Good Morning El Paso 12.16.15

sparring matches “donald, you’re not going to be able to insult your way to the presidency. that’s not going to happen. and i do have the strength.” the gop presidential candidates clash last night during the final debate of the year.. and one of last night’s contenders will be in el paso this friday–we’ll tell you which one plus— big news out of city hall where council told the city manager to find a replacement… and asked a city rep. to resign from important positions. / and the central bank is set to announce the new interest rate policy as they wrap up their december meeting later today—. / new this morning— our newsroom has confirmed that republican presidential hopeful jeb bush will be in el paso this friday. the former florida governor will be attending a breakfast fundraiser at the el paso club. the price of admission ranges from 2-hundred and 50-dollars to upwards of 2- thousand 7-hundred dollars. abc-7 will be there to bring you complete coverage throughout our newscasts on friday. if you’d like more information we will have the details on our website kvia.com a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m stephanie valle we are still under a first alert this morning because of the cooler temperatures we are seeing across the borderland. let’s get the details with meteorologist krystal klei— . 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. the leading republican presidential candidates took to the debate stage for the last time this year ….and the attacks kicking off from the start. abc’s stephanie ramos reports from washington. it’s your voice your vote. post gop presidential debate..donald trump sympathizing with his competion.. sot trump: “i think jeb is a nice man i really do but you know i think i’d do the same thing if i were him i’d be attacking me.” on stage? th gloves coming off .. jeb bush and donald trump wasting no time …sparring over foreign policy. sot bush: “he gets his foreign policy experience from the shows. that is not a serious kind of candidate…” sot trump “i know you’r trying to build up your energy, jeb, but it’s not working. ” in their fifth debat face- off…almost every question focusing on national security for the 9 leading candidates … with trump’s proposal to ban muslims from entering the u-s –at the forefront. sot trump: “we’r not talking about religion … we’re talking about security. our country is out of control.” marco rubio and ted cruz also clashing. first .. over the nsa’s bulk surveillance program .. then immigration. rubio suggesting the two of them have similar positions on the issue. sot cruz: “fo marco to suggest our record is the same is like suggesting that the fireman and the arsonist have the same plan because they were at the same fire,” sot rubio: ” i am open to a green card.” sot cruz “we will build a wall that work and i’ll get donald trump to pay for it,” sot trump : “i’ll bui it.” trump and cruz neck in neck in the polls but staying friendly throughout the debate. and governor chris christie boasting about his executive experience while jabbing at the senators. sot christie if your eyes are glazing over like mine this is what it is like to be on the floor of the united states senate. tag: some other exchanges? happening between cnn moderator wolf blitzer and ted cruz?. cruz trying to get in on a question?with blitzer telling him to hold on multiple times. next up – the democrats face off in new hampshire this saturday – a debate hosted by abc news. city rep larry romero is being asked to give up some of his positions. council wants romero to resign as chairman of the city’s financial oversight and audit committee. he’s also being asked to step down as alternate mayor pro tem and from the rio grande council of governments. romero was not there for the discussion. as for city manager tommy gonzalez … he has to find an acting city manager to take his place next week while he is on scheduled holiday vacation. that person has to be someone not associated with the current investigation against him. this after he authorized the search for a new financial advisor without the approval of council. council will also ask the ethics commission to review if it was appropriate for larry romero’s private business to prepare gonzalez’s taxes. the city of el paso is considering increasing its debt cap. this is in order to execute $357 million dollars worth of quality of life projects in the next three years. those in favor say it’s the only way to finish the projects in 10 years instead of 15 years. no final action was taken at yesterday’s council meeting. new this morning– the government was set to run out of money tonight—but house speaker paul ryan said congressional leaders reached an agreement on a bill to prevent that. ryan told republican members that they reached an agreement on a massive 1-point-1 trillion dollar bill to fund the government through september. the apparent agreement was reached after weeks of negotiations. the breakthrough came days before lawmakers leave washington for the holidays. the leaders were prepared to pass this short-term funding measure as they move to approve a much broader bill. / happening today—- the federal reserve wraps up its december meeting today and is expected to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. a rate hike would be a sign that top fed officials think the u.s. economy is now strong enough to be weaned from the extraordinary level of support provided by the central bank. it would be the first rate hike in nine years. and it would raise the fed’s key rate from a record low near zero, where it’s been for seven years. / defense secretary ash carter is in iraq today. carter is on an unannounced visit with directions from president obama to find new ways to hasten the destruction of the islamic state group. carter is planning to meet with his commanders and with iraqi leaders, and will likely discuss america’s willingness to send attack helicopters and more troops to the fight. schools in the los angeles area will reopen today.. following threats of a large-scale jihadi attack that shut down the entire school district on tuesday. new york city schools received the same threat, but dismissed it as a hoax and continued with classes.threats of terror attacks in la, the threat came in the form of an email to a school board member. / now to an abc-7 traffic alert to tell you about– happening tonight … i-10 east will be completely closed between lee trevino and zaragoza. this will last from 9 at night till 5 a-m tomorrow. and new this morning… we’ve learned when a few tex-dot projects are set to be finished. the announcements were made at yesterday’s council meeting. the i-10 expansion in west el paso won’t be done till august of 2019. the i-10 expansion on the eastside will be open much earlier… this coming spring. a new underpass entrance to the franklin mountains state park won’t be done till march of 2017. and finally… the spaghetti bowl project will be done in may of next year. now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… abc-7’s 12 days of christmas is underway. we need your help to give back to our community. we are collecting food to make sure everyone has a hot meal this time of year. good morning el paso’s denise olivas is live at one of our drop-off sites… denise? we are here at crawford buick gmc– locate at 68- hundred montana. this is where you can drop off any canned food items before you make your way to work. that’s not the only location– you can also drop off your donations at the abc-7 studio. it is located at 4140 rio bravo in west el paso. this generous man dropped bag loads of food earlier this week. all the food collected will go to el pasoans fighting hunger food bank– which helps dozens of organizations around town. still much more to come here on good morning el paso — including a welfare check on several children that turns into a murder investigation after bodies were found in a storage unit. we’ll have the latest. / plus—heavy snowfall is making extremely dangerous road conditions for drivers just to our north—we’ll take a look. / meteorologist krystal klei has your detailed forecast. krystal… and this is abc-7, where news comes first!