In McAllen, The Act We've Known For All These Years...

By SPEEDY AYALA
Special to The Tribune

McALLEN - The police chief here fielded questions from the press today about the weekend shooting outside a chicken wings joint that left a man dead at the scene. What Chief Victor Rodriguez said was that he was growing more and more alarmed at the boldness exhibited by fearless killers coming over from Mexico. "They seem to think they can just come over, kill someone, and then run back," Rodriguez explained.

That Ol' Running For The Border Act has been around for many, many years. Criminals bent on evading U.S. law have to navigate barely 11 miles to get from downtown McAllen to the international bridge that takes people across the border to Reynosa, a sprawling, ungovernable city where they can easily melt into the large population.

Rodriguez noted that the four shooters in the Chicken Wings Murder Case apparently stalked their male victim to the parking lot of a popular N. 10th Street eatery just a few doors down from the Barnes & Noble bookstore. Patrons told police their munchings were interrupted by loud voices and then louder gunfire. The victim died alongside his vehicle.

From there, the killers fled south on busy 10th Street toward the intersection of Expressway 83 and past La Plaza Mall and the grounds of McAllen International Airport. According to the chief, several witnesses to the chase joined the hunt, some pointing at the fleeing vehicle as cops began and stayed with the pursuit. The killers were captured at the border bridge in Hidalgo, only yards from Mexico. It was not the first time Mexican criminals have used that simplistic ploy: drive into town, do the deed, and beat feet back to Mexico.

Of late, law enforcement officials up and down the Rio Grande Valley have made mention of the international crime arriving at their doorsteps. It's not a spree, the chief noted with a certain terseness in his voice.

"Not yet!" this reporter said aloud...

- 30 -

[Editor's Note: Reporter Speedy Ayala is a newcomer to the Rio Grande Valley, but has years of experience covering border and Mexico crime. He hails from El Paso and now resides in Hidalgo with his bulldog, Lazlo. This is his second dispatch for The Tribune...]

The Business of The Rio Grande Valley is Waiting on Business...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor of The Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - Here's the difference in the portraits of the Rio Grande Valley's three largest cities, as things relate to new business anyway: In Brownsville, Barcelona Nights opens downtown after several weeks that followed the strange fire-bombing of an adjacent hotel that damaged its pizza & chicken wings operation; in Harlingen, the elusive dream comes in a proposed taxpayer-financed new Bass Pro Shop that may or may not come; in McAllen it is a new $10 million restaurant set to be completed in late-July.

A $10 million restaurant! No foolin'. Ten million bucks. There is no other dining destination in the entire RGV approaching it. This one is Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, a highly-regarded restaurant better known upstate. By comparison, the latest Red Lobster in McAllen was built for a mere $3 million. It opened three months after ground was broken on far N. 10th Street and is now as crowded as Yankee Stadium on Old Timers Night, when Berra and Reggie and Mattingly and Guidry and Gossage show up to thrill the fans in the hallowed grounds of the Bronx.

The wide range of offerings to the citizens of the three RGV cities is yet another measure of their progress. Brownsville wallows in attracting mid-level businesses, such as Denny's and Starbucks and Holiday Inn Express. Harlingen pushes its hometown downtown, where mom & pop shops reign as if it's still 1972. Its best-known tourist attraction? A baseball park featuring a minor league team.

In McAllen, Pappadeauxs is sparing no money in bringing a cathedral of a restaurant. It will seat 504 in the main room and another 30 or so at the ornate bar. It will draw families who will oooooh and aaaaah at seeing its $130,000 water fountain in what will be the table-waiting area, there alongside a $100,000 bar availing, yes, my favorite Shiraz vino. And that doesn't even speak of its seafood, no doubt the best that will ever have come to fajita-happy McAllen and the rest of the region. It'll be found there near the old El Centro Mall off U.S. 83. For the Houston-based Pappas family, it is a promising venture.

In cahoots with McAllen's much-ballyhooed Downtown Entertainment District, the new restaurant, which opens in September, will afford locals and visitors yet another First Class attraction. For the City of Palms, it is a time for going all-out, for soliciting businesses that long-thought the Valley market simply could not support the very best. It seems to be doing it just fine. Amberjack's, the pride and joy of South Padre Island, opened an eatery in McAllen, on busy N. 23rd Street, a few weeks back. El Pastor and La Fogata, legendary in Reynosa, Mexico across the Rio Grande, are doing gangbusters business in McAllen and Sharyland respectively.

Brownsville has apparently pulled-in, opting to push for a slow approach to any new businesses downtown. Ruling that economic roost are a number of used clothing stores anchoring prime real estate, colorfully-named hair salons, noisy bars and a sprinkling of Tex-Mex cafes. Not that there is an absence of provincial pride in town; the return of Barcelona Nights drew coverage in the local newspaper. Harlingen's main drag, 77 Sunshine Strip, has its attractions, only it must be said that there is nothing spectacular to make, say, someone from McAllen drive the 30 harrowing miles they'd need to drive to get there.

Operators of the Pappadeaux's restaurant are pretty sure it will draw discerning diners - and the curious - from all points in the Rio Grande Valley. Bucolic Brownsville, meanwhile, awaits the return of Pan Am Airlines, while dream-challenged Harlingen is ready to provide Bass Pro Shops with the bounty of a $25 million to $28 million bond sale...

- 30 -     

Brownsville Dreams Of A Day When Its Colonias and Shacks Disappear...

By RON MEXICO
Staff Writer

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - A casual drive across this town never has been one for the eyes. The dominant Catholic Church in town likes to say Brownsville residents suffer the harsh local geography in payment for the sins of their fathers and because to not suffer would be to not deserve Heaven. Who knows about that. The boys in the bars say everything looks awful because politicians have no other mental image of what a community can be, can offer.

