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EL PASO, Texas — Security is being heightened along the southern U.S. border because of a threat that warring Mexican cartels may send hit men into the United States, authorities said Monday. Law enforcement officials would not discuss specific security measures being taken at the ports of entry, along the border or in the city of El Paso, Texas. "We received credible information that drug cartels in Mexico have given permission to hit targets on the U.S. side of the border," El Paso police spokesman Officer Chris Mears said.

EL PASO, Texas — Security is being heightened along the southern U.S. border because of a threat that warring Mexican cartels may send hit men into the United States, authorities said Monday. Law enforcement officials would not discuss specific security measures being taken at the ports of entry, along the border or in the city of El Paso, Texas. "We received credible information that drug cartels in Mexico have given permission to hit targets on the U.S. side of the border," El Paso police spokesman Officer Chris Mears said. Authorities learned of the threat last week. U.S. Customs and Border...

The El Paso sector Border Patrol chief, a UTEP professor and the special agent in charge of the El Paso FBI spoke about the cartel war in Juarez and Mexico. The deadly cartel war responsible for dozens of deaths a week in Juarez is liable to go on for another two years, the El Paso’s Border Patrol Chief Victor Manjarrez said at today’s El Paso Press Club Meet the Press forum. UTEP Professor Tony Payan blamed the former governor of the state of Chihuahua and mayor of Juarez for allowing the lawless atmosphere that led to the armed struggle between...

EL PASO, Texas — El Paso County officials want the federal government to take over transporting and caring for wounded Mexican police officers now being treated in a local hospital. The officers were wounded in an ongoing turf war among powerful and deadly Mexican drug cartels. They are being treated at El Paso County hospital, and local sheriff's deputies are providing tight security to prevent Mexico's violence from spilling into the United States. The officers were shot in Casas Grandes, Mexico, about 140 miles south of El Paso. Their transfer to El Paso prompted the second security lockdown at the...

Thomason Hospital was on lockdown Friday night after a patient arrived with ties to the violence in Mexico. Administrators said they were on heightened alert and have asked the El Paso County Sheriff's Office to assist in security. Outside the hospital, it's evident with sheriff's deputies on the campus, security is tighter. Inside we're told all visitors must pass though screening, including metal detectors. Hospital officials said the unidentified man was brought to Thomason with multiple gunshot wounds. "Apparently the patient had been flown to Juarez from another Mexican community and then was taken to the Bridge of the Americas,"...

AUSTIN — Deirdre Delisi once aspired to be a diplomat, and Gov. Rick Perry may have finally granted her wish. As head of the Texas Transportation Commission, Perry's former chief of staff will test her diplomatic skills in an emotion-filled arena in which a state senator has already called her a "political hack." In an early sign of her peacemaking potential, the 35-year-old Delisi scheduled one of her first meetings as chair with that senator, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas. "I was left with the impression that she genuinely wants a new and fresh start for...

EL PASO — County commissioners are opposing construction of a wall along the nation's southern border with a resolution. The El Paso County Commissioners Court voted 3-1 Monday in favor of a resolution that calls for stopping the building of the border wall and says local law enforcement officials should not enforce federal immigration laws. The resolution also emphasizes placing a moratorium on immigration raids, ensuring the enforcement of labor laws and civil protection regardless of a worker's immigration status and stopping programs that criminalize immigrants. Commissioner Veronica Escobar said the commissioners aren't advocating having open borders or not enforcing...

