At Charter Oak High School in Covina, California student yearbook staff member replaced each of the nine Black Student Union member names with fake names (such as Tay Tay Shaniqua, Crisphy Nanos and Laquan White) next to the club photo in the high school’s 2008 yearbook.
How did the school handle the situation? Student whose names were changed were given stickers. BSU student Evanne Jackson was given a handful of stickers and told to pass them out to her friends on the last day of school, with the correct names to be placed over the error in their books.
According to a report by KCAL news school officials made an apology to the BCU, and the school is not going to recall all the yearbooks. However, students that request a reprint will get a new yearbook.
How exactly is this racism? Black parents give their children names for many different reasons, but one of the reasons is type of resistance to white dominance. The mocking of black culture and names is a subversive way putting black people “in their place”. It shows a lacking of understand towards blacks culture, and it shows insensitivity towards all the black students. However, at its core it is simply ignorant racism.
The yearbook should be recalled, and reprinted. Not just nine yearbooks, but all of them. Handing someone a handful of stickers to place over the names is an insult on top of an insult. What you are telling your students is that they are paying for a yearbook in which they are insulted, and that somehow a sticker will make up for the insult.
The journalism advisor Bonnie Shockey should be fired. The journalism advisors responsibility is to oversee the student publications, and allowing something like this to happen is gross negligence. The student editors of the yearbook should be removed from the yearbook staff. Each high school yearbook staff has editors assigned to sections of the yearbook, and it is their responsibility to oversee those sections.
According to the Pasadena Star-News article the superintendent Clint Harwick said there were a number of human and printing errors throughout the yearbook, including misspellings and blank pages. That illustrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the issue. It is ridiculous to compare the misspelling or a name or word to the deliberate targeting of a group of people based on race.
According to the same article BSU member Paisley Moore said that “People of color, Latinos and African Americans, are viewed at the school as a joke.” This incident has affects on several levels. It affects the students of the BSU, it affects the black student body, it affects the white student body, and it affects the community.
This becomes another example of racism for the black students, and the indifference shown by the school administrators and those who do not speak up becomes another example of apathy from white Americans.
This becomes an example to white students of race relations, and the way in which the school administrators handle the situation will give the students a perception of what is acceptable. This is absolutely giving white students the wrong impression. It is giving the message that if something offensive is done to a person of another race that pacification and appeasement are acceptable. That the only yearbooks that will be changed are the yearbooks of the students that are members of the BSU sends this message.
Charter Oak High School like many institutions in America is going to ignore an opportunity to talk about race in a constructive way. This incident will be brushed aside, and called an “isolated incident.” However, as many of the people in the community and in the country know, this was not an isolated incident. Racism happens every day in the hallways of our schools, in the offices where we work, and on television that we watch.
What can I do as a white American? I can not be silent, and not be indifferent.
“The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.”
–George Bernard Shaw
Friday, June 27, 2008
Headlines
Politics
GOP Prepares To Scale Back Aggressive Anti-Voter Fraud Campaigns
Race
Charter Oak Students Upset by Racial Prank
Civil Rights
Child Detainees Battle System Alone
Women’s Issues
Global Gag Rule Must Not Be Domesticated
Environment
Next Battle Over Border Fence May be Texas
Health
Push in Bronx for H.I.V. Test for All
Opinion
The White Whale: E.L. Doctorow on Bush's Rejection of Knowledge
From the Blogs
Burnt Orange Report:
Texas Supreme Court Rules That If You Are Injued By A Church, You Are Screwed
Eye on Williamson:
A Cooling Off Period For The Texas GOP
GOP Prepares To Scale Back Aggressive Anti-Voter Fraud Campaigns
Race
Charter Oak Students Upset by Racial Prank
Civil Rights
Child Detainees Battle System Alone
Women’s Issues
Global Gag Rule Must Not Be Domesticated
Environment
Next Battle Over Border Fence May be Texas
Health
Push in Bronx for H.I.V. Test for All
Opinion
The White Whale: E.L. Doctorow on Bush's Rejection of Knowledge
From the Blogs
Burnt Orange Report:
Texas Supreme Court Rules That If You Are Injued By A Church, You Are Screwed
Eye on Williamson:
A Cooling Off Period For The Texas GOP
Local News
Arts Council Reports Success
By April Avison (Eagle Staff Writer)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The Arts Council of Brazos Valley has increased membership, paid debts and garnered more state funding over the past year, an agency official told College Station City Council members Thursday.
The City Council requires its three contract partners -- the Arts Council, the Research Valley Partnership and the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau -- to provide annual updates. The agencies are considered contract partners because the city offers a combined $1.8 million to the groups each year and they, in turn, provide a benefit to the community in terms of tourism.
About $440,000 is allocated annually from the city to the Arts Council.
The Arts Council has been under more of a microscope than the other contract partners, however, since its former executive director, P. David Romei, was indicted last year on charges of theft and misapplication of financial property. He is accused of stealing roughly $40,000 from the Arts Council and the city of College Station. Romei has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in August.
A subcommittee of three City Council members was formed last year to study the Arts Council's financial policies and determined that it was comfortable with the way the organization was operating under new Director Padraic Fisher's leadership. Ron Gay, a former city councilman who was vocally critical of the Arts Council and repeatedly asked that it not continue receiving city funds, was ousted from office in a May election.
Since Fisher took the helm of the arts group in mid-2006, about 17 affiliate agencies have joined the organization, he told elected officials Thursday. The Arts Council also paid off a $40,000 loan it took out last year to cover legal fees and accounting expenses. Individual memberships increased by about 15 percent, and the Arts Council at least $10,000 more than it has received in the past.
City Council members said Thursday that they were pleased to see the arts agency thriving.
"It's really good to see the breadth and vibrancy of the Arts Council after a very difficult year," said Councilman John Crompton
Published Friday, June 27, 2008
Free HIV Testing to be Available
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The Brazos County Health Department will administer free HIV tests from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday.
The event is in recognition of National HIV Testing Day on Friday, part of an annual campaign by the National Association of People with AIDS that encourages everyone to get tested.
The health department is at 201 N. Texas Ave. in Bryan. A photo ID is required to get a test.
An estimated 180,000 to 280,000 people nationwide don't realize they are HIV-positive, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, which attacks the immune system.
The Community Health Center will offer free HIV testing at Revolution Café & Bar from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday.
Published Friday, June 27, 2008
By April Avison (Eagle Staff Writer)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The Arts Council of Brazos Valley has increased membership, paid debts and garnered more state funding over the past year, an agency official told College Station City Council members Thursday.
The City Council requires its three contract partners -- the Arts Council, the Research Valley Partnership and the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau -- to provide annual updates. The agencies are considered contract partners because the city offers a combined $1.8 million to the groups each year and they, in turn, provide a benefit to the community in terms of tourism.
About $440,000 is allocated annually from the city to the Arts Council.
The Arts Council has been under more of a microscope than the other contract partners, however, since its former executive director, P. David Romei, was indicted last year on charges of theft and misapplication of financial property. He is accused of stealing roughly $40,000 from the Arts Council and the city of College Station. Romei has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in August.
A subcommittee of three City Council members was formed last year to study the Arts Council's financial policies and determined that it was comfortable with the way the organization was operating under new Director Padraic Fisher's leadership. Ron Gay, a former city councilman who was vocally critical of the Arts Council and repeatedly asked that it not continue receiving city funds, was ousted from office in a May election.
Since Fisher took the helm of the arts group in mid-2006, about 17 affiliate agencies have joined the organization, he told elected officials Thursday. The Arts Council also paid off a $40,000 loan it took out last year to cover legal fees and accounting expenses. Individual memberships increased by about 15 percent, and the Arts Council at least $10,000 more than it has received in the past.
City Council members said Thursday that they were pleased to see the arts agency thriving.
"It's really good to see the breadth and vibrancy of the Arts Council after a very difficult year," said Councilman John Crompton
Published Friday, June 27, 2008
Free HIV Testing to be Available
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The Brazos County Health Department will administer free HIV tests from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday.
The event is in recognition of National HIV Testing Day on Friday, part of an annual campaign by the National Association of People with AIDS that encourages everyone to get tested.
The health department is at 201 N. Texas Ave. in Bryan. A photo ID is required to get a test.
An estimated 180,000 to 280,000 people nationwide don't realize they are HIV-positive, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus, which attacks the immune system.
The Community Health Center will offer free HIV testing at Revolution Café & Bar from 8 p.m. to midnight Friday.
Published Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Price We Pay for Gas
By the numbers…
The cost of gas has surged in price over the last four years, and it has risen as high as or near $3 a gallon three times before receding. However, since February gas prices have not seen a significant decline, and it is unlikely that there will be a fall in gas prices in the near future.
According to AAA, the current national average cost of a gallon of gas is $4.067. A month ago the national average was $3.937. A year ago the national average was $2.975.
In Texas the current average cost of a gallon of gas is $3.926. A month ago the average in Texas was $3.833. A year ago the average in Texas was $2.883.
According to GasBuddy the cost of gas has affect Texas less than most states. The west coast and New England are the areas of the country that are most affected by rising gas cost.
Bigger in Texas…
Everything is bigger in Texas, and the Brazos Valley and Aggieland are a microcosm of this saying. If you have spent any time driving down Texas Avenue or University Drive, or if you have walked through the parking lots on the campus of Texas A&M University, you will get the definite impression that Aggies love their trucks and SUV’s. Chances are that if a vehicle gets 15 miles per gallon or less that an Aggie will probably want to drive it.
However, the price of gas may affect other things besides vehicles on the road in Aggieland.
The high gas prices have caused Americans to adapt and change habits, and this is no different in the Brazos Valley. In a June 15th article in the Eagle, the owner of owner of BCS Bicycles said that sales were up 36% in June. Also, according to the same article the president and chief executive of the Brazos Transit District said that ridership of busses had more than doubled from 20,000 to 42,000 since last year.
People living in the Brazos Valley are changing their habits and adapting to the circumstances. However, how will this affect things besides the traffic on Texas Avenue? There are plenty of ways to speculate about how this will affect the local economy, and none of the effects will probably be good. As the cost of gas rises so will the cost of living, however, the average income is not rising.
As oil has risen to $140 a barrel today, and could reach as high as $170, that price is going to affect the Brazos Valley. The price of oil will affect everything from the price of gas, to the price of groceries. But it seems like the only response to answer the question is to drill for more oil, but drilling for more oil is not going to solve anything. The answer is alternative energy and alternative energy now.
The cost of gas has surged in price over the last four years, and it has risen as high as or near $3 a gallon three times before receding. However, since February gas prices have not seen a significant decline, and it is unlikely that there will be a fall in gas prices in the near future.
According to AAA, the current national average cost of a gallon of gas is $4.067. A month ago the national average was $3.937. A year ago the national average was $2.975.
In Texas the current average cost of a gallon of gas is $3.926. A month ago the average in Texas was $3.833. A year ago the average in Texas was $2.883.
According to GasBuddy the cost of gas has affect Texas less than most states. The west coast and New England are the areas of the country that are most affected by rising gas cost.
Bigger in Texas…
Everything is bigger in Texas, and the Brazos Valley and Aggieland are a microcosm of this saying. If you have spent any time driving down Texas Avenue or University Drive, or if you have walked through the parking lots on the campus of Texas A&M University, you will get the definite impression that Aggies love their trucks and SUV’s. Chances are that if a vehicle gets 15 miles per gallon or less that an Aggie will probably want to drive it.
However, the price of gas may affect other things besides vehicles on the road in Aggieland.
The high gas prices have caused Americans to adapt and change habits, and this is no different in the Brazos Valley. In a June 15th article in the Eagle, the owner of owner of BCS Bicycles said that sales were up 36% in June. Also, according to the same article the president and chief executive of the Brazos Transit District said that ridership of busses had more than doubled from 20,000 to 42,000 since last year.
People living in the Brazos Valley are changing their habits and adapting to the circumstances. However, how will this affect things besides the traffic on Texas Avenue? There are plenty of ways to speculate about how this will affect the local economy, and none of the effects will probably be good. As the cost of gas rises so will the cost of living, however, the average income is not rising.
As oil has risen to $140 a barrel today, and could reach as high as $170, that price is going to affect the Brazos Valley. The price of oil will affect everything from the price of gas, to the price of groceries. But it seems like the only response to answer the question is to drill for more oil, but drilling for more oil is not going to solve anything. The answer is alternative energy and alternative energy now.
Headlines
Politics
The Obamacons Who Worry McCain
Capital Punishment, McCain, Obama and Judges
Congress Still Corrupt and Useless
War and Peace
The Pentagon's Stealth Corporations
The Case Against War
GLBT Issues
Sexual Antagonism
From the Blogs
Lost in College Station:
Who the Hell is Chet Edwards?
Daily Kos:
Dear President Bush
The Obamacons Who Worry McCain
Capital Punishment, McCain, Obama and Judges
Congress Still Corrupt and Useless
War and Peace
The Pentagon's Stealth Corporations
The Case Against War
GLBT Issues
Sexual Antagonism
From the Blogs
Lost in College Station:
Who the Hell is Chet Edwards?
Daily Kos:
Dear President Bush
Noriega Within Two Points
According to Matt Glazer from the Burnt Orange Report:
According to the Texas Lyceum, a statewide, non-partisan leadership group, the U.S. Senate race is very tight. The poll shows Junior Senator John Cornyn at 38%, Lt. Col and State Representative Rick Noriega at 36%, and undecided at 24%. The biggest surprise is only 23% of Texans feel the country is on the right track.
According to the Texas Lyceum, a statewide, non-partisan leadership group, the U.S. Senate race is very tight. The poll shows Junior Senator John Cornyn at 38%, Lt. Col and State Representative Rick Noriega at 36%, and undecided at 24%. The biggest surprise is only 23% of Texans feel the country is on the right track.
Local News
'It was the right time to sell'
By Holli L. Estridge (Eagle Staff Writer)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
WoodART Refinishing and Custom Furniture is closing its doors after 17 years in business.
Owner Ken Whitson said he would probably retire after selling his remaining inventory and tools in an auction this weekend. He sold his 20,000-square-foot building, at 800 N. Main St., to the city of Bryan for $340,000 in December, according to city officials.
Whitson will sell all of WoodART's furniture restoration and custom woodworking tools, supplies and accessories as well as antiques and wood furnishings in a public auction at the store. A.L. "Buck" Buchanan will auction the goods beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
A viewing and registration will be held from noon to 6 p.m. Friday. Doors open two hours before the auction on both days, according to the auction Web site.
Whitson moved his business to downtown Bryan 12 years ago after outgrowing a 1,400-square-foot space he'd occupied.
"Furniture restoration has been my core business -- taking furniture in for repair, restoration and refinishing," Whitson said. "In recent years, I've also branched out into making custom furniture. We make a lot of things you're not going to find in a store."
