Free Republic

Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S. of San Antonio has shown the kind of leadership so badly needed in this election season. When the oxymoronic Catholics of Choice published a advertisement in the San Antonio newspaper (September 12), Archbishop Garcia-Siller answered with the following broadside. This statement has the ring of a bishop who has had enough of the nonsense and wants to set the record straight. Thank you Archbishop Garcia-Siller! (Italics are added for emphasis.) ARCHDIOCESE RESPONDS TO CATHOLICS FOR CHOICE ADVERTISEMENT IN SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS An organization called Catholics for Choice placed a full-page advertisement in the Sept. 12 edition...

AUSTIN, TX -- Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been released after four nights in the hospital for treatment of severe burns he suffered while vacationing last week. Spokesman Matt Hirsch said Abbott left San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center on Friday and is returning to the governor's mansion in Austin. Abbott, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair, sustained extensive second- and third-degree burns on his lower legs and feet after being scalded July 7 while in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. His office won't say exactly how he was burned.

(CNN)Gunfire hit the San Antonio police headquarters, leaving bullet marks on the building and shell casings in a nearby alley, authorities said. San Antonio police are investigating reports of a suspect seen fleeing from the alley, Police Chief William McManus said. McManus said police got a call late Saturday night about shots fired. Officers canvassed the area, and found holes on the building and multiple shell casings. No one was injured, but police officers inside heard gunshots strike the building, he said. http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/10/us/san-antonio-police-headquarters-shooting/

SAN ANTONIO - Next Friday is the day Donald Trump makes a pit stop in San Antonio. It's a private fundraiser at the Oak Hills Country Club, the same week as the Texas Democratic Convention and already several protests are in the works. Activists are making it loud and clear they don't support the candidate. "Donald Trump is not welcome in San Antonio," said Jaime Martinez, Chairman of the Cezar Chavez Foundation Board....

Has anybody noticed how quickly HUD Secretary Julian Castro has FADED as a possible VP pick for Hillary Clinton? Last year he was considered to be the VP-in-waiting but now we are getting a bunch of stories about possible Hillary running mates, and poor Julian is barely mentioned. I think Julian's fade began with a Politico story a few months ago in which Castro was portrayed as a complete lightweight. Perhaps Team Hillary inspected Julian closely and discovered a Beta Male who would wither in debate with a Republican VP pick. I do know his tenure as mayor of San...

Law enforcement responded to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas on Friday on reports of an active shooter. The Bexar County Sheriff posted on Twitter about the reports at 9:50 a.m., ET. Sheriff tweet. About 25 minutes later, the same account said officials were working to clear the base's buildings. Sheriff tweet 2. Soon after, the Sheriff's account said "we have victims" at the still active scene.

SAN ANTONIO - The Bexar County Sheriff's Office and the San Antonio Police Department are responding to reports of an active shooter at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Air Force Base. There are reports that the base is presently on lockdown. More News Headlines Man wounded in Northeast Side shooting Fugitive in Atascosa County shooting surrenders Man accused of shooting girlfriend, burning car sought by US Marshals The incident occurred around 8:45 a.m. KSAT 12 has learned Valley High Elementary School of the Northside Independent School District, located in the 8500 block of Ray Ellison Boulevard, is also on lockdown as...

On March 6th, one of the most significant events in the history of not only our state, but our country, will be commemorated: the Battle of the Alamo. Why is this battle so important? I think because it shows just how much we Americans value our freedoms and what we will sacrifice to preserve them. At the Alamo, 189 documented defenders took on thousands of Mexican troops, a turning point in the Texas Revolution. Battle at the AlamoThe valiant “Texians” held on for 12 days, finally being annihilated on the 13th day, March 6. The event motivated the Texians, and...

The next few city council meetings in Crystal City, TX are going to be pretty quiet. On Thursday, FBI agents arrested a majority of the town's top officials, including the mayor, mayor pro tempore, city manager, and a current city council member, as well as a former council member, The Washington Post reports. FBI agents also arrested Ngoc Tri Nguyen, an alleged gambling operator, nicknamed "Mr. T." A federal indictment (PDF) accused the town officials of taking thousands of dollars in bribes, and of helping Nguyen run the illegal gambling operation. Ricardo Lopez, Crystal City's mayor, was accused of accepting...

Federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that a grand jury has indicted five men on kidnapping conspiracy charges related to a January incident involving cross-border drug trafficking and torture. Charged in the indictment, and each facing life in prison if convicted, were Crystal City residents Heriberto Macias Diaz, David Perez and William Davalos, and San Antonio residents Leroy Guerra Garcia and Mark Anthony Jiminez. The men are accused of conspiring to kidnap a Pearsall tow truck driver and taking him to Piedras Negras, where he was tortured and threatened with death, all to find the location of missing drug money, according to...

