Save Jerry McHale: October 2012

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Rrun Rrun

EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/

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IT'S CONFIRMED: NEW UTB ENROLLMENT CAP AT 7,400
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<b>From Juliet Garcia to all those dedicated Faculty:</b> Bye!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZGfnstIkAMm41-aImeh9AfJtxTb1scOLD4evR4lEaCCGL0gdjwzKBri3_sn-oIltERDvJY_UeDN8hiIroypIZtiYdXAafg_rURo1B49bqsXstAW_JFYtRmSMUECFFMXKeovSeKNDkLuY/s1600/UTB.png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZGfnstIkAMm41-aImeh9AfJtxTb1scOLD4evR4lEaCCGL0gdjwzKBri3_sn-oIltERDvJY_UeDN8hiIroypIZtiYdXAafg_rURo1B49bqsXstAW_JFYtRmSMUECFFMXKeovSeKNDkLuY/s640/UTB.png" /></a><br />Dear Colleagues:<br />This month marks one year since the final decision was made to end the Partnership between the UT System and the TSC Board of Trustees that operated UTB/TSC since 1991. As progress is made in the transition process toward full separation of UT Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, it is our intent to continually provide timely and candid communication as it becomes available through both the leadership at UT System and UT Brownsville. Each milestone in the process serves to design a thriving campus that benefits the educational priorities of our students.<br />As you recall, the work of imagining UTB as a separate entity began first with a new mission statement developed by our campus community, as well as business and civic leaders, which would guide our work. The UT System Board of Regents adopted the new mission statement for UT Brownsville in August of 2011:<br />â€œThe University of Texas at Brownsville draws upon the intersection of cultures and languages at the southern border and Gulf Coast of the United States to develop knowledgeable citizens and emerging leaders who are engaged in the civic life of their community. It embraces teaching excellence, active inquiry, lifelong learning, rigorous scholarship, and research in service to the common good. The University promotes the interdisciplinary search for new knowledge that advances social and physical well-being and economic development through commercialization, while honoring the creative and environmental heritage of its region.â€<br />The next order of business was to develop enrollment models that would identify community college programs that will be discontinued or transferred to TSC. The models would also address academic programs that anticipate reduced need for faculty due to projected enrollment decreases as a result of new admissions standards or programmatic changes.<i> <b>The modeling predicts a new student body of 7,400 UTB students, or 60 percent of the current student body. It also identifies the reduced number of faculty positions needed in the resized UTB.</b></i><br /><br />This spring begins the process of resizing UTBâ€™s core faculty, which will follow the guidelines as outlined in the UT System Regents Rules. Therefore, a reduction in force process set forth in Regents Rule 31003, Sec. 2 began on March 19th to effectuate these decisions. <br /><br /><b>Review Committees:</b><br />Review Committees were formed to review academic programs and faculty positions for elimination. Tenured and tenure-track faculty associated with community college programs will be reviewed by a university-wide committee (the University Review Committee). Tenured and tenure-track faculty in academic departments that will lose positions due to decreased enrollment or for other programmatic reasons will be reviewed by committees at the departmental level (Departmental Review Committees). Also, Program Review Committees will be formed to review certain non-community college programs being considered for abandonment or reduction in scope.<br />Â· The University Review Committee is composed of five faculty members from across the university. Departmental Review Committees will have either three or five members, depending on the size of the department. These committee members were recommended by their respective Deans and the Provost and appointed by the President. Program Review Committees will be composed of five members, including representatives of the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Committee, appointed by the President.<br />Â· The Provost provided each Review Committee with a specific charge to guide the Committeeâ€™s work (the Provostâ€™s Charge). The purpose of the Provostâ€™s Charge is to clearly delineate the specific task of each Review Committee and to provide guidance for the process to be used in their deliberations and in formulating their recommendations.<br />Â· Each Review Committee will make recommendations for the elimination of faculty positions to the Provost, based on the Provostâ€™s Charge and the committeeâ€™s evaluation of the faculty members being reviewed. Departmental Review Committees will have the opportunity to request permission from the Provost to deviate from his instructions in the Provostâ€™s Charge for exceptional cases.<br />Â· If the Review Committee informs the Provost that it intends to recommend a tenured faculty member for termination, the Provost will notify the tenured faculty member and allow him/her to submit written statements and documents advocating for his/her continued employment to the Review Committee.<br />Â· An attorney from the Office of General Counsel of The University of Texas System will provide legal advice and counsel to each Review Committee as needed.<br /><b>Recommendations:</b><br />By May 7, 2012, each Review Committee will have completed its work and will have submitted its final recommendations and rationale to the Provost. The Provost will then submit his recommendation to the President, who will in turn submit her request for approval to the Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.<br /><b>Notification of Results of Decisions:</b><br />On or about May 14, 2012, tenured and tenure-track faculty members whose positions have been recommended for termination will be notified and provided information about an incentive program that would allow these faculty to voluntarily resign their positions effective May 31, 2013, in exchange for compensation.<br />By August 1, 2012, UTB will notify tenured and tenure track faculty members who will be terminated as a result of the reduction in force, and who have elected not to participate in the incentive program, that their employment will end as of May 31, 2013.<br /><b>Appeal Process:</b><br />Tenured and tenure-track faculty who elected not to participate in the incentive program may appeal the termination decision.<br />Â· Appeal Hearing Committees will be constituted to hear appeals. These hearings will be conducted in accordance with Sec. 2 of Regentsâ€™ Rule 31003 and the procedures provided by the President or the Provost.<br />Â· Tenured faculty in abandoned programs may also request reassignment to positions in other academic programs at the University for which they may be qualified, in accordance with Regentsâ€™ Rule 31003, Sec. 2.6.<br />Â· Appeal hearings will be conducted in the Fall of 2012.<br /><b>Employment in a New Capacity:</b><br />Dependent on need, tenured and tenure-track faculty whose positions are eliminated in the reduction in force will have priority in the filling of lecturer positions at UTB beginning in September of 2013.<br />We anticipate the review process for staff positions to begin in January of 2013. The preliminary timeline would include notification of the staff positions that will be eliminated in the reduction in force to take place during the spring semester with employment to end August 31, 2013.<br />There is no doubt that the changes ahead will be difficult. We are committed to conducting each process in a manner that is transparent and respectful of the many valuable contributions of the faculty and staff who over the years have in good faith dedicated themselves to their students and to the work of the community university.<br />Ultimately, as Chancellor Cigarroa reminded us in his recent letter to the campus community, this is not merely a transactional separation of two entities, but most important an extraordinary new beginning for generations of students who will earn a high quality University of Texas degree.<br /><br />Dr. Pedro Reyes<br /><div>Executive Vice Chancellor President</div><div>for Academic Affairs ad interim</div><div>The University of Texas System</div><div><br /></div><div>Dr. Juliet V. GarcÃa</div><div>The University of Texas at Brownsville</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2290903069977737593?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/its-confirmed-new-utb-enrollment-cap-at.html

