Good Morning El Paso 12.2.15

“we’re defending the homeland we’re working to defeat isil at its core in syria and iraq.’ the pentagon announces new pans to take on isis in iraq–what that mean for u.s. forces. / plus— abc-7 is still waiting to learn the details of a crash that killed one person yesterday in west el paso. / and—el paso police said it was a fatality but are now saying a man hit by a car is still alive– / a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m stephanie valle. and i’m hillary floren. good morning, everyone. dry west flow aloft will dominate much of the remainder of this week…meaning very few clouds. after a bit of a cool day today…temperatures will warm above normal through saturday. an upper trough out of the pacific ocean will move across new mexico later saturday… bringing some afternoon winds and cooling again for sunday. dry west flow aloft will then return to finish out the weekend into the first part of next week. again very few clouds and temperatures will warm back to above normal. and now-to the latest on the fight against is. the us military announced its intensifying its efforts to fight the islamic state in iraq and syria-that may mean more special operations forces on the ground. abc’s megan hughes has details on this story developing now. the us is stepping the fight against the islamic state. defense secretary ash carter-laying out the plan to congress. “we’re defending th homeland, we’re working to defeat isil at its core in syria and iraq.” carter announced the u is establishing a special ops “targeting force.” it will b based in iraq–and conduct raids, gather intelligence, free hostages–and aim to capture is leaders. even before the attacks on paris, carter had planned for a broader role for us special ops forces after a raid in iraq in late october. us forces helped free 70 isis hostages and one american was killed-master sgt. joshua wheeler. at a discussion at the harvard kennedy center, carter disputed republican calls for boots on the ground. “a lot of people don’t think that there are boots on the ground or that we’re putting boots on the ground and we’re doing a lot from the air but there are by the way boots on the ground. ” and with nearly 200 countries coming together to talk climate change in paris-president obama used the opportunity to try to drum up more international support. obama: ” am confident that we can continue building momentum and adding resources to our effort to degrade and ultimately destroy isil,” reporter tag: the british parliament will vote later today on whether that country will join in launching airstrikes in syria. back here in the borderland– abc-7 is still waiting to learn the identity of the woman killed in a 2 car crash yesterday afternoon. it happened about 2 p.m. on i-10 near transmountain road. that’s in west el paso. this is video we recorded from our tex-dot traffic cameras. as you can see there is no traffic on the westbound lanes near the transmountain exit. you can see police investigating the scene of the crash as well. police were forcing traffic to exit at redd road which created backup on i-10 west for hours. drivers were allowed to re-enter the freeway at transmoutnain. the freeway was finally reopened around 8 o’clock last night. now to an abc-7 update– about the man hit by a truck in the segundo barrio monday night. he’s been identified as 85-year-old everardo gutierrez-romo and turns out he didn’t die. he was hit around 4 o’clock monday afternoon on the 500-block of kansas. police say he was also not in a crosswalk. gutierrez-romo was taken to the hospital. police initially said he had died – but changed that … instead saying he suffered life-threatening injuries. there are no charges pending against the driver. new this morning –from our new mexico mobile newsroom… new mexico state police say they’re investigating an officer-involved shooting in socorro. details weren’t immediately released tuesday. police say an officer discharged his firearm, but the agency couldn’t immediately confirm if a person was injured in the shooting. koat-tv reports that a member of the socorro county sheriff’s department fired the shots and one person was taken to a hospital for treatment. also from our new mexico mobile newsroom– rember that home invasion last year, when the homeowner fought off all four intruders… killing one of them? yesterday, there was a change of plea in a las cruces courtroom for one of the surving three: “in this matter will you confir to me that you understand the maximum sentence that the court can impose related to these five different charges avalos: yes your honor” nathan avalos pleaded guilty to multiple felony accounts – from aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and breaking and entering. part of his plea agreement meant the attempted first degree murder charge was dismissed. avalos now faces up to 7 years behind bars: joseph torrez, was at home with his family, when four men — including avalos — allegedly forced their way in. torrez, a mixed- martial artist, fought all four of them off…killing one of them — sal garces. two of the men have already been convicted in the case. el paso city council is looking to recover millions of dollars from the texas department of transportation– but it will be paying a company to help the city with those efforts. good morning el paso’s denise olivas is live with the story– new this morning…denise? there are a total of ten transportation projects in which the city found there were problems with the reimburement requests. three of those have already been resolved. the remaining seven projects equal to about to a little more than ten million dollars. all seven of those projects are completed– according to the city. now it’s a matter of going back and verifying the work done in those projects and verifying the paperwork to get reimbursements. but that’s where the issue lies. the capital improvement project department says the city doesn’t have a uniform process to collect the reimbursements. and some of the paperwork was denied by tex-dot because it didn’t meet guidlines. city rep lily limon had some concerns on having to hire a firm: now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… still much more to come here on good morning el paso — a water main break is going to cause headaches for morning commuters if you live in el paso’s west side—details coming up. / vo and later—chicago’s mayor is asking the city’s top cop to resign –we’ll explain. meteorologist krystal klei has your detailed forecast. krystal… and this is abc-7, where news comes first! now