Month: February 2015

By Stephanie Chavez EL PASO — The El Paso chapter of Compassionate Friends hosted its second annual Compassionate Friends Conference to reach out to families who’ve lost a child. Their goal is to raise awareness about their organization in hopes of lending support to parents and grandparents through their grieving process. Terry Gallardo, the co-leader

An El Paso Police Officer was hit by a car Saturday morning. Police said the officer did not sustain life-threatening injuries. Police said the crash happened around 9:45 Saturday morning. The officer was issuing a ticket to a car off I-10 East between McRae and Giles. Police said the officer was hit by an on-coming

An overnight storm that pelted parts of Texas and Oklahoma with freezing rain has made roads dangerously slick and forced the cancellation of nearly 1,000 flights at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Transportation officials and the National Weather Service warned people to stay off the roads until temperatures rise and the ice melts. Forecasters issued a

Filling up at the pump is getting more painful by the day — but the average price is still over a dollar less than it was a year ago. According to Gas.Buddy.com, prices have jumped 12 cents over the past week to $2.40 a gallon. And senior patroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan says he’s expecting another

Fitch Ratings, an agency that rates the financial strength of companies, has indicated that University Medical Center’s credit rating is likely to be downgraded again. “The Rating Watch Negative reflects heightened uncertainty over the impact of the El Paso Children’s Hospital (EPCH) operations on district finances,” stated the announcement from Fitch. “Recent public announcements from

Construction is underway in far east El Paso to complete the interchange that connects Interstate 10 and Loop 375. An ABC-7 viewer sent us a photo of one of the pillars that holds up part of the interchange. The photo shows a chunk of concrete missing from the pillar, with the rebar protruding out. It

El Paso Children’s Hospital board of directors did not accept University Medical Center’s proposal and let it expire on Friday. UMC officials said the proposal was designed to help Children’s survive as a separately licensed nonprofit hospital with a separate board, medical staff and CEO. The offer also was designed to keep the Children’s Hospital

Conference USA has suspended UTEP head coach Tim Floyd for one game for violating the league’s Sportsmanship Policy during the Feb. 26 game at Louisiana Tech. Floyd received subsequent technical fouls midway through the second half of Thursday’s game and when he was ejectedhe failed to immediately leave the playing court area. According to the

On a day when El Paso Children’s Hospital has to respond to University Medical Center’s offer sheet, Children’s has named a new chief executive officer. Mark Herbers, the new CEO, has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare. “I fully support and am confident that Mark Herbers will effectively lead El Paso Children’s Hospital

A disgraced former Catholic Diocese school board member has pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child porn. Victor Jerome Reza, 53, is scheduled to be sentenced May 11th. Prosecutors dropped a charge of possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of children. According to a complaint affidavit obtained by the ABC-7 I-Team, Reza admitted to

As El Paso Children’s Hospital faces its Friday deadline to respond to University Medical Center’s offer, ABC is asking what would the differences be between Children’s taking the offer or filing for bankruptcy. UMC gave Children’s the option of repaying just under half of its near $100 million debt. For eating the cost of the

Fort Bliss officials say Jesus Moreno of El Paso is the construction worker killed at the site of the new William Beaumont Army Medical Center. ABC-7 spoke with one of Moreno’s co-workers, who said the tragedy should shine the light on safety training. The co-worker was not given permission to speak about the incident and

There is no doubt technology has changed how we do things, from listening to music, how we communicate and how we read a book. That is a challenge the El Paso Public Library has kept up with in this digital age. Local libraries are now equipped with more computers and online book and magazines. The

UTEP (19-7, 11-3 C-USA) and LA Tech (21-7, 12-3) will battle at 6 p.m. MT from the Thomas Assembly Center with a national television audience (FOX Sports 1) watching. The winner will have the inside track to the C-USA regular season championship. UTEP will have a watch party at the Corner Tavern off of Cincinnati

Troy Bradley has traveled around the world and broken dozens of world records. In fact, the latest one set weeks ago is being verified by national authorities. Bradley, a hot air balloon pilot and Albuquerque native was in Las Cruces Wednesday morning, breaking down the science of balloon travel for students at University Hills Elementary

TxDOT officials are telling drivers that work will be done on a part of I-10 East from 9 p.m. today until 1 a.m. Thursday. The two left lanes on I-10 East will be closed between the Raynolds Overpass and Robert E. Lee Overpass while maintenance to the roadway is done.

The bond for the Fort Bliss soldier accused of beating an El Paso County Constable to death has been reduced from $5 million to $30,000, according to jail records. Devond Huerta-Person, 19, remains jailed on a Capital Murder charge for the death of Constable Robert White. According to investigators, Huerta-Person got into an argument with

It seems the controversy over a painted flag at Reyes Elementary is over for now. The Canutillo Independent School District said now the goal is to get the school open in time for fall. “We’ve got to build a school and we have got to go forward,” said CISD Board President Laure Searls. Hunt Communities

El Paso Children’s Hospital will ask University Medical Center to finish a mediation process that was never completed, said Children’s Board Chair Rosemary Castillo on Wednesday morning. “The mediation was never completed and that was not by our choice,” said Castillo over the phone. UMC’s board has set a Friday deadline for Children’s to accept

Editor’s note: During YISD Board Trustee Ana Dueez’s interview, ABC-7 incorrectly stated that the Riverside feeder pattern would get $26.4 million. Under the proposal, the Riverside feeder pattern would see $42.3 million in projects. Schools in the Parkland feeder pattern are slated to get $26.4 million if the bond is approved. That number was erroneously

The crash of a Virgin Galactic prototype last October pushed back indefinitely the timeline for civilian spaceflight from southern New Mexico and now – with the occupancy of its anchor tenant nowhere in sight, taxpayers and officials are wondering if Spaceport America will ever fly. It was supposed to be “the beginning of a new

Senator George Munoz from Gallup introduced a bill that would put the spaceport up for sale. A Senate panelcommittee voted “No Recommendation” on putting up the spaceport for sale,Thursday. It now heads to two other panels before it heads to the floor. Senator Munoz was quoted last week saying, “a bill of goods that never

The Canutillo Independent School District board voted 6-1 to not accept a donation from the Hunt Communities at Tuesday ‘s board meeting. Six trustees were in favor of the rejection, one abstained. Earlier this month Reyes Elementary, named after former El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes and his wife Carolina, painted an American flag on the

Dona Ana Sheriff Enrique Vigil is worried about the condition of his aging fleet of patrol units. “We’re using parts from some older vehicles we have retired to keep the rest of the fleet going. That’s embarrassing,” Vigil said. He and his fleet manager told ABC-7 90 of his 220 patrol units are unsafe for

Loma Heights Students are cleaning up the Las Cruces Community Cemetery, which has suffered neglect for years. Trash, weeds, vandalism and time have taken a toll on the cemetery, which was originally intended for the burial of African Americans in the 1940’s. Now, a group of students is hoping to restore the cemetery into a

University Medical Center has released details of the term sheet it offered to the El Paso Children’s hospital as the two try to resolve a multi-million dollar debt that’s threatened the sustainability of both hospitals. A UMC spokesman said the term sheet approved Monday is not a first draft. ABC-7 took an in depth look

El Paso firefighters had to battle a house fire again on Tuesday after they extinguished it Monday night. The first happened in a two-story house at 117 Lake Saint Pierre Court in a colina east of Horizon city and Agua Dulce. The house was in danger of collapsing and firefighters had to take extra precautions

A man is killed while working on a truck that was parked in the Providence Hospital parking lot. It happened shortly before 6:30 p.m. Monday on the 2000 block of N. Oregon. Police identified the victim as Jose Trujillo, 31. Trujillo and another person were working on a Ford F-250 truck when Trujillo got underneath

University Medical Center has released details of the term sheet it offered to the El Paso Children’s hospital as the two try to resolve a multi-million dollar debt that’s threatened the sustainability of both hospitals. Children’s owes the county hospital more than $90 million dollars –a debt Children’s disputes. A UMC spokesman said Tuesday the

A NASA Terrier-Black Brant research rocket will lift off from White Sands Missile Range early tomorrow morning. It had been scheduled to launch on Monday, but because of weather it was postponed. The rocket is carrying an experiment to study ionization in space just beyond Earth’s atmosphere. It’s being sponsored by the Department of Defense’s