SAN BENITO — In the early morning hours of Christmas Day, a San Benito family was waking up to celebrate.

Unknown to them, a large propane gas cloud had formed in the house.

When the gas ignited, it caused an explosion that “blew the roof from the home,” killing two people and severely injuring six others.

This is all according to a lawsuit filed yesterday morning in state district court in Starr County against six companies.

Two victims and relatives of victims filed the lawsuit against Harlingen-based Hino Gas Sales and Lowe’s Home Centers.

The lawsuit also names the manufacturers of the family’s propane tank and the tank’s regulator as defendants, as well as the company that sold the tank.

The family alleges these companies were negligent and contributed to the explosion that killed two of their loved ones and injured the others.

Alex Hinojosa Jr., president and CEO of Hino Electric Power Company, said the company had not been served with the lawsuit. He expressed his condolences to the family and referred questions to the company’s attorney.

The attorney, John McCoy, said he has not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. He also said the explosion is still under investigation.

A spokeswoman for Lowe’s said it is the company’s practice to not comment on pending litigation.

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The Harlingen Lady Cardinals have definitely been challenged in their past couple of games, but like true warriors they have continued to rise to the occasion.

They have also continued to rise in the latest state rankings as the Lady Red Birds now sit at No. 7 in Class 6A in this week’s Texas Association of Basketball Coaches and Tex Preps Basketball Magazine poll.

Thanks to close 49-42 win over Los Fresnos at home last Tuesday as well as a thrilling 42-41 overtime win over Brownsville Veterans on Friday, the Lady Cards are now an unbelievable 23-1 on the season and have won their last 13 in a row. Their one loss of the season came on Nov. 21 against San Antonio Clark during the McAllen Border Bash Tournament.

The only teams ahead of Harlingen in the rankings are Cibolo Steele (25-1), Amarillo (21-4), Plano West (22-3), Dekaney (23-1), Galena Park North Shore (23-1) and No. 1 Duncanville (24-0).

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BROWNSVILLE — Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector Tony Yzaguirre Jr. held a press conference yesterday alongside his attorneys to proclaim his innocence in the criminal allegations against him and to announce the scandal would not uproot him from office.

Standing with his attorneys, retired state District Judge Robert Garza and his son Myles Garza, Yzaguirre asked the public not to rush to judgment until all the facts had been presented.

“I ask that the citizens of this county hold off judgment until all the facts have been presented,” Yzaguirre said at the press conference held in the Cameron County Tax Assessor-Collector’s Office on East Harrison Street in Brownsville.

Yzaguirre said he planned to continue to work at his office while his attorneys work on clearing him of the charges.

“I will continue to serve this office and the citizens of Cameron County until I am acquitted of all these allegations,” he said.

Because Yzaguirre is an elected official, the Cameron County Commissioners Court cannot remove him from office. Had he been an appointed official, they could have taken some type of action following his Jan. 6 arrest.

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HARLINGEN — There is no formula to wining the biggest jackpot in the history of the world.

“It’s anybody’s guess,” said Atiq Syed, professor of mathematics and physics at Texas State Technical College.

“It’s a random phenomenon.”

Tomorrow’s drawing for $1.4 billion will be a record. cash value is $867 million.

At $2 per ticket, the massive profit for any winner is going to be fantastic.

The winning numbers for Saturday night’s game were 16, 19, 32, 34, 57 and a Powerball of 13. A total of 440 million tickets were sold in that drawing.

Syed said there is no way of formulating an equation for the winning numbers. You would have to buy 292 million tickets to get the right combination of winning numbers at least once.

He said matching all five white balls and the red Powerball is not simple. If it were, everyone would be a winner.

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LYFORD — Lyford High School seniors Morgan Thomas and Bailey Scogin took top state awards in an FFA competition that taught them how to climb into agriculture jobs.

Thomas took third place while Scogin placed sixth in the Texas FFA’s Leadership Career Development awards Dec. 4 in Huntsville.

“It makes me really proud to represent Lyford at that level,” Scogin said.

Thomas, daughter of Mitch and Linda Thomas, competed in the FFA’s Creed division, beating 766 competitors.

“You basically recite the creed word-for-word. The creed symbolizes everything an FFA member should strive to become,” she said. “The judges judge you on your ability to present yourself in front of an audience. It’s about them believing what you believe in — that you believe in the future of agriculture.”

Thomas faced three questions from a three-judge panel.

