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HISPANIC TRAILBLAZER DIES IN AUSTIN AT 84

December 20, 2018, 12:44 pm
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Trailblazing Former Austin Mayor Gus Garcia Dead At 84
By Tony Cantu
The Patch
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Gustavo L. "Gus" Garcia, the trailblazing first elected Hispanic mayor of Austin distinguished by a 40-year career in civic service — died early Monday at the age of 84.

Born in the border town of Zapata, Texas, in 1934, Garcia's career trajectory was laden with a series of firsts in addition to his pioneering mayoral tenure. He also was the first Hispanic member of the Austin Independent School District board of trustees and the first president of that body.

Garcia served on the Austin City Council for more than a decade, putting in another six-year stint on the Austin school district board. He was elected mayor on Nov. 6, 2001, running in a special election after Kirk Watson stepped down to run for state office. Garcia won handily, securing 59 percent of the vote in a crowded field of eight candidates.

His predecessor lauded Garcia's ascension to the post: "He brings to the office maturity, stability, and a real sense of history, Watson was quoted as saying about Garcia.

Never one to back down when sensing injustice or inequity, Garcia protested upon learning only one Hispanic was named to the then-newly formed Human Relations Commission (later the Human Right Commission) in 1967. His protest prompted city council to add four Hispanics to the 21-member board, including Garcia.

Once firmly established on the board, Garcia uncovered discriminatory practices at the Austin Housing Authority. Denied access to records, Garcia launched a personal investigation of one of the public housing residential towers, exposing discrimination as a tactic in selecting tenants. His findings informed his contribution to writing a fair housing ordinance that — while failing to garner full support in a 1968 referendum— was ultimately adopted by the city in 1977.

Building upon this work he helped write a Fair Housing Ordinance, which was passed in 1968 by the City Council. The Austin Board of Realtors (ABOR) responded by leading a petition driver to put the ordinance up for a citywide vote in 1968 and the ordinance was repealed by an overwhelming majority. Times changed however and in 1977 the ordinance was adopted by the city.

Current Austin Mayor Steve Adler expressed his condolences via Twitter: "We feel a community-wide heavy heart as one of our greatest Austin giants moves on," the mayor wrote. ""Mayor Garcia focused our city as no one had setting us on a course to seek equity and justice for all of Austin. I will miss my friend and teacher."

Former Austin City Council member Mike Martinez, who unsuccessfully challenged Adler for the mayoral post in 2014, rendered homage to his role model. "Like everyone else, i'm truly saddened to hear the news of the passing of Mayor Gus Garcia," Martinez wrote. "He was a legend among legends. I will forever be grateful for his counsel and advise...but most for his friendship. RIP Mayor. Austin is better today, because of you."

The Austin ISD put out a statement expressing their own words of condolence, posting comments by superintendent on its live feed. The Gus Garcia Young Men's Leadership Academy is named in the pioneer's honor, with a mission statement to develop scholars "...who are empathetic, service-oriented problem solvers — lifelong learners who succeed in high school, college, career and life," according to the school's website.

To read entire article, click on link:
https://patch.com/texas/downtownaustin/trailblazing-former-austin-mayor-gus-garcia-dead-84?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=rss&utm_term=obituaries&utm_campaign=recirc&utm_content=msnhttps://patch.com/texas/downtownaustin/trailblazing-former-austin-mayor-gus-garcia-dead-84?utm_source=msn&utm_medium=rss&utm_term=obituaries&utm_campaign=recirc&utm_content=msn
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U.S. ATTORNEY POURING OVER SOUTHWEST KEY'S FINANCING

December 21, 2018, 9:39 am
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By Rebecca R. Ruiz, Nicholas Kulish and Kim Barker
The New York Times

The Justice Department is investigating possible misuse of federal money by Southwest Key Programs, the nation’s largest operator of shelters for migrant children, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The inquiry could upend shelter care for thousands of children, escalating government scrutiny of the nonprofit even as it remains central to the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. The charity operates 24 shelters to house children who were separated from their parents at the border or arrived on their own.

The United States attorney’s office for the Western District of Texas is examining the finances of Southwest Key, based in Austin, and whether it misappropriated government money, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the inquiry. Prosecutors on the case are working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The inquiry comes after a New York Times report this month detailing possible financial improprieties by Southwest Key, which has collected $1.7 billion in federal grants in the past decade, including $626 million in the last year alone.

The nonprofit has engaged in potential self-dealing with its top executives, stockpiled tens of millions of taxpayer dollars and lent out millions for real estate purchases, acting more like a bank than a traditional charity, according to records and interviews. It has funneled government money through a web of for-profit companies, converting public funds into private money for the organization, which has paid top executives millions of dollars.

In response to The Times’s report, a spokesman for Southwest Key, Jeff Eller, acknowledged management mistakes but said there had been no criminal intent by the charity’s officials or “a desire to game the system.” Southwest Key also said it would commission an internal investigation.

Mr. Eller said on Thursday that the charity had not yet been contacted by the F.B.I. or the United States attorney’s office, but that it had “a policy of working with any and all investigations.”

Southwest Key, which became a focal point during the Trump administration’s decision to separate migrant children from their families this year, now houses up to 5,000 children in its facilities. One of them is a converted Walmart Supercenter in Brownsville, Tex., that can hold 1,400 children, drawing complaints that it was warehousing them.


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THE FAJITA MORAL: CRIME DOES PAY FOR AUDITOR, BUYERS

December 21, 2018, 10:03 am
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By Juan Montoya

For nine years Gilberto Escamilla, 53, had Labatt Food Service in Harlingen deliver monthly orders of 800 pounds of fajitas to the Darrel B. Hester Juvenile Detention Center.

Image result for fajita escamillaIn those nine years, Cameron County would have us believe that neither his direct supervisor or the director of the center, its book keeper, nor the Cameron County Auditor's Office had a clue of what the lowly employee had been doing all that time. The theft totaled $1,251,578.

They would have us believe that it wasn't until 2017 that the Cameron County District Attorney's Office Special Investigations arrested Escamilla after a driver a driver from Labatt called the center to let the employees know that their 800-pound delivery of fajitas arrived.

Anyone who has had a kid at the center or has served time at the county's detention facilities knows that fajitas are never on the menu.

