21381 50.02%AGAINST (EN CONTRA) 21365 49.98% CITY OF EL PASO, PROPOSITION 2FOR (A FAVOR) 20047 46.76%AGAINST (EN CONTRA) 22827 53.24% CITY OF EL PASO, PROPOSITION 3FOR (A FAVOR) 18679 43.22%AGAINST (EN CONTRA) 24541 56.78% CITY OF EL PASO PROPOSITION 4FOR (A FAVOR) 17835 41.23%AGAINST (EN CONTRA) 25424

With early votes released three of the four El Paso City Council district races appear headed for a runoff. A candidate needs 50 percent of the vote plus one vote to avoid a runoff. The top two candidates in a race would be in a runoff if one is necessary. EL PASO CITY REP 2

Oscar Leeser and Steve Ortega were the top two candidates in a crowded race for mayor and will head to a runoff in mid-June. Leeser had 21,724 votes or 47 percent while Ortega had 9,944 votes or 22 percent of the vote. “At this point no (comment), we are still going over the numbers,” Ortega

EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Police Deptartment confirmed a 5-month-old baby girl was found in a locked vehicle in the parking lot of Riverside High School on Friday. She was taken to Del Sol Medical Center where she later died, according to EPPD spokesman Detective Mike Baranyay. Police say the mother was also taken

A political researcher said Joyce Wilson may play a factor in El Paso’s mayoral election. Wilson is El Paso’s first city manager, after the city adopted the city manager form of government nearly 10 years ago. Her position was created to ensure continuity during revolving, council elections. For some, she’s the tough administrator who’s meticulously

Thursday night, Hector “El Pipo” Barragan went to bed expecting to wake up and head to mass Friday morning. Instead he was awoken in the middle of the night and told his life’s work was burning to the ground in Central El Paso. “That’s my life,” Barragan said. “that was my whole life right there.

Firefighters were called out to a massive fire at a central El Paso apartment building early Friday morning. The fire began just after 3:30 a.m. near the intersection of Raynor and Pershing. Nearby residents report seeing flames shooting as high as 50 feet in the air, and feeling heat from the blaze as far as

A local bar owner has started a Political Action Committee to keep City Rep. Steve Ortega from being elected Mayor. The owner of the Three Legged Monkey, James Michael Armstrong, started the “we the people” campaign to convince others not to vote for Ortega. His Eastside bar has been in a years long battle with

A number of El Paso-area athletes have advanced to state in track and field. And, if you’d like to keep tabs on the borderland athletes suiting up in Austin on Friday, May 10th and Saturday, May 11th — you can tune in to a live stream broadcast on www.flotrack.com ABC-7 has compiled a list of

El Paso police are searching for the driver of an SUV that crashed into the yard of a westside home overnight. The incident happened just after 3 a.m. on the 900 block of Thunderbird Drive. The homeowner says he stepped out of his home right away after the crash and saw the driver, but when