LYFORD — The city might be home to Willacy County’s first American Humane Society shelter.

Officials are considering donating about five acres to the Harlingen Humane Society, City Commissioner Albert Cavazos said yesterday.

Officials will consider donating land next to the wastewater treatment plant off County Road 215.

“We’re in the process of discussing it with the council,” Cavazos said.

The humane society plans to build a shelter in the county to try to curb high numbers of stray dogs and cats, Harlingen Humane Society President Pat Turman-White said.

George Solis, Precinct 2’s justice of the peace, said the county’s population of stray dogs and cats is “out of control.”

“There are hundreds that roam the streets during the night,” Turman-White said.

Turman-White has warned county commissioners of the dangers of a rabies outbreak, noting raccoons are known to carry the viral disease.

“There are packs of dogs that run,” she said. “You can’t drive down a street without almost hitting one.”

A shelter would help curb the numbers of strays, she said.

So far, she said, the organization has raised $25,000 to build the shelter.

Turman-White said she needs to raise $50,000 more to build the facility to hold 50 kennels while also serving as a cat sanctuary.

The shelter would hold stray dogs for three days to give their owners a chance to claim them, she said.

“It’s like a three-day lost-and-found,” Turman-White said.

If dogs are not claimed within that period, they would be taken to the Harlingen animal shelter, where they would be spayed or neutered and put up for adoption. Sick dogs would be euthanized.

The humane society would fund the operations, Turman-White said.

For decades, Solis said, the county’s stray population has been exploding.

Last October, he and Turman-White began trapping stray cats after the Willacy County Navigation District warned of 700 feral cats in Port Mansfield.

Soon, they were trapping stray cats in Raymondville.

Turman-White takes the cats to Harlingen’s animal shelter, where they are spayed or neutered — or euthanized if they test positive for leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV.

HARLINGEN – Two police academies in the Valley have been suspended by Texas law enforcement officials while allegations of excess brutality during training are investigated.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Academy in Harlingen and the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office Training Academy are being investigated by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement for separate incidents.

The Lower Rio Grande academy incident involved an Instagram video which was posted showing a certified academy instructor violently slapping down several class participants. The self-defense course in which the slapping occurred was held May 17.

The second involving the Hidalgo County academy occurred in April, and involved a pellet gun reportedly being fired at jailer cadets when they made mistakes in training.

The pellet-gun wounds caused bruising and bleeding and, in one case, sent a cadet to the hospital for treatment when instructors couldn’t determine if a pellet shot at the cadet was still under the skin.

“I can tell you that we did get some information about some practices that are not quite up to what our standards are,” Gretchen Grigsby, a spokesperson for TCOLE, said late yesterday afternoon.

Both academies have been suspended from performing any training while the investigations continue, she said.

Texas has several dozen such police training academies, which offer training for current officers who must complete 40 hours of professional development every two years.

The academies also serve to provide required instructional training for candidates seeking to become law enforcement officers in Texas. It is believed both incidents under investigation were of the latter category of trainee.

The Lower Rio Grande academy is run by the Lower Rio Grande Development Council, an economic development organization, and holds classes at Texas State Technical College.

“During a defensive tactic training session, a video recording was conducted for the purposes of cadet instruction and feedback,” said Ron Garza, deputy executive director of the development council. “Video feedback had not been previously utilized by LRGVDC Police Academy and we have determined that video photography will not be used in the future.

“Although we understand the inherent risks associated with hands-on courses such as defensive tactics, our goal is to minimize those risks, making the training environment as safe as possible for cadet participants,” Garza added.

Garza said the Harlingen academy has been commended for its curriculum and training in the past, and that the council was in the process of incorporating measures to ensure “no future recurrence” of the incidents now being investigated.

But the violent self-defense incidents in the video are not the only things being investigated. Instructors allegedly told cadets to strike each other at “80 or 100 percent” full blows, and that if they didn’t, instructors would deliver the blows instead.

Also, investigators said, instructors allegedly threatened cadets that they would be Tasered if their grades in the class weren’t high enough.

In Hidalgo County, the police academy in question is run by the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office.

In this second incident, cadets were allegedly shot with pellet guns for making mistakes while taking shotgun orientation classes. EMT-certified cadets at the training session reportedly were unable to determine if one cadet hit by a pellet still had the pellet under his skin, so he was transported to a hospital.

Sheriff J.E. Eddie Guerra said in a statement he was informed of the “training protocol violation” on April 29.

