October 2006 - Posts
Members
of the El Paso County Attorney's Domestic Violence Unit will offer an
educational awareness seminar about dating violence to more than 600 Americas High School students.
The seminar called "Dating Violence: Awareness, Prevention
and Reporting" is offered through out the year to hundreds of local middle and
high school students to raise awareness about this social problem. Teenagers
can choose healthier relationships when they learn to identify the early
warning signs of an abusive relationship, understand that they have choices,
and know that they are valuable individuals who deserve to be treated with
respect.
According to a nation-wide study conducted in 2000 by the Bureau
of Justice, one third of all high school students have been or will be involved
in an abusive relationship. Other statistics also reveal the seriousness of the
problem. For example, in1995 seven
percent of all murder victims were young women who were killed by their
boyfriends.
"Some teenagers
are surprised when they hear that dating violence is a serious problem in our
community. They assume that because El
Paso is a small, mostly Hispanic community, the
problem is not as serious as in other parts of the country. In reality about 20
% of all the domestic violence victims that request protective orders in our
office, are teenagers," said El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez.
The dating violence seminar will be offered to three groups
of students on November 1, from 8:45 AM until 4:00 PM at Americas High School,
12101 Pellicano. Although the event is not open to the public, school officials
will allow the members of the media to be present.
WHO: County Attorney's Office-Family Violence Unit
WHAT: Seminar on Preventing Dating Violence
WHEN: Wednesday, November 1, 2006 at 8:45 AM
WHERE: Americas
High School
12101 Pellicano
INFO: Christina Rodriguez (High School
Counselor) 937-2842
-
30 -
800x600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
Dating Violence Seminar Press Release.pdf
"I am very concerned about the problem of teens trying to
bring drugs into the U.S.
I believe the best way to fight this problem is to balance
education, through community outreach programs, with vigorous prosecution of
serious juvenile cases. This is why our office has made strong efforts to
educate the teens in their schools about the consequences of getting involved
with drug trafficking. We have distributed to many of the local schools a
15-minute documentary, produced by our office, on the consequences of getting
involved with drug trafficking; we have done public presentations about the
issue, and we have been talking to parents in community meetings. If we don't
do these things, we might as well entrust the future of our kids to the drug
cartels."
"Since 2002 we have seen a downward trend in the number of
juveniles accused of transporting illegal drugs at the ports of entry. However,
we cannot let down our guard and relax our efforts which, I believe,
contributed to the reduction of this type of crime."
"It is not appropriate or ethical to speculate about the
severity of possible sentences in cases that have not even gone to trial
because the accused juveniles have not yet been found delinquent. Furthermore,
in any juvenile case the severity of the punishment is not decided by our
office, but by either a jury or the court."
- 30 -
16-year-old girl Case Statements 10-27-2006.pdf
800x600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
800x600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
The lack of sufficient, good quality,
and affordable long-term housing in El
Paso for people suffering from severe mental illness,
along with the limited access to crisis centers, intermediate care facilities, and
outpatient services, is creating a public
health crisis in our community. However, not enough people and organizations
seem to be concerned about the issue.
To
raise awareness about the needs of the mentally ill in our community, El Paso
County Attorney José R. Rodríguez will join members of the El Paso chapter of the National Alliance on
Mental Illness (NAMI), and local residents, in the annual Bipolar Disorder
Awareness Candlelight Vigil. The event is scheduled for tomorrow October 5,
2006 at 7 pm outside the El Paso
Psychiatric Center,
4615 Alameda Ave.
County Attorney
José R. Rodríguez says that the lack of services for the mentally ill in our
community is merely shifting costs from the state to the local level. In April he
filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of State Health Services, the El Paso Psychiatric Center,
and El Paso MHMR alleging they are failing to timely and adequately assess and
treat mentally ill individuals who are in crisis.
“Emergency
room visits and hospitalizations of mental patients have been increasing in El Paso during the last
couple of years. Also, police and sheriff’s officers have been responding to a
greater number of psychiatric crises, and many of these patients end up in the Texas criminal justice
system”, explained Rodríguez.
“We
all need to unite to find a solution to this problem. A community, who does not
take care of its mentally ill citizens, is not a healthy community” finalized
Rodríguez.