Escamilla, 53, who pleaded guilty on April 20 to theft by a public servant and was sentenced to 50 years in prison by visiting State District Judge J. Manuel Banales. 

He is now appealing the sentence claiming Banales erred by relying on an invalid order to accept his written waiver of his right to a jury trial, that he received ineffective assistance of counsel because his attorneys failed to develop and present mitigation evidence for the punishment phase of his trial, according to the appeal, and that his attorneys failed to investigate the judge before advising him to let Banales assess punishment instead of having a jury assess punishment.$1,251,578.


As far as the Luis V. Saenz's DA's Office is concerned, the final chapter has been closed on the case even if the public is out $1.2 million.

Saenz blamed the county auditor – his nemesis Martha Galarza who caught him double dipping into his gas cards –  to tighten the controls and wonders why the scheme was not detected before.

Well, guess what? This year, the district judges weighed in on auditor Galarza's performance and rewarded her for her eagle-eye performance with a $3,818 raise. In Texas, county the auditor's salary is dictated to the county commissioners by the district judges in their jurisdiction.

The commissioners don't have a say so in the matter and complied, just they did in 2017 when they raised her 2016 salary of $124,798 to $127,296, a $2,498 raise. Ironically, that is the year that the DA's Office was alerted to the Fajita Scam.

There are other loose strings in this one.

Saenz said that there were at least two purchasers who bought the fajitas from Escamilla over that time but they were not indicted or charged, although they had to know where he was getting the fajitas a a cut-rate price. Were they owners of restaurants from San Benito or Harlingen? Perhaps Brownsville?

Could it be because they might be local business owners who supported Saenz in his past races? Or perhaps they are local elected officials?

The public needs to know. Just as a buyer of stolen goods bears some of the blame for the crime, so do the purchasers of the fajitas from Escamilla. Did he sell the meat to them at discount prices?

Someone other than Escamilla obviously profited from the meat paid by the public. Who was it? Saenz knows.

A purchase order requires with at least two signatures to approve any purchase from vendors? Who was the other signer who voted to approve the purchases? The department director, perhaps?

The county could not collect on an insurance policy that covers such thefts because it had not done its due diligence to prevent it. As a result, the taxpayers are the ones who will foot the bill. Maybe if the auditor got 10 years and the center's director got another 10, it could offset the 50-year sentence Bañales assessed Escamilla and lower it to 10 years as well.

Crime doesn't pay, the saying goes. But at least for the county auditor and the purchasers who profited from the stolen meat, it paid off handsomely. Escamilla will probably rot in jail, but something else smells rotten in Cameron County.
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PCT. 2 GETS A NEW WAREHOUSE FOR COUNTY ROAD CREW

December 21, 2018, 10:43 am
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(Ed.'s Note: With only days before Cameron County Pct. 2 Commissioner Alex Dominguez is scheduled to be sworn in as the District 37 Texas Representative in Austin, the commissioners court held a ribbon cutting on the new county warehouse.

For as far as anyone could remember, Pct. 2 county crews had shared a warehouse with Pct. 1 in an old warehouse on 14th Street.

The 9,000-square-foot facility will move public works employees out of the aging warehouse and into the area they serve. The $1.3 million steel building, near the Sheriff’s Office on a 19-acre tract of land on Old Alice Road, is divided into an administrative area and crew vehicle storage.

On hand for the ribbon-cutting was incoming Pct. 2 commissioner Joey Lopez, Cameron County Judge Essie Treviño, and other public officials.)
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LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS: CHUCK AND RICK GAB AWAY

December 22, 2018, 11:34 am
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By Juan Montoya

The British say gentlemen don't read other people's mail. Well, in the City of Brownsville there is a lack of that civility.

What would happen, say, if inside information of the dynamics inside the City of Brownsville Commission was suddenly exposed to the four winds by someone's indiscretion?

What if a current city commissioner spoke with former commissioner about pending litigation, being part of the commission's majority, and of confidential conversations with the city administration about the proces sfor hiring the new city manager?

And what if all this was leaked to the relative of a candidate for police chief who has not been shy of crying foul and charged one of the commissioners who is part of the majority with interfering with internal matters inside the department?

That's unfortunately, is what has happened to a conversation between current District 1 commissioner Ricardo Longoria and former commissioner Charlie "Chuck" Atkinson.

Screen shots of their conversation have been posted on the Brownsville Herald's Facebook page, an it appears that they were posted there by a relative of Lt. David Dale, one of several candidates for police chief.

In a complaint with the now-defunct Audit & Oversight Committee, Dale charged that Tetreau had interfered with bicycle patrol operations, assisted an officer, or officers, in preferential treatment over the city's needs and interests, and impacted the morale of BPD officers. He also claims Tetreau said "that management are now endangering the safety of some of our city employees' without all the facts."

In August, Dale was named interim police chief. Before that, he was in charge of one of five commands in the Brownsville Police Department. He was commander of the Uniform Services Command,

which includes the patrol traffic, animal control, parking enforcement and fleet maintenance divisions.
Dale, who Orlando Rodriguez appointed as acting chief upon his departure, was one of eight candidates for chief that included Patrol Lt. William Dietrich; Investigations Services Comm. Henry Etheridge; Patrol Sgt. Napoleon Gonzalez; Lt. Raul Rodriguez; Lt. Felix Sauceda; Lt. Gerard C. Serrata; and Sgt. Carlos A. Zamorano.

Following a spat with commissioner Jessica Tetreau over shift changes and assignments of personnel to downtown foot patrol, Asst. City Manager Michael Lopez appointed Interim Chief James Paschall demoted Paschall as interim chief, removing Dale as acting chief.

That is the context in which the Longoria-Atkinson conversation took place, with Longoria telling "Chuck" that he hates "being in a majority with irresponsible people and they make horrible mistakes..."
Who is Longoria talking about? Tetreau? Cesar de leon? Joel Mungia?

Then, in another screen shot, he dares commissioner Ben Neece to bring in a code of ethics and that if the "Feds or Texas Rangers" come in he has nothing to fear.

This brought a response from Dale who derided Longoria for his supposed naivete and points out that the majority was sitting with the city manager at the city Christmas party as proof Longoria is fibbing.

Other screens of the Longoria-Atkinson chat outlines the process that will be followed by the city to select the new chief and says that the city commissioner had not heard of the Dale "incident" with Tetreau until it was published in the daily.

