Good Morning El Paso: 08.31.15

today a hearing is happening in austin to determine if el paso children’s hospital will lose money even faster than they expected. and a local mural gets the spotlight because it shows the confederate flag. after the tragic shooting at a church in south carolina, are residents bothered by the flag? coming up we’ll hear opinions straight from the borderland. and weeks after bootleg movie sellers were busted — abc-7 looks at whether the arrests have stopped others from selling pirated goods. a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m stephanie valle. and i’m hillary floren. and i’m hillary floren. good morning, everyone. happy monday! today we’ve start the morning in the 60s and 70s with low light winds and mostly clear sky conditions to kick off the day. the chance of rain today is very limited, and mostly focused over the higher elevations like the gila and sacremento mountains. the winds later today remain low and temps rise quite a bit! again we’ll see mid 90s in some areas with lots of sun. the forecast changes through the work week and we’ll track that coming up! the university medical center and el paso children’s hospital dispute over bankruptcy continues to drag on… and a decision today could affect how much money children’s has left! abc-7’s andrew j. polk is live with the details. andrew? good morning hillary and stephanie. county commissioners have predicted that el paso children’s will run out of cash by thanksgiving… but today’s bankruptcy hearing in austin could seriously change those calculations. federal bankruptcy judge christopher mott will be making a decision from today’s hearing … on if children’s has to start paying rent to u-m-c. umc has said that’s about $860 thousand dollars a month… which on top of the million dollars in services and fees children’s has already been ordered to pay monthly… could drain the remaing money children’s has that much faster… possibly leaving them without operating funds in just a couple of months. “children’s needs to face reality, the board needs to face reality…you’re gonna shut your doors because you’re going to run out of money …and that’s not going to happen.” again, this will all be based off of the bankrutcy court hearing scheduled for today in austin. and we’ll have the latest on air and online at k-v-i-a dot com as we learn more. hillary and stephanie? police still don’t know who they found dead in a canal in central el paso. border patrol agents found a man’s body in a canal at the intersection of delta drive and cypress street just after midnight on sunday. the el paso fire department and water rescue team were were called to the scene… but the man had already died in the water: “according to the water rescu captain, it requires a high level of swim ability to be able to fight those currents and unfortunately those that pass in the canals, don’t have those swimming abilities.” police still don’t know much about the man. they believe he was in his 40’s or 50’s. good news for new mexico veterans. that’s because v-a health officals say the state’s patient wait times are down! v-a health care system director, andrew welch says that as of last month… wait times have improved. now the average wait time for a primary care appointment is about seven days. that’s according to numbers from july. another v-a head says his office has cut the wait time for veteran’s disability cliams from more than a year, to 130 days. this after an associated press report identified new mexico as one of the worst ranked states for delayed appointments. the statue of confederate president jefferson davis is no longer on its pedestal in the university of texas campus. that’s because it was removed over the weekend. ever since the church shootings in charleston south carolina… the statue has been a target of vandalism. but the statue will still have a home at u-t. it’s going to be displayed in a museum on campus. wipe vo just like that statue – some consider the presence of confederate battle flags to be racist. and it may surprise you to find out there’s one right here in el paso. the flag is included in a mural in the atrium of the county courthouse. the mural’s artist tells abc-7, it doesn’t glorify the confederacy or it’s ideals, but rather places it in historical context of the groups having influence on our region… we spoke with several el pasoans and they tell us, they don’t believe it’s an issue: ” “here on the border, it’ irrelevant.” “it’s a part history. i mean you can’t change history.” “it’s a pa of the history of united – the united states.” “we shou still have it there. it is a part of our history.” el paso county judge veronica escobar has been wrestling with the issue, but she tells abc-7 she’s never heard of any complaints. she thinks it would be appropriate to have a muralist paint over it. if you would like to know more about the mural – and the significance behind the work visit kvia.com. the nmsu aggies have a lot to prove on the football field this year. they only won 2 games last year and they very well could be playing just for a chance to stay in their conference! nmsu is a football- only member of the sun belt. nmsu’s current agreement with the sun belt runs through 2017 and is up for review following this season. the aggies are hoping to find a permanent solution for its football program and other sports within the school. mario moccia with the nmsu athletic department says they are focused on what is best for the sport which is staying in the sun belt for the long term. we will keep you posted on what happens. plans to build a mosque in a catholic community is causing a stir in michigan. over the weekend more than 200 residents demonstrated against building the mosque in their neighborhood. but they weren’t the only ones to demonstrate. a handful of muslims came out to counter-protest. so will the mosque get built? well, construction won’t start until crews get a special land use agreement granted by the planning commission. and the next meeting is in september. to some people, presidential candidate donald trump is full of hot air. especially when it comes to the issue of immigration. trump was recently cited calling for the mass deportion of millions of immigrants. but as it turns out, this threat isn’t empty… historically speaking. that’s because back in the 19-30’s an estimated half-million to a million mexican immigrants and mexican americans were pushed out of the country. that’s right… americans. scholars say about 60-percent of those who left were american citizens. an albuquerque artist’s work was chosen for the new mexico lottery scratch cards. this is sean wells. her day of the dead paintings are in her hand. wells is the first local artist to be featured on the state’s scratch cards, according to the albuquerque journal. wells created six different paintings for the dia de los muertos themed scratchers. each skeleton is shown doing typical new mexican things like riding in a hot air balloon. now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… a baby in arizona is safe after being left out in the sun? where was his mom and is he okay? those details are coming up after the break. and soon, church goers in santa teresa will no longer have to attend mass in a gymnasium. that’s because they got a generous donation that’s helping the church grow. meteorologist krystal klei has your detailed forecast. krystal… and this is abc-7, where news comes first!