Saturday, August 25, 2007

King, Kenedy, Charles Stillman and James O'Donnell entered into a business partnership (M. Kenedy & Co.)

King Ranch, c.1,000,000 acres (404,700 hectares), S Tex., SW of Corpus Christi with headquarters at Kingsville, Tex.; one of the largest ranches in the world. It has several divisions, of which the best known is Santa Gertrudis, the “home” ranch. The Santa Gertrudis, the only true cattle breed developed in North America, was developed there. Thoroughbred racehorses are also raised. The ranch was founded in 1853 by Richard King, a steamboat captain. After King's death, the giant holdings were managed by his son-in-law, Robert Kleberg; later, Kleberg's son succeeded to the management. The property was divided in 1935, but the central ranches are still large enough to resemble a semifeudal domain. Profits from oil and natural gas rights and farming have been added to income gained from the great beef herds.

King Ranch
King Ranch logo - the running W brand
Enlarge
King Ranch logo - the running W brand

King Ranch, located in south Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, is one of the world's largest ranches (larger than Rhode Island). It is the largest ranch in the United States. The 825,000 acre (3,340 km²) ranch, founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis, sprawls across six Texas counties, including much of Kenedy County.[1] The ranch was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

History

Paddle steamer on an American river.
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Paddle steamer on an American river.

Richard King

Richard King (1824-1885) was a riverman, born in New York City to Irish immigrants. He was indentured to a jeweler at age eleven but later ran away to seaLea_p2, serving as a cabin boy on the Desdemona.

After arriving on the Gulf Coast, King worked on Captain Hugh Monroe's steamboat. At age 13, upon Monroe's recommendation, King signed on with Captain Joe Holland's steamboat, where he learned to read and reckon. Holland sent King to Connecticut for schooling, but King again ran away at the end of the school term. He served on a Florida steamboat for the Second Seminole War. By 1842, King was working on the steamboats on the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee rivers, where he attained a pilot's rating. In 1843, King first met his future business partner in the King Ranch, Mifflin Kenedy (1818-1895), captain of the steamboat Champion.

The Wild Horse Desert

The striped area includes the Wild Horse Desert between the Nueces River and Rio Bravo
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The striped area includes the Wild Horse Desert between the Nueces River and Rio Bravo

In 1845, Texas was annexed by the United States, but the Wild Horse Desert — the land between the Rio Grande and the Nueces River — was disputed territory, as the Nueces was claimed to be the boundary with Mexico. The Wild Horse Desert remained unsettled, as the Karankawas, the Lipans and the Comanches kept Spanish land grant holders from settling. Author Tom Lea wrote that the cattle of the Wild Horse Desert ran free on unfenced land from the early 1800s until 1840, when there were no more cattle to be stolen by the early Texan Cow Boys.Lea_p108

Mexican War

On July 2, 1846, Kenedy signed on as captain of the steamer Corvette and was sent to pilot the waters of the Rio Grande. At that time, the Rio Grande was navigable from the mouth of the river to slightly past Roma, Texas. Richard King, by this time, had arrived on the Rio Grande and had signed on as a Second Pilot for the steamer Colonel Cross. After the end of the war, King was able to buy the Colonel Cross for $750 as surplus.Lea_p45

King attempted to make a living hauling merchandise on the Rio Grande. In the meantime, Kenedy was able to make money by carrying goods overland into Mexico. By March 1, 1850, King, Kenedy, Charles Stillman and James O'Donnell entered into a business partnership (M. Kenedy & Co.) to transport Stillman's goods from the Gulf of Mexico and up the Rio Grande. The enterprise required two types of steamers — the Grampus and Comanche. Stillman sold his share of the enterprise after the American Civil War; the new firm operated as King, Kenedy & Co. until 1874.

Santa Gertrudis Creek and the ranch's origins

King first saw the land that would become part of the enormous King Ranch in April 1852 as he traveled north from Brownsville to attend the Lone Star Fair in Corpus Christi, a four day trip by horseback. After a grueling, hot and dusty ride, King caught sight of the Santa Gertrudis Creek, 124 miles from the Rio Grande. It was the first stream he had seen on the Wild Horse Desert. The land, which was shaded by large mesquite trees, so impressed him that when he arrived at the fair, he and a friend, Texas Ranger Captain Gideon K. "Legs" Lewis, agreed then and there to make it into a ranch.

The King Ranch LK brand, still in use today, stands for partners Lewis and King.

From September 1, 1852 to March 13, 1853, Lewis served as captain of Texas Mounted Volunteers, which patrolled the Corpus Christi area. Concurrently, King and Lewis established a cow camp on Santa Gertrudis Creek. During this time, Richard King purchased the Rincón de Santa Gertrudis grant, a 15,500 acre (63 km²) holding that encompassed present-day Kingsville, Texas. It was purchased from the heirs of Juan Mendiola of Camargo on July 25, 1853, for $300. King sold Lewis an undivided half-interest in the land for $2,000. At the same time, Lewis sold King undivided half interest in the ranchos of Manuel Barrera and of Juan Villareal for the same sum, on November 14, 1853. In 1854, King and Lewis purchased the de la Garza Santa Gertrudis grant from Praxides Uribe of Matamoros for $1,800, on the condition of a perfected title (complete documentation of the land grant) on May 20, 1854 to 53 000 acres (214 km²). As the years passed, more land was added, growing to 1.2 million acres (4900 km²) at its largest extent, until reaching its current total.

In 1855 Lewis attempted a run for Congress. But an irate husband gunned him down on April 14 1855. Lewis had tried to retrieve damaging letters written and addressed to the man's wife, which her husband had intercepted. Lea_p133.

On July 1 1856, a court sale of Lewis' property (including the undivided half-interest in the land of the Ranch) was held. King had arranged for MAJ W.W. Chapman (died 1859) to bid on the Rincón property, which Chapman acquired for $1,575.

King interested Captain James Walworth in acquiring the entire de la Garza grant, which Walworth completed on December 26 1856, for $5000 paid to Praxides Uribe. King thus retained operational control of the Ranch, with Walworth as a silent partner who held title to the land, and who paid taxes on it.Lea_p138

King and Walworth's brand was registered June 27 1859 along with his earlier brands (see below).