Whoever took screen shots of the Longoria-Atkinson conversation and sent them to Michele Dale committed a huge indiscretion. Longoria says it wasn't him. 

Then, when Dale in turn shared them with the world on the paper's website, that indiscretion made matters even worse. 

Who's the ringmaster of this circus?
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THE BEST X-MAS EVER: SOROLA REUNITES MOTHER AND CHILD

December 22, 2018, 11:39 am
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By Juan Montoya

Back in December 2007 – about two weeks before Christmas –  Brownsville attorney Louis Sorola was making his his rounds at the courthouse rounds and walked into District Judge Migdalia Lopez's District 197th Court.

Image result for filipino mother and child reunionBefore he left, he found himself drafted to represent the interest of a seven -year-old child left by her father in the Philippines.

Needing someone to represent the child's interests in court in a divorce case, Lopez tapped Sorola as he peeked inside the courtroom as an ad litem guardian of the child's interest.

Little did he know that as a result of that appointment he would make a 17,200-mile round trip to Manila, the Philippines, and reunite the little girl with her desperate mother just in time for Christmas.

According to the mother Paula Flores, of Harlingen, having her daughter at home after a year and a half absence was the best Christmas present she could have gotten.

"We were waiting at the mall in Harlingen when Mr. Sorola appeared with Ann and we kissed and hugged her," Flores recalled recently. "It was the best Christmas present ever."

The child and her two sisters were the object of a bitter custody fight between their mother and father and when Flores had to return to the United States within one year of being outside the country as required of green-card immigration holders, her ex-husband followed, but for some unexplained reason left one their daughters – Ann – behind.

Now, as the divorce proceedings stalled over her absence, Lopez ordered Sorola to go to the Philippines and retrieve her.

Sorola – whose first marriage had also soured and was in the mend from that experience – had his mother drive him to San Antonio to board a plane for the islands there while she stayed and visited with family at the Alamo City. 

After an 18-hour flight over the Pacific, he alighted in Manila and set out with a two-week U.S. State Dept. passport in search of the girl. He found her in the care of a woman who ran a private school and who loved the girl dearly.

According to the mother, she and her former husband had met in the Philippines when he was there to deliver the ashes of his previous wife, another Filipina he had met in Philadelphia, to her family. He had met her when she was a maid in a hotel there and married her. The woman had allegedly committed suicide a few years later and when the man went to the Philippines, he met and Paula, then 18.

They were granted a fiance visa in 1995 and she returned to the United States, and they settled in Harlingen.

Then, in 2006, her husband sent her back to the Philippines with the three girls and he stayed in the United States. When he joined them, she realized that she would be breaking the rules for green-card eligibility if she stayed longer, and he sent her back to Harlingen and he stayed there with the three girls.

By this time she had learned that he had no plans to get her naturalized or to take her back to the United States. When he returned from the Philippines, he had two of the girls, but not Ann, whom he had left behind. She filed for divorce that year and the case ended up in Lopez's court.

And that's when Sorola peeked into her courtroom and was tagged to bring her back.

"I am happy to say that Ann is now a sophomore at UT-Austin and has received an internship to work at Google headquarters in California," Sorola said. "Reuniting the family for Christmas was one of the most personally rewarding things I had ever done."
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A MERRY CHRISTMAS 2018 FROM BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS, US of A

December 24, 2018, 1:51 pm
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(Ed.'s Note: Sometimes as we drive around town we tend to forget the unique character of our city. At a time when snowdrifts are piling up on streets in Midwest and subfreezing winds beat the Plains, we are walking around in shirtsleeves and shorts. We are indeed blessed with the climate and natural resources which, if not subtropical, then semiarid. The fishing enthusiasts are just returning from the Bahia Grande and La Laguna where they catch their limit of red fish, flounder, drum, trout, snook, an a variety of sea life. The ramp previously called "Los Lobos," and now the Jaime Zapata Memorial Boat Ramp is a favorite spot to hook snook, according a snook fanatic we know. 

A Merry Christmas to all, wherever you are. "And so this is Christmas, and what have you done? Another year over, and a new one just began."
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END OF AN ERA: WILLIE GARZA, BORDER LOUNGE OWNER, DIES

December 24, 2018, 2:56 pm
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Special toEl Run-Rrun

On 14th Street in Brownsville's strip of blue-collar beer joints, Guillermo “Willie” Garza Jr., and his Border Lounge were one of the best-known and popular bars around.

Willie was a veteran of the United States army and the Border Lounge became a gathering point for veterans from the area.

People like Rey Solis -  a retired cop  and investigator and Juan Torres who was a postman after the service and and many others now deceased - were regulars there.

A respectable guitar player, he specialized in traditional Mexican conjunto and bolero music. And the bar's jukebox, which he loaded with his favorite CDs, had a repertoire that included Brownsville's own Chelo Silva, Javier Solis, Pedro Infante and many other famous and little-known artists of the era.


Willie also was an avid history buff, with a deep knowledge of border heroes like Aniceto Pizana, Juan Cortina, Las Aguilas Negras, El Plan de San Diego, and Pancho Villa.

He used to recall his father and uncles tell the tales of local heroes who stood up to their enemies and the rinches and sang their corridos. 

But there was also a touch of nostalgia in the music of Chicano artists that he heard as a youth like Little Joe, Carlos Guzman, Joe Bravo, Sonny Ozuna, Agustin Ramirez, Snowball y Los Fabulosos Cuatro and many others.

And his pool tournaments were well-attended with some of the city's best pool players players vying for a shot at the prizes - at $10 per entrant and more than 20 participating - a $200 pot. If you didn't play, you could dance to Willy's Wonderful Jukebox. Everybody did.

He was a good friend. Peace be with him and with us.

Willie was 80 when he died last Thursday December 20, 2018 in Harlingen, Texas at Solara Hospital. He was born November 20, 1938 in Brownsville, Texas to Guillermo and Dionicia Garza.

Left behind to cherish his memory is his daughter; Rosemary Garza, 7 siblings; Rey Garza, Hermelinda Bowles, Margarita Morelos, Maria Lourdes De Los Santos, Mario Garza, Eleuterio Garza, Teresita Martinez and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. Mr. Garza was preceded in death by his wife; Sara Bravo Garza, Parents; Guillermo and Dionicia Hernandez Garza, 3 siblings; Juan Jose Garza, Guadalupe Garza, and Esperanza Ramirez.

