This is your weekly news roundup, which takes a quick look at some developments in government, politics, education, environment and other topics across El Paso.
El Paso GOP Congressional Candidates Not Reporting Campaign Donations
The two Republican runoff candidates for El Paso’s 16th Congressional District seat have not reported raising any money for the election, according to campaign finance reports maintained by the Federal Election Commission.
Adam Bauman, a former Border Patrol agent, and Manuel Barraza, a former lawyer and judge who was disbarred and served a prison term after being convicted of federal crimes, have not filed any reports with the FEC since becoming candidates in late 2025. Federal law requires such reports after a candidate has raised or spent $5,000.
READ MORE: Republicans Adam Bauman, Manuel Barraza head to primary runoff in District 16 Congressional race
Candidates in competitive races for the U.S. House of Representatives usually raise and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars. The lack of fundraising by Republican candidates reflects expectations of national Republican leaders that the party stands little chance of unseating Democratic incumbent Veronica Escobar.
Advertisement
Escobar has raised more than $730,000 through March 31, and has more than $288,000 in her campaign bank account, according to her most recent FEC filing on April 15.
Bauman and Barraza were the top two vote getters in the Republican March primary, which drew seven candidates. The primary runoff is May 26, with early voting May 18-22.
Michael Hinojosa, one of two conservators appointed by the Texas Education Agency to Socorro ISD in 2024, during a press conference on the district’s superintendent search, June 24, 2025, . (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)
Socorro ISD Conservators Prepare for Departure
The Texas Education Agency conservators appointed to oversee the Socorro Independent School District are expected to end their appointment in the coming months. Their planned departure comes as the district prepares to adopt a budget for the coming school year this summer.
“I’m going to bless your budget adoption process, and as long as you don’t deviate from where you’re going, you’re going to get rid of me,” TEA conservator Michael Hinojosa said Wednesday during a board meeting.
TEA conservator Andrew Kim attended his final board meeting with the district in March.
Advertisement
Hinojosa said he expects to leave SISD once the district completes the “exit criteria” set by the conservators and adopts its budget for the next school year.
The district needs to finish its customer service plan meant to improve its relationship with community members and more efficiently resolve their issues. Hinojosa said that should be done in May.
Once the exit criteria are completed, the conservators would need final approval from the Texas Commissioner of Education to officially end their oversight of the district.
Kim and Hinojosa were appointed to oversee SISD by the TEA in April 2024 after an investigation found the district was rife with leadership issues and had improperly graduated students in 2019. Conservators are expected to help implement improvements within two years of placement, according to the state education agency.
Free Solar Panels for El Paso Nonprofits? Here’s What to Know.
El Paso nonprofit organizations can receive a free solar panel system for the building they’re located in thanks to a grant program run by the advocacy group Solar United Neighbors. But applications close at the end of the day Friday.
Advertisement
The program is funded with a $522,000 federal grant that can pay for solar panels systems for 10 nonprofits located within the city limits. To be eligible, nonprofits have to either own the building they are located in or have a long-term lease and approval from the building’s owner.
The idea behind the program is to help local nonprofits lower their electricity costs by generating electricity onsite, as well as to increase the amount of zero-carbon solar power generation in El Paso overall. The systems will vary in size from 6 kilowatts to 7 kilowatts of energy production capacity. Once the system is installed, the recipient nonprofit has to handle maintenance such as panel cleaning or inverter replacement.
El Paso nonprofit organizations can apply online before the deadline Friday. Visit the city’s website to learn more.
El Paso City Council Approves Climate Bond Projects
Years after El Paso voters in November 2022 approved $5.2 million for climate-related projects as part of the Community Progress Bond, the City Council this week approved a list of projects to install solar panel systems, increase lighting and reduce flooding.
The funds will pay for a 500-kilowatt solar energy system at the city’s new public safety complex, which will be one of the most energy-hungry city-owned facilities because it will operate day and night. The system will cost $1.25 million to install, but will result in total savings for the city of $2.7 million over 12 years by slashing electricity costs.
Advertisement
The bond will also pay for 135 new solar-powered street lights at poorly-lit areas around the city, such as parks, the public safety complex and along dimly-lot street corridors. Those roads include Hondo Pass between Diana Drive and Railroad Drive and Bob Hope Drive between Pellicano Drive and Joe Battle Boulevard. The city will also install 120 new solar lights at Mission Hills Park, Washington Park and Veterans Park, among others.
