Free Republic

It's hard for Donna Kaffenderger to imagine that anyone would hurt her dog Cookie. He's been part of the family for six years and not once, she said, has he ever bit or attacked anyone. "If he's barking at somebody, you never hear him growl,” she said. Kaffenderger said Cookie might not ever be able to see out of his left eye again, and she blames it on a Public Utilities Board meter reader. She was not home when it happened, but Kaffenderger said her daughter-in-law and neighbors report Cookie was outside on the street waiting for some family members...

Year-end boasts by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that New York is the safest big city in America can ring hollow in Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood where the cycle of violence, silence and retribution feels entrenched and where crime seems immune to strategies that have brought record lows across the city. A burst of gunfire on neighborhood streets this past summer typified the frustrating cycle. A baby boy was struck in the head by a stray bullet and killed as he sat in his stroller. His father, who police believe was the intended target, refused to help police identify the gunman. […]...

A South Korean man is behind bars in the Rio Grande Valley after being arrested in a failed to plot to smuggle Asian immigrants. U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 53-year-old Gwang Jun Han in Brownsville on Sunday evening. Federal court records show Han was involved in a disturbance with two men. Brownsville police detained three illegal immigrants from China and another one from South Korea at the scene. Border Patrol agents learned that one man at the scene had paid Han to smuggle two of his adult children from China. Han appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Morgan in Brownsville...

NEW YORK (AP) — A 1-year-old boy in a stroller was fatally shot in the face as his parents pushed him across a city street, and police continued looking for the gunman Monday. Antiq Hennis and his parents were walking across a street in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn at about 7:20 p.m. Sunday when shots were fired and the boy was hit, police said. Investigators have yet to determine who was the intended target, and no arrests have been made, police said Monday.

Mexican officials have condemned Saturday’s shooting of a Mexican citizen by a U.S. Border Patrol agent near Veterans International Bridge in Brownsville. The Mexican Foreign Relations Ministry has questioned the way the U.S. government handles security along the Southwest border. “The Mexican government has said once again that the disproportionate use of force for purposes of immigration enforcement is unacceptable under any circumstances,” the Foreign Ministry said. Juan Pablo Perez Santillán, 30, died Saturday morning on the banks of the Rio Grande, reportedly from a bullet fired by a U.S. Border Patrol agent on the Brownsville side of the river....

Mexican officials are condemning the shooting of a young Mexican citizen by a U.S. Border Patrol agent Saturday near Veteran International Bridge in Brownsville. The Mexican Foreign Relations Ministry has questioned the way the U.S. government handles security along the U.S.-Mexico border. The agency states the shooting happened Saturday near the Veterans International Bridge in Brownsville. It also reports the Mexican Consulate in Brownsville is assisting the young man’s family in having the incident investigated. Two Border Patrol agents, in separate incidents, fired off their service weapons in self defense Saturday morning after coming under attack, authorities said. One agent...

As Texas appears to be getting more serious about enticing SpaceX to build a spaceport near Brownsville an environmental group has stepped forward to oppose the project.At issue is the threat of “noise, heat, vibration, fencing and hazardous material spills” from the proposed spaceport that could lower the value of nearby Boca Chica Park and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Natural Wildlife Refuge.Here’s the full text of a news release issued today by Environment Texas: Environment Texas launched a petition drive today to stop the proposed construction of a spaceport on private land almost completely surrounded by a south Texas...

The Matamoros office of the National Chamber of Commerce of Mexico has issued, for the second time, an advisory for travel to South Texas, particularly Brownsville. “It is because of the violent event that happened this past Sunday at Sunrise Mall, where a shooting took place, as well as many other events of extreme violence taking place in the (Rio Grande) Valley,” the statement from the chamber said. It said it was issuing the alert for businessmen and Mexican nationals and stated that people “should take maximum precaution and avoid as much as possible being out late at night.” Roberto...

On Sunday afternoon, a motorist spotted a suspicious device along U.S. Expressway 77/83 in Brownsville and reported it to police. The device turned out to be an improvised explosive device. The expressway was shut down for about three hours Sunday, as the bomb squad “rendered the device safe," Brownsville police spokesman Eddie Garcia said. It is still unknown exactly how the explosive device ended up on the roadway, but IEDs are sometimes used by the drug cartels in their ongoing war. Of course, drug gangs are battling one another just across the border in Matamoros. According to an April 13th...

TORONTO — A retired Ontario couple who spent the winter touring Mexico in a Winnebago says their years of police training helped them fend off eight gunmen during an ambush near the U.S. border. Jack and Eileen Appleton were a few miles from the bridge that would take them from Matamoros to Brownsville, Texas last Thursday when a gold SUV sped up beside them and a man wearing a balaclava and waving a rifle ordered the Canadians to pull over. That's when their police instincts kicked in -- both the Niagara Falls residents spent 26 years in law enforcement. As...

