All posts tagged: Paso

El Paso has seen it all, the rest of the U.S. is just catching up

El Paso has seen it all, the rest of the U.S. is just catching up

Published by Sam Flores

In 2019, journalist Jazmine Ulloa traveled to her hometown of El Paso to cover the aftermath of a deadly shooting in the border city. A gunman, who admitted to authorities that the attack was racially motivated against Latinx people, drove over nine hours from North Texas to an El Paso Walmart and killed 23 people, while injuring 22 others. Ulloa, a Mexican American with roots in neighboring Ciudad Juarez, went to school three minutes away from where the mass murder occurred. When she arrived to El Paso, she found herself more emotionally distraught than she had anticipated. “I thought I had a thick shell from my years of covering crime and courts as a young reporter,” Ulloa told The Times. “It was very difficult to hold it together.” It was after attending a hillside memorial at the site of the incident — which offered sweeping vistas of El Paso and its sister city Juarez just across the border — that something clicked for Ulloa. “I did a lot of thinking there about wanting to return …

In El Paso, two Catholic sisters follow detained immigrants wherever ICE takes them

In El Paso, two Catholic sisters follow detained immigrants wherever ICE takes them

Published by Sam Flores

EL PASO, Texas (RNS) — On their spreadsheets, down the list on their prayer table and off their tongues after a long day of ministry roll the names — of the man who is slowly but unsteadily regaining his grip on reality after being deported to Cuba, of the woman facing deportation to Brazil after more than a year in detention fighting for asylum, of the son whose mother fell to the floor screaming “take me instead” as he was detained at immigration court. Carlos was the name that launched Scalabrinian Sisters Leticia Gutiérrez Valderrama and Elisete Signor’s pastoral response to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts. Gutiérrez Valderrama met Carlos on a trip last year to witness the increased immigration agent presence at immigration court, and he looked “like he had won the lottery,” she recalled, when she offered to accompany him. “He was the instrument for us to develop the ministry accompanying migrants at the courts,” Gutiérrez Valderrama told parishioners at a volunteer recruitment event at St. Francis of Assisi Parish on March …

The El Paso No-Fly Debacle Is Just the Beginning of a Drone Defense Mess

The El Paso No-Fly Debacle Is Just the Beginning of a Drone Defense Mess

Published by skeptic

A shocking but ultimately brief airspace closure over El Paso, Texas, and parts of New Mexico last week is stoking unease among pilots and the broader public about the status of United States anti-drone defenses. As low-cost UAV equipment proliferates around the world, analysts have repeatedly warned that destructive attacks perpetrated using drones are inevitable. It is challenging to develop nimble and safe countermeasures, though, given that things like jamming or attempting to shoot down a drone are difficult—or even impossible—to carry out safely in populated areas, much less densely populated cities. In the case of the El Paso incident, the Federal Aviation Administration originally set the airspace closure to last 10 days, but ultimately lifted it after eight hours. The Trump administration initially said the move was related to possible incursion of Mexican drug cartel drones, but the New York Times and others reported that it came from FAA concerns that Customs and Border Protection officials were using a Pentagon-provided anti-drone laser weapon in the area despite questions about potential dangers to civilian aircraft. …

It Appears That Immigration Officials Caused the El Paso Airport Shutdown When They Panic-Fired a Powerful Laser Weapon at a Children’s Balloon

It Appears That Immigration Officials Caused the El Paso Airport Shutdown When They Panic-Fired a Powerful Laser Weapon at a Children’s Balloon

Published by José Betancourt

Federal officials made the unprecedented decision to abruptly close the airspace above El Paso, Texas, this week — effectively shutting down the city’s international airport. The closure launched a flurry of speculation about the cause, from an imminent invasion to rogue anti-aircraft weapons. It later turned out that the order, which would’ve closed the airport for ten days, was issued by Federal Aviation Administration administrator Bryan Bedford after finding out that US officials’ use of a high-energy, counter-drone laser weapon at Fort Bliss, a US Army post right next to the El Paso International Airport. The enemy drone swarm turned out to be a simple party balloon, a potentially enormous — and unintentionally hilarious — overreaction, contradicting claims by the White House of an imminent drone incursion from Mexican drug cartels. Now, the New York Times reports that the anti-drone laser was used by Customs and Border Protection officials, who had loaned the device from the Department of Defense, yet another confusing wrinkle in an already chaotic series of events. The extremely rare airspace closure …

You Are Not Prepared for What Actually Shut Down the El Paso Airport This Morning, But Let’s Just Say It Involves a Military Mega-Laser Shooting Something Down

You Are Not Prepared for What Actually Shut Down the El Paso Airport This Morning, But Let’s Just Say It Involves a Military Mega-Laser Shooting Something Down

Published by José Betancourt

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images When the Federal Aviation Administration announced it was shutting down El Paso Airport this morning, social media lit up with speculation. Had freedom-hating terrorists planted anti-aircraft weapons in the desert? Was the government covering up an early-stage zombie apocalypse with El Paso as ground zero? Or had the Trump administration perhaps started firing high-energy laser weapons into the sky without bothering to tell anyone? The answer, impossibly, seems to be door number three. According to CBS News, the bizarre airspace closure came under orders from FAA administrator Bryan Bedford. Apparently, Bedford made the call after learning that the Pentagon planned to unleash high-energy, counter-drone laser weapons at Fort Bliss, situated right next to El Paso International Airport. But wait, there’s more. Separately, Fox News reported that military personnel had shot down a rogue party balloon — like you’d see at a child’s birthday party — near El Paso, after misidentifying it as a foreign drone. Whether this was done using the Pentagon’s mega-laser is unclear at …

Paso Robles goes chic: 17 new things to do this fall

Paso Robles goes chic: 17 new things to do this fall

Published by Sam Flores

In the last 100 years, Paso Robles has been a hot springs retreat, a cattle ranchers’ town and a haven for upstart winemakers. And now, as a wine critic might say, it’s a startling blend, with overtones of rising ambition, widening recognition, Southern California money and booming weekend visitation. Around town, the winery count has passed 200, and many visitors are realizing that you can do much more than eat and drink well. That’s doubly true during fall harvest, when the local social calendar fills with special events. Once you’ve made the 200-mile drive up U.S. 101 from Los Angeles, you can hear jazz in a snug basement club, sleep in an elaborately customized shipping container, get champagne and caviar from two separate vending machines, and roar past vineyards in a motorcycle sidecar. No? Instead maybe tour a winery with its own railroad and airstrip (Halter Ranch), then stand on a hilltop at Sensorio among thousands of changing lights as oak trees loom in silhouette. Or you can stay focused on the grapes and spend …