The Border Observer - Tedious, Mundane, and Boring Details

TL;DR Less tweets from the Search Engine on a daily basis, more tweets from press releases. Some Context Some of you  that have been around awhile know @borderObserver is an effort to make a workstation for news reporters . The first effort was to make a system whereby the basis for most news reporting was catalogued and reported on. To be clear, the "first effort" was to report on the latest press releases. Why? because that is where 90+% of all news starts from. The days of on-the-ground of gumshoe reporting are mostly gone. By all logically means, having a groud news reporter show up for a "local news briefing" — even for a city council meeting — is too expensive. As such, now-a-days reporters show up and take the printed press release. And in many such cases, they just gather the online press release via newsletters. I want to make this very clear. No actual person shows up for a "local news briefing." Unless, the "briefing" is extra-ordinar...

Today, we are dropping MANY stories that are Federal Government Press Releases, sourced locally and intended for local distribution. To be clear, we are dropping the local news website/webpage from our tweets and tweeting about the Federal Government Press Release instead. However, the links to local news stories (from local outlets) will remain on our daily Search Engine Result Page. We just won't tweet those stories, but instead tweet the Federal Press Release (PR). I'm going to give an example, but it's important to realize that ALMOST ALL of the stories I am talking about are put out as a Federal press release (PR). If you read a PR, more often than not, this PR becomes a copy & paste webpage on local news website .. with NO additional information added. It's pure laziness from the local "news" outfits. Here is one example from KVIA in El Paso Human smuggling operation uncovered in Borderland https://kvia.com/news/border/2025/02/20/human-smuggling-oper...

Kash Patel is likely to be Confirmed this week . What you may not know is how it affects HSI  (Homeland Security Investigations) - the investigative branch of CBP (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) and USBP (United States Border Patrol) First, HSI is a law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and as such it frequently completes criminal investigations for the CBP and USBP. One of reason it existing is because at one point in time greater than 50% of cases referred from CBP and USBP to the FBI did not get resolved _or_ took too long. More recently, a joint survey and report (dated: July 31, 2019) from the OIG (Office of the Inspector General) of both the DOJ and the DHS finds While 63 percent of survey respondents did not report any cooperation failures, 37 percent of survey respondents and many interviewees reported cooperation failures that resulted in negative impacts on investigations and operations. Let's be clear, 37% of the time the FBI was ...

UPDATE (Oct 14, 2024) We realized after this blog that there may be a video *somewhere* of Joe Biden actually naming the VP as the "Border Czar," and the we video used as evidence here may be him "correcting himself." If you happen to know of a copy of such a video where Joe actually says or uses the words "Border Czar," please let us know. Like many of you reading this blog, I thought I heard Kamala be assigned to be the "Border Czar." I even recall watching the video where Biden said something to that nature. But I was wrong. To be clear, I wanted to hear Kamala and Joe say those words or something like that, but in their usual political mumbo jumbo, COVID masks, and Joe Biden's mumbling, their message was lots with me -- at the time. Again to be very clear, I wanted to find Kamala Harris being named "Border Czar." The truth is we found no evidence of her being named "Border Czar," but there is evidence to what they ...

Once again here is a link to the video for this news conference. The news conference is almost 33 minutes long. Chief Chamberlain Press Conference Sept 20 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxOfDGOEmwM These notes are still not complete, but they are here so others can draw many of the points and can point to the exact spot during the press conference. One of the most important points the chief made was that they were having a hard time identifying the persons in the video AND if those people were gang members. His entire point of the news conference was: We are not by any means taken over by Venezuelan gangs, TdA, or any other gang. (8:27) That statement has a certain silliness to it. If I am not mistake, this was the chief's second day on the job. The other part that is silly is this video from ~three~ weeks earlier APD officers have been proactively patrolling areas where there is suspected TdA activity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlIPPiBabAA This video highlights the In...

These time marks is for the following video. Too tired to blog, but the time marks should help - while I get some sleep.   Chief Chamberlain Press Conference Sept 20 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxOfDGOEmwM Press conference starts immediately 6:50 The chief directly mentions "undocumented" 8:15 Looks up, appears to be done with prepared remarks 9:30 passes microphone to head detective 11:48 ~~ 12:10 QUESTIONS 12:59 Chief breaks in 15:20 Chief breaks in 16:50 Chief talks like a social worker 19:20 Chief confirms ?? 19:30 Chief does not want to"over police" 21:40 Chief says he "door knocked" I need to re-listen to the following spots 23:15 Mumble 26:30 ?? 28:30 ?? 29:10 ?? 30:50 gangs? numbers? 10 in affidavit 31:50 gangs? affiliations?