Detonating a nuclear weapon in or over Juarez, Mexico is the same thing as detonating one in El Paso, Texas: The difference is it may be a little easier to effect in Juarez. From the heart of downtown El Paso to downtown Juarez is just a very short distance. Or a bomb on the international bridge dividing the two countries empties into Avenida Juárez in downtown Juarez, on the south and El Paso downtown to the north could do the job and would be easy for any terrorist to pull off. Nowhere else on the planet are two major cities...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

EL PASO, Texas - Mexican Consulate officials in El Paso, Texas, said Mexican drug cartels have been posting help-wanted ads in Juarez, Mexico, newspapers. The officials said publications including P.M., El Diario de Juarez and El Norte have been printing vague help-wanted ads that are designed to trick young people into smuggling drugs over the border into the United States, the Las Cruces (N.M.) Sun-News reported Friday. Mexican Consulate spokeswoman Socorro Cordova said the issue came to the attention of officials nine months ago when the family of a driver stopped at the U.S. border showed the ad to Mexican...

The country's largest border city has decided to block efforts by federal authorities to use an access road that cuts across city property to work on existing border fencing.

Seems kind of strange that there's all this yelling and screaming, but if you look closely into the crowd, towards the middle-to-the-end of the video, mostly people are just taking photos, clapping, and holding up lighters, but I don't see any physical evidence which would normally be associated with the type of screaming and cheering you hear on this video. Did CBS dub in the crowd noise?VIDEO.Here's what I think CBS did: a live version of U2s Joshua Tree classic, "Where the Streets Have No Name" is playing and U2 concerts are always very, very loud. I must ask: is...

EL PASO — A woman accused of having ties to the violent Barrio Azteca gang worked for years in the Federal Public Defender's office, officials said. Sandy Valles New, 57, was arrested last week as part of a federal racketeering case targeting members and associates of the Barrio Azteca gang. FBI agents believe New has been an associate of the gang since 2000 and was known as "Guera" and "Cunada." From 1996 to 2002, New worked as a paralegal and in the investigations section at the El Paso office, Federal Public Defender Henry J. Bemporad said Monday. FBI spokeswoman Special...

An El Paso family mourns after they get word that their son is killed in the California desert.  According to Border Patrol, the uniform he wore may have made him a target.  "This could have been a civilian ran over...but in this case they actually aimed for our agent," said Eric Anderson, Yuma Border Patrol Agent. The agent killed was Luis Aguilar, 32, an El Paso High Graduate.Yuma Border Patrol officials said Aguilar and several other agents were trying to stop an alleged smuggler from heading back into Mexico.  Aguilar set out road spikes to slow the SUV down, that's...

EL PASO, Texas — Two more men were arrested Friday in a four-year investigation of a violent Texas gang, giving federal prosecutors now seven indicted suspects in their case that allegedly links the Barrio Azteca to a powerful Mexican drug cartel. Eric "Flaco" Saucedo, 28, and Arturo Enriquez, 30, face various racketeering charges in an 11-count indictment partially unsealed this week. Saucedo is also charged with one count of murder, and he gently wept as he was read the charges against him in court Friday. According to the heavily redacted, 63-page indictment, Saucedo worked with the Barrio Azteca gang since...

EL PASO, Texas -- El Paso’s first murder happened on the border. Police said a border security guard was killed at the Paso Del Norte bridge. It happened around 5:30 Tuesday night. Investigators said a man trying to cross the border into Mexico stabbed a security guard. After the stabbing the attacker took off running towards El Paso, but officers said he didn’t get far. "Fortunately, a border patrol agent in the area was able to find him and detain him for us. So we do have someone in custody ,"said El Paso police Officer Chris Mears. Police said the...

Highways The Texas Department of Transportation plans to let contracts for $4.1 billion in construction in 2008 are in jeopardy after having to return around $950 million to Washington over the past 18 months. The mood in Austin is uncertain, although voters approved Proposition 12 in November, authorizing the next Texas Legislature in 2009 to issue up to $5 billion in bonds (paid from general revenue) to build highway projects. A required independent audit of the Texas Department of Transportation during 2007 recommended that the department “should continue to pursue Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDA) and toll pricing at levels that...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas have been ordered to abbreviate national security checks at one of the nation"s busiest ports of entry to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico, according to official documents and multiple interviews with agents. An Aug. 16 memorandum from CBP El Paso field office Director Luis Garcia directs agents to limit inspections of vehicle and pedestrian border crossers as wait times escalate. The document, obtained by The Washington Times, sets new guidelines that border inspectors say undermine efforts to prevent terrorists and other criminals from entering the United States. The...

