Free Republic

HOUSTON – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo [aka County Supervisor] fired back Friday after the Texas Rangers [police force, not baseball team] opened a new public corruption investigation tied to “concealed” records subpoenaed during a grand jury’s review of the federal indictments of three of her high-level staff members.The records subpoenaed are related to the investigation launched last year into how the county’s nearly $11 million COVID-19 outreach contract was awarded to a local woman’s LLC.In a news conference streamed live on Click2Houston.com, Hidalgo said she wanted to call out the truth, as well as “what’s false.” She accused Harris...

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates as more information becomes available. A package containing the deadly poison ricin addressed to President Donald Trump was intercepted by law enforcement sometime this week, before it was delivered to the president, two law enforcement officials told CNN on Saturday. Two law enforcement officials also told CNBC about the ricin package that was addressed to Trump. According to CNN, two tests were performed on the package, to confirm the presence of the deadly ricin poison, and the FBI, U.S. Secret Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating the...

The Canadian woman accused of sending a letter containing ricin to President Trump has been identified as Pascale Ferrier of Quebec, authorities said. Ferrier was taken into custody Sunday by US Customs and Border Protection agents at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo, New York, where she is expected to appear in federal court to face charges. She was supposed to appear in court Monday, but her appearance was delayed until Tuesday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office, according to the CBC.

Mexico’s president published an open letter to Pope Francis Saturday calling on the Roman Catholic Church to apologize for abuses of indigenous peoples during the conquest of Mexico in the 1500s. In the letter, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador also asks the pope to lend Mexico ancient pre-Hispanic Mexican or colonial-era documents. “The Catholic Church, the Spanish monarchy and the Mexican government should make a public apology for the offensive atrocities that Indigenous people suffered,” the letter states. López Obrador asked the pope to make a statement in favor of Miguel Hidalgo, Mexico’s 19th-century independence leader who was once believed...

The leak was caused by fuel thieves illegally tapping the pipeline in a small town in the state of Hidalgo, about 62 miles north of Mexico City, according to state oil company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex. Video footage showed dozens of residents near the town of Tlahuelilpan gathered to collect spilled fuel in buckets, garbage cans and other vessels. Fuel was seen spouting dozens of feet into the air from the tap. Footage then showed flames shooting high into the air against a night sky and the pipeline ablaze. Hidalgo Gov. Omar Fayad said 20 people were killed immediately and...

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector stopped several criminal aliens and three gang members from making their way successfully into the U.S. interior. Those arrested included two child rapists, two killers, a member of the 18th Street gang and two MS-13 gang members. On the day before Thanksgiving, McAllen Station agents arrested a man who illegally crossed the border from Mexico near the town of Hidalgo, Texas. During processing at the station, agents discovered the man is a Honduran national and a confirmed member of the 18th Street gang. Later that same day, other agents working near...

A local official in Hidalgo, Texas, cajoled company executives to hire a firm owned by his family in exchange for a cut of lucrative construction contracts, an investigation from ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found. Claims against that official and his family were made last year in a lawsuit by the county. The kickback scheme started during a discussion at a steakhouse near the US-Mexico border in Texas. The kickback scheme was allegedly hashed out over weeknight drinks at a steakhouse in a border county in south Texas. Amid surf and turf and expensive scotch, a Hidalgo County official said...

The Sacramento Bee asked legislative officials about court records showing the officer had cocaine in his system when he was involved in a December 2012 gunfight that left three people injured and one man dead. Lopez’s mother, Dina Hidalgo, is a high-ranking official in charge of Senate human resources. His wife, Jennifer Delao, is a secretary in Steinberg’s policy unit. The missing $100 bill, he said, was what they were using in the endeavor. When it was eventually discovered, Brace said, the bill was rolled up like a straw.

DONNA, Texas (AP) - Investigators say a South Texas homeowner has shot and killed two people who asked about buying roosters then drew guns on the resident.

It seemed far-fetched on the silver screen. But the European Space Agency is planning to launch a mission similar to the plot of Hollywood movie Armageddon, in which Bruce Willis and his intrepid team attempt to blow up a huge asteroid that’s hurtling towards Earth. The real version, if it goes ahead in 2015, will see a satellite fired at break-neck speed into a ‘test’ asteroid to see if its course changes. The aim is to assess whether it would be possible to save Earth using this method, should we discover that an asteroid is on a collision course with...