Visitation will begin on December 27, 2018 from 3- 9pm with a prayer service at 7p.m. at Angel Lucy’s Funeral Home in Los Fresnos, Texas. 

Visitation will resume on Friday December 28, 2018 as of 8 am with a 10 am Chapel Service. Burial will follow at the Buena Vista Burial Park in Brownsville, Texas. Pallbearers will be Mike Ramirez, Rene Ramirez, Raymundo Ramirez, Christopher Escobedo, J.D. Gonzalez, and Pete De Los Santos.

Angel Lucy’s Funeral Home is in charge of the funeral arrangements. They are at 1005 S. Arroyo Blvd. Los Fresnos, Texas, 956-254-2099.
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POIGNANT ROADSIDE MEMORIAL W-WREATHS AND ORNAMENTS

December 26, 2018, 8:30 am
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By Juan Montoya

It's been almost 13 years since the March 2006 crash at the intersection of Dana Road and FM 802 that took three lives in full bloom.

The crash. according to first responders, was horrific.

Their testimony to a jury that sat on the case involving a drunk driver who was charged with three cases of intoxication manslaughter resulted in his conviction.

A fourth memorial at the same intersection is mute testimony to the hazard the intersection created.
Today, that intersection has a traffic light it did not have before to prevent accidents like the one that took the those lives.

Since then, the victims' relatives have maintained the poignant memorial they erected at the site next to a drainage ditch where the victims' vehicle ended up after being struck by the defendant's car.

As you pass it, you may notice the three crosses standing alongside the right-of-way in a carefully tended site on the side of the road. The fourth is that of an unrelated traffic fatality who perished there.

The defendant now sits in a penitentiary serving four life terms, for all practical purposes, dead to the outside world.

But on that 2006 day the three lives that were lost – one of a Border Patrolman and those of a U.S. Customs agent and her husband – have remained on the minds of their surviving relatives.

Visitors from outside South Texas often comment on the proliferation of roadside memorial markers that dot the roadways here. They say that although memorial markers are also erected in other states, for some reason or other, they are more numerous and ornate here.

A parent's grief – and love – is unending, as can be attested by the well-kept, trimmed corner where one can sometimes see people tending to its upkeep. Holidays, one imagines, are probably worse. Our lasting condolences to them.
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SUBTLE COST DIFFERENCES IN ONE BORDER TOWN

December 26, 2018, 9:16 am
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By Juan Montoya

Ever notice that prices for things like gasoline or foodstuffs like chicken differ markedly depending on what part of town you're in?


This Christmas season we had the opportunity to go downtown and across the city seeking just the right present for our kid sand relatives and were slightly surprised at how obvious these differences were.

For example, in the downtown area only blocks from the Gateway International Bridge on Elizabeth Street, gas prices hovered around $1.97 (right) while prices for the same gallon of gas along Boca Chica were around $1.82 (left) to $1.89, a difference of a dime or more per gallon.

Sometimes prices – depending on the proximity to the river – differed even though the stores belonged to the same franchises (Stripes, Vaerlo, Sunoco).

Mexican customs restrict the importation of poultry into the country to protect its avian industry, resulting in higher prices for such merchandise there.

Mexican shoppers along the border often flock (no pun intended) to the U.S. side where they can purchase leg quarters for as little as 39 cents a pound when the product is on special in the HEBs or La Michoacana or El Globo.

The downtown HEB is the favorite of Mexican
residents who cross the bridge to stock up om the relatively inexpensive meat. It is the favorite store of plasma donors from Matamoros who merely walk the two or three blocks and then cross the river with the meat.

At the downtown HEB this past two weeks, leg quarters have been flying out the door at the discount price of 27 cents per pound, that is, $2.70 for 10 pounds.

Just a few miles down Elizabeth at the corner of Central Blvd., La Michoacana advertised that it was selling the same product at 37 cents per pound.

At El Globo up the expressway,. the price was also 39 cents.

So, for a Matamoros shopper with a car, if they had simply driven a few miles into the city, they would have had cheaper gas, but more expensive chicken leg quarters.

Does this make any sense?
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SECOND GUATEMALAN CHILD DIES WHILE IN BP CUSTODY

December 26, 2018, 9:49 am
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(CNN)An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died late Christmas Eve in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection, the agency said, the second Guatemalan child to die in the agency's custody this month.

Rep. Joaquin Castro, chairman-elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, identified the child in a statement as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez.

The boy, who was detained with his father, died shortly before midnight at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico, about 90 miles north of the border crossing in El Paso, Texas.
"This is a tragic loss," CBP Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said. "On behalf of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, our deepest sympathies go out to the family."

The boy was taken to the hospital Monday after a border agent noticed signs of illness, and the medical staff first diagnosed him with a common cold and later detected a fever.

"The child was held for an additional 90 minutes for observation and then released from the hospital mid-afternoon on December 24 with prescriptions for amoxicillin and Ibuprofen," CBP said in a news release. Amoxicillin is a commonly prescribed antibiotic.
On Monday evening, the boy began vomiting and was taken back to the hospital for evaluation. He died hours later, the CBP said.
The official cause of death is unknown. CBP is conducting a review and will release more details as they become available, it said.

In the wake of the boy's death, McAleenan announced a series of moves on Tuesday night.
First, Border Patrol is conducting secondary medical checks on all children in CBP care and custody with a particular focus on children under 10.
Second, Border Patrol is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on available surge options for transportation to Family Residential Centers and supervised release, CBP said. The agency also is reviewing other custody options to relieve capacity issues in the El Paso sector, such as working with nongovernmental organizations or local partners for temporary housing.
Third, CBP is considering options for medical assistance with other governmental partners, the agency said. That could include support from the Coast Guard, as well as possibly more aid from the Department of Defense, FEMA, Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Finally, CBP is reviewing its policies with a particular focus on the care and custody of children under 10, both at intake and beyond 24 hours in custody, the agency said.
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THEY'RE BAAACK! CHRONIC POTHOLES SPROUT ON ROOSEVELT

December 26, 2018, 11:28 am
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(Ed.'s Note: Just as we predicted it would happen, the potholes City of Brownsville Public Works patched Dec. 6 weeks after rains fell on the city in November, the holes on the stretch of Roosevelt Street between E. 13th Street and McDavitt have reappeared as a result of the light rains we've experienced these last two days. 