There are colonias in the area, horrible places for living, for raising children, but there they are. And there are neighborhoods where the word "poor" does not do justice to the pain and poverty being endured. Shoeless kids play in the unkempt streets. Mangy dogs amble about as if on Cocaine or as if on their last legs. The elderly wonder about where yesterday went. The young ask for divine intervention that never comes.

Welcome to Hard Times. The book depicting life in this God-abandoned town would be written in no less than 600 long chapters. Wheelbarrows would be needed to wheel one out of the library.

We ask: When will it end? When will residents of this love-starved bordertown of 120,000 souls see progress? Colonias symbolize the worst, but there is still more bad than good in a town that could never define - or paint - good.

There is no vision for tomorrow, no dreaming the impossible dream.

We could throw out suggestions about resolving the colonia and shack housing you see from one end of the Rio Grande Valley to the other. Not that politicians would buy them. No, one has to look far and wide for ideas - the Big Cities are trying even the wildest solutions to housing problems.

In New York, the State Assembly recently adopted a new loft law that affects thousands of people unable to pay the expensive apartment leases in Manhattan. The new law protects loft tenants from unfair rent hikes and eviction. This includes those people who move into abandoned warehouses, in Brooklyn especially, and fix up the place to create individual housing.

This means that thousands of people living in factories and warehouses from Brooklyn to the Bronx could now become rent-stabilized. “It's a huge win for keeping the middle class in the city,” said Jean Grillo, a TriBeCa playwright and loft tenant. “Thank God - it’s been a long time coming.”

So, we again ask: Why cannot some bold Rio Grande Valley elected official (Hell-o, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos) dare to dream? Why not help the poor living in despicable and shameful housing in the outlying areas of Brownsville? Why not find houses in disrepair or abandoned by owners and hand them over to the poor. They would certainly take the help and, soon, these houses would be fixed-up, thus allowing the new owners to become members of civilization and not of a world where they are more animals than Human Beings.

Such an effort by elected officials would be novel, and it too would be a grand example of doing something positive for the constituency. That's a rarity, we know...

- 30 -

Sunday Editorial: Away With Words...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
Special to The Tribune

McALLEN, Texas - Back in the mid-1980s, when I was bureau chief for the Houston Post's Galveston office, I wrote a story about the mayor of little Santa Fe, a town out in Galveston County not known for anything in particular. The story, as I recall, centered on the veteran mayor's bid for re-election, his umpteenth, as happens in rural Texas. Well, I wrote the story, in which I described him as a tireless politician and all that. But somewhere in there, I got a little silly and called him "the fajita-faced mayor."

The story was sent to Houston, where it went into the next day's editions. It was early when I got a call from my editor, Tom Nelson.

"Morning," he said, and I returned the greeting.

"Hey," he went on. "If you get a call from your fajita-faced mayor, well, I want you to have him call me."

"Sure," I said. "You think he'll call?"

"Oh, he'll call...and he'll threaten to file a lawsuit against the newspaper. I know those people out there."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and I just don't want you to get into it with him," he said next. "He'd not take it right if you went into that literature-in-a-hurry thing you like to use about newspapers." Tom was laughing. I said okay, sure. Whatever. There were other stories on my plate. Galveston was a rocking town for news. Oil spills and trash on the beach. Wandering winos. Big U.T. hospital. Tourists decrying the lack of toilets on the beach. Local politics. The journalism gamut.

The mayor called late in the morning.

"I saw the story," he began. I readied myself to give him Tom Nelson's number at The Post.

"My wife read it," he said as I cleared my throat. Then, after a second or two, he added, "...and she's still laughing. She can't get over the image of me being a fajita-faced mayor. I haven't seen her laugh so much in a decade. I just, well, wanted to thank you. I enjoyed the story."

I ran my pen several times over Tom's direct number on the notepad in front of me. I'd not need it.

"Here," the mayor said, "I'll let the wife talk to you..."

She talked and laughed and talked. And it made me laugh in a certain other way. My story had been pretty dry, except for the fajita face reference. And as I'd sat there after Tom's call, it did strike me that the description had not been necessary. The story was the story, with it or without it.

Moral: Words do take on meaning when they're used in print. Newspapers take great care in not being silly, although the smaller the newspaper the less the care. Bloggers, on the other hand, seem eager to blast, to stomp, to posture, to humiliate. This is in large part due to the fact that Blog visitors come to the sites voluntarily; that is, no one forces them to visit this or that Blog. You find what you find and that's that.

My feeling on all that is that, here in the Rio Grande Valley, news is wild and silly enough without the hyperbole, without the adjectives, and without the boots-to-the-face. Fajita-faced mayor? We haven't used that descriptive phrase here...but all of us know it could be used daily...

- 30 -  

From Down & Out Brownsville, A Flaccid Water Balloon Sails Toward Stunned Harlingen...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Editor

HARLINGEN, Texas - In the low-rent movie version of this border cantina brawl, Jerry McHale is the third tourist from the left - a known rabble-rouser arriving in town to do his dastardlty deed. Yep, that Blogging prankster from down the road in Brownsville, where he is known to lash hometown characters mercilessly, with seeming impunity, where his reputation comes with the understanding that half of the joke is on his Blog, El Rocinante.com. How else to look at it? One would think that enough naked women have been paraded on that Blog to fill the town's largest public venue twice-over with dangling breasts and sexy, leggy sweethearts. Indeed, if sheer numbers alone are any indication, well, the vagina has been chewed beyond recognition on El Rocinante.com.

And so, it brings us to this: Should Harlingen get bent out of shape when El Rocinante attacks, as it did all day today? The Blog spared no pejorative, no bad adjective in assailing Harlingen as a racist town inhabited by ignorant goobers. Should Harlingen have made it a Big Deal, as it did on several of its Blogs?

There is no Big Deal. El Rocinante's assault is just another example of the notorious Blogosphere doing what it does best, namely availing the venue for such cross-county whippings. We then ask a bigger question: Can readers depend on Bloggers for objective, truth-based news? Or is what we have here in this tirade against Harlingen just another wanton shotgunning whose sole motivation is to titillate with loaded language, to dress others in the threads profanity and ridicule.