Whitson said he's also built an Internet presence, selling custom furniture such as domino tables, bookcases, entertainment centers and other items to customers as far away as Sweden.
He said he was leaving the business behind for several reasons -- some of which he declined to discuss.
"Part of it was that I realized I wasn't going to be able to do the development of the building that it deserves and it was the right time to sell," he said.
The building that housed WoodART is a key piece in the downtown property package the city of Bryan is touting to developers. Assistant City Manager Joey Dunn said city officials hope developers of a mixed-use project on the north end of downtown retain and revitalize the building, which is known as the ice house.
The site, built in 1912, housed the downtown nightclub and dance hall Cell Block 5 in the late 1970s.
The WoodART building is among several historic buildings that have changed hands recently in fast-redeveloping downtown Bryan.
Double E Properties, a local partnership led by two building tenants, recently closed on the 6,000-square-foot offices at 201 N. Main St. Bryan attorney Michelle Esparza and her husband, Stuart Ervin, owner of Central Texas Polygraph Associates, had been leasing space in the building since last summer.
"We just thought it was a great opportunity," Ervin said. "Over 20 years ago, when I was a Bryan police officer, I thought downtown Bryan had a lot of promise. It still has a lot of promise."
Double E acquired the two-story building from architect Constantine Barbu for an undisclosed price and recently leased space upstairs to architect Nathan Winchester.
Among other recent transactions is a lease at 210 W. 26th St. to Starving Artists Bakery & Café, a lease at 414 and 416 N. Main St. for San Jose Mexican Restaurant and the sale of the Texas Furniture Co. building at 206 N. Main St. to local investors.
Published Thursday, June 26, 2008
By Holli L. Estridge (Eagle Staff Writer)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
WoodART Refinishing and Custom Furniture is closing its doors after 17 years in business.
Owner Ken Whitson said he would probably retire after selling his remaining inventory and tools in an auction this weekend. He sold his 20,000-square-foot building, at 800 N. Main St., to the city of Bryan for $340,000 in December, according to city officials.
Whitson will sell all of WoodART's furniture restoration and custom woodworking tools, supplies and accessories as well as antiques and wood furnishings in a public auction at the store. A.L. "Buck" Buchanan will auction the goods beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday.
A viewing and registration will be held from noon to 6 p.m. Friday. Doors open two hours before the auction on both days, according to the auction Web site.
Whitson moved his business to downtown Bryan 12 years ago after outgrowing a 1,400-square-foot space he'd occupied.
"Furniture restoration has been my core business -- taking furniture in for repair, restoration and refinishing," Whitson said. "In recent years, I've also branched out into making custom furniture. We make a lot of things you're not going to find in a store."
Whitson said he's also built an Internet presence, selling custom furniture such as domino tables, bookcases, entertainment centers and other items to customers as far away as Sweden.
He said he was leaving the business behind for several reasons -- some of which he declined to discuss.
"Part of it was that I realized I wasn't going to be able to do the development of the building that it deserves and it was the right time to sell," he said.
The building that housed WoodART is a key piece in the downtown property package the city of Bryan is touting to developers. Assistant City Manager Joey Dunn said city officials hope developers of a mixed-use project on the north end of downtown retain and revitalize the building, which is known as the ice house.
The site, built in 1912, housed the downtown nightclub and dance hall Cell Block 5 in the late 1970s.
The WoodART building is among several historic buildings that have changed hands recently in fast-redeveloping downtown Bryan.
Double E Properties, a local partnership led by two building tenants, recently closed on the 6,000-square-foot offices at 201 N. Main St. Bryan attorney Michelle Esparza and her husband, Stuart Ervin, owner of Central Texas Polygraph Associates, had been leasing space in the building since last summer.
"We just thought it was a great opportunity," Ervin said. "Over 20 years ago, when I was a Bryan police officer, I thought downtown Bryan had a lot of promise. It still has a lot of promise."
Double E acquired the two-story building from architect Constantine Barbu for an undisclosed price and recently leased space upstairs to architect Nathan Winchester.
Among other recent transactions is a lease at 210 W. 26th St. to Starving Artists Bakery & Café, a lease at 414 and 416 N. Main St. for San Jose Mexican Restaurant and the sale of the Texas Furniture Co. building at 206 N. Main St. to local investors.
Published Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Evolution of a Blog
As this blog has taken shape I have pondered the direction in which I would like to focus my thoughts, opinions, and ideas. While I traveled last week, I thought more about what kind of thoughts I would like to share, and what would be the best way to approach writing and posting on this blog.
This blog was created to be an alternative outlook on life in Bryan-College Station and the Brazos Valley. This alternative outlook was meant to include thoughts from the liberal side of the political spectrum, but also from the alternative side of life. I would like to think of this blog as a living and evolving document of thought, and hopefully in the future I will be posting more of my thoughts and linking to the thoughts of others who share alternative views.
This is obviously a blog with a point of view, a partisan and bias point of view. As you could infer by the title of the blog, this blog expresses a specifically left or liberal point of view. However, I am open to hearing other points of view, and by all means post any comments you may have that support or oppose the views of this blog.
There are alternative views in the Brazos Valley, and there are groups that share these views. However, sometimes beneath the vainer of the Maroon and the politics of Aggieland it is hard to believe that there would be anything beyond conservative thinking here. If you read through the comments at Turn Left, then you will understand the view of College Station from outside the community.
I have been cultivating links to those groups that think differently here, but it is a work in progress. But, I would appreciate any help or suggestions that you may have for alternative points of view, and alternative groups and communities. The links cultivated so far on this blog to different web sites and blogs are a beginning, but it should be even more comprehensive.
So, this particular blog has shaped into a pseudo mission statement, but I think that this is more of a clarification for the blogger and the readers of what the idea is behind Left of College Station.
Tomorrow…
The Price We Pay For Gas…
This blog was created to be an alternative outlook on life in Bryan-College Station and the Brazos Valley. This alternative outlook was meant to include thoughts from the liberal side of the political spectrum, but also from the alternative side of life. I would like to think of this blog as a living and evolving document of thought, and hopefully in the future I will be posting more of my thoughts and linking to the thoughts of others who share alternative views.
This is obviously a blog with a point of view, a partisan and bias point of view. As you could infer by the title of the blog, this blog expresses a specifically left or liberal point of view. However, I am open to hearing other points of view, and by all means post any comments you may have that support or oppose the views of this blog.
There are alternative views in the Brazos Valley, and there are groups that share these views. However, sometimes beneath the vainer of the Maroon and the politics of Aggieland it is hard to believe that there would be anything beyond conservative thinking here. If you read through the comments at Turn Left, then you will understand the view of College Station from outside the community.
I have been cultivating links to those groups that think differently here, but it is a work in progress. But, I would appreciate any help or suggestions that you may have for alternative points of view, and alternative groups and communities. The links cultivated so far on this blog to different web sites and blogs are a beginning, but it should be even more comprehensive.
So, this particular blog has shaped into a pseudo mission statement, but I think that this is more of a clarification for the blogger and the readers of what the idea is behind Left of College Station.
Tomorrow…
The Price We Pay For Gas…
Headlines
Barriers Breakers
First Female Poised to Become 4-star
War and Peace
Anti-War Soldier Jonathan Hutto: People, Not Politicians, Will End the War in Iraq
Foreign Policy
$2 Billion in US Aid to Pakistan Questioned
Civil Rights
Scalia Cites False Information in Habeas Corpus Dissent
Opinion
More Phony Myths
From the Blogs
Capitol Annex:
Pro-Bush Front Group Vets For Freedom Announces Support For Cornyn
Stifled Mind:
Texas GOP Passes Theocratic Platform
Lost in College Station:
This Just In: Teens Still Having Sex
First Female Poised to Become 4-star
War and Peace
Anti-War Soldier Jonathan Hutto: People, Not Politicians, Will End the War in Iraq
Foreign Policy
$2 Billion in US Aid to Pakistan Questioned
Civil Rights
Scalia Cites False Information in Habeas Corpus Dissent
Opinion
More Phony Myths
From the Blogs
Capitol Annex:
Pro-Bush Front Group Vets For Freedom Announces Support For Cornyn
Stifled Mind:
Texas GOP Passes Theocratic Platform
Lost in College Station:
This Just In: Teens Still Having Sex
Local News: Bryan Schedules Public Hearings
Bryan Schedules Public Hearings
(Staff Report)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
The city of Bryan's Community Development Advisory Committee will hold a public meeting and three public hearings about the city's projects, housing, economic development and public service funding.
The meeting and hearings will be at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Municipal Office Building Basement Training Room, 300 S. Texas Ave.
The City's Community Development Services Department receives about $1.4 million through the Community Development Block Grant and the Home Investment Partnership Program.
Hearings will seek public comment on the city's application for grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the city's affirmative marketing plan and fair housing. Public comment sessions will follow all three public hearings.
Residents who are unable to attend but would like to comment can call 209-5175 or send comments to City of Bryan Community Development Services Department, 405 W. 28th St., P.O. Box 1000, Bryan, Texas 77805, by Tuesday.
Published Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Landfill Hearings Begin on Monday
(By Rosemary Smith, Examiner Editor)
From the Navasota Examiner
Hearings for the property condemnation suit pertaining to the construction of the regional Twin Oaks Landfill in Carlos filed by the cities of College Station and Bryan, under the Brazos Valley Solid Waste Management (BVSWMA) will take place this Monday and Tuesday, June 30 and July 1 at the American Legion Hall in Anderson.
According to BVSWMA Director Peter Caler, the condemnation suits are necessary, as ten of the 25 tracts of land have no clear property title.
The sole reason for the hearings is to assist Special Commissioners Kenneth E. Statham, Robert L. Upchurch III, and Dell Martinez in determining land values for the condemnation property.
Presiding 506th District Judge Albert McCaig will later determine the validity of the suits.
“College Station made the allegation that they’re entitled. That hasn’t been ruled on,” McCaig previously stated.
In a recent press release, the judge writes, “There is, rightfully so, a great deal of concern in the county about this particular matter. There is apparently an effort being made to mobilize a large and vocal opposition to the condemnation proceedings. That is certainly a legal and proper position to be taken by those who oppose the condemnation, or have an interest in the matter.”
No other details were given.
So far, the only landowner to contest the suit is Eddie Presnull of Liberty, who owns .22375 acres of undivided interest in a 64.48 tract of land. Presnull claims his property is part of a Spanish Land Grant that has been in his family since 1831.
The regional landfill is scheduled to open in January 2010.
Published on Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Headlines
Politics
McCain Aide Hits Nerve With Terror Remark
Increased Black Voter Turnout Could Help Tip Florida to Obama
Campaign Finance Reform Has Failed
Government
Report Sees Illegal Hiring Practices at Justice Department
Civil Rights
LGBT Activists Fighting the Last Battles of the Culture Wars
Women’s Issues
Tweens and Twenties See Future Led by Women
Environment
Home-Made Energy to Prop Up Grid
Technology
You don't still use a screen saver, do you?
Local News (Editorial): Food Bank Needed More Than Ever
Food Bank Needed More Than Ever
(Eagle Editorial Board)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
Rising gas prices, which are forcing up food costs and other expenses, are hurting everyone, but none more than the working poor. While most of us can either pay the higher prices or cut a few corners here and there, for our poorest neighbors there are no corners left to cut, no savings to dip into.
Simply put, they are hurting and the situation only will get worse. Fortunately, for more than 20 years now, the good folks at the Brazos Valley Food Bank have helped those in need get by.
Now, like families everywhere, the food bank is hurting -- and it needs our help.
Rising gas prices are affecting the food bank's budget. Already, with the year not quite halfway over, the food bank has spent 60 percent of the money it had allotted for making deliveries and picking up donated food. As a result, when they met Monday night, food bank board members looked at ways to cut the budget in other areas.
It isn't just the cost of gas that is hurting, though. One of the food bank's most successful programs is its backpacks for children, which provides kid-friendly food for the weekend to children at 15 area schools, after-school programs and recreation centers, even during the summer months. Each backpack is filled with food that can easily be opened and prepared by even the youngest school children.
Because the food needs to be in single-size containers or with pop-top lids, the food bank usually has to purchase it. That has always been expensive, but those costs have risen greatly, said executive director Theresa Mangapora. In fact, she noted, the food bank has already spent its entire annual budget for the program. It only costs $30 to sponsor a child's backpack for a month or $390 for a year.
Another program, the senior bag, a bag of 12 items provided to recipients of the Meals on Wheels program to ensure that they have more than the one good meal delivered to them every weekday. Unfortunately, the food bank only has funds to provide the bags to 150 of the neediest 420 senior citizens who get Meals on Wheels in Brazos, Burleson, Grimes and Robertson counties. For only $24 a month or $312 a year, donors may sponsor a senior bag.
The third program is really having an impact now. Family boxes are filled with 20 items such as peanut butter, rice, pasta, tunafish and chili to help low-income families struggling to make ends meet keep food on the table. More than 200 of the boxes have been distributed in the past year and the demand keeps rising. It costs $20 a month or $260 a year to sponsor a box a week.
Strange as it seems, demand for food doesn't drop when summer arrives and gardens are in bloom. In fact, because so many children who would get free or reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches in school are home, the demand rises. But because the weather is warm and fresh produce is so plentiful, donations drop.
That's where all of us come in. Please send a check today to the Brazos Valley Food Bank, P.O. Box 74, Bryan, TX 77806-0074. Be sure to indicate in the memo section of the check whether the donation is for the backpack, senior bag or family box program. You may also safely donate online at the food bank Web site: www.bvfb.org.
Every donation helps our hungry neighbors survive.
The food bank is getting other help this summer. At 10:30 a.m. today, Mrs. Baird's Bread will deliver 500 loaves of bread to the food bank's Junior League Distribution Center in Bryan. The donation is part of the company's Pass the Bread celebration of its 100th anniversary. Over the next 10 weeks, the food bank will receive 5,000 loaves of bread, which will be distributed to its more than 40 affiliates to help feed those in need.
And, trusties at Bryan's J.W. Hamilton Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections are growing fresh squash, tomatoes, okra and other vegetables in a special garden and donating the fresh food to the food bank. Mangapora praised the inmates, saying, "Good, fresh vegetables are something a lot of us take for granted. Most of the people we serve are used to getting canned goods, but that fresh carrot or that fresh squash really gets people excited."
The garden is part of the Fresh Approach partnership between the TDC and the Texas Food Bank Network. So far, more than 500 pounds of produce have been donated this season.
Thanks to the Hamilton trusties and the good people at Mrs. Baird's for helping us feed hungry people throughout our six-county area.
