Indios

http://newspapertree.com/culture/2542-more-than-soccer-juarez-indios-victory-could-not-be-better-timed

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More than Soccer, Juarez Indios Victory Could not be Better Timed

by Alejandra Gomez

Thousands of people turned out in the streets of Juarez after the Indios football club made first rank in Mexico. Francisco Ibarra, the team owner, plans more for the club, which he hopes will be a point of civic pride and change the image of his city.

Posted on June 10, 2008

The soccer team Indios is a miracle to the people of Juarez. Ironically, the meaning of its name has a religious context. Indios is written in half English and half Spanish. For the owner of the Indios, Francisco Ibarra, it means in God.

“Indios also refers to the ethnicity of the blood that runs in our veins. It is a way to be proud of our heritage. It is also a way of uniting the both cultures that we live in,” he says.

For Francisco Ibarra, a businessman with interests in media and construction, the creation of a local soccer team was a childhood dream.

Growing up in Juarez, he remembers loving soccer. “I would watch the games on television every Sunday with my dad, but I always wanted to see them live,” he says.

The formation of the soccer team Indios began three years ago with the need to bring something positive to a city tainted by the negative.

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http://newspapertree.com/features/435-mex-official-says-no-evidence-of-serial-murders

Federal Investigator Finds No Evidence of Serial Femicides in Juárez, Chihuahua Disagrees

June 7, 2004

In a strange turn of events, after a new federal investigation turned up no evidence of serial killings among the first 50 women's murders it examined in Ciudad Juárez, it is now Chihuahua state law enforcement that is arguing for a pattern of serial murders in the border city. In the past, while federal officials were considering their possible involvement in Cd. Juárez, it was the state that was attempting to push the number of deaths downward.

On Thursday, June 3, 2004, the federal Special Investigator of Crimes Related to Women's Homicides, María López Urbina, gave her first major report to an audience that included Mexican President Vicente Fox and federal Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha. According to López, "...in this first group of analyzed cases there are no indicators of serial crimes among them."

Violence

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http://newspapertree.com/news/2543-violent-crime-up-in-el-paso-property-crime-down

Violent Crime Up in El Paso, Property Crime Down

by NPT Staff

The FBI attributed at least part of the increase to violent street gangs: “By the FBI taking on the leadership of a violent El Paso street gang, the Barrio Aztecas, we hope to see the number of murders and aggravated assaults in our city reduced,” said Special Agent in Charge Cuthbertson.

Posted on June 10, 2008

Editor's note: The following was sent to news outlets Monday, June 9, 2008. It included this note: "These are the 2007 preliminary figures. The Juarez violence started in 2008, so be careful about your conclusions."

Today the FBI published the Preliminary Uniform Crime Report (UCR) statistics for 2007. El Paso appears to no longer be in line with the national trend of a decrease in violent crime, driven mainly by a rise in aggravated assaults.

According to the report, the Nation experienced a 1.4 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes brought to law enforcement’s attention in 2007, as compared with 2006 figures.

“Although preliminary numbers show a rise in violent crime in El Paso in 2007, our community remains one of the safest in the nation,” said Special Agent in Charge David Cuthbertson. “The law enforcement community is working hard to ensure that the rise in violent crime in Juarez in 2008 does not translate to an increase in crime in our city this year.”

Austin 2008

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http://newspapertree.com/opinion/2536-austin-2008-not-your-father-s-democratic-convention

Austin, 2008: Not Your Father's Democratic Convention

by Paul Geneson

Scenes from the floor at the Democratic Party state convention in Austin.

Posted on June 8, 2008

This was a get-together that was a long time coming. After the two candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, had slugged it out for what seemed like an eternity, the primary season ended this week.

Looking back, this whole unlikely primary battle had matched the Kid from Left Field against the former First Lady and heir to the crown of Clinton. What made it oh-so-historical was the way the Kid who should have been out of the picture by Super Tuesday stayed in the contest with Hillary, and in the end, the Impossible trumped the Inevitable. As stories go, it doesn't get much more exciting than that.

Locally, there was some drama with the challenge by Obama supporters over the way state delegates were counted at the El Paso County convention. Behind the scenes, party stalwarts battled it out in emails and snail mail; Sebastian Martinez, long-time Clinton supporter and co-parliamentarian at the convention, pointed out violations of party rules in a letter, and in response, unsigned counter-letters attacked him.

The Road to Austin

Three buses ferried El Paso's Democrats to the Austin Convention. The Tejanos (a Hillary Clinton group) ran one, the Mexican-American Democrats (MAD, largely Obama-oriented) ran another and there was a "Democratic Party" bus, also largely pro-Hillary. On the MAD bus, there was the incident of the Police Stop somewhere outside Van Horn. One wag selected, "It must have been a Republican cop who needed to meet his quota." After some talk with the driver, the officer, who peeked into the bus to assure himself the vehicle was not running aliens into the nation's interior, allowed the bus to proceed.

Friday morning found the bus passengers, 80 of them on a full-up bus, wiping sleep out of their eyes and marveling at a rainfall that covered the glass on the bus and caused the roadway to slick up. The rain also made the arriving crowd wonder whether to believe their eyes. After all, the gray and threatening skies seemed a world away from the hot and windy night they'd left behind in El Paso.

After checking in at Embassy Suites, a 15-minute ride to the Convention Center, we hustled to the center downtown where the Convention had begun the night before. "Hustled" means a bunch of dingy Democrats waited in line while their bus buddies showered up and got dressed and ready for the bus. Luggage and other items were stowed in rooms that had been left vacant -- actual room assignments would wait till later (which happened, for most of the tired passengers, to take place after midnight). But all that happened later ...

The convention Center. If you've never flown into a major airport -- DFW, O'Hare, Kennedy in New York -- you may not know what it's like to walk down a hall teeming with a sea of faces. And all types of people were represented here -- short and tall, thin and not-so-thin, old and young, and all the colors of humanity. I saw:

Pride

Gay Pride 2008

by Lisa Degliantoni

Last night was the official Kickoff Dance Party for Gay Pride Weekend sponsored by El Paso Sun City Pride. About 150 people gathered at the Arts Festival Plaza to watch a drag show, mingle, and show their Pride.

Posted on June 6, 2008

This weekend Downtown will be host to a flurry of events. Visit the Sun City Pride website, linked below, for the full schedule.

A parade starts tomorrow morning at 10:30 a.m. at Houston Park, at Montana and St. Vrain.

A brief explanation of the four-day event, from Pifas Silva, the volunteer spokesman for Pride Weekend:

"This is first time El Paso Sun City Pride put on the event. In years past there have been parades, clubs that did events, a special night, but there had never been a four-day festival.

"There were block parties at local gay clubs. ... This was really kicking open the door and saying we're going to do this big and put on a gay pride festival that really compares to cities in our 300-mile radius.

"We've got a huge gay community and a huge gay supporting community and we really need to offer them a festival, during Gay Pride Month nationally. El Pasoans are finally stepping up and saying we're here, we're in all kinds of professions in this city, in all levels."

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http://newspapertree.com/culture/2527-gay-pride-2008

Narcos, Soccer, and Taxes

http://newspapertree.com/news/2525-narcos-soccer-and-taxes

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Narcos, Soccer and Taxes

by Frontra NorteSur

In Ciudad Juarez, more than a few are rooting for the Indios and a return to the brief hours of bliss that unfolded in the city on the evening of May 25. Still, the use of tax money to support a private team, however popular, is beginning to stir controversy and the streets have returned to the bloody “normalcy” that’s defined the year so far.

Posted on June 5, 2008

Catapulted into Mexico’s First Division, Ciudad Juarez’s Indios soccer team is hot. The May 25 victory over Leon brought perhaps tens of thousands of people pouring out of their homes and into the streets for an ecstatic celebration that magically transformed the social mood in a city otherwise battered by narco-violence -- if for only a fleeting moment. “Not even the narcos can stop us,” gushed resident Alejandro Amador. “Everyone in Juarez is with the Indios.”

