El Paso will continue to suffer an inaccurate image as a violent city because of its proximity to Juarez until the federal government secures the border, Gov. Rick Perry said while campaigning Friday. Perry, in El Paso on the last day of early voting, said misconceptions about El Paso could be eliminated if the federal government helped Mexico in its war against drug cartels and increased law enforcement along the border. Local leaders have said that while El Paso is the second-safest large city in the nation, the cartel violence in Juarez has created a false impression about the city that could make it difficult to recruit business and tourism dollars. They said they need help from state officials to spread the word that El Paso is safe despite the chaos in its sister city. [continues 715 words]
AUSTIN -- Former first lady Laura Bush recalls the vibrant, safer Juarez that many newcomers to the border don't know. She often thinks about the "glamorous" city across the Rio Grande from El Paso that played host to her parents' first date. And, she remembers the childhood trips she took with her grandparents to the open-air markets. Now, she hopes for an end to the drug-cartel violence that has brought the city infamy for its carnage. "I am sorry that this sort of culture of violence has shown up in Mexico because that's really not the culture of the Mexican people," Bush said during an interview with the El Paso Times while in Austin last week. She was attending the Texas Book Festival, an event that she started 15 years ago when her husband, former President George W. Bush, was governor. [continues 548 words]
AUSTIN -- House Speaker Joe Straus said Tuesday that the Texas Legislature should consider implementing four-day workweeks and furloughs for state employees when it meets next session. Straus, R-San Antonio, told lawmakers that the state's looming budget deficit may also require them to consider a blanket moratorium on new state-funded programs or services, ways to improve the collections of fines and fees, and stopping the issuance of state bonds. The assessment came at a time when Republican Rep. Jim Pitts, House appropriations chairman from Waxahachie, said Texas could consider expanding gambling and increasing fees as it looks to a possible $18 billion deficit. [continues 714 words]
AUSTIN -- The University of Texas System said on Friday that all students, faculty and staff in seven northern Mexico states should immediately return home. UT System officials cited escalating violence in the Mexican states as the reason for recalling students attending university-sponsored programs in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Baja California and Durango. Officials said the system's nine universities and six health institutions are already planning the return of about 40 people. A shootout in Juarez, which is in Chihuahua, killed at least five federal police officers and one city police officer on the day the recall was announced. [continues 396 words]
Street Gangs Responsible for Killings, Mayor Says AUSTIN -- Street gangs, not drug cartels, are behind most murders in Juarez these days, the city's mayor said Monday. Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz told a crowd of more than 100 people at the University of Texas at Austin that law enforcement efforts have made it more difficult for drug cartels to transport cocaine into the United States. He said the increased patrols forced the cartels to find alternate routes. That, he said, created a separate battle between Juarez gangs that are now hunting for additional income. [continues 635 words]
AUSTIN -- A $1.7 million grant from the state will pay for more prosecutors or investigators to take on gangs, drugs and human trafficking along the border, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. Perry announced funding for the creation of the Border Prosecution Unit, which came from the $110 million allocated by the lawmakers for border security during the last legislative session. The 16 district attorneys along the border will receive funding to hire an additional prosecutor or an investigator who would work exclusively with the Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement agencies on border crime cases. [continues 174 words]
AUSTIN -- El Paso's clout as a Democratic stronghold drew two major gubernatorial candidates to the city Sunday, each promising that they could tackle border issues. Hair care mogul Farouk Shami, 66, and Houston Mayor Bill White, 55, are both hoping to earn the Democratic Party's nomination in the March 2 primary. Shami, a political newcomer, did not stray from the platform he has pushed during most of his campaign stops. The Palestinian-American said Texas needs to create more jobs and should look to a businessman, not a politician, to accomplish that task. [continues 798 words]
EL PASO - Ysleta Independent School District trustees on Wednesday approved the use of drug-sniffing dogs at middle school and high school campuses as a way to deal with the escalating drug war in Juarez. Officials said the drug war has forced drug cartels to recruit students from El Paso schools to get drugs moved in the U.S. "They used to do it a lot at the Juarez nightclubs but because a lot of people are not going to Juarez anymore, they have focused a lot of attention in our schools," County Attorney Jose Rodriguez said. [continues 272 words]
Area educators, health-care professionals and lawyers gathered Saturday to discuss a decision by the county attorney's office to seek a tougher punishment for a 16-year-old El Paso girl accused of trying to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. "Our correctional system is so imperfect," said Cristina Cruz-Grost, a child psychiatrist and forensic expert. "We need to come together to educate and rehabilitate people who go through the system. E To place a 16-year-old in the correctional department of Texas with up to a 40-year sentence erases the potential for rehabilitation and destroys her life." [continues 450 words]