Published Tuesday, June 24, 2008
(Eagle Editorial Board)
From the Bryan-College Station Eagle
Rising gas prices, which are forcing up food costs and other expenses, are hurting everyone, but none more than the working poor. While most of us can either pay the higher prices or cut a few corners here and there, for our poorest neighbors there are no corners left to cut, no savings to dip into.
Simply put, they are hurting and the situation only will get worse. Fortunately, for more than 20 years now, the good folks at the Brazos Valley Food Bank have helped those in need get by.
Now, like families everywhere, the food bank is hurting -- and it needs our help.
Rising gas prices are affecting the food bank's budget. Already, with the year not quite halfway over, the food bank has spent 60 percent of the money it had allotted for making deliveries and picking up donated food. As a result, when they met Monday night, food bank board members looked at ways to cut the budget in other areas.
It isn't just the cost of gas that is hurting, though. One of the food bank's most successful programs is its backpacks for children, which provides kid-friendly food for the weekend to children at 15 area schools, after-school programs and recreation centers, even during the summer months. Each backpack is filled with food that can easily be opened and prepared by even the youngest school children.
Because the food needs to be in single-size containers or with pop-top lids, the food bank usually has to purchase it. That has always been expensive, but those costs have risen greatly, said executive director Theresa Mangapora. In fact, she noted, the food bank has already spent its entire annual budget for the program. It only costs $30 to sponsor a child's backpack for a month or $390 for a year.
Another program, the senior bag, a bag of 12 items provided to recipients of the Meals on Wheels program to ensure that they have more than the one good meal delivered to them every weekday. Unfortunately, the food bank only has funds to provide the bags to 150 of the neediest 420 senior citizens who get Meals on Wheels in Brazos, Burleson, Grimes and Robertson counties. For only $24 a month or $312 a year, donors may sponsor a senior bag.
The third program is really having an impact now. Family boxes are filled with 20 items such as peanut butter, rice, pasta, tunafish and chili to help low-income families struggling to make ends meet keep food on the table. More than 200 of the boxes have been distributed in the past year and the demand keeps rising. It costs $20 a month or $260 a year to sponsor a box a week.
Strange as it seems, demand for food doesn't drop when summer arrives and gardens are in bloom. In fact, because so many children who would get free or reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches in school are home, the demand rises. But because the weather is warm and fresh produce is so plentiful, donations drop.
That's where all of us come in. Please send a check today to the Brazos Valley Food Bank, P.O. Box 74, Bryan, TX 77806-0074. Be sure to indicate in the memo section of the check whether the donation is for the backpack, senior bag or family box program. You may also safely donate online at the food bank Web site: www.bvfb.org.
Every donation helps our hungry neighbors survive.
The food bank is getting other help this summer. At 10:30 a.m. today, Mrs. Baird's Bread will deliver 500 loaves of bread to the food bank's Junior League Distribution Center in Bryan. The donation is part of the company's Pass the Bread celebration of its 100th anniversary. Over the next 10 weeks, the food bank will receive 5,000 loaves of bread, which will be distributed to its more than 40 affiliates to help feed those in need.
And, trusties at Bryan's J.W. Hamilton Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections are growing fresh squash, tomatoes, okra and other vegetables in a special garden and donating the fresh food to the food bank. Mangapora praised the inmates, saying, "Good, fresh vegetables are something a lot of us take for granted. Most of the people we serve are used to getting canned goods, but that fresh carrot or that fresh squash really gets people excited."
The garden is part of the Fresh Approach partnership between the TDC and the Texas Food Bank Network. So far, more than 500 pounds of produce have been donated this season.
Thanks to the Hamilton trusties and the good people at Mrs. Baird's for helping us feed hungry people throughout our six-county area.
Published Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Friday, June 20, 2008
Left of College Station will return after these messages...
Regular posting of Left of College Station will return Tuesday, June 23rd.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Headlines
Local
Blinn Technology Center Will Cost More, Trustees Told
War and Peace
Israelis, Palestinians Battle in Hours Before Truce
Politics
Generation Y Refuses Race-Gender Dichotomy
Health
Mentally Ill Face Extra-Long ER Waits
Women’s Issues
Shaky Economic Times are Shakier for Women
Civil Rights
Roadmap to Torture
Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights
Blinn Technology Center Will Cost More, Trustees Told
War and Peace
Israelis, Palestinians Battle in Hours Before Truce
Politics
Generation Y Refuses Race-Gender Dichotomy
Health
Mentally Ill Face Extra-Long ER Waits
Women’s Issues
Shaky Economic Times are Shakier for Women
Civil Rights
Roadmap to Torture
Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights
Local News: Death Row Inmate Gets 30-day Reprieve
Death Row Inmate Gets 30-day Reprieve
(Associated Press)
From the Huntsville Item
Condemned inmate Charles Dean Hood avoided a trip to the Texas death chamber when lengthy appeals stretching long into the night left prison officials unable to complete their execution procedures in time to meet a midnight deadline to carry out the lethal injection.
Gov. Rick Perry then stopped the execution just before midnight Tuesday, using his authority to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve.
Hood, 38, had faced execution for a double slaying in suburban Dallas nearly two decades ago.
The warden at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit delivered the news to friends and relatives of the two murder victims, Ronald Williamson, 46, and Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, as they assembled just after 11:30 p.m. CDT to watch Hood die.
Hood had just lost three appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court, following an unsuccessful flurry of appeals in the state courts in rulings that alternately spared him and then restored the punishment.
“The death warrant was set to expire at midnight,” prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. “It was determined that there was not enough time for prison officials to follow the proper protocol prior to the warrant expiring.
“We initiated halting the execution for that reason. Certainly we were not willing to jeopardize our protocol. And time became an issue.”
The action was unprecedented in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, where 406 prisoners have been put to death since 1982. Executions have been halted because the warrant expired, but not under these circumstances.
Lyons said prison officials consulted with Perry’s office.
“The governor’s office understands the importance of the protocol and was supportive,” she said.
Hood had shed tears of relief about an hour before he could have died when he was told a Collin County judge withdrew the warrant that called for his lethal injection between 6 p.m. and midnight.
“I just thank God,” he said from a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber. “I just walk by my faith. If it didn’t happen, I was going home to the Lord.”
Prison officials held him there as appeals continued through the night.
Collin County prosecutors, in repeated appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, eventually won reinstatement of the warrant, contending State District Judge Curt Henderson didn’t have the authority to stop the state’s second execution in as many weeks.
Then some six hours later, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected three other appeals about an hour before the warrant would expire, Hood was cleared for punishment. Time, however, had run out for the executioner.
In the background of the fierce legal tussle were accusations from Hood’s lawyers of an improper and legally unethical romance in 1990 between a county prosecutor involved in Hood’s trial and the judge presiding over his trial.
Collin County prosecutors refused to accept Henderson’s withdrawal of the execution warrant and accused Hood’s lawyers of delay tactics by bringing up accusations of the romantic relationship that had surfaced years before.
Retired Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided over Hood’s 1990 trial, and then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, one of the prosecutors at Hood’s trial, have declined to address the allegations.
The Court of Criminal Appeals initially rejected the prosecutors’ appeals, but prosecutors then asked that a regional supervisory judge be ordered to lift the reprieve. The appeals court agreed, then rejected defense lawyers’ requests for a rehearing.
An earlier appeal related to the alleged affair also had failed at the Court of Criminal Appeals Monday when the state’s highest criminal court rejected it on technical grounds without addressing the merits of the accusations.
The Texas Defender Service, an anti-death penalty legal group whose lawyers were representing Hood in his appeals, argued Hood didn’t get a fair trial in 1990.
Appeals that failed before the U.S. Supreme Court contended Hood should have been provided an attorney to help with a clemency request, that his jury instructions were improper and that the Texas lethal injection procedures were unconstitutionally cruel.
Hood, a former topless club bouncer, was condemned for the fatal shootings of Wallace, an ex-dancer at the club, and her boyfriend, Williamson, at Williamson’s home in Plano in 1989.
Hood, then 20, was arrested a day after the slayings in his native Indiana, driving Williamson’s $70,000 Cadillac. Hood maintained he was innocent of the murders.
Evidence showed his prints were on plastic bags taped to Wallace’s body, which had been stuffed into a water heater closet. His bloody prints were on a weight machine used to block the closet door. Hood said his fingerprints were at Williamson’s home because he was living there.
An officer responding to a burglary call found the bodies. Both victims had been shot in the head.
“If you murder, you kill, you deserve the same thing,” said Julie Wallace, whose sister was murdered. “For a long time I was very angry. All I know is that from the day my mother said my sister was dead, I said whoever did it will pay for it when they stand before God and our justice system. It may roll slow, but I think justice always is served.”
During the punishment phase of his trial, prosecution witnesses told of Hood’s rape of a 15-year-old girl and, that he had a juvenile and adult criminal record that included a two-year prison term in Indiana for passing bad checks.
Hood came within two days of execution three years ago before winning a court reprieve. This was his fifth execution date.
At least 13 other executions are scheduled in the coming months in Texas, where 26 executions were carried out last year, more than any other state. Executions were on hold around the nation for some eight months until the Supreme Court in April upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection as a capital punishment method.
Published on June 18, 2008
(Associated Press)
From the Huntsville Item
Condemned inmate Charles Dean Hood avoided a trip to the Texas death chamber when lengthy appeals stretching long into the night left prison officials unable to complete their execution procedures in time to meet a midnight deadline to carry out the lethal injection.
Gov. Rick Perry then stopped the execution just before midnight Tuesday, using his authority to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve.
Hood, 38, had faced execution for a double slaying in suburban Dallas nearly two decades ago.
The warden at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit delivered the news to friends and relatives of the two murder victims, Ronald Williamson, 46, and Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, as they assembled just after 11:30 p.m. CDT to watch Hood die.
Hood had just lost three appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court, following an unsuccessful flurry of appeals in the state courts in rulings that alternately spared him and then restored the punishment.
“The death warrant was set to expire at midnight,” prison spokeswoman Michelle Lyons said. “It was determined that there was not enough time for prison officials to follow the proper protocol prior to the warrant expiring.
“We initiated halting the execution for that reason. Certainly we were not willing to jeopardize our protocol. And time became an issue.”
The action was unprecedented in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, where 406 prisoners have been put to death since 1982. Executions have been halted because the warrant expired, but not under these circumstances.
Lyons said prison officials consulted with Perry’s office.
“The governor’s office understands the importance of the protocol and was supportive,” she said.
Hood had shed tears of relief about an hour before he could have died when he was told a Collin County judge withdrew the warrant that called for his lethal injection between 6 p.m. and midnight.
“I just thank God,” he said from a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber. “I just walk by my faith. If it didn’t happen, I was going home to the Lord.”
Prison officials held him there as appeals continued through the night.
Collin County prosecutors, in repeated appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, eventually won reinstatement of the warrant, contending State District Judge Curt Henderson didn’t have the authority to stop the state’s second execution in as many weeks.
Then some six hours later, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected three other appeals about an hour before the warrant would expire, Hood was cleared for punishment. Time, however, had run out for the executioner.
In the background of the fierce legal tussle were accusations from Hood’s lawyers of an improper and legally unethical romance in 1990 between a county prosecutor involved in Hood’s trial and the judge presiding over his trial.
Collin County prosecutors refused to accept Henderson’s withdrawal of the execution warrant and accused Hood’s lawyers of delay tactics by bringing up accusations of the romantic relationship that had surfaced years before.
Retired Judge Verla Sue Holland, who presided over Hood’s 1990 trial, and then-Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell, one of the prosecutors at Hood’s trial, have declined to address the allegations.
The Court of Criminal Appeals initially rejected the prosecutors’ appeals, but prosecutors then asked that a regional supervisory judge be ordered to lift the reprieve. The appeals court agreed, then rejected defense lawyers’ requests for a rehearing.
An earlier appeal related to the alleged affair also had failed at the Court of Criminal Appeals Monday when the state’s highest criminal court rejected it on technical grounds without addressing the merits of the accusations.
The Texas Defender Service, an anti-death penalty legal group whose lawyers were representing Hood in his appeals, argued Hood didn’t get a fair trial in 1990.
Appeals that failed before the U.S. Supreme Court contended Hood should have been provided an attorney to help with a clemency request, that his jury instructions were improper and that the Texas lethal injection procedures were unconstitutionally cruel.
Hood, a former topless club bouncer, was condemned for the fatal shootings of Wallace, an ex-dancer at the club, and her boyfriend, Williamson, at Williamson’s home in Plano in 1989.
Hood, then 20, was arrested a day after the slayings in his native Indiana, driving Williamson’s $70,000 Cadillac. Hood maintained he was innocent of the murders.
Evidence showed his prints were on plastic bags taped to Wallace’s body, which had been stuffed into a water heater closet. His bloody prints were on a weight machine used to block the closet door. Hood said his fingerprints were at Williamson’s home because he was living there.
An officer responding to a burglary call found the bodies. Both victims had been shot in the head.
“If you murder, you kill, you deserve the same thing,” said Julie Wallace, whose sister was murdered. “For a long time I was very angry. All I know is that from the day my mother said my sister was dead, I said whoever did it will pay for it when they stand before God and our justice system. It may roll slow, but I think justice always is served.”
During the punishment phase of his trial, prosecution witnesses told of Hood’s rape of a 15-year-old girl and, that he had a juvenile and adult criminal record that included a two-year prison term in Indiana for passing bad checks.
Hood came within two days of execution three years ago before winning a court reprieve. This was his fifth execution date.
At least 13 other executions are scheduled in the coming months in Texas, where 26 executions were carried out last year, more than any other state. Executions were on hold around the nation for some eight months until the Supreme Court in April upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection as a capital punishment method.
Published on June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Headlines
Politics
Will There Be an Obama/Gore Ticket?
Granholm: McCain Not Good for Women
Youth Activists: Beware Social Security!
Civil Rights
Make a Mistake in America and You May Pay a Heavy Price for Decades
Report Questions Pentagon Accounts
Crime
Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him - But Thousands Aren't So Lucky
Texas
Fire at Texas Governor's Mansion May Have Been Politically Motivated
Opinion
R.I.P. to the S.U.V.
Will There Be an Obama/Gore Ticket?
Granholm: McCain Not Good for Women
Youth Activists: Beware Social Security!
Civil Rights
Make a Mistake in America and You May Pay a Heavy Price for Decades
Report Questions Pentagon Accounts
Crime
Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him - But Thousands Aren't So Lucky
Texas
Fire at Texas Governor's Mansion May Have Been Politically Motivated
Opinion
R.I.P. to the S.U.V.
Local News: Inmate Facing Lethal Injection Tonight
Inmate Facing Lethal Injection Tonight
(Associated Press)
From the Huntsville Item
Julie Wallace looked forward to Tuesday to watch the execution of the man convicted of killing her youngest sister almost two decades ago at a home in suburban Dallas.