Well, Bloggers are definitely not "journalists;" they are, however, reporters - individuals "reporting" what they've heard or seen or imagined, often the latter. Opinion is a huge part of Blogging. Often, these opinions are extremely critical, disconnected with fact, or even ill-intentioned on purpose. So you ask yourself, "Is the Blog I follow dependable?" The answer is this: You decide. Just as you decided to plunk those two quarters into the news box to get the daily newspaper. A Blog may not be objective. Most are not. Most need that free shot at the community they serve to survive, either as a cartoonish version of the local newspaper or as an outright sledgehammer, no apologies offered.

The latest offerings coming from ElRocinante (note: the Blog does afford visitors the opportunity to opt out on its explicit material) pertaining to the city of Harlingen can be categorized as nothing more than free shots, writing steeped in semblances and rumor of history. That Bloggers in Harlingen quickly slammed El Rocinante in return is no surprise. They openly wondered about that Blog's motives, some noting that El Rocinante has enough material to fill a 12-part volume of God-awful tales to do with its own town. Yet, therein lies the beauty of Blogging: One can Blog about anywhere from anywhere. That's the Computer Age coming at you, baby.

We have done it. We have Blogged from airports, from Dallas, from New York and elsewhere on several occasions, all for material we used on The Tribune here in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It's not right and it's not wrong - it's the Electronic Age we live in. So, should Harlingen residents have been bent out of shape at reading today's skull-whacking posts on El Rocinante.com? Of course not.

Why? Well, for one you can again thank the Computer Age. The Internet is the hungriest of beasts and Bloggers know that readers demand fresh material every day. El Rocinante will trot onward blithely, quickly forgetting Harlingen like it forgets the people it whips in Brownsville, like it even forgets itself from time to time...

- 30 -     

REFLECTIONS FROM THE TOWN CHARCO: Lleno De Rosas Y Amor...

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
Special to The Tribune

SAN JUAN, Texas - When I was 10 years old, my grandfather sold my bicycle with the promise that I would get a new one the following week. He got $15 for it, or at least that's what I was told. Who knows? A kid that age can only look forward to the next day. I did get a new bike, but not until about a year later. It was a neat, basic bike. No special features on it, like a night light or horn or streamers for the handlebars. I rode that damned bike everywhere, to school, Little League practice, the store, my friend's house and even downtown. I loved that bike, but, as with many, many things that came later in Life, I got over it.

My family likes to remind me that I do not have the "care" gene so prevalent in my siblings. They say I can take or leave family reunions, that I give no value to birthdays, anniversaries, graduations or marriages. I've not been to one marriage for any of my siblings or nieces and nephews. I used to think it all came from my days as a boy, when my two brothers would beat me to a pulp and leave me crying on the living room floor. My mother would storm in, scold them loudly and they'd run-off. She'd tell me to be tough, but I'd stay on the floor, crying, knowing I'd never be able to defend myself against them. Yet, it always has been easy for me to love, to romance a woman. Now, when they get to see me, my brothers will hug me and smile smiles the size of Montana. What a world, eh? Yes, my relationships mentor was my grandfather, a man who had his favorite watering hole, a grandfather who took his grandson along to learn the best of ropes. That may explain my fondness for waitresses of all sorts. For me, they are the most exotic of birds.

So, when I mosey into a bar and spot a young couple sitting together, sipping their alcohol, holding hands, looking into their eyes, I bring back my own memories of women who fell into my world. I write about this stuff in my new book - The Scorpion's Son. I write about my grandfather's silly, flirtatious ways. I write about a bar waitress he befriended and later loved. I write about how when he died my grandmother found this woman's photo in his wallet, and not one of her. I write about the reflection of coming home after many years abroad, and, for Valleyites, even Dallas is abroad. In a certain, sure way, this book allowed me the chance to unload a lot of my youth in novel form. Did I capture all of it? Nope.

It is a funny thing how looking backward, insisting on flashbacking to another time in clear imagery, helps the tired soul. The book is 300-plus pages, yet I feel as though much was left out of the story. Life is amazing. So much to be accounted for, to be explained, to be remembered, to be forgotten, to be regretted. Who were those people who ambled into my life? And why did they leave? Tell me, Lord, where are my women?

The photo above grabbed me for a variety of reasons, one being the simplicity of the moment these two are enjoying. She may or may not be his wife. She may or may not love this guy. He may be married to another woman, or he may simply have bopped-in and offered to buy her drink. They could be the chosen couple of the universe for this particular night, two lonely souls looking for something special inside a place that offers little other than refuge from the cultural storms. Where will they go after the bar closes? 

I dunno, I dunno. My place is on the Moon,  and I miss it. Perhaps I have been here too long, here being the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Read my book...

 - 30- 

[EDITOR'S NOTE:..This story was posted here back in April. We are watching the World Cup today and cannot come out to play. Enjoy...]

LAST CALL FOR ALCOHOL: Harlingen Battles Boozers, Cops Log Large Number of Arrests...

By LESTER CANTU
Special to The Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - So, you're driving the streets of this Mid-Valley town and you spot a few cop cars merely rolling up and down the streets, officers aboard seemingly out for an air-conditioned cruise, and you start thinking those guys are looking for a donut shop. Well, maybe.

But if you see an officer making an arrest, chances are he or she is busting someone for either Driving While Under The Influence (DWI) or Public Intoxication (P.I.). How do we know? One out of every three arrests made so far this month have been for either DWI or P.I., or so says the Harlingen Police Department's accounting Jail List. Bookings have totaled 147 through this morning, with 48 of those being for the aforementioned reasons.

That's almost 33% of all arrests.