The solar lights will cost $2.38 million but will save an estimated $2.58 million over 20 years compared with the cost to build and operate traditional light fixtures over that same time period.
The last bucket the bond proceeds will go toward is for so-called green infrastructure – more vegetation in flood-prone areas. The idea is that putting in more plants can help absorb floodwater that otherwise would flow off the side of a road and affect homes or businesses.
The city has budgeted $275,000 for the green infrastructure projects, but still has to decide exact locations to implement more greenery and flood-prevention features.
Coronado High School Grad Runs for Congress in Virginia
El Paso native Olivia Troye, a former aide to Vice President Mike Pence who has become a leading critic of President Donald Trump, announced her candidacy this week for a U.S. House of Representatives seat from Virginia.
Advertisement
Olivia Troye
A longtime Republican, Troye is running as a Democrat. In her announcement email, she highlighted the criticism and threats she has received from supporters of Trump’s Make America Great Again Movement.
“MAGA wants us afraid. They want us quiet. They want us to give up. I’ve already shown them that’s not going to happen. Now I need you to stand with me,” she said.
Troye, a graduate of Coronado High School, has worked extensively in the homeland security sector. She was Pence’s homeland security advisor and played a key role in the Trump administration’s COVID-19 task force until she quit in 2020 and denounced the administration’s approach.
She was a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention in 2024. She is joining a crowded field for the Democratic nomination in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, which includes the wife of a former governor and several state lawmakers.
The El Paso Public Health Department at 9566 Railroad Drive houses a clinic and laboratory, as well as programs for HIV prevention and surveillance, disease intervention and assistance for families living with AIDS. (Courtesy of City of El Paso)
Public Health Department Progresses Toward Accreditation
The El Paso Department of Public Health requested from City Council on Tuesday $240,000 for a one- to two-year consulting contract with Ascendient Healthcare Advisors to help it achieve accreditation. The Public Health Accreditation Board sets the standards, which provide a way for the health department to hold itself accountable to their community, improve efficiency and make itself more competitive for future grants.
There are nine accredited health departments in Texas, but El Paso is among the largest cities in Texas that has yet to achieve this status. Accreditation would help El Paso meet the same national benchmarks as other health departments and compare their operations, health director Dr. Veerinder Taneja said in an email.
READ MORE: El Paso health director Vinny Taneja tackles staffing, funding challenges
Advertisement
The health department began the process in fall 2024 and targets accreditation by late 2027 to early 2028, he said. The funding for an outside consultant comes from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Public Health Infrastructure Grant.
The accreditation process includes conducting a community health assessment and developing a community health improvement plan on a routine basis, as well as documenting policies and setting local health ordinances.
“Accreditation ensures that these activities are not one-time efforts, but ongoing responsibilities that hold the department accountable for continuous improvement and community impact,” Taneja said.
It also strengthens how the department uses data to make decisions and prioritize community needs, he added.
The Texas Tech University System awarded one of 18 Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award to Dr. Rebecca L. Campos, an assistant professor at Texas Tech Health El Paso Foster School of Medicine and a doctor at the Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso on the Westside. (Texas Tech Health El Paso courtesy photo)
TTHEP Faculty Physician Earns Honor from Texas Tech University System
Dr. Rebecca L. Campos, a physician teacher who practices family medicine and works to support and inspire future doctors, was one of 18 faculty members who earned a Texas Tech University System Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Teaching Award this week.
Campos, who grew up in Fabens, Texas, is an assistant professor at Texas Tech Health El Paso. She said the award, one of the system’s highest faculty honors, recognizes how teaching is an important way physicians can give back to their field.
Advertisement
TTU System Chancellor Brandon Creighton and TTHEP President Richard Lange presented Campos with an engraved medallion and a $5,000 stipend for her exceptional contributions to medical education. The April 13 ceremony was at the TTHEP campus.
In a TTHEP release, Creighton and Lange congratulated the awardee.
Creighton called Campos a talented and dedicated faculty member who has had a significant impact on students, and made critical contributions to TTHEP and the Paso del Norte community.
Lange said the recognition speaks to the caliber of the institution’s faculty and their commitment to advancing patient care and health care education.
