El Paso

AG Greg Abbott Bans Same-Sex Benefits In Cities, Counties & School Districts, Sorta

Attorney General Greg Abbott, in an ironic twist of timing, has struck down the ability of cities, counties and school districts to offer domestic partner benefits. By almost any measure, today was a landmark day for the GLBT community, with all eyes focused on basketball player Jason Collins, the ... More >>

Former Spring Branch Administrators Face Investigations, Prison Time After Cheating Scandal in El Paso Area School Districts

Lorenzo Garcia and Damon Murphy led distinguished careers in the Spring Branch Independent School District. Now both are linked to a cheating scandal in the El Paso Independent School that has left Garcia serving a 42-month sentence in a federal prison and Murphy resigning in disgrace from his job i ... More >>

Friends Can Also Betray You

Mexicans pay in blood for America's War on Drugs.

Manos: The Hand of Fate

Texas Sons The Mars Volta Strip Down To Progress With New Album, Movie

El Paso natives Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala of The Mars Volta have long been known for their bombast and progressive-rock self-indulgence. Ever since they departed the seminal post-hardcore band At the Drive-In, they've spent their time making what can only be described as "epics." ... More >>

Immigration Angst and Defining Color

Carlos Diaz de Leon, Others Can Sue El Paso for Alleged Cop Harassment over Gay Kiss

What's wrong with a little PDA? If you're in El Paso -- and gay -- it may get you threatened with arrest over a nonexistent law, a group alleges in a suit. A trial court ruled the four men, led by Carlos Diaz de Leon, could not sue the city over the incident, but the 8th Court of Appeals has now ru ... More >>

Lorenzo Garcia: El Paso ISD Chief With Local Ties Indicted Over Houston Contract

Lorenzo Garcia: Contract with Houston company leads to indictment.​The head of the El Paso school district has been indicted over charges he steered a lucrative no-bid contract to a Houston company owned by a woman with whom he had a personal relationship. Lorenzo Garcia, a former assistant s ... More >>

Very, Very Determined Mountain Lion Denied Chance to Eat President Obama in El Paso

Dedicated mountain lion says Yes We Can, learns otherwise.​We know not the name of the mountain lion who was chased through the downtown streets of El Paso this morning, continuing to escape pursuers even with two tranquilizer darts in him. We only know the cat must have really wanted to see ... More >>

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

Capsule Art Reviews: "James Drake: A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing," "A Matter of Wit," "Plenitude," "Timothy Greenfield-Sanders: Injured Soldiers and Marines," "Tony Smith: Drawings"

Mexican Pop Singer Fights Rape Allegations, Racism

​The latest chapter in Mexican pop singer Kalimba's life saddens us for a number of reasons, but the possibility of never hearing his music again is not one of them. If you haven't heard, while recording his latest album in El Paso, Kalimba was held by the U.S. Border Patrol on suspicion of ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Dynasty and Divinity," "James Drake: A Thousand Tongues Burn and Sing," "Tony Smith: Drawings"

Children in Hiding

Juarez kids surrounded by violence, dead bodies.

Asylum Denied

Unlike refugees from other troubled countries, only a fraction of Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum are accepted – no matter how horrible their wounds or their stories.

Rocks Off's Top 10 Favorite Story-Songs

​The Internet wants to kill Gordon Lightfoot - back in February, someone started a rumor that the Canadian troubadour was dead. Of course it started on Twitter, of all places, where an offhand remark about a celebrity death will be held as fact. Hell, the other night we killed Tim Allen and To ... More >>

The Crucifixion of Juarez

On the front line of the U.S. war on drugs, a Mexican city bleeds to death.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Two Top Producers Recall Their Earliest Musical Memories

Two of the better known roots producers on the scene have radically different memories of the first music of their childhoods that gripped them by the ears and heart. Gurf Morlix, whose notable production credits include Lucinda Williams' Grammy-winning Car Wheels on a Gravel Road as well as stella ... More >>

Gabriel Iglesias

He's hot, he's fluffy, he's - Biscuit Man?

He Said She Said: Songs That Remind Us of Our Grandfathers

​ She Said has something she wants to admit. Here goes nothing. We... like... country music. No big deal, right? You wouldn't think so, unless you grew up in a town filled with racist rednecks who thought the glitz of '90s Nashville qualifies for the only music worth listenin' to. She Said rebelle ... More >>

Road Trip!

Break the summer monotony at one of these out-of-the-way destinations.

El Taco Tote

Former Houston Prosecutor's Most Famous Case Gets Thrown Out By Bush

The right-wing got the gift it had been howling for -- today President Bush commuted the sentences of two Border Patrol agents who shot an illegal alien and then tried to cover up the incident.Conservatives have made the case a cause celebre for years, saying the agents had been railroaded.Not every ... More >>

Texans Throw Parties for Michael Chertoff and He's Not Invited

Local South Texas officials didn't like Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff too much to begin with and then when he pushed forward with the border wall despite every political and ecological plea they could make, the dislike morphed into something very akin to hatred. That hasn't passed, apparen ... More >>

SPECIAL HISTORIA EDITION

Striped Donkeys, Hep Pachucos and Defensive Driving

Go to Town at Terlingua Texas Border Cafe

God, Texas and Tom Waits

Tom Waits may not come from around here, but a good chunk of his favorite music does

Live-Action Role-Players Get Boffed in Amtgard

Amid flailing swords and flying shields, these modern-day knights fight on

Grateful Coogs

Mexican White Cheese, American Yellow Cheese and Brown Lawyers

High Steppin' in Rat City

U.S. informants take part in murder and drug running in Mexico

Low-Riders Are High-Tech

Bet on Black

Glory Road relives the season when college hoops smashed the color barrier

Gimme Cinco

May 5 fun for drunkards and sober folks alike

Pens and Needles

Federal turf fights and deals mark the legacy of a union bribery case

Best Whistle-Blower

Oscar Wyatt

Jeff Black

Thursday, September 11

The Mars Volta

De-Loused in the Comatorium (Gold Standard Labs/Strummer Recordings/ Universal )

The Last Picture Show

Now playing At the Drive-In: The Rise of Sparta

Lay Down

Plus: No Apologies, El Paso's Best

Tom Russell

Borderland (Hightone)

Letters From the Inside

Ricardo Lara spent 19 years in Texas prisons. He got out the other day.

Third Coast Roast

Let's rap about...black music

Spirit of Texas

Luis Jimenez approaches the intangible by depicting the flesh

Letters

See Juarez

From a forthcoming book by Charles Bowden and the street shooters of Ciudad Juarez The photojournalists of the border are capturing the grisly face of the future. And it's a lot closer than you think.

Sound Check

Northern Exposure

Canada's favorites, The Tragically Hip, try to conquer the lower 48 without violence