Good Morning El Paso: 05.19.15

accept it or reject it. university medical center gives its final proposal to el paso children’s hospital. we take a closer look at the deal. also, power in the el paso school district may have been shifted back to the people — but that doesn’t mean the state isn’t keeping a watchful eye. we’ll explain. and a huge defeat for iraq’s army as it loses a key city to is militants. what this means for the united states. here’s a live look outside at the city this tuesday morning. this is from the abc-seven downtown cam. can we expect those winds to stick around? a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m stephanie valle. and i’m hillary floren. good morning, everyone. a live look at stormtrack doppler radar is showing… currently around our region… here’s your day planner for today… expect skies, winds and temperatures in the by 8 am, by noon and for your drive home around 5 pm. we’ll talk more about what to expect for the rest of this work week and the weekend ahead coming up in your full forecast. this morning el paso children’s hospital is looking at its final offer from university medical center. it was unanimously approved yesterday– and now another deadline looms. children’s has until this friday to decide if it will accept. good morning el paso’s denise olivas is live with more on the terms of what umc is calling its final offer … denise? umc is basically saying take it or leave it. the new closing date is set for june 5th at 12:01 am., or a date agreed by both parties. initially umc said children’s owed it more than 90 million dollars after it stopped paying umc for rent and services last spring. abc-7 was the first to raise the question. later both hospitals came to an agreement that children’s would come under the umc umbrella while remaining a separate hospital, but still owe umc almost $50 million. umc would write off the other $40 million as “capital investment.” that i still in the new agreement. children’s can’t issue raises, bonuses or promotions from now until the closing date of the agreement umc will retain powers, will require prior approval by both boads decisions to merge or consolidate must still be approved by commish all these negotiations have been going on behind closed doors. umc board chair steve de-groat tell ing abc-7 he hopes children’s agrees… while a children’s spokeswoman would not comment after yesterday’s meeting. shifting the power back to the people. after being rocked by a cheating scandal two years ago, the el paso school district is back under an elected board of trustees. bob geske, susie byrd, diane dye, chuck taylor, trent hatch, vice president al velarde, and president dori hatch — will oversee the a district with nearly 60-thousand students and 9- thousand employees. but that doesn’t mean they won’t be under the watchful eye of the texas education agency. the state commissioner of education is choosing to put in a monitor — former hancock isd superintendent and educator, fred liner. liner will be reporting back to williams quarterly — for an unspecified time — until he feels the board is ready to be on their own: The Texas Education Agency stands ready to provide support, assistance, guidance if they ask for it, as the new trustees move forward. It’s not unusual for a monitor to say, you know what, they don’t need my help, they don’t need a monitor anymore. the trustees will be attending trainings — including meeting with the superintendent june 2nd– and budget workshops throughout the month. their first tasks will be to set a budget and tax rate before the school years starts. meanwhile — episd told abc-7 a new investigation is underway. the district’s internal audit found potential irregularities dealing with attendance. episd self reported its findings to the t-e-a — who is now handling the investigation. as for former episd superintendant lorenzo garcia — court documents show he now lives in houston working for a roofing company. in 20-12, he pleaded guilty for his role in the cheating scheme. he was sentenced to three and a half years in federal prison but was released last halloween, a full year early, after completing a substance abuse program. he was ordered to pay 180- thousand dollars restitution, plus a fine of more than 56-thousand dollars. to our new mexico mobile newsroom now … las crucens could see an increase in their electric bills as el paso electric is requesting a rate hike. the company says it needs to offset a 1-point-3 billion dollar investment in new assets. if approved, the average las crucen would pay about 7-50 more a month. ceo tom shockley say it’s a fairly modest increase, considering it’s been six years since its last new mexico rate hike. now we won’t see these changes at least until next year. we’re told el paso electric will hold a series of town hall meetings next month. high-caliber weapons, bayonets, and grenade launchers: they’re all among the things federal agencies are now banned from providing to local law enforcement. the rules have come in the wake of police responses to riots in cities such as ferguson, missouri. the executive ordered also brings tighter requirements for police departments to get riot gear from federal agencies. but critics argue that police departments don’t have that kind of equipment anyway — and the insinuation that they do only drives police and communities further apart: “If the president knows that we don’t have grenade launchers and tracked, armored vehicles, then why would he even mention it?” “It’s not about the equipment It’s about the distraction of talking about military equipment like it’s really deployed.” police departments can still get item like drones and riot gear, albeit under tighter requirements. for items on the banned list — they can get those from private sellers instead of reaching out to the federal government. to the latest on isis now. the iraqi army is regrouping this morning — after losing the battle for a key city to the terrorist group. isis militants are now celebrating in the streets of ramadi after seizing the city. abc’s bazi kani has the latest on how the u-s plans to respond. :20-:25) is militants roaming the streets they have finally conquered — releasing this video, boasting of their victory — showing fighters strolling past the destruction in the city of ramadi, hoisting their black flags. sot John Kerry, us Secretary of State “Notice what they’ve done they’ve destroyed, they’ve sent in huge numbers of vehicle-born IEDs, big trucks, massive amounts of explosions and they’ve destroyed the place.” the iraqi city of ramadi — about 70 miles west of baghdad — in the capital of iraq’s largest province that has long been an area of difficult resistance against iraqi and american forces. for months, iraq’s army has been trying to defend ramadi, with the help of u-s airstrikes on isis targets. but over the weekend, truckloads of iraqi troops fled the is advance. some 500 people killed in the weekend assault on the city. thousands more families forced to flee. this morning, the u-s vows continued support of iraq’s struggling army and to keep fighting isis extremists wherever they are. The White House admits the loss of Ramadi is a “setback,” but says the figh against is was always expected to be a long one and insists that Iraqi forces will recapture the city. bazi kanani, abc news, washington. now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… the former juarez police chief is still recovering from an attack near the border. coming up, who he believes is responsible for it. and a first for a corpus christi medical center. identical triplets are born, two of them conjoined. what the parents had to say about the journey ahead. but first — your stormtrack weather. meteorologist krystal klei has your detailed forecast. krystal… and this is abc-7, where news comes first! the former police chief