Bandidos’ secrets, including El Paso ties, spilled in trial by ex-national ranking member

Bandido Motorcycle Club National President Clifton "Dozer" Roberts discusses shooting involving group at Mulligans Wochit

(Photo: Courtesy El Paso Police Department)

A former ranking member of the Bandidos’ national chapter testified at a racketeering trial Thurday that two ex-biker leaders led a racketeering conspiracy that included handing down orders to commit assault.

Justin Cole Forster, 33, was a member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club for 10 years, from 2006 until he was arrested in January 2016 with then-national Bandidos president Jeffrey Fay Pike and vice president, John Xavier Portillo.

Six months after his arrest, Forster pleaded guilty to racketeering-related crimes and violated one of the most important rules of the group — he turned on the organization he longed to be a part of since he was 10.

Forster spent hours on the stand on the trial’s third day, explaining the inner workings of the Bandidos, its screening process, its revered vests and patches, and how the Bandidos enforces its rules and protects its territory through intimidation and violence.

He also identified members in local and national chapters who took part in the alleged conspiracy and dealt or used drugs, including Portillo. Most are not charged in the racketeering case. Forster said he rose to be a national sergeant-at-arms in March 2011, tasked with handling security at biker gatherings and meetings and enforcing discipline — even violence — on rival bikers or wayward Bandidos members.

Brass Knuckle and Bandidos vests (Photo: Courtesy El Paso Police Department)

Several marshals kept watch as Pike and Portillo watched Forster answer questions from Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs that laid out part of the feds’ case.

Asked who is in the Bandidos, Forster said: “A bunch of guys who love to ride a motorcycle. But we’re guys who live by our way. You know, criminals.”

Forster explained it takes months or years to get into the Bandidos, which has a strict screening process requiring members who sponsor a prospect to have known that person for at least five years. Home visits are part of background checks to “make sure you are who you say you are” and to prevent police infiltration.

“We’re a criminal organization,” said Forster, who acknowledged dealing and using methamphetamine. “I mean we’re outlaws. If (police infiltrate) we’d all be in jail.”

Forster ended his day on the stand with Portillo’s lead lawyer, Mark Stevens, challenging his testimony. With his questions, Stevens tried to paint Forster as a meth addict with no credibility and with motivation to lie to get leniency for his own criminal conduct.
Stevens continues his cross-examination of Forster Friday, and Pike’s lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, may begin his.

Brass Knuckle and Bandidos motorcycle club biker vests

Pike and Portillo are charged in a 13-count indictment with racketeering crimes that include sanctioning assaults and ordering three killings, and Forster is the first ex-member to testify in their trial, which is expected to last three months.

Forster said Pike’s orders on “club business” would filter down in a manner that made it seem like Portillo issued the directives.

“He was a buffer,” Forster said of Portillo. “He was out there to take the brunt off (Pike) and to protect him. … In the public eye, it looked like it was (Portillo) running the club.”
Forster testified about some specific incidents in which he carried out orders for “club business.”

More: Rift over funds for child with cancer possibly led to fight, officer says in Bandidos case

In 2011, Pike had decided to split the Bandidos’ Western Hemisphere chapters from the Bandidos’ international chapters in Europe and Australia. Some Bandidos in West Texas opposed the split, so Forster and Portillo were summoned to Houston, where Pike dispatched Forster and others to take care of the opponents, Forster said.

Forster said he was given money to buy “burner” cell phones, and the crew took a truck instead of motorcycles and joined with other Pike-supporting nationally ranked Bandidos in Roswell, New Mexico, where they kicked out 16 members of an El Paso chapter, and took their Bandidos vests.

“We asked them if they knew who their president was,” Forster said. “If they didn’t answer right, we took their patches, and they got beat. If they answered Jeff (Pike), they didn’t get beat.”

Later, the patch of the El Paso president was given to Pike and burned, Forster said. Shortly afterward, the Bandidos national chapter had T-shirts made that said Roswell was “One kick-ass party” to memorialize the beat-down.

“We beat them up and made them ride home without seats on their bikes,” Forster said, adding that Pike and Portillo did not participate in the beatings, but witnessed them and laughed.

After his arrest in the racketeering case, Forster said other Bandidos put money in his jail commissary and the member who replaced Pike as president sent four lawyers to represent him. Forster said he turned each away, and the club stopped putting money in his commissary.

Forster also said he asked the feds to be put in the witness protection program, “because there’s no way I can live in San Antonio after this. What I did is unforgivable.”
Asked what he did, he replied, “snitching.”

Guillermo Contreras is a San Antonio Express-News staff writer. Read more of his stories here. | gcontreras@express-news.net | @gmaninfedland

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TxDOT project underway on U.S. 54 in northeast El Paso

EL PASO, Texas – Drivers in northeast El Paso will face with closures and detours in the coming months as the Texas Department of Transportation completes the U.S. 54 Widening and Illumination Project.

An extra lane of traffic will be added from Hondo Pass Avenue to Loop 375 Transmountain, and more lighting will be added to create better visibility.

Improvements to area intersections are planned, including turnarounds at Hondo Pass Avenue, Diana Drive and Loop 375 Transmountain.

TxDOT spokeswoman Jennifer Wright said the project will change entrance and exit ramps to improve the flow of traffic.

"What we’re doing is putting the off-ramp first and the on-ramp second, so that the merge action happens on the Gateway, where traffic is much slower," said Wright. "It’s a much safer condition, and it won’t slow down traffic on the main lanes quite so much."

Area residents can expect a two-mile shared-use northbound path from Hondo Pass to Transmountain.

The $35 million project started in November, and is expected to be complete by March 2019.

To keep up with all closures and detours around El Paso click here to be directed to the KVIA traffic page.

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New Parents See Firsthand Best of Care In Region At University Medical Center And El Paso Children’s Hospital

(Photo: by Leslie Lujan)

Parents Tamara and Anthony Paris, both new to El Paso, wanted the best care for their first baby. During her 25th week of pregnancy, Tamara developed a severe case of preeclampsia, a complication putting her pregnancy at high risk. Her doctors immediately referred her to University Medical Center of El Paso’s state-of-the-art Labor and Delivery Department, where Dr. Lisa Moore, Division Chief of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Texas Tech, quickly moved to get Tamara’s baby delivered.

Born at 25 weeks and weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces, Noah Rae Paris was born with an unrelenting spirit. Baby Noah Rae was then transferred to the Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at El Paso Children’s Hospital.

“The teamwork between University Medical Center, Texas Tech and El Paso Children’s Hospital has been seamless,” said Anthony Paris Jr. “Knowing my wife was getting the best care from the UMC team and my child was in the hands of the best experts on the floor above me, truly has made this experience much easier to get through.”

