Featured Article
Outbound Brains
by Julian Aguilar, The Texas Tribune
The bookstore example, some have argued, is one that accurately reflects why cities on the Texas-Mexican border are often afflicted with a reputation of being a black hole of talent where escape is necessary in order to prosper.
Posted on December 17, 2009
Top Stories
Will Government, World Respond to Border SOS?
Posted on December 9, 2009
“It is common for my family to hear shootouts, and we have been witnesses to murders,” Espino wrote in his open letter to the Mexican president. “We know people who were executed. Our friends have been kidnapped. Even my own home was raided by soldiers.”
El Paso among Forbes' Best Bang-For-The-Buck Cities
Posted on December 8, 2009
El Paso holds no. 33 spot.
- Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Smugglers
- Mexican cartels are increasingly using kids to transport both people and drugs because young traffickers are less likely to be apprehended. Mark Qualia, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Washington, said federal border officials historically have not tracked the number of undocumented minors apprehended for trafficking. Most, he said, are simply deported.
- Broken Border, Part One: Justin's Story
- His name is Justin. He’s a heroin addict. He’s been sober for 42 days. And he's 16.
- Letterman's grace, Jon and John's disgrace
- Dave seems to have not only dodged the douchebag bullet, he has taken on a new glow, burnished by his admission that he, too, slept with a woman, women, who were not his wife.
- Diario de Oaxaca
- How does your immediate world fit into the major currents of history, particularly when you have experienced what people are writing about, and the 'official reports' hardly resemble what you have seen with your own eyes?
- Program for the Global Public Policy Forum on the U.S. War on Drugs
- Preview and print a copy of the program, and catch up on background.
- "The violence in Juarez is our problem": Essays from a frontline
- A compilation of short essays from writers, journalists, students and others who live, work and think on the border.
Archives
Mamas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Smugglers
Posted on November 18, 2009
Mexican cartels are increasingly using kids to transport both people and drugs because young traffickers are less likely to be apprehended. Mark Qualia, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in Washington, said federal border officials historically have not tracked the number of undocumented minors apprehended for trafficking. Most, he said, are simply deported.
Broken Border, Part One: Justin's Story
Posted on November 9, 2009
His name is Justin. He’s a heroin addict. He’s been sober for 42 days. And he's 16.
Letterman's grace, Jon and John's disgrace
Posted on October 8, 2009
Dave seems to have not only dodged the douchebag bullet, he has taken on a new glow, burnished by his admission that he, too, slept with a woman, women, who were not his wife.
Diario de Oaxaca
Posted on September 28, 2009
How does your immediate world fit into the major currents of history, particularly when you have experienced what people are writing about, and the 'official reports' hardly resemble what you have seen with your own eyes?
Program for the Global Public Policy Forum on the U.S. War on Drugs
Posted on September 20, 2009
Preview and print a copy of the program, and catch up on background.
"The violence in Juarez is our problem": Essays from a frontline
Posted on September 19, 2009
A compilation of short essays from writers, journalists, students and others who live, work and think on the border.
Man on the Street: How does the drug war affect you?
Posted on September 16, 2009
With this weekend's conference and the news of Gov. Rick Perry is dispatching Texas Rangers to the border, it is clear that the drug war continues to be a hot button issue.
Roy's Media Matters: Broadcasters could reap corporate billions in political ads
Posted on September 17, 2009
A pending Supreme Court ruling on political advertising, however, could make uncivil behavior in politics worse.
Roy's Media Matters: Parents spend too much time on Facebook
Posted on September 9, 2009
Social networking on the Internet is a wonderful thing. But young people should carefully monitor their parents use of Facebook.
A day chasing death in Juárez: But how dangerous is it, really?
Posted on September 7, 2009
There were 12 murders that day. Some would say we went looking for trouble and we found it. But, were we in danger? More to the point, is Juárez dangerous or not?
WLGTDW/it: Walking through the Hundred Acre Wood
Posted on September 5, 2009
Christopher had to move forward with his life, and stop doing Nothing. Pooh, on the other hand, would stay in the Wood and live his life as he always had.