“I have no doubt in my heart, at all, that he did it,” Wallace said of condemned prisoner Charles Dean Hood, scheduled for lethal injection in Huntsville for fatally shooting her sister, Tracie, 26, and her sister’s boyfriend, Ronald Williamson, 46. “It’s not revenge. I just want to see him punished for what he did. You took a life and you don’t deserve yours.”
Hood, however, denied any role in the double shooting at Williamson’s Plano home in 1989.
“I didn’t commit this crime,” he told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I can’t figure out why a system that’s supposed to protect you is trying to kill you.”
Lawyers for the former topless bar bouncer who said he was doing odd jobs and working as a bodyguard for Williamson argued in late appeals that Hood didn’t get a fair trial.
His trial judge and one of his prosecutors at the time of Hood’s 1990 trial were engaged in an improper and legally unethical years-long romantic relationship they tried to keep hidden, Hood’s attorneys argued in an appeal rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. They raised similar contentions to Gov. Rick Perry, urging he issue a 30-day reprieve to investigate the claim.
“Texans are fair. They will not stand for a man’s execution when the judge and the prosecutor were in a romantic relationship or there was even an appearance of bias,” said Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, a legal group opposed to capital punishment and whose senior staff attorney, Gregory Wiercioch, is Hood’s lead lawyer.
“The U.S. and Texas constitutions guarantee an unbiased judge, and Mr. Hood was denied that fundamental right,” Keilen said.
Hood’s lawyers also contended in a filing Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court that jurors received improper instructions when they decided Hood should be put to death because they were unable to properly consider his poor childhood and physical and mental problems. And they raised questions, rejected Monday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whether Hood should have been entitled to a state-provided lawyer to prepare a clemency request.
Hood was arrested in Indiana driving Williamson’s $70,000 Cadillac. Hood was living at Williamson’s house and said he formerly had worked as a bouncer at a topless club where Tracie Wallace had danced and where Williamson, who ran a computer program company, was a customer.
“He took care of me for almost two months,” Hood, 38, said from death row, where a Collin County jury sent him in 1990.
That explained his fingerprints at the home where the bodies were found, he said. He also said he had permission to use Williamson’s car.
Hood’s prints were found on plastic bags taped to Wallace’s body. Other evidence showed he used Williamson’s credit card to order flowers for a woman in Indiana and that he told people at the flower shop he was Williamson, showing off a gold watch that belonged to the victim. He also had pawned a diamond ring belonging to Williamson and tried cashing checks from Williamson’s business by forging the victim’s signature on the checks.
A jury deliberated less than 2 1/2 hours before convicting him of capital murder.
A Plano police officer responding to a Nov. 1, 1989, call from Williamson about a burglary at his home found Williamson’s body on the floor. Then Wallace’s body, partially wrapped in plastic garbage bags, was found stuffed in a water heater closet.
Prosecutors said Hood, a seventh-grade dropout who was 20 at the time, shot the couple and stole money, jewelry and Williamson’s car, then drove to Vincennes, Ind., hoping to impress a woman he considered his girlfriend. Officers were waiting for him when he showed up at the woman’s workplace.
During the punishment phase of the trial, prosecution witnesses told of Hood’s previous instances of violence, including the rape of a 15-year-old girl, and that he had a juvenile and adult criminal record that included a two-year prison term in Indiana for passing bad checks.
Hood would be the second Texas inmate executed this year and the second in as many weeks. Executions around the country and in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state — where 26 executions occurred last year — were on hold from September until mid-April when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection.
Hood came within two days of execution three years ago before winning a court reprieve. This is his fifth execution date.
“It’s been a long process,” Julie Wallace said. “It may roll slow, but I think justice always is served.”
Hood is among at least 13 Texas death row inmates with executions dates in the coming months. Four are set for July.
Published: June 17, 2008
(Associated Press)
From the Huntsville Item
Julie Wallace looked forward to Tuesday to watch the execution of the man convicted of killing her youngest sister almost two decades ago at a home in suburban Dallas.
“I have no doubt in my heart, at all, that he did it,” Wallace said of condemned prisoner Charles Dean Hood, scheduled for lethal injection in Huntsville for fatally shooting her sister, Tracie, 26, and her sister’s boyfriend, Ronald Williamson, 46. “It’s not revenge. I just want to see him punished for what he did. You took a life and you don’t deserve yours.”
Hood, however, denied any role in the double shooting at Williamson’s Plano home in 1989.
“I didn’t commit this crime,” he told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I can’t figure out why a system that’s supposed to protect you is trying to kill you.”
Lawyers for the former topless bar bouncer who said he was doing odd jobs and working as a bodyguard for Williamson argued in late appeals that Hood didn’t get a fair trial.
His trial judge and one of his prosecutors at the time of Hood’s 1990 trial were engaged in an improper and legally unethical years-long romantic relationship they tried to keep hidden, Hood’s attorneys argued in an appeal rejected by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. They raised similar contentions to Gov. Rick Perry, urging he issue a 30-day reprieve to investigate the claim.
“Texans are fair. They will not stand for a man’s execution when the judge and the prosecutor were in a romantic relationship or there was even an appearance of bias,” said Andrea Keilen, executive director of Texas Defender Service, a legal group opposed to capital punishment and whose senior staff attorney, Gregory Wiercioch, is Hood’s lead lawyer.
“The U.S. and Texas constitutions guarantee an unbiased judge, and Mr. Hood was denied that fundamental right,” Keilen said.
Hood’s lawyers also contended in a filing Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court that jurors received improper instructions when they decided Hood should be put to death because they were unable to properly consider his poor childhood and physical and mental problems. And they raised questions, rejected Monday by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whether Hood should have been entitled to a state-provided lawyer to prepare a clemency request.
Hood was arrested in Indiana driving Williamson’s $70,000 Cadillac. Hood was living at Williamson’s house and said he formerly had worked as a bouncer at a topless club where Tracie Wallace had danced and where Williamson, who ran a computer program company, was a customer.
“He took care of me for almost two months,” Hood, 38, said from death row, where a Collin County jury sent him in 1990.
That explained his fingerprints at the home where the bodies were found, he said. He also said he had permission to use Williamson’s car.
Hood’s prints were found on plastic bags taped to Wallace’s body. Other evidence showed he used Williamson’s credit card to order flowers for a woman in Indiana and that he told people at the flower shop he was Williamson, showing off a gold watch that belonged to the victim. He also had pawned a diamond ring belonging to Williamson and tried cashing checks from Williamson’s business by forging the victim’s signature on the checks.
A jury deliberated less than 2 1/2 hours before convicting him of capital murder.
A Plano police officer responding to a Nov. 1, 1989, call from Williamson about a burglary at his home found Williamson’s body on the floor. Then Wallace’s body, partially wrapped in plastic garbage bags, was found stuffed in a water heater closet.
Prosecutors said Hood, a seventh-grade dropout who was 20 at the time, shot the couple and stole money, jewelry and Williamson’s car, then drove to Vincennes, Ind., hoping to impress a woman he considered his girlfriend. Officers were waiting for him when he showed up at the woman’s workplace.
During the punishment phase of the trial, prosecution witnesses told of Hood’s previous instances of violence, including the rape of a 15-year-old girl, and that he had a juvenile and adult criminal record that included a two-year prison term in Indiana for passing bad checks.
Hood would be the second Texas inmate executed this year and the second in as many weeks. Executions around the country and in the nation’s busiest capital punishment state — where 26 executions occurred last year — were on hold from September until mid-April when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of lethal injection.
Hood came within two days of execution three years ago before winning a court reprieve. This is his fifth execution date.
“It’s been a long process,” Julie Wallace said. “It may roll slow, but I think justice always is served.”
Hood is among at least 13 Texas death row inmates with executions dates in the coming months. Four are set for July.
Published: June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Headlines
Administration “Policy”
Bush's Deadly "Diplomacy"
Bush Wants Your Eyeballs
America's Prison for Terrorists Often Held the Wrong Men
Status of Forces Agreement Will Decide Whether Iraq is Independent or "a Client State of the US"
Politics
McCain's Playbook: Hate, Fear and Caveman Politics
Obama Camp Sees Possible Win Without Ohio, Florida
Health
The Contraception Failure
A Grandfather Looks Back on 40 Years of Happy Pot Smoking
Media
The Press Corps’ Unshakeable Crush on McCain
One Angry Man: Is Keith Olbermann Changing TV News?
Local News: Blinn College Must Balance Budget With ‘Flat’ Income Stream
Blinn College Must Balance Budget With ‘Flat’ Income Stream, Officials Say
By Alan Nieschwietz (Staff Reporter)
From the Brenham Banner-Press
A flat income stream for Blinn College means that any increases in certain budget areas have to be offset by decreases in others.
“What it boils down to is (in terms of departmental increases), you have to take it from one department and add it to another, and basically that’s what we’ve done here,” said president Daniel Holt.
The big increase in this years proposed budget is a $2.2 million jump, up to $44,122,000, for additional staff salaries and benefit packages due mostly to the addition of new instructor positions, police department personnel and faculty salaries paid due to the increased popularity of the May and December minimesters.
Money for that will come from mostly from small decreases among the dozens of line items in the proposed budget.
Holt told Blinn College trustees at their budget workshop that he expects the income of the college to be $64,533,000, which after expenditures should leave a surplus of about three quarters of a million.
Other news from the budget workshop is that both the Sealy and Schulenburg campuses are going to lose money this year, and most likely will lose money during the 2008-2009 school year, barring a dramatic increase in enrollment at those campuses, which would be highly unlikely, said Holt.
He told the board that losses would probably be $155,00 and $86,000 respectively for the Sealy and Schulenburg campuses for the current fiscal year ending in August.
Faculty and staff pay raises were also discussed at the meeting with the administration promising to provide several options and their cost to the board.
A final draft of the budget is likely to be voted on in July.
Published Saturday, June 14, 2008
By Alan Nieschwietz (Staff Reporter)
From the Brenham Banner-Press
A flat income stream for Blinn College means that any increases in certain budget areas have to be offset by decreases in others.
“What it boils down to is (in terms of departmental increases), you have to take it from one department and add it to another, and basically that’s what we’ve done here,” said president Daniel Holt.
The big increase in this years proposed budget is a $2.2 million jump, up to $44,122,000, for additional staff salaries and benefit packages due mostly to the addition of new instructor positions, police department personnel and faculty salaries paid due to the increased popularity of the May and December minimesters.
Money for that will come from mostly from small decreases among the dozens of line items in the proposed budget.
Holt told Blinn College trustees at their budget workshop that he expects the income of the college to be $64,533,000, which after expenditures should leave a surplus of about three quarters of a million.
Other news from the budget workshop is that both the Sealy and Schulenburg campuses are going to lose money this year, and most likely will lose money during the 2008-2009 school year, barring a dramatic increase in enrollment at those campuses, which would be highly unlikely, said Holt.
He told the board that losses would probably be $155,00 and $86,000 respectively for the Sealy and Schulenburg campuses for the current fiscal year ending in August.
Faculty and staff pay raises were also discussed at the meeting with the administration promising to provide several options and their cost to the board.
A final draft of the budget is likely to be voted on in July.
Published Saturday, June 14, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Local News: Bryan Collegiate High School Set on Success
Bryan School Set on Success
By Janet Phelps (Eagle Staff Writer)
Not a single student at Bryan Collegiate High School will fall through the cracks.
The school's staff vows not to let them.
Principal Christina Richardson says she's determined to see each student succeed.
And that's a challenging task.
Students at the school, which is on the Lamar Alternative High School campus, complete high school and earn 60 hours of college credit in four years.
"They have one foot in each world," Richardson said. "It is hard, but we provide so many support systems."
The curriculum is rigorous, according to Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Frances McArthur.
"These kids have to want it," she said.
According to state test scores results, they do.
The 112 freshmen enrolled in Bryan Collegiate High School in its first year will probably achieve recognized status, the Texas Education Agency's second-highest rating, Richardson and McArthur said.
That's especially remarkable, considering that the school recruits and targets students from low-income families who will be the first in their families to go to college.
Sixty-four percent of the students enrolled during Bryan Collegiate's inaugural year are from low-income families, and 82 percent will be first-generation college students, Richardson said.
"It's very individualized to what the student is ready for," she said. "We're not going to put them in a situation where they're not going to be successful."
The six staff members met weekly throughout the year to discuss how to help each student do well. It's that close-knit professional environment that has enabled the students to succeed, McArthur said.
Richardson said other facets of the school's success have been its small size, high expectations and aid from supportive parents and volunteers.
"It is hard, but our students love it there," Richardson said. "This is their school."
Bryan Collegiate is among 24 early-college high schools in the state established by a 2005 law that provided for programs to help at-risk students succeed at high school and college.
College classes are taught by Blinn College staff members, and students are enrolled at both schools.
By graduation, Bryan Collegiate students will have completed an associate degree at no charge.
McArthur said she's working to make sure students have the funds to go to a four-year college once they're done.
"We're certain there will be scholarships available for these kids," she said.
The staff is recruiting students for next year, when Bryan Collegiate will expand to serve 10th-graders.
There is no test score or grade requirement for admission, although staff members look at attendance records, teacher recommendations and past disciplinary problems. There are 30 spots open for next year.
Richardson said the school was still accepting freshmen and sophomores for next year. Applications must be in by Aug. 1.
For more information, e-mail Richardson at crichardson@ bryanisd.org or call 209-2601.
Published Saturday, June 14, 2008
By Janet Phelps (Eagle Staff Writer)
Not a single student at Bryan Collegiate High School will fall through the cracks.
The school's staff vows not to let them.
Principal Christina Richardson says she's determined to see each student succeed.
And that's a challenging task.
Students at the school, which is on the Lamar Alternative High School campus, complete high school and earn 60 hours of college credit in four years.
"They have one foot in each world," Richardson said. "It is hard, but we provide so many support systems."
The curriculum is rigorous, according to Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Frances McArthur.
"These kids have to want it," she said.
According to state test scores results, they do.
The 112 freshmen enrolled in Bryan Collegiate High School in its first year will probably achieve recognized status, the Texas Education Agency's second-highest rating, Richardson and McArthur said.
That's especially remarkable, considering that the school recruits and targets students from low-income families who will be the first in their families to go to college.
Sixty-four percent of the students enrolled during Bryan Collegiate's inaugural year are from low-income families, and 82 percent will be first-generation college students, Richardson said.
"It's very individualized to what the student is ready for," she said. "We're not going to put them in a situation where they're not going to be successful."
The six staff members met weekly throughout the year to discuss how to help each student do well. It's that close-knit professional environment that has enabled the students to succeed, McArthur said.
Richardson said other facets of the school's success have been its small size, high expectations and aid from supportive parents and volunteers.
"It is hard, but our students love it there," Richardson said. "This is their school."
