Good Morning El Paso

“in the last week we have won 3 caucuses. 2 of them with record breaking turnouts” a split vote for the democrats in last night’s primary while the g-o-p front runner maintains his lead–we have the latest from the campaign trail../ vo it’s official–a special election will take place for representative larry romero’s seat on city council—we’ll tell you who’s competing for his seat. plus—city council has approved spending for playgrounds across the city after report card shows many didn’t make a passing grade. did you miss the solar eclipse?–well don’t worry it wasn’t visible from the borderland -but skygazers in alaska did you miss the solar eclipse?–well don’t worry it wasn’t visible from the borderland -but skygazers in alaska and hawaii were in prime viewing overnight for the rare sight. this is a time-lapse video from nasa tv. other parts of the world that got to witness it were places like indonesia and other places around the indian ocean. the rare event come when the moon is close enough to earth to block out the sun. a very good morning el paso, las cruces, and juarez. i’m hillary floren. on your wednesday we will see just a slight chance for rain east of the rio grande today with temperatures just a few degrees below normal. for the end of the week we will see warmer temperatures under mostly sunny skies. the weekend will be warm but windy. for the first part of next week we will see slightly above normal temperatures with continued breezy to windy conditions. now to the latest on the 2016 presidential race. a split vote for democrats in the two primaries – while the gop frontrunner maintains his lead. abc’s stephanie ramos has the latest details from washington. it’s your voice, your vote… / the hunt is on for delegates. sanders sot: “in the last week we hav won 3 caucuses. 2 of them with record breaking turnouts” berni sanders with the stunner – now adding a major victory in michigan ?a state both democrats and republicans courted. sanders sot: “this has been a fantastic night in michigan.” sanders already looking ahead to super tuesday part 3, with contests in fl, il, oh and mo hillary clinton just as excited — easily winning the contest mississippi by a wide margin, making it a clean sweep across the deep south. clinton sot: “i want to be the president for the struggling and the striving..” clinton still walked away a winner last night, earning more delegates than sanders on the gop side – donald trump defeating his rivals … in michigan and mississippi. trump nats: “thank you very much amazing evening.” celebrating his big wins at one of his properties in florida flanked by trump water …trump wine…and trump steaks. pointing to attempts by his opponents to stop his momentum. trump sot: “$38 million worth of horrible lies, but that’s okay. it shows you how brilliant the public is because they knew they were lies and just really amazing to watch,” trump’s main rival…. senator ted cruz battling it out for 2nd place in michigan ..with john kasich. while marco rubio…. falling short in the biggest prizes of the night. tag: on the democratic side .. both hillary clinton and bernie sanders will take to the stage tonight in forida for their 8th debate. sr abc news washington the mayor of el paso has a new backup if he’s ever absent from official city business. city rep. carl robinson, who began serving northeast el paso back in 2009, was appointed mayor pro tem during tuesday’s city council meeting. robinson is replacing former city rep. larry romero as mayor pro tem. romero resigned in december citing health reasons. however he’s still tangled in an ethics investigation and still refuses to answer questions from investigators. also at tuesday’s meeting, city reps. approved when voters in district two will choose romero’s replacement on council. the special election is now set for may 7th. abc- seven confirmed jim tolbert – the man who filed the ethics complaint against larry romero is running for the council seat. he’s facing david nevarez who is an advocate for veterans affairs. district two covers parts of central, northeast and east el paso. new this morning– local parks will soon be getting upgrades. city council was presented a report card on the condition of playgrounds across el paso. a look at how much the city is shelling out to make the improvements. good morning el paso’s denise olivas is live with the details … denise? city council will be spending two-million dollars to fix up the parks that need it the most. abc-7 first told you about the issues here at mundy park back in january. as you can see orange netting still surrounds out while it is renovated. that led up to a city council discussion about the state of all parks across the city. the city of el paso evaluated all parks including mundy. 15 parks didn’t make the grade– they were given a c-minus or below. that included carolina, yucca, mission hills, hawkins and franklins parks– just to name a few. city rep lily limon wanted to know how vandalism will be avoided– parks and rec director tracy novak gave an example of one park that is currently under an arson investigation: “we’re gonna go back in with metal structure…we evaluate past use” improvements at more than a dozen parks include complete replacements and ada compliant resurfacing. abc-7 is still waiting to learn more details about a deadly crash in northwest el paso. it happened around 9-30 tuesday morning on the 500 block of east redd road. according to police one person was killed after crashing the motorcycle they were riding. police have not released the victim’s name and they are not saying whether it was a man or woman. we’ll update you as soon as we get any new information. meanwhile… one child is dead and several others were injured after a rollover near sierra blanca. according to officials it happened around 1-30 yesterday afternoon near mile marker 96. investigators tell abc-7 a 23-year-old woman from anthony lost control of her s-u-v after a tire blew out. 4 children — all of them boys — were riding in the vehicle. a 13 year old — and a 4 year old were taken to hospitals in el paso. a one year old was not hurt but a 5-year old boy died at the scene after being ejected from the vehicle. authorities say he was not wearing a seat belt. the driver and a 43-year-old passenger were also treated for injuries. a man was killed after the car he was riding in slammed into the back of a tractor-trailer. it happened monday night on i-10 in hudspeth county. state police say the driver 45-year-old ermalinda corrales was distracted and hit the back of the semi a passenger — 41-year-old david bajer died at the scene. investigators say bajer was from el paso and he was not wearing a seat belt. corrales and the driver of the semi-truck were not hurt. it’s not the sort of thing you’d expect to find during home renovations… the bomb squad had to be called out after a grenade was found outside a home in the lower valley. it happened at la paloma and yarbrough. a neighbor told us the home where the grenade was found is currently being renovated. the area was closed off for a couple of hours while the bomb squad disposed of the grenade. happening today—the capital murder trial continues this morning for antonio lopez. he is accused of killing 11 month old jayla beckley, a foster child in his care. lopez allegedly took jayla out of her crib and stomped her to death. during testimony on tuesday, a jury watched a 30 minute interrogation from 2012 between lopez and detectives after the incident. a frightened and crying lopez denied any wrongdoing detectives described the injuries jayla suffered they include a fractured skull–torn intestines and a ruptured liver. in that video detectives say the medical examiner stated that jayla died a very painful death. the trial continues tomorrow at 8. a.m. a 75-year-old lower valley man is sentenced to 12 years in prison. this after admitting to killing his 66-year- old wife in 2014. issac duarte will be 81-years-old before he’s eligible for parole. his attorney says that’s practically a life sentence. the daughter of his victim though says — that’s not long enough for what he did to her mother. / ” he did express to me the fact that he was very sorry. he was very sorry for what he did to his kids. in my opinion durate will probably pass away in jail. it wasn’t enough. i was hoping 20 or 30. duarte was sentenced to 12 years, eligible for parole after six. the court took his illness into account, which includes diabetes and cardiovascual disease — and his age. now it’s time to take a look at the tx-dot traffic cams… and some abc-7 traffic alerts to pass along. san antonio at kansas street will be closed for two weeks. crews are working on underground utilities for the street car project. there’s also a lane closure for country club road. westbound traffic will be blocked for the remainder of the week, but the intersection of country club and love will remain open. this is for pavement maintnence. still much more to come here on good morning el paso — a driver is caught on camera hitting a little boy with their car and doesn’t even stop to help–. plus— strong storms hit parts of the south –we’ll take a look at the damage left behind coming up. meteorologist krystal klei has your detailed forecast. krystal… and this is abc-7, where news comes first!