Category Archives: local news

local news

A brief post script …

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ROANOKE, Va. — While I realize my recent tale of woe regarding my rented car is no great shakes in the real world, I thought I would share this brief post script with you.

The car I rented at Roanoke Regional Airport froze up on me. The battery was deader than Francisco Franco. I called the rental company and it sent a tow truck operator to me to jump-start the 2025 car that croaked. It started nicely. She said I should let it for a few minutes before returning it to the rental station.

I did and got a nice replacement vehicle for my trouble. I received the replacement car in time to attend the graveside service at the end of the funeral that drew me here in the first place.

Even better news is that the replacement is easier to enter and exit than the low-rider I got in the first place. This old man’s body just doesn’t bend like it did in the past.

Life is good … again!

local news

First time for anything

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ROANOKE, Va. — I came to this wonderful city in the Blue Ridge Mountains with the noblest of intentions … to attend a funeral for the son of long time and dear friends of mine.

It all was going swimmingly. Not a glitch in sight. None expected. I have a nice hotel room near where my friends live. It is near the airport where I will depart Roanoke in a couple of days.

Then it happened …

I piled into my “low rider” rental vehicle. Pushed the start button. Nothing happened. Zero! The car is frozen. Nothing works. No dash lights. It’s stuck in “park.”

That saying about the “best-laid plans” is ringiing in my mind’s ear right now.

I’m going to miss the funeral. With a stroke of luck I might be able to attend the graveside service. I called the car rental company. They’re sending a tow-truck driver to haul the piece of mule dookey away. I’ll be able to get a replacement vehicle.

This is the first time this has ever happened to me. I’m going to chalk it up to one of life’s mysteries. I won’t make a big deal about it when I see my friends.

Just wanted to share it with you.

local news, political news

‘A proud husband and father … ‘

Here we go … again, with political candidates bragging to voters that they are faithful to the sacred vows they took when they married their wives.

We’re going to the polls soon in the greater Dallas/Fort Worth area and one of the candidates for a Texas Senate seat is offering that boast on his TV ads across the market. Former Southlake Mayor John Huffman talks about his budget-balancing record, his ability to keep taxes low … and, yes, that he’s faithful to his wife and devoted to their children.

It’s the last item that draws my attention with this brief rejoinder.

Since when does a man’s faithfulness to his family become grist for selling a political candidate? Look, I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to hold up his moral example as a selling point, which he sees as important given the propensity for men in public life to stray away from their vow to honor their spouse “for as long as they both shall live.” To my ears, it is an empty form of bravado. Do you recall how former Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards professed his love for his late wife, only to be revealed that he was having an affair that produced a baby? The sleaze bag …

I won’t cast a vote in that Texas Senate race. For all I know, John Huffman is a good guy. He won the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News this past Sunday. It’s interesting that the DMN never mentioned his fidelity to his wife as a reason the paper is backing his candidacy.

Hmmm. I wonder why. Maybe it’s because the Morning News realizes what I have believed all along. Which is that candidates who brag about such matters are wasting their time on an issue that is far from being a big … deal.

local news

Future is in our hands

The future of our democratic republic well may lie in the hands of those of us who care enough to vote to preserve it. That’s my call, ladies and gents.

I now shall explain.

We have an election coming up in a little more than a year. We are going to elect a new House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate. A lot of incumbents who have swallowed the Donald Trump swill are on the November 2026 ballot in all 50 of our United States.

Now comes the question. Are we going to continue to stand silently by while both congressional chambers cede their constitutional power to an overreaching, overzealous, overheated POTUS who sounds and acts like a man intent on tossing aside the limited powers granted in the Constitution?

The correllary question is whether we’re going to use the power granted to us by the founders and vote out the gullible goons who comprise so much of today’s Republican Party. I hate saying this, but that has to include a man I had hoped would know better, my congressman, Keith Self.

Self is a retired U.S. Army combat infanty officer. A West Point grad. He’s a man who understands the value implied in the oath he took to defend the Constitution. Donald Trump does not honor the oath he took to honor the governing document, and yet Self — who I consider to be a good man — continues to stand with the numbskull masquerading as president.