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JAN. 16: PROOF OF THE EXTORTION ATTEMPT ON PRESAS-GARCIA
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />Those few folks who attended the Brownsville Independent School District Budget Committee  meeting way back on Monday, Jan. 16, probably did not understand what trustee Catalina Presas-Garcia was referring to when she made a cryptic statement shortly after Superintendent Carl Montoya's welcoming remarks.<br />"And for the record, I'd like to go on the record that I was told not to present myself to the meeting," she stated. "But I am here today and I will be here tomorrow for those of you who were not expecting me to be here. I needed to put it on the record."<br />(<em>See Cafe Brownsville, January 16 BISD Budget Workshop meeting tape</em>)<br />What was Presas-Garcia referring to when she said that she was "told not to present myself" and "those of you who were not expecting me to be here today"?<br />The next day was Tuesday, January 17, and an item on the item on the agenda she was referring to was titled:  <span style="font-size: small;"></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UgwJPLp6Ix4xicQWZ4OERb_b_Thyphenhyphendh7tyu3iSoeQunadEbJ0qGPfI5oa1wOGeRaPp-onaj0i5yNE1uirpvxDK8E-zVMTmdYzhXgqke8MmlkCgDhe_FJ9fK-imR2V3r7yQjhrIu9T7dE/s1600/cds.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UgwJPLp6Ix4xicQWZ4OERb_b_Thyphenhyphendh7tyu3iSoeQunadEbJ0qGPfI5oa1wOGeRaPp-onaj0i5yNE1uirpvxDK8E-zVMTmdYzhXgqke8MmlkCgDhe_FJ9fK-imR2V3r7yQjhrIu9T7dE/s320/cds.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><em>"50. Recommend awarding RFQ #12-083 for Delinquent Ad Valorem Tax Collections to the firm meeting the qualifications and needs of the District. Contract will be for one year beginning January 2012 with the option to renew."</em></span><br /><span style="font-size: small;">So what did Presas-Garcia being present have to do with the awarding of the delinquent tax contract?<br />The board was split 3-3 on whether to award the contract to the current holder, the firm of Enrique PeÃ±a and Associates, or whether to consider other firms that have made proposals for the contract.<br />With Presas-Garcia absent from the meeting, the 3-3 tie would have assured PeÃ±a that his company would keep the contract.<br />That was on January 17.<br />On January 13, while Presas-Garcia was out of town, she said she received a call from Juan Figeroa, a real estate client who was negotiating the sale of a home through her real estate company. When he learned she was out of town, he asked for her to meet with him at a Subway restaurant near Alton Gloor the following Sunday. <br />When they met, she said Figeroa quickly veered off the real estate deal and showed her a manila envelope with cash and told her all she would have to do was not show up for either to the workshop the next day, or to the meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 17) and she could keep the cash. If she didn't, he threatened he would file a lawsuit over the real estate deal.<br />That, in essence, is what is contained in a complaint that Presas-Garcia and and BISD counsel Arturo Michel filed with the Cameron County District Attorney January 19. In the complaint, they told a DA investigator of the attempted extortion. Before that, they had gone to the U.S. Attorney's Office but were told it was a matter for local and state authorities to handle.<br />Now, with the November 6 election is less than a week ago, the lawsuit has materialized and none other than Presas-Garcia's nemesis attorney Rick Zayas is representing the seller (Figeroa).<br />Unable to close the deal, all of the buyer's money was returned and no sale was made. Zayas has never gotten over his defeat at the hands of Lucy Longoria, a Presas-Garcia ally on the board and former executive secretary to Hector Gonzales, who Zayas voted to terminate along with the former board majority.<br />To date, the DA's office has not investigated the charges of the alleged extortion attempt and now BISD legal counsel and the BISD administration are said to be considering petitioning the DA's Office to explain the lack of action on the matter some 10 months later.<br />However, the public relations repercussions and their effect on the Presas-Garcia's reelection bid is obviously the goal of the litigation. Zayas has also filed a previous lawsuit late August against forensic auditor Danny Deffenbaugh on behalf of former AD Joe Rodriguez and Tom Chavez â€" now a football coach at Rivera High School â€" over the release of the findings of his audit on district operations. Ostensibly a lawsuit against the auditor, the body of the complaint deals exclusively with Presas-Garcia and rehashes previous charges that she mishandled money while in the employ of the BISD at the Aquatic Center before the people elected her as a trustee. The same allegations are repeated in the Figeroa-Salinas lawsuit.<br />The audit was released last February and the alleged attempted extortion in January. The latest lawsuit was filed last week. This has led may to question the timing of Zayas' lawsuits.<br />"There are may things that people don't know that are going behind the scenes," Presas-Garcia has said before. "I think voters will see that the basic nature of this litigation is basically political in nature. My attorneys and I are considering filing counter suits and harassment complaints on the matter."  </span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-5682576640114706565?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/jan-16-proof-of-extortion-attempt-on.html

