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A former Cameron County employee has been sentenced to jail time after he abused official capacity and tampered with government records. Raul Salazar was found guilty of the charges last month, and he was sentenced to 10 months in jail today. He was an administrative assistant to Cameron County Commissioner Ernie Hernandez. Salazar helped Hernandez's brother-in-law, Roberto Cadriel, by providing him the answers to an exam. Cadriel memorized the answers to the exam, passed, and was hired as a security guard. "Public corruption is public enemy number one in Cameron County," District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said in a statement....

The outcome of the Cameron County judge’s race became even more controversial on Monday with the discovery of 69 votes that were left off the final recount tally for the Nov. 2 general election. With the additional votes, the unofficial results have Republican incumbent Judge Carlos Cascos ahead of Democratic challenger John Wood by 64 votes. Wood, Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner, was previously reported to have pulled ahead of Cascos by five votes on Nov. 14 after it was discovered by election workers that a second tally sheet from polling Pct. 54 had not been added to the final...

Discrepancy attributed to clerical error Although discrepancies remain in the manual recount of votes for Cameron County judge, authorities said an investigation into the matter does not suggest any criminal act. Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos said his office was asked to look into the situation and after taking affidavits and questioning Election Administrator Roger Ortiz and other election staff it appears that no criminal wrongdoing occurred. “At this point there is no criminal investigation that would affect the voting or that would affect the Elections Department,” Villalobos said Wednesday. What it boils down to is a “clerical error”...

BROWNSVILLE - After getting his first glimpse of what the border fence will look like in Cameron County, County Judge Carlos Cascos said it was bad, but not as bad as he feared. "I was expecting a lot worse," Cascos said Saturday. "Everybody has been calling it a border wall. Well, it doesn't look like a wall; it looks like a fence." Bollard fences and picket fences will be used in some areas. A "floating fence" is planned for other areas, according to information supplied to the county last week by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Bollards are like...

U.S. Highway 281 Presentation >> Priority 1: Spend $75 million to build five overpasses in Falfurrias.>> Priority 2: A $13 million Ben Bolt overpass at Farm-to-Market Road 2508 is proposed to create a safer school zone and eliminate another traffic barrier.>> Priority 3: Dedicate anywhere from $40 million to $104 million to build tolled relief route around Premont or upgrade the existing route with tolled freeway lanes.>> Priority 4: A $50 million project in George West to build connectors to U.S. Highway 59 and Interstate 37.McALLEN -- Whether the route is eventually called Interstate 69 or the Trans-Texas Corridor, four...

South Texas is not only going to get its first interstate - it is also going to get a second and a third. State transportation officials knew one of three southern highways - U.S. Highway 281 in Hidalgo County, U.S. Highway 77 in Cameron County or U.S. Highway 59 in Webb County - would eventually become part of an interstate stretching from the Texas-Mexico border to Texarkana, in the northeast part of the state. Only Webb County is currently served by an interstate. The state's Trans-Texas Corridor plan calls for an Interstate 69 extension linking South Texas to points north,...

McALLEN — In other parts of the state, transportation officials try to allay property owners' fears that a superhighway from Laredo north to Texarkana will result in a massive land grab. But in the lower Rio Grande Valley, the state's road builders spend more time assuring local leaders that they have a shot at being included. People in the fast-growing border area between Brownsville and McAllen have developed something of an inferiority complex about being the state's largest metropolitan area without an interstate highway. One after another, Valley leaders stepped to a microphone at public meetings last week and made...

WESLACO — Nearly 80 people filled a lecture hall here Thursday for a town hall forum with Texas Department of Transportation officials on a potential interstate highway designation in the region. The forum at South Texas College’s Mid-Valley Campus was the first of four planned public meetings in the Rio Grande Valley addressing the state’s Trans-Texas Corridor plan for an Interstate 69 extension linking South Texas to points north. TxDOT is developing plans for the first interstate in eastern Texas to connect Texarkana to one of three points in the south: U.S. Highway 281 in Hidalgo County, U.S. Highway 77...

Some Texans are afraid of losing their land to the Trans-Texas Corridor while others loathe the thought of a quarter-mile-wide swath of toll roads and railway lines transforming the countryside into a superhighway. People continue to turn out in droves at public meetings concerning the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor proposal, specifically the portion known as the TTC-69 proposed from Brownsville to Texarkana. A meeting Monday, Jan. 28, at the fairgrounds in Austin County was no exception, drawing more than 1,000 people. Opposition to the proposed corridor has come from people in all walks of life, said Chris Steinbach, chief of staff...

