Category Archives: local news

local news

City to assume unwelcome label

Quite soon, Princeton, Texas — the city I have called home for the past six years — is going to assume a title I don’t think anyone ever wants for their community.

Princeton will become known as the City to Avoid at Rush Hour. 

How do I know that? Because the Texas Department of Transportatio is going to lay waste to the major east-west thoroughfare that runs straight through the middle of Princeton.

U.S. Highway 380 is going under the bulldozer’s front as TxDOT starts to expand the highway from four lanes to six. Here, though, is the kicker: To expand the highway, TxDOT is going to narrow it, turning it from a four-lane right-of-way to a two-lane.

None of this, I hasten to add, will have much to do with the construction of the freeway bypass TxDOT is planning along the 380 route from Denton to Greenville.

One can argue that Princeton already has the Rush Hour ban label already. Traffic slows to a near stop west bound in the morning and east bound in the aftenoon along U.S. 380. I try to wrap my noodle around what will happen when TxDOT decides to narrow the highway from four lanes to two. It boggles my noggin.

To be candid, at my relatively advanced age I don’t expect to live long enough to see the completion of the bypass route around Princeton. Or around any of the other cities along the 380 route for that matter.

The state is facing some serious property condemnation issues as it seeks to purchase the land on which to carve the new highway. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution does require government to give “just compensation” for property it takes as its own. It’s going to be mighty expensive to build it … you know?

I long have favored development. I want my community to grow and to prosper. I believe Princeton will prosper once the highway gets improved and once the state finishes its bypass project.

But damn! The nightmarish inconvenience of it will make it mighty difficult to anticipate good things when the end of the work arrives.

I believe Princeton needs an identity to give the city a personality. This isn’t quite the ID I anticipated for the city where I choose to live.

local news

Declaring victory in this fight

I stand before you today to declare a conditional victory in the war I have been waging … with myself.

About 15 weeks ago, I joined a class of fellow military veterans who reportedly struggled as I have with weight control. I sought professional help because I was unable to come to grips with what I determined was my addiction to comfort food.

I smothered myself in comfort food after I lost my bride, Kathy Anne, to brain cancer a little more than two years ago. I reached out to the Department of Veterans Affairs and  lo and behold, I learned that the VA medical center in Bonham has an online class it teaches to veterans just like me.

So, for the past four months I have been taking this course online with the help of a nutritionist who works for the VA. I learned a great deal on how to curb my impulses, how to control myself and how to change my life.

Therefore, I will declare victory in the “changing of my life” aspect. I have done so!

I know what some of you might be wondering: Have I lost much weight? No. I haven’t. The point is that I am able to maintain control of my impulses by eliminating certain snack foods from my diet. I no longer splurge on sugary treats. I measure my portions of meat and vegetables. I consume increasing amounts of veggies and fruits daily. I am drinking an adequate amount of water.

I am feeling like a million bucks.

I had set an ambitious weight-loss goal at the outset. I didn’t reach the finish line. I have dropped a few pounds, to be sure. However, I am going to keep striving. I feel energized if only by the knowledge that I can change my life and, in fact, have done so.

I feel a certain sense of accomplishment and I just want to share it with those of you who read this blog and know a bit of the struggle my family and I have endured. For me, it came in the form of that damn comfort food.

I am happy to declare victory. The time will come when I can declare a victory without condition. I just need to reach that goal I set. I’ll get there.

education news, local news

Toughest job in North Texas? Yeah, probably!

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Donald McIntyre’s name possibly isn’t known much outside of Princeton, Texas, where I have lived for the past six years.

I am going out on a limb, though, with this post and declare that McIntyre might have the most challenging public service job in North Texas. He is superintendent of schools of the Princeton Independent School District.

Where is the challenge? Two words sum it up: rapid growth.

Princeton ISD is on the cusp of a growth explosion many of us have never seen. The school system keeps seeking to project what it believes will be its student population in a given academic year only to have those numbers blown apart by reality.

McIntyre — known as Mac to his friends — has to calculate those numbers and present them to the school board to enable the elected board to decide on how to respond to the growth.

A slight bit of personal history. My wife and I moved to Princeton in early 2019. We bought a home here. The population sign at the edge of town said Princeton was home as of the 2010 Census to 6,800 people. The 2020 Census figure was posted and the sign was changed to 17,027 residents. The 2020 Census figure was outdated immediately. Just recently, I heard Princeton City Manager Mike Mashburn say that, based on the number of water meters on line, the city population today stands at about 43,000 residents.

So, from 2010 to 2025, Princeton has grown sevenfold. Wow!

What’s more, most of those new families are bringing children with them. The kids have to attend school. Princeton ISD, therefore, must provide those students a place to learn.