For the last three and a half months, Noah Rae has called El Paso Children’s Hospital home. Her dedicated clinical team has watched her grow and make great strides. Mr. Paris was deployed during Noah Rae’s stay, but fortunately special cameras at the hospital (NicVIEW cameras) enabled him to be part of his daughter’s amazing and unrelenting success even from hundreds of miles away.

Noah Rae’s due date was originally scheduled for the first week of February. The Paris’, now in El Paso full time, are ready to welcome their baby girl home this week as originally planned.

Because of the coordinated expert care provided by University Medical Center, Texas Tech Physicians and El Paso Children’s Hospital’s Level IV NICU, Baby Paris is flourishing and ready to take on the world.

Members of the editorial and news staff of the USA Today Network were not involved in the creation of this content.

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1-star El Paso VA in ‘aggressive new’ national improvement plan

Dr. David Shulkin, secretary of Veterans Affairs, tells USA TODAY reporter Donovan Slack that the VA remains in intensive care, but that progress is being made. USA TODAY Opinion

(Photo: Times file photo)

The El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System is among one-star VA medical facilities set for an "aggressive new approach" for rapid improvement, the VA said.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Thursday announced new strategies to improve low-performing facilities nationwide.

The VA has 15 one-star facilities across the nation, including the El Paso VA and the West Texas VA Health Care System in Big Spring.

For two years in a row, the El Paso VA has received a one-star rating out of a possible five stars in internal rankings of nearly 150 VA medical centers.

Because of the ratings, the El Paso VA is categorized as a "High" risk facility even as improvements are already being made, said retired Col. Michael Amaral, director of the El Paso VA medical center.

The categories range from "Watch," "High," "Critical" and "VACO receivership," for facilities in the worse condition and taken over by the Veterans Affairs Central Office.

Retired Col. Michael Amaral discusses his role as director of the El Paso Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Amaral previously has served as chief of staff for William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

(Photo: RUDY GUTIERREZ/EL PASO TIMES FILE)

Amaral said his primary focus is not the star rating but the underlying metrics.

"My primary focus is our patients’ ability to get care when they need it, that they get it in a timely manner and when they are here they are treated nicely," Amaral said.

Amaral said that the El Paso VA system has seen improvement. Many of the metrics use 12-month averages, so it can take several months for changes to appear on the report.

The El Paso VA has lost some primary care providers and recruitment has been a challenge, Amaral said.

Amaral, former chief of staff for William Beaumont Army Medical Center, was named director of the El Paso VA system in November 2016.

The El Paso VA system had been led by interim directors since former Director John Mendoza was appointed deputy network director for the VA Northwest Health Care Network in November 2014.

In ratings released last year, the El Paso VA ranked poorly regarding mental health continuity of care, or the ability of veterans to get consistent mental health care from the VA.

In 2016, the El Paso VA also struggled to reduce patient wait times for appointments, fill vacant positions and improve the quality of care.

More: El Paso VA gets lowest rating from internal VA rankings for second year in a row

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, who has been advocating for improvements in veteran care in El Paso, said he was “disappointed and concerned” when the ratings were released last fall.

O’Rourke noted that the El Paso VA had made progress but had performed poorly in providing mental health care.

The El Paso VA had increased the number of mental health care providers from 68 in January 2013 to 112 in November, O’Rourke said. The average wait time for a mental health appointment had improved to 7.57 days, down from 14.07 days in June 2016.

The VA said this week that it was taking an "aggressive new approach" to produce improvements at low performing centers. Those steps include:

• Centralized, national leadership with Dr. Peter Almenoff, director of the VA office of health care improvement, assigned to oversee improvements at each of the centers.

• Analysis and identification of specific targets for improvement based on clinical performance indicators.

• National resources using a team of experts using statistics to track progress and who can be deployed to assist medical centers.

• Accountability in which medical center leadership may be changed if facilities fail to make substantial progress as they are reviewed quarterly.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin

"President Trump has made it clear that our veterans deserve only the best when it comes to their health care, and that’s why we are focusing on improving our lower performing facilities nationwide," VA Secretary David Shulkin said in a statement.

"We will employ tight timelines for facilities to demonstrate improvement, and if low performance persists, we will make swift changes — including replacing facility leaders — until we achieve the rapid improvements that veterans and taxpayers expect from VA," Shulkin said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs did not start releasing the star ratings until USA TODAY obtained and published them for the first time in December 2016. The VA then made a commitment to posting them annually.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at 546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.

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The El Paso Rhinos take a ballet class

El Paso, TX – The El Paso Rhinos are off to a strong start this season and the team is always looking for different ways to train its players.

Tuesday afternoon the team tried some ballet.

Players ditched the ice skates and hockey sticks and instead attended a class at the British Ballet Academy in east El Paso.

Ballet is known to help athletes develop muscle strength, endurance and flexibility.

It was also a good bonding experience for the team.

The Rhinos have a big series at home this Friday at 7 p.m.

They’re off to a great start this season with more than 30 wins and only 2 losses.

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Keep these things in mind as the flu grips El Paso

How to help prevent the spread of flu at your home. David D’Aquin

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Break out the VapoRub and Pedialyte — it’s flu season.

We all dread the flu, and yet we keep acting like powering through it — still going to work, interacting with others, dragging ourselves to happy hour — is the only answer.

We (and doctors) are here to tell you that that approach is wrong.

El Paso has seen over four times more cases of the flu this season than last, prompting city officials to release a health advisory to providers and patients to take early action against the flu.

More: Four times more flu cases reported in El Paso over last year

Keep these things in mind as you navigate flu season.

How to avoid the flu when everyone’s got it

"The key is if you feel like you’re going to get the flu, please don’t go out in public," said Dr. Ken Berumen, regional medical director for emergency medicine at the Hospitals of Providence. "Don’t go to work, because you’re going to make everybody sick."

Berumen said there’s no way to really tell how hard the flu will hit, but that things like exhaustion, stress, smoking and working too many hours can make you more susceptible to getting the flu.

To stay healthy-ish during flu season, consider eating nutrient-rich foods and being mindful of stress and exhaustion levels.

"It’s just the basics of taking care of yourself," Berumen said.

But the easiest way to help prevent the spread of the flu is to practice constant and thorough hand washing, Berumen said. Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and water. Sing the alphabet if you need an idea of how long 20 seconds is.

More: Season’s first flu-related death in region reported as officials warn of increased cases

"People hold their hands up to their mouth to sneeze or cough, and then they touch a doorknob and that’s how it goes through your entire household," Berumen said.