For a city that wears its Republican clothing with some kind of public morality pride, all that boozing would seem to be a bit out of character. Drinking in the Rio Grande Valley is a Brownsville thang, as they like to mouth in Rap music. Quien Sobby? Quien? All we know is that these statistics sort of surprised us. One would have surmised that, with Harlingen's reputation as the Gray, Old Lady of The Valley, that, yeah, the bigger portion of arrests would have been for, well, talking or chewing gum in line - something Middle America like that.

But boozing? Well, we don't know if every one of these individuals nabbed by local fuzz actually reside in Harlingen. They just could be wandering dudes and fun-starved chicks driving over from Brownsville, yeah. In any case, it caught my attention and my editor - Patrick Alcatraz - said something about it being Friday and, well there it went...

- 30 -

[Editor's Note: The photo accompanying this story is of a woman arrested in Colleyville, a Dallas suburb, where the city posts mugs of all DWI/Public Intoxication busts on a website, perhaps wishing to shame them. The City of El Paso also does it: http://www.elpasotexas.gov/ - see police department...]

It's Hot, The Summer Scorch Begins, And, In Brownsville, The Time To Go Naked Is Now...

By PAUL HARASIM
Special to The Tribune

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Oh, boy. Maybe a torrid drug war flaring only blocks away isn't enough to scare the fajitas out of this town. Or, well, perhaps that is the very reason behind a woman's desire to undress, to say "To Hell with everything!" and hit the cool waters of a local fountain for a little R & R. The local fuzz, ever the quick responders to naked women in public, arrested her bare butt early Wednesday night.

Going nude is suddenly in here. Earlier this week, a young streaker cut across Pace High School's graduation, in his own way making a public statement against local ennui.

In the case of the brazen skinny dipper, cops arrested 27-year-old Priscilla Falduto and charged her with indecent exposure for allegedly swimming nude in the Washington Park fountain. No description was given about her - ahem - body style, bosom or hair preference.

Falduto didn't see strict punishment on the flirtation, but outstanding warrants allowed officers to transport her to the popular Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center, said police spokesman Sgt. Jimmy Manrrique.

The young woman blames the day's hot temperatures and admitted that she regularly hit the resacas in the buff. But, as in all things young & old, several elderly residents spotted her splashings in the drink and called police, saying they were, yes, offended...

- 30 -

In Tiny Sullivan City, Bad News From The Police Department...

By SPEEDY AYALA
Special to The Tribune

SULLIVAN CITY, Texas - Imagine a miniature version of Brownsville, except with loads more dust and less goofy-looking people and you have this town, out in the western outs of the Rio Grande Valley, on the road to Rio Grande City. It isn't known for any damned thing. Well, some say this is where the word "Orale!" was invented and where no holiday season passes without some resident calling a neighbor to say she's seen the face of Jesus Christ on a tortilla.

Now comes police Chief Hernan Guerra to blow it. Or so it would seem after his arrest on Wednesday by FBI agents arriving here as part of a national drug-pusher/dealer sweep. Guerra, say the feds, is alleged to have been wheeling & dealing with Mexico’s drug cartels. Agents aren't talking, but here they came in the pre-dawn hours to bust Guerra and occupy the police department. Files were confiscated. Records were impounded. Sullivan City quickly found itself at the end of a frayed rope, as they say in westerns.

Operation Deliverance is what the feds are calling their sweep, with busts also coming in Atlanta, Houston, New York and other cities, presumably all on the Marijuana and Cocaine highways.

For the little town used to being ignored and used to existing as if in a time warp, news of the chief's arrest moved across town like one of those rolling earthquakes you see in Japanese B-movies. Eyebrows went to the clouds. Some shook their heads and wondered what else God had in store for the poor village where nothing fun ever happens. "It's always drugs," said Johanna Jentete, a yard worker. "We can't get a break, man. Once, just once, I'd like to see some good news come to Sullivan City."

City Manager Rolando Gonzalez agreed. He told the press this: “It gives us a bad name. But he (Chief Guerra) is just one individual. He is not the entire organization.”

As Thursday arrived this morning, it was an ill wind that blew into town in more than just meteorological terms...

- 30 -

For Little Brownsville, Life Sucks And Then The Crickets Chime-In...

By RON MEXICO

Staff Writer

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - It wasn't that long ago that the local daily newspaper outed a school politician for claiming to be a medical doctor when all he had was a few years of study at a Mexican university. Then, into the pomp of a recent high school graduation, came a teenager in nothing but a jockstrap to rev-up the graduates and the audience. This morning, the silly war between the local branch of the University of Texas and a pack of wild-eyed bloggers continues unabated, its march symbolic of nothing else except ingratitude.

In its place, I would suggest, should come a roundhouse "thank you" to every single educator from every citizen of this falling town, for the word elsewhere is that Brownsville, home to some 120,000 under-achieving Americans, is damned lucky to have a college at all.

Yet, like diarrhea-on-a-schedule, the Bloggers persist in damning the one insitution that can get them out of the sinkhole that is border life. Pitiful is worn proudly around here, as is the adjective pathetic. The look on the faces of locals tells it all: Gimme something, gimme something now, and gimme it for free.

The target of the bloggers is University of Texas-Brownsville and Texas Southmost College President Dr. Julieta Garcia. At issue for the Hoi Polloi of the Internet are student fees, supposed educational dominance on the part of Garcia, school politics, favoritism and the annoying, to some, fact that Dr. Garcia serves both the four-year college (UT-B) and the minor league TSC. As Arne Duncan might say, "Boys, whoop-de-dooo."

The world is falling apart for little Brownsville. Bigger issues abound. Unemployment is now listed as a tourist destination in town. Jobs are scarce. Men who want to work are scarcer. Indeed, the one outlet that  is doing gangbusters business is the city library, where free computers bring the power of the Internet to a host of idle residents. And so they come, to whittle away their time, to network with the outside world, to waste another day posting inane commentary on blogs from here to Borneo. Life is cheap in Brownsville, and, as they say in the South Pacific, it's as if everyone is on downers.

