IN SALAZAR'S CASE: YOU DON'T GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

By Juan Montoya
There are two interesting items for discussion and possible action in tomorrow's Brownsville Independent School District meeting.
Both have to do with the job being done for the district by attorney Baltazar Salazar who was hired just five months ago.
So far, the BISD has paid Salazar $100,000 at $20,000 a month. And now that a majority of the board chose at the meeting held on September 17, 2013 to hold only one regular meeting per month rather than two, Baltazar will get paid the same for half the work.
The meeting where the two items – placed on the agenda by trustee Lucy Longoria – are:
17. Discussion, consideration and possible action regarding Board Attorney billing. (Board Member Request – LL)
18. Discussion, consideration and possible action regarding Board Attorney’s Board approved contract. (Board Member Request – LL)
These are interesting themes since – if you recall – it was the soaring number of due process cases against the BISD Special Needs Department that triggered the firing of then-department head Art Rendon. Rendon had found that the due-process cases were being filed at wholesale volumes and then the attorneys representing the students (and the district) were making a mint milking them. Whereas the settlements reached might have totaled some piddling amount like $3,000 to perhaps $10,000, the lawyers were stretching them out and billing the district as much as $20,000 a pop.
In other words, Rendon likened the due-process scam as lawyers using the district as their personal ATM.
When Salazar was hired by the majority of the BISD board (Minerva Peña, Enrique Escobedo, Otis Powers ad Jose Chirinos) they chose to ignore the fact that he lacked qualifications to deal with Special Needs issues. This majority on the board chose to replace Thompson and Horton, of Houston with Salazar even though the former legal representatives not only had more experience representing school districts, but also specialized in stemming the hemorrhage caused by Special Needs due-process cases.
Salazar, whose claim to fame seems to be his personal relation to trustee Peña, is in fact farming out the work in the areas where he lacks expertise, including the Special Needs due-process cases. We are in the process of acquiring his referrals to other firms, but if our suspicions prove correct, it seems that he has gone to Thompson and Horton and farmed out the work dealing with the Special Needs department. In other words, he is going to the firm he was hired to replace and paying them to do the work.
Salazar let us know early in the game that he believed that he could refer cases as he saw fit without the benefit of telling the board what he was doing. The first indication was his transferring of files having to do with refiling the HealthSmart litigation to a McAllen attorney without even consulting with the board for their approval. He merely presented the fact as a fait accompli.
We have also filed an information request for the contract he holds with the district to see whether he has complied with the letter and spirit of the compact.
When he first appeared before the board to plead for the work, he lamented the fact that the district was spending loads of cash on litigation and outside referrals. Now it seems that he may be doing that very thing without going through the board for its approval. If in fact he lacks the expertise to represent the district in a few areas (as his resume indicates he does), perhaps the contract should be revisited and a new agreement be worked out where he is paid only for the work he performs on a contractual basis. Twenty thousand a month to attend one meeting (or to send a representative) does seem a bit steep. It should be interesting to see how the board proceeds on this matter.

MI"NEVER SAY NEVER" PENA CAUGHT IN A LITTLE FIB

By Juan Montoya
Days after Brownsville Independent School District trustee Minerva Peña was overheard criticizing the Pace High School Principal over a grade-changing allegations and even called for her to be disciplined, a call from a reporter brought forth denials that she had known anything about the matter.
In fact, she not only denied making the remarks critical of the principal, but said she knew nothing about the matter.
It was only later – after an information request from this blog was made to the BISD administration – that the Texas Attorney General ordered the distritc to release the results of the investigation into the allegations.
The principal got off with a slap on the hand even after some 14 persons at the school filed statements with the district outlining what they saw.
Nonetheless, Peña's denials that she had said anything or knew any details of the allegations constituted – to be charitable – an outright lie. Now, this observation is not to be taken lightly given the fact that she is, after all, a retired Texas Department of Public Safety trooper whose integrity should be above all reproach or question.
The same goes when she vehemently denies that she has any contact with blogger Robert Wightman. Wigthnman, who makes no secret that he holds a deep running grudge against Catralina Presas-Garcia and accused Lucy Longoria of "lying in bed" with various people in town and elsewhere during her last campaign, repeatedly cites "inside sources" for his "exposes" of alleged corruption inside the district.
Just recently Mi"Never say Never" Peña was seen in a deep conversation (interview?) with Wightman who was scribbling notes as she elucidated him on some issue on the board. Will she now deny she even knows Wightman or that she spoke with him at length in public?
So does Minnie consititute the famed "inside sources" of the blogger?

RESACA PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION

THE WIGHTMAN-CHEEZMEH TUG-O-WAR WITH DA SAENZ

"She loves me , 
She loves me not..."
Childhood jingle

By Juan Montoya
There is a saying in some parts of the Midwest that if you don't like the way the weather is, just hang around for a while and it will change.
This mercurial characteristic is nowhere more evident than in the postings of two (sometimes) diametrically opposed poles of the cyberspace compass.
One of those is blogger Robert Wightman. The other is the self-described paladin of the Brownsville grassroots Cheezmeh, with its (also self-described Head Cheez Erasmo Castro). For the last two or so years, both have been on the love-love-me-not end of the proverbial daisy with Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz. At one time or another Wightman lauded Saenz for being the best thing since sliced bread and the worst legal thug in history. As the barometer moves, the mercurial blogger either praises Caesar or comes down with both feet on Saenz's chest.
Ditto for Cheezmeh. Cheezmeh was the torches-and-pitchfork mob who was scaling the walls of the electoral process dishing out slings and arrows against Saenz for being anti-woman. For a while there, so did Wightman. The group resorted to digging out newsclips and airing them to the wind at the behest of their then-hero Carlos Masso, Saenz's runoff opponent.
Then, after the doors to the inner sanctum of the DA's office were firmly slammed on Wightman's advances, the reaction from "La Babosa" – as Wightman is called in some legal circles – has been nothing short of ballistic. He has written that everyone from the local dogcatcher to the highest offices of the U.S. Dept. of Justice have the goods that he, Robert Wightman Esq., has provided them.
"The indictments are coming," he bellows from his cybermegaphone Brownsville Voice. "Cameron County will pay."
Well, those of us who have lived through the reincarnations of his blog know that if we wait long enough, the tone of the vitriol will – like the Midwest weather – change.
In his latest diatribe, "La Guerca" – another nickname used for Messer Wightman Esq. – is calling on the county commissioners for a "vote of no confidence as a way of telling the community (that the Commissioner Court finds Luis Saenz inept and an acceptable DA.)"
After Saenz became DA, and partially in response to being painted broadly with the "anti-woman" brush, Saenz set up the domestic abuse unit in the DA's office and publicized the fact that he was taking a pro-active stance on these type of violations. He also set up a child-abuse unit in the county. The latest is a website in an effort to enlist the social media to find fugitive convicted murderer Amit Livingston.
And somehow (and this intrigues us), Cheezmeh now has heeded the call to find Livingston by establishing  a link to the "find Amit" site in a gesture of peace and friendship with the DA they slurred all though out the campaign and even afterward.
Well, to be befriended by a group which blatantly attempted to extort small business by threatening bad publicity using Ryan Wolf's Food 4 Thought "exposes" as a self-appointed posse or "Food Patrol," this takes some gall (if not balls). Who approved this link, we wonder? Is there and alcahueta in the background manipulating these factions? (Wolf, by the way, is now ignoring their entreaties by not tagging his posts on their FB site, probably at the direction of the stations' legal counsel).
As to Wightman's call for a vote of no confidence, there was a vote taken on the matter of who should be the DA, and   if we remember correctly – the voters of Cameron County chose Saenz. How can three commissioners, who each represents at most 100,000 residents, unite to deprive the other 300,000 residents of the county of their wishes?
Now, we ask ourselves, are these posturings by these two opposites just one and the same thing? Is everything that appears different in the final analysis the same (la misma gata, pere revolcada)? And which suitor will Saenz heed? Or does he even care at all?
"He loves me, he loves me not..."  