It’s not too late to get a flu shot, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be 100 percent immune from the disease.

"The flu vaccine is a best guess of what happened in the southern hemisphere from 6 months ago. Oftentimes the flu vaccine is a hit or miss," Berumen said.

Is this a cold or the flu?

Berumen said it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish the flu from a cold, but that the flu will feel significantly worse.

Physicians can sometimes diagnose the flu over the phone, or they’ll ask a patient to come to the office through a separate entrance so as not to infect people in the waiting room.

Flu symptoms include high fever, runny eyes and nose, extreme sore throat, body aches, chills, headaches and fatigue.

Berumen said it’s critical to talk to a physician within three days of the onset of symptoms, especially for patients with weakened immune systems.

So you’ve got the flu

If you do get the flu, there are two treatments a doctor can prescribe: Tamiflu and Relenza. Tamiflu is taken twice a day for five days, while relenza is inhaled.

"It doesn’t sound like a lot but it’ll cut down the disease by about a day. But when you have the flu, a day is a lot," Berumen said.

People wait for their turn at the Vaccinations for Health clinic at the El Paso Fire Department’s Safety, Health Outreach Center, 5415 Trowbridge Drive, on Wednesday.

Most people can get over the flu without a prescription, Berumen said, but those with weakened immune systems need to take precautions and keep an eye out for secondary infections, like pneumonia, that can develop after the flu.

Berumen said a signs of a possible secondary infection include chest pain that’s different from body aches, trouble breathing and coughing up a lot of sputum. These symptoms can also be an indicator that it’s time to make a trip to the emergency room, Berumen said.

"Anything that’s significantly different is a sign of a possible secondary infection," Berumen said.

If you do get the flu, the key to getting better is plenty of rest and fluids.

"Don’t try and push yourself by doing all the things at the house you haven’t done just because you’re suddenly at home for five days," Berumen said.

More: Kool Smiles to pay $23.9 million, accused of unnecessary dental work on children

Things like ibuprofen and Tylenol can help with body aches, and Berumen said any kind of fluid you can keep down is good. Some drinks, like Pedialyte, contain extra electrolytes to help tackle dehydration.

If you or someone in your household has the flu, isolation can help prevent the disease from spreading. Being bundled up alone may sound bleak, but maybe you’ll get the chance to catch up on new episodes of Black Mirror.

Sara Sanchez can be reached at 546-6147; ssanchez@elpasotimes.com; @siempresarita on Twitter.

Yolanda Palomares of El Paso gets a flu vaccination from El Paso Fire Department paramedic Lt. Edward Montoya Wednesday.
Do’s and Don’ts of the flu

Don’t: Go to work. Seriously, don’t be that coworker. You risk the chance of infecting your colleagues and extending your own bout with the flu.

Do: Call your doctor within three days of the first appearance of symptoms. This is especially important for people with weakened immune systems, including those with diabetes or on dialysis.

Don’t: Sneeze or cough into your hands. If you have to sneeze or cough, do it into your elbow to reduce spreading the flu.

Do: Get plenty of rest and fluids. Bring out your favorite blanket, slather on some vapo-rub and don’t feel guilt for taking multiple day-naps. Drink water, juice and Pedialyte to help fend off dehydration.

Don’t: Neglect your overall health. Factors like stress, exhaustion, smoking, working too many hours and not eating well can make you more susceptible to the flu.

Do: Wash your hands constantly and thoroughly. Wash with soap and water after you cough or sneeze, after visiting the bathroom and after being in contact with those with the flu.

Free flu vaccines

The El Paso Fire Department is offering free flu vaccines to uninsured residents. Vaccinations for Health provides free influenza, blood pressure and glucose screenings to patients 18 and older, and pneumonia vaccines to those 65 and older.

Jan. 17: Fire Station 17, 8803 Alameda Ave., 1 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Jan. 24: EPFD Safety, Health Outreach Center, 5415 Trowbridge Dr., 1 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Jan. 31: EPFD Safety, Health Outreach Center, 5415 Trowbridge Dr., 1 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

The service is free to residents of El Paso and Hudspeth County who are 18 and older and do not have medical insurance or are on Medicaid.

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El Paso arts, culture scene generates $103M in economic activity, study shows

Here is what Downtown El Paso looks like this weekend. Photos by Mark Lambie and Vic Kolenc

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Arts and culture events put on by area nonprofit groups generate more than $103 million in annual economic activity in El Paso, according to a new study.

The city’s Museums and Cultural Affairs Department recently participated in a national study that measured the economic impact of those groups and their audiences in 341 communities across the country and from all 50 states.

The "Arts and Economic Prosperity 5" study documents the economic contributions of the arts by looking at full-time equivalent jobs, resident household income, and revenue to local and state governments.

“When businesses look at El Paso, they consider what type of quality of life their employees will have in our community. By investing in arts and culture, El Paso is demonstrating how this sector of our economy completes the big picture of what we have to offer,” Deputy City Manager for Economic Development and Tourism Cary Westin said in a statement.

In El Paso, the industry supported nearly 4,200 full-time jobs and generated $5.9 million in local and state government revenues in 2016, an increase of more than 13 percent from the original study in 2007.

This includes $24 million in economic impact to area bars and restaurants and $1.8 million in economic impact to hotels, city officials said in a statement.

MCAD collected financial data from 76 of 104 nonprofit arts and culture organizations, including theater and dance companies, museums, festivals, and arts education organizations.

The department also surveyed attendees at arts events, asking how much money they spent on items such as meals, parking and transportation, as well as retail shopping specifically as a result of attending the event.

Among the findings from El Paso:

Total expenditures by nonprofit arts and cultural organizations: $60 millionTotal expenditures by audiences: $43.5 millionTotal reported attendance to arts/cultural events: 2 millionDirect economic impact of audience expenditures induced by attendance to nonprofit arts and cultural events: $43.5 million

“The arts are engrained in the culture of El Paso, and it is big part of who we are as a community,” Tracey Jerome, director of MCAD, said in a statement. “This study demonstrates how supporting the arts has a direct correlation with the economic development and growth in our community.”

Cindy Ramirez may be reached at 546-6151; cramirez@elpasotimes.com; @EPTCindyRamirez on Twitter.

People gathered on the old Cohen Stadium infield to listen to Jenny and the Mexicats during the annual Music Under the Stars in 2017.

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This Weekend’s Open House Listings In El Paso

EL PASO, TX —Everyone loves starting off the new year with a clean slate, but it wold feel good to start it off in a new home too.

