Author: KVIA

Nichole Gomez

El Paso, TX (KVIA-TV)-EPWater and the TecH2O Learning Center are excited to highlight the utility’s Engineering Department with the signature event, DiscoverE: Transform Your Future, marking the start of National Engineers Week. The free family event will celebrate engineers and engage students and their families on Saturday, Feb. 21 from 11:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. https://www.epwater.org/about-us/newsroom/epwater-tech2o-learning-center-host-annual-discovere

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Nichole Gomez

El Paso, TX (KVIA-TV) – The Fourth Annual El Paso Strong Fashion Show will take place on Sunday, March 1, 2026, from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at San Jacinto Plaza, bringing together the region’s most talented creatives, designers, vendors, and performers for an unforgettable evening celebrating local artistry and community pride.

This year’s show will once again feature exclusively local fashion designers, highlighting the depth of talent within the El Paso creative community. Attendees can enjoy an exciting lineup that includes live runway presentations, local vendors, food trucks, LIVE music, and more, creating a vibrant cultural experience for all ages.

Continuing a growing tradition of supporting emerging talent, the El Paso Strong Fashion Show will award cash prizes to the top three designers, including $500 for first place, $300 for second place, and $100 for third place, recognizing excellence in design, creativity, and presentation.

The event is FREE and open to the public, encouraging the entire community to come together to celebrate fashion, entrepreneurship, and El Paso’s resilient creative spirit.

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Heriberto Perez Lara

ANTHONY, New Mexico (KVIA) — With today’s peak wind gusts reaching 66 mph (106 km/h), numerous downed trees have been reported, including a metal roof ripped off.

The front yard of ABC-7’s chief meteorologist, “Doppler” Dave Speelman, bore the brunt of today’s strong winds: two large trees were uprooted, and part of his yard fence was damaged, among other things.

“Earlier today I just had one tree down, so I went into the house, told my wife and everything, and then she went out about half an hour later, and that’s when the other tree came down. So we got two trees that are down, so now we’re figuring all out to get it all repaired,” said “Doppler” Dave. “I would say these trees were probably about a 100 and 150 feet tall and as you get up in elevation, of course, the winds typically are a little bit stronger; so, it doesn’t take extreme winds to take these down.”

Our StormTrack Weather team issued an ABC-7 First Alert to prepare residents for this week’s strong winds, as more are expected to hit the area throughout the week.

Those trees at “Doppler’s” house had been there for over 30 years before the winds toppled them today, also bringing down some power lines in his neighborhood.

He says that when this happens, it’s best not to touch or go near power lines; it’s better to call the electric company so someone can help restore service, as some wires may still be live and cause electrical shocks, which is dangerous.

“That’s the problem, lesson learned; when these trees die, even before the windy season, you should really take them down,” “Doppler” added. “It’s going to stay windy all the way through Friday, so we’re just starting our windy season, we got March, we got April, we got May to go, so I don’t think it’s going to be anything like we had last year with all the winds and the dust, but we certainly have our fair share of winds here.”

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Olivia Vara

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — Steel metal plates covering past and ongoing repairs under roads can be seen across El Paso. If there’s someone in the lane next to you, you have no choice but to drive over it.

Neighbors that live near Westwind Drive in West El Paso say they have had to deal with the metal covering in the street for about a month now.

“People do avoid them,” Tonny Hammes, one of the neighbors near Westwind Drive, told ABC-7 during an interview. He says he’ll drive over the metal plate with his pickup truck, but not with his smaller car.

“It’s got big, heavy duty tires on it. But with the other car, I try to avoid the plate because it’s got performance tires on it,” said Hammes.

Another El Pasoan, Gabriel Munoz, also tries to avoid the metal sheet.

“It’s horrible because sometimes I gotta make a really bad stop, bad stop, or even move from side to side,” said Munoz.

These metal plates on the roads are forcing driver to either slow down or risk hurting their tires.

El Paso water put these temporary metal plates after doing work on water mains.

“If our crews leave for the day, they still have to leave it covered, but they can’t go back and pave it just yet until the work is complete,” spokesperson for El Paso Water, Denise Parra, told ABC-7. “There’s kind of a line for a lot of these paving projects to, to be completed.”

El Paso Water says the metal plate is there after they repaired a leak on Westwind Drive.

They say the hole covered by the metal plate on Westwind Drive is expected to be paved over by the end of the month. For now, they advise people to slow down if they drive over one.

“It would be nice if they would finish the job before they start another one,” said the neighbor near Westwind Drive, Tony Hammes.

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Heriberto Perez Lara

JUÁREZ, Chihuahua (KVIA) — A Mexican federal judge ordered the immediate release over the weekend of José Luis A.C., the former owner of the infamous “Crematorio Plenitud,” where approximately 386 bodies were found in Juárez last year.

Judge Luis Eduardo Rivas of the Seventh District Court granted an injunction to the crematorium owner, a decision described by family members as an “atrocity that tears apart the social fabric.”

