EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/
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VERA'S PIT BARBACOA PUTS BROWNTOWN ON CUISINE MAP
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSktmRmEbIeNkQg6tXcOe0PUN5u1vn0sj71cwgRe7udG6vL3BKlW3iADnnZ1GYLxNRitXaCZJ579ZGrTBOW0P5PHXw2BFZYUY2zWPk2UZLX1rlSi-Nn3bhNwEohk6upL88TOx2WvN5BY/s1600/vera's.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKSktmRmEbIeNkQg6tXcOe0PUN5u1vn0sj71cwgRe7udG6vL3BKlW3iADnnZ1GYLxNRitXaCZJ579ZGrTBOW0P5PHXw2BFZYUY2zWPk2UZLX1rlSi-Nn3bhNwEohk6upL88TOx2WvN5BY/s1600/vera's.jpg" /></a></div>From: <i>Food and Wine Magazine</i><br /><b>Best BBQ Cities</b><br /><div><b>South Texas: Brownsville</b></div><div><b>July, 2012 Issue</b><br />South Texas barbecue takes its lead from Mexico, incorporating flavors and techniques from south of the border. The defining dish in this area is beef barbacoa, traditionally whole cow head wrapped in maguey leaves or foil and cooked overnight in an underground pit filled with hot coals. The fall-apart tender meat is then served in tortillas or simply on a plate, covered in cilantro, onions and salsa. Real pit cooking is rare these days due to Health Department regulations, but tiny, family-runVera’s is one of the few establishments whose pits were grandfathered in. There, customers find tender mesquite-smoked barbacoa by the pound, along with homemade salsa and tortillas, but plan aheadâ€"Vera’s is only open on weekends.<br />Vera's Backyard Bar-B-Que is located at 2404 Southmost Road Brownsville, and their phone number is (956) 546-4159.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-7275548215400836768?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/07/veras-pit-barbacoa-puts-browntown-on.html
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ENFORCE LITTER LAWS IN CAMERON COUNTY BEACHES, PARKS
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By Rob Nixon<br /><div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></div><div style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></div><a href="http://robnixon.blogspot.com/">http://robnixon.blogspot.com </a><br /><a href="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2008/04/080416214912-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="299" id="il_fi" src="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2008/04/080416214912-large.jpg" style="padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="400" /></a>The Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter's <a href="https://www.change.org/petitions/cite-litter-violators-in-cameron-county-beach-parks">"Cite Litter Violators In Cameron County Beach Parks Petitition"</a> (SIGN AND COMMENT NOW) has definitely taken off and I can't tell you how stoked we are with the amount of signatures and comments that have been posted to the petition site. At the time of me writing this, there are 621 signatures of our 2,500 signature goal and hundreds of comments to go along with them! Our goal is to get to 1,000 by the <a href="http://www.co.cameron.tx.us/judge/docs/Agenda_for_7_5_12___Regular_Meeting.pdf">July 5th, 2012 Cameron County Commissioners Court Meeting</a> at 8:30AM where they will be discussing this important issue. Judge Cascos has put it early on the agenda for convenience of those that want to be there!<br /><br />Once again, the problem of actually issuing a litter citation is already being used as an excuse for not aggressively enforcing litter laws. In a response to an email sent to Judge Carlos Cascos from a concerned citizen, Judge Cascos wrote, "<i>We will do all that we can, but at the end of the day, the ultimate responsibility of keeping our beaches clean are the users. However, we should be aggressively monitoring glass on the beach. We need to make sure that our law enforcement officials are enforcing the laws we have in place already, however, every single law enforcement officer I have spoken to have told me that unless they see someone actually discarding trash, they're hands are tied. They cannot make assumptions or speculate as to whom the trash belongs to unless there is some kind of evidence tying the trash to that particular individual.</i>"<br /><br />This mindset of the challenge of issuing litter citations is limited in the way enforcement can be achieved and is a wall that is constantly put up when this debate comes back up. However, as I stated in the <a href="http://robnixon.blogspot.com/2012/06/constable-zamora-needs-to-stop-ignoring.html">Letter to the Editor</a> that was submitted last week, there are solutions to this and ways citations can be written after seeing violators leave trash behind. Simply put; wait until the end of the day, between 5:30 and 7PM and watch as they leave and THEN issue the ticket after they have packed up and left their area for home. It is literally a commitment of just an hour and a half instead of the entire day. Furthermore, if it is a glass violation, that citation can be written on the spot. It just takes actually having officers (Deputy Constables, Code Enforcement or even Park Rangers if need be) on the beach patrolling!<br /><br />People often think of the trash issue as an environmental and public safety issue by itself and there is no doubt that it is but it goes much further than that and in to a much larger picture. That picture is beach access and the public's right to access and use Texas Public Beaches. Why in the world would decision makers or those that own businesses and homes on the beach want to have large groups of people out there that are going to continually disrespect and trash that beach making it dangerous for them, their families and their customers? Beach litter on the scale that we are seeing in Cameron County is a huge weapon in the movement to continue to<a href="http://robnixon.blogspot.com/2012/04/texas-supreme-courts-decision-to-gut.html"> gut the Open Beaches Act </a>and privatize Texas beaches. The Rio Grande valley is quite literally shooting themselves in the foot by destroying the beaches that the Surfrider Foundation and Texas Constitution says they have every right to use and enjoy! My Parents and Grandparents taught me to respect what I love or someday I would lose it. I know hundreds of others my age that were taught the same thing. What happened with this lesson in Deep South Texas? Has it been lost? I <a href="http://robnixon.blogspot.com/2011/06/beach-trash-it-affects-public-access.html">wrote a post</a> on this last year tying beach trash to the loss of our beach rights and I still believe it is a problem now.