AUSTIN, Texas (KVIA) — Texas State Representative Lina Ortega will not seek a fifth term in office. Ortega has represented House District 77 since January 2017. The Democrat’s current term will end in 2024. District 77 covers the southern part of West El Paso, Downtown El Paso, Central El Paso, and almost all of the
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(CNN) — Few citizens face the kind of perfect storm of legal threats engulfing Donald Trump. And given that he is a past and possibly future president running for a new term, the entire country could share in his historic ordeal. Strong indications Tuesday that Trump could soon be indicted in a third case –
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(CNN) — A bus carrying 41 migrants from Brownsville, Texas, arrived in Los Angeles Tuesday evening – the fourth such bus to arrive in the city in recent weeks, according to a nonprofit. Among the passengers were six children ranging in age from 1 to 15 years old, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan announced a historic $18 billion property tax cut. The Texas Senate and House reached this agreement on the proposed legislation that will be “the biggest property tax cut in Texas History.” According to a statement by the Texas House, this deal
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As a deal to cut Texas’ high property taxes continues to evade Republican lawmakers, Democrats in the Legislature unveiled a long-shot tax-cut proposal Thursday that targets relief to a group of taxpayers who have been largely left out of the debate: renters. Tenants make up more than one-third of the state’s households. They pay, via their monthly
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(CNN) — Undeterred by a growing number of lawsuits, the Biden administration on Friday released revised guidance for Medicare’s new drug price negotiation program. The latest guidance outlines how the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will negotiate with drugmakers to reach agreement on a maximum fair price for a selected medicine, the agency said.
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — More than $15,000 worth of gift cards purchased in 2022 for the City of El Paso’s ‘U-Matter Program’ remain undistributed as of June 2023, according to documents obtained by ABC-7 through an open records request. As ABC-7 reported earlier this month, a transaction list of the procurement card (P-card) of
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Congresswoman Veronica Escobar is officially running for reelection. The El Paso representative launched the bid with a private event at a local bar June 28. Escobar has represented the Borderland for three terms as the head of the 16th Texas Congressional District. Escobar is also expected to speak about her
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by Robert Moore, El Paso MattersJune 26, 2023 State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, is running for re-election instead of district attorney. Moody, 42, says he feels he can be more effective for El Paso in the Legislature than as DA. “I think in the last three, four sessions, we’ve been able to achieve some
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — James Montoya is once again launching a bid to become El Paso’s District Attorney. The former prosecutor under former DA Jaime Esparza is currently a public defender. Montoya ran and lost to Yvonne Rosales in 2020. Rosales has since left office. The position is currently held by Governor Greg Abbott-appointed
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Texas congressman Will Hurd, a onetime CIA officer and fierce critic of Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that he’s running for president, hoping to build momentum as a more moderate alternative to the Republican primary field’s early front-runner. Hurd represented District 23, which spans from El Paso to San Antonio. Hurd, who
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas state Sen. Angela Paxton said Monday she will “carry out my duties” ahead of the historic impeachment trial of her husband, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, but did not outright say whether or not she will recuse herself on a vote to remove him from office. Breaking weeks of public
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Governor Greg Abbott recently signed House Bill 3660 into law, protecting those who trap, neuter or spay, and release feral cats back into the wild from animal abandonment charges. Cats that have been fixed by TNR (trap, neuter, return) programs are easily recognizable, as the top part of one of
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Working lunches that cost El Paso taxpayers more than $17,000 over the last 16 months will no longer be provided during El Paso City Council meetings effective Monday, according to an internal memo obtained by ABC-7 through a source. The authenticity of the e-mail sent by El Paso Mayor Oscar
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez’s office spent more than $100,000 using taxpayer-funded procurement cards (P-cards) from January 2022 to April 2023, according to documents obtained by ABC-7. The documents show each transaction made during that time period on two separate P-cards, one belonging to City Manager Tommy Gonzalez and
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Questions still remain how former District 6 City Representative Claudia Rodriguez spent $7,555.48 in one day using taxpayer money in October 2022. Rodriguez made eight transactions using a taxpayer-funded purchasing card on the same day the city representative hosted a city-sponsored Halloween event, but there is no indication those purchases
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — In an exclusive interview with ABC-7, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said he’s concerned about the amount of spending on city procurement cards, or P-cards. “I want to look at that and make sure that the citizens of El Paso know that we are looking at it and we will
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Early voting for the June 2023 Runoff Election began Tuesday and will run through June 6. There are three races on the ballot; two for positions at the El Paso Independent School District and one for a position at the Ysleta Independent School District. All three races are for Board
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(CNN) — Texas Republicans have approved a pair of bills targeting the elections process in Harris County, the state’s largest and home to Houston, with voting rights activists accusing the GOP of plotting a “power grab” in an increasingly Democratic county. The measures, which passed the Republican-controlled state House and Senate, now head to the
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AUSTIN, Texas (The Texas Tribune) — The Texas House intends to take up a resolution to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton at 1 p.m. Saturday, according to a memo from the House General Investigating Committee. Citing Paxton’s “long-standing pattern of abuse of office and public trust,” the memo said it was imperative for the House to proceed with impeachment
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said in an exclusive interview with ABC-7 on Friday that the city’s chief internal auditor felt ‘pressured’ to change his report looking into the 2022 usage of taxpayer-funded city gasoline cards by city council members. Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon’s report found “excessive” use of the gas
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) — New Mexico State University researchers have released a study revealing a significant spike in the number of Hispanic individuals killed by law enforcement officers in the United States over the past decade. The study, published in the Journal of Community Health, shows an increase exceeding 40% between 2010 and
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(CNN) — The Republican-controlled Texas State House failed to advance a controversial bill on Tuesday that would have required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Senate Bill 1515 was effectively killed early Wednesday morning after House lawmakers did not meet a midnight deadline for a vote that would have advanced the
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LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) — On Saturday, a commemorative ceremony took place to officially rename a major interchange in Las Cruces in honor of a fallen local hero, Antonio Rodriguez. The I-25 and I-10 interchange, from mile marker 143 to mile marker 145, is now known as the Sergeant First Class Antonio Rey “Rod”
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In response to its ongoing struggles to secure armed security for its campuses, Gadsden Independent School District has launched a novel initiative: Parents on Patrol (PoP). This community-based program enables parents to take an active role in ensuring the safety of their children’s schools by serving as volunteer patrol guards. Parents were introduced to the
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Texas is on the brink of banning transgender minors from getting puberty blockers and hormone therapies, treatments that leading medical groups say are important to supporting their mental health. The Senate has voted 19-12 Wednesday to accept Senate Bill 14’s House version and send it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, two days after the lower chamber passed the legislation.
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By Brian Lopez, The Texas Tribune May 14, 2023 “Gov. Greg Abbott threatens to veto pared-down school choice bill, warns of special sessions” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Sign up for
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Late Thursday evening a Florida federal judge blocked the federal government from releasing migrants that have been processed. The judge’s orders went into effect when Title 42, the public emergency health order, expired. The U.S. District Judge ordered the federal government to stop the release of migrants without court dates.
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The commission’s approval allows Holtec International, an energy firm based in New Jersey, to construct and manage the facility in southeastern New Mexico. However, Holtec may still need to secure permits from the state, a process that top New Mexico officials have promised to contest. Spent fuel, consisting of uranium pellets encased in metal rods,
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EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Results show that almost 85 percent of El Pasoans who participated in early voting voted against Proposition K, or the citizen-led climate charter. ABC-7 has providing extensive coverage on the proposition both on air and online. You can learn more about it and other propositions by reading our Your Voice Your
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