Mayor, City Hoodwinked by Banner Scam

Tony Martinez

As reported in El Rrun Rrun, Mayor Tony Martinez and other city officials may have unwittingly participated in a scam purporting to "show the city of Brownsville's economic vitality and the support of the business community.

City Manager Cabler with Banner CEO McCarthy

David McCarthy, the head honcho of Community Showcase Banners of Warsaw, New York, may have used the U.S. Conference of Mayors Meeting in Orlando, Florida to find easy marks among the nation's mayors.  What mayor would not be flattered to be told that their city had been awarded a Community Showcase, one of only fifteen such awards to be given nationally.  Successful scams frequently appeal to pride, ego and financial wherewithal.

Somehow, the City of Brownsville letterhead with a supportive letter from City Manager Charlie Cabler, became a sales tool for Community Showcase Banners and was used by McCarthy and a buxom female companion identified at Itza Pena to approach Brownsville business owners to test their willingness to support Brownsville by purchasing one of the banner packages.  At the lower end of support was the "Bronze Package" selling for approximately $600, while those who wanted to demonstrate how seriously they wanted to promote the city could go for the "Gold Package" at nearly $4,000.

One local businessman whose wife is employed by the city, was approached by McCarthy and Pena.  McCarthy represented himself as a close friend of Mayor Martinez, saying "he and Tony went way back."  He told the businessman that "Tony needed him."  When the businessman looked over the selection of packages, he said he might be able to spring for the $600 offering since cash flow was a problem.  He was told that package was only for churches and non-profits and was pushed toward the $4,000 selection.  Perplexed, the business  owner said the only way he could go the four grand would be with a post-dated check.  McCarthy at first rejected that offer, but seeing it was the only way he could make the sale, he accepted a post-dated check for the amount.

When the business owner called his wife to tell her about the purchase of promotional materials with a post-dated check, she paid City Manager Charlie Cabler a visit to ask what was going on.   While in Cabler's office, she noticed some Community Showcase Banners paperwork and spotted the name of Ms. Pena whom she recognized as having close ties to City Attorney Mark Sossi.

"Does Sossi have anything to do with this?" the city employee asked Cabler.  "I don't know.  Call him." was Cabler's response.

"My name was NOT EVER to be used on this! NOT EVER!"  Sossi could be heard to say on the other end.

The last thing local businessmen need in these difficult, economic times, is to throw $4,000 or even $600 down a dubious, con game rat hole.

 

Mean Mister Brownsville~Scattered Thoughts: Sossi, Erasmo, Lehmann, Martinez, Downtown, The DA Race

Mean Mister Brownsville

Now, we're hearing that not only is there a $100,000 I.R.S. lien applied to City Attorney Mark Sossi, but that garnishment of wages has already been initiated.

Erasmo Castro Dragustinovis, the high priest of the Cheezite sect, may soon be offering more delicious chicken plates for sale.  According to the El Rrun Rrun blog, the Cheezite's political action committee, Bringing Brownsville Change was fined $500 for not filing a report on time.  The address of the P.A.C. is given as 316 E. Madison St., Suite D, Brownsville, TX, the location of Linda Castro Dragustinovis' former notary public business.  Linda, we are told, was assessed a $17,000 fine last year by the I.R.S. for improper bookkeeping.

An interesting, but indelicate comment received on the Pat Lehmann trash analysis  proposal:
"He knows basura... He stares at it every morning in the mirror..."
Oscar Cantu III

Has anyone else noticed that the only time Mayor Tony Martinez seems passionate is when talking about something closely identified with UTB?  Does he really love Brownsville or just the University of Texas AT Brownsville?

With quite a number of downtown bars still not open after being remodeled for over a year, many are pointing an accusatory finger at Evaristo Gamez, City Permit Manager as the one stifling downtown renewal.  Is Gamez simply enforcing rules or does he demand more from downtown business owners?

Either of the two candidates for District Attorney, Luis Saenz or Chuck Mattingly would have my support if they committed, on or off the record, to prosecute the documented cases of voter fraud in the recent elections, and the instances where public officials broke the law with respect to hiring and the handling of theft or fraud within their department.  Cameron County has not had an actual functioning district attorney for several years and it shows with the corruption of our election process.

