Name the pride ?

Name the pride?  Ok,  I'm guessing it's a pride of Lions- what do I win?

As best as I can understand it, the new city-wide slogan contest is one in which are supposed to name the pride.  Does this mean we only have one "pride" we can choose for Laredo?  What if I come up with two things I'm proud about and they're both excellent ideas, does only one of them stand a chance of getting selected as the best pride? Something tells me that this idea was put together rather hastily. Surely, a calm, reflective and engaged process would have come up with something better.

Nonetheless, the slogan contest is up and running so I might as well put in my two cents worth. My first idea is to increase the popularity of the contest itself by having the LCVB come up with some T-shirts for their employees emblazoned with the city's logo and in larger print the words 'What's Your Pride?" It's good to know that however ridiculous this idea may seem, it's just as good (or bad) as the contest itself. Who knows, maybe it will catch on the following will be a frequent scenario on the streets of Laredo.

For the following illustration, Citizen one (male) = C1, Citizen two (female) = C2 :

C1 :  Excuse me
C2:  (stops momentarily) Yes?
C1:  (hesitating) Uh...yes, I wanted to ask you something.
C2:  (starts walking away) I'm sorry, I don't have any change on me.
C1:  (following her) No, no, it's not that, It's just that I was wondering......
C1:  (Stops-In a firm voice) I'm sorry, I have to get going- have a good day. (hurriedly gets in her car)
C2:  (outside car window) Wait! This is important! I gotta know.... what's Your Pride? I need some ideas!!
C1:  (raising window, driving away) Stop gibbering and leave me alone!
C2:  (Falls to his knees, sobbing) ....I could've been someone............... I could've been a contestant!!

Fox News not allowed in Canada........ because it lies!

From the Huffington Post- By Robert F. Kennedy Jr

Fox News will not be moving into Canada after all! The reason: Canada regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law the forbids lying on broadcast news.

Canada's Radio Act requires that "a licenser may not broadcast....any false or misleading news." The provision has kept Fox News and right wing talk radio out of Canada and helped make Canada a model for liberal democracy and freedom. As a result of that law, Canadians enjoy high quality news coverage including the kind of foreign affairs and investigative journalism that flourished in this country before Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" in 1987. Political dialogue in Canada is marked by civility, modesty, honesty, collegiality, and idealism that have pretty much disappeared on the U.S. airwaves.

Just who are these misters? and why do they need to cool you down?

The 2011 Laredo Convention & Visitor's guide is the gift that keeps on giving.  On a couple of occasions, I've taken to reading an article or two of the 68-page production. Lo and behold, there's always something that catches my attention. Usually, it's something that I have to read twice to get exactly what they're trying to say. I find myself thinking "come estuvo esa?"/ "how was that?". It usually takes a second, slower reading to get the gist of the intended communication. Let me illustrate. In the following paragraph, I was reading along and then I had to backtrack and read it again slowly.

In your visit to downtown Laredo, begin your leisure leisurely stroll at the intersection of Convent at and Iturbide, where you'll see the bustling of shoppers, pedestrians on their daily duties and the signs of the cumulative improvements to restore our downtown. From the quaint light posts and street pavers to the covered benches and misters to cool you down any Summer afternoon, these are just some of the projects initiated by Laredo Main Street (LMS).

Naturally, there were some minor imperfections as I nitpick point out above. It was when I got down to the part where it reads: "misters to cool you down on any summer afternoon" that I became a bit confused.  Being the dummy that I am, I failed to instantly realize that "misters" was referring to the misting machines and not to some improperly acting males. Remember, the audience for this guide includes out of town people who might not know that the city installed these "misters". So I just thought I'd clear that up. We sure don't need any more negative connotations being associated with the Gateway City. You got me mister?

Caller Times reports on book by Buck's Glenn Hart, takes swipe at Laredo

It seems that people do notice things about Laredo. Unfortunately, it's usually the negative things. One recent example is a swipe taken by Greg Rajan, who covers the Corpus Christi Ice Rays for the Caller times. After praising the book The Lone Star Skate cowritten by Glenn Hart, owner of the Laredo Bucks and Rusty Burson, Rajan couldn't resist the all too familiar jab at the Gateway City.  Rajan writes :

Of course, it's richly ironic that the Bucks' owner wrote a book when it's been well-chronicled that there isn't a bookstore in Laredo. Hopefully, copies of The Lone Star Skate will be sold at the LEA, because it's a book Texas hockey fans will want to check out.

Besides not liking Laredo, Rajan apparently doesn't like to deal with the facts either. Laredo might have been without a bookstore for a while but for at least the last couple of months, Laredo Books and More has stepped up to make sure that Laredo, once again, does have a book store. Speaking of stepping up, we at Laredotejas urge you to step up to the 2nd floor of our main library and check out Books and More for yourself. Happy reading.

Make that two tacos: Stripes keeps on growing on strentgh of Laredo Taco Company

Ok, how'd they get that much tin foil up there?