Lucky is a word they hate in Brownsville. And they hate it because lucky they are, as in lucky to have anything worth a damn, as in lucky to be considered America, as in lucky to exist. If ever a town needed to be named Rotten, Texas, perhaps it is this one. Tales of government corruption ring back through the decades like cowbells on a herd of cows that just won't die gracefully.

The mess between the bloggers and the colleges is a mirage, sham to the core. True, there are problems with UT-B and TSC. But, truth be told, there are problems with damned near everything here, from drinking-and-driving, to packs of stray animals, to horrible unemployment, to life-sucking politics, to long lines at the computer check-out booth at the city library.

Education? Education at UT-B and TSC?

Get real...

- 30 -  

The Lady or The Tiger: Harlingen Plays A Round of Deal, or No Deal...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Special to The Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - This past weekend, local cops arrested a man here for failing to cross a street at the crosswalk, or so said the police blotter at headquarters. Jaywalking took that man, someone by the name of Ramirez, to the city jail, where he awaited arraignment alongside a few others busted for public intoxication. It was unclear whether Ramirez simply strolled at mid-point of a city block, or whether his arrest had some other, perhaps ornery, element - like maybe bitching to the cops about the loud noise coming from city politics.

Intoxication in that world has gone malarious here. Viruses heretofore unknown in public service have reared their ugly heads. Name-calling rules. There are male liars and female fibbers from one end of town to the other. Reputations are being made and lost with every verbal uppercut. What's the Big Deal?

Well, of late...that's it right there: deal, as in Jerry Deal, operator of a website going by the name of MyLeaderNews.com. Suddenly, it is the primo defender of City Commissioner Kori Marra. And just as quickly, Deal has garnered both praise and scorn from supporters and opponents of the first-year commissioner whose style of late is to let others wage her battles. He does not apologize, noting on his Blog that he is responding to cruel and caustic commentary aimed at Ms. Marra over on MyHarlingenNews.com - the flag-waver for progress in this under-achieving community now on the lip of major political change. A former newsman employed by the local daily, The Valley Morning Star, Deal wonders why half the town is out to get Commissioner Marra, critics he says arrive with an ammo box full of armor-piercing bullets.

As they say in outdoor cooking, it's all bad chili for Harlingen.

At MyHarlingenNews.com, Editor Tony Chapa is unrelenting in his desire to expose Commissioner Marra. He is of the opinion that the commissioner is not good for this community. At present, the verbal jabs are pretty much even, some for Ms. Marra and some against. She, however, has largely been absent from the fray, shoveling one response to MyLeaderNews.com and ignoring Chapa's blog. In the context of the bigger world, this local four-round flyweight fight is of little consequence. Not a word of it has filtered out to neighboring communities.

News of the jaywalker's arrest, however, did get out...and no doubt it got a few laughs.

- 30 -

At The Coffee Shop, One of Those Neat Portraits of Humanity...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Special to The Tribune

McALLEN, Texas - These days, Sunday mornings here come with the usual overcast skies ahead of the afternoon scorch, the worst of it being a heavy dose of high humidity. It makes one head indoors by mid-morning, but it also makes one look for slices of life worth spending a few minutes on, like the doings of other Human Beings battling the same elements.

At Starbucks, my coffee shop of choice, outings for a cup or two or three dawns with a gathering of early-rising friends. Linda is there, as is Marco and Allen (the budding novelist), the pastor and sometimes Kathy or Jessica or a woman we know as the bodybuilder. And then there's Jimmy.

Jimmy is in his late-80s. He arrives aboard a 10-speed bicycle equipped with an aluminum water container and an air pump strapped to the frame of his bike; that, and a small leather pouch behind his seat, presumably for repair tools. Jimmy wheels in from somewhere along N. 10th Street. We watch him navigate the busy Starbucks parking lot, slicing there between SUVs and sedans and pickups. He wears the outfit: helmet, backpack, windbreaker and heavy hiking tennis shoes.

"Good morning, Jim," I like to say to him as he walks in.

"It's Jimmy," he says in return.

He acts bugged, but he isn't. When he wants to, Jimmy is a sociable dude. Sometimes he stops and says something to us, like this or that about local traffic, but mostly he comes to do his business. That consists of this: Jimmy walks to the counter and then reaches down to a metal stand holding the day's New York Times. He takes it and walks outside to the tables set under a canvas overhang. There, he reads it in less than 15 minutes before walking it back to the stand, to place it back in its place.

This morning, I watched him as he went through his ritual. But this time, Jimmy folded the Times and slipped it into his aging backpack. He'd not paid for it, although that doesn't bother me. Not a bit. My feeling is all newspapers should be free for anyone under 21 and over 70. Who'd take issue with that?

I watch as Jimmy climbs aboard his bicycle and moves toward N. 10th Street. He stops for passing traffic and then, when it's safe, he proceeds across the street toward a Whataburger. I imagine him reaching into his wallet to pay for a sausage and egg sandwich and wish I could text a message to the burger joint's counter help to say I'd be right over to to pay for Jimmy's breakfast.

No reason. Jimmy's just a cool old coot...

- 30 -     

When In Harlingen, There Are 16 Grand Activities For Your Ever-Lasting Pleasure. Count Them: 16!...

By RON MEXICO
Staff Writer

HARLINGEN, Texas - We believe there is more to this Mid-Valley community, but below is a list of 16 activities the City of Harlingen lists as things to do while in town (Photo above is of a once-popular ice house, taken in 1939. The telephone at this fellow's side was for call-in orders. A sample of the block ice sought by heat-whipped locals can be seen to his left.):

And so, from the City of Harlingen's website:

(1.) Bike along the Arroyo on the City's two-mile Hike & Bike Trail.

(2.) Load up the lawn chairs and head to McKelvey Park for "Blues on the Hill" - free concerts all summer long.

(3.) Take a walking tour among the natives - plants that is, at Hugh Ramsey Nature Park.

(4.) Shop for bargains at Market Day on Jackson Street the first Saturday of each month.