Bryan Collegiate is among 24 early-college high schools in the state established by a 2005 law that provided for programs to help at-risk students succeed at high school and college.
College classes are taught by Blinn College staff members, and students are enrolled at both schools.
By graduation, Bryan Collegiate students will have completed an associate degree at no charge.
McArthur said she's working to make sure students have the funds to go to a four-year college once they're done.
"We're certain there will be scholarships available for these kids," she said.
The staff is recruiting students for next year, when Bryan Collegiate will expand to serve 10th-graders.
There is no test score or grade requirement for admission, although staff members look at attendance records, teacher recommendations and past disciplinary problems. There are 30 spots open for next year.
Richardson said the school was still accepting freshmen and sophomores for next year. Applications must be in by Aug. 1.
For more information, e-mail Richardson at crichardson@ bryanisd.org or call 209-2601.
Published Saturday, June 14, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
A Purple Brazos County?
In Bryan-College Station, and in much of the Brazos Valley, the general assumption is that conservative politics are the status quo.
The political representation of Brazos County has been predominately Republican for more than a decade. Steve Ogden has been the Texas Senate District 5 senator since 1997 and Republican Fred Brown has been the Texas House District 14 representative since 1999. However, Democrat Chet Edwards has represented the Texas 17th Congressional district since 2005, and before that represented the Texas 11th Congressional district since 1991 until it was renumbered. Democrat Robert Cook has been the Texas House District 17 representative since 1996; however, the seat will be vacant for the upcoming general election.
The Brazos Valley is home to two of the most conservative universities in the nation; the Princeton Review ranked Texas A&M University (the home of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library) and Baylor University as the 16th and 12th most conservative colleges in the nation. In 2004 Texas A&M was named by the Princeton Review as the most conservative college in the nation. Just north of the Brazos Valley in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is the University of Dallas which was ranked as the 9th most conservative college in the nation, and in the Dallas are two other prominent conservative colleges of Southern Methodist University (the future home of the George W. Bush Presidential Library) and Texas Christian University.
During the 2006 elections the District 14 (Brazos County, with the exception of northern Bryan), voted exclusively Republican with the exception of Edwards. In many cases Republican candidates won with 80% of the vote. In the District 17 (which includes northern Bryan and Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, and Lee counties), the results were very similar however with smaller margins and three other Democratic candidates getting a majority of votes. Voter turnout has been historically mostly Republican, and the Eagle has endorsed predominately Republican candidates.
There is a shift of political winds nationally, as Democratic voter turnout up is at all time high levels and Republican approval ratings at low levels. In this year’s primary election 13,800 Democrats voted compared to 13,200 Republicans that voted. In 2006, 1,300 Democrats voted in the primary compared to 8,300 Republicans, and in 2004 2,000 Democrats voted in the primary compared to 8,700 Republicans.
Also, there is a question of whether or not Brazos County Republicans will support Senator John McCain. Only 48% voted for McCain in the primary, while former Governor Mike Huckabee received 41% of the vote. Ron Paul only received 5% of the vote in the primary, however there was a strong amount of support for Paul and if he runs as an independent for President he may receive a significant amount of votes in Brazos County.
Brazos County has a significant population of “values voters.” There is a significant amount of Christian churches and organizations in Brazos County, and College Station is the home of the Coalition for Life, a Pro-Life activist organization. This is a major reason behind the support of Huckabee. It has been well publicized that McCain has had his difference with the Christian community, specifically his criticism of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance" and his opposition to a federal amendment to ban gay marriage. However, with the War in Iraq and the economy as the prominent issues social issues are far from the forefront.
The Republican Party as a whole is on the defensive in Texas. As noted today in the Burnt Orange Report, there have been indications from the Republican Party in Texas that a shift in Texas politics is happening and the Republican Party is noticing.
From the Dallas Morning News:
"One of my jobs as Dallas County chair is to go down there and explain to them that they had better be on guard," said Dallas County Chairman Jonathan Neerman. "It can happen to you."
From the San Antonio Express:
“We're the underdogs, and anybody who tells you we're not hasn't been out and about,” Williams said.
There is a combination of factors that are attributing to a possible change in American politics that are having an affect across the nation. There is a large upswing of Democrat voter turnout, and there a possible dip in Republican voter turnout. Due to the demographics of Brazos County it is unlikely that the county would ever become a completely blue county. However, with the rise of enthusiasm among Democrats and the decline of the Republican Party, Brazos County may turn a shade of purple this year.
Special Note: Congressman Chet Edwards represents the Texas 17th Congressional district, which includes Crawford, Texas which is home to President Bush. This means that Bush is technically represented in Congress by a Democrat.
Get Involved:
Brazos County Democrats
Texas Democratic Women (TDW) of the Brazos Valley
Texas Aggie Democrats
Blogs Around the State: The Absence Of A True Political Majority—Something To Take Advantage Of
The political representation of Brazos County has been predominately Republican for more than a decade. Steve Ogden has been the Texas Senate District 5 senator since 1997 and Republican Fred Brown has been the Texas House District 14 representative since 1999. However, Democrat Chet Edwards has represented the Texas 17th Congressional district since 2005, and before that represented the Texas 11th Congressional district since 1991 until it was renumbered. Democrat Robert Cook has been the Texas House District 17 representative since 1996; however, the seat will be vacant for the upcoming general election.
The Brazos Valley is home to two of the most conservative universities in the nation; the Princeton Review ranked Texas A&M University (the home of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library) and Baylor University as the 16th and 12th most conservative colleges in the nation. In 2004 Texas A&M was named by the Princeton Review as the most conservative college in the nation. Just north of the Brazos Valley in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is the University of Dallas which was ranked as the 9th most conservative college in the nation, and in the Dallas are two other prominent conservative colleges of Southern Methodist University (the future home of the George W. Bush Presidential Library) and Texas Christian University.
During the 2006 elections the District 14 (Brazos County, with the exception of northern Bryan), voted exclusively Republican with the exception of Edwards. In many cases Republican candidates won with 80% of the vote. In the District 17 (which includes northern Bryan and Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, and Lee counties), the results were very similar however with smaller margins and three other Democratic candidates getting a majority of votes. Voter turnout has been historically mostly Republican, and the Eagle has endorsed predominately Republican candidates.
There is a shift of political winds nationally, as Democratic voter turnout up is at all time high levels and Republican approval ratings at low levels. In this year’s primary election 13,800 Democrats voted compared to 13,200 Republicans that voted. In 2006, 1,300 Democrats voted in the primary compared to 8,300 Republicans, and in 2004 2,000 Democrats voted in the primary compared to 8,700 Republicans.
Also, there is a question of whether or not Brazos County Republicans will support Senator John McCain. Only 48% voted for McCain in the primary, while former Governor Mike Huckabee received 41% of the vote. Ron Paul only received 5% of the vote in the primary, however there was a strong amount of support for Paul and if he runs as an independent for President he may receive a significant amount of votes in Brazos County.
Brazos County has a significant population of “values voters.” There is a significant amount of Christian churches and organizations in Brazos County, and College Station is the home of the Coalition for Life, a Pro-Life activist organization. This is a major reason behind the support of Huckabee. It has been well publicized that McCain has had his difference with the Christian community, specifically his criticism of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as "agents of intolerance" and his opposition to a federal amendment to ban gay marriage. However, with the War in Iraq and the economy as the prominent issues social issues are far from the forefront.
The Republican Party as a whole is on the defensive in Texas. As noted today in the Burnt Orange Report, there have been indications from the Republican Party in Texas that a shift in Texas politics is happening and the Republican Party is noticing.
From the Dallas Morning News:
"One of my jobs as Dallas County chair is to go down there and explain to them that they had better be on guard," said Dallas County Chairman Jonathan Neerman. "It can happen to you."
From the San Antonio Express:
“We're the underdogs, and anybody who tells you we're not hasn't been out and about,” Williams said.
There is a combination of factors that are attributing to a possible change in American politics that are having an affect across the nation. There is a large upswing of Democrat voter turnout, and there a possible dip in Republican voter turnout. Due to the demographics of Brazos County it is unlikely that the county would ever become a completely blue county. However, with the rise of enthusiasm among Democrats and the decline of the Republican Party, Brazos County may turn a shade of purple this year.
Special Note: Congressman Chet Edwards represents the Texas 17th Congressional district, which includes Crawford, Texas which is home to President Bush. This means that Bush is technically represented in Congress by a Democrat.
Get Involved:
Brazos County Democrats
Texas Democratic Women (TDW) of the Brazos Valley
Texas Aggie Democrats
Blogs Around the State: The Absence Of A True Political Majority—Something To Take Advantage Of
Headlines
World News
Saudi Women Vie for Olympic Rights
Plan Mexico
Mexico, Spain Urge Easing of Sanctions on Cuba
Deadly Hunt for 'Witches' Haunts Kenya Villagers
Politics
John McCain's Chilling Project for America
News Outlets Face Increasing Scrutiny in Campaign
Media Charged With Sexism in Clinton Coverage
Texas Politics
Republicans to Fortify Positions at State Convention
Court Blocks Potential GOP Insurgency
Saudi Women Vie for Olympic Rights
Plan Mexico
Mexico, Spain Urge Easing of Sanctions on Cuba
Deadly Hunt for 'Witches' Haunts Kenya Villagers
Politics
John McCain's Chilling Project for America
News Outlets Face Increasing Scrutiny in Campaign
Media Charged With Sexism in Clinton Coverage
Texas Politics
Republicans to Fortify Positions at State Convention
Court Blocks Potential GOP Insurgency
Local News: Observances Set for Juneteenth
Observances Set for Juneteenth
By Cassie Smith (Eagle Staff Writer)
Wayne Sadberry can only imagine the emotions of June 19, 1865.
"It was a change for everybody, both blacks and whites," said Sadberry, curator of the Brazos Valley African American Museum.
The museum will celebrate Juneteenth, a state holiday commemorating the day slaves in Texas were told of their emancipation, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday. There will be music, food, entertainment, poetry readings and door prizes, along with children's activities, exhibits and speakers. Admission is free.
Panelists will discuss how things have changed for black Americans and what it is like to celebrate Juneteenth now compared to when they were children, said the museum's director, Velma Spivey.
In College Station on Thursday, the all-day Juneteenth celebration at the Lincoln Recreation Center will include a band, skits and local talent.
The Annual Freedom Walk will leave the Lincoln Center at 9 a.m. and travel to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, where there will be free storytelling from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
The annual Juneteenth Parade and Scholarship Program is set for Saturday in Bryan. The parade will begin at Kemp Elementary School at 11 a.m., head west on Martin Luther King Jr. Street and end at Sadie Thomas Park, where there will be a ceremony.
Spivey said her family never talked about the significance of the holiday but always celebrated with get-togethers and barbecues.
"Not being free didn't occur to me until we were much older," she said.
Sadberry said Juneteenth family celebrations were just "part of growing up" in his family.
"People think of it as a predominantly black holiday," he said. "But it's a day for all of us. It sort of opened the door for more hope and brought reality to a lot of things."
Published Friday, June 13, 2008
By Cassie Smith (Eagle Staff Writer)
Wayne Sadberry can only imagine the emotions of June 19, 1865.
"It was a change for everybody, both blacks and whites," said Sadberry, curator of the Brazos Valley African American Museum.
The museum will celebrate Juneteenth, a state holiday commemorating the day slaves in Texas were told of their emancipation, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday. There will be music, food, entertainment, poetry readings and door prizes, along with children's activities, exhibits and speakers. Admission is free.
Panelists will discuss how things have changed for black Americans and what it is like to celebrate Juneteenth now compared to when they were children, said the museum's director, Velma Spivey.
In College Station on Thursday, the all-day Juneteenth celebration at the Lincoln Recreation Center will include a band, skits and local talent.
The Annual Freedom Walk will leave the Lincoln Center at 9 a.m. and travel to the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum, where there will be free storytelling from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
The annual Juneteenth Parade and Scholarship Program is set for Saturday in Bryan. The parade will begin at Kemp Elementary School at 11 a.m., head west on Martin Luther King Jr. Street and end at Sadie Thomas Park, where there will be a ceremony.
Spivey said her family never talked about the significance of the holiday but always celebrated with get-togethers and barbecues.
"Not being free didn't occur to me until we were much older," she said.
Sadberry said Juneteenth family celebrations were just "part of growing up" in his family.
"People think of it as a predominantly black holiday," he said. "But it's a day for all of us. It sort of opened the door for more hope and brought reality to a lot of things."
Published Friday, June 13, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Death Penalty
The death penalty has become a very important issue to me, although when I consider political candidates their position on the death penalty does not rank high in whether or not I may support or vote for them. Issues like foreign policy, education, and health care are more important to determining who I may or may not support or vote for.
During the Texas State Democratic Convention I attended the Democrats Against the Death Penalty Caucus. The thing that struck me the most about this particular meeting was the stories and emotions that were shared, and the stark contrast from what you here from proponents of the death penalty. When people her are for the death penalty speak there is anger and indignation in there voices in their opinions, but when you her people who are against the death penalty speak there is sorrow and empathy in their voices.
Reverend Carroll Pickett spoke at length about his experience as chaplain of the death house in Huntsville. After watching 95 men be put to death, Pickett has become a death penalty abolition advocate, and there has been a documentary made about his life: At The Death House Door. To listen to someone who has watched several people be put to death speak about the death penalty is very powerful.
The mother of Joseph Nichols, Leeatriss Greenwood, also spoke. Her son was executed last year for the murder committed by Willie Williams under the “law of parties.” She spoke about her ordeal, a journey that has lasted almost three decades. This reminds you that the death penalty creates more victims. Not only are the families of those who are murdered are victimized, but the families of those that are executed for those murders are victimized.
The view of most Texans on the death penalty is quite clear: the majority of Texans favor the death penalty.
According to the Sam Houston State College of Criminal Justice Survey Research Program the view of the death penalty in Texas has remained relatively constant; with support at 80% in 2001 and at 74% in 2007 (the 6% difference did not transfer to those who opposed the death penalty but rather to the “Don’t Know” category). Although, the overall view of the state justice system has fallen from 67% in 1998 to 48% in 2007.
This latest study shows several interesting statistics and you can draw several interest conclusions. Next week I will be sharing some of my conclusions on the statistics on the public opinions of Texans on the death penalty.
During the Texas State Democratic Convention I attended the Democrats Against the Death Penalty Caucus. The thing that struck me the most about this particular meeting was the stories and emotions that were shared, and the stark contrast from what you here from proponents of the death penalty. When people her are for the death penalty speak there is anger and indignation in there voices in their opinions, but when you her people who are against the death penalty speak there is sorrow and empathy in their voices.