In the top photo, the holes are the same ones that were patched then. They are visible on the roadway at the rear of the back SUV. It won't be long before the asphalt poured on the ones in the front left of the same vehicle become undone and the same holes reappear. 

As we said before, it provide a sort of job security for city road crews, but a safety hazard for motorists attempting to avoid them and oncoming traffic. Is this ever going to end and the road fixed permanently?

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CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST OVER SCAFFOLD COLLAPSE

December 26, 2018, 11:41 am
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By Mark Reagan 
Brownsville Herald 
Staff Writer

Three Matamoros residents and a Brownsville resident are suing the City of Brownsville and the organizers of a binational race in March where a metal scaffold with a start banner fell into the crowd without warning for $1 million or more in damages.

Daniel Reglado, individually and as next of friend of D.A.R., a minor, and Cecilia P. Alonso, all of Matamoros, along with Brownsville resident Sylvia Vela, filed the lawsuit on Dec. 19 against Fundacion Teleton USA, Sistema Infantial Teleton USA, Sabas Lopez Jr. doing business as SRS Advertising and DG Entertainment, and the City of Brownsville.

The accident happened at the beginning of the Bi-National 10K & 5K Run, which started on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus, when the metal structure fell striking multiple people.

(In March, El Rrun-Rrun published a post on the accident and identified the city worker said to have instructed the promoters to install a banner. We said:

"City crews under the direction of City of Brownsville Government Affairs Liaison Ramiro Gonzalez arrived with city workers and he directed them to place a large "start" banner on the structure. 

And as the morning wore on, the wind began to blow stronger. The National Weather Service reported that before daybreak the wind speed was 21 miles per hour and increasing as daybreak approached. At race time, it is estimated that it had increased to more than 3 miles and hour. On that day, gusts reached speeds of nearly 42 miles per hour.  

If there had been no banner installed on the scaffolding, workers believe, it would not have collapsed.
Instead, the wind gusts caught the "start" sign installed at Gonzalez's directions and several people were injured when it collapsed.

"It might as well have been a sail," said one of the runners. It was just too windy to have placed it then. There really was no need for it."

Local media reported that several runners said the metal structure fell as the race was about to begin.")

According to the lawsuit, SRS Advertising and DG Entertainment was instructed to install the trusses and signage that fell and struck the plaintiffs.

Michael J. Blanchard, a San Antonio-based attorney who filed the lawsuit, argues in the litigation that the City of Brownsville is liable because Reglado, the minor, Alonso and Vela's injuries were caused by the trusses and signage that were allegedly set up in a manner that posed an unreasonable risk of which the city had actual knowledge.

"The City, moreover, only has immunity for its governmental acts," the lawsuit states. "The City's joint sponsorship and hosting of the race event was not a governmental act."

According to the lawsuit, a city employee installed the trusses and signage that fell.

"While acting within the scope of his or her employment, a City employee used the truss and signage to conduct the race event at issue in this lawsuit," the litigation states. "The use was negligent in that the use caused the trusses and signage to fall, prxoimately causing injuries and damages to Plaintiffs."

Reglado, the minor, Alonso and Vela further allege that Teleton and the City breached their duties by selecting "an incompetent person to install."

To read rest of article click on link: https://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/four-injured-in-bi-national-race-sue/article_e8b7d0dc-091d-11e9-a22a-2b3a9ed87922.html
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LOS FRESNOS GUS GARZA, OF SPANKING INFAMY, DIES

December 27, 2018, 9:21 am
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Image result for gustavo gus garza


Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Word has reached us that Gustavo "Gus" Garza, the former Los Fresnos Justice of the Peace who drew national attention in 2008 when he ordered a spanking as punishment for a girl who had multiple truancy offenses, has died.

Garza apparently suffered a heart attack early today and was taken to a local hospital where he was declared dead. He had retired from from his law practice after more than 35 years  in state and federal courts.. He worked not only as a assistant DA, but also was an elected county and district attorney for Willacy County, a special prosecutor for Cameron County, justice of the peace in Los Fresnos and a science teacher.

He retired just last February 2017 as a prosecutor – for the second time – for the Cameron County District Attorney's Office. Among some of the notable cases was the prosecution of former Pct. 2 County Commissioner Ernie Hernandez and his administrative assistant Raul Salazar. As a result of the prosecution, Hernandez agreed to step down as a commissioner and got deferred adjudication. Salazar got nine months in the county jail.

Garza gained national attention after a couple filed a lawsuit in June 2018 that alleged he told a 14-year-old girl's stepfather that she would be found guilty of a criminal offense and fined $500 for truancy unless the stepfather spanked her in the courtroom.

The lawsuit asked a state district court to stop the spankings and remove Garza from office.

The family alleged in the lawsuit that Garza told the father to strike his stepdaughter repeatedly on the buttocks in open court.  When he was through, the judge told him he had not struck the girl hard enough, the father alleged in an affidavit. Others said they had seen the judge order other public spankings.

However, Garza had told others in private conversations that the girl had stopped missing school after that episode and that she had joined the military after graduating from Los Fresnos High School. He said she had come back to his courtroom in her uniform and thanked him.

"Se compuso," he said.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.


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STILL SQUIRMING, MR. AMIGO BUNCH PROTESTS TOO MUCH

December 27, 2018, 9:43 am
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By Juan Montoya

Still defending their selection of a rich guy's son-in-law as Mr. Amigo 2018 members of the organization have defended the selection in the face of widespread disapproval  in social media.

Commenter after commenter has voiced disapproval of Mr. Amigo Association's selection of Arturo Elias Ayub, the son-in-law of Carlos Slim, Mexico's richest man – and seventh richest in the world – to make an appearance during the upcoming Charro Day's events.

The mission of the MAA is "To celebrate the shared culture, friendship and family of Brownsville and Matamoros. To enjoy the traditions and history that unite us bringing “The Valley” and “La Frontera” closer together, serving as an example for our two countries."

In the past, the list of Mr. Amigos ranges from the president of Mexico to various actors, comedians, and performers. The past board have had members associated with Televisa, which resulted in soap opera stars and performers under contract with that broadcaster being chosen for the honor.

