Just what do politicians consider "Laredo" ?

Anytown USA: This could be Laredo.......or Duluth!

We hear it all the time. "Laredo has a lot to offer and people should visit us and stay a while and shop".  What part of Laredo is this "Laredo" the Mayor, the LCVB, the Chamber and others always allude to. We can probably be certain that they are not, in any way, referring to any part of Laredo that's over 40 or 50 years old, except for maybe the San Agustin historical district.

We can agree that Downtown is not what the Mayor is talking about when he gloats about Laredo.  The Barrios have long been forgotten and ignored by our politicians. Laredo, to them, is neither West Laredo nor South Laredo either. The mines road area is also ignored-with one big exception, the upcoming multi-million dollar golf course.

It wouldn't surprise me if all those previously mentioned soon start promoting, not Laredo per se, but maybe North Laredo, or Uptown Laredo. The hardly used LEA, TAMIU, the airport, the new golf course and shopping centers from Mall Del Norte on Northward is what these people think of and work to promote. The countless strip malls with their vast concrete parking lots sprawling for miles have about as much character as our local governments. This is what we're supposed to be Laredo Proud about?

Pony League trying to justify poor showing ?

Pony barrels in on tradition rich little league

Ever since I first heard about the brand spanking new Pony League, I've wondered "what was so bad about little league".  All of a sudden, a hundred years of tradition were shoved to the side as the city fast tracked any and all Pony League projects. Just a few months ago, the Pony League leaders were at a city council meeting promising to bring 150 teams and their families to Laredo. They asked for the council's support ($$) and some of the council people were only too happy to send thousand of taxpayers' dollars Pony's way.

Perhaps things are now not going so well as far as the anticipated "150" teams and their families. Just a couple of nights ago, the Pony spokesman, a Mr. Rosas, appeared saying that he hopes out of town teams learn that Laredo is safe and will make the trip.  Another way of looking at it is that maybe they already know that figure was inflated to begin with and will now have a perfect alibi if a relatively low number of teams come to the Gateway City.  If that turns out to be the case, Pony League will then say "Well, it looks like the bad publicity kept a lot of the 150 teams away".  The answer may be : there was never any where close to that number of teams realistically expected to come to Laredo and play ball.

Just for the record, the sports editor of LaredoTejas would rather be wrong and have thousands of Pony Leaguers descend upon our fair city.

Canseco and Melendez team-up again in Yuma, Arizona

Former Laredo Broncos Jose Melendez and Jose Canseco in Yuma, AZ


From ESPN Sports (Excerpt)

So really, the question is not, "Why is Jose Canseco managing a team in Yuma?'' the question is, "Where are the reality show cameras?''

Actually, Jose had hoped for reality show cameras when he signed on with the Scorpions this April. He did so after attempting to land playing jobs in Puerto Rico, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Mexico. The gigs fell through for various reasons. "The final straw was [he was] going to go to the minor leagues of Mexico. That's how bad it was,'' says Jose Melendez, the Scorpions' general manager. "The minor leagues. There is the Mexican League and then there is the minor leagues of the Mexican League. And Jose said, 'Yeah, that's fine, that's fine. We'll do that.' He was going to go. [Then] this came up.''

"This'' was actually going to be a Las Vegas-area team in the North American League, an inexplicably far-flung independent minor league that stretches from Texas to Canada and Hawaii. Jose had hoped to sell a network on a reality show based on him managing and playing for the league's Vegas team. When the proposed team's stadium wasn't ready for the season, the league offered Melendez the Scorpions job (the NAL owns the team). Canseco came with him, quickly agreeing to the average salary for a manager in the league ($30,000) as long as he could play and pitch (he throws a knuckleball) and have Ozzie as his bench coach.