The county is chock full of others just like Self. We need to rid ourselves of the men and women who follow the dictates of a charlatan blindly and with no regard to the sacred oath they took. After all, they end their recitation of the oath by declaring “so help me, God.”

local news

So much to learn …

One of the rules of thumb I have followed during my nearly 37 years writing for newspapers was to learn beyond the obvious about the communities I covered on my professional journey.

My career ended a dozen years ago, but my quest for knowledge about communities hasn’t let up. For example, I am freelancing for a group of weekly newspapers in Collin County, Texas. I have learned that one of the communities I cover, Sachse, is going to come to grips with whether to regulate “donation bins.” I won’t get ahead of myself here.

I am a bit baffled to learn that many communities do not have any ordinances on the books to regulate these bins. You know what I’m talking about, yes. These are bins set up for people to toss clothing, shoes and assorted soft goods to be picked up. Some communities have ordinances to govern them. They limit them at various locales, require certain distances between them, ban them from property next to schools.

Sachse doesn’t have an ordinance regulating donation bins. I don’t know if the city council will adopt such an ordinance. I will find out Monday when I attend a council meeting; the issue is on the agenda.

What have I learned about some of these North Texas communities? Many of them haven’t yet enacted municipal rules governing placement and use of these donation bins. They can become serious eyesores.

The stricter the rules, and stricter consequences for failing to obey them, the better.

economic news, local news

Signs portend driving misery

Driving south along Beauchamp Boulevard in Princeton, Texas, a day or so ago, a couple of orange signs jumped out at me as I entered the intersection with US Highway 380.

One sign had an arrow pointing west along 380 that said, “Road Work 2 miles.” The other sign had an arrow pointed east on 380 that said, “Road Work 6 miles.”

That’s when it hit me. The fun I have known would come to those of us who live in the nation’s fastest-growing city is about to commence. Actually, it won’t be fun. It’s going to be a headache, more than likely.

The Texas Department of Transportation is going to widen 380 from four lanes to six lanes. However, to do that I was told by a former Princeton city manager that TxDOT had to narrow the right-of-way from four lanes to two lanes … one lane in each direction. Thus, the “fun” begins for anyone needing to get anywhere along 380.

All of this appears to be the prelim to work on a freeway bypass around Princeton that TxDOT has been pondering since before my bride and I moved here six years ago.

This is the price of progress. I am able to pay it. Not with any great enthusiasm. But I’ll get through it. The alternative? There isn’t any!

To which I only could mutter: Aaaack!

This is one of the costs I am paying by living in a community that is undergoing a growth explosion. It’s no “spurt.” Or any other term that suggests a smallish growth pattern.

local news

Portland … hardly a hellhole

I received an Instagram message overnight from a dear friend in Germany who wanted to know if the city of my birth was the hellhole described by Donald Trump as he ordered the National Guard to hit the streets of the Rose City to curb the crime wave that he says is enveloping the city.

Of course, my friend knew the answer. It isn’t the place that Trump describes. He sent along images of children playing in downtown fountains, of people gathered under the Morrison Bridge for the Saturday Market. It showed food vendors peddling corn dogs and assorted treats.

But yet … Trump wants to declare that Portland has become overwhelmed by gangs, by drug dealers, rapists, murderers, child sex traffickers and various other evil elements he vows to exterminate.

Here’s a brief thumbnail sketch of the city where I came into this world 75 years ago. It’s home to about 650,000 people; it’s the center of a metro area comprising 2.5 million residents. It has a vibrant downtown district. It’s home to a major league soccer team and a National Basketball Association franchise. Every June, it salutes the roses that come into bloom with the annual Rose Festival and the Grand Floral Parade usually draws a crowd of about a million spectators. It’s a beautiful city, with Mount Hood towering on the eastern horizon and what’s left of Mount St. Helens looming to the north.

Yes, it has criminals. So does every city on Earth. It has a homeless problem.

But I’ll be damned if Donald Trump should get away with describing the city where I came of age as some sort of cesspool. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek has pushed back against Trump deploying the National Guard. She said he has no authority to do so without the permission of the governor. She won’t give him permission.

