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Called to the Principal’s Office
Thursday, 09/02/2010
Annandale hired to lease in Parker Square
Thursday, 09/02/2010
Future West Point graduate in town
Thursday, 09/02/2010
Garden Club meeting in Lewisville
Wednesday, 09/08/2010
Chapters in your Journal of Life
Wednesday, 09/08/2010
Main News / Editorial
Published 09/02/2010 - 11:41 a.m. CST
One of the things that irritate voters most about politicians is that
they often try to be on both sides of an issue. We’ve seen candidates
and elected officials be for something, before they were against it;
and
vice-versa. Coincidentally, these alterations in their mindset
seem to
occur simultaneously with their election or reelection
attempts. Case in
point is the recent declaration by Dallas County
District Attorney
Craig Watkins that he has changed his mind about
the use of capital
punishment.
Rating: 0
Published 09/02/2010 - 11:40 a.m. CST
In another example of some people being in office so long that they
feel
they can get away with anything, a Dallas congresswoman awarded
thousands of dollars in college scholarship money to relatives, in
violation of the rules. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, running for her
tenth term, apparently decided that she didn’t like the rules set up
by
the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF), which provides
the
funds. The foundation is supported by private and corporate
donations
and provides $10,000 annually for each member of the
Congressional Black
Caucus to award in scholarships.
Rating: 0
Published 08/26/2010 - 10:29 a.m. CST
The recent episode in Lantana, in which 3 teenaged
boys were
captured on video, hanging out in the pool area at night,
next to a
couple of ice cream machines, culminating in one of them
defecating and
smearing the feces on a machine, is one of the most
disgusting acts of
vandalism you can imagine. We can all understand
the childish mischief
often exhibited by the young and restless,
but, this revolting act has
ramifications beyond mere prankish
behavior.
Rating: 0
Published 08/19/2010 - 11:23 a.m. CST
Hundreds of area residents braved the sweltering
heat last Sunday
and flocked to a rally in Farmers Branch to protest
the ongoing illegal
immigration imbroglio. The city passed an
ordinance to bar illegal
immigrants from renting apartments in FB
and recently voted to appeal a
federal judge’s ruling striking down
the ordinance. City Councilman
David Koch welcomed the rally's
organizers, Salt Lake City-based
Americans Against Immigration
Amnesty, with a proclamation from Mayor
Tim O’Hare.
Rating: 0
Published 08/12/2010 - 3:47 p.m. CST
A woman who is about to take office as the Collin
County District
Clerk has been indicted by the District Attorney for
engaging in
organized criminal activity.
The indictment alleges that Patricia Crigger rewarded five supervisors in the clerk's office who campaigned for her with a trip to Oklahoma and falsified records to indicate they were on the job during the two-day trip. According to court documents, the trip is among more than 200 instances in a 45-page brief filed this week by the DA’s office in which Crigger and the others recorded that employees were working when they were not.
The indictment alleges that Patricia Crigger rewarded five supervisors in the clerk's office who campaigned for her with a trip to Oklahoma and falsified records to indicate they were on the job during the two-day trip. According to court documents, the trip is among more than 200 instances in a 45-page brief filed this week by the DA’s office in which Crigger and the others recorded that employees were working when they were not.
Rating: 0
Published 08/12/2010 - 3:44 p.m. CST
Fall 2010 marks the first semester engineering
counts as a 4th year
science graduation credit in Texas. Nearly 100
Texas middle and high
school teachers will learn how to bring math
and science to life in the
classroom with high tech engineering
curriculum that meets the new Texas
Education Agency’s 4th year
science requirement. The Infinity Project’s
established engineering
curricula allow students to choose engineering
as a graduation
credit to better prepare them for the rigors of
college-level
engineering.
Rating: 0
Published 07/22/2010 - 12:58 p.m. CST
During a 5-day law enforcement surge that wrapped up last Saturday
night, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) National Gang Unit arrested 105
men and women during an operation targeting foreign-born gang
members
and their associates throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth
Metroplex. Other
law enforcement agencies included, Dallas PD, Fort
Worth PD, Arlington
PD, Carrollton PD, Irving PD, Farmers Branch PD,
the Dallas County
Sheriff’s Office, Dallas DA’s office and the Texas
Dept. of Public
Safety. Items seized in the arrests included
firearms, U.S. currency,
marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and
hydrocodone.
Rating: 0
Published 07/22/2010 - 12:53 p.m. CST
Texas has been declared as America’s Top State for
Business,
according to a CNBC study that rated the states based on
40 different
measures of competitiveness. The Lone Star State became
the number one
when it comes to business climate in the nation.