Early ranch operations

According to oral tradition, when King and his partners began hiring people to staff the ranch, they hired a number of Mexican hands, including an entire Mexican village that had been decimated by drought in 1854. Lea records that King led the entrada of villagers from Cruillas, Tamaulipas, Mexico in the early months of 1854. As the ranch grew, its hands came to be called "kineños," or "King's men." King's payroll records from the King Ranch Account Book include Lea_p120

Kenedy County is intertwined with tracts of the King Ranch
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Kenedy County is intertwined with tracts of the King Ranch
  • Francisco Alvarado
  • Juan Villareal
  • Damón Ortíz
  • Ylario Chapa
  • Frylan and Lucián Cabazos
  • Chili Ebano
  • Juan Cantú
  • James Richardson
  • William Gregory
  • William Houston
  • Tom Craig
  • Luke Hart
  • Faustino Villa

As the operation grew bigger, some original grantees returned to their land. King once said he "could not have kept on and held on if Andrés Canales had not been adjoining."Lea_p124

Records show that a Mexican range cow cost $6 in 1854; a mustang cost $6; a stud horse cost $200-300 Lea_p121. In sum, in 1854 King paid $12,275.79. Lea estimates that 1855 expenses were smaller. The first brand was the Ere Flecha (a R with arrow through it) Lea_p150.

In 1859, the ranch recorded its first official brands (HK and LK). In 1869 the ranch registered its "Running W" brand, which remains the King Ranch's official mark today. At the time, the ranch grazed cattle, horses, sheep and goats. However, by the mid-1870s the ranch's hallmark stock had become the hardy Texas Longhorn. The ranch also boasted several Brahman bulls, as well as Beef Shorthorns and Herefords.

The Brahmans — which were bred specially to thrive in South Texas' hot climate — were crossed with the ranch's Beef Shorthorns to produce the ranch's own trademark stock — the Santa Gertrudis breed, which were recognized as a breed in 1940. The Santa Gertrudis was the first American breed of beef cattle.

Lea portrays King's purchase of the Ranch as motivated by his wooing of Henrietta Maria Morse Chamberlain (1832-1925). Their first encounter in February 1849 was on the Rio Grande, where her father Hiram Chamberlain, a Presbyterian minister, had rented the Whiteville as a houseboat. King swore at the crew of the Whiteville to leave the customary mooring of the Colonel Cross when he encountered his future bride, aged 17, who returned his fire Lea_p64_note40p431 from the houseboat. King then wooed her by dutifully attending prayer meetings and church socials. Their marriage license was entered at Cameron County on December 9 1854. They were married in the First Presbyterian Church, Brownsville, Sunday December 10 1854, by the Rev. Hiram Chamberlain, immediately after the evening service. King had prepared carefully; the Ranch Account Book lists the purchase of a stagecoach for $400 on November 28 1854. The stagecoach ride to the Ranch took four days from Brownsville, accompanied by armed riders, attended by a ranch cook for the journey.

"When I came as a bride in 1854, a little ranch home then — a mere jacal as Mexicans would call it — was our abode for many months until our main ranch dwelling was completed. But I doubt if if it falls to the lot of any a bride to have had so happy a honeymoon. On horseback we roamed the broad prairies. When I grew tired my husband would spread a Mexican blanket for me and then I would take my siesta under the shade of the mesquite tree. ... I remember that my pantry was so small my platters were fastend to the walls outside. In those days large venison roasts were our favorite viands. ... At first our cattle were long horns from Mexico. We had no fences and branding was hard work."

— Henrietta King Lea_p128-9

The King Ranch HK brand stands for Henrietta King.

After an extended stay at the Ranch, the Kings were to open up a cottage next door to the Kenedys on Elizabeth Street in Brownsville, where they were to befriend Robert E. Lee. Their lives then entered cycles of ranch life, followed by town life.

Their first-born was Henrietta Maria King (April 17 1856-1918). She would later become Henrietta M. K. Atwood; as there were two Henriettas in the King family, she was nicknamed "Nettie".

Robert E. Lee

Richard King first met LTC Robert E. Lee (1807-1870), Second Cavalry, United States Army in Fall, 1856 while transporting Army supplies on the Rio Grande. Lee was on the Rio Grande while engaged in courts-martial at Fort Brown. King and Lee would sometimes ride horseback together when the court was in adjournment. Thus Robert E. Lee was able to visit the Ranch; in Tom Lea's opinion, Robert E. Lee chose the site for the Ranch house at Santa Gertrudis, which was completed sometime between 1857 and 1859. Lee would visit the Ranch several times in the period from 1856 to 1861.

"I am sure if General Lee were to recall those days, he would say that a dinner served off our tin plates on this old ranch was more appetizing than many a banquet accorded him in later years."

— Henrietta King Lea_p144_note16p

Encounters, Old-West style

  • The Kings would travel between Brownsville and the Ranch; one evening, the Kings were encamped by the side of the road when a lone man (who would later reveal his intentions as a bandido) asked to join camp that night. King then assented and sent him out for firewood. Henrietta was tending Nettie on a blanket. King was lighting twigs for the fire when Henrietta yelled out "Captain King! Behind you!". The experienced riverfront fighter slammed back his arms and grabbed the knife-wielding arm, tossing the entire weight of the bandido to the ground, wrenching the knife-wielding arm helpless. King then sternly ordered him to get out of camp.Lea_p147_note22
  • As Henrietta King was baking bread in their jacal, with the infant Nettie in a cradle at the doorway, she turned to see an indio at the threshold. Brandishing a club, he leapt to the cradle and pointed to the bread with his other hand. Henrietta King gave him all the bread he could carry; he then disappeared without a word uttered.Lea_p147_note23

In spring 1858 a Zona Libre (duty-free zone), six miles wide, was established along the Rio Grande along the boundary of the entire state of Tamaulipas. This had the effect of increasing smuggling across the Rio Grande, as goods could be imported into Mexico free of duty. Concurrently, General D.E. Twiggs ordered all US troops in the Department of Texas away from the border, thus on February 5 1859, the US Army abandoned all posts west of the Nueces River Lea_p_note440.

