The El Paso Chihuahuas swept into the desert and swiped hearts in the spring of 2014. And that continued into 2015 — with a flourish.

Game nights are forever the same. Men, women, children, familes and fans of all shapes and sizes, walk happily toward their beautiful new ball park, Southwest University Park, almost all clad in red Chihuahua shirts and/or Chihuahua caps. They come early and they stay late and their attendance has been a constant.

"The theme established in 2014 has been continued," said Alan Ledford, president of MountainStar Sports, the team's ownership group.

"Everything about it has exceeded our expectations. The fan support, the fan enthusiasm has been amazing. I've never seen a minor league baseball crowd as enthusiastic in its support ... and that has been backed up by the big league players who have been here. They stay late and they support the team until the final out."

Read more: http://www.elpasotimes.com/sports/ci_28730182/el-paso-times

[font color=330099]Somewhere in the distance I hear El Supremo's heart fluttering. (or is he passing gas instead?)[/font]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for mass deportation of millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, as well as their American-born children, bears similarities to a large-scale removal that many Mexican-American families faced 85 years ago.

During the Great Depression, counties and cities in the American Southwest and Midwest forced Mexican immigrants and their families to leave the U.S. over concerns they were taking jobs away from whites despite their legal right to stay.

The result: Around 500,000 to 1 million Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans were pushed out of the country during the 1930s repatriation, as the removal is sometimes called.

During that time, immigrants were rounded up and sent to Mexico, sometimes in public places and often without formal proceedings. Others, scared under the threat of violence, left voluntarily.

Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/national-news/2015-08-31/trumps-mass-deportation-idea-was-tried-30s#comment-379644

It won’t be the trial of the century, but the legal problems of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton could become, if nothing else, a major distraction, not just for his office, but for top officials in the state government.

This has been evident since early August when a grand jury in predominantly-conservative Collin County, Paxton’s home base, indicted him on charges of violating Texas securities laws. And it became more evident Thursday when Paxton pleaded not guilty in a Fort Worth courthouse.

Paxton faces two counts of securities fraud over allegations that in 2011 he deceived investors — including a colleague when he served in the Texas House — because he failed to disclose that a startup tech company he asked them to invest in paid him to sell shares.

People who watched the televised hearing heard his objections to TV cameras in the courtroom; that he wants to be tried in Collin County, not in Judge George Gallagher’s courtroom in Fort Worth; and — the biggest surprise — that his defense attorney stopped representing him.

Read more: http://amarillo.com/opinion/editorial/2015-08-30/rangel-paxtons-problems-could-plague-texas-gop

[font color=330099]Yes, let the butt-hurt commence![/font]

DES MOINES, Iowa — U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, stumping here Sunday for Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, questioned her chief primary opponent's commitment to the Latino community, saying U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders has "hardly at all" reached out to the growing voting bloc.

"I want to say this in all frankness. I didn't come here to knock any of the candidates, but Sen. Sanders has not reached out to the Hispanic caucus in Congress, has not reached out to me. I've never met the gentleman. {He} has not visited Texas or the Rio Grande Valley," Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, said during a stop at a Mexican restaurant in Des Moines. "That's a bit of a concern."

Contrary to Castro's statement, Sanders has visited Texas as a candidate, holding July rallies in Dallas and Houston that drew thousands of supporters.

Castro went on to suggest Sanders, a Vermont independent running for president as a Democrat, has been missing in action as some Republican candidates, including bomb-throwing businessman Donald Trump, have intensified their attacks on people in the country illegally. Earlier in the event, Castro said Latinos "have become a piñata" in the 2016 race.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/08/30/castro-questions-sanders-commitment-latino-communi/

[font color=330099]Note: I have not decided which candidate I will be voting for in the Texas primary in March. I'm posting this article to report the news, so please don't accuse me of showing any bias. Thank you.[/font]

NEW YORK -- NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady are expected back in a New York courtroom after failing to settle the "Deflategate" case.

U.S. District Judge Richard Berman told both sides they will need to appear in federal court Monday morning for a status conference in the case.

The case centers on the legality of the NFL's suspension of Brady after Goodell concluded that he had conspired with team ball handlers to deflate footballs at a championship game in January.