Problems Compounding for City Attorney Mark Sossi with $100,000 IRS Tax Lien

City Attorney Mark Sossi

In a city that rewards incompetence, malfeasance and negligence, Mark Sossi should have a job for life.   The much maligned, overpaid, but underworked City Attorney, needs two additional lawyers to keep up with the press of the city's legal work, yet still farms out employee arbitration to another law firm , headed by Ricardo Navarro.

Sossi's city job does not prevent him from also receiving a $5,000 per month retainer from the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation AND engaging in private law practice. 

SOSSI'S INFAMOUS PIE CHART

Brownsville citizens who watch the broadcast of City Commission meetings on Time-Warner channel 17-12 got a sampling of the level of Sossi's legal expertise when fellow lawyer, Mayor Tony Martinez allowed Sossi to give his now infamous pie chart presentation against free speech.  Here is an excerpt from the Mean Mister Brownsville article published August 12, 2011:

"Melissa Hernandez-Zamora seemed dumbstruck when City Attorney Sossi stood up to give opposition testimony concerning the broadcast of public comment item she had placed on the agenda. It was obvious that Commissioner Zamora had not been advised of the behind-the-scenes manipulation by Mayor Martinez and his eager cohort Sossi. Sossi, afterall, had the most to lose from public comment broadcast since it was comments about his questionable ethics that triggered the ban in the first place. As Zamora got her bearings, Martinez waved Sossi the "go ahead". Sossi made no attempt in his feeble, highschoolish power point to express a legal opinion. There was no mention of free speech, the first amendment, the constitution or even the phony liability issues he has pretended previously. Those might have been worthy legal issues. Instead he expressed only viewpoints, unscientific at best, but most likely simply wrong. With a straight face he used a pie chart to illustrate the greater "diversity" of commenters since the ban, not even having the honesty to acknowledge that many of those new participants were speaking out against the anti-democratic ban. He also railed against grandstanding as he grandstanded."

FAILURES IN PRIVATE PRACTICE

Several citizens have sought the City Attorney to assist them with personal legal matters and paid dearly for their choice of representation including Rogelio and Ingrid Gonzalez, as detailed in Juan Montoya's El Rrun Rrun article published 6/21/2012:

"A Stell teacher and her husband say that city contract attorney Mark E. Sossi deliberately failed to prosecute their case which resulted in their losing their $39,800 property to a title company with which he was in cahoots and which then paid $10 for it at a foreclosure sale, selling it later for $20,000.

The couple – Rogelio and Ingrid Gonzalez – originally sued Sossi for legal malpractice and now charge that he and Southern Texas Title Company of joining forces to defraud the couple and that Sossi kept them in the dark for years until they found out that their case had been dismissed for want of prosecution."

Oliveira Middle School teacher Jesus Abete, Jr., who initially hired Sossi to recover medical costs and receive payment for injuries in an auto accident, ended up suing for malpractice when Sossi mishandled his case.  Here is a partial quote from the suit as published in El Rrun Rrun:  

"In the ensuing months, (Sossi) repeatedly lied to (Abete), and misrepresented the true facts of the underlying lawsuit to (him). The truth is that (Sossi) never filed suit on behalf of Abete, and by law, suit had to be filed before the statute of limitations expired. The statute of limitations is two years from the date of the accident (January 2, 2009) Jan. 8, 2011. If the suit was not filed by then, (Abete's) rights would have been forever extinguished," the lawsuit states.
"(Sossi) failed to file (Abete's) suit," it continues. "Now that the statute of limitations has expired, (Abete) is forever barred from recovering damages for the serious personal injuries he suffered in the (crash)."

REPORTED $100,000 IRS LIEN FOR SOSSI

The embattled lawyer,  described by some as incredibly incompetent in his private practice, now faces another obstacle according to reports.  We are told that Mr. Sossi has been hit with a $100,000 tax lien by the Internal Revenue Service for nonpayment of taxes.  Perhaps Sossi can summon up a pie chart to prove to IRS auditors that the lien is a mistake.  Or to use Sossi-like circular reasoning, he can demonstrate that when one individual does not pay his taxes, others actually pay MORE taxes.