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MARY REY IS DRAGGED OUT AGAIN BY POLITICAL MASTERS
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />By now it has become tedious to either see new accusations or read paid political advertisements by Mary Rey denouncing the DefeatZayasCortezPowers Political Action Committee of which she was president back in 2010 when Rick Zayas, Ruben Cortez and Otis Powers were defeated in their bids for the board of the Brownsville Independent School District.<br />She is either a glutton for punishment, is getting something in return for denunciations against her former allies, or has somehow gotten some perverse pleasure of bathing publicly in pathos every political season.<br />And before the usual accusations that we are picking on the poor woman are leveled against us here, let us remind you that it was Ms. Rey, not us, who exposed herself to fair and public comment by allowing herself and her personal problems to be used for crass political purposes.<br />This time her name appears in an ad allegedly paid by herself in the Brownsville Herald where she levels accusations against a number of people â€" including this writer â€" for their alleged involvement with said PAC. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrw8_2-kDD26sRF30QZpxdFXypG6DhoMP4_wLU2h9ifwJHGWvT9mUgGaPKgLPdflsMV4qGV9OiunQ3yKywbybxLTPDWZi-9WA1FMgIMR_rSSWDWZ8ZSBT4BL7t06iza19aSO1n40Lnqc/s1600/CQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdrw8_2-kDD26sRF30QZpxdFXypG6DhoMP4_wLU2h9ifwJHGWvT9mUgGaPKgLPdflsMV4qGV9OiunQ3yKywbybxLTPDWZi-9WA1FMgIMR_rSSWDWZ8ZSBT4BL7t06iza19aSO1n40Lnqc/s400/CQ.jpg" width="400" /></a>We all remember that she allowed Zayas to air her deposition on the Internet trying to discredit everyone and their cousins for their alleged involvement with the PAC. This time, her ad states up front that "I, Mary Rey, contacted Carlos Quintanilla with a personal problem."<br />And just what was that personal problem, we may ask? Ms. Rey doesn't say. She just goes to name a list of people she says were on the PAC for themselves "and got what they wanted."<br />Let's be clear here. Ms. Rey agreed to be listed as president of the PAC because she wanted $50,000 worth of legal representation for her two sons, accused of cold-blooded murder for shooting a Las Prietas resident in the back who allegedly owed them $500 for a drug deal.<br />Randal Bolivar, 30, along with his brother Rodolfo Bolivar, 26, and Rolando Garza, 33, allegedly shot Aaron Castillo over a dispute about $500 that Castilloâ€™s brother owed him back in February 2009. Unfortunately, it wasn't the debtor they shot, but rather  his brother. Oopsie.<br />When the $50K wasn't forthcoming, she turned on those she thought should have given it to her. <br />She lashes out at Quintanila (an ex-felon), Caty Presas-Garcia and Lucy Longoria (whose two votes she said decided the dismissal of the HealthSmart lawsuit), Argelia Miller and Linda Gill Martinez (for being friends of Presas-Garcia), Art Rendon (for his settlement with BISD), Hector Gonzales (also for settling his lawsuit with BISD), Ben Neece (for representing Rendon), Pat Lehman (for making a proposal for a BISD contract), and me (for operating this blog and supporting Presas-Garcia).<br />Neece is an attorney whose profession allows him to represent any client he wants. It takes a majority of the board (four Ms. Rey) to reach any agreement with litigants. Presas-Garcia and Longoria alone could not have decided on their own.  And how does being friends with anyone make one guilty of anything?<br />At her advanced age, Ms. Rey complains that her judgement failed her and she "trusted these people" but was then cruelly deceived, and now regrets her participation in the PAC. Sounds to us that she is a day late and a dollar short.<br />Way after the election and the dissolution of the PAC, we recall that Ms. Rey was chummy with (ex-felon) Quintanilla and wormed her way into discussions with County Judge Carlos Cascos, the sheriff's department, the county auditor, legal counsel and others to discuss issues with the county jail commissary contract and the the treatment of prisoners, particularly with her, her sons. Although the commissary contract question was discussed, it was obvious that her interest lay on getting better accommodations for her offspring. There certainly is nothing wrong with that. She is, after all, a mother. (By the way, that's her in the photograph above being interviewed by a local television station with Quintanilla in happier days.)<br />I have often found myself on the receiving end of her accusations for my alleged participation in the "starting" of the PAC. Until recently, those were regurgitated uncritically by a local blogger who regularly praises and echoes her allegations. My involvement was getting asked to assist the PAC participants with media relations and ad designs and I got paid for my work. That's it. I've done that for numerous political candidates. I never started the PAC. <br />In fact, neither did Neece, whose only participation as I have learned was to guide those that did on the legal requirements to start one. Something wrong?<br />The sad thing about Ms. Rey is that she does not see that in exposing her personal problems in the media, she is letting herself be used as a political pawn by those interests behind the scenes, and for that it is they who must bear the onus of using this poor woman for their political ends.<br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2022887919359594794?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/mary-rey-is-dragged-out-again-by.html