“The training was outside the parameters of the class curriculum, and was not conducive to a safe environment,” the sheriff said.

The two instructors involved, Guerra said, were currently under an administrative review and the sheriff’s office is investigating.

“I am absolutely committed to restoring and preserving the public’s confidence and trust in the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office,” the sheriff said.

“We will review and evaluate all of our training protocols, to ensure high levels of proficiency and safety, while continuing law enforcement education within our training academy.”

HARLINGEN – Neo Martinez was all smiles this morning as he ran one of Harlingen’s biggest departments, the police department, for a few hours.

Then 10-year-old boy suffers from osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, and has been out of school since his diagnosis in March. This morning his classmates, school and city officials, and officers from the Harlingen Police Department all cheered him on as he was sworn in as chief of police for the day.

Once he was sworn in, Neo was escorted to the police department where he met with the executive team.

There, he conducted a meeting with executive staff, approving agenda items and received updates from his commanding officers.

What came next was what he was really looking forward to, a traffic stop. With the help of Sgt. Alfredo Alvear, Neo conducted a full traffic stop on a willing participant, complete with an arrest as a result of the driver having an improper license.

Neo closed out his reign with a short press conference with local media and lunch at Chick-Fil-a with all his fellow officers.

GRANJENO — Mother Nature hit the sleepy town of Granjeno with a vengeance Tuesday night — on the eve of hurricane season.

A slow-moving thunderstorm complex created a nightmare for residents in the small community near the U.S.-Mexico border. Heavy rain and wind gusts of up 80 to 85 miles per hour wreaked havoc on homes, trees, power lines and the city’s event facility, which is now missing its west wall.

Granjeno, which has a population of just over 300, was abuzz Wednesday with volunteers working hard under a hot sun to clear the mess left behind by the storms. Dozens of local officials, law enforcement officers, insurance adjusters and public works employees, among others, lined the city’s two main streets — each carrying out a different duty.

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Most residents seemed shell-shocked, walking around trying to clear brush and debris from their homes. Others sat in circles outside their homes.

Ruben Alvarado, 21, was busy helping neighbors salvage as many belongings as possible Wednesday afternoon. The Army specialist came home to see his family before being deployed to Kuwait later this month. He arrived in time to see it all fall apart.

Alvarado was about to cozy up and watch a movie with his brother when the storm began to kick in about 11 p.m. Tuesday. Lightning, thunder and rain began bearing down on their home.

“All of a sudden the lights started flickering on and off and we started to lose power,” he said. “And it just started getting worse.”

A curious Alvarado went into the living room to peer out a window to check the weather.

“The minute I turned around, the glass just breaks open and wind and water start coming into the house,” Alvarado said. “I remember I just hit the floor right then and there because the blast hit the back of my head. It was very unexpected.”

Moments later, he ran to his parents’ room, where his mother and two-year-old niece were in. Soon all the windows in the house were breaking; he and his father decided the bathroom was the safest room in the house.

“So we laid them on the tub and put blankets over them so they could be safe,” he said about his mom and niece.

For a second, the storm seemed to have stopped, Alvarado said.

“And all of a sudden, the next thing you know it we heard a loud bang, and the door just flew clean straight off and hit the wall,” the 21-year-old said. “And it flew all the way over there and then the whole roof came off. And it got all windy and everything started to fly everywhere.”

Alvarado ran to his brother’s room to take cover, but he soon realized it was just as dangerous there as the living room, where a portion of the roof had blown off.

“The minute I could, I ran to the bathroom,” he said.

His whole family weathered the storm there.

Wednesday came as a rude awakening for Alvarado, who believes the home is no longer salvageable. His family packed what little they could and reached out to the Red Cross for assistance with temporary housing. The Red Cross was able to place his mother, father, brother and niece at a motel, but the Army specialist didn’t know where he would stay the night Wednesday.

He worries about leaving his family behind during his deployment, but duty calls, he said.

“I was just glad that at least I was here with them when it happened instead of me being gone already,” Alvarado said.

HARLINGEN — They don’t always have a voice, so these two young actors wanted to speak for them.

Tristen Rosales and Joseph Echavarria, both 18, spoke very well recently for people with autism. They communicated their message in a dramatic performance at the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions in Denver earlier this month.

The two seniors from Harlingen High School’s Speech, Drama and Debate Team performed so well they earned ninth in the nation. Teams from 42 states competed in the event.

Tristen and Joseph had to choose a section of a work dealing with a real-life issue.

