"The Fish and Wildlife Service is looking into possible federal criminal violations, including whether the importer and exporter had the proper permits to transport wildlife and whether neglect was involved. 'We're trying to figure out why this happened and who is responsible,' Special Agent Glen Pye said. The reptiles, none of which appeared to be members of an endangered species, arrived at the airport Jan. 31 on an international flight. The crate was marked for pickup by a pet store in El Paso."
As keepers nurse 38 sickly snakes and lizards back to health, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has launched an investigation into why dozens of the African reptiles were left at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport unclaimed for a week.
By Chris Vaughn, Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Agency investigating reptile abandonment," February 12, 2004.
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"'For 17 years I've wanted to be able to walk on the streets without fear,' said Dolores, a mother of three, originally from Mexico, who lives in El Paso. She asked that her last name not be used."
Dolores, a child care worker in Texas, is an illegal immigrant who has long feared being deported and having to leave her children behind. President Bush's immigration proposal is aimed at helping people like her, but it hasn't allayed Dolores' concerns. Under the Bush plan, Dolores and millions of others like her could temporarily work legally in this country. But once that time is up, she'd have to leave. And that, Dolores says, would break up her family.
By Suzanne Gamboa (AP), The Jersey Journal (NJ): "Bush immigration plan gets senators' scrutiny," February 12, 2004.
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"Federal authorities say 34-year-old Cesar Raul Jara, of El Paso, was arrested Tuesday night on Interstate 44 in Webster County during a commercial motor vehicle check. Authorities brought in a drug-detection dog, and the dog sniffed out the nearly 400 wrapped bundles of pot in a hidden compartment."
By Associated Press staff, KPOM-TV (Arkansas): "A Texas man is charged with transporting 3,000 pounds of marijuana in southwest Missouri," February 13, 2004.
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"Juan Carlos Torres, the driver of the tractor-trailer rig that smashed into a Socorro residence, killing a 21-year-old mother to two, has been bound over to District Court for trial. Torres, 33, the driver of the rig for Southwest Industrial Contractors and Riggers Inc., of El Paso, was also denied a lesser bond."
By Jennifer Emmons, El Defensor Chieftain (NM): "Driver in crane fatality bound over for trial," February 13, 2004.
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"A man gunned down this week in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez was carrying two pieces of identification saying he was from the Dallas area, a Juárez police official said Friday."
At least 15 slaying victims have been found this year in Juárez, most of them casualties of a bloody drug war, the official said. They include 12 bodies unearthed in the yard of a home used by a suspected drug trafficker now in custody in El Paso.
By DMN staff, Dallas Morning News: "Evidence links man fatally shot in Juárez to Dallas area," February 13, 2004.
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"An Indian software engineer in the US who went to prison for no fault of his was released after a harrowing 21 days when American immigration authorities realised they had goofed up. Hyderabad man Rayan Babu Yellina was detained for 21 days in El Paso, Texas. His passport was valid till April 27, 2018, but officers of the Department of Homeland Security at El Paso reportedly said no country issues passports that have a 20-year validity and charged him with unauthorisedly altering the date."
On Jan 26, El Paso lawyer Marlene Gonzales filed a motion before the department to terminate all charges against her client along with documents from the consulate general in Houston saying his passport was valid and genuine.
By IANS staff, New Kerala News (India): "India News : US immigration officials' goof-up lands Indian in jail (update)," February 13, 2004.
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"He got his wings in February 2003, then took classes at Air Force Defense Artillery School at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, which he completed in July 2003."
Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, was killed Feb. 3 by a bomb set off as his unit was carrying out a roadside sweep for mines and bombs about 50 miles south of Baghdad.
By Ronald Leir, The Jersey Journal (NJ): "Posthumous honors for soldier with Bayonne ties," February 14, 2004.
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"'I mostly use the United States as a shipping point for exporting to Europe and the Orient,' he said. Holguin said it's much cheaper to pay export fees to send his goods across the border to El Paso, Texas, and on to their final destinations, than to have them shipped south to Mexico City."
This year's Gem, Mineral & Fossil Showcase in Tucson was attended by Alfonso Holguin, a vendor who makes the annual trek to Tucson from Juárez to sell his Aztec artwork fashioned from obsidian.
By Romano Cedillos, Tucson Citizen: "Mexicans avoid gem show fuss," February 14, 2004.
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"In 1995, he founded the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a group that has grown from a dozen execution opponents meeting occasionally in members' homes to roughly 350 dues-paying members statewide. The organization now has chapters in Houston, Austin, Dallas, El Paso, San Antonio and several smaller cities."
At 63, the soft-spoken, silver-haired David Atwood, a retired Houston chemical engineer, is the patriarch of Texas' anti-death penalty movement.
By Allan Turner, Houston Chronicle: "Stopping the death machine," February 14, 2004.
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"The Democratic presidential race appears over before it even lands in Dallas, Houston and El Paso. Texans haven't had a competitive presidential primary since the 1992 Democratic race between Bill Clinton and Paul Tsongas . . . What to do about the injustice of a selection process biased against the interests of so many Americans? Here's our suggestion. The parties need to create rotating regional primaries."
The Dallas Morning News editorial board thinks a rotating regional primary system would give more Americans a voice in picking its Presidential candidates. Read this editorial and tell us what you think: editor@newspapertree.com.
By the Dallas Morning News Editorial Board, Dallas Morning News: "Presidential Sprint: Forget this system, go with regional primaries," February 15, 2004.
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"'I have a daughter and a granddaughter and I know that if they were killed the authorities would do everything possible to solve the murder,'' Fonda said. 'Mexico, Juárez, Chihuahua deserve better than the authorities that are now ruling. These mothers deserve better.''"
Actresses Jane Fonda and Sally Field marched through this gritty Mexican border city Saturday urging authorities to investigate the brutal slayings of hundreds of young women and girls. As expected, this story ran repeatedly throughout the United States and internationally.
By Olga R. Rodriguez (AP), The Guardian UK (Britain): "Celebs Join March Against Mexico Killings," February 15, 2004.
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