Good Morning El Paso: 08.15.15

police are investigating another threat at a las cruces church… after a suspicious package is found at yet another house of worship. fort bliss cracking down on gate security measures. how it’s affecting business owners and customers to freedom crossing. and later – the latest on the possibly toxic waste spill into that colorado river… turning it yellow, now creeping it’s way closer home. and in stormtrack weather, iris! this is all the news you need to start your saturday, august 15th. abc-7’s “good morning el paso weekend starts right now! good morning and thank you for joing us… i’m andrew j. polk. …stormtrack weather now! let’s get your first forecast with stormtracker iris lopez. the upper high that has reduced the storm activity over the area the past few days will drift westward. in this process upper disturbances will move across the borderland the next two evenings and increase the chance of thunderstorms. then by midweek a pacific trough passing to the north will bring in drier air and another quiet weather period until moisture increases again toward next weekend. we start this morning with breaking news: el paso police have closed off the far left lane of westbound i ten between eastlake and americas. that’s because an suv hit the guardrail and rolled over. fortunately it appears no one was injured in the accident. at this time investigators are trying to determine what caused the driver to lose control and flip the vehicle. and in chihuahua a close call for that state’s governor cesar duarte mexican media is reporting the bell jet helicopter and his wife bertha gomez were travelling in fell about ten feet crashing into the ground last night. fortunately they were not injured. the governor and his party were heading to his private ranch in balleza near the city of parral. still no word on what caused the helicopter to fall and crash. police are still looking into whether a suspicious package has anything to do with the las cruces church explosions earlier this month. the suspicious device was found at first presbyterian church yesterday. the discovery caused some nearby businesses to evacuate … and las cruces high school went into lockdown. the evidence was sent to investigators to determine if there are similarities between the device and the remains from the other church explosions. university medical center is now on standby to present a new plan of action if el paso children’s hospital can’t come up with a reorganization plan to get out of bankruptcy. if children’s can’t figure it out in a month… u-m-c will ask the bankruptcy judge to present it’s own plan that promises to pay back all of children’s creditors by the end of the year. payments on the 100-million dollars u-m-c says children’s owes it would be deferred. plus the county hospital would appoint chidlren’s c-e-o and its board of trustees. the new ysleta-isd bond proposal is giving the eastwood high school rebuild more money, but is still less expensive this time around. last night the advisory committee approved a $430- mllion-dollar bond — that’s about $21 million less than may’s $451 million- dollar proposal. that’s because there are 15 fewer projects. but major projects like building new schools are still on the table. including rebuilding eastwood high school. the cost of the project went up from $75-million to $93-million. de la torre said the new plan takes into consideration students outside the district that attend eastwood high. a chemical spill in central el paso forced the paul foster school of medicine to evacuate. the spill happened yesterday afternoon inside the medical science building. about 20 staff members were forced out of the building as emergency and haz- mat crews moved in quickly to contain the spill. at this point it appears the chemical is not hazardous. the investigation is still on going. the building has since been reopened. it looked like the prop to a movie. that’s because a vintage navy plane crash landed in las cruces. the pilot and the passenger are both alive. but the plane wasn’t so lucky. you can see the nose of the plane was badly damaged after it crashed on a hill in the desert. the pilot was transported to university medical center in el paso and the passenger was transported to a local hospital in las cruces. the federal aviation administration is investigating the cause of the crash. hillary clinton’s past is causing her to speak out and defend herself on issues like benghazi and how she used a private email server for classified information. clinton is dismissing the controversy. she says that her critics are using how she handled the 20-12 benghazi attacks and her e- mail as partisan games. to her it’s not about the issues, but about politics. she points to republican-led investigations and says she quote: “won’t play politics with national security.” new gate restrictions in place at fort bliss are getting mixed reviews. fort bliss is cracking down on security–but not everyone is happy about the changes. as of last week–all visitors must get a “visitors pass” upon enterin fort bliss. passes are good for only 30 days. you’ll need your driver’s license, proof of insurance and registration. those visiting william beaumont army medical center are requied to use the fred wilson access control point. abc- 7’s josie ortegon spoke with business owners and customers who tell us, it’s going to take some getting used to: pkg: “it’s just a killer becaus it’s a good post and with the restrictions, for veterans, it’s just going to turn everyone away.” it’s onl been a couple of days but most visitors are already feeling the impact one area of concern–the wait time. when my photographer and i went–we were there for about 20 minutes. others, weren’t so lucky: ” came to get a new badge, i’ve been waiting four and half hours and i still haven’t gotten it yet.” jennifer kay, a employee on post–says she’s also afraid the changes will have a negative impact on businesses: “i thin it’s going to cause a lot of businesses to lose visitors. and they have a lot of free shows? people are not going to want to come, because they’re not going to sit here and wait 20-30 minutes just to get a pass, it’s not. i wouldn’t.” fort bliss officials did not respond to a request for comment by deadline, but i spoke with freedom crossing’s general manager. she tells abc-7 the restrictions are similar to those in place when shops first broke ground in 2010. back then–visitors were required to get a day pass. she says it’s still too early to tell just how it’ll effect businesses this time around. but some business owners say otherwise: stand-up “i spoke with several businesse here at freedom crossing, they couldn’t speak on camera, but they tell me in the past week alone, they’ve already noticed a significant drop in sales and they expect it to stay that way, until gate restrictions change” “do y think you’ll come back, or–after this experience i think i’m going to lessen my visits to ft. bliss a lot.”” ” understand they have a job to do and that they have to defend their own. it’s a double edged sword really.” freedom crossing officials add–fort bliss is not a closed post and customers and visitors are always welcome. visitors are allowed to enter through five gates. they include buffalo soldier, chaffee, old ironsides, sheridan or biggs airfield main. anyone with a current military i-d is allowed to enter without a visitor’s pass. the el paso museum of history is presenting a year- long series of films and programs exploring our country’s civil right’s journey. it’s part of “created equal america’s civil rights struggle.” each film tells the stories of people who challenged the status quo of their time. the series starts this morning at 10 with a screening of “the abolitionists”. you can watch it at the main library on 501 north oregon street. the series will continue through next june. still ahead on the borderland’s only weekend morning newscast… more fire and explosions out of the chinese port city of tianjin. and angry responses from the families of those affected. and later – what scandal? hillary clinton hitting the campaign trail hard despite continuing questions about her emails as secretary of state. it is , right now we’ll take a live look at traffic this morning: and in stormtrack weather, iris! stormtrack weather is next! you’re watching abc-7… where news comes first!