The Monitor from McAllen, Texas • 15

Friday, December 29, 2000 THE MONITOR, McAIten, Texas 3B PSTAMOMTOK ff Metifg 1 1 '1 i if i i 'I I Name: Lucas Enrique Espinoza Age: 17 Attends: PSJA High School Grade: 12 Parents' names: Norma Lee Espinoza and Enrique Espinoza, Jr. Hobbies extracurricular activities: NHS. UIL Drama. Drama Club historian. Inter-Act, Key Club, Physics Club historian, Astronomy Club What kinds of facilities, educational or recreational, does your city need? San Juan is in great need of a museum to help educate the children nf the Inrai art desire is to remain in the city to give back to the community that had a hand in bringing me up.

What pressures do teenagers of today face and bow can you overcome them? We face doing drugs, getting drunk, and pleasing others. We can overcome these by not listening to our peers, but only to ourselves. What have you contributed to your community? What effect has it had? I contributed many hours to help entertain the children of our district with our children's show. The effect can be seen in the children's eyes, to see joy in them brings a reward to your heart. and to show them the history of our city.

We need a larger library to help to suit our growing city with top of the line materials. In 10 years, can you imagine yourself living and working in the Valley? Do you think the Valley is a good place to raise a family? Yes, my AARPTCE The American Association of Retired Person's tax counseling for the elderly will hold a training course in federal tax preparation for people interested in helping low-income and elderly people file their tax returns for this year. The training will start the middle of January. Course materials and training are free to those who agree to devote at least 40 hours, one afternoon a week between Feb. 1 and April 15.

For more information, call Roberta Seabolt at 787-9668 in Pharr, VOLUNTEERS VITA, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program offered by the Internal Revenue service, needs volunteers. VITA provides free tax help to lower-income, elderly, handicapped and non-English speaking taxpayers. The volunteers prepare income tax returns for them. VITA volunteers must take an IRS training course. They then assist taxpayers at convenient neighborhood schools, libraries and churches.

VITA volunteers explain special credits and deductions and help prepare simple tax forms. Civic or fraternal organizations, schools and churches can sponsor VITA programs. IRS provides free training materials and supplies. To get involved in VITA, call Cynthia Mendiola at (956) 632-3306. Training for volunteers begins in early January at several sites across the Valley.

PARADISE PARK Paradise Park. 1501 W. Kelly, Pharr, has a pancake breakfast from 7 to 9 a.m. every Saturday through March 31. The menu -features pancakes, four choices of WEATHER jr sausage, grits, applesauce and coffee, $2 per person.

Bring your own table service. SPECIAL EDUCATION The PSJA school district, in accordance with federal regulationsstate law and state board of education rules, offers education and related services for students identified with disabilities. Parents seeking referral information on Special Education programs should call Sylvia S. Hernandez or Gloria M. Avarado at 702-5878.

HOSTS The PSJA school district Help One Student to Succeed mentoring program needs volunteers to assist students with reading. The volunteers are trained and are asked to tutor at least one hour a week during school hours. Twelve elementary schools are participating in HOSTS. For more information, call Mary Villarreal, at 702-6021. PSJA NORTH HIGH The Pre-Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) prepares students for college admission tests and encourages them to consider college as an option.

Test results provide valuable feedback about the student's academic skills and can be used to identify students for advance placement programs. It's also an excellent practice for the SAT. For details, call Annie Garza at 783-3373. PSJA SCHOOLS The PSJA school district board meeting are at 6 p.m. the second and fourth Mondays of the month at the PSJA High Sdhool lecture hall.

For more information, call 702-5600. physical training, and training in the operation of patrol vehicles and firearms. Silva said he has always wanted to be a federal agent. He feels the most important thing he learned at the academy was teamwork and unity, skills he said he will readily use in his career as a Border Patrol agent. He is the son of Mr.

ad Mrs. Roberto Silva of Alamo, and the husband of Bernice Holguin Silva. Silva 's class of recruits joins the more than 9,000 Border Patrol agents charged with detecting and preventing the unlawful entry and smuggling of illegal aliens into the United States. Border Patrol agents also are the primary drug-interdicting agents along land borders. For more Information about the agency, contact the INS Office of Public Affairs at (202) 514-2648.

church will celebrate a milestone this month. Immanuel Lutheran Church, 703 Third will mark its 90th anniversary Saturday and Sunday. The church will have a supper Satur-. day at 6 p.m. and a brief historical program afterward.

"The church was begun in 1910," said Helen Vogel, church historian. "It was a new frontier in this area, and there was a small group of Lutheran people here, and so they started meeting in the Baptist Church. By 1911, they had a small facility for the church," he said. Vogel said Keith Looman, a former principal of the Lutheran school in Mercedes, would be guest speaker for the Sunday program at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

services. 0f Fort Worth walks her dog- Sammie- as her son- Chase. Pays snow SS as0they wait for traffic t0 begin moving. State highway officials closed a almost 20-mile stretch of the road at 8 p.m. Wednesday and reopened the road Thursday morning although the road remained icy and treacherous.

