Friday, February 13, 2015
www.ptrgv.com | 50 Cents
Chiefs say AG’s asset forfeiture reform won’t affect them
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By Julie Silva n years past, it just made good business sense for local police departments to go to the federal government when seizing cash, valuables and vehicles they believed was being used for illegal activity. The agencies did not have to pursue criminal charges to take ownership of the goods, called civil asset forfeitures. The assets became the defendants in the case, and if they called in the federal government, local agencies could keep 80 percent of the seizures and federal agencies kept 20 percent.
On a state level, former district attorney Rene Guerra requested 40 percent of the seizures, leaving local agencies with 60 percent. However, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder threw a curveball in the seizure process in January. Holder signed an order prohibiting the federal government from adopting forfeiture cases that do not relate to public safety concerns, like weapons and child pornography. One exception is if the federal agency is working on a joint investigation with local law enforcement officials. On the U.S.-Mexico border, the frontlines of human,
drug and money smuggling, those types of seizures happen daily and the profits, which must be spent for law enforcement purposes, can add up. Palmview Police Chief Chris Barrera recently reported to city officials that more than $1 million in seizures had been submitted to federal courts in different cases still pending. Barrera doesn’t believe Holder’s order will affect Palmview’s procedures. After attending a training workshop in San Antonio on asset forfeitures Tuesday, Barrera said Holder’s order applied more to agencies that conduct a lot of highway inter-
dictions outside of a federal task force. When Palmview makes a big bust on the highway, officers call in one of two investigators who are assigned to federal task forces, and those investigators involve the federal agencies from the beginning of the case, Barrera said. The city of Mission’s police force also has four officers assigned to federal task forces. Otherwise, Palmview will go through the state, and newly elected DA Ricardo Rodriguez has said he’s looking at tweaking the percentages. “We don’t want to take advantage of the municipal-
ities because of that,” Rodriguez said. “Obviously, forfeiture monies can be used in so many ways to have their office functioning and our office functioning as well. Of course, at the end of the day, they’ll keep more than what we would keep.” If Rodriguez follows through on lowering the percentage, Barrera said he’s sure the state office will see a larger workload because the turnaround on state cases is quicker than federal cases, which can get more complicated, crossing over into different jurisdictions in different states. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is still working
on cases dating back to 2006. In 2012, the city of Palmview, which has an annual budget of about $4 million, spent $345,000 on new police vehicles and $370,000 on building improvements, according to equitable sharing agreements filed with the federal government. The next year, the city spent another $72,000 on vehicles, $46,000 on vehicle equipment and $46,000 on radios, laptops, tablets and night vision goggles. All of it was purchased with money seized through civil asset forfeitures.
See COUNTY 14
‘Musica Alegre’
FULL-DAY PRE-K
Students from La Joya ISD showcase their conjunto roots at annual festival. Progress Times photo by Lea Victoria Juarez
La Joya showcases conjunto talent
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By Lea Victoria Juarez
Muñoz aims to reinstate early learning
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By Lea Victoria Juarez arciela Garza has her bilingual prekindergarten class planned down to the minute. First, the question of the day. Next, the alphabet. Then, students practice their vocabulary. “Vocabulary is very important,” Garza said. But each activity can only be done in about a 20-minute span because the 3 and 4-year-old students’ attention will start to waver. She reads the students the sentence of the day, reminding them how it’s structured – capital letter at the beginning, space between words, a period at the end of the sentence. She goes over the formation of the letters, how they sound – one day focusing on Spanish, the next day on English. Then, there’s music class, followed
by language arts again. The students repeat and respond, and before Garza knows it her morning is gone. “My mornings are very short,” said the William Clinton Elementary teacher. “I have to do it as fast as I can, so I can cover as much as I can.” The students have a routine and it usually takes them about six weeks to get it down, according to the teacher of six years. By the time these students reach kindergarten, they need to know letter names, their shapes and sounds. They should know how to write a proper sentence, count up to 20 and be able to identify shapes and colors. Although Garza said preparing her students for the next grade isn’t a difficult task, many teachers don’t
See FULL-DAY PRE-K 14
Marciela Garza’s La Joya prek class splits their morning language arts lesson with their music/physical education class. LJISD is one of the few districts in the state that kept a fullday prekindergarten program following state budget cuts in 2011. Progress Times photos by Lea Victoria Juarez
“We definitely want to put forward education initiatives that are beneficial not only to our district, but to our state as well.” – Sergio Muñoz
lthough some of the boys of La Joya High’s conjunto bands had a difficult time expressing in words how they feel about conjunto music, they had no problem huddling for an impromptu performance in their director’s office. Cecilio Garza counted them off on his guitar and the three student musicians fell in line with their instruments – one squeezing an accordion, the other slapping a bass and another plucking a 10-string guitar. “The sound, more than anything, it’s lively,” said Garza, the La Joya High School conjunto director. “The first stuff we started playing in the Valley was polkas, which we got from the Germans and the (Poles) and the Czechs. So we started doing our version of conjunto music, but really up-tempo. To me it’s musica alegre – happy music.” Local accordion players ages 21 or younger had the opportunity to showcase their talent at Texas Folklife’s ninth annual Big Squeeze contest at La Joya High Saturday. Each year the non-profit organization
“When I see these younger guys trying to execute our music, it excites me.” – Carlos Guzman
travels the Lone Star State in search for the top accordion players. This year, finalists will move on to perform at the Austin Bullock Texas State History Museum on April 25, where they will compete for a prize package valued at more than $4,000. South Texas natives made the German-rooted music their own circa 1950 to form the tejano subgenre. It’s an upbeat melody, with the organ-like accordion as the star in each piece. “In conjunto, the accordion, it becomes a part of you and you express yourself with it,” Garza said. Armando Gonzalez of La Joya’s JV conjunto band tested his talents at the Big Squeeze. The 15-year-old couldn’t gauge his performance and merely shrugged at the thought, but just because he has been playing for less than a year, doesn’t mean he wasn’t mentally prepared.
See MUSICA ALEGRE 14
INSIDE
New parks and rec director takes the reins
Mission hires Lupe Garcia, former Palmhurst city planner, to take the place of Julian Gonzalez, left to take job as Hidalgo city manager. See story page 3
INDEX
Entertainment | pg. 2
Lifestyle | pg. 6
Sesin new Drainage District manager
La Joya ISD super gets 5 percent bump in pay
During a special meeting on Monday, the Drainage District No. 1 Board of Directors appointed Raul Sesin, P.E., CFM as general manager. See story page 5
Opinion | pg. 4
Sports | pg. 8
After a rare split vote, school district board approves a salary increase, but declines to extend contract for Alda T. Benavides. See story page 3
Obituaries | pg. 13
Classifieds | pg. 15