Best Of The Border (01/27-02/01)

By Crystal Chavez
February 01, 2014

Opponents
Jude Joffe-Block
Opponents of Sheriff Joe Arpaio briefly gathered in the lobby of the Sheriff's Office in early January in protest of his record.

Reforms To Prevent Racial Profiling By Arizona Sheriff's Office Come With A Price

Court-ordered changes seek to remake the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, but the price tag will be in the tens of millions of dollars.
 
“We have to figure out this is what it costs to have a sheriff that is this detached, and this incompetent and someone who is this incapable of adopting policies that are within the law," said Randy Parraz, a local activist who ran an unsuccessful campaign to recall Sheriff Joe Arpaio after his 2012 re-election.
 


CBP Grounds Entire Fleet Of Drones After California Crash

The United States has grounded its border drone fleet after one crashed off the California coast earlier this week.

A spokesman said the Predator B drone experienced mechanical issues and operators crashed it into the ocean.


Gustavo
Nicholas McVicker / KPBS
Gustavo Leyva prepares to pwn, his stuffed penguin nearby for good luck.

Tijuana’s Need For Internet Speed

By some measures, Mexico might have some of the fastest Internet speeds in Latin America. But for Tijuana's ambitious tech entrepreneurs and aspiring professional gamers, it's still painfully slow.

In the super popular online video game League of Legends, Gustavo Leyva is known as 'h4ckerv2.' One way pros make money is by streaming their games so fans can watch. Hundreds of people tune in to see Leyva eviscerate his opponents.

"It doesn't crash, but the quality is super bad," Leyva said. "If I had better quality, I'd probably have more viewers."


Southwestern States Among Nation's Worst In Reading Proficiency

Newly released KIDS COUNT data show that about two-thirds of American students don't read proficiently by the fourth grade. With the exception of Colorado, states in the Southwest fared among the worst in the nation.


The
nasa.gov
The Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, where the deforestation is occurring, is a World Heritage Site with biosphere reserves equal to the Grand Canyon.

Narco Traffickers Slash Protected Rainforests

Scientists working in Central America have discovered an unexpected consequence of the drug war: deforestation.

A group of researchers who just published in the journal Science found drug traffickers slashing forests to carve clandestine landing strips, roads and large cattle ranches to launder their drug money in the middle of remote rainforests.

“What really blew me away was coming back and seeing very large clearings, cattle pastures, which would be unheard of because indigenous people don’t raise cattle and they don’t clear big swaths of forest because it takes a lot of money,” said Erik Nielsen, assistant professor in the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability at Northern Arizona University.