WILL SYLVIA INSTALL MASSO DESPITE HINOJOSA'S WARNING?

By Juan Montoya
Did you hear about the cat fight that developed over the plans by Cameron County Democratic Party chairperson Sylvia Garza-Perez to install vice-chair Carlos Masso Friday so as to clear the way for her announcement for county judge?
The way we heard it, Sylvia and the clica of the Ernie-Norma-Erin Hernandez gang planned to meet tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Mercado Juarez (the old Majestic Theater) to formalize the power transfer of the party, but when this reachede the ears of Cindy Hinojosa, the wife of Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilbert Hinojosa, all hell broke loose.
Apparently, Ms. Hinojosa reminded Garza-Perez in no uncertain terms that in order to effect those changes, there needed to be a 20-day announcement of the meeting of the county executive committee and that the notice needed to reach all the precinct chairs and the party membership. To do otherwise, she was told, would be considered illegal within the party structure.
(That's Sylvia with Joey Garza, one of the the subjects of a joint federal -state investigation into mail-in vote fraud.)
In what has become a "signature' of the Garza-Perez-Hernandez-Masso triumvirate, the chairperson apparently wanted to do it the way that she nominated (and had the 20 or so party members present) vote Masso in as vice-chair. When it happened, few rank-and-file party members got wind of the meeting and very few – outside of the select few in the cadre – attended. The result was a foregone conclusion and Masso got the vice-chair when Doroteo Garcia, husband of Ernie and Norma's daughter (and now justice of the peace Erin), resigned at the same meeting.
It has now become evident that the Cameron County Democratic Party has become the operational arm of the Hernandezes and their political cllies with scant attention being paid to the niceties of consultation with the rank-and-file party members. They are expected to do as this bunch tells them to do.
Will Sylvia, the Hernadezes, Masso, and the few precinct chairs who attend go ahead with the meeting and appoint who they want in the executive committee? Or will they heed the party's bylaws and open the party to the transparency it needs to make itself credible to the voters?  

FOOD 4 THOUGH GIVES CHEEZMEH COLD SHOULDER

"The thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away...

I'm free from your spell
And now that it's over
All I can do is wish you well"

"The Thrill is Gone," by B.B. King

By Juan Montoya
Channel 4's Ryan Wolf is no longer tagging them on his FB page and calling them the "Food Patrol."
Instead, he is now making sure that his viewers in his Food 4 Thought segment on the station's newshole are told when the food inspections and the follow-up inspections were made, how they were resolved, and whether the problems have been solved.
He no longer is weasel-wording his broadcasts to make it appear that the small mom-and-pop businesses that Cheezmeh targeted to ask for "donations" to their websites or "face the consequences" and were later featured in Ryan's broadcasts had been closed as a result of their campaign.
It was instructive to see yesterday when Wolf was "given the cold shoulder" by a businessman who had refrigeration problems at his restaurant – and had already fixed them – the sensationalist talking head said, almost as an aside, that Panaderia Capistran in Brownsville was open for business in Brownsville.
But he didn't tag Erasmo Castro, the Head Cheez, on his page, and neither did he tag his tag-team sister Linda Dragustinovis. But they are still trying, though. They posted his Food 4 Thought segement where he is "given the cold shoulder."
If you remember, Panaderia Capistran is the same bakery that was featured – in tandem with the Cheezmeh bunch – in a previous Food 4 Thought broadcast where Wolf implied that the bakery had closed as a result of his broadcast without telling viewers that the panaderia had switched owners and the place was being remodeled by the new proprietors. He didn't tell them that the Cheezmeh group had gone to the new owners demanding that he give them an advertising donation or else they would get the station to broadcast a damaging segment
against them. When Wolf got to the bakery, he found it closed.
What perhaps Wolf didn't know was that the Cheezmeh Gang had descended en masse at Capistran's and asked the new owner if he wanted to advertise on their Internet page and when he declined, they said that if he didn't play along with them, he should be ready to "face the consequences."
"Eran esos whe se llaman, Brownsville, como dijieron, si, si Cheezmeh, esos son'" he told our reporter. (They said their name was Brownsville Cheezmeh and said that since I didn't advertise that I would face the consequences.)
Sure enough. Even before Wednesday's Food 4 Though segment, Head Cheez Erasmo Castro published on his FB page that Wolf had posted that the "Food Patrol is exposing shocking filth at Panaderia Capistran at Brownsville at 10 (p.m.)"
This has been a pattern that has developed in other Food 4 Thought broadcasts involving Brownsville businesses such as Oyster Bar Too and Mr. Taco.
In the case of Mr. Taco, even though the owners took care of the violations made in a July 25th report the very next day – July 26 – Wolf's broadcast was made on August 28th, with a tease that the "Shocking photos expose fly infestation at Mr. Taco with insects on food" . Wolf failed to failed to tell his viewers that it been more than a month after the restaurant was cleared.
Was the mention of the bakery last night on Food 4 Thought a kind of legalistic damage control being made to protect the station from liability just in case the new owners took offense at the previous broadcast?
That threat, however, apparently isn't stopping Cheezmeh's Head Cheez Erasmo Castro in Austin from posting the contents of health inspectors' reports about Brownsville business, even admitting that the reports are dated and that the conditions made in the reports no longer exist.
Has Cheezmeh worn out its welcome at Food 4 Though and are now on a solo mission
to drum up business by posting damaging information about small businesses so they can break down and dish out some cash? Can it be"Taps" for the lost Food Patrol?
  

