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A case now before the courts in Texas may set a precedent in alleged racial profiling cases brought against the Border Patrol.

If it succeeds, it would open a pathway for people judged by the courts to have been unlawfully seized in roving patrols to sue an individual agent, not simply the Border Patrol as an institution.

Roving patrols are separate from immigration checkpoints placed within 100 miles of the border with Mexico.

With respect to internal immigration checkpoints, Border Patrol agents have the right to question drivers and passengers. That’s based on a case known as U.S. vs Martinez-Fuerte that was adjudicated in 1976.

Martinez-Fuerte was decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that said checkpoints set up on public roads or highways leading to or away from the border with Mexico are not a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, one designed to protect people against arbitrary search and seizure.

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Deadly rattlesnakes are a fact of life in West Texas, and even if you don’t hate snakes or aren’t particularly scared of them, you probably do your best to keep out of their way. But there’s one man in Fort Davis who’s been doing just the opposite for most of his life.

Buzz Ross is the owner of Rattlers & Reptiles, a snake museum in Fort Davis off Highway 17. Inside, the museum walls are lined with tanks of reptiles — a few tarantulas, a pair of Gila lizards, but mostly snakes.

Ross says people just don’t understand snakes and how useful they can be, especially at killing off rodents. Like bees, venomous snakes won’t attack unless they’re provoked.

“None of them are mean or aggressive. They’re all defensive,” he says. “So everything they do in posturing is to make themselves look big. The rattle is to scare things off.”

Myths about the evil of serpents go back to the Garden of Eden. But different cultures have their own particular legends about snakes. In Mexico, the whip snake, or chirrionera, boasts its own spooky lore.

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Brewster County Commissioners have voted to move the special tax rollback election from December 6 to January 13, 2015.

Judge Kathy Killingsworth explained the change was to satisfy discrepancies between the election code and the tax code and avoid any future litigation regarding county procedure.

“It’s unfortunate the plain language of the tax code and election code are in conflict with one another,” Killingsworth said.

Killingsworth said she did not think moving the election was in the best interest of the county. After the first of the year, she said, the county will need to spend additional funds to send refunds back to taxpayers, as well as pay legal fees, which she predicted would be “exorbitant.”

Killingsworth has stated in the past that she does not think this rollback, if it passes, will have much impact on tax bills.

“We’re talking about a $20 increase on a $100,000 home,” she reiterated in commissioners’ court on Monday.

When asked just how much extra money this new election date will cost the county, Killingworth responded, “I have no clue. I don’t have the attorney’s bill yet.”

- Paige Phelps

The mountain lion of Texas is known by many names in the southwest; cougars, panthers, pumas to name three.

In California it’s protected. In Arizona and New Mexico, you can hunt this predator but with strict limitations. In Texas, mountain lions can be hunted at will. Still, preliminary results from a four-year-old study suggest that the Texas mountain lion population is stable and may be growing.

Data from a Texas project tracking mountain lions by satellite imply a population of between 25-40 animals in one of the sky islands in Texas. Sky island refers to a mountain range surrounded by flatlands or in the case of this study, the high desert that’s a 90-minute drive north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The project, privately funded by individuals and non-profit foundations, is an initiative of the Borderlands Research Institute (BRI) at Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.

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Never miss a city council meeting? Always finding interesting stories in the Big Bend? Go to a lot of community events or concerts? If you’re interested in sharing your knowledge and experience with Marfa Public Radio listeners, become one of our volunteer Community Correspondents.

We’re looking for engaged citizens from across the Big Bend. A Community Correspondent assists Marfa Public Radio with news gathering and producing stories from the community you live in.
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