Although I personally don't purchase many tacos at Stripes, I can attest to the fact that their business is booming. Whenever I have stopped by in the mornings to buy some gas or the heralded LMT, It's been a challenge to get in and out of their parking lot. It's safe to say that  Stripes continues to enjoy brisk business and more often then not, customers walk out of there with some taquitos in hand. Thanks to the Laredo Taco Company, Stripes' parent company is planning a record number of news stores for the comming year.

From Cspnet.com by Steve Holz

"During this coming year, we expect to complete construction of 18 to 22 new retail stores, which will be a record for us," said Susser. "We have six stores already under construction, two of which should be open by the end of the first quarter. We will commence construction on five to six more units by the end of March."
Added Stripes president and CEO of retail, Steve DeSutter,

The record new-store growth comes at a time when Susser Holdings has good reason to be optimistic.
"With a rapidly growing Hispanic population, the Rio Grande Valley and Laredo areas continue to enjoy some of the best demographics for growth of anywhere in the United States," said Susser, whose Laredo Taco Co. foodservice concept has seen great growth.

"Census data release last week shows that Texas is growing at a much faster rate than any other state and that Hispanics make up 38% of the Texas population, up from 32% a decade ago. This rapidly growing segment accounted for 65% of the state's growth of the past 10 years, and accounts for 95% of the increase in the population under age 18.

 Our product offering and our geographic footprint position us to benefit from this very positive trend."
He added, "Customer count and transaction size continue to grow as consumers respond positively to the rebranding and remodeling of the legacy Town & Country stores to the Stripes and Laredo Taco Co. brands."

Texas' natural beauty on display at state capitol thanks to Richard Raymond

Commemorative photo book published by Images for Conservation Fund

From The Austin American-Statesman By John Martin

Visitors to the Texas Capitol this week will have the opportunity to view some of the most beautiful nature photographs in the world all photographed in Texas. However, the purpose of the exhibit is not to show pretty pictures but to promote an opportunity.

Thanks to support from Rep. Richard Peña Raymond, D-Laredo, the Images for Conservation Fund will be displaying images taken during the group's three Pro-Tour of Nature Photography contests. The display will include photographs taken in the Hill Country, the Coastal Bend and the Laredo borderlands.

The Images for Conservation Fund was established to foster greater wildlife preservation by promoting photo tourism on private land. The nonprofit organization hopes to encourage private landowners to allow nature photographers from around the world onto their land. In doing so, they would be promoting wildlife conservation and providing economic benefits to the area.

To promote this concept, the conservation fund established the Pro-Tour of Nature Photography, a world-class championship tournament that matches some of the world's best professional nature photographers with landowners who have taken steps to create a habitat conducive for wildlife photography.
The photographers and the landowners work in partnership to ensure that images taken during the 30-day contest reflect the beauty of the area.

You can read the entire article at:
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/martin-texas-landowners-welcome-different-kind-of-shooters-1291007.html

Wade Watch: Picks poll that says voters are behind Wisconsin's Governor

He meant "Help take Wisconsin backWARDS"

I've often heard it said that if you look hard enough, you can find a poll that supports just about any point of view. This morning on WakeUpLaredo, radio host Tom Wade on 1090 am, did just that. Being an avowed conservatist, Wade no doubt thinks the protesters in Wisconsin are wrong in what they're doing. To "prove" it, he cited a Rasmussen Poll on whether or not voters are behind Governor Walker's attempt to break public employee unions in that state. Not surprisingly, Wade said that Wisconsin voters are on the Governor's side.

What Wade conveniently left was that Rasmussen is often cited by Fox News because it has a history of framing the poll questions in a way that achieve the desired (Right-leaning) results. For example, in this particular poll, Rasmussen closes out the poll with a couple of questions that can be construed as leading. 

* Should teachers, firemen and policemen be allowed to go on strike?

* In the dispute between the governor and the union workers, do you agree more with the governor or the union for teachers and other state employees?   

Please notice the first question above asks if teachers, firemen and policemen should be allowed to go on strike. In reality, only the teachers are on strike. The firemen and policemen are sympathetic to the strikers but are not on strike themselves. Having them both on strike would be frightening to many. There could be looting and chaos.  Very few people would want law enforcement and fire fighters on strike. By lumping them together with teachers in this question, Rasmussen assures itself poll results that are appear to be favorable to Governor Scott Walker.

P.S. It didn't even take me a minute to find a poll favorable to the protesters and against Walker. Greg Sargeant of the New York Post cites a Public Policy Polling (Dem-leaning Poll) survey that finds:

On the core question, Wisconsinites strongly back the right of public employee unions to collectively bargain, 57-37. And voters are divided on whether they would support a recall of Walker, 48-48, with slightly more independents say they'd support recalling him. But this nugget may be the most interesting of them all. Non-union households are backing the unions, too: