ANA BUYS FRESH CAUGHT BLUEFIN TUNA AT 5:30 AM WHILE I LISTEN IN

Blue Fin Tuna

Ana excused herself from our videocall:  "Just a minute.  I need to buy some fish."

The fishmonger, who woke me up every morning in Cagayan de Oro between 5 and 6 AM, shouting, while pulling his cart with a motorbike, was out front.

I heard Ana say "150," that is 150 Philippine pisos, about $3 USD for 3 bluefin tuna caught in the ocean last night.

Ana seemed excited.

"I will make some fish soup with one fish, using onion, ginger and lemongrass," she explained.

"My brother can grill the other two when he gets home.  Grilled tuna, fish soup and horseradish greens!  I can hardly wait!" she exclaimed.

While I would take a San Miguel Beer or two with that, Ana keeps a pitcher of water in the fridge infused with cucumber, lemon and lime slices.

"I fill the pitcher three times, then start over," she explained to me.

I sort of know the drill on eating grilled fish in Phil.  A slice of green tomato, onions and several pepitas are put in a saucer.  You smash the pepitas with a fork, then pour soy sauce and vinegar over everything, adding lime juice.  Next you grab a piece of grilled fish and sticky rice with your fingers, dip it into the spicy soy sauce and into your mouth.

Yes, I miss the Philippines.  

BOXER AND JUDGE SET FOR INTERVIEW ON THIS WEEK'S "WHINE WITH CHEEZ"

If time were not a moving thing
And I could make it stay
This love we shared
Would always be
There'd be no coming day
No morning light above
To make me realize our love
Is over

"It's Over" by Jimmie Rodgers,

Immortalized by Elvis Presley

Yes, time is a moving thing, two units of which, the day and the year, are said to be measured by the rotation and revolution of Earth, our planetary home.

My inconsequential life also cycles around lunations or months, said to be precisely 29.53 days in length, a calculation connected to phases of the moon or, in my case, a monthly electric bill in my mailbox.

For the past year or so, my weeks have also been associated with the Whine with Cheez podcast emanating from Angelita's Casa de Cafe each Sunday at 1:30 PM.  How many have there been?  At least 50 or so for me, I think.

OmAr Juarez

One of this Sunday's guests will be undefeated Brownsville boxer OmAr "El Relampago" Juarez.

Certainly, we'll have to ask him why he capitalizes the "A" in his first name.(Juarez will be the first boxer I've met since a chance, very brief encounter with Muhammad Ali in 1970.)

Admittedly, I've not followed boxing since legendary broadcaster Howard Cosell stopped taking money for his commentary and coverage of a sport he came to view as barbaric and debilitating.  

Hypocritically, I still watch the Dallas Cowboys, who also perform in an activity proven to be inconsistent with a long, healthy, pain-free existence.

Judge Migdalia Lopez

Also appearing on the podcast is longtime District Judge Migdalia Lopez, who's running for the 13th Court of Appeals, a district that covers 20 South Texas counties. 

Lopez claims 20 years of service as a District Judge as well as 10 years as an Assistant District Attorney in her resume'. 

OLD MAN'S SOON-TO-BE REINVENTED LIFE ON PUBLIC DISPLAY

The Dylan tune "Seven Days," sung above by Joe Cocker, has been playing in my brain for a month. It's about anticipation, waiting, longing, all the emotions I've been feeling of late while waiting for fiancée Ana Adiong to fly from Cebu to Hong Kong, then LAX, finally landing at Houston.

Fiancee Ana

I'm picking Ana up in Houston September 6, which may seem odd since there are flights from Houston to HRL and BRO, but I view the opportunity as 6 or 7 hours of decompression, debriefing and, that forgotten treasure, intimate conversation, something I've greatly missed since leaving the Philippines December 1, 2018.  I may even introduce her to Whataburger on the drive home.

In other news, Grandson Jack, after two years of unstructured, undisciplined homeschooling by his grandpa, is adjusting nicely to BISD.  As I told the Vice Principal, we don't care what grade they put him in, we just want him to fit in and be happy.  He needs to just be a kid is what I kept reading from the child psychologists.

