The Lion's Den: Political potpourri

by Jaime Abeytia

I think Alfrank Catucci is right, more of the business of government should be decided over a couple of cold ones. There's less argument that way.

Posted on July 2, 2009

NPT Family Tree: Blogging El Chuco

Special Report

Interactive Poll

Planned Parenthood in El Paso closing

Stock Market Update

Dow Jones Industrial Average

-223.32 (8280.74)

-49.20 (1796.52)

-0.27 (6.92)

-0.56 (14.08)

-0.61 (17.35)

Event Calendar

Children's Miracle Network Night at the El Paso Diablos

Friday, July 3

Midnight Paranormal Investigation at Concordia Cemetery night

Friday, July 3

NPT On Twitter

sending newsletter. crowder on jones, abeytia on ortega/holguin, torres on planned parenthood. btw, when do you think drug war started?

Posted 1 day ago by @NewspaperTree

Breaking New Media News on NPT, check out how I botched a great scoop for the Planned Parenthood closure. http://tinyurl.com/n4wsh6

Posted about 24 hours ago by @CCLG

My birthday is tomorrow, any suggestions on fun?

Posted about 2 hours ago by @TheLionStarBlog

News

Reporting 101: Did I let a great scoop on Planned Parenthood get away?

Posted on July 2, 2009

NPT smelled something wrong when Planned Parenthood abruptly announced its closure. We're digging, and we got a little nibble of something, but we're not there yet.

Bob Jones cries in pleading guilty to 6 counts; plea agreement puts 10-year cap on prison sentence

Posted on July 2, 2009

El Paso’s former entrepreneur of the year, Robert E. “Bob” Jones, pleaded guilty in federal court today to six charges at a hearing that went according to script except for two surprises.

Public Corruption 101: The archives: Get up to speed on the players and issues with NPT archives and other sources: Stories, primary documents and some reading about public corruption cases elsewhere to provide a little context.
Bob Jones to plead guilty to new offenses and charges in last year's indictment: The former CEO of El Paso’s National Center for Employment of the Disabled, Robert E. “Bob” Jones, is scheduled to plead guilty to new and old charges at a hearing in federal court Thursday.
Critics see Planned Parenthood closure as reason for hope: As El Paso loses all its Planned Parenthood clinics, its critics think the closures announced Friday are a trend in the right direction.

Save for calculators, it looks like anything that has to do with digital learning is pretty much left out of the list. Surely Rick Perry wants parents to buy computers and other digital devices for their school kids. I wonder why technology is lacking from the TFW?

So Planned Parenthood closed. What's the back-up plan?

Posted on July 2, 2009

Forgive my doubt—I’m sure everyone means well, but you know what they say about the road to hell. As it stands, all I’ve seen is a boiler plate letter that essentially says ‘sorry, we’re broke, not our problem anymore’ and a little back slapping for ‘running the abortionists out of town’.

A Bob Jones guilty plea serves justice only if it leads investigators to Washington: Last month, we learned that Bob Jones was negotiating a guilty plea. It would save the government much time and money, but it could also mean the complete story -- including complicity or incompetence of federal agencies -- behind the biggest single scandal in El Paso’s history will go untold.
El Paso legislators can cough up cash to keep at least one Planned Parenthood clinic open: Make sure you contact your legislators (our delegation is flush with cash) and ask them how they can help save Planned Parenthood.
Open letter to Planned Parenthood patients: The fiscal and administrative strain of providing high-quality health care under our current business structure and during this difficult economic time has become more than the organization can sustain.

Politics