<br /><br />At a time when the Texas Chapters of the Surfrider Foundation are organizing and getting ready to l<a href="http://robnixon.blogspot.com/2012/06/be-dad-join-surfrider-foundation-texas.html">aunch a major campaign</a> to get the Open Beaches Act fully restored, the litter on our Cameron County Beaches is actually getting worse and providing literally piles of ammunition for our opponents to use against us!<br /><br />The big picture is this. If South Texans continue to destroy our beaches and create a public safety risk on the scale that we have never before seen, then the Open Beaches Act is dead in the water before the Surfrider Foundation can even get started helping them preserve their rights to access and use those beaches! We educate the public and we clean up after them every day! The County Parks and Recreation Department does the same thing.<br /><br />What we need is a real aggressive and concerted effort by Constable Zamora and his Deputies to assist us and help change the attitudes, behavior and culture of some of our beach users now before it is too late!<br /><br />Take action now! Sign the petition, leave your comments and pass it on to your friends and families so we can present your support for litter law enforcement for cleaner and safer beaches to the Cameron County Commissioners Court on July 5th!<br /><br />SIGN THE PETITION <a href="https://www.change.org/petitions/cite-litter-violators-in-cameron-county-beach-parks">HERE!</a><br /><br />CONTACT YOUR CAMERON COUNTY COMMISSIONER BELOW AND FIND OTHER WAYS TO PLUG IN <a href="http://robnixon.blogspot.com/2012/06/take-action-cameron-county-judge-to-put.html">HERE!</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><ol style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0.5em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2em; text-align: left;"><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Judge Carlos Cascos- <a href="mailto:Carlos.Cascos@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">Carlos.Cascos@co.cameron.tx.us</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;">Pct.1 Commissioner Sofia Benavides- <a href="mailto:sofia.benavides@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">sofia.benavides@co.cameron.tx.us</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Pct.2 Commissioner Ernie Hernandez- <a href="mailto:ernie.hernandez@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">ernie.hernandez@co.cameron.tx.us</a></li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Pct.3 Commissioner David Garza- <a href="mailto:DAGarza@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">DAGarza@co.cameron.tx.us</a></li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Pct.4 Commissioner David Sanchez- 956-427-8069 (No email available)</li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Pct.1 Constable Horacio Zamora- <a href="mailto:horacioa.zamora@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">horacioa.zamora.co.cameron.tx.us</a></li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Parks and Recreation Director Javier Mendez- <span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="mailto:JMendez@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">JMendez@co.cameron.tx.us</a></span></li><li style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Joe Vega- <a href="mailto:JEVega@co.cameron.tx.us" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s; color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline-style: none; text-decoration: none;">JEVega@co.cameron.tx.us</a> </li></ol><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1850915589440744108?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/07/enforce-litter-violations-in-cameron.html
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PC GROUPS PRIORITIES OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY
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By<b> Juan Montoya</b><br />South Texas has traditionally endured some of the highest unemployment rates in the state, if not the country, high poverty rates, a dismal quality of life, backward infrastructure, and blatant political corruption.<br />In Brownsville, the city's streets rival those of Venice after a half-hour downpour, streets crumble, ditches overflow and resacas collect the assorted garbage and debris that once littered the roadways.<br />Dogs and other animals roam the streets and alleyways scavenging for food, numerous homeless panhandle on street corners, and some take over the bus stops to have a place to sleep. And some of those homeless are veterans or mentally ill people fighting their own demons.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXRPrq1i_FREUHA7fit1eUN-DvhtnnhOApHgGO6zzvGCgabcUIreFk4r72k5aRVEUn9xQdUle_qkbZn5JZpjcELO9PdGThbF2RKEkgxbaUB3FMZ_4fiLL4CBPvOLuN9MNSgQPqhC1eAk/s1600/buslady.