If you’re looking to find that new home in 2018, why not let the pros handle it and start with the open house listings on realtor.com.

Open house events are a great way to find the home you really want without wasting your time going house to house.

Take a look at the open houses in and near El Paso listed by our partners at realtor.com.

Would you like real estate listings and open house events delivered right your inbox? Sign up for the free Patch.com/texas newsletter for your area.

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Moscow Ballet’s ‘Nutcracker’ to feature young area dancers in El Paso performances

Each holiday season, the Plaza Theatre becomes a place where Christmas magic happens.

Sugar plum fairies, snowflakes and mice come to life. Life-sized matrushka dolls reveal dancing moors. A nutcracker becomes a prince.

They are all part of the Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker. The internationally acclaimed dance troupe will perform the holiday classic at 3 and 7 p.m. Dec. 23 and at noon Dec. 24 at Downtown’s Plaza Theatre.

Not only does the ballet feature renowned dancers from Russia, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, it features many talented, young dancers from Las Cruces and Alamogordo, as well.

More: Steve Aoki takes Kolony Tour to El Paso County Coliseum with special guest Designer

Moscow Ballet performer Romana Dumanska travelled to dance studios in Southern New Mexico earlier this year to audition young performers and prepare them for the show.

"It’s a lot of work," the Ukrainian-born dancer said during a phone interview before a performance in Indiana. "They have 2 or 4 days to learn the choreography and 8 weeks of rehearsal."

Area dance students auditioned at the Las Cruces School of Dance and Music and the Alamogordo Academy of Ballet in October. The studios are owned by Monique Foster. More than 30 students were cast in roles of party children, mice, snowflakes, snow maidens and others, to perform alongside the 40-plus professional ballerinas and dancers in the Moscow Ballet.

Ukrainian-born dancer Romana Dumanska is a performer and audition director with the Moscow Ballet.

"We worked with the teacher, Monica," Dumanska said. "All the kids were great. It’s a new thing for them. It’s really interesting for them to be able to perform with dancers from the other side of the world. I think they feel so special because of the audition and all the roles are really important to the show."

Dumanska, who dances in the show with the snowflakes, has been a member of the Moscow Ballet, travelling, performing and auditioning children for about a year.

"I come, audition kids for about two hours, work with them and spend a day doing rehearsal," Dumanska said. "We record the choreography and then the teachers rehearse with them."

By the time the ballet returns to town, all of the performers are expected to know their choreography.

Prior to joining the Moscow Ballet in the U.S., Dumanska was a ballet teacher at the Lviv School of Classical and Modern Ballet in Ukraine. She won first place for her solo performance of "Napoli" in the International Ballet and Contemporary Dance Competition in Lecce, Italy; was a finalist at the 2017 international Dance Competition in Spoleto, Italy; and was a finalist in the 2015 and 2016 Kiev Grand Prix International Ballet Competition. She has been dancing professionally since 2014, after graduating from the Lviv State Ballet School.

While dancing is Dumanska’s first love, she also gets joy from teaching dance to young students.

"The kids are really excited," Dumanska said. "I love the feeling when you see them see their costumes for the first time. (Moscow Ballet’s) costumes are beautiful and expensive and sparkly. The kids are really excited about that. They can feel the audience when they go out on stage. Kids are inspired by that and it’s a big maturation for them."

Now in its 25th year, the Moscow Ballet’s yearly Great Russian Nutcracker tour features 200 hand-sewn costumes created by one of the oldest theatrical shops in Russia. The costumes were recently renovated about two years ago. The show also features five hand-painted backdrops designed by the concept designer of the hit musical movie "La La Land," Carl Sprague.

The Great Russian Nutcracker also features scenes and characters not seen in other Nutcracker productions, such as the Russian Troika Sleigh and the Dove of Peace, created by two dancers, each with one 20-foot wing.

More: Gather your friends and family, popular Fred Loya Christmas lights show kicks off soon

Dumanska said that touring with the Moscow Ballet has been unlike any of her other experiences as a professional dancer.

"The Moscow Ballet is a big professional group and everyone has a good level of (expertise)," Dumanska said. "You see a lot of American cities and learn the culture and speak with people. (Americans) are so sweet. It’s nice to give something and take something, emotionally. Audiences are really thankful and you get to see the kids improve and do what they love."

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.

Make plans

What: Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker

When: 3 and 7 p.m. Dec. 23 and noon Dec. 24

Where: Plaza Theatre, Downtown

Tickets; $28-$175; Plaza Theatre Box Office, Ticketmaster outlets, 800-745-3000, ticketmaster.com, nutcracker.com

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El Paso’s largest garment factory gets new CEO

El Paso’s largest garment factory, which employs mostly people with physical and mental disabilities, has hired Luis Alvarez as its new CEO. Wochit

Luis Alvarez brings 35 years of manufacturing expertise to ReadyOne, which mostly employs workers with disabilities

Luis Alvarez was enjoying semi-retirement in San Antonio after a 35-year career in the manufacturing industry, including managing factories in Mexico for several years, when he took a big detour to El Paso.

He’s the new chief executive officer of ReadyOne Industries, which operates El Paso’s largest garment factory and other smaller enterprises.

It’s one of El Paso’s largest private employers with about 1,100 employees, and is the city’s largest employer of people with mental and physical disabilities. It mostly makes uniforms and other garments for U.S. military branches.

Alvarez’s first day on the job at the not-for-profit company was Nov. 27.

Since March, the 56-year-old Alvarez was in semi-retirement mode, but kept his hand in business by sitting on boards of companies in China, San Francisco. and Denver, and doing business consulting for those companies. That took him on recent trips to China, Asia and Europe, he said. He was living a life he’d dreamt about, he said.

"I was having fun, it was exciting,and everything," Alvarez said recently during an interview in his new office at ReadyOne’s East El Paso headquarters . "I guess in a way, though, I missed the day-to-day responsibility of running a large company."

He left his job in March as president of Lancer Corp., a large, Japanese-owned manufacturer of soda fountain machines with annual sales of about $200 million and about 1,500 employees worldwide, including at factories in San Antonio, Australia, India, Belgium, and Mexico. Its main customers were Coca-Cola and Pepsi, he said.

He worked as an executive at San Antonio-based Lancer for 11 years, including seven years as president, and helped improve its manufacturing processes and grow the company, he said.

ReadyOne Industrie’ headquarters and main garment factory is located at 1414 Ability Drive in East El Paso.

In August, a head hunter called him about the ReadyOne CEO job.

He liked what he saw at ReadyOne and liked the idea of working for a company with the mission to employ people with disabilities.

“It’s a feel-good thing,” he said. It also brought him back to the large-company environment he missed.

