Local Blogs
Trump vs. Rule of Law at the Border: New at Reason
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The right has whipped itself into a frenzy over "lawbreakers" who come to this country without proper authorization. It has for decades stymie...
How do we know we got the best deal?
Why is it that the city did not ask for competitive offers from the companies that build hotels with indoor waterparks?
Would any of them have turned out to be a better deal for us?
We deserve better
Brutus
Steven Camarota Explains Immigration's Effects on Population
[html]Originally Aired by FOX News on November 16, 2018
U.S. Border Military Deployments
Is it a convention center or just a meeting room?
The idea that the proposed water park will also be a convention center is a bad joke that is being played at the expense of the public.
The plans presented to the city detail a convention facility of 10,000 square feet.
By way of comparison our downtown convention center features 133,000 square feet.
A football field is 48,000 square feet. This center would fit within the first 20 yards.
Tradeshowexecutive.com ranks convention centers into four tiers with tier IV being the smallest. They consider the minimum size of a tier IV center to be 50,000 square feet.
It is hard to imagine that the Texas comptroller will consider this facility to be a convention center and so, according to the terms the city has offered the developer, the taxpayers of El Paso will have to pay the developer $40 million.
We deserve better
Brutus
Poor attendance
The citizen’s bond advisory committee for the EPISD bond issue is having attendance problems.
It looks like the group is doing the right thing and is starting to replace members who don’t show up for meetings.
These people have a responsibility to us citizens. Those who cannot attend regularly should resign and get out of the way.
We deserve better
Brutus
Jessica Vaughan Discusses Kamala Harris' Comments on ICE
[html]Originally Aired by FOX News on November 16, 2018
Asia Bibi Is the Perfect Candidate for Asylum
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Offering Asia Bibi asylum is consistent with American values and and the original intentions...
Borderzine turns 10, and the beat goes on
This year is marked by a major NewsMatch fundraising campaign to expand student journalist training, launch of a cross-border community engagement project; and expanded reporting about the borderlands. A 10th anniversary celebration showcase of student photography Nov. 19, 5:30-7 p.m. at UTEP’s Centennial Museum. Please join us.
Dear friends, queridos amigos,
As this year of polarizing, fear-mongering political discourse about the border comes to a close, I bring you good news about Borderzine, the online magazine we launched a decade ago to prepare new generations of bicultural news professionals and ramp up coverage of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
The news lab experiment that began in a basement computer lab of the UTEP Communication building – just a stone’s throw from the colonias of Ciudad Juarez – Borderzine is poised to make even greater contributions to the national effort to create diverse newsrooms that reflect who we are as a nation.
Here’s our promise to you as we look to the future: another decade of hard work to increase the pipeline of journalists of color working in news media by training one student journalist at a time and sharing the untold stories of the border region with the rest of the world.
It’s alarming that after several decades of news industry efforts to boost diversity in newsrooms, less than 4 percent of news media professionals at national media outlets are of Hispanic/Latino background. Even more distressing is that less than half of that tiny percent hold news management positions where they can affect future hiring and news coverage. The most recent issue of the Columbia Journalism Review focuses on the diversity challenge and can be found here.
It’s clear that queda mucho por hacer – there’s still much to do – until newsrooms accurately reflect the growing diversity and changing demographics of our communities.
In the meantime, allow me to brag a little about our achievements in journalism on the border. Since our launch in December 2008, Borderzine has helped place dozens of bicultural journalism grads in major newsrooms such as CNN, the Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Al Dia, Univision, Telemundo, the Associatee Press among many others. One has reported for the AP in Mexico, Brazil and now Miami; another is currently on assignment to cover the refugee crisis in Central America; several are producing or reporting on sports for ESPN; one now sits on the CNN digital news desk in Atlanta.
