DRUG WAR ON OUR DOORSTEP REQUIRES TIMES' BEST REPORTING

A letter writer the other day complained that the only stories he can
find in the newspaper are stories related to the drug war in Mexico.
It is Mexico's problem, he reasoned, and not something he should be
burdened with as a reader of this newspaper, or as he put it, this "rag."

Thank you for the compliment.

We publish more local El Paso stories than anything else -- and we
always will -- but we frankly are proud of the journalism we have
done out of Ciudad Juarez and Mexico in 2010.

As you can see from this morning's front page, we continue to see the
drug war in Mexico as one of the most significant stories anywhere;
for us it's the story of the year as the violence escalated and El
Paso became even more affected.

We may be the one of the safest cities in America, but virtually
every facet of life in El Paso has been touched by the murders, the
kidnappings and extortions in Ciudad Juarez. The schools are impacted
with more students arriving from Juarez; the freeways and
neighborhoods are impacted with more vehicles; and the retail stores
-- the Walmarts, the shopping malls, the grocery stores and
restaurants -- all are carrying heavier volume as Mexicans flee to
safety in a familiar and friendly place.

For us to ignore the war in Mexico would be socially and
journalistically irresponsible, and we would be turning a blind eye
to a serious and life-changing situation. Not everything we do, we do
because each of our readers likes it. Some things -- like a war just
1,000 yards from our front door -- needs serious coverage, and for
our letter writer, yes, it means putting it in front of him whether
he wants that news or not.

As we put a final stamp on 2010 and the dramatic events in Mexico, we
also wanted to catch up with all sorts of people and issues that we
reported on during the course of the year. To that end, we turned
this morning's Borderland pages into a year-in-review section where
we update our readers on a host of stories that we published
throughout the year. Too often we report on a situation but then
don't go back to find out how things turned out. We do that with our
year-in-review updates.

Finally, looking ahead to 2011, we will continue to find areas of
emphasis for our journalists and we will continue to invite
contributing writers and photographers and others who offer unique
content about El Paso.

One of those contributors will be Jesus Macias, who creates some of
the most interesting mazes on local landscapes and themes that you
will find anywhere. We will publish a Macias maze every Saturday on
Page 2 of the newspaper. For us it's a way to showcase the talent of
a local artist; for our readers we hope it's something else that they
find entertaining and interactive in the newspaper.

Until next year.