About
the National Mental Illness Awareness Week: Established in 1990 by Congress, the first week of October is
designated as "Mental Illness Awareness Week" (MIAW) in recognition
of NAMI’s efforts to raise mental illness awareness. "Bipolar
Disorder Awareness Day" (BDAD) is held each year on the Thursday of MIAW
to encourage further understanding and promote early intervention and treatment
for this mental illness. MIAW and BDAD are NAMI’s premiere public awareness and
public education campaigns that link the organization nationally to the
organization’s over 1100 local affiliates across the country.
WHO: El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez
WHAT: NAMI’s Bipolar
Disorder Awareness Candlelight Vigil
WHEN: Thursday, October 5, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: El Paso Psychiatric Center
4615 Alameda Ave.
-
30 -
For more information about
the vigil and other events planned for tomorrow, please call Leo DiValentino,
Executive Director NAMI – El Paso Chapter at 534-5476, or Victor Ortíz,
President of El Paso NAMI at 534-5478.
NAMI Vigil Press Release.pdf
Members
of the Texas Border Coalition approved this morning in San Antonio the 2007-2008 Border Health
Legislative Agenda drafted by El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez, as
Chair of the TBC's Border Health Committee.
The
legislative agenda includes dozens of recommendations for solving the most
serious health care problems along the Texas/Mexico border. A document that
includes all the recommendations will be presented to the Texas Governor and leaders of the legislature
during a special meeting in December.
The
2007-2008 Border Health Legislative Agenda requests the State to restore CHIP
and Medicaid funding to the levels that existed in 2003, prior to the cuts
approved by the State Legislature. It also asks the legislature to do away with
the changes implemented the same year that make it difficult for citizens to
receive services, like the 90-day waiting period for new CHIP enrollments and
the reduction of the coverage period from 12 months to six.
To
solve the shortage of health care professionals in the border area, the
legislative agenda asks, among other things, to increase the number of
guaranteed admissions of border applicants to state supported medical schools,
to provide scholarships to financially disadvantaged border students, and to
fix the Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement rate disparities.
"The
shortage of doctors and nurses in the border area is in reality a serious
problem of access to health care. In most cases, patients need to wait weeks to
see a doctor, and frequently they have to go to other cities to consult a
specialist. Border residents have the most limited health care services in the
state of Texas, and to a certain extent, the problem exists because the
Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement rates in the border area are much lower than in
the rest of the state," said County Attorney José Rodríguez.
With
regard to mental health crisis services, the agenda calls for the legislature
to appropriate $222.13 million dollars per biennium as recommended by DSHS
Crisis Services Redesign Committee. The proposed agenda also calls for the
creation of a housing program for the mentally ill.
"With its
current funding, the Department of State Health Services has only been able to serve
about 28% of the adults and children with serious mental problems in the state
of Texas. The
mental health crisis is even worse in the border area, because those
communities lack the resources and health care institutions to close the gap in
services not offered by the state. As a result, in border communities like El
Paso, most mental patients are not receiving the appropriate services, and many
end up in the emergency rooms of local hospitals or in jail after suffering a
mental crisis," Rodríguez explained.
The
Texas Border Coalition is comprised of mayors, county judges, and Chambers of
Commerce from all the communities along the Texas/Mexico border, from El Paso to Brownsville.
Its mission is to make legislative recommendations to help the Texas border region grow
and prosper economically. The current Chairman of the Coalition is Eagle Pass
Mayor Chad Foster.
WHO: Texas
Border Coalition
WHAT: Border
Health Legislative Agenda
WHEN: Monday October 23, 2006 at 9:00 AM
WHERE: IBC Bank Community
Suite (5th Floor)
130 E. Travis Street, Suite 300
San Antonio, TX
- 30 -
Health Legislative Agenda Press Release.pdf
800x600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
The Texas Senate Committee on
International Relations and Trade will conduct hearings aimed at strengthening
state law that prevents the creation of new colonias lacking basic
water/wastewater infrastructure. The hearings come in response to recent
proposals to water down existing colonias legislation.
The
legislation, known as Economically Distressed Areas Program ("EDAP"), was originally
enacted in 1989 and made it illegal for land owners to create residential
sub-divisions without water and sewage service in the outlying areas of the
counties. Among other requirements, land owners had to comply with a "build-it
or bond-it" provision, which required them to either build the necessary
infrastructure before the sale of the plots, or post a financial assurance to guarantee
that they would build it within the time declared in their plans.
Last
year a bill was filed which would have limited developers' financial
responsibility to install water supply or sewer facilities to no more than
three years.