EL PASO, Texas - The mayors of the Texan city of El Paso and the Mexican city of Juarez led a protest by dozens of people on Saturday against a planned border wall to stem illegal immigration into America. The protesters held hands across the Paso del Norte Bridge, which spans the Rio Grande and connects the downtown cores of the two cities. Resentment against the wall runs deep in the border areas of Texas. Landowners are concerned it may cut across their property, conservationists see it destroying crucial riverside habitat, and some activists see it inflaming ethnic tensions. El...

The National "Fight for Victory Tour" West Texas Event El Paso, Texas - Sept. 6, 2007 - 6:15PM Join Move America Forward and a coalition of other pro-troop groups as we promote the national "Fight for Victory Tour" (a patriotic pro-troop caravan that crosses the nation) for our first Pro-Troop Rally. The "Fight for Victory Tour" continues on Thursday September 6th with this 6:15PM rally in El Paso then crosses the nation before concluding with "The Gathering of Eagles" and a giant pro-troop rally in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, September 15th. The rally takes place at Sue Young Park,...

EL PASO — A Border Patrol agent shot and killed a suspected smuggler at the fence that separates El Paso from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, authorities said today. Jose Alejandro Ortiz Castillo, a 23-year-old man who had been caught crossing the border 28 times since 1999, died in Mexico shortly after the Wednesday night shooting, Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier said.

Federal authorities arrested Margarita Crispin this morning at the Pas Del Norte Bridge and charged her with conspiracy to import a controlled substance. According to an indictment, from June 2003 until July 2007, Crispin conspired with others to import more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States. Federal authorities say Crispin knowingly allowed loads of marijuana to pass through her port of entry lanes unchecked. Crispin remains in federal custody. Her initial appearance is expected to occur Monday afternoon in U.S. Magistrate Court in El Paso. A news release by Attorney Johnny Sutton states the case is being...

EL PASO, Texas — A Border Patrol agent shot a migrant who was crossing illegally into the U.S. through a drainage tunnel early Tuesday, the U.S. Border Patrol said. The agent, who was not identified, encountered a group of people in the tunnel around 12:30 a.m. The actions of a migrant who approached him prompted the agent to draw his weapon and fire, the Border Patrol said in a news release. The single bullet fired stuck the migrant in the left arm. He was transported to the hospital with a non-life threatening injury, according to the Border Patrol statement. The...

EL PASO, Texas — An illegal immigrant drowned in a border canal Wednesday after a U.S. Border Patrol agent trying to rescue him was hit in the head with a rock thrown by a suspected human smuggler, Border Patrol officials said. The agent, who was not identified, fired at least one shot at the suspected smuggler and another would-be immigrant, who fled back into Mexico, Border Patrol spokesman Patrick Berry said. Berry said the incident started about 12:30 p.m. after agents watching video feed from a border camera saw a group of at least three men coming through a hole...

House, Senate passage seem likely The careening vehicle that has been this legislative session's toll road overhaul appeared to pull into the garage about 4:35 p.m. Thursday. At that moment, Republican state Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville, after spending several moments huddling on the floor with Sen. Tommy Williams, sponsor of Senate Bill 792, affixed his signature to a compromise version of the bill, and the two shook hands. "We've got a deal now," Williams, R-The Woodlands, said about an hour later. "This is really going to move transportation issues forward, particularly in large metropolitan areas." The deal was among...

The Texas House voted 139-1 Wednesday, May 2, to give final approval to a bill that is intended to buy the state more time to review the effects of handing over roadways to private groups. The vote cleared the way for the bill to move to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk. The bill – HB1892 – would place a two-year moratorium on toll road leases with private groups. It also would require a study of the long-term effects of public-private partnerships. Perry, who has touted the benefits of his proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project, had urged lawmakers to reject the freeze but...