McALLEN — At least three shots were fired across the Rio Grande last Thursday, nearly striking two men working on a riverside pump station. The bullets hit Hidalgo County Water Improvement District 3’s pump station, just feet from where the employees were working, about 3:30 p.m., said Othal E. Brand Jr., the water district’s general manager. Both men escaped unharmed. Brand said Border Patrol agents were called to the scene. A Border Patrol spokesman said there’s no record of the incident, but that wouldn’t be unusual given the circumstances. Asked how District 3 will react, Brand said he didn’t have...

More than 600 pounds of marijuana seized HIDALGO — A late-night chase Monday left one smuggler dead and led to the seizure of more than 600 pounds of marijuana. The smuggler has been identified only as a 25-year-old Mexican national because authorities are working with the Mexican Consulate to identify the immediate family, Hidalgo police Capt. Roberto Vela said. The chase began about 10:45 p.m., when an Hidalgo police officer spotted a black 1995 Chevrolet Suburban parked next to a manhole at the intersection of International Boulevard and Esperanza Avenue, Vela said. “Information that we have received is that certain...

SAN JUAN —Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted, blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa field. The 18-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed by police, was walking to a friend’s house about 6:30 p.m. Sunday. A black van pulled up alongside her and three men hopped out, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. They snatched the girl, blindfolded her and took her to Reynosa. The kidnappers began calling the woman’s family demanding ransom money. “The kidnappers somehow missed it that she had a cell phone,” Gonzalez said. “We...

HIDALGO, Mexico, Aug. 23 (UPI) -- At least 19 decaying bodies were found in abandoned mine shafts near Hidalgo, Mexico, police said Monday. Police had made several arrests in connection with the slayings, which may have taken place a year ago or longer, Metro Mexico City reported. Those killed were believed to have been victims of the Los Zetas gang, the newspaper said. Another newspaper, El Sol de Mexico, reported seven bodies had been recovered from two mine shafts in Pachuca and Mineral del Chico. While the bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition, it appeared the victims had...

IT IS an image that will leave every Australian sick to the stomach. Our national mascot dressed in shorts and boxing gloves with a rope tied around its chest, goaded into boxing with a human clown. One of Australia's most iconic symbols is reduced to a cruel and insulting comedy act - all in front of an audience cheering for more. Welcome to BorderFest - a US festival in Hidalgo, Texas, designed to "celebrate" all things Australian.

A red kangaroo that is goaded into fighting a human clown is the star attraction at a festival in the US designed to celebrate Australia. The Daily Telegraph reports that the BorderFest festival in Hidalgo, Texas, features an event called Rocky Show Circus, involving two kangaroos and their owner, Javier Martinez, who dons the clownsuit. The festival is sponsored by Kraft, the US owners of Vegemite. The report says Mr Martinez baits the kangaroo by pushing it and poking it before placing it in a headlock. If Rocky fights back too much, Mr Martinez's wife Sandra restrains it using a...

NEAR ALTON — A drunken dispute over a small debt led to a Mexican national's fatal shooting Saturday, authorities said. Two Mexican nationals have been arrested in connection to the crime. The duo was charged with murder at an arraignment Monday afternoon. Deputies responded to a call of a man's body that lay in a ditch about 4 p.m. Saturday near the intersection of 10 Mile Line and Texan roads, according to a Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office statement. Authorities identified the body as David Bello Crisolis, an illegal immigrant from Veracruz, Ver., Mexico. His age is unknown. Deputies said Crisolis...

Gov. Rick Perry’s latest plan to stomp out illegal activity along the border has all the hallmarks of an old Western movie: The state’s elite team of cowboy-hat wearing law enforcers — the Texas Rangers. A growing threat from cross-border bandits. And, in a modern twist, a few Texas National Guard troops thrown in for good measure. The only problem, local leaders say, is that it ignores ongoing efforts to clamp down on border crime and fundamentally mischaracterizes life as it is now for the region’s residents. “What does (Perry) think we’ve been doing down here for the past couple...

HIDALGO, MEXICO - Thirty-one police officers have been arrested in the state of Hidalgo, on suspicion of collaborating with a gang of drug cartel hit men. The officers were arrested as part of an almost year-long investigation into alleged ties between police and the Zetas cartel. The investigation began last October, when federal authorities arrested seven suspected Zeta accountants and found evidence of monthly payments from the gang to officers. Back in June, 92 officers were arrested on similar charges.

Mexico City - Mexico plans to begin construction this year on a space port to send satellites aloft, an official said Monday. The facility will be located in the southern state of Quintana Roo on the border with Belize, said state planning minister Jose Alberto Alonso Ovando. The location was chosen after extensive studies in part because of its proximity to the Equator, he said in an interview. Late last year, the Mexican National Congress approved the founding of a national space agency, Aexa. The agency's headquarters will be located in the state of Hidalgo from where it will oversee...