DPS, TEXAS, CRACKS DOWN ON POOR IN THE VALLEY

By Juan Montoya
The Texas Department of Public Safety, citing a concern about "significant criminal activity occurring in South Texas," is defending its road checkpoints spread across the Rio Grande Valley as fearful residents take measure to avoid the random stops.
In Hidalgo County, the San Antonio Express-News reports that residents there have started FaceBook pages to inform others where the DPS set up its stops, and advising them of alternate routes to take to avoid them.
And despite the assurances of the DPS director that its officers will not inquire about the immigration status of the drivers they stop, many feel that focusing on the poor will inveairbaly mean that they will report them to the Border Patrol.
"I heard that if they stop you and you don't have a license, they will ask you if you are a citizen and tht they will call the Border Patrol to get you if you don't have any ID," said a Brownsville woman who read about the stops on a FB page.
And an immigration attorney in McAllen told the Express-News that he tested the veracity of the DPS statements that they were not focusing on the poor and found out that when he got to a checkpoint in his new 2012 Ford F-150, he was waved through. When he turned the pickup around, a DPS officer waved him through a second time.
"What disturbs me is the locations are very rural and where there are a lot of poor people," said Carlos Garcia. "People are not taking their kids to school or to the doctor because they're afraid they'll be stopped and deported."
DPS Director Steve McGraw told the daily that although the DPS effort will be "more extensive in scope to enforce compliance with state driver's license, insurance, vehicle safety and registration requirements, he stressed that the checkpoints will not be used to determine immigration status.
"The public should not be alarmed if they soon see an increased law enforcement presence in the area," he said.
However, just like the Brownsville woman who fears that the stops may be a backdoor maneuver to detain people with immigration status problems, many would rather trust the FB sites set up to monitor the locations of the checkpoints and alert other residents.
They are Alert of Checkpoints 956, Report of Checkpoints in 956 in Spanish, and roadblock856 and RGV DPS Random Checkpoints in English, each with tens of thousands of  "likes."
So far, checkpoint locations in Alamo, Mercedes and Edinburg have been identified in these sites.
It is impossible to understand how the Texas Republican administration can possibly think that random checks such as these can in any way endear the burgeoning Hispanic community to support their stand on immigration reform.
With both Texas senators – John Cornyn and Ted "El Cucuy" Cruz – demanding more border security in return for a vague promise of supporting a pathway to citizenship for those here illegally, voters in the Valley where extended families stretch across the international border can hardly be expected to rally around the GOP platform or its candidates.
Already, state Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg has said he is concerned the the checkpoints risk violating the civil rights of South Texans.
"They say these checkpoints will only be in place for a short duration. It seems to imply that these checkpoints are going to have very little positive, long-term effect."

NEW PALM LOUNGE COMING TO ELIZABETH STREET NEAR YOU

By Juan Montoya
We've all read the rhapsodizing by Jerry McHale about the great burgers at the Palm Lounge when Johnny Quiroz and is wife Queta used to tun the place.
For decades, it was the measure of a downtown lounge, where you could take the kids on Charro Days and join the throngs who would buy their brews an peer out at the Children's Parade while munching on the trademark cheeseburger with fries.
The Palm Lounge fell on hard times since Quiroz passed away and his wife made a stab at it but gave it up to sublease and then start a restaurant business of her own (El Torito) where she didn't have to deal with the barflies and old high school football players regaling the rest of the crowd about their glory days.
During its heyday, it served as the watering hole for ral football and sports legends, wannabe stars and the average Browntown Joe who wanted a break from the furnace-hot summer temperatures, drink a cold beverage and tell a few lies himself.
After a sequence of tenants who did nothing to improve the infrastructure there and tried to milk it for all it was worth, the place closed for a few months, forcing the regulars to patronize places such as the Carta Brava, which as a aplce to quaff a few wasn't bad, but catered to a rougher crowd who seemed to wake up with a hankering for a draft beer as early as 10 a.m., including botana Sundays.

Now it seems like the new tenants at the PL are serious about making a ago at becoming an honest bar  where self-respecting customers can lounge around like the old days and fraternize.
We don't know who the new owners are , but judging by what we saw there recently, they are making a hefty investment in the decor and the air-conditioning system in the place, including the removal of the old suspended ceiling that threatened to become unsuspended at any moment.
And even though it was somewhat quiant, we hope they paint over the caricature of the two overweigh Native Americans looking at each other and asking "how?."
Whenever the place opens, it will be a welcome addition to the downtown bar scene and perhaps one day will reclaim its place as the bar to beat on Elizabeth Street during Charro Days and the football season.

CITY WARNS: PARKING TICKET SYSTEM TO BE INTEGRATED; PAY TICKETS NOW, OR IT MAY COST YOU MORE LATER

By Juan Montoya
Complaining that no one ever writes to you?
Well, within two months – if you have an overdue parking or traffic ticket – you just might get one from the Municipal Court folks at the City of Brownsville.
Don't feel bad. You're in good company.
A combination of degrading computer programs, badly handwritten parking tickets, mistakes in entering the data in the portable electronic ticket writers, and a backlog of citations ignored by drivers from here, Mexico, Canada and just about every state in the union has resulted in the city amassing an incredible $76,336 unpaid parking tickets since 2007.
Since the fine an unpaid simple parking ticket will double from the $5 ($200 if it's a handicapped space) after five days, a conservative estimate of how much the city stands to collect is about $3,096,246. Those nickles and quarters add up, don't they?
For the past two or three weeks the staff at the Municipal court have been in consultation with the city's legal department updating the system, which a staff member admits, is "broken" and trying to find a way to make all the parts of ti interface and streamline the issuance, collection  and dispensation of the huge existing volume.
Once thee have tweaked the software programming and hardware, they will begin issuing letters like the one in the prototype letter pictured here. Then, not only will the receiver of the missive have to come and answer for his parking transgressions, but they will also have to answer for any other violations (speeding, traffic) that may be in the system.
Already, the Cameron County Tax Collector-Assessor Office requires that you clean up any traffic violations you may have with the city before they will do business with you such as transferring a car title or issuing license plates. Parking tickets may be next.
It has not been easy to get a handle on the problem, city workers say. Over the course of the last six years that the parking citations have accumulated, cited cars have been sold from person to person, junked, gone out of state or into Mexico, or no longer registered with the state.
Then there's the problem of parking inspectors not having a real good handle on the exemptions for vehicles with city, state and federal license plates that have to be removed fro the system.
"We had to remove some 600 citations issued to exempt public vehicles," said Tad Hasse, the Informational Technician Tech and programming guru at the court. "That's just one category of correctable error. On the other hand, we've had tickets that have parking tickets that show they were written in 1911."
Hasse said that the court staff was sifting through the mass of citations to determine which should be pursued and which would be practically unenforceable.
For example, he said some may have exceeded the statute of limitations and may be too old to follow on, and some may have bad plates.
"We've already paid some $1,300 to the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles to trace down cars for us. In some cases, the cars are still out there, in others they may have already been junked, and in at least one case, the car shows up with old tickets, gets sold, and then shows up with more tickets because the new owner is also a scofflaw like the owner before."
For example, the staff has found that some 10,095 parking tickets are owed by Tamaulipas residents. Although this may seem like a lot, Hasse said that in comparison to Brownsville residents, Mexican motorists actually do make an effort to pay them.
"They may think that the unpaid tickets will show up when they cross the international bridges and they won't be allowed across," he said. "We're not there yet," he hinted, "but we may be there once we get done fixing this backlog."
Since Brownsville is a destination for out-of-state residents who come her as tourists in the cold winter months, Hasse said that the roll of scofflaws contains people from all over the United States.
"We have seven citations issued to people from Washington state, 14 for Vermont, scores of them from Oklahoma, Kansas, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico, and a whole lot of them from Minnesota."
Once the system is clicking, letters will go out to these motorists warning them that they face fines and other penalties if they don;t cough up the fines, he said.
"We may have to go follow them to the  wheat fields of Kansas, take cheese from the ones in Wisconsin, we'll probably forgive the ones from Ohio since there's out of work, we owe the Constitution to the ones from Virginia, and of course, David Crockett was from Tennessee, and he died at the Alamo, so we might give them some consideration. I don't think we're going into Tamaulipas and battle the narcoterrorists for a parking ticket fine. Surprisingly, it's those people who we can't cross the river to go after who actually show up to pay more than the people who live here."
All kidding aside, however, Hasse said that people who owe parking tickets may be better off taking care of them now before the municipal court system is fully integrated with the other systems that will show other violations in traffic, health or nuisance ordinance violations. He reminded residents that it takes only three unpaid parking tickets over 10 days old for the vehicle to be declared a nuisance vehicle that gives parking ticket inspectors the authority to attack a mechanical boot to a car.
"Then you have to pay all the tickets you owe before you can take the boot off," he warned. "We're almost fully integrated now, and once you get the letter from the municipal court, you're whacked. Take care of your parking tickets now."