HOUSTON -- A plot to steal dozens of votes with a non-existent address has been uncovered, officials told KPRC Local 2 Wednesday. Harris County Tax Assessor Paul Bettencourt said it was obvious to him that several voter registration applications were fraudulent. "We know because all the handwriting is the same," Bettencourt said. The applications all had the last names Williams or Johnson. They also had the address of 2519 Dashwood Drive, which does not exist. Bettencourt said the applications were mailed from El Paso. The tax assessor's office has received 51 applications so far and more keep coming in.

he Texas state auditor has concluded that transportation officials used inflated numbers when they reported an $86 billion funding gap for highways and transportation projects. The audit released April 30 has a familiar ring to it because it is the second scathing review of transportation funding estimates this year in the state. State Auditor John Keel said the $86 billion estimate by Texas Department of Transportation officials should be more like $77.4 billion, but that’s not all. Nearly $38 billion of that estimate took into account undocumented cost estimates from city officials competing for shared transportation dollars. Keel’s team of...

AUSTIN — The Texas Senate on Thursday approved a bill placing a two-year moratorium on private toll road contracts and creating a panel to review the terms of those agreements. Gov. Rick Perry had urged the Legislature to reject the freeze. He said the state's current transportation system, which involves public-private partnerships to build toll roads, needs to continue if Texas is to keep attracting big companies and jobs. But growing opposition to Perry's proposed Trans-Texas Corridor — a combined toll road and rail system that would whisk traffic from the Oklahoma line to Mexico — have made some lawmakers...

A two-year ban on long-term toll road leases with private companies, pockmarked with exceptions and thus largely symbolic, cleared a Texas Senate committee Wednesday on a unanimous vote. However, the more meaningful action on toll roads should begin in the next two weeks, when a large bill addressing a wide range of concerns over tollways will be introduced in the Senate. The much-publicized moratorium bill by Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, Senate Bill 1267, has an excellent chance of passing the Senate, given that 29 of 31 senators have either signed on as co-sponsors or voted for it in committee. But despite...

(CBS) HOLLYWOOD Two people were arrested during a clash at a march in Hollywood held in support of two U.S. Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an alleged drug smuggler near the Mexican border in Texas. Police separated about 200 demonstrators and counter-protesters, including members of the Minuteman Project, according to Los Angeles police Officer James Jensen. He did not know which side of the protest the arrested people came from.

Suspect in Mexican killings underscores revolving door at U.S.-Mexico borderCIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - For years young women have been raped, mutilated, killed and dumped into shallow graves in Ciudad Juarez, the gritty Mexican city across the border from El Paso, Texas. For just as long, the perpetrators have gone unpunished, sparking international outrage at an inept Mexican justice system.... Law enforcement records in Texas and New Mexico show that the suspect, Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz, was frequently in American jails and was sent back to Mexico repeatedly, only to return to the United States and commit more crimes....

Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have asked for congressional hearings and reviews by the White House and Justice Department into the conviction of two U.S. Border Patrol agents who shot and wounded a fleeing drug suspect. The agents, convicted by a federal jury in El Paso in March, face 20 years in prison at a sentencing hearing next month. "It appears the facts do not add up or justify the length of the sentences for these agents, let alone their conviction on multiple counts," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat. "Border Patrol agents have a difficult and often dangerous...

EL PASO (AP) - El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego on Friday temporarily suspended vehicle checkpoints that have come under fire amid accusations of racial profiling and civil rights violations. The sheriff, whose agency has recently fielded criticisms from citizens, lawmakers and civil rights groups, also said his deputies would no longer refer undocumented immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol based solely on immigration status. Illegal immigrants arrested on local or state charges are still referred to the Border Patrol, the federal agency responsible for policing the country's border and apprehending illegal immigrants, the sheriff said. That policy became effective...

