Month: July 2014

With the new ballpark drawing thousands Downtown, finding open dates to hold summer festivals in that area has become a balancing act. Before the stadium was built, schedule conflicts rarely, if ever, happened. But with more than 70 baseball games scheduled between April and August and the Neon Desert Music Festival is going on this

The El Paso City Plan Commission voted by 4-3 vote Thursday to recommend that City Council approve plans for a new condo subdivision on Crazy Cat mountain. The roughly 16-acre subdivision called Kern View Estates would cost about $14 million to develop and build. City Council already approved a slightly different plan in 2010, but

The Riverside (Calif.) County coronor has released the names of the four people killed in the bus crash near the Arizona-California state line early Wednesday. They are: Pablo Ramirez, 67 of Pico Rivera, CA Angel Hernandez, 49 of Hacienda Heights, CA Luz Rivera, 44 of Compton, CA Jessica Garcia, 30 of Chula Vista, CA The

El Paso Police are investigating the vandalism of two billboards overnight that included messages and hanging mannequins. An El Paso Polcie spokesman said they do not have any information to suggest this was done to target a particular person or business at this time. One message was painted on a billboard in far East El

Police say one person is in the hospital after being stabbed in central El Paso late Wednesday night. The victim is expected to survive. The incident happened around 11:30 p.m. near the intersection of Trowbridge and St. Johns. El Paso police brought a gang unit to the scene to investigate. ABC-7’s Round the Clock crew

Now that temperatures are climbing into the 90s and beyond, you can be sure that water and electric bills will rise along with them. But ABC-7 went searching recently for a cheaper way to stay cool this summer. The El Paso Extreme Weather Task Force said this area saw two heat-related deaths last summer: a

The legal fight between the City of El Paso and the Texas Department of Transportation over the Lincoln Center took a dramatic turn on Wednesday, when the City obtained a restraining order to halt the demolition process of the building. The request was filed Wednesday morning and granted immediately by Judge Thomas Spieczny. Soon after

May 2014 story: ‘Smucker’ hosts breakfast for thousands of Fort Bliss soldiers, families Thousands of Fort Bliss soldiers and their families showed up to Biggs Park for breakfast. “Mission: Breakfast” was sponsored by The J.M. Smucker Company, known for its jams and breakfast pastries. Smucker held a contest among U.S. military commissaries last fall to

An El Paso-Los Angeles Limousine Express bus that left El Paso for Los Angeles crashed on I-10 early Wednesday morning, killing four onboard. The accident happened near the Arizona-California state line at about 3:30 a.m. El Paso time when a semi-truck jack-knifed and its load of steel pipes fell on the road. Jerry Rosenbaum, owner

On Tuesday a 22-year-old Las Cruces man accused of severely injuring his girlfriend’s one-year-old son in 2011 was sentenced to five years supervised probation and was allowed to walk out of court a free man. The child abuse case against Nick Medina drug out for nearly two and a half years. When he was finally

An Arizona sheriff’s deputy — originally from El Paso — recently killed himself after an encounter with Phoenix police. ABC-7 has learned that deputy is now at the center of the latest controversy involving Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. An investigation is underway of Arpaio’s office after authorities discovered former human smuggling deputy Ramon Charley

Back in 1979 a piece of legislation called the Wright amendment was put into place by a Fort Worth congressman named Jim Wright. The Wright amendment’s focus was to protect DFW Airport when Dallas’ love field came into play in the late 70s. It restricted flights from leaving Texas without stopping somewhere and taking off

El Paso City Council voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to hire Tommy Gonzalez as the City’s second city manager in its history. Gonzalez is set to start on June 23 when he wraps up consulting work and speaking engagements, he said. When asked by City Rep. Cortney Niland if he could start sooner, Gonzalez said he

Travis Kirchner, the man convicted of murdering his 81-year-old mother in 2011, was found dead early Sunday morning in his jail cell at the Boyd unit near Waco. Officials with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice say that Kirchner was found hanging from a towel hook in his cell at about 4:30 a.m. May 18.

Early childhood education is meant to prepare children for kindergarten by teaching social skills, classroom behavior and the early stages of basic reading skills. For those children who miss out on Pre-K, United Way of El Paso and the Ysleta Independent School District teamed up to launch a summer readiness program called ‘Summer K Kamp’.