On July 13 1859 a siege of Brownsville was instigated by the unnecessary brutality of a City Marshall, Robert Shears, during the arrest of a former servant of Juan Nepomuceno Cortina. Cortina happened to be at a café in Brownsville when he witnessed the arrest for drunkenness. Cortina then disrupted the arrest and rescued his former servant by pulling him up on the saddle behind him, and galloping off. Cortina subsequently freed all Mexican prisoners from the Brownsville jail. It took General José María Jesús Carvajál of Matamoros to quiet the streets of Brownsville. A company of Texas Rangers proved ineffective at restoring order. No US Army representatives of law and order intervened until December 5 1859.

Robert E. Lee was ordered back as the new commander of the Department of Texas in March 1860. After quelling the incursions of banditry on the Rio Grande, he was able to return to San Antonio; at this time he was able to drop by the Santa Gertrudis Ranch on May 12 1860.

King and Kenedy anticipated more steamer business as the Civil war loomed, and increased the number of steamers to seven by 1861.

When secession from the Union was decided, General D.E. Twiggs surrendered all US troops in the Department of Texas to the State, to the surprise of Robert E. Lee Lea_p176.

In the Civil War, initially, the disruption of the flow of cattle to market caused a drop in beef prices. In 1861, the price of cattle dropped to $2 a head, rising to $11 per head by August 1862.

By the end of 1861, the blockade of the ports of the Confederacy caused an influx of cotton from across the South to Matamoros, which was not subject to the Union blockade. Kenedy re-flagged his ships with friends in Matamoros to evade the blockade.Lea_p186

The planters of the southeastern states of the Confederacy were forced to sell their cotton to agents of the Confederacy, and were paid in Confederate money. The planters west of the Mississippi could sell their cotton to the Mexican border where they could be paid in gold. To prevent this loss of income, on October 14 1862 the commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, General Theophilus H. Holmes, prohibited the export of cotton to non-Confederate agents.

This was a situation tailor-made for the duty-free zone of Tamaulipas. Thus cotton sank to 6 cents a pound in Galveston in 1863, compared to a range of 20 to 74 cents a pound on the Rio Grande for the same period. By 1865, cotton ranged from 68 cents a pound to $1.25 a pound. The ships anchored on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande rose from 20 ships in September 1862 to 200-300 ships in early 1865. Lea_p192

In return, munitions flowed from Europe disguised as Hollow Ware, Bean Flour, Canned Goods, and Bat Metal, names for Enfield guns, gunpowder, percussion caps, and lead, respectivelyLea_p193. However Lea records that the value of this trade was unrecognized by the authorities of the Confederacy.

The partners of King, Kenedy and Stillman divided the labor of transhipment for the Confederacy as follows: King would procure cotton from Confederate depots; Kenedy would ship it; Stillman would provide other merchandise, with a commission of 2.5% for selling and 2.5% for advancing. For example, Lea cites an April 28th, 1863 contract with the Confederate Army: in exchange for 500 bales of Confederate cotton per month, for 6 months, King, Kenedy and Stillman would receive $900 000 dollars in gold, as the Confederate dollar had already depreciated to 25% of its face value, which they could demand in lieu of paper Confederate dollars, as Mexican gold was the basis of value in the region of the Rio Grande. Lea_p200

By February 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant dispatched Major General Lew Wallace to Brazos Island to learn how to shut off the international trade centered on Matamoros. The last battle of the Civil War, May 13, 1865 was fired in this region at Palmito Ranch. Upon surrender, Richard King, as a Rebel, was evading Union capture by hiding in Matamoros. King was obliged to ask for presidential pardon. Kenedy's steamers were seized by the Union, but King and Kenedy were able to buy them back. They bid on a Union Army railroad in 1866, but their $60 000 offer was outbid.

Both rivermen quit the river by 1868. King and Kenedy decided to split their ranch holdings and fence their properties from each other, a considerable expense. Kenedy was the first substantial owner of fenced range in the West.

The Big Drift

The 1863-1864 winter pushed uncounted cattle south toward the Nueces and Rio Grande. By the end of the Civil War, the Texas Rangers were disbanded by the Reconstruction. It became too tempting to simply herd cattle across the Nueces or Rio Grande.

Even in this time of loss, by 1869 Richard King was able to round up 48 664 cattle out of an estimated 84 000 head. Allowing for 10 000 remaining, Richard King claimed a loss of 33 827 head from 1869 to 1872.

To handle depredations, the ranchers formed the Stock Raisers Association of Western Texas in 1870; Mifflin Kenedy led the first meeting.

By 1874, the Texas Rangers were re-established, and were a factor in controlling the depredations.

Beef price fluctuations

By 1870, 300 000 head of cattle made their way from the West to the railroads of Kansas, and thence to the stockyards of Chicago. In a Texas ranch, a steer worth $11 would bring $20 from a buyer in Abilene. The buyer in turn could ask $31.50 at the Union Stock Yards. Richard King could drive his cattle for a hundred days to the railheads of Kansas.

But by 1871 700,000 head of cattle caused a market glut, which King avoided by personal negotiation in Abilene.

King managed to avoid the September 19 1873 Black Friday panic by selling early. During the lean year that followed, King continued to fence his land, and husband his cattle, horses and sheep.

One technique that King used to manage costs was to make his trail bosses the owners of the herd. The bosses would sign a note for the cattle, which they would begin to drive to market in February of each year, for the 100-day drive. The bosses were also the employers of the outfit. Upon the sale of the herd to the northern buyers, the trail bosses could relieve their indebtedness, and earn a profit greater than their ordinary wages.

