http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------
NAVARRO SNATCHES COOL PAYDAY FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT
---------------------------------------------------------------
By<b> Juan Montoya</b><br />He was appointed by the former majority on the Brownsville Independent School District to dig up dirt to justify the termination of Special Needs department director Art Rendon.<br />According to sources who saw the reports, the work product delivered consisted of district-authorized audits that were warmed over and packaged for the board. Unconvinced that the material amounted to a smoking gun, the new majority agreed to settle with Rendon on his whistelblower lawsuit and gave him a one-year contact at his previous salary.<br /><div>An Open Records request to the BISD indicates that Ric Navarro, of the Harlingen law firm of Denton, Navarro, Rocha & Bernal, P.C., was paid almost $400,000 for his role in the "investigations." In the end, with Rendon getting reinstated as part of the settlement with the BISD, all that laborious process gathering the "evidence" seems to have been all for naught.</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEjiLBu2Ho5p5XPof6Xo6DS2vOWJ3Qkh0Q2LJeww5-xxjYc3gD9zdUFanioo0lVNhtqkW5kLsyX2KbueQ791FBUz3JxzlVkn6zw5GnflbNUefSx0qND47_E19KJYy2lAzhZvYASWzOYc/s1600/NAVARRO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" n4="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEjiLBu2Ho5p5XPof6Xo6DS2vOWJ3Qkh0Q2LJeww5-xxjYc3gD9zdUFanioo0lVNhtqkW5kLsyX2KbueQ791FBUz3JxzlVkn6zw5GnflbNUefSx0qND47_E19KJYy2lAzhZvYASWzOYc/s1600/NAVARRO.jpg" /></a>"All we got was the work of our district auditor warmed over," said a BISD administrator. "There was no smoking gun anywhere to prove the allegations that were being made by the board majority then.That was an expensive exercise in futility."<br />"Ric was the biggest winner in that case," said an attorney acquainted with the case.<br />Well, for some reason or other Navarro has again been assigned to defend the City of Brownsville in the ongoing investigation of the police shooting of Javier Gonzalez Jr. in a Cummings Middle School hallway.<br />So far, the Navarro strategy has consisted of trying to throw a blanket over the surveillance tape and investigative documents of the shooting. The city has resorted to the time-honored delay strategy of requesting an opinion from the Texas Attorney General's office. The city claims that because the tapes and documents are part of an ongoing investigation, it is within its right to prevent them from public access.<br />That comes on the heels of the firm defending the decision by Brownsville Fire Chief Lenny Perez to terminate firefighter and firefighter union representative Marco Longoria who Perez charged with insubordination after the firefighter refused to go to a particular clinic to have a drug test after a fender bender between his department vehicle and a woman in a parking lot.<br />Well, even though the city lost that one, too, Navarro's firm pocketed a cool $21,969.11 for its attorneys' brilliant defense of Perez's actions.<br />Notoriety has also dogged Navarro who was counsel of record for the city of Weslaco. The investigation into corruption in the Weslaco PD includes tape recordings obtained by the FBI and several media outlets indicating that Navarro counseled members of the city commission on how to get around personnel guidelines to promote Cpl. Baudelio Castillo above other higher-ranking officers.</div><div style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: medium; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: medium; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: medium;">Once Castillo was promoted to the position of assistant police chief, he is accused of selectively sending officers to patrol elsewhere and protecting the activities of specific drug dealers. The investigation into the drug running is said to be continuing.<br />In the Weslaco case, sources told a local television station that Castillo craved power and that members of the city commission were looking for a way to give him a high position within the police department. Tapes made available to the station indicate that then-city manager Frank Castellanos talked to Navarro about making this possible.</div><div style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: medium; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: medium; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: medium;">"I think what they want with Baudelio, and the commission. They want a police chief that will then put Baudelio in a position where Castillo can get more money and have more influence."</div><div style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: medium; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: medium; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: medium;">The city commission apparently wanted legal help on the matter and turned to their attorney Navarro to find a way.</div>A taped recording caught commissioners meeting in executive session to discuss how to put Castillo in charge of the police force.<br />"I think I understand what you guys want, and based on this I’ll follow the process to get you there. But, I’m thinking to get what you guys want, I think you guys need to advertise for three days," says Navarro.<br /><div style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: medium; border-left-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-left-width: medium; border-right-color: initial; border-right-style: none; border-right-width: medium; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: none; border-top-width: medium;">The commission eventually decided not to make Castillo chief because he wasn’t qualified and they created an assistant chief position.</div>In June of 2009, Catellanos laid off five top city leaders including the police chief.<br />The layoffs cleared the way for Castillo to rise to power at the department.<br />CHANNEL 5 NEWS reported that once Castillo took over he dismantled the narcotics department and opened up a smuggler’s highway through the mid-Valley.<br />"There were certain known drug traffickers who were pursued and other traffickers who were left alone," a source told the station.<br />That allegation has the attention of current city leaders and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the station reported recently.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2681511888352713214?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/01/navarro-snatches-cool-payday-from-jaws.html