Jose still hoped to arrange a reality show in Yuma, even insisting on a 10,000-square-foot mansion on Martinez Lake some 40 miles out of town -- so far away, Melendez ran out of gas driving from it one day -- that would provide the proper setting for a reality show. No show has developed, but Jose still lives in the house, along with Ozzie, Melendez, pitching coach Roger Clarke and the occasional Yuma player. "

Article relates local story of "Frackers" drying up neighboring well

Fracking water transport trucks haul gallons of water by the millions 

From Platts.Com

Although gas and oil operators in other parts of the state rely on a combination of surface and underground sources to supply the water they need for their operations, in semi-arid South Texas most of the needed water is drawn from underground aquifers, such as the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer, said Robert Mace, deputy executive administrator of the Texas Water Development Board.

"In South Texas there's not a lot of surface water in the best of times when you step back from the Rio Grande," he said. The current drought is exacerbating that situation, he added.

Although the drought does not have a direct impact on water levels in the underground aquifers, the drought results in greater demand on the aquifers from users, such as farmers irrigating their parched fields, which in turn can lower water levels.

Although the energy industry also creates a large demand for groundwater, "on a regional scale, I don't believe that it's a concern," Mace said. "However, like politics, all hydrogeology is local," he said.

"If a gas company's water well, put in to provide water for a frack, is close to household's well it can decrease the levels of water for that household, Mace said.

Already some water users are saying that this is exactly what is happening. "We have heard reports of water-level declines," Mace said. "At a meeting in Laredo, a landowner got up and claimed that nearby gas drilling was impacting the levels of water in his water well."

For those readers who did not attend the meeting, that landowner was former Laredo city manager Larry Dovalina. He told of workers for the oil/gas industry setting up a well not far from his and in a matter of days, managed to suck his well dry. It had been providing water for his family for over 40 years and in almost no time at all, the "frackers" had selfishly helped themselves to all of his water.

"Hines" recreation center pool filtration system costs $60,000 more

The Haynes Hines Rec Center costing more and more!

Once again, councilman Rangel reminded us all, that it's not Haynes Recreation Center,.....it's HINES. To make things worse, tonight's city council meeting also revealed that the filtration system for the center's swimming pool will cost 60,000 dollars more than was anticipated. 

Rangel, showing the true mark of a Laredo councilman, referred to the taxpayer's money as "My money". He said something to the effect that "Tito didn't leave me any money" and "I need 60,000 dollars fromy my fellow council members (for the filter).  Well, not to be outdone, council person Liendo-Espinoza donated $30,000 of "her" money and Johnny Rendon pitched in another $20,000 in pocket change.

Fox News Tweeter account hacked, disturbing tweets posted

From The Huffington Post

Was the Fox News Politics Twitter account (@foxnewspolitics) hacked?

Unusual activity on the news division's account seemed to suggest as much late on Sunday night. Later, additional tweets appeared falsely claiming that President Barack Obama was killed.

The account's icon had been changed from the Fox News Politics logo and featured the following new description: "H4CK3D BY TH3 5CR1PT K1DD3S."

UPDATE: Fox News released a statement confirming the hacking and adding that "the hacking is being investigated, and FoxNews.com regrets any distress the false tweets may have created."

Time to celebrate the "Forf of July" as they say in Laredo

Yeah!!!! Happy Forf of July Laredo!!

Ahh Laredo.  How unique a city we have-right down to the way we pronounce some of Holidays. Take tomorrow for example: It's no secret that while many Laredoans will be celebrating the traditional 4th of July Holiday, aka Independence day, some of their fellow citizens will instead be enjoying the "Forf of July" in their own ways.  I can remember way back to when I was about in the forf grade, more or less, that most of my Friends would always talk about blowing up "cuetes" during the "forf".

Other holidays have also undergone the Laredo "corruption" as linguists like to call it. When starting the year off, I've heard the exclamation "Happy JuNear"" more times than I remember.  The following month, of  course, we find ourselves " Happy Valentime's Day". Add to that, a sprinkling of "Jalowin" for good measure and you've got yourself another proud reason to say "Only in Laredo".