  • 1884 Trail boss Walter Billingsley, while driving 5600 steers to Cheyenne, Wyoming, needed a $600 loan to pay off 5 cowboys he fired for drunkenness. With no identification, he could not get a loan from a bank in Fort Sidney, Nebraska. He drove the cookwagon and 150 horses, all branded with the running W in front of the bank, and got the loan on the strength of the brand. Lea_p363

Death of Henrietta King

After seventy years at the Santa Gertrudis ranch, Henrietta King died March 31 1925; she had outlived all but one of her children, Alice Gertrudis King Kleberg (1862-1944). When word came to the Kineños' families, some of them rode across the Ranch on horseback for more than two days to converge on the Santa Gertrudis in time for the funeral. All the Kineños, nearly two hundred of them, rode on their horses with La Patrona to her interment in the cemetery in Kingsville, Texas. But when she was lowered into the ground, the Kineños spontaneously mounted their horses, and bareheaded, their hats to the side, cantered in single file around her grave in final saluteLea_p604.

At the death of Henrietta King, the appraiser's Statement of Gross Estate, Mrs. H.M. King listed a net total of 5.4 million dollars, as the owner of 997 444.56 acres (4 037 km²), which did not include the Santa Gertrudis headquarters, nor did it include the Kleberg's Stillman and Lasater tracts, which were not of the estate. Her son-in-law Bob Kleberg, Sr. said "A valuation of four to five dollars an acre [$1236/km²] on a million acres [4000 km²] of raw ranchland was about right, but it took a long time for the Government to admit it." Lea_p611. By 1929 the taxes ($859 000) had been paid up, in installments, but the trustees had to borrow money, so that by the market crash of 1929, Henrietta King's estate was in debt $3 000 000.

But in 1933, Bob Kleberg, Sr. leased the exploration and drilling rights on 971 000 acres (3 930 km²) to the Humble Oil and Refining Co., Houston, Texas, for 13 cents an acre ($32/km²), in exchange for the usual royalty of 1/8th of every barrel (20 L) of oil pumped from the property. Humble Oil loaned enough money to pay the debts of the H.M. King estate, secured by a first mortgage on the land. Humble struck oil and gas by 1939. During all of this, the Ranch was a going concern, with a net profit of $227 382, as early as 1926Lea_p613.

Literature

The Kings of Texas
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The Kings of Texas

The King family and the ranch are part of the myth and mystique of Texas, and they have been featured in numerous stories and novelizations. For example, the Kings of Texas traces the history of the ranch through "decades of conflict arising from the Mexican War, the Civil War, and countless skirmishes between Texas Rangers and border bandits".

Edna Ferber's novel Giant of the ranches of Texas was turned into a film: Giant. The theme song of the film is a staple for high school bands in Texas. Many of the events of the King Ranch, such as the discovery of oil on the property, are also in the film. It should be noted that working-class millionaires can still be found in the oil towns of Texas as well; Richard King is not a unique example.

Present day

King Ranch also raises quarter horses, cutting horses and thoroughbreds and produced the 1946 Triple Crown winner Assault and 1950 Kentucky Derby winner, Middleground. They also owned a share of La Troienne, the greatest broodmare of the Twentieth Century. The King Ranch had the honor of raising the first quarter horse registered with the American Quarter Horse Association. The stallion's name was Wimpy P-1 and he was given registration number one. In addition, the King Ranch company operates a local museum, maintains other property concerns and works with Texas A&M University to perform agricultural research and development.

In 1997, Ford Motor Company added a King Ranch edition to their F-series Super Duty truck line, complete with the King Ranch cattle brand logo.

An unusual animal seen in the King Ranch is the Nilgai, which were imported from India. As they usually are born in twins, eventually the nilgai started competing with the ranch's cows, and the ranch allowed hunters to come in and harvest the animals. They would gather several (somewhere around 30) each night. This no longer occurs, but the rapidity of this process caused the Texas nilgai to become extremely wary of humans, and they bolt at the sight of vehicles, running nearly as fast as horses.

Notes

  1. ^ Map of King Ranch. King-ranch.com. Last accessed October 11, 2006.

Footnotes

  • ^ Lea,p.2: For King's biographical details, Lea cites Richard King's sworn deposition before F.J. Parker, US Commissioner, Eastern District of Texas, April 11, 1870, filed with the US and Mexican Claims Commission, Washington, D.C., August 30th, 1870. -- Records of Boundary and Claims Commission and Arbitrations, Claims vs. Mexico - 1868, Claim No. 579, RG 76 GSA, National Archives and Records Services, Washington, D.C. Lea,p423
  • ^ Lea, pp128-9. Notes from the King Ranch vault in Henrietta King's handwriting.
  • ^ ,^ : Reminiscences by Henrietta King to members of her family.

References

  • Tom Lea (1957), The King Ranch. Two volumes. 838 pages. Index. Maps and drawings by the author. Boston: Little, Brown. Library of Congress catalog card:57-7839

Further reading

  • Don Graham, The Kings of Texas : The 150-Year Saga of an American Ranching Empire, ISBN 0-471-39451-3

External links

Sunday, June 24, 2007

EL Defenzor.net: Watt is the "common denominator?" pos Quayate......Shoewe ME D QUAN>>>>>

EL Defenzor.net: Watt is the "common denominator?" pos Quayate......Shoewe ME D QUAN>>>>>


CORPUS CHRISTI — The Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office may lose certification and be forced to delay critical reports without more workspace and a larger staff in the next two years, officials said.

The office is forced to ask the Commissioners Court for extra resources estimated at $640,000 for the next fiscal year to manage a rapidly increasing workload and national recertification in 2009 that mandates a maximum ratio of autopsies performed for each forensic pathologist, said Nueces County Medical Examiner Dr. Ray Fernandez. That estimate includes a one-time cost of $500,000 for a 2,000-square-foot addition to the office and hiring another pathologist with a $140,000 annual salary.

As medical examiner, Fernandez is responsible for investigating the deaths of all people who die violently, suddenly or unexpectedly. Since 1996, the number of cases reported to the office increased by 54 percent to 1,528 deaths in 2006 from 990 cases in 1996, according to county medical examiner data. The escalating number of cases results from increasing population, more immigrant traffic in the area and a higher frequency of death reports from surrounding counties, Fernandez said.

"The volume of work has grown tremendously," Fernandez said. "Right now I'm the chief examiner, the associate and the one who locks up the place."