The triumph of the hometown favorites provided the occasion for heady declarations about the future of the privately-owned Indios. Cited in El Diario de El Paso, a report from Mexico’s Economist newspaper claimed the Indios’ ascension into the First Division shot up the value of the team from $4 million to $17 million. The Indios’ owner, Francisco Ibarra Molina, would not confirm the Economist’s story, but he soon joined with government officials to unveil a plan to take the Indios to even greater heights of glory.

Flush with pride, Ibarra and Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza appeared together at a press conference to announce that the state government will support the construction of a new stadium for the Indios. Gov. Reyes Baeza did not say how much the stadium will cost or how it will be fully financed, but he said that 400 VIP boxes could be sold to help pay for the project, which is envisioned for completion in 2010. An undetermined amount of state funding will be allocated for the stadium, Chihuahua’s governor added.

Left undisclosed was where the stadium will be built. At the moment several zones of Ciudad Juarez are undergoing redevelopment, including sections of the historic downtown and the area near the future U.S. Consulate. The northwestern edges of Ciudad Juarez, encompassing the Lomas de Poleo and Anapra neighborhoods near the New Mexico border, are likewise within the perimeter of important future developments.

Currently, the Indios practice and play at a stadium owned by the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez (UACJ). Under the terms of an agreement between the public university and Indios, the soccer team’s rent payment comes out to about $250,000 per year. Nonetheless, the Indios avoid paying most of the amount in cash by including the UACJ logo on players’ shirts, by giving a number of free tickets to the university, and by paying for maintenance costs. The Indios are responsible for upgrades of the school’s sporting complex, and the team donates money for academic grants.

Whats Love Got to Do With It? Love Advice

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http://newspapertree.com/culture/2528-what-s-love-got-to-do-with-it-just-give-me-the-keys-and-get-out

What's Love Got To Do With It? Just Give Me the Keys and Get Out

by Jessica Valdez

Living with your boyfriend? Bad idea, unless there's a ring coming. And responses to your comments.

Posted on June 6, 2008

Last week I wrote about the different types of love. This week we jump right in with answers to some of your questions.

Today’s theme is living with your boyfriend/girlfriend and why I’m against it. (Although it’s not clear if Ready to Tie the Knot lives with her six-year boyfriend, I figured she did and answered accordingly).

Jessica!

I have been with my boyfriend for 6 years. I know that I love him very much and I know he loves me too. I am still waiting for him to ask me to marry him. I’ve brought it up before, but he just tells me that we are not ready. I already feel like it’s been a long engagement and he hasn’t even proposed. Should I wait any longer? Bring it up some more?

Please Help

Ready to Tie the Knot

Dear Ready to Tie the Knot,

Do not bring up marriage time and time again unless he wants to discuss when and where. There is nothing more a man hates then to feel like his girlfriend is desperate. Men like confident women just as women like confident men. If after six years he has not proposed, I say it’s time to move on. Leave him and see what he does. If he fights for you and you love him that much, then he wins you back. If he acts like maybe it’s for the best, then it probably is. Whatever you do, don’t tell him why you are leaving. Tell him you want to be alone for a while. Act as though you know exactly what you’re doing. If you tell him why you are leaving, he may feel cornered and this will push him away even further.

If you live together, go stay at a friend’s house for two weeks, if you don’t live together, simply cut all communication for that time and I promise, you will have your answer.

Next up:

Dear Jessica,

I’ve been with my boyfriend for two years and we’ve been living together for one of them. For the most part, we’ve got a happy, healthy relationship and talk about the future (marriage, kids, etc.) often. Our only major problem: He likes going out. A lot. All-night barhopping with a buddy has become a once-a-week thing for him and he never takes me. He claims that it’s just a guy thing and I shouldn’t worry. I understand the need to get out and let loose a bit, but this has become habitual and it bothers me that I’m never invited. We’ve argued about this on several occasions and the last time, when he came home at 4 a.m., he promised me it was the last time. He did it again this past weekend. What’s your take?