Free Republic

The death of William F. Buckley Jr. last week brought several calls with reminders of his connection to South Texas. His grandfather, John Buckley, came to Duval County in 1874 from Ontario, Canada. He was involved in raising sheep. Back then, South Texas was sheep country. John Buckley, the patriarch of the family, ran for sheriff of Duval County as a Democrat in 1888. He lost to Republican L.L. Wright. Buckley sued for fraud, claiming that forces loyal to Wright failed to count votes from precincts favoring Buckley. He also charged that Wright brought in illegal voters from Nueces and...

A twice-convicted rapist facing life in prison remained at large Thursday after dashing through an unlocked door at the Jim Hogg County Sheriff's Office late Tuesday night. Abel Morin, 24, of San Diego, Texas, who was sentenced to five concurrent life terms in prison on Monday, has not been spotted since he escaped shortly before midnight in Hebbronville while being moved between cells. Morin was being held in Hebbronville as part of a problem prisoner exchange agreement between Jim Hogg and Duval counties. He escaped hours after being returned to Hebbronville by Duval County deputies. "My officers took him and...

Not one of the 11 East Texans who approached the podium at Wednesday's hearing on Interstate 69 voiced support for the planned highway. "This is highway robbery, and we should not pursue this project," said David Simpson, a Longview resident and fifth-generation Texan. "This process has bypassed the Constitution. It has bypassed the U.S. Congress, and I'm opposed to it because of the unconstitutional way that it has been pushed through." The public hearing, held at Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center, was a chance for residents to comment and ask questions about Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor. The corridor would extend...

Interfere and you will be arrested, Duval sheriff says Duval County Sheriff Santiago Barrera acknowledges he threatened to arrest two newspaper reporters last week, saying one angered him with behavior Barrera described as arrogant. Nicole Perez, managing editor of the Alice Echo-News Journal, has lodged a complaint with the county attorney. She said Barrera's anger is about her newspaper's coverage of his contested sheriff's race. The incident began Jan. 29 after two inmates in the county jail apparently barricaded themselves in a cell and repeatedly flushed a clogged toilet to cause flooding. Reporters, Chris Maher of the Echo-News Journal and...

Four Duval County residents have been indicted by a Brooks County grand jury and charged with illegally handling ballot applications and mail-in ballots that belonged to other voters during the 2006 primary election, according to the state attorney general's office. The charge of possessing and handling the ballot of another person is a Class B misdemeanor, a violation of the Texas Election Code. The four San Diego residents indicted Thursday were Lydia Molina, 70; Maria "Kena" Soriano, 71; Elva Lazo, 62; and Maria Trigo, 55. The four are accused of delivering mail-in ballot applications to numerous residents in Duval County,...

High turnout prompts a probe by secretary of state SAN DIEGO - A dead man sending off for a mail-in ballot for the March primary was just one of the clues that brought investigators from the Texas attorney general's office to Duval County. Assistant District Attorney Jon West had only been on the job for about three months when the voter fraud allegations started surfacing. The post office returned several rejected mail-in ballot applications to residents who said that they had not sent them. And in one case, a woman complained that her father could not have sent a mail-in...

John Stafford, Duval County's Supervisor Of Elections, has sent a letter to the Governor saying he was resigning for medical reasons effective today.

Firstcoastnews.com Bush leads Kerry in UNF poll By First Coast News Staff JACKSONVILLE, FL -- A University of North Florida poll shows President George W. Bush leading Senator John Kerry in the presidential race in Duval County. 54 percent of voters surveyed said they would vote for the Bush/Cheney ticket if the election were held today. 37 percent said they would vote for the Democratic ticket of Kerry/Edwards. Only 2 percent of those surveyed said they would vote for Ralph Nader, while 7 percent said they would vote for someone else and were undecided. The poll also asked voters about...