PUB: YOUR ELECTRIC AND WATER UTILITY RATES AT "WORK"

Q: What are you watching when you see one guy in a hole working with a shovel, and nine other guys leaning on their shovel handles watching him work?
A: A PUB work crew
Old Brownsville Joke

By Juan Montoya
So there they were, at least eight Brownsville Public Utility vehicles including a crane, three aerial buckets, supervisor trucks and other assorted PUB support vehicles and numerous personnel.
Their apparent chore? To install one metal light pole on the west side to Paredes Line Road just south of Price Road.

Granted, the pole was one of those tall ones that look like cell-phone relay towers minus the transmitter, but the word "overkill" did come to mind. Someone said that PUB operates under the philosophy of redundancy in the name of caution just in case something goes wrong. Others said that PUB has inbred hiring practices where a family member – once he gets his foot in the door – will ultimately pave the way for his cousin, the wife of his cousin, his uncle, the cousin of his uncles, brother, adopted brother, compadres, brothers and compadres of his compadre and assorted other in-laws and outlaws to come on board the gravy train.
The same goes for the City of Brownsville, Cameron County, the Brownsville Independent School District, the old UTB, Port of Brownsville, etc.,
The dictum is: Don't rock the boat, work too hard that it will make everyone else look bad, and turn a blind eye to the pilferage and petty theft that others may commit while you're there.
We know an old friend we'll call "Juanito," for lack of a better name, who has been working for as long as we can remember at the PUB. He is brutally honest whe we ask him what he does at the public utility.
"Me hago pendejo todo el dia," he responds, laughing.
When he's not doing errands for some supervisor aboard his truck, he is bringing sweet bread for the secretaries, or running errands for some department. With retirement right around the corner, he is looking forward to days of doing the same thing he is doing now: mainly, nothing.
And the head honchos? They couldn't care less. With many of them living outside the city and in condos at South Padre Island, bedroom communities in Los Fresnos and their hometown in Harlingen, it's no skin off their nose how PUB ratepayers' money is spent.
Fifteen men, eight vehicles and one electric pole; seems about right. There goes a half day's work on the PUB gravy train.

  

TUCSON CITIZEN, LAND HEIR, TAKE TEXAS OFFICIALS TO TASK

By Dee Dee Garcia Blase

Jerry Patterson is currently the Texas land commissioner and is running for Texas Lt Governor in 2014. But where was he when the Latino / Mexican-American constituents needed him when millions of dolalrs were offered to SpaceX to begin building on land that isprivately owned by Latino/Mexican-American families?

We are seeing a strong pattern from the good ol’ boy who are turning a blind eye to broken treaties that ought to be enforced. For instance, Texas Givernor Rick Perry was quick to enforce the water traty with Mexico, yet we see Texas officials looking the other way with regard to the Guadalupe Treaty and the U.S. Senate Treaty via the Adams Onis Treaty.    

Last week we wrote about how Texas Sen. Cornyn is up for re-election in 2014 but will not listen to Mexican-American/Latino constituents either. 

There is a large land dispute brewing with regard to the land ownership Space X wants to build on. I wrote about it here and have learned the David Ruiz and the Cisnero family are in the process of taking legal steps in an effort to protect their land. The Cisnero and David Ruiz family have already contacted th e federal government where they state the federal government has acknowledged them as the true owner of the land — in fact government officials have directed them to further steps they will need to take in order for their land interests to be protected. I am also told the State of Texas and the feds have money in escrow with regard to some of the land.

The 1784 Title seems legitimate with regard to the sale of the land — and it ought to be a warning to corporations like Space X. The land dispute involves approximately 90,000 acres of land. More importantly, it is unfortunate for me to hear that minerals are being pumped out of some of these areas without the approval of these official land owners.

We must not step on the hard working people and the little people who do not have the monies large corporations have. These people ought to be protected, and we should all be in favor of protecting the land that is rightfully ours and backed by official land titles.
Now we are hearing that Republican George Prescott Bush is running for Texas Land Commissioner – who will more than likely want to run for Lt. Governor of Texas and then ultimately the Texas Governor in the future – but will George P. Bush ignore the pleas of Texas Mexican-American /Latino families who have an official title to the land that Space X wants to build on, too?
In a letter to the latest Bush, Alex Ruiz writes:

Dear George P Bush,My name is David A. Ruiz. I am a native of South Texas, specifically Brownsville, Texas. My family is registered in the Library of Congress as one of the 139 Spanish Colonial Pioneer families that first settled in South Texas. In our recent endeavors with The General Land Office we have found a vast wealth of information that led us on a 15 year search for who we were in Texas History. Mind you this has been no easy task. I am writing you to engage you in a matter that deals with theGLO first hand and would like to know what your thoughts are on this?
The Cisneros family has recently as of the last 8 months found a Land Title that was dated back to late 1700's. In this title we purchased 90,000 acres of land from then The Vice Roy of Spain. This title is legitimate and is protected by the Adams Onis Treaty that the US Senate made with Spain in the 1800's. We have presented these facts to the GLO offices and the Cameron County Commissioner's offices to no avail. They have turned a blind eye to us and have sold off parcels of land to Space X Company for the purposes of building and launching rockets. I am wondering if with your current status on running for the same office as Jerry Patterson, will you be able to see righteously through this situation? What will you do that hasn't been done in Texas for the last 150 years? 
In all honesty we are being neglected by our own State in which we were once Pioneers. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is also one to mention that is being currently broken by our Great State. It seems to me that politics has played an ugly hand and Hispanics are looking for a Righteous Leader with Godly character to do what President Lincon once did, which is to protect the rights of those whose rights are not being acknowledged. If you are interested in helping our cause to right the wrongs of Texas' past please contact me at your convenience.

Best Regards,
David Alejandro Ruiz

DOES COUNTY OWE AMIT LIVINGSTON'S FOLKS $200,000?