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ARA BOWS TO PRESSURE, RESIGNS AS CC PUBLIC WORKS SUPER
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />Well, the reign of incompetence and malingering at Cameron County Public Works under Supervisor Louis Ara has finally come to an end.<br />Ara, who worked under overpaid County Administrator Pete Sepulveda and his Boy Friday David Garcia  finally put too many straws on the camel's back and was forced to resign.<br />How did Ara err? Shall we count the ways?<br /> He staffed his crews with City of Brownsville rejects like Santana Vallejo who still oversees an outfit filled with compadres of compadres, camaradas of camaradas, and other in-laws and outlaws that make former commissioner Edna Tamayo cringe every time some new antic is revealed to the public.<br />Vallejo himself was let go by the City of Brownsville after discrepancies in materials began to show up and city administrators found out that some of the material was being used by a company associated with the sidewalk program employees to perform work on private properties for self-gain.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ZFY8wlN-V6gNGZhavp7MT6wJdEUa7Bjzj7qiMkM98Ab70lIAOjivISjdulRVaag18DKO9GvJH6-aUw5HguzAk5MFOBHJFcS9gE8i-uTbWvsfxmDQMw2u4nWrsmvlY7QXrvDxYvaskG4/s1600/safety+officer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1ZFY8wlN-V6gNGZhavp7MT6wJdEUa7Bjzj7qiMkM98Ab70lIAOjivISjdulRVaag18DKO9GvJH6-aUw5HguzAk5MFOBHJFcS9gE8i-uTbWvsfxmDQMw2u4nWrsmvlY7QXrvDxYvaskG4/s200/safety+officer.jpg" width="200" /></a>We have a safety officer who is accident prone in his county vehicle, a crew of Public Work employees who decide to put out a truck fire with the bucket of a backhoe prompting the county's insurance holder to deny payment for the damage incurred on the 2010 model truck.<br />After every incident, the safety officer is given yet another vehicle only to get involved in some other mishap. Do these people lead charmed existences?<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE_UgGV-p5dNdiBxOCMADeHJf6UyXlvHt7fPpMTavOT21dbIALuHnQqgobmRzSkomxNDWKXwohPvosDas5zsU1ibGarjR99mZ3sX_1nOGoCn_MTPmSEHeYsNJPdib84hMtcmFr_UvULCc/s1600/county+truck.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE_UgGV-p5dNdiBxOCMADeHJf6UyXlvHt7fPpMTavOT21dbIALuHnQqgobmRzSkomxNDWKXwohPvosDas5zsU1ibGarjR99mZ3sX_1nOGoCn_MTPmSEHeYsNJPdib84hMtcmFr_UvULCc/s200/county+truck.jpg" width="149" /></a>We have reports with the sheriff's department of county workers selling culverts and driveway pipes and caliche to colonia residents and keeping the money for themselves. When the charges are made, the residents who purchased the pipes are visited by defense attorneys who frighten them by threatening to accuse them as accomplices in the crimes.<br />Then a former county commissioner steps in to put in a good word with the sheriff department investigators and the Cameron County DA and allow them to get off on a technicality and the case just sort of goes away. The accused are then allowed to return to work and avenge themselves with the county workers who made the report to law enforcement.<br />We have missing tons of caliche disappearing from the Oklahoma Road county barn and when the Precinct 1 supervisor tries to make a report after he returns from his week's vacation, he is told to forget it.<br />We have an administrative assistant to one of the county commissioners ordering thousands of dollars in road oil, only to find that it wasn't oil that he wanted to buy, after all, but road emulsion. When the oil is mixed with water, you get a gooey mess that has to be disposed of since it's useless. We'll forget about that, too.<br />You have the PW crews sent to Carmen Road to lay a rural-grade paving job only to do it so badly that in less than a year the crews have to go out there and do the job over again, costing thousands of dollars in material, man-hours and machinery. And neither Sepulveda nor Garcia say a word. If the big bosses don't complain, why should Ara and Vallejo?<br />You have an employee made to go into a trench in Cameron Park, only for the sides of the trench to collapse and injure him. Did anyone tell the foreman in charge that the rules call for protective structures to be used for that kind of work? Now the county's insurance is made to pay for these administrative failures.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuurTNyyyDwZtCBktlGDBnrZHzwRHAFeplNV78p_JMlMphYg_x6qnsVj-j1YNprYc6GDpOg4EvIWZ-Ny8O4FGD0Nxc_5BNgtQKh-Ugut6z_DXQlF6HwbprZWD74NyKN3ESq8kXT50MYQI/s1600/PALOMABLANCADITCH1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuurTNyyyDwZtCBktlGDBnrZHzwRHAFeplNV78p_JMlMphYg_x6qnsVj-j1YNprYc6GDpOg4EvIWZ-Ny8O4FGD0Nxc_5BNgtQKh-Ugut6z_DXQlF6HwbprZWD74NyKN3ESq8kXT50MYQI/s320/PALOMABLANCADITCH1.jpg" width="320" /></a>We have a road crew on Paloma Blanca Road wasting months of personnel labor, machinery and other county resources digging bar ditches and seal coating the road only to be told that they have worked on a section of road where the right-of-way doesn't belong to the county and then spend another week removing the drainage culverts and filling the bar ditch alongside the private property at public expense.<br />But that's not all. <br />Such are the personal relationships inside the Public Works Department that at least two employees are popped for DWI and drug possession by local law enforcement and then soon after that find their way back to work. In one case, after an accident, one of them refuses to take the drug test after an accident with the vehicle which he was operating and resigns instead.<br />Personnel policies being what they are, we will probably never find out why Ara left. But if the examples above are any indication, there are probably many many more instances of scandal and waste of public funds going on at Public Works and the colonia programs funded by the federal government than we will ever know.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-6730515969539352213?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/ara-bows-to-pressure-resigns-as-cc.html

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Brownsville Noise
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â™¥ â™¥ BFFs â™¥ â™¥
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTW6vSITIWPsKkuoumenechNTUUwraeokw7C-5ABOqNzfhdx4yznexCezVkondI1Y33NIxoZkp7-rPSbvx12qxSj75nPV5C7w_m3nM35QWWqjDHKxZUK84IeatQYJVIOHOhAmNk200oIK/s1600/bff.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuTW6vSITIWPsKkuoumenechNTUUwraeokw7C-5ABOqNzfhdx4yznexCezVkondI1Y33NIxoZkp7-rPSbvx12qxSj75nPV5C7w_m3nM35QWWqjDHKxZUK84IeatQYJVIOHOhAmNk200oIK/s400/bff.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Rick congratulates his BFF Charlie on his Turd Place showing in the recent valleycentral.com poll.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7460924536583987444-8997923795881558037?l=brownsvillenoise.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://brownsvillenoise.blogspot.com/2011/03/bffs.html

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Brownsville Noise

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Maclovio OMalley

The Maclovio O'Malley Show
http://www.spreaker.com/show/the_maclovio_o_malley_show

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Episode 53 - October 30, 2012
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LINK: http://www.spreaker.com/user/maclovioomalley/episode_53_october_30_2012

