Category Archives: local news

local news

What about Article VI?

A weekly newsletter published by a gentleman in Amarillo makes an astonishing assertion about whom he believes to be the “most powerful figure” in Texas.

Steve Pair cites the work of Tim Dunn, a Permian Basin oilman who is working to elect only Christians to public office in Texas.

Pair writes: Tim Dunn, isn’t an elected official. But behind the scenes, the West Texas oilman is lavishly financing what he regards as a holy war against public education, renewable energy, and non-Christians.

Wow! I know a little bit about the work Dunn has done and the havoc he has brought to West Texas politicians and politics over the years. He runs Empower Texans, a far-right-wing political action committee that takes aim at GOP officeholders. Former state Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo was a favorite target of Dunn’s group, drawing the unvarnished wrath of Seliger.

The point I want to make, though, is that attacks on non-Christian candidates violates an article in the Constitution that was drafted and ratified by our nation’s founding fathers.

Article VI concludes with this: ” … but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

The founders could not possibly be clearer than what they declared in the late 18th century when they cobbled together our nation’s governing framework.

local news

Homebuilding ban? For now … yes!

Princeton Mayor Brianna Chacon has planted the seed of an idea that needs to germinate and grow into a verified municipal policy.

She wants the city she governs to enact a moratorium on new home construction. Details are scant. Indeed, they don’t seem to exist in any fashion.

But I think the mayor is onto something the city council should consider and should consult heavily with its legal counsel on how to make it happen.

Princeton’s growth has been spectacular over the course of the past decade. The 2010 Census pegged the city population at just shy of 7,000 residents; the 2020 Census lists the population at 17,027 people; the current estimated population stands at around 28,000, according to city officials.

The city has grown too rapidly, Chacon told the council at the end of its regular Monday evening meeting. It needs to stop building residential units at the breakneck pace under which it has been operating.

I am going to report more on this idea in a later blog post. For now I am going to stick with what has been reported.

The city clearly must honor the building permits it has issued. It cannot face any possible litigation from aggrieved builders and real estate agents. And as I drive around the areas near my home, I see many acres of land that have been platted and prepared for construction. The city has installed hundreds of utility outlets on the properties, which suggests to me the city has many building permits that need to be honored before it pulls the plug on future construction.

Chacon reminded council members that the city has limited resources and it must spend that money on developing infrastructure that hasn’t kept pace with the home construction. “We grew too fast,” Chacon told the council.

Streets need improvement, Chacon said, apparently acknowledging the complaints she likely has heard from residents about the condition of streets in some of our older neighborhoods.

I am one Princeton resident who is interested in the details of this proposal that must come soon. How soon will it be enacted? How long does the city expect it to last? Will the city continue its push to bring more commercial development to Princeton?

I am all ears, Mme. Mayor. So, I will bet, is the rest of this city.

local news

Thanks for the random act

Random acts of kindness are, by definition, meant to surprise those who receive them, correct?

I mean, they occur at random, meaning that you don’t expect them to be delivered to you.

Well, today in Princeton, I received a random act that I want to share with you because, well, I am in a sharing mood.

I took my truck to a motor vehicle washing business this morning. I drove to the vacuum pumps first to clean out the interior of the Ranger I drive. I pulled the driver’s side floor mat out and began vacuuming it. A young man next to me apparently noticed that I was having a bit of trouble bending over to operate the vacuum pump. Hey, I am 74 years of age and he is a good bit younger.

He grabbed the vacuum from my hand and cleaned the floor mat. I sought to tell him that I was all right, that he didn’t need to do it.

His answer? “God told me to help you.” 

Now, how in the world am I going to tell him to disobey a directive from the Almighty? He finished the job, handed the vacuum back to me and finished the work he was doing on his own vehicle.

I don’t bitch routinely about the state of the world. I realize there’s kindness to be found all the time. I received a bit of it this morning … and I am grateful to the young man for extending this random act.

local news

The mustache stays … period!

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This post is for those I haven’t known since The Flood. It is for relatively recent acquaintances and friends, some of whom ask me this question at this time of year:

Is the mustache coming off, too, along with the rest of your facial hair? Answer: nope; not even.

The mustache has been part of my face since 1970. Except for a brief period in 1980 when I decided to shave it off. Big mistake.

I started growing it as I was preparing to exit the Army. I had returned from Vietnam and was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wash., just up the highway from my Portland, Ore., hometown.

It was July 1970. I was a month from shucking the uniform forever and returning to civilian life. I grew the mustache. I liked it. It quickly became part of me.

Then a decade later, I decided to shave it off. I had two small boys at home with me. I came out of the bathroom and presented my clean-shaven face to my family. My bride, Kathy Anne, approved. The boys? They couldn’t stop laughing.

They were six and five. They had never seen Dad without facial hair. For that matter, neither had Kathy Anne … but she was cool with the “new” me.