By Juan Montoya
Where is Amit Livingston, the East Asian man convicted for the 2005 of murdering teacher Hermila Hernandez and burying her body in a shallow grave off the furthest access to South Padre Island National Seashore?
No one knows.
Livingston was convicted in disgraced District 404th Judge Abel Limas' courtroom after he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. He stood up, walked out of the courtroom — and has never been seen again.
Livingston, then 38, at first denied any involvement in her death and lied to investigators about his whereabouts around the time she was killed. On Feb. 13, 2007, Livingston pleaded guilty to murdering Hernandez. He told 404th state District Judge Abel Limas that he killed her because she "pushed the right buttons" and insulted his manhood.

And although convicted District Attorney Armando Villalobos said that he had objected to allow Livingston 60 days to get his affairs in order, Greg Gladden, Livingston’s attorney, said at the time there was no objection by the prosecutors.

What is know is that Villalobos concurred that a parallel civil lawsuit by the victims' family where the Livingstons had posted a $500,000 bond should be released and that the family receive $300,000 and their attorney – his former law partner Eddie Lucio – should get his $200,000 fee.

A federal jury found Villalobos guilty of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and five counts of extortion, while acquitting him of two other counts of extortion, including one conviction for extortion involving the $200,000 that Lucio received from the Livingston murder case,and  another count involving paying former state District Judge Abel C. Limas $9,600 to $9,700 to squelch the inquiry into the murder case.

Now the Livingston family has informed Cameron County that it is filing a claim to recover the $200,000 that Lucio received. A grand jury found Lucio innocent of a five-count indictment of giving Villalobos an $80,000 kickback in connection with the Livingston case and of giving $1,000 to Limas for his silence in the same case.

The agenda item will be heard in executive session during the 8 a.m Thursday meeting of the commissioners court at the Dancy Building in Brownsville.

IS RUTLEDGE BURGERS OLDEST RESTAURANT IN TOWN?

By Juan Montoya
The historic plaque in front of the closet-wide hamburger restaurant states that John and Hilda Rutledge started selling hamburgers on the sidewalk in 1922 and it wasn't until two year later that they bought the small space between two buildings for $65 and established a wall-to-wall eatery there.
For generations now, locals and visitors have made the pilgrimage to the little space between the two whitewashed walls to chow down on the burgers dished out by the hundreds daily.
They're not Whopper-sized, Big Macs, or the like, but local have been endeared to the cozy locale and the bite-sized morsels dished out by the dozens by the waitresses and the owners.
In 1995, the Rutledges sold the property to Gloria Perez, a former employee.
At 91 years, it has outlived Panchita's, Fisher's Cafe, Higgie's, the Texas Cafe, and countless others. Things have a way of hanging around this city, and Rutledge, unless we have missed some cafe we don't know about, is still considered the oldest greasy spoon in town.
Yet, even Rutledge's culinary seniority doesn't make it exempt from the mean wit of Brownsville wags referring to the tiny size of their hamburgers.
"They still have two pounds of hamburger meat left over form the 10 pounds they bought in 1922," said one.

WAITING FOR THE SHOE TO DROP ON DILLARD FOI REQUEST

By Juan Montoya
Last time the City of Brownsville recurred to the delay and evasion techniques of asking for a Texas Attorney General's Opinion on whether to release information concerning a local professional, its lawyers eventually honor the request and hand over the information.
Now we are at that crossroads again, this time involving the payments and invoices of vendor Diane Dillard, a real estate attorney allegedly hand-picked by Mayor Tony Martinez to assist him (and the rest of the city commission) to speculate in downtown real estate.
Some have alleged that Da Mayor steered the $250-per-hour gig to federal Diane Dillard, wife of federal judge Andrew Hanen as a quid pro quo for keeping supposed incriminating testimony under wraps that might have surfaced in the Abel Limas, Armando Villalobos cases against the mayor's son and attorney Trey Martinez.
The younger Martinez was treasurer to Limas and Villalobos during their last campaigns. Both men lost, Limas in 2010 and Villalobos in 2012.
This, like the mayor's downtown land purchases on behalf of the city, as far as we know is pure speculation. Unless there is someone willing to come forward and say they hear or saw Martinez and Hanen enter into a deal to steer business her way, it remains that, speculation.
What we do know is only that the city made payments to Dillard and now refuse to release the reason for the it paid for the invoices because they claim the Texas Information Act "provides no particular procedure" for obtaining the services for which she was paid $34,124 for the period from November 2011 to August 2013.

The information request from El Rrun-Rrun was for:
1. for "all disbursements to vendor Diane Dillard" and,
2. "all responses to city RFPs (Requests For Production(?) (sic) Proposals from vendor Diane Dillard."
According to the City Assistant Attorney Allison Bastian, "as the Professional Services Procurement Act does not apply to the solicitation of legal services, and state law provides no particular procedure for obtaining such services, the city has nothing in response to Item 2.
"The city does have invoices from Ms. Dillard which address item 1," Bastian wrote. "We are releasing those to you in redacted form; it is however, the city's position that portions of these items are subject to withholding exceptions pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act. The city is therefore seeking the opinion regarding the redaction of these portions. Should the Attorney General subsequently rule the items you seek may be released, we will do so at that time."
In other words, Bastian and the city are taking the position that the public does not have the right to demand to know how their money is spent and how much was paid and for what purpose to any vendor, specifically one for legal services. At most, this will only buy them time before the Attorney General overrules their objections and they order city attorneys to release the information.
It is noteworthy that the invoices handed by Dillard to the city were addressed "The City of Brownsville, c/o Mayor Tony Martinez" and not to the city's Finance of Legal Department for approval.
The invoices were approved by City Manager Charlie Cabler.
Both invoices submitted to the city by Dillard were dated August 1, 2013. The first covered the period from November 12, 2012 to July 31, 2013 for which she charged 44.25 hours and was paid $11,062. The invoices' section dealing with "services" was blackened out entirely and does not state the services she rendered for payment, although there were 32 instances for which she was paid.
The second invoice – also dated August 1, 2013 – covered the period from January 17, 2013 to July 31, 2013 and has 45 instances when she charged for work performed in as many days. Those 45 charges totaled 92.25 hours for which she was paid $23,062.50 for a total of both invoices of $34,124.50.
Both invoices have been blacked out in the spaces where Dillard describes the work she performed for the city payments.
In her letter to the Attorney General, Bastian says "Diane Dillard is a local real estate attorney representing the city on certain real estate matters."
There have been may questions regarding the binge of real estate speculation for which Martinez has been the driving force. Some of the purchases have included the Casa Del Nylon property for which the city paid $2.3 million and which belonged to Martinez political supporter Abraham Golonsky. Golonsky was represented in that negotiations with the city by Martinez's law firm partner Horacio Barrera.
As to the responses to city RFPs for the real estate transactions, the city holds the position that it does not have to provide that information.
To tell our four readers the truth, we don't believe that the city has any responses for RFPs from Ms. Dillard, and that it was probably Martinez steering the jobs trying to win favor from the federal bench. He, his son, and his law firm practice before Hanen and the rest of the judiciary.
Ms. Dillard is a top-flight real estate attorney in her on right. In fact, among one of her major accomplishments is the writing of a Conflict-Of-Interest section on real-estate ethic law. Can she, Martinez, and and the city live up to those convictions?