Meanwhile, all my tires are at 35 PSI.  The motor oil is full.  The windshield washer tank contains Walmart's Summer Formula.

I'm ready to do this. 

ANTI-UNION TACTICS HEAT UP AT THE PORT OF BROWNSVILLE, AMFELS INC.

Anti-Union Graffiti at Port of Brownsville

Labor organizers at the Port of Brownsville are pushing ahead with their plan to unionize Amfels Inc., providing higher wages, better job security and working conditions and health insurance.

Legally, 30% of workers must sign on to the union before a vote can be taken.  Initially, when Jason Medina of the Pipe Fitters Local 211, secured the signatures of 12 out of 16 pipefitters, Amfels responded by saying that 30% of the ENTIRE shop had to sign on before an election could be held.

Now, Medina, along with other organizers, have met the 30% threshold for all the various fields of work at the plant and an election to decide whether or not to go union is inevitable.

The National Labor Relations Board mandated the posting in conspicuous places of the two documents below explaining the rights of workers during this process.

CAN AMBER MEDINA UNSEAT ALEX DOMINGUEZ FOR REPRESENTATIVE DISTRICT 37?

Local attorney Amber Medina launched her run for State Representative, District 37, Wednesday in the skinny foyer of the historic Alonso Building at E. 6th Street and Saint Charles, perhaps the coziest venue in Brownsville.

Flanked by several elementary school girls, including her daughter, Medina seemed to subliminally invoke female empowerment, while promising to be alert to the needs of her constituents, if elected.

Attendee Rene Oliveira, who held the office Medina seeks, before being defeated by Alex Dominguez in 2018 after involvement in an unreported car accident with a DWI charge, looked more fit than in the waning days of his three decades in that office, an achievement he attributed to "200% less pressure" now out of office.

Medina faces the popular Dominguez, whose principal campaign promise, the removal of state sales tax on feminine hygiene products, never became a reality.

Dominguez may also be vulnerable on the issue of huge tax abatements for LNG companies, since, as County Commissioner, he helped push through a huge $370,000,000 tax abatement for Rio Grande LNG.

As to the LNG tax abatement issue, Amber Medina admitted she needed to "do more research," but would be concerned that any such company was in "total compliance" with all the environmental regulations and concerns.

Matthew Cruz, Joe Rivera

  

LAURA MINIEL EXPLAINS HOW TO SOLAR SCREEN YOUR HOME FOR FREE WITH PUB REBATE

From the editor:  The multi-talented Laura Miniel gives us the second segment of her series on adding solar screens for your home for free, utilizing a rebate from P.U.B.

In this installment Miniel details the steps of the process with actual pictures showing her work on her own home.

PART 2~SOLAR SCREENING YOUR HOME FOR FREE 

Measuring Your Windows, Ordering Materials, and Making a Solar Sliding Screen Door

Laura Miniel

Brownsville broke another heat record last Thursday, measuring over 101 degrees. I wish I had started this project back in April! But it's never too late to cut down on the AC bill, especially during the canicula. With the planet heating up, the Amazon in flames and temperatures rising every year, building solar screens to block 80% of the heat from coming through the windows, is a pretty good investment of time, I feel.
 
Fortunately, PUB has offered to rebate $1 per sq ft of windows covered, to help Brownsville residents cut down on their AC bills. This is sufficient to cover the costs of materials, as high quality solar screen material on Amazon costs about 75 cents a square foot, so you have an extra 25c / sq ft to work with to figure out how to frame or attach to the windows.

This blog post will show you how to begin the process of measuring your windows and building your first solar sliding screen door from an existing screen door. This DIY rescreen only takes 2 hours, and you quickly start blocking heat from entering your home. Links will be provided to the exact materials I used, all of which meet the specifications to qualify for the PUB rebate.

Step 1.
Go outside and take pictures of your house from all sides, the "before" pictures.  PUB will ask for them in the rebate application.