Copyright Maclovio O'Malley

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Rrun Rrun

EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/

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JUST PART OF BAG OF TRICKS FROM THE HERNANDEZ GANG
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />By now the Hernandez Voter-Harvesting Machine's tactics are legerdemain and predictable: spread vile rumor about your opponent, steal to destroy their signs, an â€" if all else fails â€" use your tentacles in county government to steal the election outright.<br />Raul Lopez is ow going through that trial by Hernandez fire.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-08zAGpUOCOPK2566P4Bj4k6HNVQWBa4Zo7JLu6_IRV_S-LWnVZ76DRwesu40BCwFAkJdZg7tLbS8wQzyeFziVwwVsekp_fb3NOsq7sXoHXfzUiI2GlYDkYcxPKgczyZJKYOqfJKZRQE/s1600/lopez+sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-08zAGpUOCOPK2566P4Bj4k6HNVQWBa4Zo7JLu6_IRV_S-LWnVZ76DRwesu40BCwFAkJdZg7tLbS8wQzyeFziVwwVsekp_fb3NOsq7sXoHXfzUiI2GlYDkYcxPKgczyZJKYOqfJKZRQE/s400/lopez+sign.jpg" width="400" /></a>Lopez, the Republican candidate for JP 2-2, is facing Ernies' Baby Girl Erin H. Garcia after she and her family and band of politqueros perfected the tried and true method to win the July 31 runoff against political newcomer Yolanda Begum. Before the runoff, Begum had led Hernandez by some 500 votes. To win, her mother Norma, father Ernie Hernandez, the county commissioner for Precinct 2, and her paid band of politiqueras(os) pulled out all the stops. The result was a massive blatant demonstration of brazen voter fraud that was done in the open for all to see.<br />Now, the assault on the visible vestiges of the Lopez campaign are becoming visible. Signs disappear in the middle of the night. Others, like the one in the photo above, are physically torn from their moorings and left strewn on the ground. Others are suddenly missing and are seen no more.<br />"I spent about $12,000 for the signs in my campaign and that's all that is left," said Begum recently as she pointed to a small pile of posts and discarded campaign sings by her home. "All the rest disappeared."<br />However, the Begum campaign did a little investigating of their own and found out that some of the truck drivers for the vending business company owned by the Hernandezes were being paid $5 for every Begum sign they removed as they made their rounds around the city.<br />The Begum investigators said some of the drivers confirmed this version after they were promised confidentiality so as not to endanger their employment.<br />"It's a game to them," said a local political observer. "But in reality, it's a crime. You're stealing someone's property. I think they're counting on the law not doing anything about it.""<br />    <br /><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-84054959186364877?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/just-part-of-bag-of-tricks-from.html

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Brownsville Noise

Rrun Rrun

EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/

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ZAYAS' ANTI-CATY GAMBIT FIZZLES: HERALD DOESN'T BITE
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />The Rick Zayas Sore Loser Perpetual Campaign must be wondering why the <em>Brownsville Herald</em> didn't unquestionably publish all the anti-Catalina Presas-Garcia contained in the second lawsuit filed by Zayas in the waning days before the November 6 election.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZ-EB8pNBhtuivfbcjQp25KHDzVQMxWj7ITj31KiGdIfYHyarwIOjpTfrByJQmftYk9j3IKmksbYL4cXHtq4ZRxWMSOat0mwgzKFmNE4R5lI7ML-tSdU0wUofgt8H7KBkYdwY6qcf59Y/s1600/cata11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqZ-EB8pNBhtuivfbcjQp25KHDzVQMxWj7ITj31KiGdIfYHyarwIOjpTfrByJQmftYk9j3IKmksbYL4cXHtq4ZRxWMSOat0mwgzKFmNE4R5lI7ML-tSdU0wUofgt8H7KBkYdwY6qcf59Y/s1600/cata11.jpg" /></a>Before this, reporter Gary Long and the editors of The Holler printed the allegations contained in previous lawsuits (Joe Rodriguez vs. Caty, Rodriguez vs. Dannebaugh, and now Zayas' clients vs. Preas-Garcia) without question. The story in today's paper â€" even without giving the context of the extortion attempt reported by BISD counsel Arturo Michel and Presas-Garcia to the Cameron County District Attorney's Office by the seller in the Zayas lawsuit â€" at least gives both sides of the story.<br />Come on, Rick. Even the most cynical anti-Presas-Garcia critic must have cringed in that less than a week before the election, yet another lawsuit from you made a splash in the newspaper headlines.<br />What timing!<br />If the events in the lawsuit happened in March, why wait until almost November to file the lawsuit?<br />The same has to be asked from Coach Joe (and you, his attorney). Why did Big Joe and protege Tom Chavez file a lawsuit against Forensic Auditor Deffenbaugh almost a year after the audit was released? Why two months before the start of early voting?<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOBsE3MI37BfNOtKmhxZKLEGnxAsFmMOTht4oP8hl17k2RW8ktaNUmlMK0Dwl1o1Wn_UuJSDxYn8rEk-cAiSosN4J4w_wN7efL78F_1z2Y62N1BojpHhvvTUGMjgAgeoq92fFzaTyBI8/s1600/rick1.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/AVvXsEhAOBsE3MI37BfNOtKmhxZKLEGnxAsFmMOTht4oP8hl17k2RW8ktaNUmlMK0Dwl1o1Wn_UuJSDxYn8rEk-cAiSosN4J4w_wN7efL78F_1z2Y62N1BojpHhvvTUGMjgAgeoq92fFzaTyBI8/s1600/rick1.jpg" /></a>And why didn't the lawsuit state that the seller â€" one Juan Figeroa â€" a client of an attorney working for delinquent tax collector Enrique PeÃ±a who didn't get the BISD contract â€" could not sell the property in question because a divorce decree signed by a judge afforded rights to his divorced spouse and minor daughter?<br />Or that PeÃ±a is now openly supporting Butch Barbosa, one of Presas-Garcia's opponents. The circle get tighter, doesn't it?<br />Remember the lawsuit filed against Presas-Garcia by Coach Joe for releasing the results of BISD-conducted audits that found multiple potential violations of federal labor law, BISD policy against use of district resources and personnel where alcohol was consumed, and a myriad of other activities not endorsed by the district?<br />Remember that there was no accountability and that no one could tell how much money actually found its way to the scholarships and how much was diverted elsewhere?<br />That also fizzled, didn't it?<br />Heck, even the defamation lawsuit Zayas and Ruben Cortez filed against Carlos Quintanilla after the 2010 campaign was non-suited as well. <br />How long before the local courts get tired of this continual manipulation of the judicial system? For now, at least, it looks like the media is getting wise to it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-2188024628992322552?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/zayas-anti-caty-gambit-fizzles-herald.html

