El Paso Times is reporting that lawyer Martie Jobe, who is reportedly one of the CCs named in Travis Ketner’s “information” paper, is suing for defamation and civil conspiracy. Thanks for confirming you’re one of the CCs listed through this lawsuit, Martie. Makes everyone’s job easier. You’re either JaneCC-1 or JaneCC-2 — those are the only females mentioned. I’ll figure it out after lunch. The suit claims Jobe has “suffered intense embarrassment, extreme anger, sleepless nights, prolonged anxiety, difficulty eating, bouts of nausea, emotional reactions and outbursts at the slightest provocation, nightmares and extreme stress.” Sounds like me after eating a lousy Chinese meal in El Paso.

Here’s a link to a PDF file of Jobe’s court petition, courtesy of El Paso Times. It’s an interesting read with a dig at the local FBI (also known as the local “Gestapo” to the editors of Border Observer).

In other news, the current heat wave has spawned another lawsuit. Former El Paso city attorney Lisa Elizondo is suing Hizzonner, the mayor, John Cook, as well as the City of El Paso for slander and violating the Texas Open Meetings Act. I don’t know what an Open Meetings Act says, but the story is a good read, especially the part that basically alleges that Cook is a world-class sexist and racist who thinks any Mexican female is not worth working with and she oughta be home tending her (presumarly) large brood of illegitimate kids. OK, I made up the part about illegitimate. And large. I don’t know how large Elizondo, or her brood, are. Elizondo was fired in 2005, and I’m surprised more Democrats haven’t jumped on her bandwagon. After all, there’s that whole Bush/Gonzalez/US Attorney thing going on right now. Or was going on, last time I rode Flossie into El Paso to read the paper and eat some char shiu at one of the city’s world-class Chinese joints.

EL PASO CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS UPDATE:
LKG Enterprises Inc. was named in the 15 May FBI search warrant — one of 22 businesses and individuals. El Paso County Commissioners Court decided to withold payment for contracted services. There’s also information about $675k in services contracted for but not received.

Meanwhile, this public corruption case is the biggest ever for the El Paso FBI office.

The Border Observer takes flight on the case, but the article soon nosedives into a wannabe political screed against corruption nationwide. South Gate, California and Maryland are mentioned as examples, presumably to shore up the local argument by the unnamed writer.

IN OTHER NEWS:
Curmudgeonly Skeptical finds some new Limousine Liberals pondering the problems of the poor. Ace journalists from the Border Observer not noted present.

Can’t say the stories will flow daily, but here are a couple of updates:

On Sunday, the El Paso Times kept the fires burning with a nothing-new-to-report report on the ongoing corruption case.

Meanwhile, Theresa Caballero, who is running for DA, weighed in on the FBI case. She seems to be gearing up for an attack on some plane, what with her questions. Jaime Esparza, do you have Internet access?? And by the way, El Paso Times, do you read blogs? You ought to read hers.

Looks like the El Paso Times is putting up all its stories on the FBI corruption investigation right here.

The FBI today interviewed “15 to 20 county employees at the courhouse.”

Government Employees Credity Union (GECU) has filed a lawsuit against both the USA and Frank Apodaca to determine which is entitled to $75k in funds that were not seized by the FBI when it seized other Apodaca assets, if I read Daniel Borunda’s article right.

Thomason Hospital Board members confronted member Arturo Duran on his allegations of misconduct by the Board members or hospital management. That won’t end well.

Here’s a PDF of the complaint against John Travis Ketner. CC this and CC that: fascinating stuff to pour through, with titillating tidbits about who the CCs are.

El Paso Fraud Case Update: On Friday, John Travis Ketner pled guilty to conspiracies ranging from mail fraud to wire fraud to bribery. He’d resigned about a month ago as Cobos’ CoS (also reported as the El Paso County Chief of Staff). El Paso Times’ Gustavo Reveles Acosta and Tammy Fonce-Olivias cover Ketner’s “short but often controversial political career.” Well, it was short, as far as being Hizzoner’s CoS. The man got the job on January 8th and resigned on May 17th.

More on Ketner’s plea here.

We’ll work on that link chart we made, and have a new version up next week.

El Pas County Commish Veronica Escobar expects more to follow. According to the article, she “had suspicions about some of the contracts that had gone before Commissioners Court.” Don’t they all, what with G-Men running around carrying footlockers of seized materiel, politicians speed-dialing local media to pooh-pooh the whole thing as a way of distancing themselves from the stink, and dire, third-hand accounts of why there’s “more to come.”

On the 5th, El Paso Times named some more names of those who were wiretapped by the FBI. They are: Beto O’Rourke, Eddie Holguin, Presi Ortega, Ysleta Independent School District Superintendent Hector Montenegro, and El Paso Times reporter David Crowder received the letters.

This investigation will all get uglier before it gets prettier.

Speaking of ugly, Hizzoner Cobos played a little low-rent politicking the other day. Seems he’s upset about the acquisition of structures over at Western Playland. Understood he wouldn’t get the vote he wanted. So he left a meeting of the Commissioners Court to deny quorum. A judge, a Playland and Sunland Park. Does it get any more interesting, or pathetic, in El Paso, Texas? I don’t think the Feds are too worried about the city buying a Slip-N-Slide. Those 22 mentioned by the Guvmint ought to be worried about the slippery slope of crime, and it’s consequences. They ought to be showing re-runs of Dragnet on the closed circuit monitors at City Hall.

Gotta learn more about this Commissioners Court and figure out why they give a flying burrito about unidentified structures at Western Playland, which in my view ought to be named Western Wasteland anyway.