However, member Arturo Treviño, of "Los Trevis" convenience stores on both sides of the river, is said to have used his influence to convince the membership to extend the invitation to Ayub as a way to foster "economic development" and attract investment to the area, a purpose which differs slightly from their stated mission.

The Mr. Amigo Association's membership is rather clubby, with members inviting each other to join the association.

The clearest comment from one of those that disapproved of Treviño's (and the MAA's) selection put it this way: 

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AT LEAST ONE DEFENDANT SAW DECENCY IN ASST. DA GARZA

December 28, 2018, 9:13 am
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(Click on graphic above to enlarge and read Gus Garza's funeral arrangements.)

By Juan Montoya

The March 2016 Cameron County Democrats primary elections were close, too close.

Incumbent Luis V. Saenz heard the footsteps of his perennial nemesis Carlos Masso who in 2012
had come incredibly close to beating him, just losing in a runoff election by a mere 351 votes of the 15,721 cast in that race.

But now, in the spring of 2016, many felt Masso had the momentum to finally defeat his nemesis.

In the newborn year of 2016, and with his political doom written on the wall, Saenz needed something – anything – to improve his chances. What he needed was a big-name arrest to broadcast the image he was fighting corruption.



According to sources inside the law-enforcement community, ever since September 2015, Saenz and his Public Integrity Unit headed by chief investigator at the Cameron County District Attorney's Office (and former DEA Special Agent) George Delaunay and Asst. D.A. Edward Sandoval  had been running a sting operation in the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector's Office targeting head taxman Tony Yzaguirre.

Cleverly, it was called "Operation Dirty Deeds."

Pete Gilman, the head prosecutor in the D.A's Office, would try the case for Saenz. Assisting him in the prosecution was Special Prosecutor Gustavo "Gus" Garza.

The task force had enlisted a shady confidential informant named Melquiades Sosa to ingratiate himself into Yzaguirre's inner circle and give the goods on him.

They had Sosa by the short hairs because he had been indicted on nine charges of Tampering With a Government Document dealing with getting phony titles to vehicles. Sosa was a car dealer and dealt with the Vehicle Registration Department almost on a daily basis.

He made a deal with Saenz, Delaunay, and DPS Special Agent Rene Olivarez with the task force investigators that included the Texas Attorney General, the FBI and local law enforcement to bring down Yzaguirre and as many of his employees as he could.

When the indictments started to rain down on the tax office, some employees were caught up in the prosecutorial current and – regardless of the validity of the charges – were arrested, handcuffed and carted off in front of their co-workers and the public and led off to the Rucker-Carrizales county jail in Olmito.

One of them was Claudia Elisa Sanchez, a tax office employee whose husband owned a used-car dealership and for whom she did car appraisals. On March 23, 2016, she was charged with Tampering With a Government Document. It wouldn't be until February 9, 2017 before the charges were dismissed against her.

In a complaint with the Texas Department of Public Safety's Inspector General, Sanchez said Olivarez  and Saenz knew that:
(1) Sosa was the one that tampered and forged the documents in the title packets containing the Used Motor Vehicle Appraisal Forms in question;
(2) the signatures in these are not remotely similar to mine;
(3) the vehicles which he swore didn't exist, did in fact exist
(4) anyone from the general public, specially a used car salesman, could have access to my husband's dealer license information.
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According to knowledgeable sources within the DA's Office, Garza had told Saenz that "there was nothing there there" to prosecute against Sanchez, and that the two came to a disagreement on proceeding against here, with Garza telling co-workers that he wanted to dismiss them before they went to trial.

Saenz disagreed and tpressed on for prosecution. It was the beginning of the end for Garza at the DA's Office and he retired shortly thereafter.

The ensuing media coverage of Operation Dirty Deeds led the voters who may have been on the Mass-Saenz fence to lean toward the incumbent.

 As televised arrest followed televised arrest, Saenz's chances improved markedly. By that March, the voters came out in the Democratic party primary and handed him a victory over Masso of 14,650 to 13,860, albeit still a squeaker with 27,510 votes cast in the race, a 790- vote margin.

Trying Yzaguirre and the other five tax-office employees was almost an afterthought. But that was when things got dicey. Due to massive negative media pre-trial publicity, a court granted Yzaguirre's motion for a change in venue to Nueces County.

There, a jury dismissed or acquitted Yzaguirre and the other tax office employees of a total of 40 charges alleged in the Operation Dirty Deeds, including dismissing the charge against Sanchez.

"Gus knew that there was noting to try against her and he told them so," recalled a tax office employee, an opinion shared by sources in the DA's Office. "He never changed his mind despite the pressure from Saenz and his administrators. In the end, he was right and tried to do the decent thing."

Garza died Thursday morning after suffering a heart attack in his home in Bayview. 
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A PIECE OF BROWNSVILLE FIREFIGHTERS' HISTORY

December 28, 2018, 1:54 pm
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By Juan Montoya
An old workhorse of the Brownsville Fire Dept. in its early days, a 55-foot, 1927 American LaFrance fire aerial truck with rear tiller is on its way back home.

Depending on how long it takes it to get here from Pennsylvania, the truck could arrive here any day.

The truck, after it was junked by the city for scrap metal in a  local junkyard, was purchased by truck dealer John W. Brown, of Chambersburg, Pa., His son Ronald Earl, told firefighters that his father had always wanted the truck to go back to Brownsville.

Ronald Earl said his father, who died in 2006, had the truck restored to its original paint and colors that include the original city logo. Photos of the condition of the truck when it was purchased indicate that the restoration job was well done and that the engine work allowed the Browns to drive it in local parades.

Brownsville Firefighters Association Local #970 President Jorge Lerma said the family had reached out to city officials and the fire department because the late John Brown had included the restored truck in his will and left it to his son and daughter. Lerma said that his son had told him that the father had told them that Brownsville should have the chance to buy it first so that it could go back to its place of origin.

"The family has been really patient with us about getting it," Lerma said. "I first started talking to them about five years and we actually gave the city a check for $1,000 in earnest money to offer the family so they cold hold it until we could come up with the money."

Lerma said he credits city commissioner Ben Neece who, when he heard that the fire truck
was
available, did what he could to try to get the city
to cough up the money. The Browns had originally asked for more than $100,000, a not unreasonable sum given the time and effort it took the family to restore it to its original specs.