Reverend Carroll Pickett spoke at length about his experience as chaplain of the death house in Huntsville. After watching 95 men be put to death, Pickett has become a death penalty abolition advocate, and there has been a documentary made about his life: At The Death House Door. To listen to someone who has watched several people be put to death speak about the death penalty is very powerful.
The mother of Joseph Nichols, Leeatriss Greenwood, also spoke. Her son was executed last year for the murder committed by Willie Williams under the “law of parties.” She spoke about her ordeal, a journey that has lasted almost three decades. This reminds you that the death penalty creates more victims. Not only are the families of those who are murdered are victimized, but the families of those that are executed for those murders are victimized.
The view of most Texans on the death penalty is quite clear: the majority of Texans favor the death penalty.
According to the Sam Houston State College of Criminal Justice Survey Research Program the view of the death penalty in Texas has remained relatively constant; with support at 80% in 2001 and at 74% in 2007 (the 6% difference did not transfer to those who opposed the death penalty but rather to the “Don’t Know” category). Although, the overall view of the state justice system has fallen from 67% in 1998 to 48% in 2007.
This latest study shows several interesting statistics and you can draw several interest conclusions. Next week I will be sharing some of my conclusions on the statistics on the public opinions of Texans on the death penalty.
Local News: Group Wants Brazos to Flow for Long Time
Group Wants Brazos to Flow for Long Time
By April Avison (Eagle Staff Writer)
The Brazos River is a precious resource that should be preserved for future farming and fishing uses, a crowd told state officials at a public hearing Wednesday in Bryan.
The meeting was hosted by officials with the Texas Instream Flow Program, a consortium of representatives from the state Water Development Board, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The group was formed by the state Legislature in 2001 to determine how much water is needed for rivers and streams across Texas as competition for the natural resource increases and the state's population grows, putting more pressure on the environment.
The Brazos River annually provides nearly 2 trillion gallons of water and is facing a threat of elevated levels of bacteria and other pollutants, caused in part by sluggish flow, program officials said Wednesday, noting that the water is used primarily for agriculture purposes.
Stefano De Asaarta, who owns a cotton farm off Texas 21, said Wednesday that he was concerned about the future water supply.
"Water is life," De Asaarta said. "I'm here to find out if we're going to have water supply for the future, for irrigation. We depend on this for our livelihood."
Rivers, streams and lakes -- known as surface water -- belong to the state and can be used only with a permit, apart from limited domestic and livestock uses, according to information provided by the instream flow program.
A state study, which could take four years to complete, will provide "river flow science" research for water planning, permitting and conservation, officials said at Wednesday's hearing.
Mark Wentzel, an employee of the Texas Water Development Board, is heading up an "instream flow team." Wentzel said Wednesday that the group of state officials has been charged with finding out how much water is required to support a healthy environment. A mandate from the Legislature calls for the group to study water sources throughout Texas, but the Sabine, Brazos and San Antonio river basins are a top priority because they haven't been studied before, Wentzel said.
"There's a number of requests for changes in water planning in the future," he said. "We don't want to move on that front until we get a handle on how much water is needed. If development continues without knowing that answer, then we don't know if we're leaving enough in the river or using too much water.
"The real value to this [process] is that we'll have a thought-out and workable amount of water for the river that will keep it healthy for future generations," he said.
The work of the instream flow program is "pretty in-depth," Wentzel said, which is why residents who live near the Brazos River can be helpful.
"We don't have unlimited money, time or staff, so we're going to have to be selective in what components we study," he said. "To know the components that they value will be helpful. There's a lot of local knowledge that can help us out in terms of what they value on the river."
The land area that channels water to the 840-mile-long Brazos River runs from McLennan County to Brazoria County and includes a portion of every Brazos Valley county and four others. About 1.2 million people live in the counties represented in the study area.
Lloyd Behm, general manager of the Bluebonnet Groundwater Conservation District, said he attended Wednesday's meeting to stay informed about the state's future water supply.
"If Texans don't learn to conserve water, we're going to be in danger of running out of water," Behm said. "Our water resources are limited. We're all in favor of doing what we can to support conservation."
While the statewide public hearings are set to conclude next month, officials will follow that process with work group meetings through the end of the year, Wentzel said. A work group is set to convene in Bryan on Aug. 21, and state officials solicited residents to join the panel at Wednesday's gathering.
"At the end of [the work group] process is when we begin to synthesize the information," Wentzel said. "Then we will start making some recommendations."
Published Thursday, June 12, 2008
By April Avison (Eagle Staff Writer)
The Brazos River is a precious resource that should be preserved for future farming and fishing uses, a crowd told state officials at a public hearing Wednesday in Bryan.
The meeting was hosted by officials with the Texas Instream Flow Program, a consortium of representatives from the state Water Development Board, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The group was formed by the state Legislature in 2001 to determine how much water is needed for rivers and streams across Texas as competition for the natural resource increases and the state's population grows, putting more pressure on the environment.
The Brazos River annually provides nearly 2 trillion gallons of water and is facing a threat of elevated levels of bacteria and other pollutants, caused in part by sluggish flow, program officials said Wednesday, noting that the water is used primarily for agriculture purposes.
Stefano De Asaarta, who owns a cotton farm off Texas 21, said Wednesday that he was concerned about the future water supply.
"Water is life," De Asaarta said. "I'm here to find out if we're going to have water supply for the future, for irrigation. We depend on this for our livelihood."
Rivers, streams and lakes -- known as surface water -- belong to the state and can be used only with a permit, apart from limited domestic and livestock uses, according to information provided by the instream flow program.
A state study, which could take four years to complete, will provide "river flow science" research for water planning, permitting and conservation, officials said at Wednesday's hearing.
Mark Wentzel, an employee of the Texas Water Development Board, is heading up an "instream flow team." Wentzel said Wednesday that the group of state officials has been charged with finding out how much water is required to support a healthy environment. A mandate from the Legislature calls for the group to study water sources throughout Texas, but the Sabine, Brazos and San Antonio river basins are a top priority because they haven't been studied before, Wentzel said.
"There's a number of requests for changes in water planning in the future," he said. "We don't want to move on that front until we get a handle on how much water is needed. If development continues without knowing that answer, then we don't know if we're leaving enough in the river or using too much water.
"The real value to this [process] is that we'll have a thought-out and workable amount of water for the river that will keep it healthy for future generations," he said.
The work of the instream flow program is "pretty in-depth," Wentzel said, which is why residents who live near the Brazos River can be helpful.
"We don't have unlimited money, time or staff, so we're going to have to be selective in what components we study," he said. "To know the components that they value will be helpful. There's a lot of local knowledge that can help us out in terms of what they value on the river."
The land area that channels water to the 840-mile-long Brazos River runs from McLennan County to Brazoria County and includes a portion of every Brazos Valley county and four others. About 1.2 million people live in the counties represented in the study area.
Lloyd Behm, general manager of the Bluebonnet Groundwater Conservation District, said he attended Wednesday's meeting to stay informed about the state's future water supply.
"If Texans don't learn to conserve water, we're going to be in danger of running out of water," Behm said. "Our water resources are limited. We're all in favor of doing what we can to support conservation."
While the statewide public hearings are set to conclude next month, officials will follow that process with work group meetings through the end of the year, Wentzel said. A work group is set to convene in Bryan on Aug. 21, and state officials solicited residents to join the panel at Wednesday's gathering.
"At the end of [the work group] process is when we begin to synthesize the information," Wentzel said. "Then we will start making some recommendations."
Published Thursday, June 12, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Immigration
Immigration. That word inspires many different thoughts and emotions in people; however, in today’s political climate the first thing that many people think of is illegal immigration and Mexico.
Texas and Texans have a special relationship with Mexico. There is a culture and history in Texas that has largely been influenced by Mexico and the Mexican heritage. This history extends to the very beginnings of Texas; in fact many of the people that fought and died at the Alamo where Texicans. The influence of Mexico created something completely unique to Texas, and the influences can be seen in the food, music, and art.
The immigration debate in this country has been shaped by those who use fear to convince people that when it comes to illegal immigration enforcement is the first and only option. Also, this debate has masked a culture of intolerance in a shroud of national security, and the belief that illegal immigration is an assault on the American way of life.
During the Texas State Democratic Convention I attended a caucus for the discussion of Immigration and the Economy. This caucus featured a presentation from the Texas Border Coalition, which focused on the statistics of immigration and the economy. Some of the statistics I learned about in this presentation where very interesting, and it focused the debate in a completely different way.
What is clear is that the current immigration policies are not working and that the American people are being fed a line of rhetoric that has nothing to do with the real issues of illegal immigration. Immigration has everything to do with economy and demographics, and little to do with terrorism and criminal activity.
More research and analysis to come…
Texas and Texans have a special relationship with Mexico. There is a culture and history in Texas that has largely been influenced by Mexico and the Mexican heritage. This history extends to the very beginnings of Texas; in fact many of the people that fought and died at the Alamo where Texicans. The influence of Mexico created something completely unique to Texas, and the influences can be seen in the food, music, and art.
The immigration debate in this country has been shaped by those who use fear to convince people that when it comes to illegal immigration enforcement is the first and only option. Also, this debate has masked a culture of intolerance in a shroud of national security, and the belief that illegal immigration is an assault on the American way of life.
During the Texas State Democratic Convention I attended a caucus for the discussion of Immigration and the Economy. This caucus featured a presentation from the Texas Border Coalition, which focused on the statistics of immigration and the economy. Some of the statistics I learned about in this presentation where very interesting, and it focused the debate in a completely different way.
What is clear is that the current immigration policies are not working and that the American people are being fed a line of rhetoric that has nothing to do with the real issues of illegal immigration. Immigration has everything to do with economy and demographics, and little to do with terrorism and criminal activity.
More research and analysis to come…
Headlines
Free Speech
High School Paper Dropped Over Flag-burning Photo
Civil Rights
GLBT Youth Fight for the Right to Party at Prom
Iraq
Iraqi Parliament's Push for Sovereignty
A Reporter's View From The War Zone
Politics
The Rise of the Obamacons
Three Myths About the Youth Vote
Young, Black and in Decline in the Obama Age?
High School Paper Dropped Over Flag-burning Photo
Civil Rights
GLBT Youth Fight for the Right to Party at Prom
Iraq
Iraqi Parliament's Push for Sovereignty
A Reporter's View From The War Zone
Politics
The Rise of the Obamacons
Three Myths About the Youth Vote
Young, Black and in Decline in the Obama Age?
Local News: Crew Remembered as Group of Heroes
Crew Remembered as 'Group of Heroes'
By Holly Huffman (Eagle Staff Writer)
Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said he always knew he could count on the crew of Med 12 to come to his aid, whether it was airlifting an injured motorist or searching for an escaped prisoner.
The longtime sheriff didn't personally know PHI Air Medical pilot Charles "Wayne" Kirby, nurse Jana Bishop or paramedic Stephanie Waters. The black and yellow helicopter often made stops in the rural county, but the very nature of air ambulance service prevented extended conversations.
Recognizing names and faces, Sowell said, he and other emergency responders often had just enough time for a brief exchange related to the latest tragedy to call for the public servants' response.
But that doesn't make it any easier, Sowell said.
"We're just keeping them in our thoughts and prayers," Sowell said. "They truly are a group of heroes and guardian angels. I don't know how you [pay] tribute to them except with just honor and respect. They certainly have saved many human beings."
Kirby, Bishop and Waters -- as well as David Disman, a 58-year-old patient they were ferrying from Huntsville to Houston -- were killed early Sunday when the helicopter in which they were riding crashed in Walker County. It remained unclear Tuesday what caused the crash.
Jennifer Kaiser, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said a detailed wreckage exam was under way at a site in Lancaster, and investigators were continuing to gather information.
It could be a year before a report is presented to a five-member review board in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, that panel will be charged with reviewing the report and determining the probable cause of the crash, Kaiser said.
A memorial service honoring the trio -- Kirby, 63, of Bryan; Bishop, 29, of Magnolia; and Waters, 27, of Cedar Park -- was planned for 1 p.m. Wednesday at First Baptist Church in Bryan. A procession of emergency responders leading from Coulter Field, where the PHI Air Medical crew was stationed, to the church will take place prior to the service.
Individual services for crew members were planned throughout the week.
Family members of Bishop and Waters could not be reached Tuesday. The Kirby family declined a request for interview made Tuesday by The Eagle, but in a written statement, detailed their love for the man whom they referred to as husband, father, son, friend and hero. Though they mourned his death, the family said they took comfort in knowing of Kirby's relationship with Jesus and the fact that he knew he had been placed on Earth to serve God by loving and serving people.
Family members in the statement also expressed sympathy to the family and friends of Waters, Bishop and Disman.
"Wayne knew that good deeds done without love were pointless, but those done out of love were seeds sown for eternity," according to the statement. "Wayne gave his life serving our community. Our family mourns not only his passing, but also that of his friends, his crewmates, and the patient they were trying to save. Words can not express the void Wayne's passing has left in our hearts."
PHI crew members declined to comment Tuesday, saying they weren't yet ready to speak about the tragedy that took the lives of three who had been like family to them.
Fellow members of the law enforcement and emergency medical response community also continued to grieve Tuesday. Bryan firefighters wore black and yellow ribbons, while College Station firefighters wore black bands over their badges. Both agencies were expected to participate in the processional and memorial service Wednesday.
Bryan Fire Chief Mike Donoho said though he didn't have personal relationships with the three who died, his department did. Bryan Fire Department paramedics -- like their counterparts in College Station and across the Brazos Valley -- have both professional and personal relationships with all members of the PHI team, he said. Many went to PHI's Coulter Field base on Sunday to mourn with the flight crew.
Donoho pointed to the department's emergency medical services chief, who he said is close friends with Billy Rice, a flight paramedic and medical supervisor for Air Med 12 who was in Colorado at the time of the crash. The Bryan emergency medical services chief traveled with Rice's father to personally deliver the tragic news, Donoho said.
"It just hurts," Donoho said. "It's a family. When that crew went down, everyone in emergency services was saying, 'We lost a family member.' That's all over the state of Texas."
Having PHI Air Medical stationed in Brazos County provides emergency responders across the Brazos Valley with a sense of comfort, the fire chief said, noting that the crew responds to an average of three or four calls each day. Since launching its service in 2005, the air ambulance has made a "tremendous difference in pre-hospital care within this region," Donoho said.
"A lot of folks look at these guys as the pinnacle of pre-hospital care," he said. "They are the difference between life and death for a lot of patients."
Published Wednesday, June 11, 2008
By Holly Huffman (Eagle Staff Writer)
Grimes County Sheriff Don Sowell said he always knew he could count on the crew of Med 12 to come to his aid, whether it was airlifting an injured motorist or searching for an escaped prisoner.
