Category Archives: local news

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.

local news

Meeting set once again

I had reported on this blog my intention to comment on a special Princeton City Council meeting called to discuss the fate of that construction eyesore next to Wal Mart on US Highway 380.

Then the council postponed the meeting. It will meet this Thursday at 5 p.m. acting as the Princeton Housing Standards Authority. Now, they tell me, there will be a hearing to decide the fate of the abandoned, partially built, rotting luxury apartment complex that appears to be going nowhere in a hurry.

The general contractor got into a beef with the developer and walked off the job in the spring of 2023. My guess is that it’s about 40% finished. Will it cross the finish line? My gut along with my ol’ trick knee tell me “no.”

I intend to be present for this rescheduled hearing on Thursday. I don’t yet know whether the council make a decision that night. I asked Mayor Brianna Chacon whether there will be a decision; I haven’t received an answer.

I want to see some leadership on this matter rise to the occasion.

Let’s get rid of that eyesore.

local news

Carters’ work thrives

I cannot help but think of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter whenever I drive past a short street in Princeton, Texas.

It is a street where crews are building the second in a series of houses for Habitat for Humanity, a program promoted vigorously by the former 39th president of the United States and his late wife.

President Carter is about to turn 100. He’s already lived far longer than any man who served as president. He said recently he wants to live enough to cast his next presidential vote for Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the nation’s highest office.

This blog post, though, is about the legacy that President Carter will leave for many worthy families across the nation and to the nation itself. Other houses will go up eventually on Harrelson Street and they will be occupied by families that qualify for receiving the gift of home ownership.

If only he was well enough to travel to North Texas to see the work being done for Habitat for Humanity and, in an important way, on behalf of the project for which the Carters were fierce advocates.

local news, media news

Blogging gets new life

1 Comment

I resigned from my final full-time journalism job on Aug. 31, 2012, having been informed by my publisher that I no longer would do what I had done for the Amarillo Globe-News for the past 18 years …. and I thought I was pretty good at it.

Silly me.

I would learn later that the publisher had me in his crosshairs when he announced that everyone’s job description had been changed. I fought for my job fiercely, telling the publisher ultimately that the industry I entered in 1976 bore no resemblance to what it had become by 2012. And that he was asking me to do things only a little different.

It didn’t work.

Immediately, I. began focusing my attention full time to High Plains Blogger, a platform I created a few years earlier.

I have mentioned many times on this blog how much I enjoy writing on it, offering my assorted views on this and/or that policy issue.

I have boasted from time to time that writing comes easily to me. I won’t brag about the quality of the prose I produce, just say that it does flow fairly easily off the tips of my fingers.

The subject matter helps determine the ease. I’ll be candid. Prior to President Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential campaign, it was becoming a bit problematic to find issues on which to comment.

Up stepped ‘vice President Kamala Harris. Biden endorsed the VP. She launched a full-frontal campaign from a virtual dead stop, raised a few tons of cash and injected this campaign with an energy level I haven’t seen since, oh, 2008 when Barack Obama took the nation by storm.

What does this mean for your friendly blogger? It means the proverbial chest where I store my ideas is full again.

I intend to remain engaged fully in this campaign. The blog is the only venue I have to offer commentary on the status of the effort.

So … I will weigh in. It feels good to be relevant.

local news

Waiting for monstrous project

When you mention the word “infrastructure,” there is a decent chance you’re talking about traffic.

And when you mention “traffic,” particularly in North Texas, you well might be thinking of US Highway 380.

You might wonder: What do these elements have to do with each other? The Texas Department of Transportation is fixin’ to hopefully correct the traffic problems by working on alternatives to traveling along US 380.

It’s a nightmare right now.

When we moved to Princeton five years ago we learned TxDOT’s plans for the region. They involve construction of loops around several cities from Denton to Greenville. Princeton sits about 35 miles from Denton and 21 miles from Greenville. TxDOT wants to construct a loop south of 380. It would attract through traffic to use the bypass, leaving local traffic on 380.

It’s expensive, man. I cannot remember the total cost of the highway work, but it runs in the tens of billions of dollars.

Now for the downer. I am 74 years of age, turning 75 in December. I mention that because I might not live long to see this project completed. I keep hearing how it’s going to take decades to finish this task.

Which brings me to the most important point. What will happen as this region continues to grow at its breakneck pace, which is projected for the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro area?

Will the highway loops around the cities that straddle US 380 be enough to loosen the traffic flow? If not, then what does the state do?

I surely get how important infrastructure is for growing communities such as those strung along the highway. I am going to hope that TxDOT is thinking past when it completes this huge project .,.. and prepares for the next big one.

local news

Princeton zeroes in on complex

Much to my surprise, I learned today that the Princeton City Council is going to don another hat it is empowered to wear on behalf of the city it serves.

The City Council will sit on Aug. 12 as the Princeton Housing Standards Commission. It will meet to determine the fate of the unfinished apartment complex that has been rotting under the North Texas weather extremes for more than a year.

The meeting will begin at 5 p.m. at the Princeton Municipal Complex. The council/housing commission will determine whether the existing units comply with municipal building codes, regulations and standards.

Now, we’re getting somewhere, ladies and gents.

The Princeton Herald did a great job uncovering much of what has gone wrong with this apartment complex, which sits just east of Wal-Mart along US Highway 380. How do I say this nicely? I cannot. The project is a disaster, a hideous eyesore and is a blight on this vibrant, growing community I have had the pleasure of calling home for the past five years.

If the council determines it meets code, then there ought to be a probe into wholesale corruption at City Hall. There is no way on this good Earth the complex holds up.

The city has issued a notice of violation, noting evidence of mold/mildew, degraded oriented strand board, a lack of adequate fire protection, bottom plates sitting in rainwater, missing, damaged and improperly installed structural components, leaks in the roof and electrical work violations.

Pffew! It takes my breath away.

The city approved the complex in 2017 and issued a building permit in October 2021.

Then it went straight to hell.

Back when it was conceived, developers presented this project as comprising luxury apartments. It meant to describe three-story garden-style units on the15-acre site.

Well, what does one say about it now, other than to wish it would just plain go away?

I know this much. Prior to hearing about the Aug. 12 meeting at the city municipal complex, I had no plans for that evening.

Now, I do.