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Monday, October 29, 2012

Brownsville Noise

Rrun Rrun

EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/

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BROWNSVILLE NATIVE MARTINEZ TO SPEAK TUESDAY
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<br /><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"></span>BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS â€" OCTOBER 26, 2012 â€" <a href="http://www.utb.edu/Pages/default.aspx">The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College</a> will host Brownsville native and Seattle-based author Domingo Martinez for a talk with sociology students at 11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30. <br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #f57b20; float: left; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; height: 310px; padding-right: 10px; text-align: center; width: 250px;"><img alt="Domingo Martinez" border="0" src="http://www.utb.edu/newsinfo/PublishingImages/releases/OCT2012/Domingo-Martinez.jpg" style="border: 0px solid;" /><br />Domingo Martinez</div><br />Martinez is author of the memoir â€œ<a href="http://www.boykingsoftexas.com/">The Boy Kings of Texas</a>,â€ a finalist for the <a href="http://nationalbook.org/">2012 National Book Award</a>. An excerpt of the book has been nominated for the 2013 Pushcart Prize.<br />The event is free and open to the public and will take place at the Science, Engineering and Technology Building Lecture Hall. <a href="http://www.c-span.org/">C-SPAN</a> is scheduled to record the lecture and air it on television before the National Book Awards Ceremony on Wednesday, Nov. 14 in New York City. <br />â€œWhen I began reading â€˜The Boy Kings of Texas,â€™ I was blown away, and I couldnâ€™t put it down,â€ said Dr. Antonio N. Zavaleta, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Texas Center for Border and Transnational Studies at UTB and TSC.<div>â€œI immediately began telling my sociology class about the book and its socio-cultural implications for the border.â€Martinez used the people he is most familiar with â€" his relatives and friends â€" as subjects for his book. <div style="background-color: white; color: #f57b20; float: right; font-family: Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; height: 310px; padding-left: 10px; text-align: center; width: 200px;"><img alt="The Boy Kings of Texas" border="0" src="http://www.utb.edu/newsinfo/PublishingImages/releases/OCT2012/The-Boy-Kings-of-Texas.jpg" style="border: 0px solid;" /><br />The Boy Kings of Texas</div>â€œThere was some concern at first from my father and my mother,â€ said Martinez. â€œBut after they really began to understand what I was doing and that the book was not an excoriation of a family but a complete celebration of survival, they completely sort of binded by it.â€ <br />Martinez said he has been pleasantly surprised by the bookâ€™s reception since it was released earlier this year.<br />â€œI had hoped for it at first and then we had a quick education in publishing and I realized the sort of Goliath I was against,â€ he said. â€œMy expectations were sort of realistically calibrated at that point to the point of nearing disappointment. I knew I had something and my editor knew I had something and my agent knew I had something.â€<br />Martinez attended classes at El Jardin Elementary School, Vermillion Elementary School, Central Junior High School and Hanna High School where he graduated in 1990. After a short stint at what is now Texas A&M University â€" Kingsville, Martinez worked for a local political newspaper before moving to Washington.<br />Martinez has been published in the â€œEpiphany Literary Journalâ€ and â€œThe New Republicâ€ and featured on National Public Radio. For more information, contact the Office of News and Information at <img src="chrome-extension://lifbcibllhkdhoafpjfnlhfpfgnpldfl/numbers_button_skype_logo.png" />956-882-8231</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1860711876852391308?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/brownsville-native-martinez-to-speak.html