Step 2.
Get a tape measure, a friend and a notepad, and make 3 columns titled South, East, and West. (North windows also qualify for the rebate, but most of the N facing windows at my house are shaded by trees. North facing windows also generally let in the least amount of sunlight.)

Measure each of your windows frame to frame from the outside, and write down the measurement.  Allow for an extra 1/8th of an inch.

Step 3.
Enter the dimensions into this handy square footage calculator online. Get a final total value of the square footage of your windows, here: Online Square Foot Calculator

Step 4.
Order enough solar screen fabric to meet this square footage requirement.  For me, most of my windows were around 30 to 33 inches on one side, so it made sense to order solar screen fabric that was 36" wide.  That way, one side is already pretty close to the final dimension, and all I I have to do is trim it a little.  If your windows are wider or narrower, choose a fabric that is a few inches larger than the most common side.

** To qualify for the rebate, you MUST use a solar screen or film that reflects at least 67% of the solar heat gain. This is given in the manufacturer's specs. There are many products on the market, not all of them will qualify.  The following links are to materials that qualify for PUB's rebate program.

First, ask yourself, "How much heat and light do I want to block?"

Ultimate 90% blocking screen - blocks 90% of the heat from entering your home.  These look kind of dull and black from the outside, but appropriate if you have a window that is always blaring sun in your eyes.  If I were starting this project all over again, I would have ordered this 90% material for the windows & glass doors on the South side of my home.

80% blocking screen - blocks 80% of the heat from your home, with improved visibility outward and inward. This is what I ordered.  It looks like normal bug screen from the outside, it maintains the view and protects your furniture from UV light bleaching.

70% blocking film - clingy window film you apply indoors on the window itself.  Blocks 70% of the heat, not as effective as solar screens, but one of the few window films that blocks enough solar heat to qualify for PUB's rebate.
Be careful because most window films are weaker than this.  They sell this over at Lowe's on 802, Home Depot or here at Amazon, called Gila Heat Control Platinum, specifically the Platinum one:

To build the solar screens, you will need a spline roller -

Spline for older screen doors specifically: Most screen doors were designed for thin aluminum screens, not thick solar screen material.  This .125 size spline works well:

Each common 36 x 80 inch screen door will require 20 ft of spline to go around the frame.

As I plan to screen in the windows on the East, West, and South sides, I ordered solar screen in bulk at the link shown above. The following instructions are only for the part of the project involving turning my 3 old sliding screen doors into solar screen doors.

Step 5.
Attach solar screen to sliding screen doors. 

The first step is to loosen the screws on the base of the sliding screen door, allowing you to lift it off the track.

Once you have the screen door on its side, you might see a long rubber seal along one. Take it out and set it aside to reattach later.

Next, you're going to take a screwdriver and remove the screws holding the door handle in place. Keep these screws and door handle parts in a safe place, to reattach after the rescreening is finished.

If you look at both sides of the screen, you'll notice that one side has a channel all along the edge where the screen appears to be tucked in.  With a flashlight aimed into that channel, you will see a cord deep in the channel. This is the spline, a cord holding the screen in place. Follow the spline all around the edge with the flashlight until you see a cut edge, usually in the center, or in a corner.  With a narrow Phillips screwdriver, dig under and lift up one edge of the spline.  Pull the entire 20 ft length of spline out of the channel.  It will usually come out in one long piece. Now it's easy to push the old screen out.

Paint - Put 4 pieces of scotch tape over the wheels, to protect them from the spray paint. Our screen doors were over 25 yrs old, and very faded.  So I spray painted them with a good quality black paint, being careful to avoid spraying into the wheel mechanisms.  

Once dry, lay the empty screen door frames on a flat surface, with the empty spline channel facing up.  Roll out the solar screen material over the frame and cut enough to leave a good 1-2 inches extra on each side of the channels.  You're going to want to put masking tape on the two short ends of the screen, to help hold the screens in place. You don't want the material very tight, but slightly loose.  It will self tighten when the spline is pushed down.

Next, take the spline roller and push the material in on the short side, along the empty spline channel. Then push the material into the channel of the short side on the opposite side. Push the material in on the long side, then on the opposite long side.  This is 'digging the trench' in the channel for the spline to sit in.  As you are pushing the screen in, you want to pull it slightly, to keep it tight, and prevent folds and crinkles from forming.  It's difficult to explain in writing but with practice you will understand. You pull up on the fabric slightly with one hand, as you push it down with the spline roller with the other. This tightens the screen fabric across the center. 

Now that you have the solar screen pushed into the channel, next step is to push the spline down into the channel you've created.  You do this the same way, starting in one corner, lay the new .125 thin spline over the channel you've made, then push it down with the double blade side of the spline roller. 

If you don't have a strong grip strength, you can kneel over it and use your body weight to push it down into the channel as far as you can. Then flip the spline roller around to the one-blade side that resembles a pizza cutter, and finish pushing the spline so deep it starts to disappear down into the channel.  You will notice the screen tighening as the spline is pushed in.  When you reach the corner, you can cut the spline and start over in the adjacent corner, or use a small Phillips screwdriver to push the spline deep into the channel around the corner.

The screen should have tightened up nicely once all four sides are splined.  If you are happy with the result, run a razor blade along the edge, carefully cutting the screen material above the spline. Then use the screwdriver to reattach the door handle that you set aside in the beginning.

Tune up - Before reinstalling the screen door onto your home, take some time to broom, vacuum and clean out the dust or grit that accumulates in the door frame track over the years.  Inspect the wheels and use a rag to clean the gap inside the screen door, clean out any rocks or bits of dirt caught in the wheels.

Spray WD-40 generously in each of the wheel mechanisms and along the channels in the door frame itself.  It's worth taking the time to really get the wheels and the channels clean, so these solar screen doors will last another 10-20 years. Re-attach the rubber door seal, then reinstall the solar screen door into the door frame channel, and tighten the screws once the doors are running smoothly on the track to lock them in place.

Photo - 80 percent solar screen light intensity

Look at the difference in light intensity, this is from using the 80% solar screen material. You can see the great reduction in intensity in the shadows.

I found the view is improved through the solar screen, as it cuts the glare from the intense August sunlight.

At $18.50 in materials per door, and about a 2 hour time commitment for each screen door, this is a project that can easily be done in a weekend.  Also, at $18.50, this will be 100% reimbursed by PUB, coming in under the $20 / door budget.

Note: If you'd like to buy solar screen doors pre-assembled, you can order them here for about $225 each for a 36x80 sliding door with the same Phifer 80% solar blocking screen:

https://www.qualitywindowscreen.com/sliding-patio-screen-door-classic-364.html

Note: Calculations

3 solar sliding screen doors

Doors = free, reused existing

Black spray paint = $4 = $1.30 per screen door repaint

WD-40, small can = 20 cents per screen door wheels and track oiling

Spline .125 = 10 cents/ foot, 20 feet per screen door, $2 per screen door

Phifer 80% solar screen material, 75 cents a square foot, 20 sq ft per screen door, $15 per screen door

$15 (screen) + $1.30 (paint) + $0.20 (WD-40) + $2 (spline) = 

total cost: $18.50 per 20 sq ft, 36"x 80" screen door

Note that PUB offers to refund $1 per sq foot. A 20 ft screen door qualifies for a $20 rebate per door, so $18.50 each comes in slightly under budget.

LOCAL UNION LEADERS SET FOR "WHINE WITH CHEEZ" PODCAST SUNDAY

Jason Medina

Labor organizer Jason Medina, from the Pipe Fitters Local 211-Houston, will be a guest on the Whine with Cheez podcast Sunday 8/25 at 1:30 PM.  The show is live streamed from Angelita's Casa de Café, 2200 Boca Chica Blvd, with seating for live guests.

Medina will field questions about union organizing at the Port of Brownsville, particularly at Amfels, that would provide a living wage for local workers, and share information about a new training facility planned in conjunction with what he describes as a "local community college."

Jorge Lerma

Longtime Brownsville Firefighter and leader with the Brownsville Firefighters Association Local 970, Jorge Lerma, will also appear to discuss issues facing his union and the City of Brownsville.

Online viewers can tune into the podcast by logging into the Erasmo Castro or Jim Barton Facebook page and even submit questions for the guests.

EXPLANATION OF "NO REPORT" ON TUESDAY'S CITY COMMISSION MEETING

Ana Adiong

I told fiancée Ana on Messenger that, had I noticed 5 separate issues were to be discussed during Executive Session I would never have shown up in City Commission chambers at 4:45 PM.  It was almost 6 AM in the Philippines and she'd been long awake.

While waiting for the meeting to start, I had an interesting visit with Robert Benavides, Jr. and Maleny Ortega from the UT-RGV school newspaper, who eventually walked out of the City Commission chambers around 6 PM, then came back an hour later.

UTRGV Reporters Maleny Ortega and Robert Benavides, Jr.

The school reporters told me they cover any "student related" news from Brownsville to Edinburg, mentioning stops in Weslaco and Mercedes.  

When they returned to chambers, the room was full, with many standing alongside the walls, sort of par for the course in Brownsville's recent surge of democracy.

Gene Fernandez from the Brownsville Historical Society approached me about videotaping his Public Comment as I'd done two weeks ago, about dying Cypress trees in the city.  He handed me his large cellphone.

"Remember I told you last week we'd lost 9?  Now, it's up to 12!" Fernandez excitedly told me.

I told Ana I was going to take a pic of these retired people with a check from the city.  They were from the AARP, but all likely younger than me, a non-member.

She said "take your time."

Time kept on slipping, slipping. . . . .

5:00 PM, 6:00 PM, 7:00 PM, 8:00 PM.

Finally, around 8:15 PM, after I'd been in chambers 3-1/2 hours, Ana told me:  "Just go home.  You'd don't have to wait hours and hours for this stuff."

I looked picked up Gene's cell phone and made a decision.

"Gene, this is just too long.  I have to go," I told him, handing back his phone.

He seemed to understand.

POSTCARD FROM THE EDGE, WELL, ACTUALLY, JERRY MCHALE

Jerry's Photo from Coimbra, Portugal

In those "old days" you hate to hear about, we bought a scenic post card from a rotating rack at a tourist trap and scribbled "Wish you were here!" on the back, along with other braggadocio about how much fun were having while the reader was not.  

Those cards found there way into the top drawer of grandma's dresser, never to be touched until the movers came to remove her belongings posthumously.

So, there was no element of surprise when blogging friend, Jerry McHale, sent us the following email from Europe, where he seems to be searching for something he can't find here:

Jerry McHale 2019

Saudações Jim do ensolarado, mas legal Portugal!  

How's it hangin' mofo?  

Doin' what I do on the riverbanks of Coimbra.

Hey Jim, this dark-eyed beauty, about 6'1" with legs to eternity, pulled me on the dance floor last night.  If not for "her" 10 inch erection bumping me in the wrong place, she might have had her way with me in the room and then tossed me in an alley dumpster.

Anyway, dodged that bullet and I've reset my chromosome radar.  

BTW,  I'll be back in B'ville before lovely Ana arrives.

  

Cuide-se meu amigo,

Jerry

BROWNSVILLE'S "MR. MEETINGS MAN" GETS A LIFE MAKEOVER

The New(Actually Old) Look

In this late summer of my so-called reinvention, introspection and new direction in life, I cut off the long hair that's sort of identified me for the last 15 years.

No, this was not done at the direction of fiancée Ana, who's been careful to NOT express a preference in my style or grooming, but did seemed pleased when I sent her the above photo.

So, while many who first saw me a decade ago on the televised City Commission meetings, ventured I might be an angry former ship boat captain or someone you might not want to meet in a dark alley, I'm actually just a short, pudgy, soft-spoken guy, not particularly egocentric.

Still, it was a badge of honor for former County Administrative Assistant Chris Valadez to designate me "that crazy pony-tailed puto!"  Can I still be a crazy puto Chris?

"You look a lot smaller in person," I remember former mayoral candidate Viro Cardenas once telling me.

My recent McHale-designated persona, "Mr. Meetings Man," not especially flattering, more stenographic than editorial, sort of fits, as the contacts who call me with hot tips can be numbered on one hand.

Contacts almost always have an agenda, but, to my partial credit, if I publish what they share, it's because I actually see it myself.  I tend to be honest.

I've stopped taking calls from advocates who screamed curses into the phone about their political enemies.  So tiring and predictable!

My skill set, if I have one, is grasping the gist of a conversation, an event or meeting.  In another life I listened to thousands of student speeches, almost with total recall of their introduction, theme development, conclusion and arguments.  That's my modus operandi now.  Listening.

Ana Adiong

When fiancée Ana arrives September 6 from Cagayan de Oro, Philippines, she becomes my main focus; her goals, career, etc.

Graciously, she says she wants to accompany me wherever I go, which should mean a considerable Brownsville Observer upgrade from the plodding, unimaginative, notetaking "Mr. Meetings Man."

From the editor:  The handiwork pictured above is that of Tony Valdez, owner of Tony's Barber Shop, 3670 Boca Chica Blvd., Brownsville.  In my view Mr. Valdez certainly earned his $15 fee.
 

ARE CAMERON COUNTY OFFICIALS BEING DENIED THE MONEY TO FEED THEIR FAMILIES?

County Administrator Pete Sepulveda, Jr.

Following his Cameron County Commissioners Court appointment in July as Interim County Administrator, Pete Sepulveda, Jr. began to immediately earn his keep, his Mission Impossible, to show how underpaid, impoverished and disrespected Cameron County officials had become.

Showing his gratitude for the appointment, Sepulveda went on a personal fact-finding sortie to prove by comparison that the pobrecitos in county positions were not getting enough moolah to feed their families.

As the newly hired point man for the county officials' raises, Sepulveda claimed to the Brownsville Herald he'd consulted the Texas Association of Counties, yet the primary comparison seemed to be that the Hidalgo County Judge was seeking a salary hike to $118,000 annually, prompting the recommendation that Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr. should receive $119,000, an annual increase of over $48,000.

But, isn't that like comparing mangos to potatoes, to coin a new phrase, since the population and revenue stream of Hidalgo County is twice that of Cameron?

As per Sepulveda's "recommendation," the individual County Commissioners would each receive a $32,000 increase in salary, not a bad return on investment in appointing Sepulveda interim administrator.

County Commissioner David Garza

As for comparisons, Precinct 3-2 County Commissioner David Garza, told a SRO audience at the Commissioners Court Tuesday that comparing the work of Cameron County's Commissioners to that of their counterparts in Hidalgo County was disingenuous, since "we only supervise two employees, while they monitor over 100 employees each."

If the Commissioners Courts is serious about streamlining operations in line with other Texas counties, why not remove some of the dead weight existing in Cameron?

Why not eliminate the County Treasurer position, as some huge Texas counties, like Bexar(San Antonio) and Tarrant(Fort Worth) have done?  

County Treasurer David Betancourt

Cameron County Treasurer David Betancourt supervises three staffers to do payroll, yet Tuesday allowed an agenda item to proceed that would have given him an annual raise of $39,968 to $105,960.  Transfer those duties and put that money back into the budget.

Cameron County seems also way overstaffed in terms of Justices of the Peace and Constables, two sort of antiquated positions in county government.

Harris County(Houston), for example, has 16 Justices of the Peace for a population of 4.5 million, one JP for every 281,000 population.

Cameron County has 10 JPs to serve only 424,000, one JP for every 42,000.  No wonder our JPs can so aggressively occupy themselves with marrying, even planting staffers in the hallway near the County Clerk's office to steer newly licensed couples to their office.  They're underworked in comparison with other Texas counties.

While our constables do some good work, monitoring funeral traffic and safeguarding ballot boxes, we have too many for our population in comparison with other counties.

While Harris County has one constable for every 562,000, Cameron has a constable to serve just 84,000, almost 7 times as many per population.

Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr.

Lastly, in this carefully executed plan for Cameron County officials to orchestrate their own raises, County Judge Eddie Trevino lets us know that they're not forgetting the little people, county employees:    

“We are trying to implement it over a three year time frame but we are also looking at trying to implement it over a shorter time period,” stated Trevino.

Perhaps, if the Cameron County Commissioners Court had the nerve to slash some of the obvious salary fat from their budget, these county employees who actually do the county's work, could get adequately compensated.  

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS COURT PUNTS ON HUGE RAISES FOR OFFICIALS, TAX ABATEMENT FOR ANNOVA LNG

Photo by Erasmo Castro

Just a week after County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr. told the Brownsville Herald that the pay "increases(for county officials) are part of the budget so it should not affect taxpayers," the money disappeared.(I don't know where Trevino thinks county revenue comes from if not from tax and fee payers.)

Now, before a packed Cameron County Commissioners Court, Precinct 2 Commissioner Joey Lopez, the author of the agenda item to grant exorbitant raises to 22 county officials totaling over $400,000, withdrew the item, claiming that now the county had "no money," was actually $2,000,000 in the hole, citing a shortfall in bridge collections.

"Even without the raises(presumably for officials, but also including the 3-phase raise for staff), we are $500,000 short," added Lopez.

So, the taxpayers score a knockout on this one with Trevino not getting a penny of his proposed $48,657 annual raise nor County Treasurer David Betancourt getting his additional $39,968 in annual salary.  

The County Commissioners, on the verge of voting themselves $32,684 in additional earnings, wilted like marigolds in the hot Brownsville sun, retracting their requests under the harsh glare of an angry Brownsville blogosphere-reading public.

County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr. did push back on this blog's description of his county judge work ethic, saying his office was "not a part-time job," that he was "on call 24/7."  He stopped short of claiming he goes to his county office on any kind of regular basis.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Sofia Benavides rambled a bit, seemingly justifying pay increases, stating "I work hard," then pushing back against those who want to "get rid of the County Treasurer's office," saying "no matter what this county needs a treasurer," and that there's "no valid reason" to abolish the position.

Most in the audience attended to voice opposition to granting Annova LNG a huge tax abatement in the hundreds of millions of dollars, holding up black cardboard "thumbs down" arms that they lifted in unison at every appropriate juncture.

The agenda item to consider the huge tax abatement for Annova LNG was tabled in response to a request by the company's representative.

Photo by Sara Stapleton Barrera

Prior to the meeting, a small group of sign-carrying anti-raise protesters, organized on Facebook by Mario Saenz, greeted meeting-goers on the courthouse steps.

"I'LL BE WAITING AT THE STATION FOR HER TO ARRIVE"

Ana Adiong

SEVEN DAYS

Bob Dylan

Seven days, seven more days she’ll be comin’ I’ll be waiting at the station for her to arrive
Seven more days, all I gotta do is survive

She been gone ever since I been a child
Ever since I seen her smile, I ain’t forgotten her eyes
She had a face that could outshine the sun in the skies

I been good, I been good while I been waitin’
Maybe guilty of hesitatin’, I just been holdin’ on
Seven more days, all that’ll be gone

There’s kissing in the valley
Thieving in the alley
Fighting every inch of the way
Trying to be tender
With somebody I remember
In a night that’s always brighter’n the day

Seven days, seven more days that are connected
Just like I expected, she’ll be comin’ on forth
My beautiful comrade from the north

There’s kissing in the valley
Thieving in the alley
Fighting every inch of the way
Trying to be tender
With somebody I remember
In a night that’s always brighter’n the day

Copyright © 1976 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2004 by Ram’s Horn Music