More patrols planned for El Paso, Laredo El Paso Times Staff The Minutemen are planning another large operation in Texas in October, organizers said. The Dallas-based Texas Minutemen joined forces with Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project, to cover El Paso and Laredo in their volunteer patrols. The organizers expect 325 to come to El Paso and 800 to Laredo. They call their operation "Eyes on Texas." Louie Gilot

EL PASO — Worried about possible racial profiling in El Paso County, a South Texas lawmaker has asked Gov. Rick Perry to specify how the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition is permitted to spend nearly $10 million in border security grant money. Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, sent Perry a letter Friday expressing concern that El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego is using a $376,500 grant to run roadblocks and raids aimed at ferreting out illegal immigrants. Hinojosa asked the governor to detail rules for the “appropriate use of funds for Operation Linebacker.” Hinojosa expressed concern that people are being detained...

DALLAS — The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said Wednesday it has suspended a crackdown on public intoxication after a public outcry over the program that sends undercover officers into drinking establishments. The commission announced last week that it was conducting an internal investigation of the program. Beck said the commission opted to put the program on hold "just to give us time to sift through all the information we've received and pull together all the information and determine the best way to proceed." More than 2,200 bar patrons or workers have been arrested or issued citations since August. The purpose...

Today was the day of the big immigration reform protest here in Dallas. The official estimates are that the crowd numbered between 350,000 and 400,000. The protest was against proposed immigration restrictions being proposed in Washington and to support legalizing what the New York Times calls "undocumented workers." Anytime we read a story in any newspaper now, we have to wonder whether a reporter was paid to make the subject look good or bad.But I digress.I watched some of the protests on television at my parents' house, and then watched a bit more here at home on the internet. It was...

WESTWOOD ONE LAUNCHES THE MONICA CROWLEY SHOW --New Program to Air Saturdays, Noon - 3 p.m. ET-- Beginning Saturday, April 1, 2006 New York, NY Monday, Mar 20, 2006 - Westwood One (NYSE: WON) is proud to announce the national launch of The Monica Crowley Show, the three-hour talk program hosted by author and news personality Monica Crowley. The show begins Saturday, April 1, 2006, and will air from noon to 3 p.m. ET. The Monica Crowley Show will debut on major market stations across the country including: WABC-AM New York, WTKK-FM Boston and WTNT-AM Washington DC. The show will...

While bankruptcy is almost always the end of the line for common-equity shareholders, sometimes the companies themselves re-emerge with a new lease on life. Although airlines seem to habitually dip in and out of bankruptcy, other companies in fields such as telecommunications, retail, and power generation have made something of themselves on the other side of Chapter 11. On which side of the fence will independent power producer Mirant (NYSE: MIR - News) find itself? Having spent nearly three years in bankruptcy, the company emerged 70 days ago with a cleaner balance sheet and, hopefully, a better operating plan. Because...

EL PASO, Texas- El Paso County Sheriff's deputies and U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested more than 200 illegal immigrants in an afternoon roundup that began with a traffic stop. Sheriff's spokesman Rick Glancey said the roundup started when a deputy stopped a speeding sport utility vehicle about 12:30 p.m. Friday in east El Paso County. The deputy found 11 illegal immigrants inside the vehicle. Information from those people led authorities to several locations around El Paso. Glancey said a total of 229 illegal immigrants were arrested, including a 29-year-old El Salvador woman who told authorities she had lost her 7-year-old...

In the past few days, Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department deputies and their families have received threats to stay off the Rio Grande. Sheriff Arvin West told ABC-7 Thursday morning, before departing for Houston that the Mexican military is behind all of this. Sheriff West said, "There is no doubt in my mind -- from the first time going back to a couple of years ago and every time in between --- it's the Mexican military. In a nutshell, everybody's been trying to tell everybody that they were here...they've been here ...[and] they come here quite often, regularly."

