Category Archives: local news

local news

Moratorium imposed … for now

Princeton’s city council has taken an action that I wasn’t sure it would take … it has voted to impose a temporary ban on residential construction.

The council will take a final vote on a proposed ordinance next month.

You know what? I think the city has acted wisely. Four months might not be long enough, though, for the city to obtain the infrastructure it says it needs to serve the thousands of people who want to make Princeton their home.

Police Chief Jim Waters says he needs to hire 30 more police officers to protect and serve the city’s burgeoning population. The city needs to build more water towers to help regulate water pressure. And the city surely needs to finish its massive street repair and maintenance projects.

Princeton now is home to an estimated 33,000 residents, roughly double the number of humans counted for the 2020 Census. The number continues to skyrocket.

Mayor Brianna Chacon broached the subject of a moratorium a few months ago, saying the city has grown “too fast.”

So, the city has decided to put the brakes on its residential construction. It’s a short-term ban. Let’s hope it is sufficient to allow Princeton to catch its breath.

local news

Getting used to a pooch

Even though it hasn’t been too terribly long since I lost Toby the Puppy to cancer — and I should be familiar with a pooch’s particular behavior– I am finding that those pooch-handling skills had gotten a bit rusty.

I now have Sabol prancing through my North Texas home. I anticipate a smooth transition to a dog-friendly environment for my newest family member. She is 6 years old and needs to shed some weight.

I do have some quite good news to report: the distance between Sabol and our kitties, Marlowe and Macy, is closing. The cats seem increasingly comfortable sharing their home space with Sabol. As for the puppy? Pfffttt! She couldn’t care less what they think or what territory they claim as their own.

Meantime, I am having to get used to tending to a puppy’s needs. That’s never been an issue in all the years my wife and I were exclusively kitty parents.

I’m getting the hang of it.

local news

Pooch makes progress

I want to be clear that I do not intend to write about every little moment of progress that my new pooch, Sabol, demonstrates as she learns to navigate her way through her new house,

I just want to share a couple of things for those who care about this journey I’ve taken.

Sabol moved in with my son, our kitties and me. She sprinted out the front door on Day One. I had to run after her.  I am more alert now to her presence when I open the door.

I put food out for her. Guess what … she’s eaten a good bit of it. I worried that she might be so unsettled that she wouldn’t want to eat it. She’s settling just fine.

Sabol also has figured out how to work the doggy door.

Sabol tonight has stared down our kitties, Macy and Marlowe did not sprint to the farthest place in the house as I thought they might. Sabol’s reaction? No problem. She knows this is their house, just as the kitties got schooled by Toby the Puppy when they moved in more than a year ago,

Bottom line? It’s all going to work out just fine.

local news

Welcome to our family, Sable

Listen up, ladies and gentlemen, for I am about to announce an important decision in my life and in the life of my family.

I have just welcomed a new pooch into my house. She is Sable, a 6-year-old mix of … something, and I have no clue about her ancestry.

I have a ton of good news to report about Sable. First, and with apologies to Sally Field, she likes me, she really likes me. Second, she loves traveling on the road. Third, she settled down right away in my truck when I welcomed her into my family.

You know the story of Toby the Puppy and the devastating loss I suffered at the end of 2023 when cancer took him. He was 9 and had become the perfect companion. Sable won’t replace Toby, but I am going to say right here that she is off to a good start in charting her own course.

Her previous family member told me she is overweight and a bit disheviled. I can take care of both of those issues.

I am looking forward to getting re-acclimated with a pooch around the house.

Oh … one more thing. I have been advised Sable “really loves cats.” Be on guard, Macy and Marlowe.

local news

Back to the villa … and then home!

MIKRI VIGLA, Greece — Well, gang, I am on my own in one of the most gorgeous places I ever have seen.

My cousin and her son have departed for another Greek island paradise, in Santorini. I am here on Naxos for another day before I started my trek back to North Texas.

My drive back from Naxos port took me along a stretch of road we hadn’t yet seen. My GPS wasn’t working because my “smart phone” was disconnected from the Internet. So, I followed my instincts traveled south, keeping the blue Aegean Sea water on my right.

Not long into my drive back to the villa, I thought: What difference does any of this make if I get back sooner rather than later? I have all day to make the drive.

I was in no hurry.

Tomorrow morning will be different. I have Internet here. I can map my route to the port and then follow the directions “the voice” lays out for me. But again, my instinct tells me to keep the ocean on my left going the other way. I’ll have a ferry to catch and then a cab ride to the hotel where I will spend the night near the Athens airport … before heading to the house.

This clearly has been the most relaxing vacation I’ve ever taken … in my entire life. 

I’ve had a moment or two of sadness realizing my bride isn’t here to share it with me. However, I have completed my journey from darkness to light and I am carrying Kathy Anne in my heart.

Now it’s back to the real world. My tanned, rested and ready self is up to the challenge.

local news

Hummingbird update

Not long ago I posted a blog item wondering what in the world was consuming the hummingbird food I have been putting in the dispenser hanging in my backyard patio.

I have lived in my Collin County home for more than five years and I had yet to lay eyes on a hummingbird. My wife and I had the same issue in Amarillo, where we lived for23 years before relocating to Princeton. Our friends all boasted of all the hummingbirds that flocked to their feeders. Our luck? Hah! Didn’t have any!