While the office isn't backlogged, it is getting close and may start seeing delays in autopsy reports, death certificates and other documents if something isn't done, Fernandez said. These documents directly impact residents in the ability to execute an estate and file insurance claims, he said.

A delay in autopsy reports -- or if the office isn't recertified during its next review scheduled for fall 2009 -- could jeopardize the prosecution of homicides and police investigations, said District Attorney Carlos Valdez. Prosecutors are unable to prove a homicide case without the testimony and findings of the medical examiner, Valdez said.

"We're talking about the criminal justice system -- ultimately protection of the public," he said. "If something breaks down in the criminal justice system, it affects everything and in the end it may cause guilty people to walk free."

The Nueces County office is one of five statewide that are certified by the National Association of Medical Examiners out of 13 offices statewide, according to the association. According to Valdez, that certification adds a degree of credibility during criminal trials.

certified office

Medical examiner's offices, along with all statewide crime labs, were required to be certified under a 2005 state law, Fernandez said. However, the state granted a temporary exemption to medical examiners before the law took effect.

The Nueces County Office received certification by the National Association of Medical Examiners in November 2004 to gear up for what is expected to be a requirement in coming years. The exemption still is in effect but may be dropped during the 2009 legislative session, Fernandez said.

One of the certification provisions bars having more than 325 autopsies for each forensic pathologist, and the recommended maximum is no more than 250 autopsies each.

In 2006, the Nueces County office performed 328 autopsies stemming from Nueces County, which does not include autopsies of bodies from the 16 surrounding counties the office serves.

Data for autopsies from surrounding counties in the past few years was not immediately available, but likely add 100 to 150 autopsies per year, Fernandez said.

"We are at a crossroads here -- we're either going to move resources, maintain accreditation and be in compliance or expect to see delays," Fernandez said. "If nothing's done (the delays) probably would come sooner rather than later. It would probably be in the coming year or the following year after that."

considering request

Fernandez presented to commissioners requests for a facility upgrade, an extra forensic pathologist and an assistant last month during the court's budget workshops. County Judge Loyd Neal said last week that the court understands the request and will come to a decision before the 2007-2008 budget is finalized in September.

"We don't want this office not to be certified," Neal said. "With that said, there's a price tag attached to that of several hundred thousand dollars. ... One of the issues we will look at is the importance of doing this in a timely basis, and how do we pay for it."

The 2,000-square-foot expansion of the office would include an office for the extra forensic pathologist, additional workspace and a family grieving room, Fernandez said.

The request also includes hiring a permanent autopsy assistant.

"We certainly are going to work with (Dr. Fernandez) in every way we can to make sure we've looked at all alternatives and make sure we are properly equipped and funded for when inspection comes," Neal said. "But there's no guarantees. We have several million dollars' worth of requests before us and this is one of them."

Contact David Kassabian at 886-3778 or kassabiand@caller.com

The number of cases reported to the office increased by 54% to 1,528 deaths in 2006 from 990 cases in 1996.

Responsibilities

Investigate the deaths of people who die violently, suddenly or unexpectedly.

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Friday, June 08, 2007

Google Yourself Corpus Christi: When Carlos Valdez Confesses Error Does Not The Same Rule Apply?

Google Yourself Corpus Christi: When Carlos Valdez Confesses Error Does Not The Same Rule Apply?


First, in seeking the death penalty, prosecutors sometimes overlook glaring illegalities.

"courts, especially state courts, are too often willing to overlook even obvious constitutional flaws when reviewing death penalty cases."


And if they are "willing to overlook even obvious constitutional flaws and glaring illegalities when Prosecuting & reviewing death penalty cases."

WATT about all of the other cases?

How many "overlooks" of
"constitutional flaws" or "glaring illegalities" have become tools of Cheating Prosecutors who have forgotten "Prosecutors, despite striking hard blows, must never lose sight of their ultimate obligation to do justice in every case.

How many Prosecutors deliberately commit the error of failing to file a reply brief in an Appeal Process because it deprives the appellant of exculpatory testimony, evidence, and confessions of error or witness tampering by the State Prosecuting Attorney?



----
CONFESSING ERROR
By EDWARD LAZARUS
----
Friday, Jun. 16, 2000

Earlier this month, Vincent Saldano, one of the 468 inmates on Texas' death row, had his death sentence vacated. This development was duly reported in the press. But accounts of Saldano's good fortune uniformly failed to appreciate what makes his reprieve truly newsworthy and potentially a landmark.

Saving Saldano: Texas Confesses Error



[Illustration]

Saldano was not freed from the prospect of execution by the actions of a court or even, as occasionally happens, by the clemency of a governor. His death sentence was erased because Texas, through its newly created office of the solicitor general, "confessed error" in his case -- that is, it admitted, despite defeating Saldano's initial appeals in court, that his death sentence was illegally obtained. Quite simply, this never happens, either in Texas or in the dozens of other states with active death penalty laws. It is thus worth pausing to consider the value and potential implications of Saldano's case as well as the notion of confessing error.

Saldano had received a death sentence in part due to profoundly troubling testimony by a state expert witness at the sentencing phase of his trial. The expert, a clinical psychologist named Walter Quijano, suggested that Saldano should be executed because, as an Hispanic, he posed a special risk of future dangerousness to society. To support this astonishing conclusion, the expert pointed out that Hispanics make up a disproportionately large amount of Texas' prison population.

It does not take a tenured professor of constitutional law to realize that linking racial identity with a propensity for violence was not only bizarre but also a violation of the equal protection clause. Indeed, that it should take a confession of error by the state to correct this problem highlights at least two problems in the current administration of the death penalty. First, in seeking the death penalty, prosecutors sometimes overlook glaring illegalities. The same flaw identified in Saldano's case infects at least seven other Texas capital cases. Second (and perhaps even more distressing), courts, especially state courts, are too often willing to overlook even obvious constitutional flaws when reviewing death penalty cases. After all, before the state's confession of error, Saldano had lost all of his appeals.

