Joe Wardy | |
---|---|
48th Mayor of El Paso | |
In office 2003–2005 | |
Preceded by | Raymond Caballero |
Succeeded by | John Cook |
Personal details | |
Born | 1953 (age 69–70) |
Profession | Businessman politician |
Website | Government website (Archived) |
Joseph D. Wardy (born 1953) is the former mayor of El Paso,Texas. He was elected mayor in 2003,when he unseated incumbent mayor Raymond Caballero. Wardy was defeated by John Cook in the 2005 mayoral election.
Wardy,a businessman in the trucking industry,was generally regarded as favorable to business interests,in contrast to his predecessor's more confrontational stand against "big developers" and industries. During his term,El Paso transitioned from a mayor-council form of government to one with a "weak mayor" and appointed city manager.
Wardy is of Lebanese and Mexican descent.
On Tuesday,May 9,2006,the National Center for the Employment of the Disabled (NCED) (renamed Ready One Industries in March 2006),of which Wardy was President and CEO,was raided by over 65 agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),General Services Administration,US Army and Internal Revenue Service. The raid,which began at 8:00 am and lasted well into the evening,was part of an ongoing probe into contracts awarded. The company won contracts based on a promise that at least 75 percent of workers filling government orders would be severely disabled. Officers took over two truckloads of documents and several copied hard drives from office computers to aid in the investigation. It was soon thereafter concluded that Wardy was responsible for no wrongdoing.[ citation needed ]
Wardy was detained and questioned by police and the FBI after a screener at the El Paso International Airport detected a loaded handgun in his carry-on luggage on Wednesday,March 7,2007. Wardy was the fifth individual attempting to carry a weapon aboard an aircraft since 2005. According to FBI spokeswoman Andrea Simmons, [1] Simmons described the gun,which was confiscated by the FBI,as a .22-caliber Beretta. Wardy was released after being questioned. He was not arrested or charged,but the U.S. Attorney's Office requested that the investigation continue. [2]
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos was a Puerto Rican independence activist and militant who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army,also known as Los Macheteros, and its predecessor,the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional Puertorriqueña (FALN). In 1990,Ojeda Ríos became a fugitive of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI),wanted for his role in the 1983 Águila Blanca heist as well as a bail bond default on September 23 of that year. On September 23,2005,he was killed during an exchange of gunfire with FBI agents after they surrounded the house in Hormigueros,Puerto Rico.
The Waco siege,also known as the Waco massacre,was the siege by U.S. federal government and Texas state law enforcement officials of a compound belonging to the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians between February 28 and April 19,1993. The Branch Davidians,led by David Koresh,were headquartered at Mount Carmel Center ranch in the community of Axtell,Texas,13 miles northeast of Waco. Suspecting the group of stockpiling illegal weapons,the Bureau of Alcohol,Tobacco,and Firearms (ATF) obtained a search warrant for the compound and arrest warrants for Koresh and several of the group's members.
Raymond Caballero is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 47th mayor of El Paso from 2001 to 2003.
Tomás Jesús Yarrington Ruvalcaba is a Mexican politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party PRI. He held office as the Mayor of Matamoros from 1993 to 1995,and the Governor of Tamaulipas from 1999 to 2005. Yarrington sought nomination for the presidential elections for the PRI in 2005.
John F. Cook is an American businessman,veteran,civic leader,and member of the Paso Del Norte Group. Cook was Mayor of El Paso,Texas for two terms from 2005 to 2013. Due to the City Charter's term limits clause Cook was not eligible for a third term in 2013.
Robert Edward Jones is a Texas businessman and convicted criminal. He was formerly CEO of the National Center for Employment of the Disabled (NCED),which was based in El Paso,Texas.
Ballu Khan is an Indo-Fijian businessman of New Zealand citizenry. His company,Tui Management Services,is the joint owner with the Vanua Development Corporation (VDC) of Pacific Connex (PCX),which sells SAP software and has sought to enter the 3G mobile telephony market in Fiji. VDC is the commercial wing of the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) which administers indigenous land holdings throughout Fiji. He is also a major supporter of the Ovalau Rugby Union team.
Anthony Cobos is a politician from the State of Texas in the United States. He served as the El Paso County Judge from 2007–2011 and is a former member of the El Paso City Council. El Paso County,Texas is located on the border of the United States and Mexico.
Founded as El Paso del Norte by Spanish Franciscan friars at an important mountain pass,the area became a small agricultural producer though most settlement was south of the river where modern Mexico lies. The city was considered part of New Mexico under Spanish Conquerors and was tied economically to Santa Fe,New Mexico and the Chihuahuan mining districts of San Felipe El Real and San Josédel Parral.