Gary Hedrick, former El Paso Electric CEO who is chairman of the ReadyOne board of directors, said a national search firm found 20 candidates for the ReadyOne CEO job, and the board narrowed that to five finalists.

The board unanimously picked Alvarez because of his “rich background” in various manufacturing companies and because of his “cultural fit,” Hedrick said

“He is bilingual, and we thought he’d understand this community better than some of the other candidates,” Hedrick said.

Alvarez grew up in San Diego, where he did a lot of surfing. He now likes to swim, bike, and run.

He spent some of his early school years in Tijuana, Mexico, and he lived in the Mexican towns of Puebla and Leon with his Mexican-born wife and their two children, now in college, for five years when he managed automotive-bumper factories in Mexico for the French company Plastic Omnium.

His family has lived in San Antonio the last 11 years.

He replaces Tony Martinez, an El Paso lawyer who served as CEO for just over three years. He left in February for personal reasons, and was temporarily replaced by Tom Ahmann, a garment industry veteran who came out of retirement to serve several stints as ReadyOne CEO over the last 10 years.

Alvarez’s salary wasn’t disclosed. But Hedrick said he will be paid more than Martinez, who, according to Internal Revenue Service documents filed by ReadyOne, had total compensation of about $266,300 in 2015, the latest available information.

Ahmann, who was on ReadyOne’s CEO selection committee, said it will be easy for Alvarez to pick up the skills for government contracting and running a company aimed at hiring mostly people with physical and mental disabilities. Alvarez’s manufacturing and marketing expertise is what’s valuable, he said.

Alvarez comes to the company just as it picked up $90 million in new government contracts to make military uniforms. That’s expected to more than double ReadyOne’s sales next year from this year’s estimated $67 million, Ahmann said.

The company in October announced it was hiring 500 people due to the new contracts, and so far has hired only about 100 people because it’s difficult to find workers in El Paso’s current low-unemployment environment, Ahmann said.

Besides the company’s not-for-profit division, which employs the bulk of its workforce, it also has a for-profit division, named Roicom, which does work for a jean maker and the U.S. Postal Service. Roicom workers do not have to disabilities.

Juanita Ramirez works on a military jacket at ReadyOne Industries’ garment factory in East El Paso. She has worked at the company for 13 years.

Both divisions operate garment factories — the not-for-profit at 1414 Ability Drive, and the smaller, for-profit factory at 12100 Esther Lama Drive in East El Paso. Both factories will be involved with the new military garment contracts, Ahmann has said.

ReadyOne also operates a box-making operation at 11460 Pellicano Drive with about 100 employees, and a small call center with about 15 employees, which include both disabled and regular workers.

"We sell boxes for Juárez maquilas now, and there’s possible growth opportunities" by getting more companies in the maquiladora, or manufacturing sector, in Juárez and other parts of Mexico, to buy ReadyOne-made boxes for their products, Alvarez said.

"Part of my function is to grow the business," and create more employment, Alvarez said. "We have plenty of space and capacity to do more."

He’s a certified lean-manufacturing teacher, and plans to implement a "cost of waste initiative" at ReadyOne in the future, he said.

"Part of being lean is to look for cost reductions without affecting employment," Alvarez said. "People think leans means cost cutting, but lean’s first priority is customer satisfaction. Once you have satisfied customers, you can grow."

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

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Thousands of free Thanksgiving meals served across El Paso

EL PASO, Texas – A warm Thanksgiving meal, with plenty of seconds, means a lot to Anthony Sharp and his son A.J.

Sharp has hit some tough times, and is out of work. He said he’s grateful the Salvation Army opened its doors.

"This meal is something that I could not prepare myself without the proper equipment or the proper funding. Without the salvation army, this would just be another day for us," Sharp said. "It’s just — it’s more than words can say."

The Salvation Army provided free Thanksgiving meals to over 500 people on Thursday.

"They’ve helped me to reestablish footing in life with food and clothing and shelter," Sharp said.

Similarly, the City of El Paso helped feed those who are less fortunate. Organizers said they estimated they fed 4,000 people at the Thanksgiving luncheon held at the Convention Center.

"It was my wife’s idea to give something back to the El Paso community on thanksgiving day. Rather than staying at home and cooking turkey with our family, we found a way to feed the homeless and the needy," former mayor John Cook said.

Eric Massingill went to the luncheon with his wife and parents.

"I’m actually grateful that the community here is opening their heart for everybody that — if maybe they don’t have a place to call home or go to their own home and make their own turkey dinner," Massingill said.

Jalisco Cafe, a Mexican restaurant in the Segundo Barrio neighborhood, continues its 14-year tradition of offering free meals for Thanksgiving.

"We give something back to the community because a lot of people here, it’s a poor neighborhood," owner Hector Chavez said. "A lot of people don’t have the means or the ways to cook Thanksgiving dinner. It’s something I just like to give back to the community."

Chavez said in his first year, he only cooked three turkeys. He prepared 35 turkeys for this Thursday.

"I’ve been cooking for the last two days," Chavez said.

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El Paso’s Sparta set to play first hometown show in nearly 5 years

(Photo: Times file)

It’s official: Sparta is back.

The longtime El Paso alternative-rock band announced Monday that it will perform Dec. 16 at Tricky Falls, 209 S. El Paso St. It will be Sparta’s first hometown concert in nearly five years.

The concert is a benefit for the El Paso Community Foundation. Tickets for the concert are free and may be reserved beginning at noon Wednesday at trickyfalls.com.

Donations will be accepted at the event.

"I’m excited to continue working with the El Paso Community Foundation to use live music, which I love dearly, to raise money for our community," Jim Ward, a member of Sparta and a board member of the El Paso Community Foundation, said in a news release. "Our hope is to continue developing a program that balances music and charity to benefit multiple areas of need in the El Paso/Juarez area."

Sparta, led by El Paso musician and business-owner Ward, was formed in 2001 when the critically acclaimed El Paso group At the Drive-In splintered into two camps. Ward, guitarist Paul Hinojos and drummer Tony Hajjar formed Sparta’s original lineup, later adding fellow El Pasoan Matt Miller on bass. Singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez formed the group The Mars Volta.

Sparta enjoyed its own critical and fan success, releasing three albums, "Wiretap Scars," "Porcelain" and "Threes," between 2002 and 2006. In 2008, the group went on hiatus, with Ward focusing on his alt-country group Sleepercar and solo work.

On Monday, Sparta released its first new music since 2012. The new single, "Graveyard Luck," is available for purchase on iTunes and on streaming services such as Apple Music.