The longtime sheriff didn't personally know PHI Air Medical pilot Charles "Wayne" Kirby, nurse Jana Bishop or paramedic Stephanie Waters. The black and yellow helicopter often made stops in the rural county, but the very nature of air ambulance service prevented extended conversations.
Recognizing names and faces, Sowell said, he and other emergency responders often had just enough time for a brief exchange related to the latest tragedy to call for the public servants' response.
But that doesn't make it any easier, Sowell said.
"We're just keeping them in our thoughts and prayers," Sowell said. "They truly are a group of heroes and guardian angels. I don't know how you [pay] tribute to them except with just honor and respect. They certainly have saved many human beings."
Kirby, Bishop and Waters -- as well as David Disman, a 58-year-old patient they were ferrying from Huntsville to Houston -- were killed early Sunday when the helicopter in which they were riding crashed in Walker County. It remained unclear Tuesday what caused the crash.
Jennifer Kaiser, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said a detailed wreckage exam was under way at a site in Lancaster, and investigators were continuing to gather information.
It could be a year before a report is presented to a five-member review board in Washington, D.C. Ultimately, that panel will be charged with reviewing the report and determining the probable cause of the crash, Kaiser said.
A memorial service honoring the trio -- Kirby, 63, of Bryan; Bishop, 29, of Magnolia; and Waters, 27, of Cedar Park -- was planned for 1 p.m. Wednesday at First Baptist Church in Bryan. A procession of emergency responders leading from Coulter Field, where the PHI Air Medical crew was stationed, to the church will take place prior to the service.
Individual services for crew members were planned throughout the week.
Family members of Bishop and Waters could not be reached Tuesday. The Kirby family declined a request for interview made Tuesday by The Eagle, but in a written statement, detailed their love for the man whom they referred to as husband, father, son, friend and hero. Though they mourned his death, the family said they took comfort in knowing of Kirby's relationship with Jesus and the fact that he knew he had been placed on Earth to serve God by loving and serving people.
Family members in the statement also expressed sympathy to the family and friends of Waters, Bishop and Disman.
"Wayne knew that good deeds done without love were pointless, but those done out of love were seeds sown for eternity," according to the statement. "Wayne gave his life serving our community. Our family mourns not only his passing, but also that of his friends, his crewmates, and the patient they were trying to save. Words can not express the void Wayne's passing has left in our hearts."
PHI crew members declined to comment Tuesday, saying they weren't yet ready to speak about the tragedy that took the lives of three who had been like family to them.
Fellow members of the law enforcement and emergency medical response community also continued to grieve Tuesday. Bryan firefighters wore black and yellow ribbons, while College Station firefighters wore black bands over their badges. Both agencies were expected to participate in the processional and memorial service Wednesday.
Bryan Fire Chief Mike Donoho said though he didn't have personal relationships with the three who died, his department did. Bryan Fire Department paramedics -- like their counterparts in College Station and across the Brazos Valley -- have both professional and personal relationships with all members of the PHI team, he said. Many went to PHI's Coulter Field base on Sunday to mourn with the flight crew.
Donoho pointed to the department's emergency medical services chief, who he said is close friends with Billy Rice, a flight paramedic and medical supervisor for Air Med 12 who was in Colorado at the time of the crash. The Bryan emergency medical services chief traveled with Rice's father to personally deliver the tragic news, Donoho said.
"It just hurts," Donoho said. "It's a family. When that crew went down, everyone in emergency services was saying, 'We lost a family member.' That's all over the state of Texas."
Having PHI Air Medical stationed in Brazos County provides emergency responders across the Brazos Valley with a sense of comfort, the fire chief said, noting that the crew responds to an average of three or four calls each day. Since launching its service in 2005, the air ambulance has made a "tremendous difference in pre-hospital care within this region," Donoho said.
"A lot of folks look at these guys as the pinnacle of pre-hospital care," he said. "They are the difference between life and death for a lot of patients."
Published Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Local News: Texas Court Clears Way for Executions
Texas Court Clears Way for Executions
(Wire report)
HUNTSVILLE -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday set the stage for executions to resume in the nation's most active death penalty state when it turned aside an appeal that challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures.
In a ruling late Monday, the state's highest criminal court refused to stop the scheduled execution of Karl Eugene Chamberlain, set to die Wednesday for the rape-slaying of a woman in Dallas in 1991.
The same issues successfully worked last week for another condemned Texas inmate, Derrick Sonnier, who avoided the death chamber about 90 minutes before he would have become the first prisoner in Texas executed in nearly nine months.
In his appeal, Chamberlain argued the chemicals used by Texas prison officials during lethal injections "would violate his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment," according to the court ruling.
Staff and wire reports
Published Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Comments on the article by Eagle readers:
Posted by: BryanMama
Comment Title: Old Sparky
You want cruel and unusual?? Be thankful we still don't use Old Sparky...be thankful you only have to have the KCl in the arm and die quickly...within seconds even. I agree with previous poster...we should render unto them what they did to their victims.
Posted by: Anonymous
Comment Title: Death Penalty Resumes
When the criminal was executing his crime, he didn't think about "cruel and unusual punishment." If it were up to me I would do to the criminals exactly what they did to their victims. So quit crying!
Posted by: Anonymous
Comment Title: Death Penalty Resumes
Let 'er roll......
(Wire report)
HUNTSVILLE -- The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday set the stage for executions to resume in the nation's most active death penalty state when it turned aside an appeal that challenged the constitutionality of lethal injection procedures.
In a ruling late Monday, the state's highest criminal court refused to stop the scheduled execution of Karl Eugene Chamberlain, set to die Wednesday for the rape-slaying of a woman in Dallas in 1991.
The same issues successfully worked last week for another condemned Texas inmate, Derrick Sonnier, who avoided the death chamber about 90 minutes before he would have become the first prisoner in Texas executed in nearly nine months.
In his appeal, Chamberlain argued the chemicals used by Texas prison officials during lethal injections "would violate his Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment," according to the court ruling.
Staff and wire reports
Published Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Comments on the article by Eagle readers:
Posted by: BryanMama
Comment Title: Old Sparky
You want cruel and unusual?? Be thankful we still don't use Old Sparky...be thankful you only have to have the KCl in the arm and die quickly...within seconds even. I agree with previous poster...we should render unto them what they did to their victims.
Posted by: Anonymous
Comment Title: Death Penalty Resumes
When the criminal was executing his crime, he didn't think about "cruel and unusual punishment." If it were up to me I would do to the criminals exactly what they did to their victims. So quit crying!
Posted by: Anonymous
Comment Title: Death Penalty Resumes
Let 'er roll......
Monday, June 9, 2008
On Conservatives
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt
–Franklin D. Roosevelt
Local News (Editorial)
Make it Our Mission to Build New Shelter
(Eagle Editorial Board)
The word mission has several definitions, as the dictionary tells us. Our community's Twin City Mission embodies all of them. It is a place of refuge, a place where those down on their luck can begin to rebuild their life, a place of safety and security.
Fortunately, most of us have never seen the inside of the Twin City Mission, located in downtown Bryan -- but we should. We should all take a few minutes to tour the facility where so much is done for so little. If any organization is putting the money it receives to good use, it is the Twin City Mission.
For 45 years now, the Mission has served as a "home to the homeless; friend to the friendless; to give hope to the hopeless," as Mission directors like to say. And it is true.
It is easy for us to turn our heads, to pretend that homelessness doesn't exist here, but in our hearts we know this isn't true. We don't have to look hard to see those who, for whatever reason, have no place to go, no place to call home. A recent survey indicates that there are more than 1,000 homeless people in College Station and Bryan, including more than 350 homeless children in Bryan schools.
Sometimes it is a problem of substance abuse, but far less than we might imagine, Mission officials say. In some instances, mental health problems are involved and, to be sure, our federal and state government churlishly are doing less and less to help those people. For some, physical challenges can lead to homelessness. Quite often, it is the loss of a job that leaves an individual or a family unable to find an affordable home. As our economy continues to sour and as the costs of gasoline and food and everything else continue to climb, we expect there will be more homeless people in this latter category.
No one ever thinks he or she will be homeless until it actually happens. If it does, where would you turn? Thankfully, in our community, we have the Twin City Mission, which opens its doors and its arms to those in need.
It's a working mission, though. People who stay there have to work to keep the Mission going. For some, that may be something as simple as sweeping the floors. Others cook or do other tasks, but everyone works.
Too many of us have a negative attitude about those who stay at the Twin City Mission or any homeless shelter in any city. We need to rethink this. No one is at the Mission to have it easy -- life for them is never easy.
Those who arrive at the Mission have to develop a self-sufficiency plan detailing how they will rebuild their life so they can leave the Mission -- and they have to work at it. If they need substance-abuse assistance, they are referred to the proper programs. If they need job training, help creating a résumé, clothing to wear to a job interview, they get it.
Last year, the Mission provided shelter for 1,036 of our neighbors, including 695 men and 211 women who live in separate sections of the facility. A devastating fire in August 2006 took away the Mission's family shelter. Since then, only two sets of bunk beds off the women's shelter are available for families. Most of the time, when a family arrives at the Mission for help, the men are placed in the men's shelter and the women and children go to the women's shelter, although that becomes a problem when the children are older. In fiscal 2007, the Mission housed 50 adults with families and 80 children.
There simply isn't enough space to house any more, and the facilities the Mission uses are old and tired. All the use that can be gotten out of them is over.
Compounding the problem is a decision by Bryan's City Council to make it impossible for the Mission to rebuild where it is or on property it owned in downtown. The Mission and its clients just didn't fit in with the vision of a downtown available to everyone -- except, that is, the poor.
So the Mission sold its land downtown and is planning a wonderful new residential facility on 16.288 acres it bought south and west of downtown. The city has bought its present facilities and has given the mission until June 2009 to be out.
This turns out to be a great opportunity for the Mission and for the community, but we have to act now. The total cost of the new shelter is projected to be some $5.5 million. The Mission has on hand $2,688,102.20 -- a lot of school children have given pennies, nickels and dimes to the project. Thus, the community must raise $3 million to help our neighbors in need to have a decent place to temporarily call home.
Some of that money will come from businesses and large donors, of course. But each of us should give what we can to make this shelter a reality. Times are tough and not likely to get better any time soon. But if each of us gave $5, $10, $50, $100 it would help build a new shelter.
Call it our mission to make sure those who have hit rock bottom can find a way up. We truly are our brothers' keepers.
The new shelter won't be elaborate, but it will be decent and adequate. The number of beds for men will go from 48 to 60; for women, from 12 to 26. There finally will be adequate toilet and shower facilities for both. Perhaps most dramatic will be the area for families. Seven rooms, each with two double beds, room for cribs or extra beds, and each with its own bathroom, are planned. It will be a far cry from what is available now. There will be a chapel and a separate kitchen and dining facility in the new shelter. There also will be separate outdoor areas for men, women and families. No longer will the children in the shelter have to play in the streets.
We can -- we must -- make this happen. Or community is only as strong as the least of us.
Please, take a tour of the existing Mission facilities. You will quickly learn why the new shelter is desperately needed. For more information or to safely donate on line, go to twincitymission.org.
If you have questions, call Ron Crozier at 822-7511.
This is one of the most important projects this community has undertaken. We must not fail.
Published Monday, June 09, 2008
(Eagle Editorial Board)
The word mission has several definitions, as the dictionary tells us. Our community's Twin City Mission embodies all of them. It is a place of refuge, a place where those down on their luck can begin to rebuild their life, a place of safety and security.
Fortunately, most of us have never seen the inside of the Twin City Mission, located in downtown Bryan -- but we should. We should all take a few minutes to tour the facility where so much is done for so little. If any organization is putting the money it receives to good use, it is the Twin City Mission.
For 45 years now, the Mission has served as a "home to the homeless; friend to the friendless; to give hope to the hopeless," as Mission directors like to say. And it is true.
It is easy for us to turn our heads, to pretend that homelessness doesn't exist here, but in our hearts we know this isn't true. We don't have to look hard to see those who, for whatever reason, have no place to go, no place to call home. A recent survey indicates that there are more than 1,000 homeless people in College Station and Bryan, including more than 350 homeless children in Bryan schools.
Sometimes it is a problem of substance abuse, but far less than we might imagine, Mission officials say. In some instances, mental health problems are involved and, to be sure, our federal and state government churlishly are doing less and less to help those people. For some, physical challenges can lead to homelessness. Quite often, it is the loss of a job that leaves an individual or a family unable to find an affordable home. As our economy continues to sour and as the costs of gasoline and food and everything else continue to climb, we expect there will be more homeless people in this latter category.
No one ever thinks he or she will be homeless until it actually happens. If it does, where would you turn? Thankfully, in our community, we have the Twin City Mission, which opens its doors and its arms to those in need.
It's a working mission, though. People who stay there have to work to keep the Mission going. For some, that may be something as simple as sweeping the floors. Others cook or do other tasks, but everyone works.
Too many of us have a negative attitude about those who stay at the Twin City Mission or any homeless shelter in any city. We need to rethink this. No one is at the Mission to have it easy -- life for them is never easy.
Those who arrive at the Mission have to develop a self-sufficiency plan detailing how they will rebuild their life so they can leave the Mission -- and they have to work at it. If they need substance-abuse assistance, they are referred to the proper programs. If they need job training, help creating a résumé, clothing to wear to a job interview, they get it.
Last year, the Mission provided shelter for 1,036 of our neighbors, including 695 men and 211 women who live in separate sections of the facility. A devastating fire in August 2006 took away the Mission's family shelter. Since then, only two sets of bunk beds off the women's shelter are available for families. Most of the time, when a family arrives at the Mission for help, the men are placed in the men's shelter and the women and children go to the women's shelter, although that becomes a problem when the children are older. In fiscal 2007, the Mission housed 50 adults with families and 80 children.
There simply isn't enough space to house any more, and the facilities the Mission uses are old and tired. All the use that can be gotten out of them is over.
Compounding the problem is a decision by Bryan's City Council to make it impossible for the Mission to rebuild where it is or on property it owned in downtown. The Mission and its clients just didn't fit in with the vision of a downtown available to everyone -- except, that is, the poor.
So the Mission sold its land downtown and is planning a wonderful new residential facility on 16.288 acres it bought south and west of downtown. The city has bought its present facilities and has given the mission until June 2009 to be out.
This turns out to be a great opportunity for the Mission and for the community, but we have to act now. The total cost of the new shelter is projected to be some $5.5 million. The Mission has on hand $2,688,102.20 -- a lot of school children have given pennies, nickels and dimes to the project. Thus, the community must raise $3 million to help our neighbors in need to have a decent place to temporarily call home.
Some of that money will come from businesses and large donors, of course. But each of us should give what we can to make this shelter a reality. Times are tough and not likely to get better any time soon. But if each of us gave $5, $10, $50, $100 it would help build a new shelter.