Most of these young journalists were born or raised on the U.S.-Mexico border, many speak two languages, and they all possess the binational, bicultural sensitivity so necessary to accurately report on issues in our interconnected world, where global and local more often than not converge. We are proud that their career development began in our newsroom-classroom where they honed their reporting, writing and multimedia skills.
Over the past 10 years, more than 400 Borderzine student reporters have published hundreds of multimedia stories in English and Spanish about the border region’s unique life and culture. Starting in January we will work with journalism students and professors in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez to develop news media products to dispel negative stereotypes of the border region and tell the real story of fronterizos, what we call those of us who live and work here.
In the meantime, below are a few of my favorite Borderzine stories. Please read and share them on your social media. Please click on the headline to go to the story:
Mexicano, Chicano or pocho: Who am I?
Push to speed up immigration courts undercuts justice
Joven terapeuta apoya a victimas de crimen en Ciudad Juarez
Sticks and stones can break your bones but cyber bullying can kill you
If you like what you read, I urge you to contribute to this exciting and ongoing work through the national NewsMatch campaign. Each individual dollar donation is matched dollar-for-dollar through Dec. 31.
Our hope is to raise at least $25,000 in individual donations to provide more real world training and experiences to students through internships, professional development opportunities and study abroad. And please sign up for our weekly newsletter here.
Adelante! Zita
The post Borderzine turns 10, and the beat goes on appeared first on Borderzine.
New Report Hides Subsidies Paid to Employers to Hire Foreign Grads
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The number of real foreign students dropped by 1.3 percent over the las...
UTEP legends honored as women’s basketball team celebrates 45th anniversary
Sporting a Miners long-sleeve navy T-shirt and a matching cap, Gloria Estrada – a member of the first UTEP women’s basketball team – stepped foot on the court in Memorial Gym where she once stood more than four decades ago.
“It brings back so many memories,” Estrada said as she looked around the gym.
Gloria Estrada stepped foot on the court of Memorial Gym, where she once played more than 40 years ago. On Nov. 17, UTEP will honor her and the other members of the inaugural women’s basketball team .
Estrada – now a member of the UTEP and El Paso Sports Halls of Fame – was one of the founding members of the UTEP women’s basketball team. Little did she know, that as a young woman from the farming community of Fabens, Texas, she would leave her mark in UTEP history and pave the way for young women just like her.
This year marks the 45th anniversary of the founding of the women’s basketball team.
In 1973, UTEP students Wayne Thornton and Don Lewis believed it was necessary for women to have the chance to step on the court and represent the university. “The men’s basketball team was really hot at the time and we thought, why not have the women play just like the men,” Thornton said.
Thornton and Lewis, who also coached the women’s intramural flag football team, asked the the university administration and then-President Arleigh B. Templeton to form the team. Templeton was persuaded and gave the Thornton and Lewis $1,000 to start the program.
“We played with the least amount of money,” Estrada said. “We struggled financially.” The team, made up mostly of area players, started out as an intramural team. Teams from Fort Bliss, Ciudad Juarez, and UTEP’s biggest rival, New Mexico State, became the team’s first opponents.
At the end of that first season, Carol Ammerman, a former basketball player for the Amateur Athletic Union, was hired to direct women’s athletics and coach the women’s basketball team. Ammerman was the first woman coach on the UTEP campus.
Shortly afterward, the team became a part of the Intermountain Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (IAIAW). The new affiliation led the team to play tougher opponents like Brigham Young University, Wyoming, Northern Arizona, Utah State and others.
“Once we started playing intramurals the interest peaked here at UTEP, so that’s when I think the department decided to push for it and (Thornton) was probably the most instrumental in doing that,” Estrada said.
Wayne Thornton co-founded the women’s basketball team while he was a UTEP student. Thornton was head coach of the team during the 1978-1979 season.
Thornton praised then-Athletic Director Jim Bowden for believing in the potential that the women’s team would have on campus. He described him as generous and would help the team in as many ways as he could.
Another supporter of the women’s basketball team was men’s basketball coach Don Haskins. Thornton said that Haskins inspired the women’s team members and him. He would even visit the team during practice and run plays with them.
“We were like in awe when he walked in. I remember you could hear his booming voice,” Estrada said. Haskins taught the women how to play defense and that year they were one of the highest-ranking defensive teams in the conference, she said.
The women’s team became one of the first teams to play inside the Don Haskins Center, formerly known as the Special Events Center.
The founding and success of the women’s team and women’s sports on campus would likely not have been possible on a college campus without the passing of Title IX as part of Education Amendments Act of 1972. The law states that no one can be excluded on the basis of sex from participating in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
“We were very fortunate that we were around that same time that Title IX came into existence,” Thornton said. “It opened the door for more funding for the girls, more respect, and more understanding of who they are and what they represented.”
Estrada who was an educator, volleyball and basketball coach for more than 30 years said she didn’t notice the benefits of Title IX until she became a coach for athletic teams in Canutillo, Texas.
“I was able to fight for my program and make the girls aware — we are just as entitled as the men in athletes.”
The women’s basketball team has come a long way since its founding. In 2008 and 2012, the team was named Conference USA champions and made their way to the NCAA tournament under the programs’ longest running head coach, Keitha Adams.
“No one thought the women’s team was going to last more than five or six years,” Thornton said.
While sexism still plays a factor throughout the world of women’s sports, Thornton, who has always been an advocate for women’s sports, wants young girls to keep playing and keep dreaming big.
“Whether its basketball volleyball or some other activity, (women should) always think of the fact that they can change the world. That’s what I feel these young ladies did, the very first team, they changed the world,” he said.
Thornton said he hoped one day the inaugural team would be recognized for its contributions to the UTEP athletics program and receive their very own letterman’s jacket.
And that wish might actually come true. UTEP announced that the plan to honor the inaugural team on Saturday, November 17 at the Don Haskins Center as UTEP plays the NMSU Aggies during the First Light Federal Credit Union Battle of Interstate 10 game.
For Estrada, a woman who would practice playing basketball outside her home in Fabens day in and day out, her time as a UTEP Miner is an honor she said she cherishes.
“We started the program and for me I will I always treasure that. I was a part of that — for me it’s just a great honor.”
The post UTEP legends honored as women’s basketball team celebrates 45th anniversary appeared first on Borderzine.
Mexico?s Timely Reminder
A reader says its welcome to Central American refugees offers a humane lesson.
Source: Mexico?s Timely Reminder[/...
Jeff Sessions's Impact on Immigration as Attorney General
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The president made the immigration system, and in particular fixing the immigrat...
Do Your Job, Congress: Make E-Verify Mandatory
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People seeking a unifying issue across America?s fractured electoral landscape need look no further than E-Verify.
Water park incentive totals
What are the totals for the tax breaks/incentives/gifts that the city and county are donating to the water park?
Known fixed amounts- $5 million from the city as a development grant
- $18.6 million land gift
- $40 million either from the city or in sales tax rebates from the state. If the state declines the city must pay.
- $526,100 from the tax increment reinvestment district
- $4,295,094 from the county
There are probably amounts that I have missed but the ones above total $68,421,194.
Committed but variable amounts- $29,505,000 from the consultant’s feasibility report (hotel occupancy tax rebates, local sales tax rebates, and property tax rebates)
That comes to $97,926,194 on a project where the developer promised the county a minimum $100 million investment but told the city that it would be over $150 million.
Most of us would take that deal.
We deserve better
Brutus
The First Step Act ? the Zombie Bill that Refuses to Die
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Unless the prison-reform bill currently under consideration specifically excludes...
Five Reasons American Elections Are A Joke
America Is Rejecting More Legal Immigrants Than Ever Before
Trump says he wants more immigrants to come in legally. The economy needs them. So why are we making it so hard?
Source: [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/opinion/tru...