The Federal Investigation Agency is a border control,criminal investigation,counter-intelligence and security agency under the control of the Interior Secretary of Pakistan,tasked with investigative jurisdiction on undertaking operations against terrorism,espionage,federal crimes,smuggling as well as infringement and other specific crimes.
National Orthodontix Mgmt,Pllc,doing business as Sun Orthodontix,and previously Orthodontix LTD,is an orthodontics office company. The company has six offices in Texas and New Mexico,including three in El Paso,one in Corpus Christi,one in Victoria,and one in Las Cruces,New Mexico. Dr. John G. Vondrak is the founder of the company. In 2010 records from the State of Texas stated that the company collected $9.6 million in Medicaid funds. In 2010 it was the second-largest biller for dental braces under Medicaid in the state.
The Fort Bliss shooting occurred on January 6,2015,when Jerry Serrato,a 48-year-old U.S. Army veteran,fatally shot Dr. Timothy Fjordbak,a psychologist,at the Veteran's Affairs clinic located on the grounds of William Beaumont Army Medical Center of Fort Bliss,Texas. No further casualties were reported during the shooting. However,the shooting and the subsequent emergency response resulted in the lock-down of the hospital and two nearby schools for nearly two hours while law enforcement officials worked to resolve the situation.
Ralph E. Seitsinger was an American businessman,furniture merchant and politician. He served as the 36th Mayor of El Paso,Texas,from 1961 until 1963. Under Mayor Seitsinger,his administration oversaw the development and early planning for several major infrastructure projects,including the North-South Freeway through downtown El Paso,Texas State Highway Loop 375,and the Lower Valley sewer plant. Seitsinger,who identified more as a businessman than a politician,cited the growth of city parks and the development of El Paso International Airport as his greatest public accomplishments. A proponent of the maquiladoras,or twin plant manufacturing concept between the U.S. and Mexico,Sietsinger's administration laid the foundation for the Chamizal settlement,which ended the Chamizal border dispute between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez in 1970. Seitsinger was the oldest living former Mayor of El Paso at the time of his death in March 2016 at the age of 100.
El Paso,Texas,held a first round of general elections on May 6,2017,to elect the mayor and city council. The run-off election was June 10,2017. Incumbent Mayor Oscar Leeser was eligible for another term,but announced in July 2016 he would not seek another term. Leeser had a cancer-related surgery in 2016,but stated that his decision was not because of his health. Instead,it was because he "ran to do things I thought were really important for our community and I did that."
Donald "Dee" Margo is an American businessman and politician who served as the 51st mayor of El Paso,Texas from 2017 to 2021.
The Tornillo tent city was a temporary immigrant detention facility for children located in Tornillo,Texas and operated by BCFS on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement. The Department termed it an "emergency influx care facility" and named it the Tornillo Influx Facility. When it was built in June 2018,the capacity was 400 minor immigrants with a one month contract. It was later expanded to a capacity of 4,000 minors. As many as 2,800 teenagers were held at the site before its closure was announced in January 2019. This made it one of the largest facilities in ORR's Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. All immigrant children had left the facility by January 11,2019. Nearly 6,200 minors cycled through the facility within the seven months it operated. The area was previously used for a few months in 2016 to process migrant families and unaccompanied minors.
On August 3,2019,a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso,Texas,United States. In the terrorist attack,a far-right white individual killed 23 people and injured 23 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime. By number of deceased victims,the incident is the sixth deadliest mass shooting in modern American history,and also the deadliest one in which the perpetrator was not among the casualties.
The 2003 El Paso mayoral election was held on May 3,2003 to elect the mayor of El Paso,Texas. It saw the election of Joe Wardy,who unseated incumbent mayor Raymond Caballero.
Antonio Jáquez Bermúdez was a Mexican businessman and politician affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
The Bandidos Motorcycle Club has been designated an outlaw motorcycle gang by the U.S. Department of Justice. The club is involved in drug trafficking,weapons trafficking,prostitution,money laundering,explosives violations,motorcycle and motorcycle-parts theft,intimidation,insurance fraud,kidnapping,robbery,theft,stolen property,counterfeiting,contraband smuggling,murder,bombings,extortion,arson and assault. The Bandidos partake in transporting and distributing cocaine and marijuana,and the production,transportation and distribution of methamphetamine. Active primarily in the Northwestern,Southeastern,Southwestern and the West Central regions,there are an estimated 800 to 1,000 Bandidos members and 93 chapters in 16 U.S. states.