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AS ELECTION DAY NEARS, LINDA SALAZAR'S GAME UNRAVELS
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By <b>Juan Montoya</b><br />Few people in southeastern Cameron County know that Democrat JP candidate Linda Salazar has an opponent.<br />No, it's not a Republican. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqa5ZSUFYAd8B40oAtZjrmp0-LhXkETiF5kS4s2L83Use04gwzrD0Qt5KG8e53tzEllR53l7dAqOWHMDhoXqfiTTwdfwqKeiFng0t5Mx6ekfJ2xpbntKWw3FueoSJcyLMbV5ro5Di0pk/s1600/200px-Libertarian_Party_of_Texas_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgqa5ZSUFYAd8B40oAtZjrmp0-LhXkETiF5kS4s2L83Use04gwzrD0Qt5KG8e53tzEllR53l7dAqOWHMDhoXqfiTTwdfwqKeiFng0t5Mx6ekfJ2xpbntKWw3FueoSJcyLMbV5ro5Di0pk/s200/200px-Libertarian_Party_of_Texas_logo.jpg" width="200" /></a>It's actually a representative of the growing adherents to Libertarianism that has taken root in the county after Democrats started to behave like a select club. While not quite ready to embrace the GOP, they found Libertarianism to be a kind of benevolent constitutionalism that they could live with without embracing extreme right-wing ideals advocated by the Romney-Ryan camp. In fact, they find that ticket to be so ambivalent on their stands that they avoid it purely out of principle.<br />We have Nancy Mishou, a Libertarian candidate, running against Eddie Lucio III, the latest incarnation of corrupt politician dynasties in Cameron County for Texas House of Representatives District 38.<br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcaEynisIRFvKqk380hAyqSwjsS2bqYwtKQKGG2ve2GClr2oNpr1U-NLTDE2-2py8en8s-hBnE0Yi2vu1Cw1baCcuwPOGlWqmtnB09T1VPjaCewOOOarCDiADMED8_N3hWlVqLii6EpPA/s1600/mdrty.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcaEynisIRFvKqk380hAyqSwjsS2bqYwtKQKGG2ve2GClr2oNpr1U-NLTDE2-2py8en8s-hBnE0Yi2vu1Cw1baCcuwPOGlWqmtnB09T1VPjaCewOOOarCDiADMED8_N3hWlVqLii6EpPA/s320/mdrty.JPG" width="239" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">DOUGHERTY</td></tr></tbody></table>And Marlene Dougherty, a local attorney well-versed in the byzantine twists and turns of immigration law â€" among other things â€" is challenging Linda Salazar for the JP Pct. 2-1 position. There is no Republican candidate on the Nov. 6 ballot.<br />One of the main issues that Dougherty points out is the Salazar policy of issuing court marriages instead of registering them as common-law marriages, a practice that puts money in Linda's pocket, but makes a huge difference in the couple's immigration applications.<br />Dougherty said that she has had clients that she has sent to register their common law marriage and they came back with Court marriages by Salazar.<br />When she asked why, they said the girl at the window had  told them they HAD to go to the court. She said that this had happened to two or three of her clients.<br />However, apparently as of August, about a month after this fact was made public, she told them I told them that if they are told they have to go to court, to insist on common law registration, and to let her know if they were denied that. They did not have a problem. <br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiciJXr4S5ay8lbBUJP6FQX3NKJTC5ZGfzT8o-Vw5IIKj7w8CagwUOuumeIyNIC-8Avv7SV9TvZne14JxHCrUT8BQmUzJC1fGEN_2aWNm1wE7CtlndSrEnr_iOj1ZutqI68N141jEOa6Ys/s1600/lindasalazar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiciJXr4S5ay8lbBUJP6FQX3NKJTC5ZGfzT8o-Vw5IIKj7w8CagwUOuumeIyNIC-8Avv7SV9TvZne14JxHCrUT8BQmUzJC1fGEN_2aWNm1wE7CtlndSrEnr_iOj1ZutqI68N141jEOa6Ys/s1600/lindasalazar.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SALAZAR</td></tr></tbody></table>"The issue with immigration is that if they register their common law marriage (a statutory right, under Texas law, and therefore Constitutionally protected) the marriage is valid from the day they started living together," Dougherty said. "If they have a Court marriage it is only valid as of the date of the court ceremony. If a person is married less than two years they will be issued a conditional residency(CR) for a 2 yr period and have to later apply for removal of the conditions, if that is granted they issue the Lawful Permanent Residency(LPR). If CL was over 2 years and registered they will be issued LPR and they are good until they choose to file for citizenship, or 10 years later to renew their card."<br />By convincing couples to get court marriage certificates instead of the common-law variety, Salazar not only gets paid for performing the ceremony, but also delays their immigration process to point zero again as far as residency status.<br />Dougherty was under the belief that there was someone in the County Clerk's office that was a religious extremist and that was why they were denying her clients their rights.She further said that the victims can file a lawsuit. <br />Of course, if she wins, she can no longer represent them. But if the victims can identify themselves, they can also make a criminal complaint with the Federal government.<br />Also weighing in on Salazar's performance as a JP is on-again, off-again blogger Bobby Wightman who said that he had filed a complaint before the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct and had verification that a case number has been assigned to the following complaint against Linda Salazar. Her JP page tells people to hire notaries to help complete lawsuit forms for filing in her court. As most people know â€" this is illegal.<br /><a href="http://www.docstoc.com/docs/134468587/scan0008">http://www.docstoc.com/docs/134468587/scan0008</a><br />Wightman aslo said he is working on an investigation as to why the politiqueras pulled so many mail ballots for her when she did not even have an opponent in the Democratic primary.<br />"On the notary issue," Wightman added, "it could lead to RICO charges against her. My next move is to have the Texas AG open a criminal investigation - we all know (Cameron County District Attorney Armando) Villalobos will do nothing."<br />Salazar's son, former Brownsville Independent School District trustee Ruben Cortez, by the way, is the Democratic candidate for the Texas School Board of Education. His total of mail-in ballots during the Democratic primary was almost identical to his mother's. Perhaps Wightman's probe could also include him as well.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-7255984381901017283?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/as-election-day-nears-linda-salazars.html