“It has to be something happening in the world,” said Tristen. “We wanted to do something about autism.”

They chose a short play by Kristy Thomas called “Heroes of Adventure.”

In the play, Tristen plays a young man named Mr. Evan who is a caregiver for a boy named Nicholas who has autism. Joseph plays the role of Nicholas.

Autism is a personal issue for both young men.

Tristen’s nephew has a higher-functioning form of autism, plus some friends with the condition. Joseph’s cousin has autism. Many people with higher-functioning autism can speak very well but have difficulty in social situations.

Tristen and Joseph wanted to go beyond the usual perceptions about autism and show who people with the condition really are.

“They’re brilliant,” Joseph said with a smile.

In their performance, Nicholas is reading a book to Mr. Evan about all sorts of heroic adventures. Nicholas is so captivated by the book he imagines himself as the hero in the story. As the hero, he kicks into swift action when a giant spider captures Mr. Evan, ensnaring him in a web. Nicholas rushes to Mr. Evan’s aid, cutting away the webs and freeing him.

In the performance, Tristen as Mr. Evan is standing on a chair when the spider captures him. As Nicholas frees him, he falls backwards so that Mr. Evan has to catch him.

“That was probably the most challenging,” Tristen said.

During the story, an evil snake keeps slithering in to defeat Nicholas.

“You can’t defeat me,” Nicholas tells the snake. “You can’t.”

Nicholas’s sheer will and determination are enough to drive the snake away.

However, the second time the snake creeps in, Nicholas is unable to drive it away. He takes the loss really hard, Tristen said.

“That’s when he comes out of the book and back into reality,” Tristen said.

The boy becomes enraged and devastated by failure. That’s when Tristen, aka Mr. Evan, goes to Nicholas and tells him he’s OK just as he is. He assures him he doesn’t need to prove anything to anyone.

This was precisely the message Tristen and Joseph wanted to extend about autism.

“There’s nothing wrong with them mentally or physically,” he insisted.

HHS Speech, Drama and Debate Team Sponsor and Teacher Tasha Kneis was delighted by the students’ success.

“We have had a fantastic year,” she said. “I am very proud of them. They took on a cause. They told a story that millions don’t get to tell. It’s very powerful.”

Tristen had been attending Early College High School until this year. He’d done some acting with the

Harlingen Performing Arts Theather. Kneis said he contributed some great ideas to the program which she found useful.

Tristen’s performance was so powerful it has captured the attention of Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. He’s been invited to audition for the theater program there.

Darn, mentioning the “common sense push button” has provided some good arguments, while responding to the subject of the one world government.

Like I said before, I first heard of this outrageous subject back in the 1970s, had forgotten about it, but recent writings have brought it back to life.

Just by adding 2 plus 2, it started to add up.

The one world government talk started, as I vaguely remember in the 1970s and since then tax cuts started to plunge to the current rate.

Again, tax cuts were to also benefit and trickle down to the workforce for decent livable wages.

Yep, but they only trickled as far down as their CEOs whose ratio to workers is getting around 1,000 to 1.

In the 1960s to the 1970s, workers were able to afford a decent apartment, decent automobile and put food on the table. Today’s wages do not compare at all to those years.

You say that greed, may come back with lower taxes.

Give me a break.

There is much talk, but no action, just gimme, gimme, gimme, much worse than actual people on welfare.

You keep acting and writing like a full blown Republican, boast that you are not Republican, but will vote Republican.

Go figure.

You also have declared that you are un-American, stating you want to secede from our great country and take mostly the wealthy with you.

Seems like you are preparing yourself for the one world government.

By the way, all ex-Republican Presidents, their wives, ex-Republican Presidential nominees, leader of the house and probably all ex Presidential candidates are not supporting Trump.

While I’m still supporting Bernie, Hillary is getting cleared of most of her GOP trumped up charges. Have a great day.

Juan Gonzales Harlingen

SAN BENITO — If Forest Rodriguez-Walker knows someone needs food, she won’t let them go hungry.

As the president of the San Benito Food Pantry, Forest has dedicated most of her life to helping feed those in need.

In an effort to educate the public on her work, Forest put the spotlight on the pantry during the San Benito Chamber of Commerce’s weekly “Morning Coffee” session yesterday.

Forest, a San Benito native, spends seven days a week working at the pantry.

When the pantry opened in 1991 it served about 50 families.

Today, Walker said, the pantry serves about 5,000 clients a month in the San Benito and surrounding areas.

“We’re going strong and we have many volunteers,” she said.