Icy highway strands motorists VALLEYSTATE -'4 "i 4idf mm jjsr 1 1 Ith Engineering Battalion in Abilene. The area between Fort Worth and Abilene is the latest to be hit by a winter storm that moved into Texas on Christmas Day. About 1 ,000 Texas travelers found themselves stuck some for up to a dozen hours. Those who could get off the highway stayed at the Eastland County Jail or Ranger College dormitories. Others staked a spot at the Red Star Truck Terminal on Texas 6 and 1-20 and adjacent side streets.

"Nobody went anywhere last night," rest-stop manager Marjie Edwards said. "It was just a mass of trucks and cars." As trucks jackknifed, cars slid into ditches and accidents made the road virtually impassible, state highway officials decided to close a nearly 20-mile stretch at 8 p.m. Wednesday. As Darin Dodd's Jeep Grand Cherokee inched along Interstate 20, Donna mayor punitive damages and $2,500 in actual damages for medical expenses. Gonzalez said he had to have physical therapy for the neck injury.

Flores on Thursday called the lawsuit frivolous and politically motivated. "Again, this is a futile attempt to discredit me politically," Flores said. "The fact of the matter is, we'll be prepared to defend myself against this lawsuit in court." Flores maintains that the lawsuit was instigated by Municipal Judge Javier Garza. "I insist that the municipal judge appear before the City Council to give a report on how he is serving the people of Donna, by giving an 41 i' Sir's mm 4- The Associated Press snowflakes plopping on his- windshield and stranded vehicles all around, he finally decided it was time to take his pregnant wife and two young passengers out of harm's way. After unsuccessfully locating a motel with a vacancy from his cellular telephone, he pulled off the road and stopped at an Eastland hospital.

When workers there were unable to find them shelter at the homes of friends, the Dodd family headed to the jail. "It was ap adventure and I wanted to go to jail. It was safe, sound and warm," the McKinney resident joked Thursday. "It was like a five-star hotel compared to where we were." Tom Vinger, a Department of Public Safety spokesman, said there have been 22 weather-related fatalities on state highways since Christmas Day people had died in traffic accidents on state highways related to the weather. Lonnic Florcs account of money coming in to the municipal court," Flores said.

"He refuses to appear before the City Council, so he wants to discredit me politically." Garza said Thursday that he performs his duties well and has nothing to do with the lawsuit. "I don't play politics," Garza said. "My reports are submitted monthly and quarterly to City Hall. I don't go to the meetings because I don't see the need to go to the meetings. He wants me to go and read my reports to the City Council.

My reports are submitted. This has nothing to do with me going or not going to the meetings. As fr as I am concerned, it has nothing to do with me." M' (l T5 A-X- BORDER PATROL Roberto Carlos Silva, of Alamo, graduated from the United States Border Patrol Training Academy at Glynco, GA. The Academy trains candidates for careers with the Border Patrol, an agency of the Immigration and Naturalization SILVA Service. Silva was assigned to duty in Douglas, Arizona.

A 1995 graduate of PSJA High School in San Juan, Texas, Silva successfully completed 19 weeks of demanding training at the Border Patrol Academy. The training program requires candidates to pass six subject areas: Spanish, several different areas of law, police training, TEXAS NOTES By BETSY BLANEY The Associated Press Motorists creeping along a storm-struck stretch of Interstate 20 near Ranger got creative with their drive time Thursday. Several snowmen went up along the side of the road as motorists and their children sought ways to pass time. Truckers hopped from cabs to converse with drivers of other 1 8-w heelers slowed a crawl on westbound lanes approaching Ranger Hill, a icy incline outside of Ranger. Although the highway reopened Thursday morning, it remained icy and treacherous, so 20 Texas National Guardsmen and 10 Humvees traveled to Eastland to help move trapped vehicles or transport stranded motorists.

Even the Guardsmen had trouble navigating the icy roads 75-minute trips were taking more than four hours, said Sgt. Maj. Charles Cromwell with the Guard's COURTS Lawyer suing By TRAVIS M. WHITEHEAD The Monitor DONNA A McAllen lawyer on Thursday filed a $200,000 civil lawsuit against Donna Mayor Lonnie Flores, claiming Flores punched him in the face at a local bar, cutting his lip and injuring his neck. Vicente Gonzalez alleges that Flores assaulted him at the City Limits Sports Pub about 2 a.m.

Oct. 18. "I was just in there talking about different things," Gonzalez said. "All of a sudden, this guy lunges across the table at me and hits me in the face." Gonzalez filed the suit in the 206th state District Court in Edin-burg. He is asking for $200,000 in Border Patrol agents seize nearly $800,000 in cocaine, marijuana The Monitor McALLEN U.S.

Border Patrol agents this week confiscated $759,000 worth of cocaine and marijuana in four separate seizures. At the Sarita checkpoint, agents discovered 10 pounds of cocaine and 10 pounds of marijuana in a false compartment under the dashboard of a 1996 Dodge Caravan. Street value was estimated at $328,000 The other three seizures occurred in Weslaco and Hidalgo when agents working near the Rio Grande discovered 356 pounds of marijuana worth $431,200 hidden in the bushes and in an abandoned 1994 GMC Suburban. Mercedes church marks 90th anniversary MERCEDES A pioneer Mercedes.