My sons’ laughter never let up. After less than a week of it, I surrendered. The stubble returned. Soon it blossomed into a full-grown mustache. It has stayed.

The beard comes and goes. I usually shave it off every spring. This year it came off about a month early. Which is OK. Kathy Anne preferred I keep it year-round. We would “fight” good naturedly when the time came to shave it off. I no longer have to wage that fake fight. So, it came off.

But come this autumn, the beard will return as it does every year.

I just wanted to share this bit of useless info. You are now free to pursue more important matters.

local news

Stay busy: essence of life

My many friends — those I have had for decades and those I have just met — all say the same thing as I trudge on through the rest of my life’s journey.

Stay busy. Get busy. If you have nothing to do, find something to do. Build structure in your life. Fill the dates on your calendar.

My journey is commencing its second year without the love of my life at my side. We commemorated the first year of Kathy Anne’s passing quietly. My sons were with me for a while that day. Then we went about our daily routines.

But my life is taking some form these days. I am restructuring my daily routine to accommodate tasks that need doing and duties I need to perform.

For instance, today I took on a task that will enable me to serve a community I have grown to love. I have been a member of the Farmersville Rotary Club for a couple of years and its president-elect asked me to serve on the board, heading up the membership element of the service organization. She wants me to be in charge of recruiting new members.

“Yes!” I said with no small measure of enthusiasm. I am happy to do it. Not just for the club, but also for myself. I am getting a chance to fill in one more spot on my calendar.

One of my sons told me today that after Kathy Anne passed away, he was able to continue his work for his employer as a way to keep his mind occupied and to “relieve myself of the grief I was suffering.”

My journey has brightened significantly over the past year. I have made new friends who know the story of the loss we suffered. They have delivered the same message … beyond offering their love and support.

It is to stay busy. Find structure in your life. Build on it. Relish the responsibility you will take on.

Message heard.

local news, State news

Censure House speaker … for what?

For the life of me I cannot understand what in the world has gotten into the noggins of many Texas Republicans these days.

Now the state Republican Party has censured one of their own, House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont, because he didn’t stop the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton this past year.

Have these people lost their MAGA-muddled minds? Have they all gone ’round the bend? Have they all swilled the MAGA Kool-Aid offered by the former POTUS, the guy who has called for Phelan to resign from the House, even though he doesn’t know a damn thing about how Texas politics works?

Phelan presided over Paxton’s impeachment, which occurred after a House committee recommended the AG be impeached because of the shabby way he runs his office. The House voted overwhelmingly to impeach Paxton, but then the Senate acquitted him in a trial that lasted about a week.

The state GOP is still chapped over the impeachment. The censure is being fueled by the MAGA wing of the Texas GOP

To be clear, I want to stipulate a couple of things about Phelan. I don’t know the fellow, even though I lived and worked in Beaumont for nearly 11 years. I only was casually acquainted with Phelan’s father, an uber-rich Beaumont developer. I have heard from some of my Golden Triangle snitches that Dade Phelan was cut from the traditional Republican fabric that creates a politician who favors wealthy Texans. Therefore, he is a standard GOP pol.

He also just happens to be a fellow, apparently, who dislikes corrupt politicians … even when such allegations stain the records of fellow Republicans.

Texas GOP censures House Speaker Dade Phelan over Paxton impeachment (houstonchronicle.com)

It makes me wonder: Why in the world is that such a bad thing, something the produces censure?

As the Houston Chronicle has reported: Phelan has remained defiant in the face of the criticism and has touted the House’s work to ban abortion and allow the permitless carry of handguns as conservative wins passed under his leadership.

Doesn’t any of that other stuff matter … or is the Texas GOP intent on protecting an attorney general who continually makes many Texans wince over the way he conducts himself?

local news, political news

Any other kind?

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Driving around North Texas as I do damn near daily, I see street corners and highway intersections festooned with campaign signs promoting candidates for this or that public office.

It’s election time, after all.

One mantra is part of almost all the signs I see crowing for the benefits of Republicans seeking election this year.

They call themselves, almost to a person, “conservative Republican.”

I am compelled to ask myself: Is there any other kind of Republican?

Suppose you happen to be a Republican who, say, is pro-choice on abortion. You believe a woman should be able to determine — with advice and counsel from her partner, her doctor, her clergy — whether she wants to carry a pregnancy to birth. Does that wipe away any other conservative views you might have on, say, taxation, or gun-owners’ rights or government spending? What about same-sex marriage or whether schools should be allowed to display the Ten Commandments?

In this day of political rigidity, any variation from every conservative tenet labels one, apparently, a “woke” liberal, a squishy progressive who secretly believes in socialist economic policy.