---------------------------------------------------------------
MATA CELEBRATES 186TH ANNIVERSARY OF ITS FOUNDING
---------------------------------------------------------------
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5R7qE0uvb1kqE4GnXq-5VrswyeqCm3MSBnNzXOkY-V_O3hVYojzP8furWsCXx6Lpqed9rX6uvutGOfu1ar4-8w9Cg8IbPaZsVyGLa85XObfzP6PfyEqLLZCajNxEyIQ_wmbcyQlPn8No/s1600/mata2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" gda="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5R7qE0uvb1kqE4GnXq-5VrswyeqCm3MSBnNzXOkY-V_O3hVYojzP8furWsCXx6Lpqed9rX6uvutGOfu1ar4-8w9Cg8IbPaZsVyGLa85XObfzP6PfyEqLLZCajNxEyIQ_wmbcyQlPn8No/s1600/mata2.jpg" /></a></div>The mayor's office of Matamoros through its Institute of Culture and the Arts in collaboration with the Historical Fort Casamata is inviting the public to historical conferences and photographic exposition Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m. free of charge.<br />Museum director Martha SaldÃvar has announced that as part of the festivities to celebrate the 186th anniversary of its founding, there will be a photographic exhibition of “Guerrero Viejo: Viejo Guerrero†that will depict the story of that city before and after its residents were moved.<br />Photographer Everardo Castro MedellÃn will show images of that once-bustling city that capture the vibrant urban life before the city was flooded by a newly-constructed dam.<br /><br /><em>(Editor's Note: The following narrative on the founding of Matamoros, because of its length, will be posted in three parts. It originally appeared in the Bravo and we translated it for our Spanish-challenged readers.) </em><br /><br /><br />"Mi Matamoros Querido"<br />By <strong>Oscar Treviño Jr.</strong><br />While colonization was under way by 1749, MatÃas de los Santos Coy decided to establish what a livestock ranch called "San Juan de los Esteros Hermosos." The location of that first effort at settling the area is near what is today the intersection of Calle Quinta y Matamoros.<br />However, Santos Coy had to give up that effort because of constant attacks by local natives who did not show a propensity to be "civilized."<br />That's the reason Santos Coy is not considered today one of the founding settlers of the city.<br />Two years before, José de Escandón wrote a letter to the Crown saying that this place -Matamoros-, was an inadequate place to build a town because of the annual flooding of the Rio Grande and because of the poor drainage of the land.<br />Nonetheless, in 1747, 12 families came down from Camargo and Reynosa upriver and they founded a congregation called "San Juan de los Esteros Hermosos", and choosing, coincidentally, the same spot chosen temporarily by Santos Coy.<br />In 1784 they filed the paperwork to purchase 113 sitios de ganado mayor- something like 17. 5 square kilómeters - claiming that they had lived on the site for more than 10 years. The owner of the land, Don Andrés Vicente o Antonio de UrÃzar, who didn't know his property named Don Ignacio del Valle as his representative in the transaction. The families named Ignacio Anastacio de Ayala as their representative and the deal was consummated with Diego de Lasaga, the political and military governor of the colonia del Nuevo Santander present as well as Pedro Félix Campuzano, the judge commissioned by the government for the mediation of lands.<br />Even though the families signed the documents on October 18, 1874 in San Felipe de Linares, Nuevo León, with Juan Jacinto de Lanuza, Andrés Vicente de UrÃzar's new representative, it wasn't until January 3, 1875, when the transaction was finalized.<br />In this way, large tracts of the land and big ranches started being identified with the names and geographic characteristics of the livestock raised by the original 12 families .<br />For example, the ranch owned by Juan José Cisneros who was married to MarÃa Antonia Villarreal, was identified by locals as "Cabras Pintas".<br />Don Juan Nepomuceno Cisneros Villarreal, who was married to MarÃa Teresa Salinas, owned the ranch called "La Canasta."<br />Don Miguel Chapa, amrried to MarÃa Teresa Treviño, owned "El Chapeño."<br />Don Santiago Longoria, married to MarÃa Hinojosa, owned "El Longoreño.<br />Don José Antonio de la Garza Falcón, married to Josefa Villarreal, owned "El Falconeño."<br />Don Antonio de la Garza, married to MarÃa Salomé Sepúlveda, owned the now-famous "El Tahuachal."<br />Don Luis Antonio GarcÃa RodrÃguez, married to MarÃa RosalÃa de la Garza, owned the horse ranch "Los Gachupines."<br />Don Ramón Longoria, married to Josefa GarcÃa, owned "La Barranca" and "El Capote,"along with Marcelino Longoria and his wife Francisca de la Serna.<br />Don José de Hinojosa, married to Antonia Benavides, owned "La Palma."<br />Juan José SolÃs, married to MarÃa Gertrudis Hinojosa, owned "El Soliseño."<br />Nicolás de Vela, married to MarÃa GarcÃa, were owners of the ranch "Las Animas" along with José Antonio Cavazos y Gertrudis Cantú.<br />Some of the original names that were given to these areas still persist.<br /><em>(Next: Military presence and religious colonization)</em><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-199833186273859934?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/01/mata-celebrates-186th-anniversary-of.html
RSS URL: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
This email sponsored by:
1&1 Internet - 6 Months Free on new Hosting packages
http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=7538907
This email is a service of QuickThreads.com.
To manage your subscriptions, login here:
http://www.quickthreads.com/myaccount.php
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment