Good Morning El Paso 02.05.16

a portion of downtown remains closed this morning for a shooting investigation that left one man dead –we’ll have the latest details from our round the clock news team in a live report. “i think it is time for you t end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out.” just days before the new hampshire primary–the democrats take aim at one another in one of the feistiest debates this election season. / “”given her ties to dr trafficking and cartels in mexico i would consider her extremely dangerous” the u.s. marshal’s office is asking for your help in locating a former elementary school teacher that could still be somewhere in the borderland . / a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m stephanie valle. and i’m hillary floren. good morning, everyone. high pressure will bring mostly sunny skies and dry weather to southern new mexico and west texas today through next week. temperatures will remain cool today but slowly warm up to above normal over the next several days. a shooting closed off a busy portion of downtown yesterday. now the fbi is leading an investigation. new this morning– we’re hearing from police about the information they have. it started around 6 last night at the greyhound bus station on the 1- thousand block of santa fe. abc-7’s denise olivas is live with new information this morning… el paso, texas- on thursday, february 4, at approximately 5:45 p.m., el paso sector border patrol agents patrolling in the downtown area near the greyhound bus station heard what they believed to be gunshots. agents immediately responded and witnessed a subject with a handgun fleeing on foot at overland and el paso street. agents encountered the subject and ordered the man to drop his weapon. the subject refused and pointed his weapon at agents. agents opened fire on the subject, striking him an unknown number of times. emergency services arrived at the scene and cbp office of internal affairs has been notified. the fbi is the lead investigator in the incident. for the democratic presidential hopefuls, their last debate before the new hampshire primary was the most spirited one yet. hillary clinton and bernie sanders battled over their for the democratic presidential hopefuls, their last debate before the new hampshire primary was the most spirited one yet. hillary clinton and bernie sanders battled over their records on a host of issues and defended against each other’s attack lines on the campaign trail. abc’s bazi kanani has more. it’s your voice, your vote the top two democrats face-to- face for the last time before the new hampshire primary i think it is time for you to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out. the candidates clashing over charges of not standing up to wall street. i helped lead the effort again deregulation. while hillary clinton dodged a question about releasing the transcripts of her paid speeches to banks and big corporations … i’ll look into it. i don’t have the status. she showed her muscle on foreign policy. i fully concede that secretary clinton, who was secretary of state for four years, has more experience. but experience is not the only point. judgment is. 21:58:55 “a vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat isis,” sanders again refused to go after clinton for her email controversy. i will not politicize it. instead? going after her connections to the establishment. secretary clinton does represent the establishment. i represent, i hope, ordinary americans…. ” senator sanders is the only person who, i think, would characterize me, a woman, running to be the first woman president as exemplifying the establishment. the republicans are up next. their final debate before the new hampshire primary is this saturday night, right here on abc. tickets to see the pope’s mass in juarez may be distributed this weekend. continuing our complete coverage of the pope’s visit in less than two weeks .. abc-7 was at the news conference in juarez yesterday where the diocese officially showed the tickets to the media. we’re told they have exactly 150-thousand tickets in their possession. the tickets will be spread out among the juarez parishes. 10-thousand of those tickets have been set aside for el paso parishes — and another 5-thousand will go to las cruces. the juarez diocese may distribute the tickets this weekend — but they’re still trying to figure out how to pass them out fairly. from our new mexico mobile newsroom now … while the juarez diocese says las cruces will get 5- thousand tickets — officials in the city of the crosses say they’re not sure about that. on the front door of the las cruces diocese a sign reads “due to limite seating, the diocese of ciudad juarez was unable to provide the diocese of las cruces with tickets for the pal mass.” we reached out to multiple officials with the diocese to try to get a straight answer. the bishop and chancellor were out of town. other officials were unable to answer our question. and…abc-7 is following the progress of the pope’s altar as well– take a look at this video shot on thursday of the altar under construction at the old juarez fairgrounds. this is where the mass will take place on february 17th. the process is moving quickly. officials expect it to be 95- percent complete by sunday. there’s also a rehearsal planned for sunday as well. the tornillo- guadalupe port of entry is finally open for business again after years of construction and several delays due to lack of progress on the mexican side . the new 6 lane bridge is replacing the old 2 lane bridge in tornillo- it should relieve congestion at other ports of entry in our area. and will prove useful when pope francis visits juarez in 2 weeks. mexico’s president, enrique pena nieto was in attendance for thursday’s ceremony — along with u-s secretary of homeland security, jeh johnson and other el paso county leaders. according to johnson — $1- point-5 billion dollars worth of trade occurs between both countries on a daily basis. commercial lanes on the mexican side will operate from 8 in the morning to 6 in the evening — monday through friday. private vehicle lanes will operate 24-7. / developing now.. the search continues today for the former thomas manor elementary school teacher wanted by the u.s. marshals. according to a federal grand jury indictment, monica velasco has ties to the velasco criminal enterprise. the v-c-e was allegedly run by velasco’s brothers. they were arrested in september. the v- c-e has allegedly been conducting criminal activity since 2008 and has resources in mexico,texas, nevada and north and south carolina. abc7 spoke with u.s. marshals who believe velasco still might be in the area. if you have any information as to her whereabouts you can call the u.s. marshal’s office at 915-534-6779. now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… now to an abc-7 traffic alert–there are several closures happening due to the trolley project downtown.. …stanton street will close from arizona avenue to montana. rio grande street will also be completely closed to all traffic on stanton. now this closure is expected to last for four weeks. good news is this will allow stanton street to reopen near cathedral high school. also in that area—-texas avenue will be closed to east and westbound traffic at kansas. drivers can take mills or san antonio as a different route. we still have much more to come here on good morning el paso— as the zika virus continues to spread worldwide …one country now has plans to combat the disease. and later– the race for the white house is heating up as g-o-p candidates pull out all the stops in new hampshire. meteorologist krystal klei has your detailed forecast. krystal… and this is abc-7, where news comes first! upper short wave is currently moving to the southeast through central new mexico and east texas early this morning while another weak embedded upper wave drives southward across the area this afternoon. these features may induce some near breezy winds and some high clouds today but nothing more. otherwise southern new mexico/west texas will be positioned between very high amplitude ridge over the far western u.s. and deep mean troughing over the plains and mid western states. this pattern will result in a persistent north to northwest flow aloft over mainly high pressure and east to northeast winds at the surface. thus expect a continued inflow of dry continental air through at least most of next week precluding any rain or snow in the outlook. after today gradients will also remain weak so winds speeds will be rather low for mid winter. northerly wind component aloft over east to northeast surface winds will also maintain transport of of cool continental air the next 2 days with temperatures staying around 10 degrees below normal. however slow eastward drift and expansion of ridge…continued subsidence and abundant solar heating will all contribute to a gradual warming trend with high temperatures around 70 across the lowlands by thursday. new this morning— hundreds of people in chile and peru marched against the trans-pacific