"They easily spent that much just resorting it," Lerma said. "They even kept the original gold-leaf paint and the original Brownsville firefighters' logo. Imagine getting a fully-restored 91-year-old aerial fire truck with a tiller seat for $50,000 plus transportation. It easily could cost double or triple that."

The firefighters' money was eventually returned after Neece and Asst. City Manager Michael Lopez sought funding from the various city accounts. Lerma said that Neece had been stumped on a funding source that did not involve restricted funds and that Lopez had eventually found an appropriate fund for the purchase of the truck.

Some local firefighters remember that the truck was kept in storage at a warehouse at the Brownsville airport and that the last time it was used in a parade was during the Bicentennial in 1976. A 1975 edition of the Brownsville Herald shows firefighters cleaning the truck and in preparation for the 100th anniversary of the Brownsville Fire Dept.

Retired firefighter Pete Avila said that he was in the parade Bicentennial parade in 1976 and that he remembers a firefighter Margarito Davila and tiller Ruben Garza driving it down Elizabeth Street.

"The truck backfired and went out near the Palm Lounge and Margarito got out and opened up the hood and got it started up again," Avila recalled. "The crowd thought it was part of the show and clapped and clapped."

Neece and Lerma both said that the truck needs to be displayed in a prominent place given its historical significance to the city and the firefighters. They say a showcase like the one for Simon Celaya's locomotive in front of the Historical Brownsville Museum on 7th Street would be ideal.

"We are lucky to have been able to acquire the fire truck," Lerma said. "I can't give enough credit to commissioner Neece and Asst. City Manager Lopez for making its return possible. I can hardly wait for it to get here. It's an important piece of our local history."
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RECOGNIZE ANY OF THESE FIREFIGHTERS FROM OCT. 1975?

December 29, 2018, 8:45 am
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(Ed.'s Note: The next-to-last time that the 1927 American LaFrance aerial fire truck with tiller was driven in a parade was in October 1975 in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Brownsville Fire Department. We have tried to identify several of the people in the picture with the help of some firefighters who are still around.

As close as we can come is that the guy in the officer's cap standing by the truck's radiator is Israel Najera and that the guy to his left is Margarito Davila. The man walking toward the front of the truck is tentatively identified as Abel Zapata, who went on to become a fire marshal, but we are not 100 percent sure it's him. And we are stumped on who the guy cleaning the "mataburros," or cattle guard in front with the boy leaning over. Is he his son?

The City of Brownsville has acquired the old fire truck, now fully restored, from the heirs of John W. Brown, of Chambersburg, Pa., who bought it in a local junkyard and spent years and money restoring it to its original condition. A photo of the truck as it appears now is below:

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IN DOWNTOWN BROWNTOWN, AN ECLECTIC MESCLA OF MUSIC

December 29, 2018, 9:25 am
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(Ed.'s Note: Does your taste run toward conjunto, classical, salsa, bachata, cumbia or rock and blues? You can find it all within two or three square blocks in downtown Brownsville. Whether it's the original Connectors at the Half Moon on Adams Street with Hawk on harmonicas, the Foncerradas at the Hueso del Fraile on Elizabeth playing Musica Nueva and Latin Folk, or Los Magnificos at La Movidita, there's a genre to fit your taste. 

On Thursdays, Half Moon features Texas Southmost College's Dr. Jonathan Dotson playing classical music with Jen Cello to a growing number of aficionados to the synthesis of classical guitar and cello. Or would you rather make a fool of yourself doing karaoke at Chapters on Thursday, or at Double Trouble and Carta Brava on Sunday? Whatever your poison is, it's all there.)
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A TALE OF LOVE AND LONGING FROM THE FROZEN NORTH

December 30, 2018, 9:11 am
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By Juan Montoya
Jose Ortega looked out from his window at the gritty snow piled over the sidewalks of his home in Chicago Heights.

It was late November, and the daily blasts of icy wind buffeted the frozen landscape. Even though the sun was shining , the vapor from the exhaust of cars and from the muffled faces of pedestrians told him the bright sunlit panorama was deceptive.It was frigid outside.



Ortega, 58, and a recent widower, paced the rooms of his house alone. Out of habit, it seemed to him, he drank his coffee (one lump of sugar, cream) and looked out the front picture window.
He missed his Alma, his late wife. For the best of 35 years they had lived a good life together. The children had all grown and long since departed, dropping the occasional note and making small awkward talk through the infrequent telephone call. They had scattered like leaves after they grew up and spread all over the country.

The last time they had all been together was when they buried his Alma – at 52, just a wisp of the woman he had married in South Texas so many years ago. His thoughts overtook him and once again he walked through the old roads of memory and courtship.
“She was quite a woman,” Ortega thought, and was startled to hear the sound of his own voice resound through the empty rooms of his lonely house. Now you’ve really gone off the deep end, he told himself. Next thing you’ll know you’ll be answering yourself.

He had been visiting the doctor even before Alma had died. His heart problems had worried her sick, even after the triple bypass operation had stabilized his health. He knew he was living on borrowed time.
Which was why he felt betrayed by fate when the usually energetic mate of his life suddenly returned from a scheduled doctor’s appointment and sat him down on the kitchen table, holding his hands in hers.
“It’s cancer,” she said slowly. “I don’t have much time.”

Looking back, Ortega realized that moment was the start of the downward spiral his life had taken. Unwilling to believe the diagnosis, he insisted on two, three, and even a fourth opinion. The verdict was the same: It was cancer, and it was terminal.
He remembered the faces. Try as they might to be comforting and gentle, once they told him the news they became distant and vague. He felt a void separated him from them and alone in his despair – a helpless witness isolated from the life-and-death struggle her body fought with the insidious black cells that were devouring his beloved Alma from within.

The end had come quickly as she had predicted. Within three months after the first diagnosis, he could hardly recognize the happy face and optimistic being he had loved at first sight. Now that face was distorted and racked with pain. And yet, for all the strain on her frail body, she seemed to handle it better than he did.
“Who is going to take care of my Pepe?” she would agonize as they held each other in the wan light of the evenings as he tried to comfort her. He felt helpless. But when he was at his lowest, somehow she would gather what little inner strength she had left to buoy his spirits.
“You’re still a good looking man,” she would tease weakly. “And besides, I hear that a lot of young women are attracted to mature Hispanic men like you.”