(5.) Shop for the latest fashions at Valley Vista Mall.

(6.) Bet on the winners at Valley Race Park Simulcast dog and horse races from around the nation 364 days a year.

(7.) Take a sunset stroll around City Lake and watch the sun melt into the palm trees.

(8.) Sink some putts at Tony Butler Municipal Golf Course.

(9.) Experience the charm of local theatre with a show at Harlingen Performing Arts Theatre.

(10.) Who wouldn't "love" to play of tennis at H.E.B. Tennis Center?

(11.) Visit the past at the Rio Grande Valley Museum, two blocks from Valley International Airport.

(12.) Pay tribute to World War II heroes at the Iwo Jima Monument & Museum.

(13.) CINEMARK 16 - The Palace - Stereo surround sound in all theatres.

(14.) CINEMARK MOVIES 10 - in Sun Valley Mall. 

(15.) Harlingen Municipal Auditorium.

(16.) Table Tennis Club.

Okay, now let's give those destinations some thought and then compare them to what's offered by the cities of McAllen and Brownsville to their residents and their tourists...hmmmmmm....

- 30

The Bathroom Chronicles: In Which Our Writer Pulls The Shades On Dirty Public Bathrooms...

By RICARDO KLEMENT
Staff Writer

EDINBURG, Texas - My friends at The Coffee Zone here know a thing or two about bathroom hygiene - they keep theirs as clean as clean can be. It's also a pleasant experience beyond the obvious. Nice, expensively framed art fills the four walls, all of them of women in sexy poses, one on a table of sorts wearing, well, her birthday suit, another of an attractive woman in a red negligee rifling through her male partner's pants pockets while he sleeps alongside. It is art, yes. What else could it be? It's a coffee shop!

But, sadly, The Coffee Zone's immaculate bathroom is a rare sight in the Rio Grande Valley. Public bathrooms inside cafes and movie theaters and dance halls and bars leave much to be desired. Perhaps the partying and scarfing mobs ovewhelm the cleaning crews. Who knows? All we say is that things could be cleaner all the way around.

And who knows...this may eventually become an issue for area politicians. It also may just go to the large number of illnesses parading from Rio Grande City to Brownsville. We are aware that excitable Action 4 News, the Harlingen-based CBS affiliate, occasionally offers restaurant reviews. But reporter Ryan Wolf focuses on the cleanliness of restaurant food and kitchens, and of course he should do that. Better video would come, however, if he only walked his camera into some of these pitiful bathrooms...

- 30 -

HURRY SUNDOWN: On A Semi-Gorgeous Morning, We Go in Search of El Rocinante's Darkened World...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Special to the Tribune

HARLINGEN, Texas - On our way to Brownsville the other day for a looksee into the work of the controversial Blog El Rocinante.com, we lost our way and left the highway via the Ed Carey Drive exit ramp here, moved toward the city's main drag and ultimately veered off on Commerce Street and it wasn't long before we saw one of those gorgeous economic breakfast joints of the sort we love - Panchito's, there in the shadow of The Valley Morning Star's despair-white building.

It hit us that our investigative piece on El Rocinante could wait while we quaffed a few cups of jet-black coffee and put away a plate of huevos rancheros in honor of all-things-Mexico. What a fine, fine morning, was our central thought as we exited the place and again set sail for the lard-ass seat of Cameron County government. We'd put away the day's edition of the New York Times, likely a first for any customer in the history of Panchito's. But that was okay. We'd been overly-involved with the local goings-on, attending to the yin & yang of Harlingen politics, but now, now we wanted to head directly into the miasma that is today's Brownsville.

Our piece on El Rocinante will hit the Blog sometime next week. It should thrill fans of the Gonzo-style web site, and it should scare the beejeezus out of the rest of the civilized world. There is no more grand visionary in the entire Rio Grande Valley than its editor, Dr. G.F. McHale-Scully - considered by critics as the man behind "...that Black Hole of unslakable lust." More on El Rocinante in our story.

But this is about our drive up and down U.S. 83, the last proud highway. We left McAllen at dawn, thinking we'll hit a Starbucks in Weslaco for our initial cup of Joe. Then, as we cruised into Harlingen, we were taken by a sports bar there on the right side of the road - Butt Wild, is the name of the place. Immediately, it brought back nice images of my last girlfriend up in Big D. Well, I said to myself, what's all this rot I've been hearing about how sheltered Harlingen is, about how it's the town on the move with a super-tight political wedgie between its legs, about how it's the last bastion of RGV racism, about how no one from richer, prettier McAllen goes to Harlingen 'cause there is no there there. Butt Wild, eh? That business name had to be approved by City Hall, so...

Anyway, the long road loomed. At the Rancho Viejo point in the trip, I smile for the umpteenth time at that silly golf-ball water tower, smiled even longer than we'd smiled at the Freddy Fender Water Tower in San Benito. Freddy's crazy, frizzy hair covers most of that tower, but, hey, they say it's always humid in San Benito. Whatever. We kept rolling, fueled by Panchito's coffee and the songs of Phil Collins bursting out of the dash radio. Su-Su-Sudio on the outskirts of Brownsville can damage your brain, or is it really that messy, mind-blowing fleamarket off to the side of the road? I'd swear every entry into Brownsville smells like either old boots or rotting avocados, or maybe it's all that bad-breadth coming from the town's economic 14th Street cantinas. As my Brownsville galpal likes to say about mysteries of the world, "Quien sobby..."

I dunno, I dunno.

Brownsville proves a motherlode of info on El Rocinante. I now believe it is the quintessential story of everything - love, hate, adultery, porno, betrayal, abuse, bad poetry, profane nicknames and political rumors to end all political rumors. In the end, we decide it is the last elegiac website on the Internet.