WOLF, CHEEZMEH'S FB POSTS LOWER BAR ON TASTE

"It's not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself...""You Haven't Done Nothing"  By Stevie Wonder

By Juan Montoya
For some time now we have been amazed at the lowering level of bad taste that people subject themselves to by posting subjects on the most inane topics on their FB pages.
Recently we got this submission from the page belonging to Linda Dragustinovis Castro where the sender apparently thought the lady was apparently posting while sitting on the most important seat in a bathroom. (Now we're told it wasn't that at all, but rather a photo of her at the bar. Whatever.)
You've seen the postings: I've had lunch. I'm eating a sandwich. My dog barked. I woke up, etc.,
Why do people do this?
What could she possibly have been doing or thinking about when she took the photo and wrote "I miss you guys?"
Well, we hope everything came out alright.
Now, Linda is not an unattractive woman, as it were, but posting a picture with a roll of paper in the shelf nearby does open one to crass remarks and ridicule, and FB pages are full of that.
As an example of that one can only point to the comments made when once-Cheezmeh groupie Ryan Wolf (of Food 4 Thought fame) posted what he claimed was a fly on a slab of bacon at the Highway 77 Cafe. Wolf had been in the bad habit of broadcasting stale health inspectors' reports days or weeks after the restaurant owners had corrected the mistakes to add a certain touch of revulsion to his broadcasts.
What was even more revolting was the nature of the dialogue that was triggered by the posting.
The level of discourse, as one can see in the "dialogue" between Letty Cantu and Margarito Ramirez Jr. quickly deteriorated to gutter level and soon into coarse discussions of male genitalia.
Again, why would Wolf allow these Cheezmeh adherents to use his page to hurl obscene insults and vile invective that belong down a toilet? Does Ryan read Spanish? Does he understand border slang?
We apologize to our sensitive readers for pointing out these X-rated examples of social media communications, but really guys. Keep it Clean.

IF YOU'RE IN BROWNSVILLE, YOU'RE PROBABLY TRUCKING

 

By Juan Montoya
Let's face it. We're a border and port city.
That means that there will be trucks on the road the better part of the day whenever you hit the highwy. Whether you're downtown  on Tenth Street, on the way to the beach ob South Padre Island Highway, by the Port of Brownsvile or on the way to Mass at Guadalupe Church on Lincoln Street, trucks, trucks, trucks are everywhere.
Many of our fellow residents make their living driving them, operating them, servivicing them, selling parts, fuel and lubricants to maintain them, and even selling food, clothjing and lodging toe those who make a living driving them to all parts of the United States and itno Mexico.
We have an Overweight Load Corridor designation, money in the bank to construct highway loops that will eventually remove them from inner-city routes past schools and neighborhoods, and more and more projects on the planning boards to accomodate the increase in traffic projected when infrastructure projects on both sides of the border finally unite both economies with world markets through I-69 and the Port of Brownsville.
In the meantime, keep a sharp eye for the trucks and 18-wheelers lumbering though our streets and thoroughfares. Their economic importance means that they will be around for some time to come. Happy motoring.

 

 

POP GOES THE $225 MILLION POWER PLANT AT SAN BENE

By Juan Montoya
Politicians and economic development gurus are scutrrying to put as much space between themselves and the company which promised to build a $225 million gas-fired power plant that would generate 171 MW of elelctricity and create 190 good-paying jobs at the Resaca City's abandoned municipal airport.
Apparently, it was too good to be true, or so Michael Rodriguez, the editor of the San Benito News, thinks he found out.
Working together with Buford Davis, editor of the Henderson, Nev. Press, Rodriguez revealed that the building in downtown Las Vegas that was portrayed on the Telemark Development Group Inc., website as theirs, was actually a doctored photo synthetically placed on a building at 2373 Rennaissance in Las Vegas and that the company had never "owned, rented or leased" the property.
"The News traced the physical address listed on Telmark and its parent companies, PowerCom International and FranklinGlobalResources “Contact Us” webpages, which is 850 South Boulder Hwy., #120, Henderson, Nev., to a UPS store PO Box," Rodriguez wrote on the News Sept. 22 weekend issue.
The revelations in the daily prompted San Benito Mayor Joe H. Hernandez to issue a statement Wednesday distancing himself and the City Commission from the power plant.
“There appears to be some confusion about the power plant issue and how it surfaced,” Hernandez said in his statement. “The project itself, was proposed by the Economic Development Corporation, and was reported to the media by the same entity. The City Commission had very little knowledge of the project, outside of what was presented in the newspaper articles.”
In response to Hernandez's directive that he issue a statement about the controversy, San Benito EDC Director Solomon Torres issued a statement last Wednesday that said:
“The San Benito Economic Development Corporation is disappointed that the proposed 171megawatt power plant is no longer planned for San Benito by Telemark Development Group. In March, the EDC received developers Peter Del Mastro, Larry Muno, and local representative Ben Neece and gave them a tour of two sites of interest, the San Benito cityowned airport property and the former La Palma Power Plant owned by a private company. The developers were pleased with the airport property and how it fit their specifications for the construction of a natural gas-fired powered plant.
“To identify local investors, the group returned in July and conducted an information workshop in San Benito for potential investors from Mexico and featured attorney Matthew Schulz, who specializes in processing EB5 investor visa petitions for projects in the United States.
“Ultimately,” Torres continued in his statement, “the developers planned to make an offer to the City of San Benito this fall for the purchase of the property. The development group did not plan to ask the City or EDC for any financial assistance or financial participation in the project. The concerns that have been raised recently about the legitimacy of the investors give Telemark the opportunity to respond about its corporate structure and existence. We encourage Telemark to do so and hope that the proposed new power plant becomes a reality somewhere in Cameron County.
As previously reported, Del Mastro has said that Telemark planned to fund the construction of a San Benito power plant by encouraging foreign investors to take advantage of the Employment Based: Fifth Preference (EB-5) federal program, which awards conditional permanent residency in exchange for a $500,000 to $1 million investment in a targeted employment area.
Instead, on September 16, Del Mastro sent Hernandez a letter of Intent/Termination where he announced the company was rescinding the Letter of Intent and memorandum of Understanding with the city and the EDC.
"This letter is being sent to you as formal notice to the City of San Benito by PowerCom International, a wholly owned subsidiary of Telemark Development Group, of it’s intention to rescind the Letter of Intent and Memorandum of Understanding entered into with the City of San Benito on July 19, 2013 effective immediately. This decision was made pursuant to a unanimous vote of the Board of Directors of Telemark Development Group Inc. at it’s meeting of September 13, 2013."
Was Telmark Development Group a fly-by-night operation trying to bilk Mexican investors of millions with the promise of U.S. residency under the EB-5 program?
Or was it a legitimate outfit scared away by the provincial infighting of factions within a small border community?
If the former, the citizens of San Benito are indebted to editor Rodriguez for uncovering the scam before any public commitments were made on their behalf. If the latter, then it may be time to conduct a political cleanup so as not to scare legitimate investors who could have given an economic boost to this Rio Grande Valley burg.