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Brownsville Noise

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Brownsville Noise

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Rrun Rrun

EL RRUN RRUN
http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/

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BETTER BLOCK, DAY OF THE DEAD = SAME OLD, SAME OLD
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By <strong>Juan Montoya</strong><br />Tomorrow, after the razzle dazzle and hype of the New and Improved Better Block (mercadito no more) and Day of the Dead=Make a Difference Day blows away like yesterday's newspaper, the crackheads and prostitute (male and female) will wake up and wander through downtown Brownsville like cadavers looking for their next fix.<br />The storefronts will still be empty. The second-hand stores will feature the latest hand-me-down in winter wear to fend off the cold front, and the Asian dollar stores will do about the only business that is done Sundays in Browntown.<br />How many cheerleading squads do we have now? <br />There's All In, United Brownsville (aka Imagine Brownsville), the Brownsville Visitors and Convention Bureau (Wow!), GBIC, BEDC, CDCB, DVD, RGV, PCP, THC,etc. UTB's PR department will find yet another laurel to pin on Juliet Garcia. The ghost lecturers at the Arnulfo Oliveira Library in the future will tell the stories of how she was seen in the midnight hours walking across the Ft. Brown oxbow resaca shrouded by a whirling mist.<br />We even have an imaginary mayor who makes believe he will be able to get the city to use enough public funds to buy real estate to lure UTB to stay put in town and not go elsewhere. But now, with the rumored enrollment cap of about 7,400 students said to be set by the UT System Regents, there is really no need to buy (or take as a gift) that much land. A nice parcel somewhere off Alton Gloor of by Highway 100 will do. Or maybe they might just return to the old system of having Pan American set up a satellite university at TSC and forget about that headache.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmWEMEsimmrgQS9F1aznDtyEKTYuaJKDw5AT0PxPnH5VJjqajefuuO1_xoJvN-_ZbPnlhms3QIggxfUIZW3fmP1K3M2y1y6HI1Tq_N-Myh30l8b90-AL6eYBd7h1mL3kmePMbLPYadgU/s1600/fenceflag.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxmWEMEsimmrgQS9F1aznDtyEKTYuaJKDw5AT0PxPnH5VJjqajefuuO1_xoJvN-_ZbPnlhms3QIggxfUIZW3fmP1K3M2y1y6HI1Tq_N-Myh30l8b90-AL6eYBd7h1mL3kmePMbLPYadgU/s400/fenceflag.JPG" width="400" /></a>We even allowed the federal government to built a wall to keep them out, or maybe it was to keep ourselves in. We bet that will really draw the historical buffs here. <br />In fact, if the folks over at the Brownsville Historical Association have their way, it'll be Day of the Dead daily. That's got a nice ring to it, doesn't it?<br />Those poor souls who were buried in the Old Town Cemetery will wail about their serenity being disrupted by gaggles of snowbirds in the guided tour that won't let a body sleep. They weren't buried there to be exhibited to historical tourists. Pinche Brownsville never lets go.<br />They will also be told about Dr. William Gorgas and his role in eliminating yellow fever with nice romantic touch about tending to his future wife and dissecting yellow fever victims at the old Ft. Brown morgue. The weasel wording on the granite monument in front of the library dedicated to the good doctor leads the reader to believe he courageously exposed himself to the disease in order to research its effects and met his future wife whose grave had already been dug out in the post's cemetery. Hidden in the verbiage is the fatc that Gorgas never discovered the cause of the fever but learned from Cuban Dr. Juan Findlay that the disease was water-borne, a fact thet the Walter Reed Commission accepted as the cause of the disease.<br />How far can this hype go on?<br />It's obvious that the old Brownsville our parents and grandparents knew will never be the same. It's nigh impossible since that Brownsville was fueled by agriculture. Now agriculture has been replaced by a service economy and commerce that has moved northward following the flight of Alton Gloor and his subdivisions along either side of the expressway. PUB and fueled that flight when it extended their utilities grid in subservience to Gloor's anticipation of making millions off real estate speculation. Bill Hudson just followed in his footsteps.<br />There is no longer any need for local farmers to pick up their laborers from the bus station downtown. If you want to buy anything that costs more than a dollar or buy clothing that isn't sold by the pound, you go north.<br />Few, if any people, live in the middle of downtown although most second fllors on buildings are empty. The farm hands who used to crowd into town every Saturday to purchase their weekly supplies of food, clothing are gone now. Everyone else goes to Walmart on Alton Gloor or to the HEB Superstores dotting the landscape. The only HEB downtown is the one that services the Mexican clientele on Elizabeth Street. But don't try to uses those bathrooms. They are constantly out of service. Anyway, they're from Matamoros and can hold it until after they cross the bridge.<br />The handful of brave souls who have plunked down their cash to set up clubs downtown had to run the gauntlet of expensive regulations and requirements by the city's bureaucrats can be seen standing just behind their windows looking dissolutely out into an empty street. Downtown, alas, has become just a place to walk through or drive to on the way somewhere else.<br />There will always be someone who will want to know about how Charles Stillman founded the town and platted the original townsite, how a monstrosity of a German car could have been (or might have been, or should have been b'God) the touring car of Mexican Dictator Porfirio Diaz, if it had ever been in the country during his reign there. Or how Lucky Lindbergh flew from here south with his mail and Amelia Earnhardt was in the crowd itching to fly da plane.<br />Sure makes for a good yarn, doesn't it?<br />We're instead content to dress up like Mexicans for a week, clebrate a purely commercial holiday, call it Charro Days and get it over with at one fell swoop.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb06xIxX2e-IYZak2sw0Jf6o0sIaaEFS0eOFXLVTMnPRk5p6MQKiYFU1yhcUsGMW0ercekwzCMYjJmkeGy2-WqTN2V8YtJKsa_-4oNGl-vFY6NDW9l36NUv0-sNSM2yVX20hCqZU1cF-Y/s1600/charro5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb06xIxX2e-IYZak2sw0Jf6o0sIaaEFS0eOFXLVTMnPRk5p6MQKiYFU1yhcUsGMW0ercekwzCMYjJmkeGy2-WqTN2V8YtJKsa_-4oNGl-vFY6NDW9l36NUv0-sNSM2yVX20hCqZU1cF-Y/s400/charro5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>The real history of the city, the one that deals with the constant struggle for power between the masses and the government controlled by the power elite is one that no one wants to hear. They don't want to hear about braceros, or victims of the murderous Texas Rangers who helped robber barons like Stillman, King, Kenedy and even a token turncoat like Yturria dispossess them of the only thing they had â€" the very earth they lived on. That wound still festers among the children of the long-gone ancestors.<br />Even the homegrown heroes like Juan Cortina, Catalino Garza, Gregorio Cortez, Ignacio Zaragoza and the like are given short shrift. Where are the historical reenactments most communities would hold to draw the lucrative historical tourist like the occupation of Brownsville by Cortina, the Chisholm Trail cattle drives, shooting up of downtown by Buffalo soldiers, etc.? Most cities would give an eyetooth to have that much history encompassed on such a small area as does Brownsville.<br />We're not even mentioning the Palo Alto and Palmetto Battlefields. We understand that Pct. 1 commissioner Sofia Benavides is putting together a committee to develop such a tourist draw at Palmetto Hill. After all, this was the place where the armies of two counties and two occupation forces clashed during the Civil War and immediately after it. Personages the likes of Rip Ford, Cortina, and the French, Confederate, Union and Mexican armies had at least two encounters there.<br />Yet, pass by there and all you have is a desolate wasteland. We wish her luck and will do what we can to help make something out what is today a very important historical nothing.<br />But wait! According to Gilbert Salinas, VP for the Brownsville Economic Development Council, all this will change when SpaceX starts firing rockets off the clay lomas off Boca Chica to go where no man has gone before. To infinity, and beyond, Salinas says.<br />Forget about history, he says. We'd want to see traffic along Highway 4 lined up for miles with its accompanying litter and souvenir hawkers gawking at a 15-second rocket shoot. Now, that's historical progress and development, pelado!     <br />If you go to the original Ft. Brown site and can negotiate your way past the Border Patrol trucks and Da Fence, you might actually see a mound of dirt and a cannon poking from the grass out there. That's the way we celebrate history around here, stranger. And we like it that way.<br />For the meantime, however, in order to justify having the likes of Ramiro Gonzalez, the cityâ€™s comprehensive planning manager and Rhiannon Cizon (what a handle), BHA program and education coordinator, grace our streets and government, we'll do what Reese's did and combine chocolate with peanut butter and call it this city's generation's contribution to its bright future.<br /> "We are poised to create something to rival Houston or Austin or San Antonio on a smaller scale, but we can create a cultural hub that changes the face of Brownsville," said Cizon. "We can compete on the grown-up level.â€<br />Do these people meet somewhere and make this stuff up? Or do they think of it on the fly?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-1352742196839314923?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/10/better-block-day-ofthe-dead-same-old.html

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