Perhaps it is time the City Commission took a look at the job performance and record of their hiree.  

Chuck Mattingly, Republicans TV Spot

Don't Reward Election Fraud~Defeat Erin Hernandez Garcia

Erin Hernandez TV Commercial

The Cameron County Election Commission has been described as impotent, flaccid, but that's not really fair.  They simply swing the other way.  Their love interest is in preserving the status quo, the system of politiqueras, manipulation of mail-in ballots and coercion of the elderly, disabled and mentally-challenged that got several of them elected, the very tools used recently by the Erin H. Garcia campaign to slop through the primaries.

Cameron Park Election Judge Conferring with Gomez Camp

But, no one can rightfully accuse Election Administrator Roger Ortiz of not getting aroused when he heard someone was taking pictures of the vans delivering the elderly and infirm to the Cameron Park polling place for early voting.  Not only did Ortiz come in under five minutes, but the sheriff was called.  What didn't excite Ortiz was the Cameron Park Election Judge cavorting with the Abelardo Gomez, Carlos Masso and Erin H. Garcia camps during polling hours, those voting before or on the very day they registered and the hundreds of mail-in votes coming out of County Commissioner Ernie Hernandez' district.

The Election Commission felt nothing as the evidence submitted for two election fraud trials showing naked manipulation of the election process was paraded before them.  Those submitting affidavits, those subpoenoed for trial screamed a collective "What do I have to do?" when they couldn't get so much as a notice from the commissioners.

District Attorney Armando Villalobos, himself a lame dick, drawing salary in his final months of office while working on his pending trial for bribery, has no interest in pursuing election fraud.  Would he receive a reduced sentence for cleaning up Cameron County's election process?  That might get his attention, but election integrity on its own doesn't float his boat.

Raul Lopez

We could go down the line of election officials who can't or won't perform, but you get the drift.  It's up to you, the voter, to not reward election fraud.  Yes, penalize the cheating Erin H. Garcia campaign by not voting for her.  Stop the corrupt Hernandezes from extending their brutal defilement of the electorate into the next generation.  We have an alternative to the obvious, historic corruption;  Raul Lopez for Justice of the Peace, 2-2.

Commissioners Court~Liability Issues More Concerning Than Voter Fraud

"Money talks

But it don't sing and dance

And it don't walk"

Neil Diamond, "Forever in Blue Jeans"

How An Issue Gets Attention in Cameron County

Cameron County does not have a single elected official who cares one wit about voter fraud.  The affidavits gathered, the sworn testimony given concerning illegalities in the election process do not shock or motivate.

CAVA providing evidence of Herminia Becerra's entire neighborhood harvested with mail-in votes, 50 voters registering AFTER voting or the same day, vans of elderly, disabled and mentally challenged herded like cattle to the early voting polling places all gets a big "ho-hum" from elected officials.  

Cameron County has an Election Commission in name only, not in reality.  This collective body of five has no respect for our democracy or the voters and certainly no courage.  As the parent or caretaker of the democratic process in Cameron County, the commission is guilty at the very least of child endangerment with  at least a couple of commission members likely guilty of direct participation in election fraud.  

Omar Lucio

Our affable, elderly county sheriff, Omar Lucio,  rolls with the flow of politiqueras and tainted elections.  His mail-in vote totals in the primary mirrored those of Carlos Masso and Abelardo Gomez.  Our indicted district attorney, Armando Villalobos, sold his soul for money and will allow Cameron Country to be without prosecutorial protection to hang on to his salary till the bitter end.  Will either of the two current district attorney candidates prosecute voter fraud, if elected?  It's doubtful.  The local police department shrank mightily under Carlos Garcia when handed cases involving political officials with clout.  Voters have no recourse.  Clean candidates frequently have no chance.  

