Webb county officials spent the day shopping for property.
The space won't be used for a new county building; instead it will be the location for the new golf course officials have been talking about for some time.
One of 5 sites may soon be the ultimate destination for Laredo families looking to spend quality time together.
But county officials say their plan has to be solid and has to be about much more than just a golf course.
“The idea is to visit the sites so when they come to make presentations we'll have an idea of what they're talking about,” says Webb County Judge Danny Valdez.
Move over the county's coming in.
Webb county officials spending the day visiting Emerald River, one of five proposed site to be donated for the county's golf course project.
The county is seeking 200 acres ready to be transformed into a golfers paradise.
“I would like for them to pick a real good place where the golfers would really enjoy themselves.”
So it may take some imagination but soon people could be golfing on this property and county officials say the possibilities are endless.
“We’re mot just looking at a golf course site,” stated Ana Cavazos Ramirez, Webb County Attorney.
“We are looking at the possibilities of picnic sites soccer fields baseball fields areas where families can go.”
Ramirez says county officials also envision pavilions, maybe celebration halls on the property, because after all, the county will have to compete with the city's golf course already in the works.
Property owner’s say there's no doubt people will come.
“Tennis is tennis basketball is the same court golf courses are different and word gets around what golf course you have,” added Buddy Bruni, part owner of Emerald River.
Now they're just hoping the county is ready to invest.
“That’s something that quite frankly we're had just this week several meetings about the cost of what a new course would be for the county and taxpayers.”
Of the five sites, three are off mines road, one is on loop twenty near international and a fifth is already owned by the county, formerly the site of the detention center.
County officials say though it may take one or two years to get the project complete, it could cost somewhere between 6 and eight million dollars.

Both school districts began their first rounds of the H1-N1 vaccine clinics Wednesday. On hand were health care professionals from the health department and school nurses.

It’s the day a lot of parents have been waiting for: chances to finally get their kids vaccinated and school nurses are glad parents have made the decision to protect their kids.

“Department of Health Services and Centers for Disease Control tell us that flu vaccination is the number one way of protecting our children against the flu illness."

Some are getting their kids vaccinated for obvious reasons, and others because they're around young children, the ones most susceptible to the flu:

"It’s important to get vaccinated because we're working with children so it's better to be safe than sorry."

LISD has received about 1,000 doses from the Health Department and they plan on vaccinating that many children by the end of all their clinics.

"We have 3 clinics set up right now. Today Heights, tomorrow JC Martin, and Friday Santo Nino."

The vaccine is being administered in one of two ways:

"The great majority of our children will be receiving the flu mist, however some children with underlying health conditions, for example asthma, some metabolic disorders like diabetes, those children will get the injectable form."

Parents all agree it’s a small price to pay to stay healthy.

The Pro 8 News family is mourning a huge loss. Our leader, our mentor and our friend has passed away. You may not know his face, but his name is Ray Gomez. Over the last several years Ray has been arguably the most important journalist in our area. Ray was the News Director for Pro 8 News, the CW and Telemundo. Without Ray, many of us would not even work here. Ray launched countless careers of broadcast journalists. He became ill over a week ago and passed away at Laredo Medical Center on Monday night. Ray kept us on track reminded us why we were here and kept our heads leveled. He was also a pretty funny guy. He is survived by his wife Diana Fuentes, the editor of the Laredo Morning Times. Arrangements are pending.

Our hearts and our prayers are with his wife and his family at this incredibly difficult time. Ray was the heart and soul of our newsroom. It will not been the same without his leadership and his determination to get the story and bring it to you the viewer. We will never forget him or his laugh and these next days and weeks will be difficult, but as Ray would say “We've got a show to do.” Although this loss is hitting us very hard, there is other news to cover and we will do our best to report it.

If you would like to share any memories about Ray or to post a comment, you are welocome to visit our blog section.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and the City of Laredo is in dire need of people wanting to come rediscover our flavor.

One Councilman says he's found the solution to attracting more people here, and he's calling it “forced tourism.”

That Council member says it's all about bringing events that lots of people will take part in forcing them to come to Laredo, have a good time, stay, and hopefully come back.

"I like to call it forced tourism, where you create an event that will attract a certain amount of people."

The idea is to transform Laredo into an event hosting hub, offering people the best of both worlds, experiencing the Mexican flare in the Good Ol’ USA.

City representatives say they were just looking for that niche--something that would bring groups of people here who wouldn't normally even think about coming here.

They started the forced tourism concept in October when our city hosted the Rio Fest event, targeting kayakers from all over to come and compete. And just last week, our city played host to Laredo’s first ever bicycle event--the circuit race.

Incentives to get all these people here?

Cash prizes.

"Then they think, hey this isn't so bad. Why don’t we come back on a weekend when we have some free time or just a day trip kind of thing? So that’s what it does for Laredo; it really introduces new people that then could be repeat customers."

Next on the list, Border Billiards on the river:

"We’re working on that for hopefully February or March. We’re looking to bring several hundred different organizations."

And because the biking event was so successful, a similar event is in the works.

"We’re working on an off road type of biking that they used to have here maybe 10 to 12 years ago."

By playing host to all of these events that interest so many people, it’s bound to only drive our local economy.

The City Manager, Mayor, Airport Director and selected members of City Council will start their journey next week to promote the Gateway City.

