Free Republic

San Antonio - Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis and two top lieutenants met recently with several San Antonio officials to discuss the potential of moving his NFL team from the Bay Area to the Alamo City, local leaders involved in the talks confirmed Tuesday.

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro faced kid glove treatment from the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Development Committee, Tuesday, with questions mostly focused on what his plans might be and his position on GSE reform should he take over the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The next step is a vote before the committee, which is not scheduled, which would be followed by a vote on the full Senate floor. Castro was tapped by the White House to replaced outgoing HUD secretary Shaun Donovan, despite the fact that Castro has little executive experience and a controversial history mismanaging HUD...

Sen. John Cornyn is the Senate’s No. 2-ranking Republican. But Tuesday morning he preferred the role of No. 1 Texan. Cornyn gave a Lone Star State welcome to Julian Castro, introducing the San Antonio mayor at the start of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee for the post of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. President Barack Obama tapped Castro, a Democrat now serving his third term, on May 23 to oversee the department. Cornyn has said that he does not expect any opposition to Castro’s confirmation, and his move to introduce Castro hints...

President Barrack Obama nominated San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on May 23rd in spite of his city’s alleged misuse of funds from that same federal department. The acceptance of the nomination by Castro marks a departure in the navigational path of this rapidly rising Democrat rising star. The Washington Post reported on May 23rd that this move may signal the Democrats plan to turn Texas blue may be struggling under the leadership of Wendy Davis and Castro now needs to find another pathway to the top of a Democrats future presidential ticket....

The San Antonio Spurs clinched their fifth NBA title in franchise history Sunday night, and the championships have all come since the team drafted Tim Duncan with the first overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft. The five titles are the fourth most in NBA behind only the Boston Celtics (17), Los Angeles Lakers (16) and Chicago Bulls (6). Third-year forward Kawhi Leonard won the NBA Finals MVP. The Spurs have the highest winning percentage in major pro sports since 1997 and the team has not won fewer than 60% of its game in any season since drafting Duncan. The...

SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Spurs won their fifth NBA championship, beating the Miami Heat 104-87 on Sunday night to win the series in five games. Kawhi Leonard had 22 points and 10 rebounds for the Spurs, who added this title to the ones they won in 1999, 2003, '05 and '07. They nearly had another last year, but couldn't hold off the Heat and lost in seven games. The rematch was no match at all. San Antonio rebounded from an early 16-point deficit by outscoring the Heat 37-13 from the start of the second quarter to midway in...

A video of the remarkable San Antonio Spurs recently went viral on YouTube. It features several minutes of alluring, creative, and unselfish basketball of the sort that companies and teams engaged in all kinds of different pursuits can learn from, of the sort that was on full display Tuesday night in the Spurs' convincing win over the Miami Heat in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.The Spurs are, of course, in the midst of a jaw-dropping 15-year run, and much of the credit for the organization’s success goes to its leadership, especially its cantankerous yet endearing head coach, Gregg “Pop” Popovich,...

Since May 18, the Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas has been home to 1,000 illegal immigrant children, according to a report by the San Antonio Express-News. The decision to utilize the base comes as an overwhelming number of young people have been caught crossing the Mexican/U.S. border during recent months. Children and teens brought to Lackland will be provided with education, foster care programs, and "behavioral treatment centers." The projected cost of such programs, as well as the cost of the housing, has not been disclosed to U.S. taxpayers. The federal government was forced to utilize Lackland...

San Antonio failed to properly spend funds approved by Congress to combat the housing crisis while President Barack Obama’s expected nominee to run the Housing and Urban Development Department was mayor of the city, according to a 2012 report from the agency’s inspector general.The report could be a blemish on the record of San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, a rising star in the Democratic party whose consideration for a spot in the cabinet is seen as a way to burnish his national political profile.

WASHINGTON — President Obama is preparing to nominate Mayor Julián Castro of San Antonio as his new secretary of housing and urban development, elevating one of his party’s Hispanic rising stars as part of a cabinet shuffle that has possible implications for the 2016 presidential race, Democrats informed about the plans said on Saturday. [snip] Some of Mr. Castro’s allies also believe that with income inequality becoming a focal point for Democrats, the HUD job offers the mayor an opportunity to burnish his credentials on issues of poverty and to raise his appeal among those on the party’s left. The...