As County taxpayers are paying the most per capita in the State for the El Paso County jail system, Commissioners are exploring how to reduce costs. Commissioners on Monday heard presentations from five companies who’ve submitted proposals to study what the most cost effective option is for the future of the downtown detention center. The

El Paso’s City Council held a special meeting Monday afternoon after a city representative asked for clarity and assurances that the council was following state law. This comes after City Council came under scrutiny for its handling of the city manager search. Questions were raised last week when Mayor Oscar Leeser announced that the council

President Obama is using his executive authority to designate the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region as a national monument. He has the authority to do it under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which grants places important to the U.S.’ military history federal recognition. “It’s a great day for our democracy,” said Southwest Environmental Center Executive Director

Seventy-five percent of the 16,000 teachers evaluated under a new system called NMTEACH Educator Effectiveness system earned a rating of effective or higher. However, many educators are questioning the validity of the new system and whether important decisions like pay raises and lay offs should be based on it. Teachers in Las Cruces are waiting

A new pedestrian pathway expected to improve access to the Downtown Ballpark was supposed to be completed by the end of spring. But the $6.5 million project is far from completion. ABC-7 has new information from the City of El Paso’s engineering and construction department. “The $6.5 million pedestrian pathway project, which stretches from the

El Paso County will now attempt to revive its Vamonos Vanpool program in order to continue receiving about $2 million in other rural-transit grants. “As we compete for grants, this would take away some positive points that El Paso has,” said Precinct One County Commissioner Carlos Leon. “By eliminating this program, it takes away certain

A man in in the hospital after his scar slammed against a TXDOT vehicle Monday afternoon, causing the freeway to be shut down. El Paso county sheriff’s deputies say a 70-year-old man was heading eastbound on I-10 when he rear-ended a TXDOT truck that was painting the yellow line along the shoulder. The crash happened

El Paso firefighters responded to a partial roof collapse downtown at 216 Oregon St., near the corner of Oregon and Overland Monday morning. El Paso City development Spokesman Javier Camacho told ABC-7 the building is owned by Minco Properties, but was currently unoccupied. It is in between a florist and a floral supply business. Three

El Paso police say they’ve taken into custody a man believed responsible for a precautionary school evacuation. Students at Dowell Elementary were evacuated before lunch as emergency crews inspected the campus to ensure everyone’s safety. An EPISD spokeswoman tells ABC-7 police received reports of a threat two blocks away from the school. Administrators initially placed

Democratic and Republican Party Runoff Election (Tuesday, May 27, 2014) Election Day will be Tuesday, May 27, 2014 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Democratic Party Polling Locations(PDF) Republican Party Combined Polling Locations(PDF) Early Voting Locations(Click on address for street view via Google Maps) Monday, May 19, 2014 through Friday, May 23, 2014 Mobile Voting

A family of four on the far east side lost their home Sunday evening. It was the second fire of the day in El Paso County. It happened on the 3500 block of Las Quintas close to 6 p.m. The borderland’s hot and dry weather have made conditions ripe for fires. A heroic neighbor tried

Large plumes of black smoke filled the air in central El Paso Sunday afternoon. The fire broke out at a water treatment plant near the intersection of Delta Drive and Boone Street. A spokeswoman said air filtering equipment caught fire, and was extinguished. Only a few hours later, fire crews in Montana Vista started battling

El Paso Police officials were notified that a missing man they were looking for over the weekend had been located. Police officials were contacted by Sunland Park Police that Juan DelaRiva,70, had been located in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. DelaRiva was wandering the streets when he was stopped by Sunland Park Police. Police report DelaRiva

TxDOT will begin the initial phase of the demolition of the Lincoln Center by the end of the month, according to spokesman David Glessner. The first phase will involve the removal of asbestos and mold from the building and is expected to take a few weeks to complete. “We intend then to move forward with

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operation officers seized 299 pounds of marijuana Thursday. The drugs were seized at three different times on Thursday at the Paso Del Norte international bridge. The estimated street value of the marijuana is $239,200. “The smuggling threat remains high and CBP officers are working hard every day