Under these circumstances, one might think that confessions of error would be, if not commonplace, at least occasional. On average, the Solicitor General of the United States confesses error in two or three criminal cases every year -- even though it is a safe bet that federal prosecutions, conducted by better trained lawyers with greater supervision, are less likely to contain obvious legal errors than their state counterparts. As the Supreme Court recognized when endorsing the practice in 1942, "the public trust reposed in the law enforcement officers of the Government requires that they be quick to confess error, when, in their opinion, a miscarriage of justice may result from their remaining silent." But as a practical matter, states never confess error in death penalty cases (even though courts overturn roughly two-thirds of all death sentences as legally infirm) -- and some states candidly admit that their policy is never to confess error.

Mutual Distrust

Why? One crucial and usually overlooked factor is the deep antagonism that has grown up over time between state death penalty prosecutors and the death penalty abolitionist lawyers who seek to foil them in every case. The abolitionists, prosecutors know all too well, never concede that their clients deserve the death penalty or that the death penalty was legally imposed -- no matter how flimsy their arguments in a given case. Rather, they use every procedural and substantive trick in the book to delay executions.

There can be no denying that such abolitionist tactics have angered and frustrated state prosecutors. And one response to these understandable emotions has been for prosecutors to mirror the fight-to-the-bitter-end approach of their opponents.

The problem with this reciprocation, however, is simply that the ethical duties of prosecutors and defense attorneys are vastly different. Defense attorneys are duty-bound to scratch and claw to win for their clients. Prosecutors, by contrast, despite striking hard blows, must never lose sight of their ultimate obligation to do justice in every case.


That may sound trite and perhaps overly idealistic, but it has a practical side as well. Prosecutorial confessions of error -- knowing when to fold them, as it is known -- establish credibility. They create trust in the system, a sense that someone is being careful and exercising sound judgment, that extends far beyond any single case. And that can make a world of difference for someone like me, who is not morally opposed to the death penalty but skeptical of how it is imposed.

Death Penalty Politics

In addition, the reluctance of state prosecutors to confess error is a clear reflection of how politics affects the death penalty. Up until now, anyway, undoing a death sentence was akin to political suicide for an elected district attorney or state attorney general, or for any state official with ambitions for re-election or higher office. And yet the willingness of Texas' new solicitor general to confess error in the Saldano case suggests a possible turning point. With the current groundswell of death penalty opposition based on the possibility of executing an innocent person, elected officials may now find some advantage in approaching capital cases (even those where innocence is not an issue) with a greater degree of care and honesty.

case will start a broad trend. But there is reason to believe that the tide is indeed turning. On June 9, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn announced the results of an investigation into other death penalty cases involving testimony by state expert Walter Quijano. Cornyn acknowledged that Dr. Quijano had provided testimony in six other death penalty cases similar to his improper testimony in the Saldano case. Cornyn's staff has advised defense lawyers for the six inmates now on death row that his office will not oppose efforts to overturn their sentences based on Quijano's testimony. In response, a pessimist might note that Texas is appealing a ruling in another capital case that the defendant received inadequate counsel -- when, indisputably, his lawyer slept through much of the trial. But doing the right thing has a contagious quality to it. Or at least so we can hope.


Edward Lazarus, a former federal prosecutor, is the legal correspondent for Talk Magazine and the author of Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Perry will travel to an undisclosed island off the coast of Greece to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Illuminati.



June 03, 2007

Breaking news from the Bilderberg Conference

Reliable sources have confirmed that the Bilderberg Conference is just the start of a whirlwind tour for Texas Governor Rick Perry. On Monday, he is slated for an appearance in Bangkok where he will named as an associate member for the Trilateral Commission. The board will present him an infant purchased from the black market in the Klong Toey slum. A Perry spokesperson has denied rumors that sacrifice is on the table.

Later in the week, Perry will travel to an undisclosed island off the coast of Greece to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Illuminati.

But it doesn’t end there. After the ceremony he will be spirited to a deep underground cavern beneath Epcot Center in Orlando to advise Walt Disney’s brain and Dick Nixon’s head as they try to overcome personal challenges that prevented them from world domination through the use of the BOB FM radio format. As of Friday, the stock was slightly up from a 52 week low in light trading.

A leak from a mole deep in the organization states that the reason for failure might have been the overuse of half durations of bass used during the bridge section of the song “Afternoon Delight” by the Starlight Vocal Band. The source goes on to claim that at this time other radio networks have not been affected, and that it is still ok to keep listening to the song on your old K-Tel albums.

It should be noted that the source of the leak is an actual mole, and a distant cousin of Mickey Mouse. However, when you think of moles in the Disney Empire, think of the oompa-loompas in The Chocolate Factory – there are thousands of them and detection from authorities is almost non-existence.

In related news, Rupert Murdoch has started an exploratory committee to gauge interest in running for world dictator.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

CCISD: Dear CCISD Trustees, Without Due Process & Community Input; No Choice Will Be Bona-Fide


"That Just the Way It Is. I Gotta Get Paid"

I must say the tactics being carried out right now are transferring from a division between majority & minority groups to a division of within the minority groups. This concept is how CCISD manipulates. Think about it? Investigations, Colloquial Intelligence, Manipulation of one’s JOB opportunities, personal & political missions and nanotechnology to forecast, design and carry out plans ranging from 0 to at least a good 20 years. WIA slush fund is all about the final data in each category. There are many exemptive solutions & creative methods that are encouraged. The WIA allows the creation of multiple programs and agencies to create JOBS or JOB training. WIA is the DARE program, COPS program, Communities in Schools, and anything they can draw up a quick blueprint of. Innovation and Malleability produce stellar new programs from dedicated grant writers given the concepts and goals of a brainstorm. This is a brilliant concept for our youth. The problem is the adults take candy from the babies. CCISD is way to big for their britches. A board much too elevated to consider input from the community. Such audacity to condescend to engagement of the community they fleece in the justification “they know WATT is best for us”. Furthermore, contrary to their schmoozing persona-ism they do not know it all “we wouldn’t understand the process so why do we need to know how they conduct the business of running our school district?”. We would never understand anyway? The concern is to make the numbers JIVE with each other and the terminology is dynamic so are the variables applicable for each method of calculation.

“I guess it just depends on WATT your definition of is………..

IS?”

"I see no changes all I see is racist faces
misplaced hate makes disgrace to races
We under I wonder what it takes to make this
one better place, let's erase the haters
Take the evil out the people they'll be acting right
'cause both black and white is talkin smack tonight
and only time we heal is when we love each other
it takes skill to be real, time to heal each other
And although it seems heaven sent
We ain't ready, to see a black President, uhh
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact
the penitentiary's packed"
tupac

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Texas Public Education Watchdog Authority: Dear Chuy Hinojosa, Florence Shapiro and distinguished Education Committee Members

Texas Public Education Watchdog Authority: Dear Chuy Hinojosa, Florence Shapiro and distinguished Education Committee Members


Just give us (Education) the Lottery Proceeds as per original bill of sale. The Lottery was sold to us (the voters of the great State of Texas) as 100% of the proceeds were for Educating our youth.

What percentage of the Lottery proceeds (currently) are dedicated to the education of our youth?

Why is it, the wealth always steals from our children after acting like they were creating, “doing it for th kids” huge reservoirs of Avarice to siphon off.

Like the Lottery originally was ratified by the people of the Great State of Texas with the belief ot was a moneymaker for our Children’s Education. And now how much of the Lottery revenue makes it to Public Education?



Perry Craddick & Corporate Welfare in the name of WIA, ED Byrne Grant, and under the guise of helping the poor.


With the Education funding we should demand that the dedication of lottery money to the Education of our Children be adhered to as it was sold to Texas. The Lottery when legislated was for the Education of Texas Students. Finally, the Private Sector is funded under the WIA slush fund for Corporate Welfare Recipients under the Guise of a Welfare Reform or Welfare to Work / JOB generating program to help the poor. The rich are getting richer in the name of helping the poor. And one needs to always remember it is both parties dippin into the creative crony contractualism. Give it a title, write a grant and set up a front office with a computer and a sign; then get some brochures and a few token clients and funnel the Avarice in a shell game like manner and voila a new ranch or a new house maybe an agency hummer or King Ranch Pickup Truck with a magnetic sign. Give a few JOBS to your network affiliates and send the clients to perform community based work and get rich and richer doing it. Ask Mary Cano or Oscar Martinez to explain it in detail. Charmed I'm sure.



TFT LEGISLATIVE HOTLINE--FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2007
>(copyright 2007 Texas Federation of Teachers)
>
>Proposed State Budget Shortchanges Schools and Educators; Keep Up the Fight
>For House TRS Plan; House at a Standstill as Speaker Clings to Power
>
>Proposed Budget Shortchanges Public Schools, Education Employees: TFT
>President Linda Bridges put out a press statement today deploring the
>results of the House-Senate conference committee on the 2008-2009 budget.
>The state budget plan in House Bill 1 still must win the approval of
>majorities in both the House and Senate. As President Bridges' statement
>below explains, HB 1 in its current form does not deserve that approval:
>
>"Education and educators would be shortchanged badly in the budget proposed
>by House-Senate conferees this afternoon. Based on the information
>currently
>available, school funding would remain static, not even getting back to the
>level of state and local funding school districts had in 2002 in real
>terms, after you take inflation into account. The $850-a-year
>cost-of-living pay raise for teachers passed by the House last month would
>shrivel to about $425, according to the legislative budget staff. If paid
>out to all teachers across the board, this would amount to less than $25 a
>month after taxes and deductions--not even enough to cover the cost of
>rising average health-care premiums. And the conferees took pains today to
>say the money would not even have to be paid out across the board to all
>teachers.
>
>"Worst of all is what this budget proposal would do regarding TRS pension
>benefits. The bill would withhold an eminently affordable and exceedingly
>modest pension boost--a 13th check for TRS retirees--unless other
>legislation passes
>to impose new levies on all current school employees. The only way retirees
>would get a 13th check, under this scheme devised by Sen. Robert Duncan,
>would be if active school employees pay a higher contribution rate, taking
>roughly $50 million a year out of their pockets. This plan totally
>contradicts the House legislation passed unanimously on Wednesday that
>would provide a 13th check for retirees fully funded by the state, without
>imposing any new levies on active employees.
>
>"In short, school districts under this budget would regain none of the
>ground they have lost financially, teachers would get at best a measly pay
>raise of less than $25 a month that wouldn't even keep up with inflation,
>and 300,000 school support personnel would suffer an actual pay cut, as a
>result of the higher levies imposed on them for TRS with no compensating
>increase in pay. You have to give the
>conferees credit--it takes a certain ingenuity to come up with a plan this
>bad at a time when the state is sitting on a record-high budget surplus."
>
>Keep Up the Fight for House TRS Plan! At this writing members of the Texas
>House are standing firm in support of their unanimously approved plan for a
>13th check for TRS retirees, funded by an increase in the state
>contribution rate to 6.7 percent, with no new costs imposed on active
>school employees. Several Senate offices reported to us today that they are
>receiving a high volume of calls in support of this House version of SB
>1846--as well they should be. The Senate alternative proposed by Sen.
>Robert Duncan, Republican of Lubbock, is a thinly veiled attempt to shift
>state costs for TRS pensions onto active employees and their school
>districts.
>
>Duncan let slip the real agenda during floor debate on his plan,
>noting that increasing the TRS levy on active employees and requiring a
>contribution from school districts could "free up general revenue for other
>purposes." In other words, this scheme would allow the state to save money
>by shifting costs onto education employees and local taxpayers.
>
>Duncan's staff in response to callers today reportedly was claiming that
>the freshly hatched budget deal (see above) means that there's no money and
>no time left to provide this session for the 6.7-percent state contribution
>rate that the House proposes. But that's not so. The legislature has
>billions of dollars left to allocate right now, and it would take only a
>tiny fraction of that treasure--less than 1 percent of it, in fact--for the
>state to get to the 6.7-percent TRS contribution rate from the 6.58 percent
>already built into the budget. Even if the budget bill passes in its
>current form, the
>House plan for a fully state-paid 13th check with no new costs imposed on
>active employees could also still pass and become law with full force and
>effect, delivering a 13th check in September.
>
>The upshot is that you have an opportunity right now to shape the outcome
>of this TRS benefit fight in the critical remaining days before adjournment
>of the legislative session on Monday. Just send the letter on this issue to
>your state senator from the TFT Web site. If you don't know your state
>senator, you can find out quickly when you go to that Web letter.
>
>Speaker's Grip on Gavel Threatened: The Texas House came to a standstill at
>8 PM this evening, as Speaker of the House Tom Craddick shut off House
>members' microphones and called a three-hour recess to head off a
>rank-and-file revolt
>threatening to oust him from the speaker's chair. The Midland Republican is
>under heavy fire from both fellow Republicans and Democrats for what many
>consider his tyrannical rule of the House. Tonight he gave them new grist
>for their argument, by ruling that there is no appeal to the membership as
>a whole if he blocks the parliamentary procedure needed to oust him. His
>ruling, epitomizing the arbitrary, one-man rule of which Speaker Craddick
>stands accused, apparently has led to the resignation of the House
>parliamentarian in protest this evening. Like everyone else at the capitol,
>we are now waiting to see if the House will actually reconvene tonight.
>Keep an eye out for news of the latest developments in the daily TFT
>hotlines that will be published each of the next three days as the
>legislative session hurtles toward final adjournment.