This guy described by someone recently as an overfed man-baby is off his ever-lovin’ rocker.

local news, political news

Making a personal plea

I did something today I don’t normally do, which isn’t a big deal per se, but it’s big enough of a deal for me to post a brief item on my blog.

U.S. Rep. Keith Self, a Collin County Republican, is going to get a letter from me. It’s not a long tome. I am asking him to rethink his rock-solid support for Donald J. Trump. Self is my congressman. He is a Republican. He also is a good guy who I happen to like personally. He and I are acquainted. We have shared some things we have in common, such as the fact that we both lived in Amarillo. Self grew up there; I got there in January 1995 to advance my career in journalism.

Self, though, stands behind a man who I believe is trampling on the founding fathers’ graves by seeking to seize more power for the presidency than the founders envisioned. The Justice Department indictment of James Comey, the former FBI director, was the final straw for me.

I want Self to rethink his loyalty to Trump. The president is a menace. He poses a dire threat to our very form of government.

Keith Self fought for this country. He is an Army infantry officer, a Ranger and a man with high honor. He is a devoted patriot. Trump has never served his country. Even now he occupies an office that he aims to serve his needs. I am baffled beyond belief that Keith Self, with his background and history of serving the United States of America, would stand so firmly behind a politiician who spits on the memory of those who have served with valor.

I harbor no illusion about whether a single letter from a single constituent is going to do the trick. I’m hoping that others out there will take a moment to let Keith Self know this indisputable fact: He works for you and me … and not for the president of the United States.

local news, media news, national news

Sorry for not engaging

Here it comes … a qualified apology to the occasional critic of this blog who challenges me to engage them in debate, only to be rebuffed by me.

High Plains Blogger used to consume a lot more of my time than it does these days. As I grow older — and as I continue to rebuild my life after my bride’s passing from brain cancer more than two years ago — the blog has become less a part of my life. That’s by design. It’s my design.

I have my share of supporters who tell me they like what I have to say on issues of the day. I also have a number of folks who I know oppose my point of view. On occasion they will challenge me. They demand that I explain myself. If they present data they believe proves me wrong, they insist I say so publicly, or at the very least engage them in debate.

I once posted an item on this blog that declared that I see my posted opinion as my last word on a subject. Therefore, I have no particular need or desire to engage someone in a debate that will result only in boosting my blood pressure. Maybe even theirs, too.

Now that I am well into this next phase of my life, I have even less reason to go toe-to-toe with a political foe. There is no point. I choose only to let my critics have the last word, as I am not afflicted by what I call “last word-itis.”

I have asked on occasion if my foe and I could just “agree to disagree.” Some of them say yes. Some of them want to keep the rhetorical brass knucks handy.

Look, the loss of my dear Kathy Anne taught me a valuable life lesson. It is that life is too damn short to waste time on matters that won’t ever change. I never expect to change anyone’s mind with the posts I deliver on High Plains Blogger. They might think they can change mine.

They would be horribly mistaken. To those who wish I would engage them, I merely want to apologize … but only for staying away from the rough-and-tumble. I won’t apologize for whatever I say.

local news

The beard: Making a comeback

The beard is back … or soon will be once I let a few days pass.

The beard has been something I grow and nurture for six months every year during the autumn and winter months. It comes off around first day of spring. I remain clean-shaven for the spring and summer seasons.

I suspended the beard this past season, choosing to keep my puss hair-free during the coldest months of the year. It might have been a bit of homage to my bride, Kathy Anne, who fought with me every spring when I announced the beard was coming off. She liked my face when I covered it in hair. I lost her in February 2023 to cancer and this past autumn and winter, I chose to forgo the beard because, well, she wasn’t around to enjoy it.

I have made a command decision to bring it back.

Now, my best friends, those who have known me the longest, tell me — and I cannot prove the veracity of this statement — that they can set their calendar on the basis of my facial appearance. When the stubble appears, they know it’s fall. Or so they tell me.

Hey, I won’t dispute it. I’ll just go with it and call it good.