“The judges asked, how would you change the creed, what’s the most important part of the creed to you and how we can make a difference in the agriculture industry,” Thomas said. “The main thing to stress is this is our time to make change. If everyone in FFA works together toward a common goal we can accomplish the unthinkable.”

Scogin, the daughter of Cody and Wendy Scogin, competed in the event’s job interview category, beating out 545 competitors.

“It helps you prepare for your interviews in the workplace,” she said.

First, she wrote her resume, along with a cover letter requesting an interview.

Then she filled out a job application, requesting an internship at the Helena Chemical Co.’s precision agriculture department.

“If your cover letter is not interesting, you might not get it,” she said.

After a telephone interview, she tried to land a personal interview.

“You have to request an in-person interview,” she said. “You tell them you’re very interested in the position.”

Soon, she was standing before a three-judge panel.

“They had questions about my qualifications and how they could relate to the internship,” she said. “When they get you face-to-face, they see if you can fit into the company culture and learn about your personal characterizations.”

RIO GRANDE CITY — Starr County commissioners named a replacement for the interim tax assessor during a regular meeting of the commissioners’ court.

The vote to replace Martha Garza, who resigned abruptly last week after voicing concerns about staffing and job security at the tax assessor’s office, took place after two separate executive sessions during the meeting to discuss the status of the county’s tax assessor office which has been in a state of flux since late last year when federal and state law enforcement officials arrested a number of its employees in connection with theft of county funds.

Commissioners voted Juan M. Cantu, who is currently running for the position in the upcoming election, to replace Garza who held the interim position for less than three weeks.

At least two commissioners abstained during the vote, one of whom was Precinct 2 Commissioner Raul Peña Jr., who said he did not feel it was proper to vote for someone who was already running for the office.

“In my opinion, I would say it wouldn’t be fair for the other candidates running for tax collector. I think we should have (chosen) somebody impartial — people think he probably has an advantage toward the election — which I doubt seriously,” Peña said. “I’m pretty sure it’s unfair for the other candidate. I don’t think it’s going to make a difference in the outcome of the election — to me it really doesn’t matter.”

The other candidate, Starr County Justice of the Peace Maria Ameida Salinas, announced her candidacy for the position late last year.

But she quickly hit a roadblock in the form of County Judge Eloy Vera and the county commission after Salinas refused to resign from her post as Pct. 8 justice of the peace following her registration. According to a Texas “resign to run” provision, public officials automatically give up their current office when they declare their candidacy for another.

It also states that the officeholder may keep the position if he or she has less than a year and 30 days left in their term at the time of the announcement. Salinas replaced Ricardo Peña, who succumbed to cancer last March, about halfway into his four-year term, which expires in November.

On Monday, Vera said the commissioners decided on Cantu after they reached out to possible replacements and made at least one offer to a retired former tax collector from Roma who declined the position.

“Really, nobody wants to come in and work for a few months to get rid of a job that they currently have to work for (a few months). For that reason, it’s difficult to get someone. Therefore we didn’t have very many choices — we have people who are willing to come in and help us, but not as tax assessor collector,” Vera said. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting months to interview and all this stuff, we just needed to get someone so we can get back to business, therefore that’s why Cantu was the choice of the court.”

Vera said he hopes the office will re-open by Thursday, at the latest, after Cantu is officially bonded through the state and receives some training.

Concerns about understaffing were also addressed Monday morning after the commissioners decided to authorize Cantu to hire another three people to staff the tax assessor’s office during the busy month.

“I feel very good about the decision and finally we’ll have some stability. It will take a few days or a week or so before the dust settles but I believe that we will get back on track. I think now all questions are pretty much answered — there’s no uncertainty — and I think that’s one of the main reasons why we haven’t gotten the dust to settle,” Vera said.

The instability at the office began when the county’s tax assessor, Carmen Peña, and seven employees were arrested in connection with the theft of more than $700,000 in taxpayer funds.

The arrests came after a more than three-year investigation into the theft of county funds in a scheme that possibly dates as far back as 2009 when the county auditor’s office noticed discrepancies during its audits.

The tax assessor employees allegedly took cash payments from county residents, registered the payment as a check received months earlier in the official county records, and then pocketed the cash.

Tax assessor employees also allegedly registered vehicles with fake addresses and fake names. They also are accused of claiming the vehicles were gifts for charitable organizations. One person had registered more than 300 vehicles to a P.O. Box in Rio Grande City.

Vera expressed frustration with the criticism he has received from county residents and the media over the current state of the office, but squarely put the onus back on the residents of the county for their decision to elect the former tax assessor Carmen Peña.

“This is not something that I caused; this is not something the commissioner’s court caused. This is something that was caused by an elected official that was elected by the public to work for them. So the voters of, not only this county, but everywhere around here need to be more careful as to who they elect, because after this happens, then who gets to do the cleanup,” Vera said. “I need to clean everything up and I get all the heat for something I had not a damn thing to do with. That upsets me, but then again that is the nature of the beast. But I want the public to understand that this was not something that I caused or the commissioner’s court caused — it’s something that they, the voters caused.”

LOS INDIOS — Nearly 24 years after it opened, area leaders still are working to boost toll revenues at the Free Trade Bridge.

Officials with Cameron County, Harlingen and San Benito — the bridge’s three partners — are trying to drive up truck traffic at the span once dubbed “the bridge to nowhere.”

Now, officials are trying to build a cold storage facility to draw produce trucks to the bridge.

Meanwhile, they will request Tamaulipas officials market the bridge in Mexico, County Judge Pete Sepulveda said.

On Nov. 1, 1992, the $40 million bridge opened, marking the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

As part of an agreement, the cities of Harlingen and San Benito each fund a fourth of the bridge’s operating costs, while Cameron County pays the remainder.

For many in Harlingen and San Benito, the bridge was a dream come true.

“City leaders in San Benito and Harlingen worked for 50 years to get that bridge built,” Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell said.

But nearly a quarter of a century after it opened, the bridge remains drastically underutilized, continuing to generate significantly lower toll revenues than Cameron County’s two other bridges — Veterans International Bridge and Gateway International Bridge.

“We’re operating at probably a 20 percent capacity,” Sepulveda said. “We probably have 20 percent of the traffic that we can handle.”

Several factors are behind the bridge’s low performance.

Officials consider Mexico’s drug violence a major factor.

Since the onset of drug violence in 2008, the bridge’s revenues have fallen.

“Some of the issue relates to security — you’re away from larger population areas,” Boswell said.

The bridge’s position along the Rio Grande is another factor behind its struggle to draw a healthy traffic flow.

While the county’s other international bridges directly lead to Matamoros, the Free Trade Bridge runs into rural roadways that wind to the small town of Lucio Blanco.

“There’s no major population center on the Mexican side and I think that contributes,” Boswell said.

While an industrial park stands on the bridge’s U.S. side, the Mexican side offers no counterpart.

“A lot of it is (lack of) infrastructure on the Mexican side — (lack of) proper roads, access and utilities to build warehouses next to the bridge,” Sepulveda said.

Some argue Brownsville’s international bridges draw truck traffic away from the Free Trade Bridge.

After the Veterans Bridge opened in 1999, the Free Trade Bridge posted its first drop in revenue, falling from $1.5 million in 1999-2000 to $1.43 million in 2000-2001.

Faced with falling revenues since 2008, area leaders continue to work to drive up truck traffic.

Last week, Harlingen city commissioners approved an agreement with Cameron County and San Benito to share costs to build a $414,000, 75-foot by 30-foot cold storage facility at the bridge.

Raudel Garza, chief executive officer of the Harlingen Economic Development Corporation, said the bridge needs a cold storage unit to draw produce trucks.

The cooler would help preserve produce during customs inspections that could take two to four hours, County Administrator David Garcia said.

“This is just a start,” Sepulveda said. “Hopefully, it grows into a much larger facility.”

Sepulveda said area leaders will request Tamaulipas officials launch a marketing campaign to advertise the bridge in Mexico.

“We have to meet with Tamaulipas and make sure they make investments as well,” Sepulveda said.

Local officials want Tamaulipas to spread the word to truckers about the bridge’s short waiting lines, he said.

“They can come to the Free Trade Bridge and waiting lines are 10 times less,” Sepulveda said. “A lot of people don’t know that.”

Despite falling revenues, the Free Trade Bridge has turned a profit since 1999, when its tolls reached $1.37 million.

In Harlingen, the revenue stream has helped officials build a $264,000 fund balance, City Manager Dan Serna said.

“The bridge is making money,” Boswell said. “You always like to see more.”

Garcia said the bridge is expected to pay off its remaining $400,000 debt, some of it incurred as the result of projects aimed at improvements, by 2022.

“It makes enough money to pay debt and maintains a positive cash flow for the three partners,” Boswell said. “There have been sufficient revenues to operate it.”

Officials are counting on plans such as the cold storage facility and a Mexican marketing campaign to drive up revenues.

“Sometimes it takes a long time for things to develop,” Boswell said.