They plan on meeting with the presidents and commerce administrators from Panama, Guatemala, Costa Rica and other cities for Laredo’s potential as an inland port:

"We have a presentation that is going to be made. The City Manager will go and Airport Director. But we have a plan that we are going to present."

The City leaders leave next week.

El Metro bus riders felt the pinch at the pay stalls as fare increases went into effect Monday.

Management at El Metro tells us they had customer service representatives on hand to take an expected increase in calls, and surprisingly they say feedback from personnel report people seemed to be adjusting well.

Since council approved the rate increase back in September, media outlets and city officials have been constantly talking about the change, which might of helped ease people into the big day:

"The call that we got from customer service basically was the amount that they have to pay other than that we didn't have any complaints."

For those who still aren't sure: all bus fares have increased 15 cents and transfers have gone up 10 cents, and the higher fees didn't seem to keep people from riding the bus today.

As you can see buses are still full so it doesn't look like the rate increase has affected traffic but only time will tell:

"The numbers will tell a different story if there was a change but we will not know until tomorrow."

But for now it seems everyone is adjusting at his or her own pace:

"It’s very hard cause right now how things are going economically we're barely making it. So it went from $1 to $1.15 just a little more."

Even if its just a slight increase, its still more money.

"I can’t ride it as much because we pay more money--wasting more money."

"Adjustments are good except it does take out a little spending money from the weekend but its all good."

But for now only time will tell. If this slight increase will make it harder for people to ride as they do now.

As you may recall, earlier this month Henry Flores changed his plea to guilty on felony charges of solicitation of a minor. Another big surprise in the 49th District Court today as Flores replaced his attorney.

In February, former Webb County Clerk Henry Flores allegedly picked up an 11-year-old boy and took him to his north Laredo apartment where the child saw pornography in Flores' bedroom and, among other things, sat on his lap.

After pleading guilty to soliciting a minor with intent to commit aggravated sexual assault.

Flores showed up for sentencing Monday morning with two new attorneys Zone Nguin and George Altgelt.

When Pro 8 News asked Flores why he changed his lawyers.

This was the response from Altgelt:

"Why did you decide to? Hey, hold on all right. Why did you? Why don't you exercise a little professionalism and give us some space!"

Inside the courtroom, Nguin claimed Flores is on the prescription drug Prozac and says the drug may have caused him to change his plea.

"An innocent person who's on Prozac, who's judgment is impaired, who's very susceptible to influences, people just forcing to move along and he was at odds with the counsel he had so; its just a matter of the voluntariness of his plea. Life and liberty is at stake if plea is not voluntary that’s what we're asking to be reviewed."

Flores's now former attorney, George Garcia says he knew nothing about the use of Prozac:

"I don't really know is he ever mentioned that. He seemed lucid at all relevant times to me but I'm not a medical doctor."

Judge Joe Lopez denied a motion for continuance by the defense but noticed the signature of both Flores and his former attorney were missing from the documents of the plea agreement.

"It was done effectively and that Mr. Flores voluntarily waved his rights and accepted his plea that is the issue right now."

The judge will now look over the court reporter's transcript from November 5th to make sure Flores had been properly advised of his rights when he entered the guilty plea and whether or not Flores understood the consequences of his plea.

A six-month operation ordered by the Texas governor resulted in Laredo Police and federal authorities identifying dozens of gang members. The governor's gang initiative is geared toward disrupting and identifying gangs along the border.

The Laredo Police Department in conjunction with ATF and ICE were able to round up gang members in a six-month operation.

During the operation they were able to identify more than 500 gang members in Laredo.

The top three gangs were Mexican Mafia, Texas Syndicate and Hermanos Pistoleros.

" Not all of them were arrested, but they were identified and basically they are now part of our intel which we can pass along to other agencies."

The profiles of these gang members will be kept in case they are wanted in the future or have committed a crime.

"We were able to identify several members from cartels and Latin America gangs that were passing through here."

During the operation 50 drug-related warrants were served. Police were able to seize almost six hundred pounds of marijuana.

Other drugs seized include 83 grams of cocaine and 102 grams of heroin.

Also police were able to seize a significant number of weapons like these.

According to police, cartels use these weapons to kill, intimidate and to reinforce positions of power in the region.

Around 115 gang members were arrested; most of them live here in Laredo.

"We have people who are part of these notorious organizations, prison gangs, cartels, we do have them here locally."

Other South Texas border cities received the governor's gang initiative grant as well.

The profiles and information on 500 gang members police were able to identify will be shared with other law enforcement agencies.

The United Independent School District says any word the district is closing because of the H1N1 virus is nothing but a rumor.

In a statement released Monday, Superintendent Robert Santos says,

"Most recently, we have been hearing rumors that our school district will be closing down as a result of the H1N1 virus. I would like to clear up this misconception, at this time, the United Independent School District is not closing any school or department.”

He goes on to say the district will continue working with the city in setting up H1N1 immunization clinics.

Attention bus riders ... El Metro rates will be increasing effective tomorrow.
Adults currently paying 1 dollar and 25 cents to ride the bus will now be paying one dollar 40 cents.
Students plan on paying $1.15.
Senior citizens and persons with disabilities who travel during peak hours will now pay 25 cents and 15 cents during off peak hours.
Transfers will now cost 15 cents.
City Council voted on the changes back on September 21st.
All rate changes will be implemented tomorrow.