CITY SEEKS TO KEEP RESIDENTS IN THE DARK ON PAYMENTS TO DIANE DILLARD, WIFE OF FEDERAL JUDGE HANEN: WHY?

By Juan Montoya
Attorneys for the City of Brownsville have refused to provide information on city payments to Diane Dillard – wife of federal judge Andrew Hanen – claiming the Texas Information Act "provides no particular procedure" for obtaining the services for which she was paid $34,124 for the period from November 2011 to August 2013.
El Rrun-Rrun requested the information from the City Secretary under the normal information request process September 6, a Friday. Under the law, the city has 10 working days to provide the information requested or to ask the Texas Attorney General for a ruling on any information they deny to provide the public.
The 10-working-day rule expired Sept. 20, the date of the city letter was sent via certified mail to the publisher's address.
The information request from El Rrun-Rrun was for:
1. for "all disbursements to vendor Diane Dillard" and,
2. "all responses to city RFPs (Requests For Production(?) (sic) Proposals from vendor Diane Dillard."
According to the City Assistant Attorney Allison Bastian, "as the Professional Services Procurement Act does not apply to the solicitation of legal services, and state law provides no particular procedure for obtaining such services, the city has nothing in response to Item 2.
"The city does have invoices from Ms. Dillard which address item 1," Bastian wrote. "We are releasing those to you in redacted form; it is however, the city's position that portions of these items are subject to withholding exceptions pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act. The city is therefore seeking the opinion regarding the redaction of these portions. Should the Attorney General subsequently rule the items you seek may be released, we will do so at that time."
In other words, Bastian and the city are taking the position that the public does not have the right to demand to know how their money is spent and how much was paid and for what purpose to any vendor, specifically one for legal services. At most, this will only buy them time before the Attorney General overrules their objections and they order city attorneys to release the information.
We do not believe – as others have alleged – that Mayor Tony Martinez entered into a quid pro quo agreement with Judge Hanen to steer business to his wife in return for favorable treatment of his son Trey Martinez relating to the racketeering and bribery investigation into the local judiciary. Trey was Limas' treasurer during the last campaign Limas lost to Elia Cornejo-Lopez. And we realize that any prosecution relating to those cases is the proper purview of the Office of the U.S. Attorney, not a federal judge.
However, it is noteworthy that the invoices handed by Dillard to the city were addressed "The City of Brownsville, c/o Mayor Tony Martinez" and not to the city's Finance of Legal Department for approval.
The invoices were approved by City Manager Charlie Cabler.
Both invoices submitted to the city by Dillard were dated August 1, 2013. The first covered the period from November 12, 2012 to July 31, 2013 for which she charged 44.25 hours and was paid $11,062. The invoices' section dealing with "services" was blackened out entirely and does not state the services she rendered for payment, although there were 32 instances for which she was paid.
The second invoice – also dated August 1, 2013 – covered the period from January 17, 2013 to July 31, 2013 and has 45 instances when she charged for work performed in as many days. Those 45 charges totaled 92.25 hours for which she was paid $23,062.50 for a total of both invoices of $34,124.50.
It is apparent that the two invoices dealt with work dealing in real estate transactions that she handled for the city.
Both invoices have been blacked out in the spaces where Dillard describes the work she performed for the city payments.
In her letter to the Attorney General, Bastian says "Diane Dillard is a local real estate attorney representing the city on certain real estate matters."
There have been may questions regarding the binge of real estate speculation for which Martinez has been the driving force. Some of the purchases have included the Casa Del Nylon property for which the city paid $2.3 million and which belonged to Martinez political supporter Abraham Golonsky. Golonsky was represented in that negotiations with the city by Martinez's law firm partner Horacio Barrera.
As to the responses to city RFPs for the real estate transactions, the city holds the position that it does not have to provide that information and cites state law:
(1) Texas Gov't. Code 552.022 (a) (16)
(2.) 552.101, encompassing "other law," specifically Tex. Rules of Civ. Procedure 192.5 and Tex. Rules of Evidence 503, and
(3.) Other law as applicable, including Federal and State statutes and common law
Bastian, in her letter to the Attorney General, states that the city will "follow up next week with unredacted samples of then items Mr. Montoya seeks, as well as a brief in support of their withholding."
To tell our four readers the truth, we don't believe that the city has any responses for RFPs from Ms. Dillard, and that it was probably Martinez steering the jobs trying to win favor from the federal bench. He, his son, and his law firm practice before Hanen and the rest of the judiciary.
It would be a pleasant surprise to us who have been pleasantly surprised at hoe Hanen has sought to uproot the corruption and racketeering on the part of the judiciary, public prosecutors and law enforcement and in the local school district as well, that he ask his wife to authorize the city to provide the information the public is seeking from its government and its elected officials.
Ms. Dillard is a top-flight real estate attorney in her on right. In fact, among some of her major accomplishments is the writing of a Conflict-Of-Interest section on real-estate ethic law. We urge her to authorize the city to produce the information we have requested in the interest of transparency. Will she? And will the city continue to try to keep its taxpayers in the dark about how it spends their money?

ONCE YOU GIVE SOMETHING UP, YOU CAN NEVER GET IT BACK

By Juan Montoya
Recently I had the occasion to drive along the river levee past Southmost Road where it turns into Oklahoma and continues toward Highway 4 (Boca Chica).
Despite all the talk downtown about the divisiveness, the hideousness that the Border Wall has generated, it is difficult to describe the true ugliness of this structure as you go for mile after mile of this structure. It continues in sight of the motorist it seems forever behind orchards, nature reserves, farms, and through backyards of rural homes.
It is ubiquitous. Just when you think the end is near, it peers behind citrus orchards, clotheslines, and native trees. Sometimes it's near the roadway. Other times it is a distant tan line snaking its way through the distant countryside.
In downtown Brownsville, it stares at you at the end of the north-south numbered streets in the city leading toward and away from the river.
Like any metal structure in South Texas, in places it has begun to sport a reddish patina of rust. At places, where there are huge gates to allow farmer and their tractors to pass, it remind one of the gates to a castle, complete with a berm and moat. Through the slats one can sometimes see the trucks of the manor guards – the Border Patrol – driving on top of the levee, themselves as much prisoners as those on either side.
On Oklahoma Road, the residents have been quoted in the local newspaper in the past speaking against it saying that it did not really prevent those who really wanted to cross the river and enter the United States. Statistics seem to bear that out because during recent congressional hearings secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano testified that of all the sectors along the U.S. border, the McAllen sector which included Brownsville all the way to the mouth of the river, is the only one where the number of illegal crossings still remain constant.