McIntyre must ensure the kids can attend school. He is the chief administrator of a growing public school system and, believe this, he has expressed a hint of frustration at the many challenges he has to confront. The school district’s voters have stood with the district when it asks for money to build the schools it needs. The problem, though, is that the school system cannot build them quickly enough.

The elementary school built in my neighborhood in 2020 had two portable classrooms installed in the first year of its existence because the school had exceeded its capacity.

I want to doff my proverbial cap to Superintendent Don McIntyre for the examplary job he is doing just to keep pace.

local news

City council races turn partisan?

I reported for work at the Amarillo Globe-News in January 1995, the same week that Mac Thornberry took office as the congressman from the 13th Congressional District.

I have teased Thornberry over the years that we “grew up together” taking on new roles in the sprawling environment known as the Texas Panhandle.

At no time during Thornberry’s tenure as the Republican member of Congress did he offer a public endorsement in the non-partisan races for Amarillo City Council. He stayed out of those tussles … publicly at least.

Thornberry’s no longer in office. His successor, the wacky doctor-turned-politician Ronny Jackson, has tossed his name into the brewing municipal kerfuffle by endorsing three candidates for City Council. Jackson did so two years ago as well, endorsing candidates for the council.

Why is this troubling? Well, for one thing Jackson has been an extremely vocal proponent of the policies put forth by Donald Trump. He has been an vehement critic of former President Joe Bden, contending that the 46th president conducted a “shadow presidency” while hiding what he said were “obvious” signs of mental decline.

Jackson is a MAGA Republican whose world view comports nicely with the far-right wing of his party, but which is at variance with the issues that decide municipal contests.

Jackson brings a fire-breathing partisan flare to a contest that should be decided solely on the basis of who is best qualified to set municipal tax rates, who has the best view of policing, fighting fires, providing water and other mundane — but vital — activities associated with running a city on the move.

Mac Thornberry, unlike his successor, always seemed to know his place. He served his constituents with decorum and class and understood he didn’t need to insert himself into a political battle that, to be blunt, he had no business taking part.

local news

Dogs are in fact ‘loved ones’

I saw a social media post that declared, “Losing a dog is almost as bad as losing a loved one.”

Hah! “Almost as bad”? I beg to differ. Losing a dog is just like losing a loved one. At least that’s the case in my house.

I live in North Texas and am the parent of an energetic 6-year-old Chihuahua mix named Sabol,  Sabol joined my family right after I returned from an overseas vacation in September 2024. We met at a park in Princeton and fell in love with each other immediately.

You see, Sabol was living with a woman who is in failing health and her daughter sought to find a new home for the puppy. That’s when I came along. Sabol took the place of another Chihuahua mix pooch I lost in December 2023 to cancer. I wrote extensively about Toby the Puppy over the nine years he brought joy to my household. I lost Toby the same year cancer claimed my bride of 51 years. Indeed, Toby’s passing provided a symbolic bookend to the worst year of my life. I said farewell to Kathy Anne near the beginning of 2023 and I said the same to Toby the Puppy near the end of that horrific year.

I won’t equate the losses. I won’t say that losing Toby was the same as losing Kathy Anne. I will say, though, that letting Toby go after his battle with cancer became too much for him hurt just like “losing a loved one.” I loved Toby very much.

And I love Sabol just as much.

I long ago ceased referring to myself as a “pet owner.” I am a proud “pet parent,.” And like any parent can fathom, losing a loving furry baby brings plenty of pain.

local news

Two pups, two personalities

I have had two cherished pooches in my life … one was Toby the Puppy, the other is Sabol, who I also refer to as “puppy.”

They’re both Chihuahua-mix puppies. I lost Toby to cancer in December2023. They have similar coloration. Both are about the same size, although Sabol is a bit pudgier than Toby.

That, however, is where the similarity ends. Toby hated water. That included lawn sprinklers and rainfall. He was good with a bath, though. Sabol? She loves to play in the rain. She rolls around in the mud.

Here’s another difference, which is the point of this blog post. Toby didn’t like loud noises, such as the one the lawmower makes. Sabol seems to relish the sound.

This morning I mowed my back lawn. Whereas Toby would have run like a thief from the sound, Sabol today followed me around the yard barking joyfully at the rumbling Craftsman machine. I had to shoo her away a couple of times when she got too close to it for my comfort.

Sabol didn’t interfere with my lawn-cutting chore. She was just, um, a presence who felt as if she had to make herself known to me while I was in the middle of an important task.

Understand this about Sabol. She joined my family in September 2024, after I had put the lawnmower up for the winter. The sound of the machine was new to her. The lawnmowing session was the first of this grass-growing season for me.

What will I do in the future when it’s time to fire up the lawnmower? I likely will have to keep Sabol restricted indoors while I finish the job. I’m tellin’ ya, puppies are as unpredictable as kids.

local news

I missed the internet

Admit it, ladies and gents: You’ve laughed at and ridiculed the internet as a joke and as a crutch for those who need to get a life.

