McALLEN — Two families who were injured Saturday after a bus transporting patrons to a casino in Eagle Pass crashed near Laredo filed a lawsuit yesterday against the charter bus company they say was responsible for killing eight people and injuring 44 others.

Guadalupe Carrillo and Elizabeth Carrillo were seriously injured in the incident, and blame OGA Charters LLC, of San Juan, for failing to adequately maintain or repair the bus, failing to fix known brake and emergency exit problems on the bus, failing to adequately train the driver of the bus, and failing to use a high degree of care which, as a common carrier, is it’s duty to its passengers, reads the lawsuit filed in the Hidalgo County District Court.

The two women are asking for more than $1 million in damages. They are also asking for a temporary restraining order preventing the company from destroying or altering any evidence from the crash, such as, the onboard black box recorder, all paper records, emails and documents containing employee personnel files in fear they may be altered or destroyed, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by McAllen attorney Jeffrey Stern on behalf of the two women. Stern was not immediately available for comment yesterday evening. A second TRO to preserve the bus as evidence in this case was filed on behalf of Andres Rubio III, of Mercedes, the husband of Maricela Lopez who was killed in the crash.

The driver behind the wheel of the bus is also employed as a driver for the Valley View school district, his family said yesterday.

Pharr resident Porfirio Aguirre Vasquez was released from the hospital Monday afternoon after the one-vehicle rollover Saturday morning near Laredo. The 29-year-old bus driver’s mother sat outside her Las Milpas home yesterday evening.

The woman, who did not want to be identified, was visibly distraught. She wasn’t sure if her son had been released from the hospital and offered few details about his condition. The rollover marks the second time fate strikes her family.

About two weeks ago Aguirre Vasquez’s mother suffered a stroke. She was released from the hospital just a few days ago, according to a neighbor and family member who did not want to be identified.

When asked about it, the woman solemnly shook her head yes.

The neighbor also told a Monitor reporter Aguirre Vasquez is employed with the Valley View ISD — a claim his mother also corroborated. Valley View school officials declined to confirm his employment Monday evening.

Investigators hope to interview the driver and other survivors of the crash this week, said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Keith Holloway.

He said NTSB, among other things, is trying to determine how the bus company and its vehicles operate. NTSB investigators plan to analyze an electronic device aboard the bus that crashed to determine if it contains data that can provide details on what happened.

Investigators don’t know what they’ll find, but hope for data on speed and steering-wheel positioning, Holloway said.

Among the information they have so far is that the vehicle had seat belts only in the first row. Texas Department of Public Safety Sgt. Johnny Hernandez said the remaining rows of seats had no lap belts. He said the bus was a 1998 model.

The OGA Charters bus crashed Saturday north of Laredo in rainy conditions. It was en route to a casino in Eagle Pass. No other vehicles were involved.

The section of the highway where the crash happened will be closed Tuesday for the investigation.

In a posting on its Laredo District Twitter account, the Texas Department of Transportation said it will close U.S. 83 at 9 a.m. Tuesday for the crash investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Northbound traffic will be diverted to Texas 44 and southbound traffic will detour to Farm-to-Market Road 133.

Holloway said the agency, among other things, is trying to determine how the bus company and its vehicles operate.

Federal online records show OGA Charters, based in San Juan, has two buses.

Rolando Garza, the owner of the charter bus company, was at this San Juan home Monday afternoon meeting with his Houston-based attorney. Both men declined to comment on the matter.

The company was fined about $2,000 by regulators in 2011 for violations involving periodic inspections and pre-employment drug testing of drivers, but had a “satisfactory” rating in May 2014 with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. In 2015, the company had twice been ordered by Louisiana state inspectors to take one of its buses out of service to fix brake and emergency exit problems, MCSA records show.

It was not immediately clear if that was the same charter bus that crashed in Texas or what steps the company took to fix the problems.

As for seat belts, federal regulations require them in new buses, starting in November. Efforts to require seat belts in older buses failed because retrofitting was deemed too difficult and expensive, said Shaun Kildare, director of research for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based group that tracks bus crashes and highway safety laws.

OGA Charters had reported no crashes in the last two years prior to Saturday, MCSA records show, but six driver and vehicle inspections since 2014 found 15 total violations, ranging from driver records and hours they were on the road, to vehicle maintenance problems.

The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, which runs the Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel in Eagle Pass where the bus was headed Saturday, expressed its condolences to those who died and said it hoped the injured recovered quickly.

