Gruesome News From The Front

Mexican federal police guard the home where authorities discovered five bodies, two heads and three human torsos buried beneath a patio. The tallest building stands on the same property where the remains were found. (Adriane Jaeckle / El Paso Times)

Home heavily guarded
5 bodies, 2 heads and 3 torsos dug up
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 02/28/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

JUAREZ -- Excavators could still be heard Wednesday digging up the Juárez patio where five bodies, two heads and three torsos were unearthed in the past few days.

The white house with pink window trimming, on a small residential street off Tecnologico Avenue, was guarded by heavily armed federal police officers.

Behind the house on the property are a paved patio, which was hidden from sight Wednesday by blue and black tarp, and a conspicuous three-story concrete warehouse.

Andres Rodriguez, who works at a grocery store on an adjacent street, said that more police and forensic technicians had been going to the house every day.

"I didn't really realize what was going on. It's a sad world we're living in," he said.

On Jan. 25, about 1,500 pounds of marijuana were found during a police raid on the house.

On Feb. 21, police were back and uncovered one body in a grave. The next day, they found three bodies in another grave.

On Feb. 23, they found a body in a third grave.

Last Monday, they made a gruesome discovery in a fourth grave -- two heads and three torsos.

The identities of the victims were not released Wednesday.

Authorities said Tuesday they still had half the patio to tear up.

You can read the whole story here.

Triumph - Magic Power

Man, the clothes...the hair. Still one of my favorite songs of long ago that I'd forgotten about.

Down The Rabbit Hole

Bullseye

This AP photo shows a modified tactical SM-3 missile fired from the USS Lake Erie yesterday to destroy a non-functioning spy satellite 247 kilometers over the Pacific Ocean. Oh, and the satellite was traveling more than 17,000 mph. The Feds say they destroyed the satellite because they were afraid after impact it may release a hazardous gas. Yeah, I'll buy that but I think they were probably more afraid that maybe some top secret spy cameras or lenses might survive reentry and impact in a bad guy's back yard. Of course it was also a way to allow President Bush to allow our military to flex its muscles a bit. Apparently nothing bigger than a football is entering the atmosphere after the direct hit.

Cool

This is really clever.

Number 30

According to Lilja's Library...

A bit of Trivia for you that you may or may not know... with Duma Key King has notched up 30 number ones on the New York Times best seller list... more than any other author in the history of the list.

1 The Dead Zone Viking October 14, 1979
2 Firestarters Viking September 28, 1980
3 Cujo Viking August 23, 1981
4 Different Seasons Viking August 15, 1982
5 Pet Sematary Doubleday November 13, 1983
6 The Talisman (with Peter Straub) Viking October 28, 1984
7 Thinner (as Richard Bachman) NAL Books April 28, 1985
8 Skeleton Crew Putnam June 23, 1985
9 It Viking September 14, 1986
10 The Eyes of the Dragon Viking February 1, 1987
11 Misery Viking June 7, 1987
12 The Tommyknockers Putnam November 29, 1987
13 The Dark Half Viking November 5, 1989
14 The Stand Doubleday May 13, 1990
15 Four Past Midnight Viking September 16, 1990
16 Gerald's Game Viking July 19, 1992
17 Dolores Claiborne Viking December 6, 1992
18 Insomnia Viking October 23, 1994
19 Desperation Viking October 13, 1996
20 Bag of Bones Scribner October 11, 1998
21 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon Scribner May 2, 1999
22 Dreamcatcher Scribner April 8, 2001
23 Black House (with Peter Straub) Random House September 30, 2001
24 Everything's Eventual Scribner April 7, 2002
25 From a Buick 8 Scribner October 13, 2002
26 Song of Susannah Donald M. Grant/Scribner June 27, 2004
27 The Dark Tower Donald M. Grant/Scribner October 10, 2004
28 Cell Scribner February 12, 2006
29 Lisey's Story Scribner November 12, 2006
30 Duma Key Scribner February 10, 2008

I'm Cool

The Cool Person Test is based on how cool you were in high school. You know, who you hung out with and such. It's fairly accurate.

Word Roundup™

This game has been keeping me way too busy at work lately. :-)

Word Roundup™
Play Games
at Shockwave

Isn't That The Truth?

News From Behind The Front

It's not unusual for "hitmen" to go to a hospital to finish the job when someone is only wounded and survives the assassination attempt. When the military arrived in Juarez they were protecting the hospital that was treating the wounded police commander. Now that he has been transferred to a U.S. level 1 trauma center, law enforcement here has gone on alert and are guarding the commander.