Campos, a graduate of Fabens High School, earned bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and microbiology in 2004 from the University of Texas at El Paso. She then received her Doctor of Medicine degree four years later from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Advertisement
She moved to San Antonio to do her family practice residency at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa, and served as the clinic director at the CHRISTUS Family Health Center before TTHEP hired her in January 2021.
To expand patient treatment options, she completed a fellowship in integrative medicine, which involves the use of nutrition, supplements as well as herbal and botanical treatments, and a physician acupuncture course.
Campos directs the Medical Skills Course at the TTHEP Foster School of Medicine, and provides patient care at the Texas Tech Physicians of El Paso at Transmountain on the Westside.
If you have ever taken out a mortgage, you’ll know there are a lot of requirements to meet. You may need to put down a certain amount and have a debt-to-income ratio below a certain threshold. You may also run into limits on how much you can borrow or what sources of income the lender will count.
These rules do not apply to all mortgages — just to conforming mortgages, which is what the majority of borrowers take out. However, mortgage lenders are increasingly offering what are known as nonconforming loans, or mortgages that do not “comply with every one of the strict standards put in place after the housing crisis,” said The Wall Street Journal. While “still a small portion,” the “share of mortgages using alternative lending practices” has “doubled in size over the past three years.”
What are nonconforming loans?
A nonconforming mortgage is a “type of home loan that doesn’t meet some or all of the guidelines that make them eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” said Bankrate. These are the government-sponsored entities that “support much of the secondary mortgage market in the U.S.,” meaning they often purchase resold mortgages.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Advertisement
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Latest Videos From
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have “federal rules that limit the purchase of loans deemed relatively risk-free,” said Investopedia. Loans that meet these guidelines are conforming loans; loans that do not are nonconforming. To be a conforming loan, a mortgage must fall under a certain loan amount, and the borrower must meet specific criteria when it comes to their credit score, debt-to-income ratio and loan-to-value ratio.
Effectively, any home loan that does not align with these stipulations is considered nonconforming. Examples include jumbo loans, government-backed loans, bridge loans and interest-only loans.
Why do people get them?
There are a wide range of reasons people may opt for a nonconforming mortgage. For one, “you may have no choice but to choose a nonconforming jumbo loan if you want to buy an expensive property,” said Rocket Mortgage. These loans can also provide more flexibility when it comes to the type of property you purchase, your credit score and your down payment amount.
Advertisement
Nonconforming loans additionally “offer an opportunity for home buyers who might not otherwise qualify for traditional loans because they are self-employed or hold their wealth in assets such as real estate,” said the Journal.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
What are the drawbacks?
For starters, there are fewer lenders offering them “since they pose a higher risk to the bank or mortgage lender,” said Yahoo Finance. That said, availability can vary depending on the specific type, as “some nonconforming loans (like FHA mortgages) are common, while others (like USDA loans) can be harder to find.”
Nonconforming loans also “generally carry a higher interest rate for the borrower,” said the Journal, given the increased risk to the lender. Still, this can vary by loan type. For instance, “FHA, VA and USDA loans usually have lower interest rates,” while “less common nonconforming loans, such as bridge loans, often have higher interest rates,” said Yahoo Finance. There is also the possibility that a nonconforming loan “could have an unusual repayment schedule or other features that make it harder to repay,” said Bankrate.
What U.S. consumers ask of their credit cards has changed. For financially stressed households, it has little to do with rewards.
As more households turn to credit cards to manage liquidity and cover everyday expenses, a new set of practical concerns is driving card behavior: Can the card help avoid a missed payment? Can it make balances easier to track? Can it provide enough visibility into available credit and upcoming obligations to help manage an uncertain month?
Those concerns are beginning to reorder what consumers value most in their credit card relationships.
That evidence is clear in “Winning Top of Wallet: How Credit Card Apps Shape Choice,” a PYMNTS Intelligence and Elan Credit Card report examining how consumers use mobile apps to manage spending, payments and engagement across their credit card portfolios. The report found 30% of consumers primarily use credit cards to build credit or extend purchasing power, while another 22% primarily use cards for cash flow management, together outweighing rewards-based usage.
The divide is more pronounced among financially stressed households. Among consumers living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to pay bills, 40% cited credit dependence as their primary reason for using credit cards. Just 11% pointed to rewards.