Numerous pundits have stated that after Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush instructed the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize the construction of fortifications along the Mexican border. The result has been thi astonishing array of barriers across America’s southern frontier. The number of Border Patrol agents doubled in seven years to more than 21,000 coupled with an interior enforcement expanded to identify, detain, prosecute and deport undocumented migrants. The latest budget – bowing to Tea Party and Republican demands – includes huge outlays for even more boots on the border ground and additional fortifications. In return, the Barack Obama administration is hoping that its immigration bill with a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million people living here without documents will pass the U.S. Congress. We'll see.
President Obama has continued most of Bush’s programs — and, in fact, increased deportations to nearly 410,000 in 2012, the highest number ever. During President Obama's first term, his administration deported 1.5 million immigrants from various countries, according to US government figures. In 2011, close to 300,000 deportees were Mexican nationals, and nearly all of them ended up in Mexican border towns, like Brownsville.
Recently, the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) released a report confirming that 13,454 unaccompanied Mexican minors under the age of 18 were deported from the U.S. in 2012.
The vast majority of these deportations were to Mexico. Two principal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, spent nearly $18 billion in 2012 — enforcing what Napolitano calls a no-nonsense approach to immigration.
Such an effort is necessary, she said, in order for voters to support comprehensive immigration reform, including the aforementioned pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants. Along the river boundary, the wide meanders of the Rio Grande made it impossible to build a continuous, straight-line fence. So the barriers were constructed north of the river — slicing off part of a nature reserve here, a few holes of a golf course there and cutting a university campus in two. United States citizens stranded on the “Mexican side” of the interior divide wonder if they now live in Mexico.
Observers like  New York Times columnists have written that "barriers in Texas, moreover, are disproportionately located in poor and minority communities — a pattern that is so clear that it sometimes becomes farcical: plans for one fence, for instance, show it ending abruptly at the edge of a billionaire’s property.
Borderlanders have done their best to adjust to this increasingly bizarre world. Crossing times at the border first doubled, then tripled, from what they had been before the fences, but people learned to factor the holdups into their commute times. Television news programs even began reporting crossing delays along with the weather report."
Indeed,we have.
Such adjustments, though, barely mitigate the outrage that many Americans feel toward the encroachment of hideous barriers into their once open land.
Just ask June Taylor, at the juncture of Esperanza and Monsees roads in extreme southeast Brownsville. Taylor, a naturalized English woman, often the ony native English speaker in this neighborhood, suddenly found herself on the foreigner side of the fence. Nothing, not even her signs declaring that "We're part of America," stopped the eventual construction of the wall that separated her farm from the rest of us and which one can see from the road nestled in a spot heading toward the Rio Grande. In fact, she's got a wall down the street, on her east side, and along the river levee that runs north and south at the end of the field in front of her ranch home.
These daily adjustments by border residents don't change the fact that the border fence is harming an ancient human ecosystem. Try telling the right-wingers in Congress that mutual interdependence has always been a hallmark of cross-border lives. Residents on both sides of the line have always regarded parts of Mexico and the United States as their home. For them, the border is a connective membrane, not a line of demarcation. Often they have more in common with one another than with their host nations.
We along the border have learned to live with many things. Whether it's Snowbirds from up north snarling our roads, the peso devaluation in the south impacting our economy, the cartel-fueled violence in northern Tamaulipas, etc. We've learned to live through it all. In the end the wall will become just another fixture of our landscape to be seen as a reminder of what we have given up for the "greater good." Take a trip to Boca Chica past the Border Patrol checkpoint while you're at it.  It might also be put out of reach in the near future. Once you give up something, you can never get it back. Get used to it.

SAN BENE EMBARRASSED OVER POWER PLANT FIASCO; SB NEWS BROKE STORY, BEAT VALLEY MORNING STAR

By Juan Montoya
There were promises by a Las Vegas, Nev. group of building a $215 million power plant in the new dynamic Resaca City.
More than 195 high-paying jobs were to be created. San Benito would be able to sell excess electric power generated by the 750 MW gas-powered power plant.
Now city officials are pointing the finger at the San Benito Economic Development Corporation for what they say was their failure to do their due diligence saying that the Development Group had misrepresented itself.
Mayor Joe Hernandez quickly issued a press release blaming the SBEDC for the snafu that makes the city and the BEDC look like chumps with egg on their faces.
And the Telemark Development Group called off plans to build the much-ballyhooed plant and warehousing center at the city’s 170-acre old airport property off Business 77, officials said.
And a Valley Morning Star report that stated that "City officials conducted a probe that found Telemark Development Group had superimposed its logo on a Las Vegas building that it represented as housing its offices, Garza said. Garza said the probe traced Telemark Development Group’s address to a Post Office box at a United Parcel Service building in Las Vegas."
Hernandez came down with both feet on the EDC for what he said was their failure to conduct a background check on the company and gave the credit for the discovery to his staff and distanced himself from the EDC.
But EDC President Pete Claudio said the city was behind the project.
That drew a quick retort from a leading social media website who said that neither the VMS reporter Fernando del Valle, the city staff nor the EDC deserved the credit for uncovering the scam. They wrote:

Reforming San Benito: Star-Fernando del Valle, get your facts straight! It wasn't the city manager and city attorney who broke this story. It was Managing Editor Michael Scott Rodriguez of the SB News, whose investigation assisted by others, revealed what we now know about Telemark and its highly questionable and suspect activities. If you want to do an investigative story of your own, find out how much money the city spent on attorney fees for the city attorney to allegedly investigate what the commission and EDC should have done for free as part of their elected and appointed duties. Tell us what this cost us taxpayers to cover their incompetence. That's a story worth writing, Fernando!

This was followed by another post which stated:
"Wait a second Mayor Hernandez, YOU alone appointed the EDC Board that you are now throwing under the bus. In 2011, as part of your scheme of retaliation, you removed former Commissioners Celeste Sanchez and Bill Elliott, along with savvy business-minded Frederico Garza, and replaced them with your compadres Victor Garza, Pete Claudio and Rene Garcia. What makes matters worse is that a member of your own commission, Commissioner J.D. Penny, sits on the EDC board with your blessing. If the EDC is to be blamed for failure to do its due diligence, then you are to be blamed, Mayor Hernandez, for putting these friends of yours in positions for which they are unqualified. It's a disgraceful display of leadership and loyalty that, as mayor and friend, you are shifting the blame and trying to distance yourself from the very friends you appointed. You are as much to blame for any of this Mayor Hernandez, as anyone."

Scott Rodriguez then confirmed that the San Benito News alerted city and EDS officials to the story:

Michael Scott Rodriguez, Managing Editor: San Benito News:

"City officials" conducted a probe??? The Star's a week late running a story the San Benito News broke based on an investigation we conducted and attributes the efforts to the city, citing Victor Garza as the source? I highly doubt Victor made such a statement, especially since it's not true. I also know Victor wouldn't say such a thing, especially since it was a PowerCom International photo that was Photoshopped, not Telemark's. You care to explain this to me, Star-Fernando del Valle?

One Martin Limon, a local businessman, threw in his take on the city leadership:

"The mayor has no idea on how to deal with this situation. Business minded people know that nothing is to good to be true. These guys all they want to do is look good, If it blows up in their face which usually does they don't know who to blame but each other. All these screw ups do not need to be running the city. But the voters are so naïve and gullible they keep voting them in. The city has not moved forward in the last 8 years. Every city has grown here in the valley. We need to attract new business that will generate city revenue and tourism. There was a rumor that the city only lures scammers and con artists. And that real business is scared away by the city leaders due to their lack of crass and initiative. In other words that they do not know how to run a city or conduct them selves. Sad.