It's not until I hit Weslaco on our return trip that breathing again comes easily. By late afternoon, we're sitting in the lovely patio of the coffee shop Savory's Perks, taking in the evening breezes while trying like crazy to come up with a title that'll fit the fear & loathing tale of a website known as El Rocinante. As I lift my cup of coffee for a needed sip, it is the haunting, guttural whinny of an aging black horse trotting by that scares the Holy Hell out of me...

- 30 -  

In Lovely Harlingen, One More Dizzying Ride Aboard the Wobbling Political Merry-Go-Round...

By ELIOT ELCOMEDOR
Editor

HARLINGEN, Texas - At the risk of being labeled obsessed interlopers, we once again venture into the white-hot politics of this Mid-Valley community struggling to find a wheel without the proverbial broken spokes. It is that kind of rolling political season here, only the latest imbroglio appears to be boiling in isolated kettles sitting on fires far, far from the mainstream press.

Last night, the Harlingen City Commission considered a variety of issues, one being the annexation of property and another being an up-or-down vote on the creation of a noble Veterans Advisory Board. To some the latter was enough reason to take a seat in the audience on what was a hot & muggy afternoon. And when it came time to vote on the new board, well, some Hell broke loose. Things were said about the need for yet another citizen board in town, things the vets in attendance did not like.

One of the city's five commissioners - Kori Marra - no doubt left feeling like Hamburger Hill must have felt that day in Vietnam - chewed to pieces. Verbal missiles were launched at her and she fired back, to the point that, for many in the crowd, she came off looking like a rabid anti-veterans pol. This morning, the commissioner with barely a year of experience went on the offensive (we almost wrote "Tet Offensive," but that would be too cute, although Vietvets would know what we mean).

Bloggers arriving at MyHarlingenNews.com weren't happy. They lashed her mercilessly in comment after comment that centered on what they perceived was a lack of sympathy for the men and women in uniform. She raced over to the more-sympathetic MyLeaderNews.com, where she posted a lengthy explanation of her role in the City Hall advisory board melee. Marra insisted she had not voted against the veterans board, a contention raised by the many commenters who had waited for dawn to launch their all-out attack. But just as steadfast as is her belief, so is the one being brandished by her opponents, most of whom opine that the politics she practices are the petulant politics of her West Texas hometown.

As the dust became a mushroom cloud in the city's Blogosphere and then settled like an Army blanket hating the winters of Korea, it was the revelation that the local newspaper - The Valley Morning Star - had not one word of the veterans-Marra fray. Not one. The newspaper had a nice explanatory story covering the annexation issue. It also had a story on news that a second Chick-fil-A eatery was coming to town.

The principal question on the minds of the Star's editors was not whether Commissioner Marra had dissed local veterans. No, the poll being taken on the Star's website posed this sentient question: Will you eat at Chick-fil-A?

At noon today, 35% of respondents had voted...No.

And so it goes in the wallowing city adjacent to the growing city known as Mercedes...

- 30 -

ON THE CLOCK: Former Newsman Bill Young Will Now Take Our Questions...

By JOSHUA COFFMAN
Special to The Tribune

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - When he was star reporter for Channel 4 in Harlingen back during the Urban Cowboy days, Bill Young liked to go "TeeVee," using catch-phrases such as "Behind me is the Gulf of Mexico..." and "I'm standing in front of City Hall..." Indeed, Young cut a wide reportorial swath across Cameron County back then. Today, he is a better-paid spokesman for the City of Brownsville. 

(1.) As Public Information Officer, what would you say is your biggest challenge?

Getting news outlets interested in items that I know I would have covered while I was in the news racket; all it takes is a little imagination to turn a relatively simple set of facts into an interesting, informative and sometimes amusing piece. I see not much effort to follow up. I always thought this was a news person’s bread-and-butter: keeping a story alive and taking it as far as possible. My editors/producers in print and ENG were big on follow-up.

(2.) What is your assessment of the region's news media?

Was it Mark Twain who remarked about youth “being wasted on the young?” So it is with most of the local crop of news gatherers. To my way of thinking, a lack of experience shows itself perhaps first and foremost in the failure to check up on even the most simple detail. I have heard TV folks say “Corpse” instead of “core” when pronouncing corps. I have read their copy stating that the FAA was going to investigate this crash or that crash, not bothering to find out that it is the NTSB. Sometimes I respond by e-mail, but almost never get a reply.

(3.) Do you believe Brownsville gets a fair shake elsewhere in the RGV? (from politicians, business, perceptions on the part of residents of, say, McAllen and Harlingen)

Brownsville, to my way of thinking, is unique in South Texas. First, Brownsville has a past, a real past. None of the others do with the possible exception of Edinburg stemming from its days when it was where Hidalgo is now. Since Brownsville has a past, it also has a rich history (Brownsville had an opera house and fire department when almost all of the RGV was brush and jacals.) Brownsville, like New Orleans, has a rich culture based on a mixture of cultures, not to mention the first battle of the Mexican War and the last battle of the Civil War. In my humble opinion, the rest of the Valley cannot reconcile itself to the fact that Brownsville is, well, Brownsville. It is a historic gem by anyone’s description. Has it always been that “way?” Yes. It is interesting that the first mayor, Israel B. Bigelow, was thrown out of office because of his shady way of living and because illegal aliens are said to have voted for him in that 1850 election. To the others, Brownsville remains a never-never land and is always good for a shake of the head.

(4.) When RGV residents living away from Brownsville think of the city, they bring up images of corrupt politicians. What would change that imagery?

This perception could be easily changed. All that it would take is one or two-terms of a City Commission free of rancor, pathos, plotting, scheming, personal hatreds and battles that are fought on live TV instead of behind closed doors. Don’t get me wrong, there are some dedicated commissioners now. There are some who refuse to let personalities enter into the discourse. A couple of years of that and the water would clear.

(5.) If not Brownsville, what other RGV city would you like to serve as PIO?

Having worked here for so many years on both the supply side and the demand side of the news, I don’t know if I could work anywhere else as PIO. At this stage of my life it would take a lot to get me to risk it. If I absolutely had to, had to, it would probably be Port Isabel...

