http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/
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WHOSE ROAD IT IT ANYWAY? "DIME PALOMA BLANCA POR CUAL ME VOY"
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<span style="font-weight: normal; ">By </span><b>Juan Montoya</b><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Two months and thousands of dollars and man hours ago, the Cameron County Transportation Department through its Public Works and Engineering components decided to improve Paloma Blanca Road that lies between Maverick and Southmost roads in rural southeast Brownsville.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">It was a no-brainer. </div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">The road, once paved, has been eroded by use and bad drainage from vegetation-choked ditches and now only showed spots where small patches of pavement remained. Even the caliche base was sparse. When it rained, the roads became a quagmire because it lacked the cleared bar ditches needed for the rainwater to drain.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">All along the road, homeowners were glad to have the county fix the </div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRQ6-RB2CGVa37lPSVpJQ-X67G2u9eVo8otbTYJInhT38UnHtVTdEw9GUJgdXGovHi197UvyjZxZEiMD0tHtKcOi0gQzYhiN83pUBIIGB-8mzJhxsAGq726sCANCLR1cTQ0FKEQrrVs2E/s400/PALOMABLANCADITCH1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717286288908887282" /><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">road and gladly complied with the county crews in placing new driveway cement pipes that the crews then covered with caliche up to the property line.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Everyone of the property owners was all for the improvements, which among other things, included using gravity bar ditches leading to large concrete drain boxes that funneled the runoff water to nearby feeder ditches. </div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Everyone, that is, except for one at the corner of Del Rio and Paloma Blanca where the drain boxes were to divert the water to the feeder ditch.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">That was a property owner named Guy Huddleson. His property, lying almost exactly on the middle of the project on the east side of Paloma Blanca, was critical to the project because the feeder boxes were located strategically to empty into the ditch running east along Del Rio Road abutted the north side of his property.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">"We have been going on and off with him for about two months about the project and at first he said yes, and then said no," said a Public Works worker at the site. "Then, after we thought he had agreed to the improvements, he wants us to cover the ditches along the section of the road along his property and to take out the boxes."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">And so, on Monday and Tuesday, after months of leveling the road, compacting a tons of caliche costing thousands of dollars to make a firm base, purchasing the boxes for about $8,000 and expanding</div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIqExhZMtW8di4VNR4gPxYGqEPQs7UuaZ8cnuqoRRZh6t1VUc_vXsP8OXG-JjcV3KiR1je_EMbuT25nbFKbTNI9CNe4Csvf8qPlevIBvzVTt6x868s21p_RVKaa_GkCHukXUmHu5w8C0/s320/PALOMABLANCADITCH.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717286171859661266" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px; " /><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; "> the man hours and heavy machinery to finish the project, workers were made to cover the ditc<span style="font-size: 100%; ">hes facing Huddleson's property with dirt and remove the boxes that were to funnel the runoff water into the feeder ditches.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; "><span style="font-size: 100%; "><i>(On the picture on top, workers remove pipes below the road that would divert rain water from one side of the road to the other and into a concrete drain box visible below the backhoe. On the left, workers also were made to cover the ditch running along the side of Huddleson's property and remove the drain box, effectively preventing the runoff from the neighborhood to the south of his property.) </i> </span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Additionally, they also had to remove the concrete pipes that ran under Paloma Blanca and were to divert the rain water from the bar ditch on the west side of Paloma Blanca across the road and into the feeder ditch.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Questions to the Precinct 1 supervisor on the reason why the project was stopped and Huddleson's section of the road were unanswered because of his consultations with the county's right-of-way officer.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">A former county foreman remembered that Huddleson had been involved in several disputes with the county crews in the past. In one instance decades ago, he had complained because a county worker had cut down a tree that had grown in the middle of the ditch across Paloma Blanca from his property. In another, he said that Huddleson had received thousands of dollars in payment from the county after crews had removed a Sabal palm with a charred trunk from the roadside alongside his property.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">"Apparently, when the old irrigation district shut down and abandoned the easements along Paloma Blanca, the property reverted to the property owners," he said. "Someone in the county apparently neglected to note that the road is not dedicated and that the road easements were never procured. Someone at Engineering, Right-of-Way and Public Works fells asleep at the wheel on this one."</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">For now, however, after thousands of dollars in materials and man hours have been expended, the project has apparently come to a stop. Even though the property owners on either side of Huddleson's property enthusiastically support the improvements on the road to prevent flooding and erosion of the road, the county and Huddleson are at an impasse.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">However, without access to that feeder ditch, the water will now have to travel more than another 100 t0 200 yards north before it can be diverted and flooding to neighborhood prevented.</div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">"It's frustrating how one man can stop a project that will not only benefit him, but all of his neighbors," said a resident there. "Surely someone can do something about this so that the benefits of the project can be realized."</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-6321371184853488206?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/03/whose-road-it-it-anyway-dime-paloma-por.html
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UTB'S "0%" GRADUATION RATE LOWEST IN ALL OF TEXAS