Yet, there is a glimmer of hope.  As noted in the agenda for the meeting of the Commissioners Court held 10/11/2012, One thing still gets their collective attention; MONEY!  Notice the all-caps agenda point under Executive Session Items:

D.  DISCUSSION ABOUT WHAT MAY BE DONE, IF ANYTHING, BY COMMISSIONERS COURT REGARDING EXTREME ELECTIONEERING BEHAVIOR AND CONTROLLING SUCH BEHAVIOR ON COUNTY-OWNED PROPERTY IN AND OUTSIDE OF CITY LIMITS AND ALONG CITY, STATE AND COUNTY ROADS NEAR VOTING PLACES INCLUDING A GENERAL LEGAL REVIEW IN OPEN SESSION REGARDING THE PROBLEMS BEING ENCOUNTERED.  ACTUAL ADVICE SOUGHT BY THE MEMBERS OF THE COURT MAY BE DISCUSSED IN EXECUTIVE SESSION UNDER TEXAS GOV'T CODE 571.071(2) AND NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT A CLOSED SESSION MAY BE HELD FOR ANY CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION PERTAINING TO LEGAL ADVICE ON PRECISELY WHAT TO DO, IF ANYTHING, ABOUT THIS ISSUE.

Reading between the lines of the paragraph above, the Commissioners Court has one clear concern~FINANCIAL LIABILITY!  When an underinsured or uninsured home health care worker transports the elderly from day care centers or nursing homes to county polling places for two or three dollars a head with possibly no seat belts in place, who pays if he has an accident?  The candidate? The driver?  The nursing home?  The county?  What if a medical emergency occurs while the voters are in transit?  What if a son or daughter has power of attorney for the elderly person injured, yet not only did not give permission for the journey but was not informed it would occur?  Can county officials reasonably claim no knowledge of  these activities even in the city's own high rise for the elderly?

Ernie Hernandez, Jr.

Just as money gets the attention of oil companies transporting huge cargo across the oceans, maybe money is the only thing that will get the attention of Cameron County elected officials.  Will it take a serious tragedy in the perpetration of election fraud to get the attention of Cameron County?

Ironically, one county commissioner was absent from the meeting the above was discussed in executive session;  Ernie Hernandez, Jr.  Not coincidentally, almost all of the mail-in votes, reported election abuses and politiquera activities occurred in Ernie's district.  Ernie himself, gained his current position by fraud in 2010.

Lehmann Sells Himself As Trash Consultant to BISD~Part I

Lehmann's Sells Himself As Trash Consultant for BISD~Part II

Pat Lehmann Proposal Fails to Pass BISD Board But Will Be Reconsidered

Pat Lehmann

Pat Lehmann, a close associate of convicted RICO felon Carlos Quintanilla, continues to show a keen interest in the Brownsville Independent School District.  In 2010, Lehmann, along with Quintanilla, Art Rendon, Ben Neece and Juan Montoya collaborated to form a political action committee, named the DefeatZayasCortezPowers P.A.C.   Cleverly, none of the above wished to serve as officers of the P.A.C., but instead they recruited Mary S. Rey and Argelia Miller to serve as figurehead President and Treasurer respectively.

As reported in this blog in previous articles, the purpose of the P.A.C. was to elect trustees who would eventually dismiss the $14,300,000 lawsuit against Healthsmart for overcharges.  Carlos Quintanilla, had been commissioned by Ted Parker, the former majority owner of Healthsmart, to a accomplish this task, both at BISD and in the City of Lubbock who had also sued Healthsmart for overcharges.  Earlier this year, the trustees elected and supported by Quintanilla; Cata Presas-Garcia, Lucy Longoria, Christina Saavedra and Enrique Escobedo, did Quintanilla's bidding by dismissing the suit.

Valley Scooters of Texas

The huge $500,000,000 annual budget for BISD is simply irresistible for valley and non-valley businessmen wanting to make money and Pat Lehmann wants to make money.  Lehmann runs at least two businesses from the same address at 1748 Central Blvd.; VSoT or Valley Scooters of Texas, a small showroom displaying cheaply made Chinese motorcycles and scooters Lehmann sells for about twice the price they can be purchased for online, and LCA Consulting Solutions, a company that analyzes your solid waste pickup and charges for finding ways to save money on the utility.  While Lehmann has not yet proposed the district buy his Chinese motor scooters, he did propose at the October 2, 2012 BISD board meeting that his trash analyzing firm be retained by the district for a fee to be named later.  Below is exactly how the item appeared on the BISD agenda:

E. Recommend approval of the following Bids/Proposals/Purchases:

21. Recommend awarding RFP #13-035 Consultant Services for Analysis of Solid Waste
Services (Re-Bid) to LCA Management Consulting Solutions, Brownsville, Texas to
provide services and to authorize administration to negotiate a fee. 

The fancy language on the web site describes what the company does for the client in this way:
"We are supported with the necessary tools and information to keep current on all waste related issues and the latest technology and methods to reduce your waste and recycling expenses."

A Mean Mister Brownsville reader explained it in a different way:
"Pat Lehmann was voted down before the board to receive a consulting contract with the district. . . . . . . . . . He wanted a 50/50 split with the district for every dollar he would save for the district in their trash collection fee's. The way this works, is that he would go around and eliminate one dumpster at each high school and a few at the middle schools and he would get half of the savings. At $1,000 dollars for each dumpster about ten dumpsters, that is a 10,000 savings for the district per month, 5,000 for pat! The district pays 1.3 million a year for trash collection. The maintenance dept is responsible for the trash collection contract with the city and they have no idea what is going on with the dumpsters. That same department has the biggest budget in the entire district and they are totally inept!"

I'm not certain about all of the details above, but BISD does spend $1,200,000 annually on solid waste pickup.  There is certainly money to be made here.  Lehmann's proposal failed, receiving a 3-3 vote with Christina Saavedra absent from the meeting.  Minerva Pena objected to the language in the agenda item as it seemed to leave the fee to be earned by LCA Consulting Services not fixed, but open to negotiation.  One of BISD's legal team, asked for a legal opinion, said the wording was acceptable.

After the item went down to defeat, "Doctor" Escobedo indicated the item would be brought up again at the next board meeting.

16th Annual Brownsville Latin Jazz Festival~October 11,12,13&14

Emilio & Los Bluzanos CD Release Party at Cobbleheads

Duardo Paz-Martinez Weighs In~Blogging, Melissa Zamora, Browntown, Tony Martinez

Duardo Paz-Martinez

From the editor:  Such a thoughtful comment as below by Duardo Paz-Martinez doesn't deserve to be buried among the typical "you suck" and grammar nazi fare received daily.  Actually, the material is like content manna a blogger might drive to the Crescent Moon or Alonso Building to obtain, so why not utilize, analyze what gets dropped into the inbox?





/DP-MOctober 9, 2012 4:14 PM

Well, this comes after some thoughts on whether doing it was worthwhile. But you chose to throw me in with people I don't associate with, as you know. I take issue with your assessment that all I do is characterize Brownsville as a "dusty, backward and Third World town." There's some truth in that, but there is so much more to my criticism of Browntown. My points always went to style; that is, how the city governed itself mainly. I am as Mexican as the next Mexican, and I do take pride in all that entails. I just wish the entire Rio Grande Valley would grow, would plunge at least into the 1990s. I look at San Antonio and see a Hispanic mayor - Julian Castro. He is the son a woman who marched with La Raza Unida, which remains a blight on our culture in the eyes of non-Hispanics. Yet, there was Castro, a lawyer and graduate of Stanford, at the recent Democratic Party convention in Charlotte, alongside party bigwigs. Castro is a leader leading a city. He advocates for better education and less dropouts and his program aimed at avoiding teen pregnancy within the Hispanic community has drawn raves. Castro is going places and that makes me proud. I look at the Valley - and I wrote about most of its cities & towns in my blog, as you also know - and I don't see a Julian Castro. I see a collection of self-serving Chicanos out to fatten their wallets or those of their friends. I don't see vision or accomplishment. Yes, I don't live there, but name me accomplishments by your mayor in line with what his San Antonio counterpart is doing. And Tony Martinez has social problems of the sort that would make him a name if he only tackled them and solved a few. Yet, it never happens. What you get in its place is patronismo, which is how someone like Melissa Zamora turns herself over to career politician Rene Oliveira. Only, she's not alone. That's the tragedy. Brownsville moves like some battered clunker knowing the incline will not require stepping on the gas. As for why I no longer blog, well, you know I did it for many years in a variety of formats. My life these days is more settled and, yeah, I am wont to say that blogging is "so ten minutes ago." The world is moving faster than ever as it relates to news and information. A blog simply wasn't satisfying my own needs, and I did it well, better than most, if I can say it. Critics will boil, as they did for a dozen years. Perhaps it was cheap entertainment for the collective anonymous. I don't worry about it. as I've said many times before, there are times when the artist has to disappear. This, for me, is one of those times. Happy blogging, my friend...

/DP-M

Mean Mister Brownsville

/DP-M,

Please consider your linking with those above as not reflective of your talent or skill level, but merely a chronological association: those bloggers who left us last year, not unlike the obligatory stories at each year's end about those who have passed.  Think of the "Jeopardy" question "Musicians born in 1940" as including both Ricky Nelson and John Lennon.

Yes, Jerry's odd article pretending that Quintanilla had kicked Wightman-Cervantes butt got my mind to wandering.  Of course, Mr. Q can't verbalize his way out of a wet paper bag, but Jerry was trying to light a fire under Bobby as he attempted to do by writing the blogger's obituary a few months back.  Bobby, though, must light his own fire.

April Flores

No, we don't have a Julian Castro in Brownsville, or even a Cisneros or Julian Bond before cocaine.  Tony Martinez has no passion or vision, so these are wasted, twiddling-our-thumbs years for his constituency.   We do have several young women with vision.  One is April Flores, a 21 year old UTB student who represented us at the "Youth and Reproductive Rights" forum in Providence, R.I. and the "National Council of La Raza" and was interviewed by the "Huffington Post".  

The Robert Duvall film crew threw nickles around like manhole covers, adding several dollars to local economy.  The snack shop they paid ten dollars to keep their lights on all night for effect during a scene at the old market square, is now closed.  The "La Movida" bar still features Natural Light in the can for a dollar and a hanging naked pinata with dollars attached at appropriate places of the anatomy.  

We have a new bus station, I mean multi-modal facility downtown, built with 80% federal funding, giving winos and street ladies clean restrooms and a number of entry level jobs for window polishers and broom pushers.  Unlike many architecturally classic old train stations who had their heyday, this is a state-of-the-art facility with electronic information boards that may never have its day, unless downtown takes off and Mexico detoxifies.

Anyway, enjoy the freedom of living life without the burden of chronicling it on the fly.  Blogging and Facebook are parallel universes that exist only in cyberspace, soap operas that can be resumed any time without missing a beat.  Take care.

Jim

When A City Without A Newspaper Loses Three, Maybe Four Blogs

Bobby Wightman-
Cervantes

BWC Comes and Goes

Bobby Wightman-Cervantes, the intermittent, temperamental publisher of the BROWNSVILLE VOICE blog,  reported himself proudly sitting near Brownsville Herald reporter Emma Perez-Trevino, as the two journalists chronicled the dismissal of the Begum-Garcia election fraud case by Judge J. Bonner Dorsey.  Bobby had already issued due warning that his blog was reopened only temporarily to cover the election fraud trial and was therefore destined for post-trial hibernation.  The blogger had killed and then resuscitated his blog before, prompting Mean Mister Brownsville to invoke biblical phrasing to describe the VOICE as "the beast that was, but is not, but will come again."

On January 12, 2012 MMB described the reappearance of the blog in this way:  "Some feel this apocalyptic scripture to have been fulfilled when fire-breathing local blogger Bobby Wightman-Cervantes watched his legendary blog descend into the lake of fire only to be resuscitated, brought back to life by his own egomania. Visionary bloggers Mchale and Montoya refused to witness the death certificate until they saw clear evidence of rigor mortis, or to put it indelicately "the stiffness of death." This was providential as the "wild beast that had descended, now ascended out of the sea with more anger than before." BROWNSVILLE VOICE, Bobby's blog was back!"