Call it our mission to make sure those who have hit rock bottom can find a way up. We truly are our brothers' keepers.
The new shelter won't be elaborate, but it will be decent and adequate. The number of beds for men will go from 48 to 60; for women, from 12 to 26. There finally will be adequate toilet and shower facilities for both. Perhaps most dramatic will be the area for families. Seven rooms, each with two double beds, room for cribs or extra beds, and each with its own bathroom, are planned. It will be a far cry from what is available now. There will be a chapel and a separate kitchen and dining facility in the new shelter. There also will be separate outdoor areas for men, women and families. No longer will the children in the shelter have to play in the streets.
We can -- we must -- make this happen. Or community is only as strong as the least of us.
Please, take a tour of the existing Mission facilities. You will quickly learn why the new shelter is desperately needed. For more information or to safely donate on line, go to twincitymission.org.
If you have questions, call Ron Crozier at 822-7511.
This is one of the most important projects this community has undertaken. We must not fail.
Published Monday, June 09, 2008
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Thoughts on a Convention
This convention has been one of the most interesting and amazing experiences of my life. I was able to observe and learn so much in the last forty-eight hours. I have learned to appreciate being an alternate delegate, and being able to view the convention for a different and more relaxed perspective. I want desperately to be involved in my country’s political process, but I have realized that the best way to participate is by putting yourself in a position to affect change on an individual level. Then you will path the road for the change that you want to affect on a much larger level.
Also, I have really gotten to see that behind all our issues and causes are people. People who have the stories and convictions from living their causes. I think that is one thing we all forget, these things we talk about are not arbitrary, they are people’s lives.
Over the course of the next week I will be blogging about the lessons I have learned from this convention. I will write about what I have learned about the death penalty, the immigration debate, the political process, and what I think the future holds for politics in America.
I have had an interesting time in Austin, but soon I will be on my way back home to College Station. Hopefully in the future I will be able to use what I have learned here, and what I will learn in the future to help convince more people back home to be left of College Station.
Also, I have really gotten to see that behind all our issues and causes are people. People who have the stories and convictions from living their causes. I think that is one thing we all forget, these things we talk about are not arbitrary, they are people’s lives.
Over the course of the next week I will be blogging about the lessons I have learned from this convention. I will write about what I have learned about the death penalty, the immigration debate, the political process, and what I think the future holds for politics in America.
I have had an interesting time in Austin, but soon I will be on my way back home to College Station. Hopefully in the future I will be able to use what I have learned here, and what I will learn in the future to help convince more people back home to be left of College Station.
Texas State Democratic Convention: Day 2
The second day of the convention did not have the same atmosphere as the first day. This is probably because everyone was too tired to be excited. After the general assembly during the evening yesterday, several state senate districts had to reconvene in order to finish their caucuses that where started before the general assembly. Some of these caucuses ran long into the night and early morning. Senate District 17, which happens to encompass Travis County which is the home of the convention in Austin, ran until almost 4:00 in the morning and some delegates did not leave the Convention Center until 5:00 in the morning. This gave little time for sleep, as the convention reconvened at 7:30 this morning.
However, the morning of the second day was much more relaxed, as there were not the long lines of delegates receiving their credentials. Also, there where less of the activist and issues caucuses to attend. I did attend one caucus this morning, the caucus for Immigration and the Economy. At this particular meeting there was a presentation given by one of the members of the Alliance for Security and Trade. This presentation gave interesting perspectives on the immigration issues, and focused on statistics and data rather than rhetoric and propaganda.
Afterwards the general assembly was set to begin once again; however, there was something about to happen that everyone had been waiting for. Senator Hillary Clinton was preparing to give a speech in Virginia, and this was going to be her concession speech. Clinton would endorse Senator Barack Obama. The delegates gathered as a feed from CNN was played over the four large projection screens. Shortly after the assembly was reconvened Clinton took the stage in Virginia and in a way she took the stage in Texas. Clinton gave thanks to everyone that supported her, and officially endorsed Obama.
Her speech was heartfelt, and gave closure to what has been a historic and at times emotional primary. Her speech was interrupted twice by technical difficulties; however, her message was clear: Democrats should unite behind Obama. It was possibly the best speech that I have ever seen Clinton deliver, not because I am an Obama supporter or because it was the ending to the primary. Clinton gave a heartfelt and passionate speech, and spoke in a way that was without regard for political perception. I think it was the first step for Democrats to unite and come together as one. I think it is ironic that the first step toward the White House for the Democrats was not taken by Obama, but by Clinton. Whether or not Obama could win the general election with or without Clinton on the ticket is debatable, but what is not debatable is that with Clinton’s support Obama will win in November. If Barack Obama is elected President, it is not only the Democrats who win, America wins.
However, the morning of the second day was much more relaxed, as there were not the long lines of delegates receiving their credentials. Also, there where less of the activist and issues caucuses to attend. I did attend one caucus this morning, the caucus for Immigration and the Economy. At this particular meeting there was a presentation given by one of the members of the Alliance for Security and Trade. This presentation gave interesting perspectives on the immigration issues, and focused on statistics and data rather than rhetoric and propaganda.
Afterwards the general assembly was set to begin once again; however, there was something about to happen that everyone had been waiting for. Senator Hillary Clinton was preparing to give a speech in Virginia, and this was going to be her concession speech. Clinton would endorse Senator Barack Obama. The delegates gathered as a feed from CNN was played over the four large projection screens. Shortly after the assembly was reconvened Clinton took the stage in Virginia and in a way she took the stage in Texas. Clinton gave thanks to everyone that supported her, and officially endorsed Obama.
Her speech was heartfelt, and gave closure to what has been a historic and at times emotional primary. Her speech was interrupted twice by technical difficulties; however, her message was clear: Democrats should unite behind Obama. It was possibly the best speech that I have ever seen Clinton deliver, not because I am an Obama supporter or because it was the ending to the primary. Clinton gave a heartfelt and passionate speech, and spoke in a way that was without regard for political perception. I think it was the first step for Democrats to unite and come together as one. I think it is ironic that the first step toward the White House for the Democrats was not taken by Obama, but by Clinton. Whether or not Obama could win the general election with or without Clinton on the ticket is debatable, but what is not debatable is that with Clinton’s support Obama will win in November. If Barack Obama is elected President, it is not only the Democrats who win, America wins.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Texas State Democratic Convention: Day 1
The best way to describe Texas State Democratic Convention is controlled chaos, but just barely controlled. There are over seven thousand delegates and seven thousand alternates that have descended on Austin, and there are also the guest and family members of the delegates. It is a mass of humanity, and it a mass of colors and names.
There are still the every present Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton supporters wearing there colors, although there does seem to be an unspoken and sometimes spoken tone among the Clinton supporters. I did not witness any heated exchanges between Obama and Clinton delegates, but I did overhear several conversations among Clinton supporters. The most often chatter among Clinton supporters concerned the popular vote, but the talk had a tone of acceptance about it and none of the delegates mentioned voting for Senator John McCain.
The convention began at 7:30 this morning with delegates and alternates beginning to sign and receive their credentials. So, it was this morning that I picked up my blue pass, with “ALTERNATE” written across the pass. Also, an orange sticker on my pass signified my pledge for Obama, and the green stickers on passes signified their support for Clinton. I was official, well, I was officially unofficial. I would not have a vote in the preceding unless one of the two delegates from my precinct where not able to attend.
I spent the morning walking around the convention hall going from booth to booth reading the material laid and learning more about the candidates running for state offices. There was just about every interest group and activist represented there. I signed up for newsletters and collected bumper stickers. I did not spend as much time walking through the booth area, but I will be able to spend more time doing so tomorrow. I felt more like I was taking everything in. There was so much information; it was a bit of information overload.
As the morning progressed there were several caucus meetings to go to, although because of the length of them it was difficult to attend all of meetings that might be of interest. I think it would have been interesting to attend the Gun Owners Caucus, and I actually had a desire to attend the Texas Environmental Democrats Caucus.
I did attend the Texas Military Veterans caucus, and it really was an interesting two hours. There where several people who spoken, and many of them are running for state offices. Rick Noriega, the Democratic candidate for Senator, spoken at length about veterans issues and pointed out difference between himself and Republican incumbent John Cornyn. There was also several people who spoke about an array of issues affecting veterans, and there was veterans there representing every major conflict since World War II. I have also joined this organization, and I plan to make it one of the issues that I spend quite a bit of time on politically.
Later on I attended the Democrats for Abolishing the Death Penalty caucus and I was extremely moved by the speakers there. There was no one speaking running for office, only people speaking about the convictions of their beliefs. I have been against the death penalty for some time, but listening to some of the stories that I heard today gave me another perspective and strengthened my beliefs. One speaker that touched me very deeply was the mother of Joseph Nichols, a man who was executed who was convicted of the crime under an immoral and horrific law, the law of parties. This was a law and a situation that I was not aware of. Another speaker, Carroll Pickett, spoke about his time as a minister to the condemned on death row.
In the afternoon the Senate districts all had their first caucus, and I am an alternate delegate to Senate District 5. This particular district encompasses the counties of Brazos, Burleson, Freestone, Grimes, Houston, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Robertson, Trinity, Walker and Williamson. Like the county convention progress on the basic business of the caucus was slow, and all of the business and votes that need to be conducted where not finished. Much of this was the result of Williamson county pushing for power of the district. So, after the general assembly Senate District 5 will have to reconvene.
The general assembly with literally thousands of people converging one very large room, the size I can only describe as stadium like. With signs designating each senate district and large projection screens hanging from the roof it all created an overwhelming feeling.
The assembly began with the pledge of allegiance, the national anthem, and quite possibly the longest invocation ever. Several prominent members of the Texas Democratic Part spoke, including party chairman Boyd Richie and Noriega. Then, following a rousing introduction by three different Texas Democrats, Chelsea Clinton took the stage.
Besides sound bites on the news, this was the first time I had ever heard the younger Clinton speak. Of course, it took a minute or two for the crowd to quiet enough for her to speak. She thanked the Texas Democrats for their support of her mother, and then she announced that the party needs to unify and that there is much at stake. Then she said that her mother would be endorsing Obama for President tomorrow evening in her speech. After Clinton finished speaking she walked along the stage and shook hands and sign autographs. Chelsea may never run for public office, but she is definitely a Clinton.
This has been a very long day, and it feels even longer considering that this will all take place again tomorrow. So much for enjoying the sights and sounds of Austin. Then again, this is not something tourists get to be a part of.
Tomorrow...
Another blog about the convention…
And my final thoughts.
There are still the every present Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton supporters wearing there colors, although there does seem to be an unspoken and sometimes spoken tone among the Clinton supporters. I did not witness any heated exchanges between Obama and Clinton delegates, but I did overhear several conversations among Clinton supporters. The most often chatter among Clinton supporters concerned the popular vote, but the talk had a tone of acceptance about it and none of the delegates mentioned voting for Senator John McCain.
The convention began at 7:30 this morning with delegates and alternates beginning to sign and receive their credentials. So, it was this morning that I picked up my blue pass, with “ALTERNATE” written across the pass. Also, an orange sticker on my pass signified my pledge for Obama, and the green stickers on passes signified their support for Clinton. I was official, well, I was officially unofficial. I would not have a vote in the preceding unless one of the two delegates from my precinct where not able to attend.
I spent the morning walking around the convention hall going from booth to booth reading the material laid and learning more about the candidates running for state offices. There was just about every interest group and activist represented there. I signed up for newsletters and collected bumper stickers. I did not spend as much time walking through the booth area, but I will be able to spend more time doing so tomorrow. I felt more like I was taking everything in. There was so much information; it was a bit of information overload.
As the morning progressed there were several caucus meetings to go to, although because of the length of them it was difficult to attend all of meetings that might be of interest. I think it would have been interesting to attend the Gun Owners Caucus, and I actually had a desire to attend the Texas Environmental Democrats Caucus.
I did attend the Texas Military Veterans caucus, and it really was an interesting two hours. There where several people who spoken, and many of them are running for state offices. Rick Noriega, the Democratic candidate for Senator, spoken at length about veterans issues and pointed out difference between himself and Republican incumbent John Cornyn. There was also several people who spoke about an array of issues affecting veterans, and there was veterans there representing every major conflict since World War II. I have also joined this organization, and I plan to make it one of the issues that I spend quite a bit of time on politically.
Later on I attended the Democrats for Abolishing the Death Penalty caucus and I was extremely moved by the speakers there. There was no one speaking running for office, only people speaking about the convictions of their beliefs. I have been against the death penalty for some time, but listening to some of the stories that I heard today gave me another perspective and strengthened my beliefs. One speaker that touched me very deeply was the mother of Joseph Nichols, a man who was executed who was convicted of the crime under an immoral and horrific law, the law of parties. This was a law and a situation that I was not aware of. Another speaker, Carroll Pickett, spoke about his time as a minister to the condemned on death row.
In the afternoon the Senate districts all had their first caucus, and I am an alternate delegate to Senate District 5. This particular district encompasses the counties of Brazos, Burleson, Freestone, Grimes, Houston, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Robertson, Trinity, Walker and Williamson. Like the county convention progress on the basic business of the caucus was slow, and all of the business and votes that need to be conducted where not finished. Much of this was the result of Williamson county pushing for power of the district. So, after the general assembly Senate District 5 will have to reconvene.
The general assembly with literally thousands of people converging one very large room, the size I can only describe as stadium like. With signs designating each senate district and large projection screens hanging from the roof it all created an overwhelming feeling.
The assembly began with the pledge of allegiance, the national anthem, and quite possibly the longest invocation ever. Several prominent members of the Texas Democratic Part spoke, including party chairman Boyd Richie and Noriega. Then, following a rousing introduction by three different Texas Democrats, Chelsea Clinton took the stage.
Besides sound bites on the news, this was the first time I had ever heard the younger Clinton speak. Of course, it took a minute or two for the crowd to quiet enough for her to speak. She thanked the Texas Democrats for their support of her mother, and then she announced that the party needs to unify and that there is much at stake. Then she said that her mother would be endorsing Obama for President tomorrow evening in her speech. After Clinton finished speaking she walked along the stage and shook hands and sign autographs. Chelsea may never run for public office, but she is definitely a Clinton.
This has been a very long day, and it feels even longer considering that this will all take place again tomorrow. So much for enjoying the sights and sounds of Austin. Then again, this is not something tourists get to be a part of.
Tomorrow...
Another blog about the convention…
And my final thoughts.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Blogging from the Convention
The Texas Democratic State Convention begins tomorrow morning, and I will be there as an alternate delegate (pledged for Senator Barack Obama) representing the 39th District of Brazos County. During the next two days I will be blogging from Austin, and sharing my experience and news from the convention. I will attempt to post twice a day from the convention: once in the afternoon and once in the evening.
Stay tuned…
Stay tuned…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