El Paso
County Attorney José Rodríguez believes the proposed amendment would have opened
the door for the development of new colonias, creating new problems that will
later have to be resolved by the intervention of individual homeowners and
taxpayers' money.
"The
Model Rules and the EDAP program have efficiently stopped the development of
new colonias in El Paso
County for over a decade.
The State needs to be informed that the proposed changes will endanger the
viability of the program", said County Attorney José Rodríguez.
"The State
needs to not only continue with the current program, but to also approve new
legislation which gives county government legal authority to regulate land
development and enact basic plumbing, fire and building codes".
Under
current Texas
law, county governments do not have land use powers to secure the orderly and
healthy development of residential areas outside city limits.
"Some of
the most severe problems El Paso County residents suffer, like flooding in the Mowad and
Sparks sub-divisions, and the establishment of
environmentally dangerous businesses next to residential areas, arise from the County Commissioner's
inability to enact appropriate rules", explained Rodríguez.
"I will
request that the Texas Legislature give county government more legal powers to
guarantee its residents the quality of life that every citizen in the United
States deserves", concluded Rodríguez.
El Paso
County Attorney José Rodríguez, along with Assistant County Attorney Erich Morales, will testify in front of the Senate
Committee on International Relations and Trade in Austin on Tuesday October 24, 2006 at 9:00
AM.
WHO: El Paso County Attorney José R. Rodríguez
WHAT: Colonias Regulation Testimony
WHEN: Tuesday October 24, 2006 at 9:00 AM
WHERE: Capitol Extension, Room
E1.012
Austin, TX.
- 30 -
For those interested members
of the media, County
Attorney José Rodríguez
will be available for interviews all day Friday October 20, 2006. He will be
out of town next week until Wednesday. To schedule an interview, please call Elhiu Dominguez at 546-2016.
Colonias Regulation Revised Press Release.pdf
800x600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
High-tech trash, including old computers, televisions and
cellular phones, might be causing environmental problems in El Paso. According to the EPA, circuit boards
and batteries contain toxic materials such as mercury and hexavalent chromium.
Despite that, there are very few federal and state regulations regarding the
disposal of household electronic equipment, and because of that, much of it is
improperly dumped in municipal landfills, creating a danger of contaminating
the soil and the water underneath the site.
With the
purpose of teaching students from elementary to high school about the dangers
of hi-tech trash and how to protect the environment in general, El Paso County
Attorney's Office is helping Keep El Paso Beautiful to organize the Border City
Recycles Day on November 15, 2006 at Tobin
Park Recreation
Center, 8831 Railroad Drive.
This year the recycling theme is "E-Waste".
This daylong
event is sort of a fair with over 25 environmental educational booths, recycled
materials fashion show contests for middle and high school students, recycled
materials toy contests for elementary students, and a recycling relay game
contest for a class prize. County Attorney
José R. Rodríguez will give the opening remarks and explain the rules of the
game.
More than
2,000 students are expected to participate, along with several agencies and
organizations, among them the City Environmental Services, the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality, the El Paso Water Utilities, Fort Bliss Department of
Environment, and the Environmental Prosecutor for the El Paso County Attorney's
Office.
WHO: County Attorney's Environmental Unit
WHAT: Border City Recycles Day "E-Waste"
WHEN: Wednesday November 15, 2006 from 9 AM to 2
PM
WHERE: Nations
Tobin Park
Recreation Center
8831 Railroad Drive
INFO: Cristina Viesca-Santos 546-2050 Ext. 3054
Cristina.viesca@ca.epcounty.com
-
30 -
Members of the media interested
in finding out more about high-tech waste in the El Paso
area, please call the Clint Landfill Superintendent for the City of El Paso Environmental Services,
Richards Adams, at 851-0089.
Border City Recycles Day Press Release.pdf
800x600
Normal
0
false
false
false
EN-US
X-NONE
X-NONE
MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;}
STATEMENTS
FROM EL PASO COUNTY ATTORNEY
JOSÉ R. RODRÍGUEZ REGARDING THE VOTING MACHINES COMPLAINTS
"Up until this moment, all we have
are allegations of voting problems. We are investigating the complaints our
office received to determine if indeed there is a problem with the Diebold
electronic voting machines. At this time there is no reason to believe the
election has been compromised in any way."
"El Paso residents should not feel discouraged
by these complaints. They should go out and vote on Tuesday. Our community
needs high voter participation. Just be extra-careful when voting to make sure
the ballot reflects your candidate choices.
-30-
Voting Machines Statements.pdf