Me, too. I’ve done so myself.

I’m not laughing at it now.

The internet crashed sometime yesterday morning. It was kaput for the rest of the day, and into the night. The internet provider said it would be stored at or around midnight. I woke up this morning. No luck.

It was still down.

When the internet goes down in my house, everything goes down. TV, phone, computer. It got a little weird during the day when I discovered that my cell phone would work if I took it down the street and around the corner. That’s what I would do if I wanted to communicate with someone. I own a “smart home” in North Texas and I tell Alexa to perform certain tasks for me. During the down time,  Alexa would bark back, “I don’t undestand that!”

I also wanted to keep track of the news, particularly the stock market which holds my retirement money. I’ve been watching the market with particular interest since the Numbskull in Chief announced his worldwide tariff catastrophe.

Maybe I was better off not knowing what the market did today.

Whatever, I realize at this moment that I depend on the internet far more than I was willing to admit.

Listen up, gang. I no longer will laugh in derision at the mention of its name.

economic news, local news

Come back during rush hour!

A friend who lives in Austin ventured through Princeton recently partly to check out some of the issues I have raised on this blog … at least that’s what he said.

He was traveling from Paris through Princeton and wanted to know about the hubbub over this city’s enormous growth.

He got a small taste of what I have been saying about this Collin County community that is undergoing a fairly fundamental identity crisis. My friend said somethinga about the city-imposed moratorium on residential construction. The council imposed the ban and then recently extended it another six months. My hunch is that it will do so again and again … and may even again.

City Manager Mike Mashburn estimates that Princeton is home to more than 40,000 residents. I believe him! Builders are planting “New Homes Coming” signs still on undeveloped residential plots as they commence contruction to fulfill building permits that already were approved prior to the council’s decision to suspend residential construction.

The city has overbuilt beyond its ability to service the people who already are here. It is trying to halt the construction long enough to enable it to provide the infrastructure it needs to provide the service.

My friend said he cannot imagine how tough it is during morning and evening rush hours along U.S. 380, the major east-west thoroughfare that cuts through Princeton. What’s more, it’s going to get worse. Texas transportation gurus want to widen 380 from four lanes to six, but to do that the’ll have to shut down two of the lanes to make the highway a two-lane track while they build the extra lanes.

I appreciate my friend’s outsider perspective. He can’t “imagine” how bad it can get here. I got news for him. Neither can I.

local news

No fun traveling these days

Remember when you were a kid and you just couldn’t wait to go to the airport and prepare to fly on a big jet airplane?

Traveling was fun in those days, correct? Not any more.

Hey, I’m whippin’ a dead horse with that one, but it needs a little wallop once again.

I just returned from a four-day trip to Portland, Ore., to bid my sister a heartfelt farewell. Getting there and back, though, was no picnic.

Transportation Safety Administration personnel always seem to ensure that our next flying adventure will be one for the books. To be fair, this one doesn’t qualify as an epic experience. My departure from Dallas/Fort Worth airport was relatively hassle free. I didn’t have to remove my shoes and place my laptop in a separate basket for screening. I breezed on through.

Coming home last night was a bit different as I departed Portland’s airport. TSA staffers were barking orders and, frankly, giving this old guy a bit of anxiety trying to get through the maze and lie ahead.

But I got through.

I say all this merely to remind us of the havoc those fu**ing terrorists created on 9/11.

We won’t ever return to the good old days when flying was fun.  Stlll, I kind of like longing for a moment when I can relive the joy I used to feel when I got ready to get on that big bird and fly away.

local news

Farewell, sis … what a ride!

PORTLAND — I came back to the city my birth — and my sisters’ birth — to bid farewell to the older of my sisters.

Georgianne surrendered to the physical demons that had plagued her for years, succumbing Feb. 24 to complications brought on by COPD.  She was 14 months younger than me.

We had two services. One was to celebrate sis’s amazing life. She lived just short of 74 years. Her trip in this life was a wild one, to be sure. She had her issues growing up. Sis got through them and went on to lead a productive life. The other service was at the crypt where her ashes are interred next to Mom and Dad.

Sis never really shook herself completely free of the difficulties that followed her into teenhood and early young adulthood.

However, she was full of love and that love came back to blanket her during the celebrations we had of the life she led. I am grateful for that and I know she is, too.

I will return home late tomorrow to North Texas, where I have established my own life. Perhaps I should say where I am rebuilding my life. Many of you who have read this blog know about the circumstances there. It’s coming along.

This trip to where I came into this world, though, is about Georgianne Duback. She would tell me while seeking a favor from me that “I’ll love you forever.”

Well, sis, know that I truly will love you forever.