Thomason Hospital was placed on "lockdown" Wednesday by El Paso and federal law enforcement authorities guarding a Chihuahua police commander who survived an assassination attempt.

El Paso police and sheriff's deputies stood guard outside the hospital with assault rifles. Doors were locked, and all visitors went through a metal detector in unusually tight security for the county hospital.

Cmdr. Fernando Lozano Sandoval of the Chihuahua State Investigations Agency is being treated at Thomason after surviving a mob-style ambush that occurred Monday night while he drove on a Juárez street.

Lozano, 51, had been in critical but stable condition in a Juárez hospital, where he was guarded by heavily armed Mexican soldiers. Tuesday evening, at the request of his family, he was transferred by ambulance to Thomason, Juárez authorities said.

The lockdown, which will continue for an undetermined amount of time, was ordered early Wednesday by officials with the El Paso Police Department, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

You can read the entire story here. I think I'll watch Traffic tonight.

Dilbert Fans Rejoice

This is a great widget for Dilbert lovers. Plus it's "official" and the strips are in full color. This will replace my "unofficial" widget.

More News From The Front

Not an uncommon occurrence but also not just a coincidence.

Slaying of Juárez police official is 2nd in two days
Article Launched: 01/22/2008 12:12:13 AM MST

A Juárez police commander was gunned down and killed Monday morning when more than 35 shots were fired during a mob-style shooting outside his home, police said.

Francisco Ledezma Salazar was the second municipal police official killed in Juárez in two days. On Sunday morning, Lt. Julian Chairez Hernandez was fatally shot by men who strafed his patrol car.

Late Monday, another police commander was hospitalized after being shot, Channel 26-KINT (cable Channel 2) reported.

At 7:44 a.m., Ledezma Salazar had gotten into the driver seat of a Ford Expedition to go to work when shooters in a minivan opened fire with a "cuerno de chivo" -- the nickname for an AK-47, Chihuahua state investigators said in news release. He died at the scene. Police said Ledezma Salazar's wife, who was inside the home, was shot in a foot.

Juárez police spokesman Jaime Torres said that Ledezma Salazar was in uniform and on his way to a morning meeting of police commanders. Ledezma Salazar was director of operations for the city public safety office.

"Unfortunately, it's a situation where working as part of the police force is a constant danger," Torres said.

Torres said it was unknown if there is a link between the shootings of Ledezma Salazar and Chairez Hernandez. The homicides come a week after U.S. federal agents arrested former Juárez police director Saulo Reyes Gamboa on drug-trafficking charges in El Paso.

The killings have Juárez police being asked to take "extreme precautions," including reporting any threats, suspicious vehicles and making sure no officers patrol alone.

Resistance

This is what I've been doing when everyone else goes to bed for the evening. No wonder I'm tired.

Blue Harvest

Since I missed this last year, I may have to break down and buy this DVD.

Rudy 0 Pundits 1

From Mercury

As MESSENGER approached Mercury on January 14, 2008, the spacecraft’s Narrow-Angle Camera on the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS) instrument captured this view of the planet’s rugged, cratered landscape illuminated obliquely by the Sun. The large, shadow-filled, double ringed crater to the upper right was glimpsed by Mariner 10 more than three decades ago and named Vivaldi, after the Italian composer. Its outer ring has a diameter of about 200 kilometers (about 125 miles). MESSENGER’s modern camera has revealed detail that was not well seen by Mariner 10, including the broad ancient depression overlapped by the lower-left part of the Vivaldi crater. The MESSENGER science team is in the process of evaluating later images snapped from even closer range showing features on the side of Mercury never seen by Mariner 10. It is already clear that MESSENGER’s superior camera will tell us much that could not be resolved even on the side of Mercury viewed by Mariner’s vidicon camera in the mid-1970s.

This MESSENGER image was taken from a distance of about 18,000 kilometers (11,000 miles), about 56 minutes before the spacecraft's closest encounter with Mercury. It shows a region roughly 500 kilometers (300 miles) across, and craters as small as 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) can be seen in this image.

I wish I could snap my fingers and be able to actually jump to any location such as another planet to take in the sites. Kind of like in Contact but without the machine.

News From The Front

Sometimes I think no news is good news.

Juárez's Homicide Rate Doubles In New Year
El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/15/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

Four men were killed in Juárez early Monday, continuing what has been a particularly bloody beginning of the year in Juárez.