The food is supplied by the Food Bank Rio Grande Valley and through various donations.

On Wednesdays, the food is packed and distributed to the many clients in need.

“We’re all aware of the people in San Benito and the surrounding areas who seek help from the San Benito Food Pantry on a monthly basis,” Walker said.

In addition to food donations, the pantry also takes monetary donations. Walker said monetary donations are important because the pantry can purchase food at a more reasonable price from the Valley pantry.

The pantry also relies heavily on volunteer involvement and is always seeking help from willing volunteers.

“We’re so blessed. They work very hard,” she said.

The pantry, which is considered one of the largest in the area, consists of 11 freezers but it also is considered the smallest location.

As active members of the Retired Seniors Volunteer program, the pantry was awarded in March for the work they do in the community.

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MERCEDES — J.O. Martinez cruised into the Bealls Plaza for the annual Memorial Day ceremony Monday.

He made his grand entrance riding his tribute motorcycle in memory of his brother Pedro, who served in the Vietnam War.

Martinez’s 2007 custom Victory motorcycle has his brother’s likeness in Marine uniform on the gas tank.

The seat is outfitted with machine gun rounds around the edge and the tail of the bike lists the many operations Pedro participated and fought in during the Vietnam War.

His brother died during Operation Hastings in South Vietnam in 1966 when J.O. was still in high school.

J.O., a 67-year-old Mercedes resident, is a member of the Patriot Guard Riders.

The motorcycle group attended the Mercedes Veterans Memorial ceremony on Monday.

J.O. has taken the bike year-after-year to the memorial for people to see and to remember his brother and the men and women who lost their lives defending freedom.

Marinez was only 15 when his big brother Pedro volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War in 1966.

Pedro was 18 and right out of Mercedes High School when he enlisted with the U.S. Marine Corp.

Soon after basic training, Pedro was sent to Okinawa, Japan, and then he was ordered to go to Da Nag, South Vietnam.

As soon as Pedro arrived in Vietnam, he and his platoon were on missions in the jungles to fight. There, he was involved in intense battles along the Ho Chi Minh Trail during the war.

After several more missions, Pedro died in action in a battle with North Vietnamese during Operation Hastings while under intense small arms attack defending the front lines. It was July 1966.

Word later came home through telegram to notify the Martinez family their son had died in the war.

And about three years later, Pedro’s little brother J.O. was drafted in 1970.

He said he was the fifth number called in the lottery to go fight in the war with the U.S. Army.

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RAYMONDVILLE — The green light’s on for Willacy County’s latest wind farm.

County commissioners have created a reinvestment zone to allow the county to consider tax breaks for EDF Energy, a London-based company planning to build about 100 wind turbines along the county’s southeastern edge.

The state requires the creation of reinvestment zones to negotiate tax abatements, County Judge Aurelio Guerra said yesterday.

Guerra said commissioners would consider the company’s requests for tax breaks.

Covering about 20,000 acres, the reinvestment zone runs from the FM 1420 area to Santa Monica and north to the Willamar area, where the Lyford school district would reap a windfall in tax revenue.

EDF is working with Raymondville developer Joe Wetegrove on the project.

Wetegrove launched the project with New York-based OwnEnergy, which merged with EDF.

Construction could be completed in 2018.

County officials are counting on the wind farm to boost revenues more than a year after the closure of the Willacy County Correctional Center slashed a third of the county’s $8.1 million general fund budget.

EDF would become the third company to operate wind farms in Willacy County.

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RAYMONDVILLE — Soon, many teenage defendants here will be tried by juries of their peers.

City commissioners have approved Municipal Court Judge Felicita Gutierrez’s plan to start a teen court program aimed at showing teenagers the workings of the judicial system.

“The kids learn about the judicial process and they get to be on the other side — on the jury panel — so they learn from both sides of the fence,” Gutierrez said yesterday.

In the Rio Grande Valley, Raymondville joins cities such as Brownsville and Mission, which run teen court programs.

As part of the program overseen by the Texas Municipal Courts Educational Center, teenage defendants charged with Class C misdemeanors, with the exception of domestic violence, will be eligible to participate for a $20 administrative fee.

In exchange for the teenagers’ participation, the Municipal Court will waive civil penalities such as traffic fines.

“We’re going to work with these kids,” Gutierrez said.

In this city struggling with high poverty rates, the program gives teenagers an alternative to paying Municipal Court fines.

“The parents don’t want to pay and the kids don’t have the money,” Gutierrez said.

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