THE BORDER REPORT

Yeah, yeah, spare me, I know. Much on the plate right now, but the situation's under control. Familial obligations, deadlines and the general desmadre of life. That said, we're gonna be having a Come to Jesus conversation soon. Look for it on Friday or thereabouts.

But for now, there's some interesting developments throughout this place.

In Puerto Peñasco, Sunday night, a gunfight downtown, el Malecón. Guy went down and an ambulance took him to a clinic. The killers followed the ambulance and made staffers lie down on the floor while they finished the job. Leonel Fonseca Carrillo was his name. Nasty, nasty business that, hitting in the tourist spots. The sad reality is that if there's one theatre in this whole country that the government needs to shore up, it's the tourist towns. You can't have gunfights on Obregón Boulevard in Nogales or Revolucíon in Tijuana and you can't lay waste to Peñasco or Monterrey. Yet Monterrey was the site of a now famous jewelry store murder earlier this year and little Peñasco is all grown up now, this makes seven or eight murders this year compared to zero in years past.

Then there's the question of Caborca. The town is abuzz with the news that Luis Sanchez Paéz, el L7, was taken out in nearby Sasabe. Sanchez had aligned himself with Ramón "Negro" Sabori and in early June, this crew had wiped out many of the Paéz clan in town. If you recall, that led to the pile of meticulously dissected bodies found in that Yukon. Expect yet more retaliatory strikes in the coming days.

Moving up to Arizona, U.S. Attorney Diane J. Humetewa announced she's quitting early, even before confirmation hearings begin for her replacement, Dennis Burke, a Democrat political strategist. This is interesting only in the timing of her resignation. There's been a story circulating in the law enforcement community around town that one of her prosecutors absolutely lost it a few weeks ago, suffering some sort of mental breakdown and locking himself in an office. Guards from Federal Protective Services had to break down the door. Messy, messy and completely unconfirmed. Just one of those little tales spreading around downtown.