Robert Rodriguez, an attorney for the tribe, said the bus was not chartered by the casino. He said he was still researching what kind of business arrangements, if any, the casino may have with bus companies, but declined further comment.

Earlier this month, a Dallas County jury awarded nearly $11 million to relatives of two passengers who died following a 2013 casino tour bus crash. The judgment against the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma came after court testimony indicated the Choctaw Nation had a contract with a private bus company to transport people to the casino.

Dallas attorney Frank Branson, who represented one of the victims in that case, said a tour bus can sometimes generate tens of thousands of dollars in casino revenue. If casinos exercise any control over the situation, he said, they would have some responsibility for safety on the bus.

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RAYMONDVILLE — For sale — walk-in coolers, electric shopping carts, an entire pharmacy along with a complete supermarket, clothing store and automotive department.

Raymondville’s Walmart is going on the auction block — at least everything that’s left inside the building that housed the Supercenter that closed Jan. 29.

Judd Grafe said he is working with Walmart to auction the store’s equipment on Thursday.

But tomorrow the company will auction equipment left behind in Walmart’s Brownsville Supercenter that closed on Padre Island Highway.

In Raymondville, the store’s equipment goes on the block at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, with inspection set for 10 a.m. tomorrow.

“This new in 2005 complete Walmart Neighborhood Market is loaded with refrigeration, departmental equipment, material handling, a full automotive center, over 200 sections of pallet racking and much more — all selling to you no matter what the price!” Grafe Auction wrote.

Grafe said his auction likely wouldn’t attract regular Walmart customers.

“Generally businesses — buyers from different demographics,” Grafe said. “We’re not selling everyday inventory.”

Instead, these buyers know the retail business.

Bakers, Grafe said, might come to buy bakery inventory.

“People who buy fixtures would use fixtures,” he said.

The store’s shell is not on the auction block.

But Raymondville City Manager Eleazar Garcia said officials are working to draw prospective businesses to the store off Interstate 69.

“We want to get jobs for our people,” Garcia said. “It’s extremely important to bring economic development to our city.”

Raymondville’s Walmart, one of the city’s biggest retailers, closed Jan. 29, laying off 149 employees.

Officials project Walmart’s closing will cost the city about $50,000 a year in lost sales tax revenue.

The city’s sales tax collection dropped from $139,458 in January to $103,695 in February, state figures show.

Along with Raymondville’s store, Walmart closed 268 of its least profitable stores in the United States and Latin America, including the Brownsville store on Padre Island Highway.

News of the Raymondville store’s closing came 10 months after the Willacy County Correctional Center shut down, laying off 400 employees.

The prison’s closure plunged Willacy County into a financial crisis, slashing a third of the county’s $8.1 million general fund budget.

In Raymondville, the 3,000-bed prison’s closure cut the city’s annual water revenues by about $600,000.

BROWNSVILLE — A piece of Brownsville’s unwelcomed history came tumbling down yesterday as the building, where three small children were decapitated in March 2003 at the hands of their parents, was demolished.

A yellow bulldozer brought the multi-story building dubbed “the Rubio House” down in less than an hour, reducing it to a huge pile of rubble.

Officials and residents for several years had advocated that the building at East Eighth and East Tyler streets be torn down following the deaths of Julissa Quesada, 3, John Esteban Rubio, 14 months, and Mary Jane Rubio, 2 months.

The children were killed by John Allen Rubio and his common-law wife, Angela Camacho. Rubio is the biological father of one of the children.

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The children were remembered yesterday as city officials talked about them before the demolition of the building began.

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SAN BENITO — Between them, the five members of the traffic review board have more than 120 years of experience in traffic and safety.

So, that would make Mary Bolado, Larry Drake, Rene Garcia, Ovidio Gonzalez and Rolando Monsevalles experts in where to place road humps, street signs and speed limit signs.

All five members’ experience differs from roles with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Police Department, the Texas Department of Transportation and the school district’s Transportation Department.

“When it comes to making decisions, we are thankful for that experience,” Bolado said.

Yesterday, the board met in a regular meeting to discuss the placement of road humps in several neighborhoods.

The residents who live in those areas requested the placement.

During the meeting, the board gave its approved to the placement of a speed hump between Stenger and Rogers, a speed limit sign on Yoakum, a speed hump between the 800 block and 900 block of 8th street, a speed limit sign near Dr. Garza Elementary, a speed hump on the 500 block of Winchell and a speed hump on Juanita.

The recommendations will next be taken to the City Commission for final approval.

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RIO HONDO — The awards ceremony for the Spirit Belles was the last as the team director for Susan Lopez.

The party was packed as the Spirit Belles enjoyed the evening together at Mr. Gatti’s in Harlingen recently to wrap up the year and receive their cheerleading medals.

Lopez also gave her announcement that she would be retiring as the director of the organization.

It has been a duty Lopez held for 21 years — since she founded the program that has trained cheerleaders ages 4 to 13 in 1995.

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“I will miss the Spirit Belles, but I will continue to see them, and be happy every time I see them moving on to be junior high and varsity cheerleaders,” Lopez said. “I am grateful and blessed for all the volunteers and wonderful cooperative parents that have supported me and the Belles.”

Over the years Lopez has had squads consisting of as many as 80 cheerleaders per season.

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HARLINGEN — The Water Quality Association (WQA), a not-for-profit trade association representing the residential, commercial, and industrial water treatment industry, has named Donald K. McGhee of Harlingen as its next president.

McGhee, a master water specialist (MWS) and long-time WQA volunteer, will serve as the Association’s president through March 2017.

McGhee is the principal of Hydro Systems Inc., an industrial and commercial water treatment equipment and service provider in Harlingen.

Established in 1978, Hydro Systems, Inc., serves a domestic and international client base, specializing in brackish water desalination, industrial water recycle and reuse and industrial water processing applications.

He is also a managing partner at Turbidex/Hydro Source LLC, a zeolite filtration media supplier with distribution around the world.

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RAYMONDVILLE — Willacy County voters are going to the polls again.

This time it’s to cast early ballots in the May 24 runoff election in which District Attorney Bernard Ammerman faces attorney Annette Hinojosa in the race to serve as the county’s top prosecutor.

Meanwhile, longtime County Commissioner Fred Serrato squares off with Lyford Mayor Henry De La Paz in the battle for Precinct 3’s Commission seat.

Yesterday, Elections Administrator Mary Hope Barrera called the turnout so far “slow and steady.”

In the race for the district attorney’s office, Ammerman said he is running on his record as a prosecutor who helped bring the county’s crime rate to a 10-year low.

“It speaks to our office prosecuting people and holding them accountable for crimes they commit,” said Ammerman, president of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association and past president of the Texas Border Prosecution Unit.

Hinojosa, a longtime Raymondville attorney, served as a public defender in state District court, where she has represented defendants prosecuted by Ammerman.

Hinojosa said residents are calling for change, arguing Ammerman has become an over-zealous prosecutor.

“There is not true justice in our community,” she said. “When we look at a case, we’re not looking at the individual. We should look at the whole case. There’s a rush to convict. The duty of a district attorney is not to convict but to see that justice is done.”

Ammerman said his office has helped slash violent crime by 43 percent.

“I’ve been trying to improve the reputation of this county,” Ammerman said.

“We put in responsible prosecutors and investigators. We decreased the backlog at district court to a 10-year low. We respect victims of crime,” Ammerman said. “Now, it’s a respectable county. We’ve restored working relationships with law enforcement. We’ve come a long way and we don’t think we should give it up.”

Hinojosa said she has the backing of supporters of former longtime District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra, who fell short of making the runoff in March’s primary election.

But Hinojosa denied a rumor Guerra would serve as a prosecutor in her office.

Instead, she vowed to better notify crime victims of the status of their cases and review “options” for defendants who qualify for the county’s pre-trial diversion program but cannot afford its $500 fee.

Hinojosa said she wants to work with counselors to help youths before they commit drug crimes and crimes that lead to domestic violence.

County Commission

In the race for the county commission’s Precinct 3 seat, Serrato is undefeated as he heads into the runoff with De La Paz.

Since taking office in 1985, Serrato has won every election he has entered.

De La Paz, a former Lyford city commissioner who has served as mayor since 2009, said residents are calling for a fresh voice on the county commission.

Serrato, a former deputy sheriff who was first elected to the commission in 1985, served through 2004, when he chose not to seek re-election. Then in 2008, he returned to office.

De La Paz vowed to bring change.

“The county’s precincts 3, 9 and 11 are in need of good representation — someone that is not going to be there to vote ‘yes,’” he said. “They need someone who is hungry, who is a go-getter that will be able to bring projects to the county level.”

Last year, Serrato and the County Commission faced tough budget cuts after the Willacy County Correctional Center shut down, slashing a third of the county’s budget and laying off 400 employees.

De La Paz, a loan company director, said he will work with small businesses to bring jobs to the county.

“It’s not just about replacing the prison. It’s about providing good incentives for local people who want to bring in jobs to the community,” he said.

Serrato continues to run his record of “proven leadership.”

Serrato said he helped bring in a wind farm that pumped $10.9 million in the Lyford school district, helped fund $2.5 million in drainage improvements and helped bring a $50,000 sports complex to Lyford.

De La Paz said he would promote Willacy County as the gateway to the Rio Grande Valley.

“I’ll be reaching out to corporations and selling Willacy County,” he said. “We’re the first town on the expressway. We should be able to capture that traffic flow.”

De La Paz said he would push to open satellite stations for the county’s emergency medical services to cut emergency response time.

Early voting runs through May 20 at Reber Memorial Library.

HARLINGEN — Janine Marie Campbell captures life’s moments through the lens.

Campbell is the owner and talent at Janine Marie Photography, a photo studio located at 109 S. J St. in Downtown Harlingen.

Recently, she embarked on the task of capturing the stories of some of our local veterans.

Q: How did you get into photography and how long have you been a photographer?

A: I got into photography through watching my mother, aunt and grandfather, who all own professional cameras.

My grandfather was a professional photographer back in the 30s and early 40s. He had a photo booth in a furniture store as a way to put himself through medical school. He charged 10 cents to sit in front of his lens and get a photo.

My aunt loved nature and submitted pictures to Texas Highways Magazine and others. When my aunt passed, I inherited all her camera equipment and that is where it all started, in the 8th grade. I have been a hobbyist since then but a professional photographer since 2007.

I pick that year because it’s the year I found myself needing to charge someone. I had been taught to start a business the right way, pay your taxes and join the chamber. So that’s what I did. Before I charged anyone I got my DBA, tax ID and a few weeks later had my ribbon cutting. It was the coolest feeling to have a legitimate business and become part of the community.

Q: What is The Pride of America Project?

A: Pride of America is a project that started with a sense of urgency about being storytellers to the generation who helped build this nation. Through iconic images I collect of military service members clutching the flag, they remember and we honor the sacrifice they and their fallen brethren have made. The collection of images will be put together into a collection of commemorative coffee table books.

Q: Why Valley Veterans?

A: The Rio Grande Valley is known historically for having a high recruitment level. Add that to the Winter Texan community we have and you get a melting pot of veterans dating back to WWII, Vietnam, Korean War and more.

Q: When photographing people, places, and things, where do you get inspiration from?

A: Everyone and everything in this world has been uniquely, beautifully and wonderfully created. I get inspiration directly from the person, place or thing in front of me. I think most photographers would agree that each moment is as unique as the next and it’s my job to capture life and the world in order to leave a visual story behind.

Q: If there was one person, place or thing you would most like to photograph, what would it be?

A: Hands down my favorite thing to capture with a lens is High School Seniors. The future, right in front of me. Their accomplishments, dreams, aspirations are shared so that images can be more personal and accurately reflective of who they are as an individual. As a result, I have formed relationships with some of them that carry me to their wedding, their first child and headshots for their new jobs. It’s like being a big sister to them in some shape or form and being part of their family. Portraiture is a gift for the future; I just try to ensure history is recorded every time I press the button.

HARLINGEN — Like Texans for the past 200 years, Diana Padilla put her faith in the land.

She didn’t anticipate the payoff would come so quickly.

Just six months after her organic farmer’s market called HOPE (Holistic, Organic, Practical Education) Small Farm Sustainability was opened on Morris Road, she’s now supplying 15 families a day with organic produce.

The Texas Department of Agriculture has approved the farmers market for the federal WIC Farmer’s Market Food and Nutrition Program. That allows the market to take WIC vouchers as payment for produce, and gives WIC recipients the option of buying organic for their families and their children.

“I tell the farmers to grow more. Grow more!” she says with the fervor of a whole foods evangelist.

Padilla now has eight farmers producing fruits, vegetables, eggs and honey for her market, and that’s in addition to the seven acres of vegetables she grows on her own certified-organic, 35-acre farm.

She’s in the process of helping those farmers from up and down the Valley who grow organically but aren’t certified complete that process.

“We are certified organic farmers, and we’re putting all these other farmers that are smaller, and we’re going to try to certify them under one co-op,” she said.

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