President Obama on Friday appointed longtime White House aide Kristie Canegallo as deputy chief of staff for policy implementation, to oversee issues that include the continuing rollout of the Affordable Care Act and better integration of technology in classrooms. The move, which comes three days before senior White House health-care adviser Phil Schiliro will step down, aims to institutionalize some of the changes chief of staff Denis McDonough made in the wake of the health-care law’s botched debut last fall. [....] Unlike many of Obama’s top advisers, who came to their jobs through politics, Canegallo started as a civilian Pentagon...

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro is about to be tapped by President Barrack Obama to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This is the second time Obama will have asked Castro to serve in his administration. The move for Castro comes at a time where a big game of musical chairs is going on in the Obama Cabinet. Castro will be asked to replace HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, who is expected to move to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Mayor Julián Castro is expected to leave his third term in office early to become HUD secretary for President Barack Obama. Mayor Julián Castro (center) with his brother, Joaquín Castro, are interviewed in Time Warner Arena as they prepare for the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., on Sept. 3, 2012.

Hillary Rodham Clinton brings a quarter-century of public service to her potential presidential campaign, but it’s her most recent job as secretary of state for President Obama — overseeing relations with Russia, handling the terrorist attack in Benghazi and negotiating over the war on terrorism — that could come back to haunt her. Many of Mr. Obama’s current political problems also could affect Mrs. Clinton, including the handling of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the decision not to slap the terrorist label on Boko Haram, a group responsible for kidnapping hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls last month. Even the Keystone XL...

San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro wants President Barack Obama to give temporary amnesty to illegal immigrants whose family members are U.S. citizens. Castro, considered a potential vice presidential candidate for Democrats in 2016, believes Obama should extend the deferred action even more to those over 30 years of age and who may not have come to the country as children. "We should look at people who have been here for more than ten years, who do not have a serious criminal record and who have family members who are United States citizens," Castro said in an interview before his debate...

Photo: Alma E. Hernandez, For The San Antonio Express News Henry Vichique, shown with his pregnant wife, above, is the 19 year old man who was tased by police for carrying a WWII Russian rifle in a San Antonio residential neighborhood while walking home.  From the Houston Chronicle: San Antonio police arrested him March 30 while he was walking home with a loaded Russian World War II-vintage rifle slung across his shoulder. The event occurred after dark.   Police at the scene told Henry that people had reported that he had been pointing the rifle at others.   Henry replied that...

Dan Patrick and Julian Castro Immigration Debate http://kut.org/post/rewatch-dan-patrick-and-julian-castro-immigration-debate BY MATT LARGEY 4/15/2014 KUT.ORG State Senator and GOP Lt. Governor candidate Dan Patrick faced off against San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro in a televised debate over immigration tonight at 6pm. The debate was moderated by the Texas Tribune's Evan Smith.

SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio police arrested a woman on a murder charge late Thursday after a detective said she deleted call records or text messages while being questioned about a fatal shooting earlier in the day. Sara Mary Clements, 24, eventually admitted to being with Alex Navarro, 22, on Thursday at about 1:30 a.m. and said “police were going to find out about her anyway because of the text messages she had sent” to Navarro, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

It was difficult to miss Ian Jacobson at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Known as Rooster, he was 33, with an ample beard, earrings and a towering orange-and-aqua spiked Mohawk haircut. But he also sported a pinstriped suit, French cuffs and a natty contrast collar. Mr. Jacobson’s sartorial contradictions matched those of his politics: He is among the young Republicans who are pro-free market on fiscal issues and libertarian on social ones. While his views represent a potential growth wing for a party that is losing among other demographic groups, they also show an emerging tension with the older social...

SAN ANTONIO — A man who was attacked after leaving a bar on the Northwest Side early Friday might have been a victim of the knockout game. Cody Robinson, 30, said he had just arrived at his car after leaving the España Bar de Tapas, at 5638 W. Hausman Road, around 2 a.m. when an unidentified man punched him in the face and shouted “knockout.” The knockout game is a random act of violence in which an assailant attempts to knock out a person with one punch. According to the Associated Press, the game has resulted in serious injuries, even...