Month: October 2016

For the first time ever, the topic of creepy clowns was brought up during a White House briefing Wednesday. Dozens of reports of menacing clowns have surfaced across the country, including the Borderland, largely on social media. And authorities are being forced to take them seriously as a potential threat to public safety, particularly at

A new visual arts facility would replace D.W. Williams Hall at NMSU if voters approve more than $27 million in capital outlay projects this November. The 78-year-old building used to be a gymnasium, until it was transformed into an arts facility in 1972. In fact, parts of the old gym are still visible. The gym’s

Police are looking for man accused of shooting up Jaguar’s Gentlemen’s Club last month. Daniel Gutierrez, 23, was asked to leave the strip club shortly after 4 a.m. Sept. 16. As he exited, Gutierrez allegedly pointed a gun at employees and fired several shots. Officers with the El Paso Police Department’s gang unit have secured

Las Cruces police are looking into a threat against a school similar to clown-related posts on social media. The post appears to target students from Lynn Middle School. It shows a picture of the school with caption that reads, “y’all people that go to Lynn are finna (sic) get dead omg save yourself.” The caption

A man was stabbed in the neck Wednesday afternoon at an apartment in East El Paso. Police responded to a stabbing about 2 p.m. at the Highridge Apartments at 9353 Viscount Blvd. When officers arrived, the alleged attacker walked out of the apartment with a knife in his hand, police said. He was immediately taken

Police arrested a man accused of taking off in a vehicle while two teenagers were hanging on to the car. One of the teenagers suffered serious head injuries, police said. 22-year-old Omar Esparza is charged with Accident Involving Serious Bodily Injury. On October 4, 2016, police booked him into the El Paso County Jail on

A Deming man who took a bus to California to pick up two pounds of meth pleaded guilty to a trafficking charge Tuesday. As part of a plea deal, Andy Garcia, Jr., 43, admitted to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and he will be sentenced to 10 years in prison and supervised released. Garcia was named

A lack of trust in law enforcement and burdensome hiring criteria are among the barriers to creating more diverse police agencies, according to a federal report Wednesday. The report, from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, examines the challenges to diversity in law enforcement and singles out individual

A fourth person has been arrested in connection to the murder of Johnny Ramirez, whose body was found in the trunk of a burning car. New Mexico State Police agents arrested 23-year-old Greg P. Saavedra Jr., from Las Cruces Tuesday, said a spokesperson for the agency. Saavedra has been charged with an open account of

A quiet Fall pattern has settled over the Borderland. We will see nearnormal temperatures under sunny skies, Wednesday through Thursday.Cooler air will move into the region with increased rain chances this weekend. El Paso: Today: Sunny, high around 85 degrees. Southwest winds 5 to10 mph.Tonight: Clear, low around 57 degrees. West winds 5 to 10

LAS CRUCES, N.M. – New Mexico State is entering the 2016-17 men’s basketball season with a new head coach and a new mentality. “We want to play at a faster tempo offensively and defensively,” said head coach Paul Weir. “And, obviously, it’s going to change a little game by game based on who we’re playing.

The El Paso Independent School District continues the push for what would be a record-breaking bond proposal, but some say they’re not getting the message. The $669 million bond for El Paso’s largest school district is the focus of a big education campaign by district leaders. ABC-7 learned there are some, at campuses that would

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine aggressively challenged Donald Trump’s qualifications for the presidency Tuesday night, casting him as a “me-first” mogul who won’t level with Americans about his business record. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence lashed back with criticism of Hillary Clinton but didn’t dispute that running mate Trump hadn’t paid federal taxes for years. The two

The City Streets and Maintenance Department Tuesday requested $331,200 from City Council to fund speed humps for 22 streets. In 2008, the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP) was set up to allow residents to request speed humps, and other traffic calming measures in their neighborhoods. NTMP has been so successful that funds for the program

El Paso City Council Tuesday approved a resolution to prevent food waste and established a Regional Food Policy Council. The council would be led by citizens. The resolution declares 2017 as the “Year of Food Waste Prevention and Recovery in El Paso,” and directs city staff to develop a realistic food waste reduction strategy by

EL PASO, Texas – In sports there is a common saying that most freshmen who stand out in their athletic discipline tend to go through a sophomore slump. Alyssa Palacios is not like most sophomores. Palacios has continued her dominance as the goalkeeper for the UTEP soccer team, and there does not seem to be

Dog owners will soon no longer be allowed to tether their animals for long periods of time. A new city ordinance takes effect November 12, 2016. It was passed by city council in 2014, but delayed in order to give dog owners a two year window to learn more about the ordinance. It prohibits owners

More than $8 million of the record $669 million El Paso Independent School District bond will go toward purchasing new buses, an expense some think should come from the district’s maintenance and operations budget rather than a bond proposal. EPISD has 315 buses currently in service. They average more than three million miles a year

A New Mexico man may have been living in a house with a woman’s dead body for several weeks, authorities say. State Police agents are asking for information on the whereabouts of Robert Mondrian-Powell, a.k.a Robert Boykin, a person of interest in this case. Mondrian-Powell may have ties to the Las Cruces-El Paso area, police

Texas is still failing to check on thousands of children who are the highest risk for abuse or neglect in the latest sign of trouble for an understaffed child protection agency that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has pledged to overhaul, according to state data released Tuesday. On any given day alone around big cities such

The El Paso Independent School District is looking to add more new buses to its fleet in the next few years. Up until last year, the average age of an EPISD school bus was more than 20 years old. A fleet of new buses is already in use to take students to school everyday. The

The City of El Paso’s Entertainment District is now currently equipped with 24 cameras to help police monitor the area, EPPD officials announced Tuesday. Additionally, the area around San Jacinto Plaza is now equipped with 18 cameras and the star on the mountain has eight cameras. Police recently arrested a group of teens who allegedly

City Council Tuesday awarded an $11 million contract to Martinez Bros. Contractors, LLC for the construction of the Alameda Brio system. The rapid transit system will connect the Mission Valley to Central and Downtown El Paso. The overall cost of the project is $38.3 million, city officials said. The approximately 14.5 mile route will offer

Police arrested a woman suspected of leaving her 3-month-old child alone in a vehicle while she allegedly caused a disturbance inside a golf course clubhouse. Jenny L. Merta, 39, of the 6100 block of High Desert Drive, is charged with one count each of child abandonment, battery on a peace officer and resisting an officer.

A proposal to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico has cleared a new hurdle in the state Legislature. The appropriations and finance committee in the House of Representatives recommended approval Monday of a bill to reinstate capital punishment by lethal injection for convicted killers of police, children and corrections officers. The proposal moves next

Police arrested a woman whose 9-year-old son tested positive for cocaine. Mary Lou Barela, 31, of the 100 block of Fleming Avenue, is charged with one count of negligent child abuse. The charge is a third-degree felony count. On August 7, 2016, police were told Barela was allegedly using a social media site to solicit

Authorities say a 13-year-old girl in Virginia and a 14-year-old boy in Houston have been charged with crimes related to recent reports of scary clowns appearing in several states. Hampton, Virginia, police said in a news release Monday the girl asked a person posing as a clown on social media to kill one of her

A calm Fall weather pattern has settled over the Borderland. We will see near normal temperatures under sunny skies, Tuesday through Thursday. Friday a cold front will bring cooler temperatures and increased rain chances. We will see a chance for rain on Saturday and Sunday. El Paso: Today: Sunny,83 degrees. West winds 10 to 15

She leans forward to buckle the straps on her silver-colored heels, the music of string instruments echoing throughout the ballroom. As she finishes, she gets up and begins to saunter across the dance floor, always looking at her partner. She slowly comes to a complete stop as she gets near him, leaving some space. Both

EL PASO, Texas – The Texas Department of Public Safety reports eight people were arrested in September who are believed to be involved in prescription fraud. A stolen doctor’s pad reportedly led investigators to what they are calling an organized prescription drug ring operating in El Paso. ABC 7 obtained court documents stating some of