A Brownsville man pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the 1998 shooting deaths of three teens. Ricardo Hernandez appeared before Judge Arturo Nelson in the 138th State District Court on Friday morning. Hernandez, who went by the nickname "El Boy," was accused in 1998 deaths of 14-year-old Jason Sexton, 18-year-old Roberto Moreno and 19-year-old Ricardo Mata. Hernandez was only 15 years old at the time of the triple murder but later certified to be tried as an adult in the case. Hernandez is an American citizen but was arrested in Mexico back in March...

Brownsville and McAllen are among America's least intelligent cities, according to a survey released late last week. A survey by the website portfolio.com, ranked the two Rio Grande Valley cities among America's dumbest. Using new data released by the U.S. Census bureau, the website look at the average level of higher education obtained by the residents in 200 cities or metropolitan statistical areas. Education levels were matched to income. Boulder, Colorado ranked number 1 in the USA in terms of intelligence while Modesto, California ranked number 200. Brownsville ranked 198 out of 200 while McAllen-Edinburg ranked 199 out of 200....

Under new changes to the ban on plastic bags in Brownsville, shoppers will be charged an extra dollar for every transaction in which they use plastic bags after the ban goes into effect. Starting January 5, the use of plastic bags will be banned inside the Brownsville city limits in effort to go green. "We want to have a beautiful city,” Commissioner Edward Camarillo said. “We want to make sure that we take care of the environment." The surcharge would be handed out by the stores.

An enraged Japanese guard, the flaps of his hat flying into the air, charges with his bayonet toward an exhausted American soldier on the ground. In other works by Ben Steele, a Japanese soldier strikes a captured American across the face with the butt of his rifle, several guards stand over a withered American digging his own grave, and GIs drink from a mud hole. Copies of these works are currently on display at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art. "I just kind of want to give people an idea of what went on over there," said the 92-year-old Steele...

Note: The following text is a quote: Somalian Charged with Making False Statements on Application for Asylum Defendant is Accused of Making False Statements Concerning Participation in Terrorist Organizations United States Attorney John E. Murphy announced that in San Antonio, a federal grand jury has indicted 24-year-old Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, a citizen of Somalia, on two counts of making false statements under penalty of perjury to federal authorities concerning his association with global terrorist organizations. The indictment, returned yesterday and unsealed this afternoon, alleges that on October 28, 2008, the defendant falsely omitted on an application for asylum that from...

A group of illegal immigrants from two East African nations and and two Asian nations are expected to face a federal judge Monday morning. Border Patrol agents caught the eight immigrants near Brownsville over the Halloween weekend. Court records show Border Patrol agents caught three Eritrean immigrants after they allegedly crossed the Rio Grande on Friday. Another group of immigrants from Nepal, China and Ethiopia was caught early Sunday morning after they waded across the Rio Grande late Saturday night. Court records identified the immigrants as: Goitom Messazgi-Araya (Eritrea) Tedros Ghide-Ketema (Eritrea) Merhawi Zemichael-Gebremedhn (Eritrea) Salikram Bishwokarma (Nepal) Yu Gao...

A Brownsville man, who called himself Don Juan, and his girlfriend have pleaded guilty to smuggling undocumented immigrants into the United States to prostitute them. Juan Luis Coronado, 37, aka Juan Hernandez, and Lee Ann Zieger, aka as Lee Ann Motilla, 40, entered the guilty pleas Wednesday, the same day their trial was scheduled to begin. Coronado pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to import a minor for prostitution purposes. Zieger, also of Brownsville, pleaded guilty to two counts of harboring aliens for prostitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The two will be sentenced Dec. 8. Coronado remained in...

BROWNSVILLE — Stray bullets from a shootout across the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, pierced a building and a car Friday at the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, prompting university police to close campus early. No one at the university was injured. "There has been report of a shooting incident on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River and it has posed a problem to the Riverside campus. Individuals in the Education and Business Complex, the new Library and the new Classroom Building on University Blvd. should leave the area. All others on campus should avoid this area and...

Amid negotiations with Brownsville on the proposed border fence between the city and Matamoros, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security moved Tuesday to take possession of the city-owned land for construction of the fence. DHS on Tuesday filed a motion in federal court here for possession of 15,919 acres of land. City Attorney Mark Sossi said it would be premature to comment on DHS' move and that he needs to speak with the City Commission first. City Commissioner Charlie Atkinson said that DHS is acting in bad faith and is trying to "bully" the city from the land that would...

State health officials say the boy was traveling with family to visit relatives. He traveled from Mexico City ity to Matamoros, and arrived in Brownsville April 4. After developing flu-like symptoms, he was hospitalized on April 13 and transferred the next day to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The boy came to Brownsville's Valley Baptist Medical Center at 1:30am on April 13. He was feverish and having some breathing troubles. Doctors there diagnosed him with pneumonia. The next day, doctors sent him to Texans Children's Hospital in Houston by helicopter. But we learned Wednesday that would be his second trip...