ustxtxb_obs_2010_03_19_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

THE STATE OF TEXAS 2009 inflation rate for medical care: HOUSTON 4.9% DALLAS 5.1% TEXAS AVERAGE 5.0% U.S. AVERAGE 3.1% Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics LEARN MORE about Texas RioGrande Legal Aid at www.trla.org READ THE REPORT by the Innocence Project at www.tx1o.com/250report The settlement will allow the foundation to erect its cross in exchange for privacy guarantees for residents. The agreement prohibits public access to Lot 11 and requires the foundation to construct a stone or masonry fence across the two-acre tract fronting Mesa Vista Lane, where most of the plaintiffs reside. Emma McClure, who owns a lot adjacent to the cross site, says she’s happy the issue has been resolved because the trial outcome might not have been as favorable. She adds that she was “tired of having commotion going on all the time.” The Coming King Foundation can’t say when the cross will actually go up. “We had to put money into this lawsuit that was originally intended to be poured into the garden,” Greiner says. “We’re trusting God to do what he said he’d do. We have the largest Christian tour company in the U.S. waiting to book tours, and to work with ministries and churches to send people [to Kerrville] on buses and on planes.” The coming pilgrimage of evangelicals and other “believers” doesn’t sit well with some Kerr County residents who don’t want their community to become known for a humongous cross that they think might send the wrong signal about Kerrville’s religious and spiritual tolerance. Then there’s its gargantuan size. “You’ll be able to see that damned thing for 100 miles in each direction,” says area resident David Toms. “That’s just what we don’t need.” ROBERT MCCORKLE TYRANT’S FOE Laredo’s Modest Advocate ALONG THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER, HUNDREDS OF THOU-sands of people live without running water, sewage service or electricity in unincorporated subdivisions known as “colonias.” Texas has the largest number of coloniasan estimated 400,000 Texans live in more than 2,200 of them. The average yearly income of colonia residents is less than $10,000, and unemployment is more than eight times the state average. Texas’ political leaders have done little in recent years to aid colonias. The “about” page of the Texas secretary of state’s “Colonias Ombudsman Program” is blank save for a quote from Gov. Rick Perry. One person who’s helped improve conditions in colonias is Israel Reyna, though you’ll never hear him take credit for it. Reyna runs the Laredo office of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, a nonprofit that provides free representation to impoverished residents of South Texas. Reyna and his staff work to ensure that workers receive workers compensation and overtime pay, that day laborers aren’t arrested and harassed by police merely for looking for work, and that water and sewage providers offer service to the colonias that dot the border region. Reyna joined the nonprofit straight out of law school in 1980. He’s one of the rare advocates who knows how to needle political leaders into action then step back and let them take the credit. “He is not someone that has ever been in the limelight or sought the limelight,” says Jose “Chito” Vela, who works in the office of State Rep. Solomon Ortiz, a Corpus Christi Democrat. Before joining Ortiz’s staff, Vela served as the city manager of El Cenizo, a colonia south of Laredo that was incorporated under Reyna’s guidance. Since El Cenizo incorporated, the community has levied taxes and now provides residents with some basic services. Under Reyna, the legal aid group also serves as what staff attorney Fabiola Flores calls a “baby lawyer factory.” Reyna recruits law-student interns and entrylevel attorneys from across the nation and puts them to work on pro bono cases. He enlists them in the cause, as he puts it, “to get things right. To move mountains … for little people.” He’s reluctant to take the credit. “I am the messenger, not the messiah,” Reyna says. “The heroes are the clientsthe people who stick their necks out and expose themselves to the risk of litigation.” Says Vela, “If you’re promoting democracy, you can’t come in from above and lift up these peoplethey have to lift themselves. At some point, you’re going to go away, and the people are still going to be there. So they have to be able to organize and lead and fight for themselves.” ROBERT GREEN DEPT. OF INJUSTICE Who Gets Wrongly Convicted ON FEB. 4, FREDDIE PEACOCK WAS CLEARED OF HIS 1977 conviction for rape in New York State. He’s the 250th wrongly convicted person exonerated in the United States by DNA testing, according to the New Yorkbased Innocence Project. To mark the occasion, the Innocence Project released a report that details each of the 250 cases. The report is a stunning compilation of who gets wrongly convicted and why. No state has sent more innocent people to jail than Texas. The Lone Star State accounted for 40 wrongful convictions-16 percent of the national total. That was nearly double the number of exonerees from New York and Illinois, the other two most prolific states. Sixty percent of the 250 are African-American; 29 percent are white. Seventeen were on death row ENCE MARCH 19, 2010 THE TEXAS OBSERVER 3