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<span style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><a href="http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/compare-texas-universities-graduation-rates/"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 296px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWzUyGhAYCYusg8ondBRj5PiDh7I0ujAdAE5_TBF3LfIAf8uIC7jPWSGGZ1aLiMRDGzdG_fPvrvfCfCeJgeiNiIdDcuUUVmQXOzC2xXVSkIUUUGivXe4mpPJeUgvmAw_4-N14DKPi9bM/s400/utbgradrate.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717242073902607954" border="0" /></a></span>By <b style="font-style: normal; ">Juan Montoya</b><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><b style="font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal;"><br /></b></span><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; ">Remember all the accolades that the local daily, the three trustees in the minority at Texas Southmost </span><span style="font-style: normal; font-size: 100%; ">College (David Oliveira, Robert Robles, and Robert Lozano heaped upon the University of Texas-Texas Southmost College president?</span><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><b style="font-size: 100%; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal;"><br /></b></span><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><span> </span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span style=" ;">She was named Hispanic Educator of the Year, Grand Exalted Educator of the Milky Way, Brownsville's answer to Sliced Bread, etc.</span><span>), and every other sobriquet laurel her fawning sycophants bestowed upon UTB-TSC president Juliet Garcia.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span>Anyway, you remember.</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span>But there's another recognition that escaped their notice: How about president of the Institution of Higher Education Where Nobody Graduates in Four Years?</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span>We've all heard of the dismal 17 percent graduation rate in six years that the Harvard by the Rio Grande has achieved.<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWIyOPQfpg2qGt8EWayUfFIbFDSv7UioQYM4swqLyP0lJniuHWCTkuf98om4XyQkLHnttvKOU28rwR26cm1dhkcZLWA94KwOejSOJQagvZrbUREfdLCX_8CRbY29LRbGE15iLB6SbCH3Y/s200/college_garcia_1123.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717259471678666898" style="float: left; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 162px; height: 200px; " border="0" /></span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span style=";"><a href="http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/compare-texas-universities-graduation-rates/">Click and zoom on the graphic</a> to the right and see for yourself.<br />Some people have written that the $336,000 salary that Juliet commands yearly is not nearly enough to compensate her for her job. Taking her tr</span><span style=" ;">ack record into consideration, some of us may want to get our money back</span><span>. But how about a zero gradation rate for four years, the lowest of any in the Great State of Texas?</span></div><div style="font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><span>Some may say that the high percentage of minority (Hispanic) students result in these dismal achievement. But look at the results of Pan-Am and other minority-heavy universities. Even they have a higher four-year graduation rate than UTB-TSC.</span></div><div style="font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; "><i><span>(The spike in 2004 may just be a fudging of the numbers by her </span><span>overpaid, </span><span><span style=" ;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRj0K5ZfVz2cv_JN1DIAjZwHmk7zlnemotDRUhU-_fbMVonNWRNs4Ec8rfk_2Si2piqofvUEsqHszb_olawGX5feH-9RZnBapx-wPj3N271pYczcqEt62vg0WQaw-HrJ0fNex2XMcgpzw/s200/utb.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717258490909359458" style="float: left; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; cursor: pointer; width: 176px; height: 144px;" border="0" /></span></span><span>underachieving cast of characters to make the UTB-TSC </span></i><span><span><i>rate look good. But the ruse only worked that year. After that, the pattern stabilized to the norm.)</i></span></span><span style="font-style: normal; "><i><b> </b></i></span></div><div style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; font-variant: normal; line-height: normal; "><span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.9931439999490976" style=" text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style=" font-weight: normal; text-align: left; ">This is not a critic talking. These are the cold hard numbers compiled by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Unless there is some widespread conspiracy to denigrate Her Holiness, this is a disgraceful performance at our community's expense. The separation of TSC from UTB cannot come fast enough.</span></b></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-8184789681083306104?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/03/utbs-0-graduation-rate-lowest-in-all-of_07.html
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HER COME DA JUDGE, PACKING HEAT
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<div>By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong></div><br /><div>Among some of the more amusing things that one finds in an officeholder's contributions and expenditures report are expenditures that appear out of place for a political campaign.</div><br /><div>Take, for example, the report filed by District Judge Benjamin Euresti for the period of July through December 31, 2011.</div><br /><div>Apart from the usual campaign meeting expenditures <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRIXC4KFt1tIvYkM7NPu6c1WY9L034GtaObElLQz9yDOz5M2B5hUwR6yxfgq3-thSnZK44laZiu8y6dnxuuK8Kfa5qq1Ps7q4cwotrz0jPbvqtHxJglA_KOrOOINJ0XZr6Z99-gUJ5E8/s1600/dirty-harry-make-my-day_design.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 280px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 280px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717210571330396194" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRIXC4KFt1tIvYkM7NPu6c1WY9L034GtaObElLQz9yDOz5M2B5hUwR6yxfgq3-thSnZK44laZiu8y6dnxuuK8Kfa5qq1Ps7q4cwotrz0jPbvqtHxJglA_KOrOOINJ0XZr6Z99-gUJ5E8/s400/dirty-harry-make-my-day_design.png" /></a>at local restaurants in his district or the occasional donation to the Friendship of Women, among others, we also find that Ben has donated $594 to the Companion Animal Hospital at 2600 F.F. 802. Now, we don;t know if Ben has a dog or a cat that was treated there and helps out with his campaign with the animal rights vote, or whether that specific sum was something the hospital needed.</div><br /><div>Be that as it may, a good turn for our furry friends is probably looked upon favorably in most quarters.</div><br /><div>But the expenditure that caught our eye is the one he made on May 3 did raise our eyebrows. It seems that the Honorable purchased a handgun for the price of $681.96 at the local Academy store.</div><br /><div>Da judge listed the expense under the "other category" as "security" for his campaign. Now, we know that being a judge exposes one to the vituperation of bad guys and others. What we didn't know was whether that also applies to the use of campaign contributions to buy a six-shooter. At that price, it seems that Ben bought something more akin to a .357 Magnum.</div><br /><div>We can just imagine a confrontation with a bad guy while Ben is out on the campaign trail: "Go ahead, punk. Make my day. Do you feel lucky?"</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-5965841124270249315?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/03/her-come-da-judge-packing-heat.html
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