“This designation
reinforces the fact that the Lone Star State is
the best state in the
nation to live, work and raise a family thanks
to our low taxes,
reasonable and predictable regulations and skilled
workforce,” said
Governor Perry.
Rating: 0
Published 07/08/2010 - 1:10 p.m. CST
If you want to get into a heated debate, bring up the
subject of
cameras being used for traffic enforcement. Many drivers
view them as
just another way for cities to extract money from the
public in order to
finance government. Given the fact that Texas
cities have collected
more than $100 million in fines since a
red-light camera law took effect
in 2007, it would seem to be a good
argument. Yet, city administrators
insist that the cameras have cut
accidents at intersections and saved
lives.
Rating: 0
Published 08/19/2010 - 11:24 a.m. CST
The Chairman of Dallas County’s Jail Population
Committee said the
jails are at or close to capacity and the failure
to bring the inmate
population down could cause the state to force
the county to move
inmates to other Texas jails until a new facility
can be built. With a
price tag of about $30,000 per bed, that could
cost millions of dollars.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley
Price said, “We’re in trouble….,
we’ve got to get 1,000 people out
of this facility.” Currently, there
are 7,133 inmates in the
county’s jails. The fear is that a sudden
massive increase in
arrests that might ensue after a major warrant sweep
could put the
county out of compliance with state staffing
requirements.
Rating: 0
Published 08/19/2010 - 11:22 a.m. CST
It’s often been said that if you don’t like the
weather in Texas,
just wait a few minutes and it’ll change; would
that it were true in
July and August, especially this year. With
triple digit temperatures
for most of the past few weeks, and more
of the same coming our way,
most of us long for the sound of thunder
and the sight of water from
above taking the place of overworked
sprinklers. As the heat wave
continues and our air-conditioners
strain to perform adequately, we look
for hope from weather
forecasters.
Rating: 0
Published 08/12/2010 - 3:45 p.m. CST
One of the most serious problems facing elected
officials is the
perception of their performance in office. Part of
that perception comes
from the public’s view of those who support
the office holders. We all
know that it costs money to run an
election campaign, but those who seek
the office should be careful
about who they accept funds from. Lupe
Valdez, the Sheriff of Dallas
County, is in the news for accepting large
donations from
questionable characters.
Rating: 0
Published 07/28/2010 - 12:15 p.m. CST
President Ronald Reagan said: “Government is not
the solution to our
problem; government is the problem.” Recently,
Governor Rick Perry was
trying to say something similar when he
issued a statement regarding
Texas’ legal action challenging the
EPA’s takeover of Texas’ 16-year-old
air permitting process. “This
legal action is the next step in our
ongoing commitment to fight
back against the Obama Administration’s
ever-widening effort to
undermine our air quality initiatives and force a
heavy-handed
federal agenda on the people of Texas,” Perry said. He was
reacting
to the Environmental Protection Agency’s interference in
Texas’s
air-pollution permitting process, which the EPA says violates
the
U.S. Clean Air Act by letting plant owners obtain emissions permits
covering entire facilities instead of requiring individual permits for
each processing unit.
Rating: 0
Published 07/22/2010 - 12:57 p.m. CST
In the most flagrant example of abuse by a
homeowner association,
one of those power-hungry little fiefdoms in
Frisco sold someone’s home
out from under them because HOA dues were
late. How much more callous
and insensitive can you get than to
foreclose on a home owned by a
soldier serving in Iraq? The case,
which has received national
attention, involves the home of Michael
and May Clauer, who lost their
$315,000 home, which, by the way, is
mortgage free, to foreclosure
because the HOA was owed $977 and
failed to hear from the owner.
Rating: 0
Published 07/08/2010 - 1:11 p.m. CST
Even though physical fitness in Texas schools has become
an
essential part of the curriculum, a recent study indicated that
high
school students are more out of shape than they were last year.
The
study showed a shortfall in certain benchmarks required to be in
the
healthy zone. Fitness tests on 2.9 million students in third
grade and
up made it clear that less than a third of the children in
those grades
were deemed physically fit after taking a battery of
six tests measuring
such areas as muscular strength, endurance and
body composition.
Rating: 0
Published 07/08/2010 - 1:07 p.m. CST
Dirk Nowitzki, undoubtedly the best basketball player in
Dallas
Maverick’s history, recently became a free agent. That means
he’s up for
grabs to the team that offers him the best contract.
That generally
means the team that can provide the player with the
fattest paycheck.
However, that’s not the case with Nowitzki. The
man who earned All-Star
status 9 times has decided that home is
where the heart is, and Dallas
has been his home from the beginning
of his hoops career. Hence, he has
worked out a four-year $80
million deal; about $16 million less than he
could have earned if he
held out.
Rating: 0
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