The problem with the politics of the border is the disconnect between what Americans believe and what the reality is. Although social media and the news media feeds the disconnect, it is American’s lack of historical lessons that allows disinformation to dominate the narratives. Ironic in that today many Americans are decrying the plight of […]
Posted incorruption
Book Alleges Byrd-Shapleigh Conspiracy To Make Way For Downtown Arena With Cheating Scandal
The book, Bombshell in the Barrio, published via Amazon narrates an alleged conspiracy led by Eliot Shapleigh and Susie Byrd to destroy Bowie High School to make way for the downtown redevelopment that has targeted Duranguito and Segundo Barrio. Central to the book’s thesis is that El Paso’s “oligarchy” was behind the El Paso Independent […]
Posted inEl Paso
The Politics of Water And Woody Hunt
Author’s note: This article is necessarily long because breaking it up into smaller components loses the context that is important to it. We are providing a brief summary below for those who are not interested in the details of how and why decisions were made. We are also including a downloadable PDF version for offline […]
Posted inNews
The Story Behind The Certificates Of Obligation Veto
Yesterday, we broke the news on our Facebook page (@elpwatch) that city representative for District 3, Cassandra Hernandez had posted two agenda items (18 & 19) for Tuesday’s city council meeting to deliberate overriding the mayor’s veto of the 2021-2022 budget and the issuance of the certificates of obligation. When Hernandez posted the two items […]
Posted inImmigration
Ft. Bliss ‘Horrible” Conditions Lead To Migrant Children Trying To Escape
According to a Newsweek article today, [1] the conditions are so “horrible” at Fort Bliss in El Paso that migrant children are trying to escape. The Newsweek article quoted court document declarations reported by the Associated Press. A 16-year-old migrant child from Honduras, quoted by Newsweek, reported being served “raw chicken” at Fort Bliss. The […]
Posted inNews
Former El Paso Non-Profit Leader Involved In Portland Police Oversight Controversy
After a contentious city council meeting, the city’s auditor warned that neither she nor her staff will appear before city council again. The auditor decried “personal attacks” from a council member during the recent budget work session where policy oversight was discussed. In January 2015, Mary Hull Caballero was sworn in as Portland’s city auditor. […]
Posted inEl Paso
Philanthropy: The Case of The Community Scholars
Editor’s note: as a reminder, phrases in blue are links to supporting articles. Click on them for more detail. In a previous article we laid out how philanthropy is used by the wealthy to manage public policy for their pet projects. In the article we demonstrated how studies have shown that philanthropy is not about […]
Posted inImmigration
Juan: The Epilogue Of A Mexican Immigrant
His name was Juan. Born in a small town outside of Durango, he left his village with great hope. His cousin Pancho told him that there was work, plenty of hard work and that he would be earning “dólares”. He worked in a canning factory. Juan scraped some money together from all his relatives, got […]
Posted inEl Paso
Project Arriba – How Tax Dollars Are Used For The Wealthy’s Public Policy
During the October 7, 2002, El Paso Commissioners Court meeting, a group, generally known by many in El Paso as EPISO, was present asking commissioners for $350,000 in tax dollars. Its representatives before county commissioners were several priests and nuns of the Catholic Church. The El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO) was asking for the […]
Posted inCity
It Will Cost El Paso Taxpayers Almost One Million Dollars To Get Rid Of Tommy Gonzalez
It will cost El Paso taxpayers almost one million dollars to rid themselves of Tommy Gonzalez according to Gonzalez’ recent contract with the City. It is hard to estimate the exact amount because of the opaqueness of Gonzalez’ contract. However, an El Paso Politics analysis of the contract suggests that the city’s taxpayers are on […]