Roy's Media Matters: Spanish language media have obligation
Posted on September 2, 2009
For all of the positive purposes served by the Spanish language media, the industry is unwittingly shooting its own beneficiaries in the foot.
The children of Juárez can be saved
Posted on August 31, 2009
"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. Enable them to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will preserve them." -- Thomas Jefferson, 1787.
Roy's Media Matters: No threat to silence conservative talk radio
Posted on August 27, 2009
Despite claims from the right, the FCC is not moving to censor conservative radio. But broadcasters should be encouraged to bring a greater range of viewpoints. The current health care debate proves a single viewpoint can easily confuse and misinform segments of the population.
WLGTDW/it: About Ted Kennedy and redemption
Posted on August 27, 2009
I don't know if the Kopechne's ever forgave Kennedy for what he did to their daughter. I wouldn't blame them if they didn't. But I do hope that all the good that Kennedy managed in his later years will balance the scales when he meets his Supreme Judge. We all should because we'll all be in his shoes one day.
Review: "Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation That Remade Immigration Enforcement"
Posted on August 21, 2009
When Reyes mounted Operation Blockade, it fundamentally altered immigration enforcement and the border. Starting there, Dunn provides the historical background we so badly need to help us in the search for border solutions, not blockades.
Roy's Media Matters: Media, public share blame for breakdown of informed debate
Posted on August 20, 2009
Americans seem to be getting much of their information about important issues not from responsible media but from purveyors of partisan viewpoints. The result is that many Americans have lost their ability to discern the difference between opinion and fact.
Roy's Media Matters: The Palace Thief Among Us
Posted on August 13, 2009
Most media corporations have placed public enlightenment and the pursuit of truth and honesty far behind their need to boost the bottom line. In today’s journalism environment, Woodward and Bernstein’s story about a minor hotel break-in would likely remain nothing more than a two-graph brief in the back page of the Washington Post.
WLGTDW/it: It's a legal question, not a moral one
Posted on August 8, 2009
Just because there is no piece of paper between them doesn't mean there isn't anything other than hot, monkey sex between unmarried partners. There is love, devotion, and, for many, there is a lifetime together, and their legal status is no one's business but their own. Don't believe me? Then I guess you're qualified to cast the first stone.
Roy's Media Matters: Articulation of thought battered by Palin-speak
Posted on August 6, 2009
Hardly a day goes by when you don‘t hear someone on the radio engaging in a level of language destruction worthy of a place right alongside Sarah Palin and George W Bush.
LGBT in El Paso: "As a community, we’re coming out of our closet"
Posted on August 5, 2009
"We’re becoming more visible and more vocal about the community’s needs." -- Sam Aguilera, executive director of Puentes LGBT Resources.
Roy's Media Matters: Why newspapers are failing
Posted on July 30, 2009
According to industry reports, newspapers are in deep trouble. From an economic standpoint, producing a big-city daily doesn’t make much sense any more.
The violence will continue in Juarez, where all are not created equal
Posted on July 27, 2009
We gather in the cafeteria and talk. One person was kidnapped, others lost cars at gunpoint. These are not things I have heard on the news, these are people I know. This is happening because in Mexico, the idea that all men are created equal does not exist. But that does not mean that it can never exist.
WLGTDW/it: I hate Tony Romo, but Jessica Simpson ought to put down that copy of 'Bride Magazine'
Posted on July 24, 2009
I think I speak for all womankind when I say, Tony Romo is a poopyhead. I mean, Jessica was a great girlfriend to Tony! But Jessica should probably not renew her subscription to Bride's World magazine as soon as her next relationship hits the six month mark.
Roy's Media Matters: Paradoxical lessons from Walter Cronkite, a great American journalist
Posted on July 23, 2009
Walter Cronkite instilled in many of our generation a sense of honesty, integrity and objectivity in our conveyance of relevance and truth to the public. But when he declared his feelings about the Vietnam War, he swung open the doors to opinion-based journalism.