The thought that a younger woman would take any interest in him amused Jose. Passing by a mirror, he would see a graying, middle-aged man with a slight paunch, his back bent from life’s burdens. It made him melancholy to think she would use her remaining strength to comfort him.
The disease consumed her with a vengeance. Always of slight build, Alma quickly became bedridden and frail. The woman who for years had provided him with strength to battle the odds of segregated work places, discrimination, and hard times, now was caught in the tug-and-pull battle between the forces of life and death.
She died that fall.

When his sons and daughters came to the funeral, they were surprised at how small their mother appeared. Shallow-faced and unbelievably thin, her wasted body touched their own insecurities and they quickly rose from the praying pew before her coffin, afraid.
His grandchildren, accustomed only to their grandparents' portrait in their homes could not believe it was the same woman. Their parents trundled them off as soon and as decently possible. In the end, only Jose and some of his old factory pals stood around the frozen ground as Father Kowalski from the nearby parish church tossed bits of rock-hard dirt clumps upon her lowered coffin.

“We’re getting old, Pepe,” said Rafa, a long-time friend who accompanied him to the cemetery. “It won’t be long before we join our difuntitos ourselves.”
“You’re right, compadre,” Pepe had replied. He gave a deep sigh and turned away from the hole so that the impatient backhoe operator could finish his job and leave. “Somehow I always believed that I would go first. It almost doesn’t seem right.”
“It’s God’s way,” Rafa had answered. “You can’t second-guess the guy upstairs.”

And yet, Pepe found himself doing just that.
In the days that followed, he wondered whether he had done the right thing taking the young girl from northern Mexico with the mirth of life bubbling inside her away from her family and homeland. Had it been really better for them here?
In the south they had lived modestly, but together. Everyone there seemed to feel for each other. Like one, they had looked out for each other’s needs. When one had, everyone had. When no one had, their need brought the people together, rather than distancing them from one another. In a way, the hard life and land had enriched them all.

The good-byes had been painful. For weeks after he had decided that the opportunities in the north were better for them, Alma had been sad. She had abided by the decision – a tradition of obedience mandated by God, her mother had told her – but it had hurt for her to leave her family far more than it had hurt him to leave his.
Even before they had actually struck out on the road, he would come upon her sniffling quietly in the dark corners of rooms in their house. She would grow quiet for long stretches of time even after they had arrived in Illinois.

Time, and the arrival of the children, lessened the effect. He rose quickly in his job – albeit facing the usual obstacles – and they moved to the Heights, to this very house in which he now stood looking out into the bleak winter scene. About the only time he went out of doors now, it seemed to him, was when he went in for his regular checkup.
He drove to the Doc Allen’s and got there early. As he waited, it struck him as funny that one old man was looking after another old codger, and he teased the physician.

“I wonder who’s going to die first, Doc, the doctor or the patient,” Pepe said as the cold stethoscope was placed on the surgical scars of his chest.
“I think it better be me so you won’t sue me,” replied Dr. Allen. And then, more seriously, “Why don’t get out of the house a little more, Jose, and get your mind off your problems? Don’t overdo it, mind you. But why don’t you visit your kids and grandchildren? You deserve to relax a little bit. Life goes on, you know.”

Pepe replied lightly and left the office. He turned the radio on in his car on the way home and listened as the news announcer noted that 12 deer hunters had died during the current season as a result of accidental shootings and overexertion.
"The deer 12, hunters zero," the morning show announcer had quipped.

Alma had never liked to hunt and had gone with him to the cottage they had bought on the banks of the lake near the Wisconsin border only to give him company. She hated the thought of killing the pretty animals, and had declined to shoot at any animals from the blind in the nearby woods.
Instead, they had spent the week watching the sunrise color the blue-green water with amber hues and gorgeous pastels. Those had been some of the most enjoyable days of their life together.

From then on it became an inside joke between them that they would tell their friends and neighbors they were off deer hunting and spent a week with each other walking through the cool forests and by the lake shore. After a few years, the neighbors caught on and gave up asking how they had fared with the game.
“How was hunting?” asked their neighbor Mrs. Radzne after one of their annual trips.
“You should have seen the buck that got away,” Jose would laugh.

When he got home from the doctor, he had made up his mind. He went into the attic and retrieved his hunting gear. It had been years since he had taken out the rifle, but he didn’t bother to clean it. Everything was exactly as he had left it.
As he loaded his car, he could see the neighbors looking at him through the curtains of their kitchen and living-room picture windows. Mrs. Radzne , or Mrs. Radz, as everyone called her, actually came outside her kitchen door and wished him luck. He detected a touch of pity in her voice and winced inwardly.

"Good luck, Jose," she said. "Bring us back some venison."
"You betcha," he replied with a smile as he climbed into the car.
He took a last look at the empty house and sighed heavily, its past cheerfulness buried with the memories of Alma.

The drive to the lake was also full of memories, every landmark reminding him of the small talk he and Alma had shared on the way to the cottage. Here and there, a pickup or station wagon on the opposite lanes of the interstate toted a deer tied to the roof. Hunting was good, apparently.
Upon reaching the cottage he unpacked his bags and unloaded his gear. Slowly, he discarded his city clothes and put on his bright orange hunting vest over heavy camouflaged canvas trousers. He adjusted his cap and grabbed his rifle.

“Don’t overexert yourself,” Doc Allen’s voice echoed in his head as he stepped out into the bright sunlight.
He walked toward a tree line at the far end of the meadow, the crunch of the semi-frozen grass crackling under his boots and brushing his legs. At the far corner of the field, a doe looked up and twitched nervously as the man approached. She glanced quickly toward the trees as he slowly started trotting toward her dragging his rifle by the sling behind him with his right hand.

About halfway to the trees, he staggered and clutched his chest, lurching through the high grass toward the doe. She eyed him warily and moved closer to the woods. Before she sprang, he was lying face down on the ground, the rifle discarded a few yards behind him. The frozen snow by his mouth was slowly being dyed light red.

The doe, sensing that the danger had passed, walked slowly toward the prostrate man. She sniffed at Pepe and looked around. Then she started walking and disappeared into the shade of the cold, dark woods.
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