The band is currently made up of Ward, Miller, guitarist Gabriel Gonzalez, and drummer Cully Symington.

El Paso band Emily Davis and the Murder Police will open the concert.

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.

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Renowned pianist Dzmitry Ulasiuk to perform in El Paso

Renowned pianist Dzmitry Ulasiuk, from Belarus, will give a series of concerts and lectures Tuesday through Thursday in El Paso.

The series includes two free concerts, which are open to the public, Wednesday. Ulasiuk will give a lecture-recital on composer and pianist Aleksandr Scriabin from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Fox Fine Arts Center, Room 140, on the University of Texas at El Paso campus; and will perform works by Chopin, Ravel and Scriabin at 7:30 p.m. at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 5005 Love Road.

Ulasiuk has performed internationally as a soloist and is the winner of several international piano competitions. He is currently the official staff accompanist for the International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival piano competition, held in Fort Collins, Colo.

Ulasiuk is known for his passionate performances, musicality and lyricism, as well as his embodiment of Russian piano techniques.

Ulasiuk also will give master classes and perform for Coronado High students Tuesday, followed by a private recital later that evening. On Thursday, Ulasiuk will give a presentation on teaching techniques for El Paso Music Teachers Association members and give master classes and a minirecital for students at Franklin High.

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.

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Explore The Southwest – Take A Trip To El Paso!

From unique landmarks to beautiful outdoor destinations to museums and family attractions, El Paso has exciting interest points for first time visitors, yearly tourists and locals alike. People of all ages can take the time to get out and explore the Wyler Ariel Tramway or the Franklin Mountains State Park.

If you have children in tow, take them to visit the El Paso Zoo, or stop by the National Border Patrol Museum. It does not matter what attraction you want to see, or what you want to do, it is located within minutes from downtown El Paso.

Hueco Tanks State Historic Park

Located a little over 30 miles from El Paso, the Hueco Tanks State Historic Park covers over 860 acres and it is named for the many natural rock basins in the area that trap rainwater. These basins are known as huecos.

In addition to these basins, the park also has other features like a ranch house, rock paintings and also a stagecoach station. There are also a range of outdoor activities that can be enjoyed by everyone in your group including:

Camping
Hiking
Bouldering
Rock climbing
Picnic sites
Guided tours

Wyler Ariel Tramway

You can enjoy a completely different view of El Paso when you ride on this popular tourist attraction. While traveling over 5600 feet above sea level, you will reach the summit of Ranger Peak. This is a Swiss-created gondola that allows visitors the opportunity to go up to an observation deck where they can overlook the entire city. The cacti garden will help cement your experience on the Tramway.

As a gateway to the southwest, El Paso is a city that gives visitors the chance to explore natural scenery. With the abundance of activities and attractions, El Paso has something for everyone.

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Atlas Genius shares favorite guitarists ahead of El Paso show

Atlas Genius (Photo: Courtesy of Anna Maria Lopez/Press Here Publicity)

Australian duo Atlas Genius recently released its first new song in two years, "63 Days."

That doesn’t mean the duo, now based in L.A., has been resting on its laurels. Brothers Keith and Michael Jeffery have appeared on numerous late night TV shows, toured with acts such as Imagine Dragons, Incubus and Jimy Eat World.

Atlas Duo are set to perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Lowbrow Palace. Tickets for the show are $20 at ticketfly.com.

Magic Giant and Half the Animal also will perform.

Ahead of the show, guitarist and vocalist Keith Jeffery listed his Top 5 favorite guitarists for The Beat:

Angus Young (AC/DC)

Jeffery: He’s Australian, he’s been rocking those school boy shorts for over 40 years and nobody plays a solo that can keep 50,000 people enthralled like that guy.

Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin)

Jeffery: He was the mastermind because of so many legendary riffs, tones, and weird-ass psychedelic moments. His playing was sloppy, frantic, and delicate with more vibe than a NYC dive bar. Somehow morphed from the debaucherous into the classy, elder statesman of rock that he is today.

Stevie Ray Vaughan

Jeffery: Fast, bluesy and THAT tone! Nobody has sold more Fender Stratocasters since Hendrix. If he was a one-trick-pony, what an incredible trick that was.

Kurt Cobain

Jeffery: Never the most technically proficient, yet the most captivating guitarist I’ve ever seen (on video at least). There was life before Nirvana, and then a devastated landscape after. Nobody touched me the way Nirvana did.

John Frusciant

Jeffery: Funk guitar that went beyond one-chord vamps. Songs that made me wanna dance, even though I couldn’t, and then songs that ripped my heart out. One of the best Strat tones ever! And he was soooo young when then came out with "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"!!

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.

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Owners of El Paso Chihuahuas seek soccer team, stadium

William Yarbrough FC Leon Goal Keeper talks about the team during 2016’s soccer match at Southwest University Park.

Mark Lambie – El Paso Times

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Whether a controversial Downtown multipurpose arena will ever get built is still up in the air, but that’s not stopping the owners of the El Paso Chihuahuas baseball team from pursuing another stadium in an effort to recruit a minor league soccer team.

Alan Ledford, president of MountainStar Sports Group, said the group is talking to city and county officials about getting financial help to build what likely would be a 7,500-seat stadium. That’s the same seating capacity as Downtown’s $78 million Southwest University Park, where the Chihuahuas play, and the city helped finance mostly with hotel taxes.

A new stadium is needed to get an El Paso team in the United Soccer League, or USL, Ledford said.

The league is adding expansion teams to form a third conference, most likely in 2019, and is looking at El Paso as a potential expansion city, according to a USL official.

The USL is "kind of like Triple-A baseball," of which the El Paso Chihuahuas are a part, for pro soccer, Ledford said.

MountainStar Sports Group President Alan Ledford at Southwest University Park in Downtown El Paso. The group is pursuing a United Soccer League expansion team and Downtown-area soccer stadium.

MountainStar in June 2014 announced plans to pursue a Major League Soccer, or MLS, team for El Paso. But the group discovered El Paso doesn’t fit the MLS’ metrics for a team, including TV market size, and having a certain number of corporate headquarters in the area, Ledford said.

"After talking to people in the professional soccer world, the commissioner of the MLS, and the USL, it became clear the USL would be a great fit for El Paso," Ledford said.

The USL has 30 teams, including teams in San Antonio, Phoenix, Reno, and even Edinburg, Texas, which entered the league in 2016.

It currently has five expansion teams: Las Vegas, Nashville, and Fresno, Calif., that will begin playing in 2018; and Austin and Birmingham, Ala., which will start playing in 2019.

