County Considering Office Space Solutions
Operation Lone Star Cases Requiring More Staff
Kinney County Commissioners are in the process of considering and possibly approving a proposal to build an emergency office space solution— that would see an out-of-town firm build a temporary structure out of “CONEX boxes” on the vacant lot near the County Jail.
CONEX box is another term for the standard Intermodal shipping container, used to move bulk cargo from port-to-rail-to-distribution center and all points in between.
Interestingly enough, they apparently have their origins in the Korean and Vietnam wars. Since then, the design has been refined, and they’ve figured out ways of using the boxes for all kinds of things— like temporary housing and office space. CONEX is apparently short for “Container Express.”
Below, we’ve posted a couple of photos from elsewhere online of what container buildings might look like. Some can be much fancier than these. Because of their modular natures, they can also be much larger. The images are from a company called Falcon Construction. Coincidentally, they are based in Texas. According to the agenda, the County appears to be considering a proposal from the American Institute of Architects, a non-profit headquartered in Washington D.C.
As is usual, it will be more than a couple of court meetings and readings before this item is fully approved. Monday’s meeting lacked a fair number of usual attendees, competing with the local funeral of a much-beloved individual in the community and a health crisis affecting the family of one of the members of the court. We are told the crisis was resolved, and all is well on that front.
Yours truly was also not in attendance but was able to speak with someone who was.
The discussion all ties back to Operation Lone Star, and the demands for more Courthouse workers brought on by the massive increase in judicial activity. There is talk of hiring more prosecutors, more clerks, and more of just about everything. The County Attorney has been known to frequently point out, he’s already blown through this year’s office supply budget— simply purchasing enough of the manila folders used to “jacket” each individual case.
Around the state, most of the major news so far this week has centered around the politics of the Border Crisis. Governor Greg Abbott has been taking shots from all sides of the political spectrum— criticism linked to payroll problems and suicides allegedly related to the deployment of Texas Military Forces in the Rio Grande Valley.
Troopers in the Del Rio area have also reportedly seen some disciplinary issues related to misbehavior with narcotics.
Here’s a link to KSAT-12’s coverage of an ArmyTimes investigation with some of the background: https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2022/01/10/army-times-investigation-finds-suicides-morale-crisis-in-wake-of-operation-lone-star-at-texas-border/
One hesitates to also link to what is occasionally an internet cesspool like www.reddit.com, as accuracy and fidelity of information there is not even close to 75%. However, there appears to be efforts underway, using the website to organize disgruntled Texas troopers and formalize their complaints outside the chain of command. Here’s that link: https://www.reddit.com/r/OperationLonestar
That is alarming— and no doubt, the State would prefer those complaints to stay in-house and out of the public eye. However, it is clearly much too late for that, as issues apparently persist, with some complaints appearing to indicate that conditions were actually better for troopers in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Are they actual complaints, written by actual troopers? Or just false narratives being written by “sock-puppet” and “astro-turf” reddit accounts? It’s entirely possible that there is some political effort to falsely increase the seeming size of the crisis. But, what is unquestionably true, is that some soldiers are apparently not getting paid what they should be, and are not receiving detailed pay-statements, and are being separated from their families for who-knows-how-long, to secure a border in an ad-hoc fashion, without any indication of a long-term plan to either keep it so— or just eventually walk away.
It is also true that conservative candidates for Texas Governor, like Col. Allen West, and Don Huffines, are taking these sorts of complaints on board, and calling for changes. In some cases, they're even calling for changes at the top of the Texas chain-of-command.
We want to stress again: If you’re unfamiliar with reddit.com, it is a heavily left-influenced website, known for actively trying to suppress conservative viewpoints in ways that might make twitter and facebook blush with embarrassment for how clumsily they do so. And, anyone can make a reddit account and claim to be a Texas soldier, upset about Operation Lone Star. We feature this, however, as many of the complaints about payroll and conditions actually pre-date the creation of the subreddit.
It is a touchy subject— suicide rates for troops in general have been unusually high for many years now, related to service in Afghanistan and Iraq. The idea that one can add “Texas” to that phrase should be alarming everyone that considers it. Let us put it in print, shall we: “Afghanistan, Iraq, and Texas.” Good grief.
In speaking with local deputies we find that the new normal of busting car loads of illegal immigrants and tracking their movements on local game cameras continues.
We don’t mention each and every one here, as they are becoming so constant and consistent.
We are told that one deputy in particular made two busts over the weekend. We hesitate to publish the exact location or details as we’ve not spoken with the Sheriff himself about it. We simply mention it, to illustrate that the absence of coverage of a thing, does not indicate a decline in activity.
Have you seen the latest photos from Yuma, AZ?
They were all over Twitter Monday Morning. We hesitate to publish them here— they’re already out there elsewhere. But, it’s entirely possible that not everyone is lurking on twitter to see these. And they are something to see:
That’s just one of the photos from Ana Giaritelli, a reporter for the Washington Examiner, documenting the meltdown happening right now in Yuma. Click on it for many more pictures and comments from her. It’s basically a rinse-wash-repeat of the humanitarian crisis we saw recently in the Del Rio area, though we are told in this case, at least some of the illegal aliens are coming from places other than Haiti.
Some are calling the situation in Yuma something like a scene out of “Night of the Living Dead,” with illegal aliens roaming the streets in groups, looking for a Border Patrol Agent or other Law-Enforcement to surrender themselves to.
It should be noted, that as we saw in South Texas, when ICE and other Law-Enforcement are overwhelmed by asylum seekers, criminal smuggling finds work much simpler and easier.
And finally tonight, another mea culpa— we hate writing them— they amount to owning one’s own mistakes. And while important, it’s like medicine: the flavor is never pleasant.
Our last dispatch about in-person court hearings in Kinney County contained a fundamental inaccuracy. When locating the zoom court hearings channel, which is used for all kinds of court-related work, not just hearings, we saw what was apparently a planning meeting that morning, and mistook it for a whole ‘nother docket— in addition to the District Court hearings happening in person. We should also note and stress, that the zoom meetings are almost exclusively for the misdemeanor trespassing cases being applied to foreign citizens and illegal aliens. The District Court cases are applied to the felony smuggling cases being applied to Coyotes and smugglers.
Our apologies for any confusion related to that. It seems a convenient time to remind folks to take our virtual scribblings here with a grain of salt or two. Items printed here without any sort of County seal have been unvetted by other County figures and are literally an independent work product we continue to perform on the side for our own entertainment and to hopefully further inform anyone that stumbles across it, given our general lack-of-effort to promote the newsletter widely. While we do strive for accuracy, as this last moment demonstrates, it can be elusive for whatever reason or excuse.
As always, comments and opinions made here are not reflective of official Kinney County policies or beliefs.
Thanks again for reading. We hope this finds you and your family well. We’ll see you again sometime further on down the road.
Edited for style, spelling, and other errors. Most recently removing extraneous use of the word "put."