With the shootings, there have been 24 homicides in Juárez in the first 14 days of 2008 -- or 1.7 homicide per day, double the average of 0.8 homicides per day last year. In comparison, there has only been one homicide in El Paso since Jan. 1.

Many of the victims in Juárez were young men and died in what appeared to be drug- and gang-related incidents.

"These problems between organized groups of criminals are very difficult to prevent. It's something going on between them," said Juárez municipal police spokesman Jaime Torres.

The last four homicides stem from two separate incidents Monday.

In the first, Juárez police said that they were called to the scene of a gun fight on Zafra and Cruz streets at about 4:40 a.m. They said they found the bodies of three unidentified men next to a blue, 1991 Plymouth Voyager. The men ranged in age from about 17 to about 30. Police said they think two of the three men were brothers. They died of bullet wounds.

At about 5 a.m., police went to the scene of another reported gun fight and found the body of a 30- to 35-year-old man wrapped in a brown blanket at the corner of Cotija and Caracuaro streets. The man, also unidentified Monday afternoon, died of gunshot wounds.

And this sounds like a Clint Eastwood or Akira Kurosawa movie hero should intervene since it seems the police or government aren't doing anything.

Juarenses Protest Neighborhood's Treatment
El Paso Times
Article Launched: 01/15/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

Four years after Juarenses and a Mexican industrialist squared off over a patch of land called Lomas de Poleo, little has changed, residents and supporters said Monday at a protest in front of the Mexican Consulate in El Paso.

The neighborhood on a mesa in west Juárez is still topped by a guard tower, surrounded by barbed wire, guarded by hired men and left without electricity. Residents and media reports blamed Juárez industrialist Pedro Zaragoza for harassing the residents, with whom he has a legal battle over the land.

Petra Medrano, who has been living in Lomas de Poleo for 15 years, said she lives in fear of the volatile young men who are acting as guards, denying entry to the neighborhood to anyone they please.

"We are afraid to leave Lomas de Poleo because nobody would be looking after our house. Recently, they have been robbing us," she said. "When we leave, they let in some young men who take everything from our houses."

About 35 people protested in El Paso, while a similar protest took place at the U.S. Consulate in Juárez. In El Paso, protesters gave a letter to Mexican consular officials who said they would pass it on to the federal agency in charge of land deals.

You can read an older story about Lomas de Poleo here.

Time To Go Back To Work

After an extended vacation, it has been difficult getting back into the correct mindset for work. Read "I really don't want to be here." But there are bills to be paid and mouths to be fed, and since I still haven't struck it rich on the Lotto, it's back to the grindstone and blogging of course.

This just in...how about taking your next vacation here?

Resident Evil 5 Extended Trailer

Currently the game has a U.S. release date of 2009. Bummer. Oh wait, I don't even have a PS3 yet. I guess that's a good thing. Or maybe Santa will know that I've been good all year. Regardless, in a couple of hours I'm done with work until next year. Woo hoo!

Nickels and Dimes

I was checking my NTTA tolltag account online yesterday in preparation for a visit to Dallas. I wanted to make sure I had the correct vehicle information in the system because I revise that info whenever I use a rental vehicle. They fined me a couple of years ago because I was using a rental on the tollways and did not inform them so the plates didn't match to my tolltag. My mistake so I didn't argue. I checked the vehicle information and everything was correct so I was about to log off but thought it would be interesting (for lack of a word) to see some past transactions. Lo and behold I saw a transaction during July for my vehicle. That's unsusual because I was nowhere near Addison Texas in July.

I called the customer service number and explained the situation and the friendly representative asked me some questions. When she realized that I had used a rental vehicle in June she put me on hold. When she came back she explained to me what had happened. In a nutshell, when I entered the vehicle information for the rental vehicle I used in June, the system remembers that. So when someone else rented the same vehicle in July and used the tollway and didn't pay, the system charged my account. She told me her supervisor said to fax a copy of the rental agreement showing the dates of rental and the vehicle's plate number to them in order to credit my account. I said that seemed like a lot of work for seventy cents and she agreed but that was what her supervisor wanted.

I remembered the fine the NTTA assessed me a while back and decided they weren't going to bilk me out of my hard-earned money so I asked for their fax number. After some searching I found my rental agreement from earlier in the year. It's a good thing I don't throw anything away. I made a copy of it and faxed it to the customer service department. I got my seventy cents back and feel good about it.