The USL has set a 2020 deadline for all its teams to be in soccer-specific stadiums. And it prefers those stadiums be located in or near a city’s downtown, Ledford said.

Rendering of the proposed 10,000-seat soccer stadium to be built in Louisville for its United Soccer League team. The stadium is expected to cost about $40 million to build, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper.

MountainStar "would potentially get both the city and county involved" in building a soccer stadium, Ledford said.

"We are in ongoing discussions" with city and county officials, he said.

Problems with getting a proposed Downtown arena built" plays no factor in this," Ledford said.

MountainStar in September began an advertising campaign supporting the proposed $180 million multipurpose arena, approved by voters in a 2012 bond referendum.

The campaign is aimed at countering efforts by a group of El Paso preservationists and community activists, who are pushing to stop the city from putting the proposed arena in the Duranguito neighborhood, which is in the Union Plaza entertainment district, next to the Downtown convention center.

The fate of the project is tied up by a court battle between the city and some of the arena-site opponents.

More: Nearly a month after Duranguito demolition, volunteers keep watch at Chihuahua Street camp

Even as the arena debate boils, Ledford said he sees "enthusiasm in the community at large for the opportunity" for an El Paso soccer team and stadium.

Mayor Dee Margo declined an interview with the El Paso Times this week about the potential of the city getting involved with building a soccer stadium. Margo and other city officials were in Washington, D.C., attending the Association of the United States Army annual meeting.

Margo’s office issued a statement from the mayor confirming city officials have engaged in "preliminary conversations with MountainStar regarding a professional soccer team" for El Paso.

Former County Judge Veronica Escobar and County Commissioner David Stout, who represents the Central El Paso area, including Downtown, said they and other county officials have discussed the stadium idea with MountainStar officials.

MountainStar officials are "working with the county administrator, and they soon should have some type of more concrete plan to present to the court" about a proposed soccer stadium, Stout said this week from Mexico City, where he was on vacation.

"It may be a contentious issue in light of what is going on with the (Downtown) arena," Stout said.

"I definitely think on the county’s and my behalf (that) there will be complete transparency" in any soccer stadium plans that involve the county, Stout said.

"We don’t need to be shoving this down people’s throats. We need time for the public process," Stout said.

Stout opposes putting the city’s proposed multipurpose arena in the Duranguito neighborhood. But, he said, he’s not opposed to a Downtown sports arena.

An arena and soccer stadium would help revitalize Downtown by drawing more people to the area for games and other events, he said.

Esocobar, now running to represent El Paso in the United States Congress, agreed that the Downtown arena controversy makes it more difficult to get public support for a Downtown soccer stadium.

"You need public involvement and community buy-in, and I think it’s possible," Escobar said. "If the county did it (soccer stadium) alone, then the arena (issue) doesn’t need to be settled (first)."

"My preference would be a county soccer stadium," Escobar said. "But if not the county, then some kind of city-county collaboration on building it. The ideal revenue source would be hotel taxes" so that property owners don’t have to pay for it, she said.

"Soccer is such a huge hit in El Paso and our region. I think soccer would be bigger than baseball" for this area, she said.

The USL issued a statement that said league officials "have spoken to, and been extremely impressed with, the (El Paso) group spearheading the effort to bring the excitement of professional soccer to the region."

"We believe El Paso has all the ingredients to become home to a first-class professional soccer (team)," according to the USL statement.

Woody Hunt, speaking to news reporters in 2012 outside City Council chambers, and left to right in back, Josh Hunt, Paul Foster,and Alejandra De La Vega, owners of MountainStar Sports Group.

The statement added that MountainStar has a proven track record with its successful operation of the El Paso Chihuahuas.

The group also owns the FC Juárez Bravos soccer team across the U.S.-Mexico border. The Bravos periodically play games at Southwest University Park in El Paso.

MountainStar is owned by Woody Hunt, and his son Josh Hunt, who operate Hunt Companies, a national real estate development and property-management group based in El Paso; Paul Foster, founder of the former Western Refining company, which in June was sold to San Antonio-based Andeavor; and Foster’s wife Alejandra De La Vega Foster, who heads the Innovation and Economic Development Department for the state of Chihuahua, Mexico.

Ledford said MountainStar has spent the last three years looking at potential soccer stadium sites in and around the Downtown area.

"We have several (potential sites) that look promising. I am not prepared to talk about where," Ledford said.

Finding a site Downtown is challenging because not as much land is available as in other areas of the city, Ledford said.

The group also has looked at the former Asarco copper-smelter site just northwest of Downtown, Ledford said.

The University of Texas Board of Regents in late 2016 approved negotiating with the site’s trustee to buy almost 460 acres for UTEP’s expansion, including the main 210-acre site located between Interstate 10 and the Rio Grande, where Asarco operated a copper smelter for 126 years. Only 50 to 70 acres of the other rugged, hilly 248 acres, next to the UTEP campus, could be developed.

The former Asarco copper smelter site northwest of Downtown is one possible site being considered by MountainStar Sports Group for a proposed soccer stadium.

UTEP officials declined to discuss anything about the land until its purchased by the UT System.

However, UTEP President Diana Natalicio at a recent press conference offered to lease 200 acres of the Asarco site to Amazon, if it wanted to put its proposed second North American headquarters there, according to TV and print reports. The El Paso area and dozens of other metro areas around the country are expected to submit proposals in Amazon’s HQ2 competition.

The El Paso County Coliseum, located at 4100 E. Paisano in South Central El Paso, has been rumored as another possible soccer stadium site.

Commissioner Stout said he hadn’t heard that rumor, but, he said, the county can’t do anything with the coliseum until 2021 when its lease expires with the El Paso Sports Commission, which operates it for the county.

Ledford said having the USL team temporarily play in an existing El Paso stadium until a new one is built is not an option.

"Our focus is to be in a new stadium when (an El Paso team) starts in the league," he said.

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

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Dutch duo Yellow Claw shares Top 5 ahead of El Paso concert

Dutch EDM duo Yellow Claw. (Photo: Courtesy)

Dutch trap and EDM duo Yellow Claw are set to perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at Buchanan’s Event Center, 11540 Pellicano.

Tickets are available for $26 at eventbrite.com.

Ahead of the show, Jim Aasgier and Nizzle shared their Top 5 go-to airport meals.

Starbucks

Yellow Claw: The Starbucks croissant has nothing to do with a real French croissant. But it’s warm and works with a cup of coffee. Perfect for those early flights that make us leave the hotel before breakfast is served.

Panda Express

Yellow Claw: Damn. I think we ate this stuff the most throughout our touring years. Probably because or love for Indonesian food and rice based cuisine. But this stuff is nothing like that. A sorry excuse even. But we seem to forget this every time we’ really really hungry.