Advertisement
For a growing share of consumers, credit cards are functioning less like discretionary spending products and more like liquidity management tools.
Advertisement: Scroll to Continue
What Matters Most
That evolution is also changing which app features matter most.
Among cash flow-focused consumers, 31% said scheduling payments or autopay encouraged them to spend more on a card, while 27% cited alerts and reminders. Credit-motivated consumers showed similarly high engagement with tools tied to available credit visibility and payment timing.
Rewards still influence spending behavior, particularly among financially stable households. Half of consumers who prioritize rewards said tracking or redeeming rewards through a mobile app encouraged them to spend more on the card.
Advertisement
But the report suggests that financial stress changes the hierarchy of engagement. As household budgets tighten, rewards become less central than predictability, visibility and control.
That shift helps explain why mobile apps increasingly influence which cards become top of wallet.
Among credit-dependent consumers, 77% said the quality of a credit card app influences which card they use most often. Credit-dependent consumers also reported the highest app adoption levels, with 77% using their primary card’s app regularly or occasionally.
The competition, in other words, is no longer simply about card acquisition. It is about becoming the card consumers rely on to navigate everyday financial management.
Digital Experience Becomes a Financial Retention Tool
The report also suggests that digital experience increasingly shapes retention risk.
Advertisement
Nearly 1 in 4 cardholders said a poor app or digital experience contributed to reduced card use. Among Gen Z consumers, that figure climbed to 45%.
At the same time, 7 in 10 cardholders said app quality influences which card becomes their primary card, underscoring how mobile interfaces are becoming embedded directly into consumer payment behavior.
For issuers, the implications extend beyond app design.
Consumers living paycheck to paycheck hold nearly as many credit cards as financially stable households, meaning financially stressed consumers are not disengaging from credit entirely. Instead, they are becoming more selective about which cards feel easiest to manage and most useful during periods of financial pressure.
Rewards and promotional offers still matter, particularly among affluent and financially stable consumers. But for a growing segment of households, the most valuable card may be the one that reduces uncertainty around balances, payment timing and available liquidity.
Advertisement
In a crowded multi-card market, financial visibility itself is becoming part of the product.
Budgeting apps promise to make it easier to track spending, manage bills and pay down debt.
Financial experts say the best tool is the one people will use.
“I am really interested in the AI financing and budgeting apps,” said Jerry Xia.
What budgeting apps do
Budgeting apps can track spending, monitor bills, set category limits, and manage subscriptions. Some also help users build savings and reduce debt.
“There are tools out there that you can enter things yourself and it will track right on there,” said Bob Ingram, a certified financial planner with Center for Financial Planning Inc. “There are also tools that we can connect right to our bank accounts, right to credit cards and statements.”
Advertisement
Choosing the right app
A search for budgeting apps turns up dozens of options, including Rocket Money, EveryDollar, Albert and Monarch Money.
“It depends on what you are looking for. Do you need a lot of features? Do you need a lot of control?” Ingram said.
Some apps offer free versions, while premium plans often cost $10 to $20 per month.
“Just like any cost, it becomes part of your budget,” Ingram said.
For some users, the added expense is worth it.
Advertisement
“I just realized through the app, I was spending way too much money,” said Ronan Plunkett. “It makes everything super organized.”
A closer look at spending
After hearing Plunkett’s experience, I tried Rocket Money by linking my bank and credit card accounts. The app quickly highlighted spending patterns across dining out, Amazon purchases and recurring subscriptions. It also showed how quickly small purchases can add up.
“You’ll oftentimes talk to folks who say they’re not big spenders and don’t spend a lot,” Ingram said, noting that many are surprised when they look at their income and overall spending throughout the year.
Technology can’t change behavior
Financial planners say budgeting apps provide useful data, but they cannot change spending habits.
“Money behaviors are still money behaviors. And regardless of whether we can track something or not on a budget, we’re still going to have spending decisions driven by emotions and thoughts. And that’s probably not going to change,” Ingram said.
Advertisement
Read the privacy policy
Experts say privacy should be considered before linking financial accounts to budgeting apps.
Before connecting accounts, users should review terms to understand how data is collected, shared, and used.
If the language is difficult, AI tools may help summarize and explain it.
More information on the pros and cons of using finance apps can be found here.
Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit – All rights reserved.