The San Antonio Observer responded to backlash Sunday by walking back its threat to publish the names and addresses of every police officer in the city. Stephanie Zarriello, the Observer’s publisher and editor-in-chief, made the strongly worded threat while speaking Saturday at a news conference following the death of Antronie Scott, an unarmed man shot and killed by an SAPD officer, a local Fox affiliate reported. “We at the San Antonio Observer newspaper are looking into the future prospects of publicizing the names and the addresses of all San Antonio Police Department officers in order to protect our community,” Ms....

The president appears more willing to burst into song after some rave reviews for his rendition of Amazing Grace. During a conversation about Obamacare in Tennessee, President Obama took a question from a man named Davy Crockett. “You don’t have a beaver cap,” Obama said to the man as he asked about about pushing through his application for social security. “Y’all remember that TV show? Actually a lot of people are too young here,” he said before singing a few bars of the tune. (Video)

British pop star Phil Collins on Tuesday handed over his vast collection of artifacts related to the Battle of the Alamo and the Texas Revolution to the state of Texas. Collins was in San Antonio to donate what's considered the world's largest private collection of Alamo artifacts. It includes a fringed leather pouch and a gun used by Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie's legendary knife and letters from garrison commander William B. Travis. "There's things in there that will make your mouth drop," Collins said. The 1980s pop artist and Genesis singer-drummer has joked that he spent all the money he...

Few Bee County residents were as anxious to see the release of the new Disney movie “The Alamo” as members of the local Benavides family. The reason was the Benavideses wanted to see how their ancestor, Gregorio Esparza, was portrayed in the motion picture. For them, Esparza has been a link to the past that many family members did not understand until a few years ago. George Benavides, who grew up here before moving to Austin, had heard his grandmother tell the stories of having an ancestor who fought and died at the Alamo. However, he had assumed his great-great-great-great-grandfather...

The legend of Davy Crockett, the buckskin-clad 'King of the Wild Frontier,' has been cast into doubt by new claims that his fabled last stand at the Alamo may have only lasted 20 minutes. For 175 years, the Battle of the Alamo has been one of America's most cherished historical events. Celebrated in song, story and cinema, the story of heroism against all the odds helped define the young nation's pursuit of liberty. But, according to a new book, the brave last stand depicted by Hollywood stars like John Wayne was a myth. In reality, author Phillip Thomas Tucker claimed...

Texans cherish the memory of Davy Crockett's heroic death at the Alamo in 1836 but few know what led him there or why he fought so valiantly. Throughout his life, Davy Crockett was renowned for his love of liberty and fierce loyalty to the Constitution. Originally a Democrat, Crockett found he could no longer identify with the party's positions which he believed were straying from our country's founding principles. As a man who believed in individual liberty and the principle of congressional restraint this shift was unacceptable to him. He left the party in 1833 and joined the Whig party...

SAN ANTONIO — Norman Kleiss lives in a modest apartment in San Antonio. When I first reached him on the telephone, I almost started to shake. It was like going back in time. I could hear the engines roar over the Pacific Ocean; the tide of World War II was about to change. “So you want to talk about the Battle of Midway?” Kleiss asked. Boy, did I. It’s incredible that still living among us is this amazing American war hero. Norman Jack “Dusty” Kleiss is 99 years old. What did he do in the war? With fuel running low,...

The head of the Republican Party of Bexar County had a very odd way of criticizing Hillary Clinton for her flip-flop on immigration reform. Robert Stovall told San Antonio’s KENS 5 that Clinton’s endorsement of comprehensive immigration reform is disingenuous, but then took it a step further (emphasis mine): “It’s disingenuous for her to come to South Texas and Bexar County, for us to trust her when she’s constantly flip-flopping on these issues. On one side, Hillary and the Democrats are now pro-immigrant. On the other side, Republicans have evolved into the most anti-immigrant group of people that you...

Officers Chapa and Galindo were charged with compelling prostitution, aggravated sexual assault and official oppression. "(The victim said) she was promised money for working under cover. This led to her having sexual intercourse with two individuals who she later identified as Galindo and Chapa," the complaint said. The woman told Live Oak police investigators she was put into contact with another man who set her up to meet with a third man. She said that man told her her job would be "catching terrorists." He told her he needed to perform a series of tests -- from drinking alcohol to...

The Pentagon has responded to a globally-released ‘Kill List’, asking law enforcement to give extra protection for military personnel whose personal information was released,News Channel 10 reports. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports the Pentagon spent the weekend notifying the soldiers who appeared on the list, and urged city police departments and military police to increase patrol in the neighborhoods where the targeted live. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) published the list days ago, a report that contained names, photos, and home addresses of U.S. Armed Forces personnel, causing alarm in cities potentially at high-risk....