ABC-7 reported last June that local, state, and federal authorities in Mexico discovered the 386 bodies and that proper funeral services had not been provided to the families who had paid for services at the ‘Plenitud’ crematorium.

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office (FGE Chihuahua) held a press conference over the weekend, during which Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui Moreno demanded an immediate review of the injunction after the owner, José Luis A.C., was released from state custody in Juárez.

ABC-7 spoke today with a representative of the group of victims’ family members and with the spokeswoman for the ‘Colectivo Justicia para nuestros dedudos,’ Dora Elena Delgado, after the decision was made last Friday.

“It saddens me because I am from Chihuahua, because I am a Juárez resident by choice, that an institution has these deficiencies, this lack of credentials, and that this lack of credentials affects more than 1,500 families, whose lives were somehow changed by a piece of news. Right?” said Delgado.

“We don’t want to be part of that index (of unsolved cases in Mexico), those statistics, those numbers, because of the lack of justice, because of the lack of effectiveness of the A.G.’s office,” Delgado added. “I mean, this is a national and international issue. Imagine the real shame. Beyond the indignation, the anger, the frustration, the disappointment we feel seeing in the press that no governing body has been appointed to address the cover-up, the fraud committed by this man, all of that; it’s shameful, I find it shameful.”

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office said they will be demanding a review of the case following Arellano’s release and will file an appeal, and complaints will be filed with the judges of the Federal Judiciary and the Oversight Bodies to overturn the injunction and review the judge’s actions.

Chihuahua Attorney General Jáuregui recalled that a similar request for an injunction had previously been received in that same court on behalf of the same person, but with a different judge; however, it was denied because the bodies had been piling up for months without proper handling, under unsanitary conditions, and in a state of decomposition, which posed a risk to the Juárez community.

“What have we proven? That there were 386 corpses without proper treatment, that they had been in that place not for days, not for months, but for years, under the most unsanitary conditions, and we proved that the families were given funeral urns containing remains that did not belong to their loved ones,” A.G. Jáuregui said.

Attorney General Jáuregui also explained that the Federal Judge who granted the injunction focused on two issues, namely the verbs that define the crimes, which are “to conceal” and “to preserve,” which he considered did not apply in this case, since the bodies “were not hidden.”

FGE stated that the evidence points to clear intent in the accumulation of the bodies, since the families who paid for the service were not receiving the ashes of their loved ones.

“Faced with such a ruling, there is no option but to fight it; the A.G.’s Office will immediately file two appeals: an appeal for review before the judges of the Federal Judiciary, so that they may overturn this injunction and return things to their current state; and, secondly, a complaint before the Oversight Bodies of the Judiciary itself, so that the judge’s actions may be reviewed,” A.G. Jáuregui added.

Delgado states that the prosecution demonstrated great incompetence in this case, as she believes that Arellano’s release should not have happened in the first place.

“I was talking about the incompetence of a weak institution (FGE), but there’s also a word that we shout in the slogans of the demonstrations we do: corruption, we think of corruption; that is, you have to have money for justice to solve your problems?” Delgado added. “This case of the Plenitud crematorium is a brutal institutional silence and the institutional silence is also insulting.”

“Y yo creo que las instituciones deben de estar fuertes, pero para que las instituciones estén fuertes, las personas tienen que ser no corruptas, que no permitan la impunidad,

The Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office has identified 191 of the 386 bodies found last year, of which only 185 have been returned to their families; 152 DNA tests have been carried out, the results of which will be received in the coming days, the FGE said in a statement.

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Nicole Ardila

For all the art enthusiasts, the El Paso Museum of Art opened up new exhibits for their grand reopening on Feb. 14.

“Frida Kahlo — Sus Fotos” is a traveling exhibit from Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico City, and is now here in El Paso, but not for a long time.

ABC-7 got a preview of the exhibits before the opening, but filming was not allowed in the “Frida Kahlo — Sus Fotos” exhibit.

An interactive room showed what she’d have in her home, the vibrancy, and how she painted her iconic self-portraits in bed due to her disability.

The exhibit has more than 200 photographs she collected throughout her life from her childhood, her relationship with her husband Diego Rivera, her lovers, family, other artists and notorious public figures at the time.

“This is incredible exhibition to have at the museum, Frida is one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century — she’s intergenerational,” says EPMA senior curator Michael Reyes. “I think she can be recognized from the youngest of children to the oldest of adults. So this is really exciting to have families come in and view this work together and see iconography that we see every day and relate to it in their own personal way.”

Another new exhibit is by Suzi Davidoff, an artist with 30 plus years of practice.

Her exhibit “Wander” showcases her travels with about 100 individual pieces, displaying local and international flora and fauna. 

But it’s not just paint she uses, Davidoff collects dirt and other pigments from her hikes and travels to create a mixed media artwork.

Desert Rinpa is another gallery by Mitsumasa Overstreet, who’s another local artist incorporating southwest desert flora we see on the daily, but with a Japanese twist based on his heritage.

The museum curator is excited for the community to experience it all.