Las Vegas juice bar

Yellow Claw: Like many people know, we go to Vegas a lot. There’s this juice spot over at the 30-40 gates. You don’t wanna have the stuff they normally serve but if you ask for a juice without all the ice, no sugar and add some ginger etc. You can get your vitamins on for sure.

Yogurt and granola

Yellow Claw: One of those lesser bad things to eat when you’re at an airport and experiencing munchies. They sell it everywhere. Sometimes they don’t separate the granola from the yogurt. Then you’re automatically eating Bircher Muesli, that German stuff.

Qdoba

On this list, our No. 1 spot has to be the taco shell salad from the Qdoba Mexican food spots. It’s honestly the best thing available. Low on carbs if you don’t eat the shell, chicken for protein and your daily dose of veggies. We’ve had times we couldn’t stand them, we’ve known times we ate these bad boys every day for two weeks straight.

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.

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El Paso students host concert and supply drive to benefit Houston and Mexico

EL PASO, T.X. – El Paso students hosted a supply drive downtown Sunday to benefit Houston and Mexico, inviting the local community to donate items for those in need.

The event, called "El Paso Together for Houston" started at 6 p.m. in San Jacinto Plaza and ended at 11 p.m.

UTEP student Maria Fuentes had the original idea for the supply drive after watching the devastation from the Houston floods on television.

"It doesn’t matter where you’re from," Fuentes said. "The thing is to get together as humanity and help each other."

Fuentes said she originally planned the event provide assistance to victims of the Houston flooding, but after Mexico’s devastating earthquake, the group decided to gather items to send south as well.

"People from around the world are able to get together and bring help toward those in need," Fuentes said.

The student governments at El Paso Community College and UTEP joined UTEP students for public health as well as local high school students.

"We never know when disaster’s going to happen here in El Paso," said Abner Moreno, a UTEP student who lived in Houston over the summer.

Moreno said he was able to evacuate before witnessing the deadly flooding.

"(We need to) extend our hand to other communities are suffering right now," Moreno said.

Several local bands played, including FrenZi, San Ligre, Condor, Say Verse and Speak no Evil.

The groups gathered for water bottles, toiletries, baby food, pillows, blankets, first aid supplies and pet food.

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Pablo Francisco headlines Comic Strip in El Paso this weekend

"Here We Go Again."

But fans of longtime comedian Pablo Francisco won’t be complaining when the funnyman returns to the El Paso Comic Strip Comedy Club Thursday through Saturday.

The show features new material Francisco has been working on ahead of a new one-hour special, to be titled, "Here We Go Again."

Francisco became known for his off-the-wall characters and impersonations on his two one-hour Comedy Central specials, "They Put It Out There" and "Ouch!" — as well as his stint on Fox’s sketch-comedy show "Mad TV." Later this year, Francisco will be featured on the new MTV show, "Acting Out."

Francisco took a brief break from standup, but returned to the stage, and El Paso, in 2016.

"I missed (performing)," Francisco said during an interview ahead of his show at the Comic Strip last year. "YouTube and the Internet have been so good to me, but I decided to go out there and try some new stuff. I always miss it. I just like to jump up there and have fun with it."

Ahead of his return performances this week, Francisco shared his Top 5 reasons for returning to perform in the Sun City with the El Paso Times entertainment blog, The Beat:

The women

Francisco: There’s a lot of hot Mexican women. Lord knows that’s a good thing.

Home improvement

Francisco: Since I am Latino and white mixed up in one, I can hang out at Home Depot and Lowe’s.

Sentiment

Francisco: I love the fact that the Comic Strip was my very first out-of-town comedy club that I performed at when I got started.

Culture

Francisco: TEXAS and MEXICANS IS A GOOD MIX.

Late-night eats

Francisco: When I am partying, only in El Paso, Taco Cabana is open late to help me prepare for my hangover.

Dave Acosta may be reached at 546-6138; dacosta@elpasotimes.com; @Chuy_Vuitton on Twitter.

Make plans

Who: Standup comedian and actor Pablo Francisco

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Where: El Paso Comic Strip Comedy Club, 1201 Airway Blvd.

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Cabela’s set to open in new $100 million West El Paso center

Cabela’s, an outdoor sporting goods chain known for its mammoth, tourist-destination stores, plans to open a smaller-format store Sept. 14 in West Towne Marketplace in West El Paso.

Wochit

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The Cabela’s outdoor sporting goods chain plans to open its first El Paso store this month — the first retailer to open in the $100 million West Towne Marketplace in West El Paso.

Cabela’s was known most for its mammoth, tourist-destination stores. But the 50,000-square-foot El Paso outlet is one of its smaller-format stores, which is now the chain’s focus.

The store in West Towne, located at Interstate 10 and Paseo del Norte (Artcraft Road), is set to open Sept. 14. Some sneak preview events will be held for special guests and the news media several days before the public opening.

The store features an archery range, gun hub kiosk and several mounted animal trophies. It employs about 125 people.

The store will open just as Cabela’s is being acquired by Bass Pro Shops, another outdoor sporting goods chain also operating large, destination-type stores. The $5 billion deal is expected to be completed this month.

The PetSmart and T.J.Maxx/HomeGoods stores are set to open in late September and early October in the new West Towne Marketplace in West El Paso.

Cabela’s will be the first of a string of stores and restaurants to open from mid-September through the middle of next year in West Towne, said Adam Frank, president of River Oaks Properties, which developed the 500,000-square-foot shopping center.

River Oaks is a large El Paso shopping center development company owned by Gerald Rubin, founder of Helen of Troy, the El Paso consumers products company he left in 2014. He’s River Oaks’ chief executive officer.

PetSmart is scheduled to open in late September, followed by the T.J.Maxx/HomeGoods store in early October, Frank said. The name signs on those stores are already in place in one row of buildings above Cabela’s.

The 500,000-square-foot West Towne Marketplace is located at Interstate 10 and Paseo del Norte (Artcraft Road) in West El Paso.

Cabela’s is one of three large anchors in West Towne. The others are a Walmart Supercenter, which is to be under construction soon and is expected to open by the middle of next year, and a movie theater, which likely won’t open until 2019, Frank said. River Oaks has not yet announced which company will locate a movie theater on an empty lot next to Cabela’s.

Other announced tenants: Ross Dress for Less, Rack Room Shoes, Tuesday Morning; Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, Boss Tenders, Dogs & Custard, Pieology Pizzeria, and Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt.

More information: ropelpaso.com/new-projects

Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.

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