Senate Committee on Education
Committee Information
Chair Vice-Chair Members:

Friday, May 25, 2007

Texas State Representative House District 33: Keep Your Promises Solly. Remember Miller? Why are CCISD Students still running at large during school d

Texas State Representative House District 33: Keep Your Promises Solly. Remember Miller? Why are CCISD Students still running at large during school day hours?

Friday, May 25, 2007

Keep Your Promises Solly. Remember Miller? Why are CCISD Students still running at large during school day hours?



CCISD: Why are CCISD Students allowed to run at large during school day hours?



Education is for our Children, our Youth, our Future. Children and Youth need constant redirection and set boundaries at home and at school as well. When a minor is allowed to run at large during the school day hours whether it is in the halls, leaving or returning a closed campus or simply unaccounted for is irresponsible of the caretaker whose custody in which he / she is placed.
Kenedeno



An absent student is one who does not arrive at school in the morning and is absent for the WHOLE Day. The student was never on campus. The Parent is responsible for the student getting to school (requiring the student to attend school). If the student does not get to school it is the Parent’s responsibility not necessarily the Parent’s fault. There are circumstances where the student will walk in the front door and out the back door without attending a single class. This is where the attendance officers need to improve their due diligence like the old days.

Once the student is counted present in the morning; the Parent has required the student (child) to attend school. Once the student is verified in attendance at the beginning of the school day the student is in the custody of the School.

If the student is tardy or skips class (on campus or off campus) this happens on the watch of the school. The Parent if informed should cooperate and communicate with the School Counselors Administrators and the Attendance Officer to correct the behavior. The Security and Attendance officer should take notice and tighten the belt. This is a security issue as well; there is no excuse for students coming and going outside of the lunch period and it is imperative that attendance irregularities be dealt with within 24 hours. This is easily done with our modern technology.

Instead, what we are seeing is the Attendance Officers documenting the absences as they accumulate and filing on the Parent and student when the number of absences are achieved.

Solly, did you forget about the issues and the kids at Miller and CCISD as a whole?

South Texas Chisme: Chisme roundup

Posted on May 15, 2006 at 06:55:18 PM by Jaime Kenedeno ... sources at ccisd downtown have said that a miller hs asst. principal has become a whistleblower. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/05/chisme-roundup.html - 48k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Solomon Ortiz Jr. on the ballot for State Rep D33!

I am Jaime Kenedeno of South Texas. A simple Google search will inform you more of WHO I Am. ... The credentials of Noyola and the CCISD / Miller fiasco was ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/08/solomon-ortiz-jr-on-ballot-for-state.html - 31k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Truth? you cant handle the truth!

That hadn't happened in years, that is why Miller was facing sanctions from the feds (before noyola's time). And Kenedeno is right, we can't support the ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/truth-you-cant-handle-truth.html - 35k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: New block walking program in Corpu$

Posted on May 29, 2006 at 01:28:04 AM by Jaime Kenedeno ... Roy Miller’s political skills, vision brought Corpus Christi into the modern era ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/05/new-block-walking-program-in-corpu.html - 42k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Lets see how you dance to this tune

All the Talk Radio stations will be talking about the Miller HS issue as well as ... From: Jaime Kenedeno [mailto:kingalonzoalvarezdepinedaxiii@gmail.com] ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/lets-see-how-you-dance-to-this-tune.html - 46k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Race for State Rep. District 33 gets HOT

It said that the whistleblowers name at Miller was former assistant ... Jamie Kenedeno, no I just thought it would be fun to do something like that poem. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/race-for-state-rep-district-33-gets.html - 43k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Who's the REAL enemy?

... Sr. attempts to manipulate the vote and his performance at Miller HS last year. ... Jaime Kenedeno/Haley, Who Knows why he writes anything that he does. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/09/whos-real-enemy.html - 53k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: PULP FICTION & The Award Winning Caller-Times

... an article on July 23rd entitled PAPER WON’T REPORT RUMORS AT MILLER HIGH, ... Thanks for watching my back, Kenedeno. At 4:19 AM, Jaime Kenedeño said. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/pulp-fiction-award-winning-caller.html - 22k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Dangerous chisme?

When we write something us here at Kenedeno & Associates believe it to be true. ... in example will be the one that Danny Noyola was removed from Miller. ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/06/dangerous-chisme.html - 27k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: HD 33 shuffle

Danny Noyola, Sr., recently reassigned from Miller HS principal to Moody assistant principal, ... Posted on July 3, 2006 at 09:51:17 PM by Jaime Kenedeno ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/07/hd-33-shuffle.html - 37k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

South Texas Chisme: Once again the Caller times tells only half truth

-Jane Wall – Current teacher and former Miller HS journalism instructor “As a Precinct chair, ... Political Pulse: Kenedeno’s Political Pulse ...
stxc.blogspot.com/2006/08/once-again-caller-times-tells-only.html - 32k - Supplemental Result - Cached - Similar pages - Note this