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpXRPrq1i_FREUHA7fit1eUN-DvhtnnhOApHgGO6zzvGCgabcUIreFk4r72k5aRVEUn9xQdUle_qkbZn5JZpjcELO9PdGThbF2RKEkgxbaUB3FMZ_4fiLL4CBPvOLuN9MNSgQPqhC1eAk/s320/buslady.JPG" width="242" /></a>In fact, actual bus shelters are much sought after because of their absence. <br />Most bus stops are merely a pole with a BUS sign on it and bus riders must endure South Texas 100+ degree temperatures waiting for the chronically late buses. Every do often, a public relations bliss is made by the folks at BUS announcing that five new bus shelters are being funded by some agency in the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Compared to the need for them, these are but a drop in the bucket for what's needed. But the public relations blitz puts off the critics and gives the BUS bureaucrats breathing room until someone else points out the transportation department's shortcomings.<br />Locally, teenage pregnancies and sexual assaults against girls and boys are common. These result in trauma to the victims and in the case of girls, a lifetime of living off welfare and the end of their education.<br />Already, downtown is the haven of crackheads and prostitutes (male and female) hustling for a few dollars at a cost to their dignity and safety, not to mention the bad aspect it gives the heart of our city.<br />The answer to all our urban woes and course of action?<br />How about outlawing plastic bags, campaigning against cigarette butts, and battling the scourge of people throwing chewed up bubble gum on the city's streets?<br />Whaaaat?<br />Yes, for the past few months we have been made subject to the dangers of the chicle scofflaws who would have us walk on "unsightly" dark spots left when someone throws away their gum and it lands on a sidewalk. We wonder what the health hazards to the general public or morals are generated by these thoughtless walking-and-chewing-gum-at-the-same-time criminals except perhaps for the assault on out urban aesthetics.<br />Would the Double Bubble reformers have the chewers save their spent gum and stick it on the bottom of the nearest restaurant or bar table instead? How about chicle recycling stations strategically placed on downtown street corners? How about drafting an ordinance to this effect?<br />How about (and this is probably what is being envisioned in some dark spot somewhere) levying a fine for anyone suspected of thoughtlessly tossing a chewed piece on a public roadway? Yeah, that's the ticket.<br />Or, a local wet towel suggested something that is so simple in its elegance that it could not possibly be adopted by the do-gooders who would protect us from the thoughtless chewers. How about looking up when you walk on the sidewalk and ignore the harmless dark spots on the sidewalk?<br />Too simple? Probably.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2953662660256124093?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/07/pc-groups-priorities-out-of-touch-with.html
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MAKING MONEY OFF CANDIDATES HAS BECOME A SCIENCE
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />Whether it's standing on street corners waving a candidates' signs, wearing their T-shirts or placing leaflets on car windshields in parking lots, those are some of the many ways that some people have earned a few extra dollars in local politics.<br />Then there are, of course, the weekly payment to politiqueras (from $150 to $250) to gather votes from the elderly and illiterate through the mail-in ballot or walking them to the polls during early voting or election day.<br />Besides the accepted work of local ad agencies and graphic artists who design the candidates appeal, there is also a darker side to the art of making politics pay.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinwyXKFHwDlw5jBThxtpCikMteDAyLUQ9jqs_k6MONKbqsSyDnEvB6LadEZcXov6Bj7D3KeaBAIrNfrZAZ40aQBLL_C_TB5Oo3i0qdqnECILApe8HP2deb9P0R5XRjIbFJU11coIWkHJs/s1600/erin's+sign1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinwyXKFHwDlw5jBThxtpCikMteDAyLUQ9jqs_k6MONKbqsSyDnEvB6LadEZcXov6Bj7D3KeaBAIrNfrZAZ40aQBLL_C_TB5Oo3i0qdqnECILApe8HP2deb9P0R5XRjIbFJU11coIWkHJs/s320/erin's+sign1.jpg" width="299" /></a>We have heard of a certain local politician who pays people $5 for each sign of his opponent that they bring in and deliver to him. And what about those that travel the dark roads in the wee hours of the morning defacing and destroying political signs?<br />In the end, unless they have something specific against the candidate in that side of town (like Erin Hernandez Garcia's sign on Southmost at right), their motivation is all about money.<br />Why else would someone risk getting caught by the local gendarmes destroying someone's political signs?<br />Now we understand that there is a new twist to the art of money making in the political arena.<br />We have heard that a local political "activist" goes around collecting the metal sign posts of candidates who did not make the runoff (and we heard, those of some candidates of whom his benefactor is against), and offering them for sale to those candidates still in the running for their use.<br />"The metal poles are about $7 at Lowes or Home Depot and he sells them for $2," said a purchaser recently. "That's a $5 reduction in price. Last time I saw him he had more than 150 posts for sale. That's $300 in his pocket for something he didn't pay a penny for. It's all profit."<br />Now, if the motivation is money, we're sure that this new entrepeneur isn't above pulling some posts from candidates who are still in the running. Several candidates have complained to police that their signs have been stolen and their sign posts have also been missing. Now we know why someone would collect metal poles of the political sings.<br />At least once candidate who has lost signs and posts is now spray painting the tops of the metal poles with florescent paint to make the heist a little more difficult.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1882343731815081014?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/07/making-money-of-candidates-has-become.html
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