The departure of BWC's blog, while not universally mourned, will leave an information hole, particularly with respect to the corrupt 4 BISD board majority, currently Cata Presas-Garcia, Enrique Escobedo, Christina Saavedra and Lucy Longoria who were guided by their puppetmaster, con man Carlos Quintanilla, to drop the $14,300,000 lawsuit against Healthsmart for insurance overcharges.  Wightman-Cervantes also kept us up-to-date on the convicted RICO felon's personal finances, including the foreclosure proceedings on his home at 415 S. Dwight Ave. in Dallas, numerous hot checks, tax problems, liens for nonpayment of services, etc. 

Carlos Quintanilla

CQ, The Blogging Felon

Although perhaps few knew it, Carlos Quintanilla himself maintained a blog, innocently named careBrownsville, where he disseminated disinformation about BISD and immodestly showered himself with self-praise, both in the semi-articulate articles and the dorky pretend comments.  The blog now bears the same Permission denied warning as the BROWNSVILLE VOICE:  

This blog is open to invited readers only

http://carebrownsville.blogspot.com/

It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation.

The sudden departure of Quintanilla's blog was unannounced and remains a mystery.  Speculation suggests Mr. Q's departure may have been at the strong suggestion of his benefactor, Ted Parker, the former majority owner of Healthsmart, who may not have appreciated the difficulty the con man had with keeping his blog non-libelous.

 

Creative Blogger Duardo Paz-Martinez Calls It Quits

Also succumbing to the foul air of the blogosphere, Eduardo Paz-Martinez shut down his Brownsville-oriented blog, The Paz Files, just before spring.  The blog featured short stories involving a character named Junior Bonner, humorous takes on national news, putdowns of a Harlingen blogger identifed as Tony "The Turd" Chapa, advertisements for books written under the nom de plume Patrick Alcatraz and other "collectible" books for sale. 

Tony Chapa

Paz-Martinez, a former Brownsville resident and Herald reporter, maintains his relevancy by reading and actively commenting on the remaining blogs, always describing Browntown as "dusty, backward and third-world" and exchanging insults with Brownsville brainiac Tad Hasse.   For those curious about the creative writing, bells and whistles of The Paz  Files, the last edition of 3/24, 2012 is still online.

Brownsville Commissioner "Bloggin' All Things Brownsville"  Starts, Stops, Starts Again . . . . . . Stops?

Melissa Zamora

Melissa Zamora, a City Commissioner for District 3, doubles as a blogger.  Who possibly could be in a better position to discern the pulse of the city than someone involved daily in city government and city promotion?  Ms. Zamora is the only blogger who lists her credentials, along with her motivation for writing:

"Politics feeds the veins. I work for Elite Promotions as vice president of public relations. I'm a UTB-TSC graduate with a bachelor's degree in business. Former UTB-TSC Collegian Editor. Former writer for the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. Former publishing specialist for UTB-TSC. Former Brownsville Herald reporter/editor/columnist. Former Communications Director for the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau. Currently vice president of public relations with Elite Promotions. I'm a Brownsville City Commissioner."

Perhaps as interesting as why a blogger shuts a blog down, is why one gets started back up after a year or two hiatus or even a couple of months between articles.  Maybe the colors, sounds and tradition of Charro Days move one to paint a picture or the hype around Spacex calls out for announcement.  So, again the blog is up and running. . . . . . and then it's not.

So Brownsville Is Left With What. . . . . A Newspaper?

Paper cellulose covered in ink is circulated throughout Brownsville in two languages.  The daily, known as the Brownsville Herald covers a similar city in a parallel universe, but not the literal city we live in.  The Brownsville of The Herald is the sanitized, Chamber of Commerce version, not the real city. 

Critical event after event actually happening in the city with longterm effects for all residents get no mention in the Brownsville Herald.  Test yourself on this, please:  Where did you learn that the University of Texas system through UTB/TSC President Juliet Garcia attempted to pilfer a quarter of a billion in taxpayer assets from Brownsville taxpayers?  Where did you learn about the totally upside down business deal known as Fly Frontera almost swallowed by the City Commission?  And where did you learn about the $14,300,000 lawsuit for overcharges by Healthsmart that four BISD trustees were elected to drop against the interests of the children? 

You read about none of the above in the Brownsville Herald.