This is the important news and information for 2022. Before we get to the 2022 headlines, we want to update you on our new features. Today we incorporate what we believe is the future of news delivery. As part of our efforts to keep you informed, we are now delivering our articles to you on our website and via our podcast channel. Starting next week, our reports will be available to you in print, here and in a podcast for those of you who wish to listen to our reports.
El Paso News Week In Review Season 1 Episode 14 – El Paso News Podcast
We are also introducing a new feature starting next Friday.
It is a weekly recap of the week’s news. Our new El Paso News Week In Review brings you all of the week’s news in an easy to digest format. Catch up to the week’s news each Friday.
Our new format combines print, television and radio in a digital format. Each Friday we will publish a recap of all the week’s news in print on our online edition, in a podcast on our podcast channel and in video to get you up to speed with the important news and information that matters to you.
We believe this is the future of the news.
Today’s article is the new format we will be using. As you can see, you can read, listen to, or watch our report. Our upcoming El Paso News Week In Review will use this format.
We are also planning on bringing more special reports in video, print and on our podcast channel. We are also in discussions with other content creators to bring their unique content to El Paso News. We are hoping to make an announcement soon about new features like a sports section and podcasts covering El Paso. We are also working on bringing back political talk radio to El Paso in a podcast format. Our planned Mano a Mano podcast will bring different speakers together to discuss and debate the issues and the politics of El Paso.
Now on to the news.
2022 was about elections and politics for the El Paso region. These are the top news items for 2022.
The El Paso Children’s Hospital started the year and remained in the news throughout most of the year. On August 10, 2020, the Saucedo family filed a malpractice lawsuit against the El Paso Children’s Hospital alleging the hospital failed to provide proper care in the death of their daughter.
Among the evidence filed by the family included an affidavit by an El Paso Children’s Hospital doctor alleging that the doctor who cared for the little girl was a “real danger to his patients.” The doctor remains at the children’s hospital today.
Lawsuit affidavit
In January, lawyers for El Paso Children’s Hospital successfully argued for the removal of the affidavit, in effect hiding it from public view. The hospital’s lawyers argued that the document should not be seen because it contains “peer review committee” information. According to the children’s hospital, peer review committee details should not be released to the public. The judge agreed in an order on January 19. Because El Paso News published the affidavit before it was taken off the public record, it is still available to read in our publication. View the affidavit here.
In March we had the first of two elections.
By late February, the first of the two contentious political races for 2022 was held. Both contentious races involved Art Fierro and two Claudia’s. The first was Claudia Ordaz Perez and the second was Claudia Rodriguez.
In the March primary, the Fierro-Ordaz Perez race for the Texas House 79 seat became controversial when Ordaz-Perez changed her address to run against Fierro. In response, Fierro filed a lawsuit against Claudia Ordaz Perez to have her removed from the ballot. Fierro lost the lawsuit and Ordaz Perez went on to win the House seat in March with 65% of the vote.
In May, the city manager’s pay became controversial at city council. The mayor, Oscar Leeser vetoed a contract extension and pay raise for the city manager, Tommy Gonzalez. City council failed to override the mayor’s veto but agreed to extend the city manager’s contract by five years and allow for pay increases.
In June, El Paso News broke the news that the University Medical Center of El Paso (UMC) planned to issue $400 million on non-voter approved debt known as certificates of obligations.
By July, Art Fierro was in the news again, this time running against Claudia Rodriguez for Rodriguez’ El Paso city council district 6 seat. However, the county hospital’s request for $400 million in non-voter approved debt dominated the news cycle for July with two civic groups organizing to oppose the proposed debt.
On September 9, El Paso News again broke news by reporting that the Libre Initiative, led locally by Karla Sierra, successfully stopped the county hospital from issuing $345 million in certificates of obligation by submitting 35,000 signatures to the county commissioners.
But the biggest news event of 2022 was the abrupt resignation of Yvonne Rosales as El Paso’s first woman district attorney.
In yet another breaking news item, we reported that a complaint was filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in September alleging that the non-profit El Paso Matters had improperly engaged in political activity that nonprofits are prohibited from engaging in. The complaint was filed as part of an ongoing controversy involving allegations of misconduct by district attorney Yvonne Rosales. A petition to remove Rosales from office for incompetency was filed by Omar Carmona on August 24.
While the Rosales controversy continued to erupt on the news, another election was held to fill four city council seats. By the time the election ended in December, Brian Kennedy had been elected for the district 1 seat, Art Fierro for the district 6 seat and Chris Canales for the district 8 seat. Isabel Salcido kept her seat.
However, the year ended with the biggest story of the year, the resignation of Yvonne Rosales on December 15.
And that is our news headlines for 2022.
We hope you enjoy our new format. Please let us know how we can improve our news delivery for you.
El Paso News wishes you a Happy New Year!
Stay tuned for our El Paso News week in review launching next Friday, January 6, 2023. See you next Friday.
Regarding the decision to remove Dr. Mayes’ affidavit from the public record, I can only conclude that the judge involved was a chump who didn’t understand either the peer review process or what is or isn’t privileged. Much of what was in Dr. Mayes affidavit described hallway conversations, not what was discussed in committee. Those discussions are not protected and should not have been removed. It is actually pretty surprising that 1. the hospital hasn’t settled what appears to be a pretty open and shut case, 2. Cindy Stout remains CEO after making a foolish decision to let Dr. Canales practice critical care at EPCH, and 3. the Board of Directors has escaped any kind of accountability for this stupid decision that they were no doubt aware of.