- 30 -

For Troubled BP, South Texas May Just Be A Legal Goldmine...

By RICARDO KLEMENT
Staff Writer

McALLEN, Texas - In Big Time legal circles, lawyers call the practice "judge-shopping," and one lawyer believes lawsuit-strapped British Petroleum (BP) is looking to South Texas for sympathetic courts.

"They want judges who will be familiar with the industry, and those are the judges in South Texas, where oil and mineral cases are common," says Florida Lawyer Mike Papantonio. He made his remarks on the MSNBC show Hardball yesterday, although he has been saying it on his radio show, Ring of Fire, heard across the country via AirAmerica syndication.

Papantonio (shown in photo above) believes BP will do all it can to take trials (of liability, wrongdoing, etc., etc) away from the southeast coast. Attorney generals in Mississippi and Alabama have said they will fight efforts to by BP to move trials elsewhere in the country.

"It could be Houston judges they want, but South Texas would also be good, in their eyes," Papantonio said.

Interesting. We can't recall a case of this magnitude coming to the Rio Grande Valley...

- 30 -

Except For Lone Loyal Ally, World Condemns Israel's Midnight Attack on Aid Flotilla Bound For Gaza Strip...

By PATRICK ALCATRAZ
Special to The Tribune

McALLEN - It is admittedly a world away, but something rankles us when we hear of Israel attacking anybody. True, it is a country with a long, long history of being on the short end of things, that horrible adventure in Germany being high on the list. But this latest assault by Israeli forces on an aid flotilla headed for blockaded Gaza cannot help things for the starcrossed Jewish people.

This latest episode began sometime after midnight Sunday, when Israeli commandos dropped-in on a seven-boat flotilla carrying some 10,000 pounds of aid for residents living without basic goods and materials. According to the aid group sponsoring the flotilla, activists aboard their ships were armed only with basic self-defense weaponry. Israel, meanwhile, said its commandos descended on the flotilla's main ship carrying only "paint ball" pistols and small arms. In all nine flotilla members were killed, most of them from Turkey, the location of the flotilla's departure port. Israel said seven of its commandos were wounded in the hours-long deck fighting.

What makes it an even worse public relations nightmare for Israel is the acknowledged fact that the flotilla was not carrying weapons of any sort, a contention Israel has used in the past to stop boats headed for Hamas-controlled Gaza. Without the aid flotilla, residents of the city of Gaza and outlying villages in the Gaza Strip have relied on minimal survival shipments via Egypt.

In this country, President Obama expressed regret upon hearing of the assault and resulting battle at sea. In recent weeks, a rift of sorts has developed between President Obama and headstrong Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu centered on Israel's continue desire to tighten the vice on the Palestinians - action the U.S. considers not helpful in the search for peace in the region. What's worse, the world knows that Israel gets its military supplies and a sizable foreign aid package from the United States - a perception that, says Washington, D.C., only fuels anti-American sentiment abroad.

As some 600 activists were being detained in the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod, word surfaced that another aid ship had sailed from the coast of Italy for Gaza. Still, Israeli stayed with the fight. Said Israeli Navy commander, in an article published by The Jerusalem Post: "Next time, we'll use more force."

And while Netanyahu did not issue any comments, Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon took a hard line, saying the protesters have links to Al Qaeda. He discounted reports that the flotilla's main ship -  Mavi Marmara - was part of a "Freedom Flotilla" carrying medical and school supplies, and construction materials to the besieged Gaza Strip.

The blockade has been in place since 2007. In numerous declarations issued during the past two years, Israel has vowed to enforce the blockade. It considers the seemingly benevolent flotilla organization - Insani Yardin Vakfi, AKA I.H.H. - a dangerous Islamic group with terrorist connections.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, had been scheduled to meet with President Obama today. Instead, he hurriedly returned to Jerusalem. There, he expected to deal with harsh condemnation of his country's action lodged by most members of the United Nations, including its regional allies Turkey and Egypt. The United States did not join in the condemnation.

The blockade initially was supported by Egypt as a way of putting pressure on Hamas, the radical government that took over the Gaza Strip three years ago. Israel has also said that it wishes to punish Hamas for the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. He was captured in a 2006 cross-border raid and remains in the hands of Hamas, or so the Israelis believe...

 - 30 -

Mayor Wears Mexican Flag To Memorial Day Ceremony: Big Deal, or No Big Deal?...

By RON MEXICO
Staff Writer

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Not a word of it was printed in the local newspaper, but it seems some people went nuts here yesterday when Mayor Pat Ahumada arrived at a Memorial Day ceremony wearing a black shirt sporting the Mexican flag. So, on this lovely Tuesday morn, is this unnervingly silly, or is this merely the mayor being the mayor?

Action 4 News, the CBS affiliate in Harlingen, had the story, and it wasn't pretty for the popular mayor. Some 300 mourners gathered at Brownsville Veterans Park, where sobbing veterans and others grieving the loss of their family members expressed shock at seeing the Mayor's garb - a Mexican flag patch on the upper left sleeve of his Harley-Davidson motorcycle shirt. According to Channel 4, some veterans called the patch "offensive," yet not one was willing to go on camera, as they say in TV News.

"To see the mayor have a flag that is Mexico, I think that he's telling us what?" Martha Shears, the wife of a 32-year veteran told the TV crew. "Actually he should be in Mexico, and it is embarrassing."

Asked about the patch, Ahumada said: "Protocol is that if you wear it in the right its disrespect. This has to do with a motorcycle club I'm going to ride with after this parade."

So, big deal...or no big deal?

"I'm an American," the mayor said. "I'm a patriot. I love my country. I serve my city."

Perhaps it wasn't a big deal. Maybe it was just a slow news day for excitable Action 4 News. There was not one word about this in The Brownsville Herald. Some in town will say it is no big deal, as Brownsville, they will tell you, is the Most-Mexican of the many Rio Grande Valley communities...

- 30 -