“It’s kind of amazing to see what flora and fauna that we can recognize in this,” says Reyes. “I think a lot of families will find it enjoyable to see things that they can connect to. And it’s also incredibly relaxing, I think individuals will come into the gallery and feel a sense of calm, almost like they’re on a hike themselves.”

The exhibits will remain open until May 17, and the museum always provides free entry.

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Gabrielle Lopez

LAS CRUCES, New Mexico (KVIA) — Las Cruces firefighters put out a house fire early Friday morning. It happened around 2 a.m. on the 800 block of N Miranda Street.

The City of Las Cruces Public Safety said firefighters controlled the fire within 20 minutes. No people were inside the home, but crews found three dogs. Two died, and the third was returned to its owner.

Two firefighters were injured. One went to a local hospital for treatment and was later released.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, the city said.

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Heriberto Perez Lara

JUÁREZ, Chihuahua (KVIA) — The Northern Economic Development Civil Association in Juárez (DENAC, Desarrollo Económico del Norte A.C.) is a Mexican firm that has been proposing the “Juárez-El Paso Express Tram,” a cross-border tramway that would directly connect El Paso International Airport with Abraham González International Airport in Juárez for those wishing to travel from both sides of the border.

The project is currently in its early planning stages, so for now it is just an idea/ However, DENAC business leaders believe it could boost business, travel and tourism in the border region.

DENAC officials told ABC-7 that the project aims to provide travelers with safer and faster transportation between airports and flights, facilitating access to more than 26 destinations in the United States, Mexico and other countries.

The mayor of Juárez, Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, has previously expressed his enthusiasm for the “super hub” concept. However, he also cautions that the final cost of this “Express Tram” could be high and would require additional funding.

ABC-7 spoke with Héctor Núñez Polanco, president of DENAC, and Javier Reyes, director of DENAC, to learn more about the proposed project and its current status regarding discussions with officials and local governments on both sides of the border.

Watch the full story tonight on ABC-7 at 5 and 6 p.m.

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Nichole Gomez

El Paso, TX (KVIA-TV) – Sergeant Major Janina Simmons says she was never really a big dreamer. ” I didn’t take anything seriously, I was very go home, chill out, and do nothing, I had zero ambitions for anything.”

She grew up in Germany. She and her sister were raised by her mother, who struggled with mental health. Her father was in her life, but traveled because of the military. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Colorado with her dad, a former drill sergeant. Simmons says she faced a new challenge, being one of the few black kids. “I was going through the motions, you’re a human being on earth, just go through the motions,” Simmons said.

She found new hope when she joined the U.S. Military. She’s traveled to Qatar, Kuwait, Japan, and served at Fort Bliss, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Simmons said, “What the Army did for me was give me something to strive for.”  She didn’t set out to make history, but she did; she became the first black female Army Ranger. “When you do something crass like that, I’m not sure that your wants to make history will get you through something as hard as that,” Simmons said.

According to army.mil women began graduating from the U.S. Army’s Ranger School in August 2015. Simmons became the first black woman to complete it in 2019. The U.S. Army website states that Ranger School is one of the Army’s most physically and mentally demanding leadership courses. “I think about my grandma, who was picking cotton in the field. It’s cool to know where we came from, and now I am the first woman to make history,” she stated. “I want to show people that we are limited to your color, your gender, there are no limitations, there’s just none. But one of her life’s toughest battles wasn’t in a combat zone. She said, “I had these lumps on my groin about the size of a grape.” Those lumps turned out to be a diagnosis of stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer.

Doctor Alex Flaris with the Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso says it’s a rare form of cancer that arises from cells that receive signals from nerves and release hormones. “A lot of patients don’t even realize there’s a problem, just vague pain, which you become accustomed to.”  According to the Cleveland Clinic, slow-growing tumors caught early can be surgically removed or treated with hormone inhibitors. Later-stage and rapidly growing tumors require more aggressive treatment. ” I have to get monthly injections; it doesn’t kill the cancer, but it contains it,” Simmons stated.

Her doctor told her she has about four years left to live, but she says she feels like she could live 10.In her free time, she’s also a marathon runner. That helps her stay focused and keep a clear mind.Although she is facing this off the battlefield, she has a strong support system, her family and friends. And now she’s making the most out of her time. Simmons is documenting her journey through a book. She hopes it will inspire people to find the light in the darkness and to keep moving forward despite the challenges. She says life is all about your mindset. “The most gratifying feeling you will have is after a time of turbulence. When you’re going through whatever, there’s a rainbow at the end, you just have to make it there.”  Janina tells me that her book, Draw Four,  will be out in a few months. She hopes it can help people understand that life is real: it will beat you down, but you have to keep moving, and success is at the end.

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Gabrielle Lopez

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — El Paso Independent School district confirmed with ABC-7 its Chief of Police. Manuel Chavira, will retire.

“We are grateful for his years of service and the leadership he has provided,” the school district said in a statement sent to ABC-7. “We thank him for his dedication to our students, staff, and community, and we wish him all the best in this next chapter.”

Chavira took the oath of office in January 2021, according to EPISD.

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