I am delighted to report that I saw a living, breathing, wing-whirring hummingbird two days ago in my backyard. It was hovering about three feet above my head in front of the freshly refilled feeder.

My tiny fine-feathered friend flew eventually to a neighbor’s tree, but I am thrilled to have actually seen one of these little critters.

I yelled at the bird to spread the word to his (or her!) friends and kin. I got more of this food I am happy to serve to my pals.

local news, political news

We aren’t a battleground yet

Democrats in the state where I have lived for the past 40 years keep crowing about how we are becoming a “battleground state” for the candidates seeking the U.S. presidency.

Spoiler alert: Texas is not a battleground state. At least not in this election cycle.

How do I know that? Because if we truly were up for grabs, we would be seeing Kamala Harris and her Republican opponent as frequently as they are being seen in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.

It’s not happening. At least not yet.

Now, this isn’t intended to denigrate my wish that we would become a place where Democrats can compete statewide against Republicans. We’re inching closer to that day.

In 2020, Joe Biden lost Texas to Donald Trump by about 5 percentage points. That is tantalizingly close to the margin of error in most reputable political polls. I live in Collin County, just northeast of Dallas County, which — and this might be difficult to believe — has become a Democratic stronghold. 

Yes, I was aware that a lot of Democrats got all wound up when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson announced he is a Republican. My reaction: B … F … D! He is elected mayor as a non-partisan; that’s all that should matter to the residents who are concerned about potholes and police protection.

I am going to presume that Trump will get Texas’s 40 electoral votes. I will be curious and anxious to see how the final results roll in.

If only Kamala Harris could get it through the thick and vacuous skulls of the MAGA cultists here about the danger of putting Trump anywhere near the Resolute Desk. If we continue to close the gap between Ds and Rs, then I might be able to accept that our days as a battleground state are closer than I fear at this moment.

local news

Complex isn’t coming down after all … yet!

I guess I got a bit ahead of myself in suggesting that demolition work had begun on that monstrosity of an apartment complex on US 380 in Princeton.

The Princeton Housing Standards Authority — aka the City Council — voted 3-2 Thursday evening to order completion of several rotting structures, even as crews began razing three buildings “to the slab.”  Even those structures, deemed irreparable, could come back to life.

I don’t know about the wisdom of that decision.

The complex has sat there unfinished for more than a year, exposed to North Texas’s occasionally harsh weather. Mold and water damage run rampant through the 300-unit apartment complex.

The developer has a deadline to get the work done. Some buyers are lined up to possibly purchase the site next to Wal-Mart on the south side of US 380.

Folks, it still looks like a mess to me.

I’ll have more to say later on the location and whether it is even wise to have such a huge apartment complex on a thoroughfare that already is choked with stand-still traffic.

Sorry I jumped the gun.

local news

Monstrosity on its way down!

All the yammering around Princeton regarding that 300-unit apartment complex that has gone to serious seed must have been heard by those who needed to hear it.

I just noticed crews at work taking down several of the buildings. And this is in advance of a public meeting set for this evening at Princeton Municipal Complex to discuss the future of the site.

It looks to me as if its future might have been decided. The demolition underway involves the razing of three structures deemed damaged beyond repair. There’s too much mold and water damage to the buildings to save them. So … they’re coming down!

The City Council is meeting as the city’s Housing Standards Authority. It will discuss the various — and numerous — code violations that render the site unworkable.

I am one of many Princeton residents who is delighted to see the work commence to rid the city of this monumental eyesore created when the contractor walked off the job after getting into a snit with the developer.

We’ll just have to stand by while the work continues and see what in the name of civic improvement occurs with the site on US 380.

Keep pounding away, fellas.

local news, media news

Retirement teaches new lesson

Believe it or not, I am learning something in my retirement years … I am learning how to travel as a tourist, someone with no job-related pressure to keep me moving, on my toes and alert to issues around me.

During my nearly 37 years as a print journalist, I was able to travel to roughly two dozen countries. I recently compiled a list of the places I saw when I was a working stiff and I noticed that the vast majority of them either were related to my work or through my involvement with Rotary International.

My RI exposure took me to Denmark and Sweden in 2006 to attend an RI convention. In 2009, I had the high honor of leading an RI Group Study Exchange team through Israel. They all were busy and I had to be sharp damn near every day.

I was able to travel to Vietnam, Thailand, India, Cambodia and Mexico City on National Conference of Editorial Writers missions. Taiwan’s Government Info Office invited me five times to visit that country from 1989 to 2010.

Greece’s media office invited me three times to visit that country to look at its preparation for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

The best news of all of this is that my bride, Kathy Anne, was able to accompany me on many of these excursions. That didn’t reduce the obligations I had to maintain my media savvy.

This year I will have taken two trips to Europe. I went to Germany this past spring to visit dear friends in Nuremberg. I am about to leave for Greece for my fourth trip there; the Greece journey will be vastly different from my previous three trips to that spectacular nation.

The major difference? My wife is gone. I lost her to cancer in February 2023. The other difference is that I will be free to relax during my entire time in the land of my ancestors’ birth.

I’ll be able to relax! No pressure. No deadlines to keep. No stories I am required to write.

To be sure, I will be blogging daily from Greece, just as I did from Germany. I am learning, though, that this world of travel just to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of an exotic land is a welcoming place.