When I see these “conservative Republican” captions on campaign signs, I am left to presume the candidate also adheres to the MAGA dogma promoted by the most recent POTUS. My presumption, therefore, allows me to believe that to be a “conservative Republicans” means you endorse the idiocy preached by the former POTUS.

I recall when a Republican president, Richard Nixon, endorsed the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Another Republican POTUS, George H.W. Bush, promoted the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1991. Still another Republican, President George W. Bush, invested more public money to fight HIV/AIDS than the rest of the world combined.

On the Democratic side, some of you might recall that U.S. Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson was a staunch supporter of the Vietnam War effort in the late 1960s. That didn’t make him less of a Democrat than any of his colleagues who opposed the war effort.

“Conservative Republican” these days looks for all the world to describe just about anyone willing to run on the GOP ticket for public office. In North Texas, the political playing field is swarming with them.

local news, Sports news

Dallas Stadium? For real … ?

A mild bit of grumbling can be heard in some North Texas communities over the temporary renaming of AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

The place — known colloquially as Jerry World — was named over the weekend as a semifinal site for the 2026 World Cup soccer tournament. The locals had hoped the place would become a site for the finals. But … no dice.

FIFA, the World Cup governing body, doesn’t like to have corporate names on its venues, so it demanded they take down the name of the telecommunications giant. The new name?

Dallas Stadium!

The name has rankled some folks. I tend to agree with their hurt feelings.

The place is 30-some miles from Dallas. It’s closer to Fort Worth than to Big D. I can think of several non-corporate names one could have put on the place other than Dallas Stadium.

North Texas Stadium. D/FW Stadium. Arlington Stadium. They all come to mind. I’d even settle for Cowboys Stadium.

It just ain’t in Dallas. I get that FIFA wanted to have a name associated with the largest city in the region. That would be Dallas, with its towering skyline full of gleaming office buildings. Then again, Fort Worth has its share of cowboy glitz and glamor, too.

I should point out as well that the Dallas Cowboys, the pro football team that calls the place home, hasn’t played in Dallas since the team’s founding in 1960, when they played their home games in the Cotton Bowl. They have since moved to Irving and then to Arlington … where team owner Jerry Jones built the place now known temporarily as Dallas Stadium.

As for the grumblers, well, I’m with ’em.

local news

A year later, pain is manageable

I grappled with my heart over whether I wanted to post anything about a sad date that is about to visit my family and me.

I have decided to go ahead with an acknowledgment of the date and a declaration that I am looking toward a bright, adventurous future.

It was a year ago, Feb. 3, 2023, when my phone rang and the nurse at the other end of the call informed me that my beloved bride had just passed away. Cancer took Kathy Anne from my family and me. It was a savage, but brief, bout with glioblastoma.

You know about that. I won’t dwell on it here.

It’s been a remarkable year to say the very least. I have embarked on what I have described as a journey through darkness. I am quite happy to proclaim, though, that the light is shining much brighter today than it dared shine on the worst day of our lives.

I have made the trek, recovering from the intense pain one always feels when you suffer such a loss. I have sought to chronicle my journey on this blog. I have shared the highs and lows of the past year. It has been cathartic and therapeutic. It has given me emotional relief to share these experiences on this blog platform.

Kathy Anne | Search Results | High Plains Blogger

Thus, I am glad to have done so, although to be sure, I would wish only that I never had to embark on that journey. But … I did. So did my family and we are counting the blessings of having each other to recall the joy we shared with my bride.

The future now awaits. I am embracing it fully and I have committed to living every single day going forward as if it is my final day on this good Earth.

My friends have told me the “pain will never disappear, but it will become manageable.” It has … and it won’t stop me from living the fullest life possible.

local news, political news

Dutton’s a winner … this time

Jill Dutton has a title next to her name … Texas state representative in House District 2.

I trust she’ll get comfortable with it quickly. She’ll need to because it is highly possible she’ll lose it when they count the ballots for the next election in a couple of months.

Dutton, a Republican from Van, defeated fellow Republican Brett Money of Greenville in a special election called after Bryan Slaton of Royse City was expelled from the Texas House over his hideous conduct with an underage staffer, a young woman with whom he had sex after plying her with booze in an Austin apartment.

HD 2 is a reliably Republican district. Dutton and Money finished one-two in an earlier election and then and engaged in a runoff to determine who would fill the unexpired term. Dutton won.

Here’s the catch. It was an open primary, meaning Democrats could vote in it. They also could vote in the runoff, which reportedly helped push Dutton across the finish line — barely — in front of Money.

The March primary will be closed to Republicans only and Money figures to do better head-to-head against Dutton. Money has the endorsement of the former POTUS who’s also on the ballot this spring. I suppose that carries some additional weight in North Texas’s heavily GOP legislative district.

Whatever. The good news for District 2 voters is that they no longer are represented by someone who preaches the family values line but behaves like a scum-bucket.