Airplane Mechanic Sucked Into Jet Engine, Killed at El Paso Airport Monday, January 16, 2006 EL PASO, Texas — An airplane mechanic was killed Monday morning after he was sucked into a jet's engine while passengers were boarding from the tarmac, officials said. "A mechanic walked in front of the engine and was pulled into the engine," National Transportation Safety Board spokeswoman Lauren Peduzzi said. She said she didn't know if any passengers saw the accident as they boarded Continental Airlines flight 1515 to Houston. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said the worker was sucked into the right engine of...

Spanish-speaking manufacturing workers who lose their jobs because of trade agreements could soon benefit from improved job-retraining programs. That's the outcome of a settlement announced Wednesday by the Labor Department and the Association of Border Workers in El Paso. The Labor Department agreed to pay $6.5 million to retrain hundreds of workers in El Paso who didn't receive vocational training after losing their jobs because of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - America's corporate chieftains would prefer that Enron just go away. But four years after the company's ignominious collapse, Enron's former top executives are about to head to a climactic criminal trial later this month, serving as a reminder that changes in the behavior of many American companies have been more muted than many once expected. Despite an array of new and expensive laws and regulations that were adopted to tighten corporate oversight after the wave of scandals earlier in the decade, serious accounting problems continue to trouble publicly owned companies. In the last year, a record...

Cities over 500,000: Safest 10 San Jose, CA El Paso, TX Honolulu, HI New York, NY Austin, TX San Diego, CA Louisville, KY San Antonio, TX Fort Worth, TX Jacksonville, FL Most Dangerous 10: Detroit, MI Baltimore, MD Washington, DC Memphis, TN Dallas, TX Philadelphia, PA Columbus, OH Nashville, TN Houston, TX Charlotte, NC

AUSTIN -- For years, El Paso officials have studied the multimillion-dollar plan to move hundreds of acres of rail yards out of Downtown to make way for more-attractive development. Texas voters might give the officials help with their plan next month. Proposition 1 on the Nov. 8 constitutional amendment ballot would create a state fund of up to $2 billion to help move and improve rail lines statewide. Proponents of the measure say the fund would be the only way to generate billions of dollars needed to move rail yards out of urban areas. Critics contend that the fund would...

The plan to have sheriff's deputies help Border Patrol agents tighten border security has already been tested in El Paso County and it worked, El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said Thursday. Samaniego said his department conducted an eight-week operation around Fabens and Tornillo about a year ago, paying sheriff's deputies overtime to flood the area. The result: a 40 percent drop in crime compared with the same period the year before. "The word gets back across to Mexico that there are a lot more officers on patrol, and they cease to cross," Chief Deputy Jimmy Apodaca said.

EL PASO — Two U.S. Army soldiers suspected of smuggling five undocumented immigrants have been arrested and turned over to military authorities, police and U.S. Border Patrol officials said Wednesday. The soldiers, identified by authorities as Kenneth E. David III and Miguel A. Diaz, were arrested Saturday just north of Columbus, N.M., after a traffic stop when investigators found five undocumented immigrants from Mexico in two vehicles driven by the soldiers. Investigators seized the cars, a Mitsubishi sedan and a Toyota Camry, and turned the soldiers over to their command at Fort Bliss, a Border Patrol spokesman said. The case...

Activists say Minutemen causing fear; ACLU offers training in El Paso 08/28/2005 Associated Press Fear of a civilian patrol group is prompting fewer contractors to pick up workers from Houston corners where day laborers congregate, some activists said. Workers' fear over the Minuteman volunteers probably led to some day laborers also abandoning their usual corners. And the same concerns caused a day labor organizational meeting Saturday to be closed to the media, according to organizers. Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union on Saturday began training volunteers in El Paso who plan to monitor the Minuteman volunteers during their planned...