When the Texas Department of Transportation begins work on the I-69/Trans Texas Corridor, the U.S. 77 leg from Victoria to Brownsville will be developed first. Cameron County Commissioners revealed the information during Tuesday’s Cameron County Commissioners Court meeting. County officials received the news from the state’s Turnpike Authority Division on Monday. In a letter to Cameron County, Turnpike Authority Division Director Phillip E. Russell said, TXDOT has identified U.S. 77 as “high priority” and the “first near term facility to be developed under the I-69/TTC Comprehensive Development Agreement.” The U.S. 77 Highway runs from Victoria to Brownsville. Precinct 3 Commissioner...

A large tent will house up to 32 inmates outside the Cameron County Jail. A tent city jail built at the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito failed an inspection Thursday morning. City of Brownsville building inspectors in conjunction with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards did not allow the outdoor jail to open. Evaristo Gamez, director of the city’s Building Inspection Department, and Adan Muñoz, Texas Commission on Jail Standards’ executive director, told Sheriff Omar Lucio that before the tent city can open a flexible conduit must cover an exposed electrical wire that runs along the top of the tent...

Sheriff says he wants it up and running in three weeks — A plan by Sheriff Omar Lucio to temporarily house non-violent prisoners in a tent work camp was approved Tuesday by Cameron County commissioners. The 48 prisoners to be housed in a large Army tent will be volunteers with records of non-violent offenses such as non-payment of child support or writing hot checks, Lucio said. Only participants in the Prisoners at Work program who perform community projects around the county — such as park improvements — will be housed in the tent, he said. “We have space for 1,390...

Lucio wants facility for 96 prisoners serving time for non-violent offenses OLMITO - Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio is asking county and state leaders for approval to build a "tent city" to temporarily house inmates and alleviate overcrowding at local jails. Lucio said county officials recently approved converting a Sheriff's Department warehouse into a 400-bed detention facility for non-violent offenders, but added that existing facilities are strained. If approved, it would be the only such facility for Texas prisoners. Department figures show that the four county jails have a combined capacity to house 1,390 inmates. Lucio said the facilities are...

Villalobos looks into ‘red flags’ on bridge project — A team of county and state investigators will delve into a spending report on the Port of Brownsville’s commercial bridge project that consumed $21.4 million in taxpayers’ money but never materialized. The investigation, conducted by the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office and a Texas Ranger, will look into “red flags” that surfaced when authorities discovered the firm that headed the project set up contracts with stockholders and corporations it does business with. District Attorney Armando Villalobos referred to the act as “self dealing,” and said the case will be brought before...

In the public eye, Conrado Cantu had it all. The former Cameron County sheriff was often described as charismatic, a man with a firm handshake and a popular catchphrase “Animo” — meaning cheer and encouragement — that became synonymous with his own name. He had politicians by his side, voters on their feet, a badge and a fleet of law enforcement officials at the ready. But the brass badge that adorned his chest was used to shield political allies and drug traffickers, federal investigators are alleging. It helped the former lawman collect a percentage of drug profits and shake down...

BROWNSVILLE, —- A sheriff’s deputy slammed shut the gate at Conrado Cantu’s home Wednesday as federal agents left with property collected for an ongoing investigation that has landed the former lawman in jail. Federal authorities arrested ex-Sheriff Cantu, his former captain, Pct. 1 Deputy Constable Rumaldo Rodriguez, and a former jail vendor on undisclosed criminal charges Wednesday. The three men are scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate today. Officials with the FBI, DEA and U.S. Customs confirmed their involvement in a Wednesday morning operation but would not provide details about the case against the defeated sheriff that was unseated...

Cantu leaves courthouse proclaiming he is ‘innocent’ of indictment claims. BROWNSVILLE, Feb. 14, 2004 — Inside the same jail he is employed to oversee, Sheriff Conrado Cantu was booked and released Friday from the Carrizalez-Rucker detention center after he was indicted on charges of abuse of official capacity. Cantu, 48, is free on a $15,000 personal recognizance bond. He is accused of intentionally and knowingly misusing jail employees and county propertywith intent to obtain a benefit for himself. The Class A misdemeanor charge stems from an Oct. 29 meeting where Cantu allegedly called jailers to the Carrizalez-Rucker facility and asked...