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LAW ENFORCEMENT
FEDERAL COURT
Common concerns
4 men accused of smuggling marijuana
Border sheriffs discuss security, funding, and more By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
Grant funding issues, information sharing and the gruesome case study of a baby raped and killed in Laredo were some of the topics covered Thursday during the Texas Border Sheriff ’s Coalition meeting held in Zapata County. Don Reay, Texas Border Sheriff ’s Coalition executive director, said sheriffs gathered to talk about issues their offices have due to the reduction in funding from the state. This translates into reduction of manpower
Funding is needed to have officers out on the field to secure the border ….funding allows authorities to buy state-of-the-art equipment and better protect the officers. “desperately” needed, Reay said. “Across the state, 39 positions were lost by the sheriffs that had been funded by grants on the border,” Reay said. Sheriffs are currently looking at ways to try to fund the coalition with other
than grants, for example, private money, he said. Zapata County Sheriff ’s Office Chief Raymundo del Bosque said the funding is needed to have officers out on the field to secure the border. In addition, the fund-
ing allows authorities to buy state-of-the-art equipment and better protect the officers. Sheriffs also heard a doctor talk about diseases in jail, for example tuberculosis. “Diseases can spread like crazy in our jails. That’s a major problem for our sheriffs because they are responsible for our jails,” Reay said. “Any training that the individual officer can pick up or that their managers can take back to their troops is a benefit to the entire community, not just to the jail population.”
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MUSIC HISTORY
SAVING MUSIC HISTORY
Photo by Jesse Mendoza/Valley Morning Star | AP
Lionel Betancourt, left, and Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum founder Ray Avila, right, are shown with donated record presses to be displayed at the museum’s new complex earlier this month in San Benito.
San Benito gives boost to conjunto hall of fame By FERNANDO DEL VALLE VALLEY MORNING STAR
SAN BENITO — Legends like Narciso Martinez and Freddy Fender sang into the old microphones that once stood in the legendary Ideal Recording Co. studio in San Benito. A tall Ampex Corp. recording
machine captured many of the classics of conjunto music’s pioneers on reel-to-reel tapes before three old Finebilt record presses stamped nickel-plated masters into vinyl recordings. Since the Ideal Recording Co. closed in 1988, the relics have gathered dust in storage rooms. Now, the city plans to build a
museum complex that will give the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame and Museum the space to showcase the artifacts in recreations of Ideal’s recording studio and record factory, said Rey Avila, the museum’s founder. “I’m ecstatic,” retired businessman Lionel Betancourt, who donated the artifacts to the
museum in 2008, told the Valley Morning Star of Harlingen. Betancourt said he ran the record company for about 10 years after his father, co-founder Paco Betancourt, died in 1971. “The museum wants to recre-
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PAGE 11A
By MATTHEW NELSON THE ZAPATA TIMES
Four men made their first appearance in federal court Wednesday in connection to the attempted smuggling of more than 700 pounds of marijuana two miles west of Hebbronville in Jim Hogg County. The arrest of Mario Alberto Escobedo, Carlos Manuel Vela, Jose Maria Rivera-Rodriguez and Erasmo Geronimo Mendoza on Jan. 5 netted Border Patrol 33 bundles of marijuana with a gross weight of more than 700 pounds. Border Patrol agents became suspicious of a gray Chevrolet truck discovered hidden in brush off of a dirt road after a black rubber mat was found in the bed of the truck. “U.S. Border Patrol agents in Hebbronville, Texas have recently encountered several trucks where smugglers use black rubber mats to conceal the marijuana bundles being transported in the bed of the truck,” the criminal complaint states. The agents hid in nearby brush and surveyed the area for two hours when they saw Rivera-Rodriguez and Mendoza enter and drive the truck a short distance to a black GMC truck where Vela, Escobedo and a third person who evaded apprehension were waiting. Vela observed as the other men loaded bundle after bundle into the Chevrolet until all were loaded and the black rubber mat was placed on top. At this point, the agents approached the men and identified themselves as Border Patrol, causing all but Vela to flee. The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the post-arrest interrogation, wherein Vela seemed to tell the only truthful story in that he admitted “he had agreed with others to facilitate the transportation” of the drugs to Houston, for which he expected $5,000. Escobedo said he stumbled upon the Chevrolet truck and intended to steal the marijuana. Rivera-Rodriguez and Mendoza stated they were undocumented immigrants headed to Houston and had no knowledge of the drugs. These statements, the complaint states, “contradict the actions seen by agents on that day.” All four men are scheduled to be in federal court Jan. 14 for a detention hearing. (Matthew Nelson may be reached at 728-2567 or mnelson@lmtonline.com)
PUBLIC EDUCATION
Number of failing schools nearly doubles Drop attributed to newer, higher education standards in the state’s accountability system for public schools ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — Texas education authorities said the number of schools falling short of minimum standards and placed on the Public Education Grant list doubled from 2012 because of newer, higher standards. The list released by the Texas Education Agency on Thursday includes a total of 892 schools in 2013, up from 456 in 2012.
TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson said that, “historically, when changes are made to the accountability system (the state uses to measure student performance), the number of schools that are included in the list tends to rise.” Over the years, TEA has added student groups or components to the accountability system. They have also increased the passing grades, Culbertson added. As schools and districts become more
familiar with the new system, the number of schools that fail to meet the standard begins to decline. To be included in the PEG list, at least half of a school’s students have to have failed the accountability tests in two of the three previous years or be rated academically unacceptable in 2011 or “Improvement Required” last year. Those are the lowest categories in the Texas Assessment of Knowl-
edge and Skills and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness test that was implemented in 2013. There were no accountability ratings given in 2012, however they can remain up to three years in the list. When a school is included in the list, its students are allowed to transfer to other campuses and even to different district. Schools receiving incoming students from
PEG-list campuses receive 10 percent more funding for each of those students. The new accountability system was implemented in August 2013, and focuses on overall student achievement and progress as well as how well schools help disadvantaged student groups close the performance gaps. It also measures the level of readiness schools give students for when they enter college or the work force.