Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

06-24-26

The publisher of the Uvalde Hesperian, Michael Robinson addressed the Uvalde County Commissioners Court on Monday and submitted a Texas Attorney General’s Letter Decision ordering the release of public records from the 38th Judicial District Attorney’s office.

Prior to speaking, Robinson presented Uvalde County Clerk Donna Williams with the Texas Attorney General’s Office official letter decision to be entered into the Uvalde County’s public records.

“I have submitted a complaint to the Attorney General’s Office. I am entering a copy of the letter decision into the public record. The public has a right to these records under Texas Law; I urge you to encourage the D.A. to comply with the law,” he said.

According to Robinson, he has been advised by attorneys he has talked to that his final remedy is to file a writ of Mandamus lawsuit against the District Attorney in her official capacity to force the release of the aforementioned public records.

  Commentary

“In Texas, winning a fight for public records is supposed to end the battle.
In reality, it often just begins a new one.
Getting a formal ruling from the Texas Attorney General in your favor is rare. Only about 1 to 2 percent of open records disputes ever receive a letter decision supporting the requestor. I was one of the few who did.
Despite that, 38th Judicial District Attorney Christina Mitchell has simply refused to comply with the Attorney General’s order to release public records related to the Robb Elementary School shooting.
Months later, those records remain secret, ” he said.

Top Photos by D. Cooper

06-23-26

News Article and Commentary by Diana Olvedo-Karau

On Monday, July 22nd, the Uvalde County Commissioners met in regular session with a full
agenda. All commissioners were present, and the County Attorney made a rare appearance.
After the prayer and pledge, the meeting began with three residents addressing the
Commissioners Court (Court). Two residents spoke about low water crossing washouts on CR 428 and CR 429.

Aide Escamilla, the Democratic Party nominee for Uvalde County Commissioner, Precinct 4,

read a prepared statement addressing the recent low water crossing washouts. Escamilla’s comments were well written but stopped short of blaming the Court for the failure of the low water crossings on CR 428. Escamilla stated, “Today, I am not here to assign blame. My concern is, what happens next?” Escamilla asked the Court to pause the low water crossing projects “…until a qualified engineer can evaluate the design and provide recommendations for moving forward.”

Wayne Everett, the Republican Party nominee for Uvalde County Commissioner, Precinct 4, also addressed the Court. Everett has regularly attended Commissioners Court meetings and repeatedly questioned the road and bridge work being conducted in Uvalde County. He has raised concerns about the need for the low water crossing project, how the project specifications were prepared, and whether the specifications were engineered—concerns that have repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. Everett stated, “We talked about these things, these
crossings before they ever started construction. We told you that these things would not work.  You cannot dam a river up. So why did we put them in?”

Commissioner Ronnie Garza, the seated commissioner for Precinct 4, responded to the citizen remarks by saying that when Judge Bill Mitchell was alive, they had discussed the project and what Garza described as an antiquated Great Depression-era mentality about road washouts: putting up with the inconvenience of water over the road because there was no money in the
budget to fix the problem. Garza explained why the work was done and why residents should not have to deal with water over the road if the problem can be fixed. Garza stated, “We are not going to walk away from this because we owe it to the good people of Rancho Encino and Deer Valley to go out there and rectify this issue.”

Commentary: Why the Court’s Response Deserves Scrutiny

Commissioner Garza’s remarks sounded rational and pragmatic on the surface, but they
deserve closer scrutiny. His repeated use of the phrase “antiquated mentality” seemed to
discount relevant local experience, even when that experience comes from people who
understand local roads and crossings.

Wayne Everett knows roads. Before managing local roads in Texas, Wayne Everett oversaw massive federal water and agricultural infrastructure projects. While the Montell bridge was his primary civil engineering project for Uvalde County, his broader career included two massive
undertakings in the American Southwest: The Pueblo Dam and Reservoir and Navajo Nation
Agricultural Infrastructure.
The washouts on CR 428 would not need to be rectified if the Court had seriously considered
Everett’s concerns before awarding the bids and approving the first change order for the
project.
If Uvalde County tax dollars mattered as much as officials claim, the projects would have been
engineered, not eyeballed.

Top Picture: Grok AI generated pic based on actual events- Used for illustration purposes only

Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian

06-09-26

After decades of containment of the screwworm parasite that once decimated herds of U.S. cattle, and other animals, what factors contributed to the collapse of the systems in place that prevented migration of the Blowfly and its larva into the U.S?

According to the article, New World Screwworm: Rise, Fall and Resurgence,

from the American Science of Microbiology’s website, www.asm.org, it states,

“The exact cause of this breach is unclear but is most likely due to multiple factors, including interruptions in sterile fly production due to the COVID-19 pandemic and illegal cattle imports, as well as the challenges involved in surveillance of the gap’s difficult geography.”

As early as November 2024, a perfect Screwworm parasite storm outbreak was already brewing due to illegal cattle trafficking between some Central American countries and Mexico according to a news report by the Wildlife Conservation Society.

“Evidence directly links illegal cattle trafficking to the screwworm’s resurgence. Major screwworm outbreak hotspots closely mirror cattle smuggling routes identified in InSight Crime’s 2022 report, “Cash Cows – The Inner Workings of Cattle Trafficking from Central America to Mexico.”

The report also said, “Illegal cattle trade in Mesoamerica, the southern border of North America extending to the Pacific coast of Central America, follows transboundary routes starting in Nicaragua and passing through Honduras and Guatemala, before infiltrating Mexico’s food supply chain and reaching as far as the U.S. This unregulated cross-border movement has created a rapid corridor for the parasite, allowing it to travel nearly 700 miles—from the Nicaragua-Honduras border to Catazajá, Mexico—in just two and a half months. ”

U.S. relaxed border policies may have served an indirect catalyst for the spread of the New Worm Screwworm through Panama as the parasite was reported to follow the same Darian Gap route trod by migrant populations traveling towards the U.S.

In the Newsweek article, How a Favored Migrant Route Became Invasive Species Superhighway to US, it said,

“The Darién Gap, long a perilous route for millions of migrants traveling north toward the United States, has also become a pathway for the northward spread of the New World screwworm—a parasitic fly now challenging decades of containment efforts.

The flesh-eating fly, whose larvae burrow into the wounds of living animals, has surged north through Central America since 2022, recently reaching the Mexican states of Oaxaca and Veracruz—roughly 700 miles from the Texas border. Scientists and federal officials now warn that the screwworm could cross into the U.S. as early as this summer if containment efforts falter.”‘

Sterile Insect eradication technique

According to the ASM.org article is states:

“The search for an alternate preventive to chemical pesticide treatments began in the late 1930s with scientists working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Laboratory  in Menard, Texas. At that time, the screwworm was devastating livestock herds, including red meat and dairy supplies across the Southern U.S., Mexico, Central America and South America.

The article continues and states, “The first trial to eliminate NWS in the wild occurred in 1954 on the island of Curaçao, north of Venezuela. Within 4 months, the New World screwworm fly was successfully eradicated from the island. This success led to the adoption of the technique in the continental U.S., and C. hominivorax has been considered extinct there since 1966.”