The league announced in May that it was suspending Brady for four games over allegations he conspired with two Patriots equipment employees to deflate footballs below what league rules allow, to give him a competitive edge in New England's victory over the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC championship game. Goodell, who by contract with the players' union can act as an arbitrator for labor disputes, upheld the suspension, touching off the legal battle.

Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article32846499.html

UNIVERSITY PARK — George W. Bush said nothing to the crowd the night he took the mound at Yankee Stadium, only a few miles from where he had shouted through a bullhorn to people digging through the wreckage of the World Trade Center less than two months earlier.

Wearing a bulletproof vest, the president flashed a thumbs-up to the crowd, then threw a perfect strike before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a signal to the country that the healing could begin.

“It was so moving, so powerful, that it lifted our nation,” sportscaster Jim Gray said Sunday night at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. “What President Bush told us without uttering a single word, was that we could once again attempt to carry on our lives. ... What an amazing symbol it was.”

Bush, members of his administration, Gray and a packed crowd of invitation-only guests were on hand for a special premiere of the latest ESPN 30 for 30 Shorts, which focuses on that ceremonial first pitch. The documentary, appropriately titled “First Pitch,” will debut on ESPN a week from Friday, on the 14th anniversary of 9/11.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/park-cities/headlines/20150830-george-w.-bush-talks-about-pitch-that-lifted-our-nation-inspired-30-for-30-film.ece

ETA:

How many times have you read about a workplace shooting, and the employees said something like, “I’m not surprised he did this,” or, “He always gave me the creeps, but I never thought he’d actually kill anybody”?

Workplace violence will never disappear, as illustrated all too frighteningly by this week's on-air shootings in Roanoke, Virginia. That’s why people have to be educated. Remember the Washington Navy Yard shootings two years ago next month? I'm a security executive who appeared on CNBC at the time to discuss that incident as well as the prevention of future ones.

As I said at the time -- and still do -- unfortunately there’s no magic pill, no super-technology to prevent violence on the job.

I remember how the CNBC anchor for that interview asked why the NSA, or other high-tech agency, could pick up people’s online chattering but not prevent workplace shootings?

Read more: http://www.chron.com/jobs/article/12-ways-to-spot-a-potentially-violent-person-in-6474832.php

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will change the name of North America's tallest mountain peak from Mount McKinley to Denali, the White House said Sunday, bestowing the traditional Alaska Native name on the eve of a historic presidential visit to Alaska.

By renaming the peak Denali, an Athabascan word meaning "the high one," Obama is wading into a sensitive and decades-old conflict between residents of Alaska and Ohio. Alaskans have informally called the 20,320-foot mountain Denali for years, but the federal government recognizes its name invoking the 25th president, William McKinley, who was born in Ohio and assassinated early in his second term.

"With our own sense of reverence for this place, we are officially renaming the mountain Denali in recognition of the traditions of Alaska Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.

The announcement came as Obama prepared to depart early Monday on a three-day visit to Alaska, becoming the first sitting president to travel north of the Arctic Circle. As part of his visit, Obama is attempting to show solidarity with Alaska Natives, and planned to hold a round-table session with a group of Alaska Natives just after arriving Monday in Anchorage.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/article/White-House-says-Mount-McKinley-to-be-renamed-6474781.php

Cross-posted in LBN.

Republican poutrage in 3, 2, 1 ...

but I want to set the record straight because the jury misinterpreted the remarks of hobbit709 on this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/107828199 #post2

I did not see the question that he asked until after the post was hidden. Hobbit and I have a cordial relationship and I knew that the question was not directed towards me, but was a question that I should ask the Congressman.

I can understand why a jury misinterpreted the post because of the ambiguous use of the pronoun "you" in the question and I thank them for being considerate and not allowing a personal attack. However, the jury made a mistake and I've asked the administrators to remove the hide from hobbit's record. Hobbit contacted me immediately to clear up the confusion and I hope that at some point in the future we can get together and share a laugh about this happening.

Thanks for letting me clear this up and I hope that the rest of the forum hosts will allow this thread to stand even though it is a "meta" discussion.