Category Archives: local news

local news

P.S.: Here’s how I knew I had licked it

1 Comment

A brief post script is in order after I posted a blog item detailing how I quit smokint cigarettes cold turkey on Feb. 2, 1980. Here goes.

My father died in a boating accident in September 1980. We were shocked beyond all we could measure. The accident occurred in Gibsons, British Columbia, Canada. Two passengers of the boat died that evening: Dad and the owner of the boat; two others, friends of Dad, survived.

They recovered the remains of the driver of the boat that evening. Dad remained MIA. So, the owner of the company for which Dad worked arranged to fly me to Gibsons to stand by while the Royal Canadian Mounted Police searched for Dad’s remains.

I arrived at the camp where Dad had been staying and we were joined by some loggers who worked on other side of the inlet. We were served some stew that night for dinner.

Then the loggers began pouring the booze. We talked about Dad. One of the loggers paid me a nice compliment by telling me I had “guts” to come there. He also regaled me with his distate for French-Canadians; hey, I knew all about the regional distate between easteern and western Canadians.

They got me sh**-stinking drunk that night. I was wasted beyond belief. I could’ve lit up a smoke that night.,

But I didn’t!

I got through the bender beyond belief. I turned in for the night. I woke the next morning and then returned home to Portland.

I thanked my new friends for taking good care of me.

One more point: The Mounties didn’t find Dad’s remains while I was there. They recovered Dad a few days later.

This much I knew, which was that if I could endure the body-numbing pain of the loss we had suffered without lighting up … I was home free.

local news

City manager residence at issue

1 Comment

City managers are responsible for a lot of things emanating from City Hall … such as taxes that they propose for city residents to pay for municipal services.

It always has struck me that the individual who proposes a specific tax burden for residents in their city should have to shoulder part of that burden himself or herself.

Here in Princeton, where I have lived for six years, that’s not the case. The city hired a young man, Mike Mashburn, as its city manager in 2024. He signed a hefty contract, then was given an extension and a raise shortly afteward.

He took the job without having to move to Princeton. The city charter, approved in 2023, doesn’t require that the city’s chief executive officer live inside city’s limits. Mashburn hasn’t made the move. A group of Princeton residents, though, want to amend the city charter to make in-city residency a requirement of City Hall’s top dog.

I have two thoughts on this idea. My first thought is that the City Council that sent the charter to a vote of residents should have written such a requirement into the document. I find it unconscionable that the city manager doesn’t share the burden he proposes for others.

My second thought is that since Mashburn is under contract he could sue the city for breaching that agreement if the cÃ¥harter amendment passes. Moreover … he well could win that lawsuit, which could cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in a settlement.

The mayor who engineered Mashburn’s hiring lost her re-election bid late in 2024. Brianna Chacon interviewed Mashburn and then presented him to the City Council, which then — after meeting him for the first time in closed session — voted unanimously to hire him.

The bottom line from my vantage point is that the City Council did not perform its due diligence by insisting that the city manager live in the city where he would work each day.

As for City Manager Mike Mashburn, he should sell his house and move here … pronto!

local news, medical news

Placebo effect takes hold … maybe

1 Comment

Three weeks into a nutrition and health management program run by the Veterans Administration and I am going to issue a preliminary progress report.

I signed up for this program a few weeks ago because I determined I need professional help with shedding the weight I gained after I lost my bride, Kathy Anne, to brain cancer. I devoured far too much comfort food and I paid the price with a lot of excess weight.

The program I joined is 16 weeks long. We just finished the third week of lessons delivered via online connection to my laptop here in North Texas.

Have I lost significant amounts of weight? Am I now able to look at myself in the mirror? No on both counts. However, there must be some sort of placebo impact taking hold of me.

Why? I feel better. It’s tough to define. I am proud of myself that I am able to exhibit some long-lost dietary discipline. I am keep strict daily logs of the calories I consume and the calories I expend through exercise and, well, just moving around and about.

I have heard about docs prescribing placebo medication — which, of course, is fake — as a sort of disguise to determine whether a patient is really sick. I will consider this positive effect on my outlook as a form of placebo I am receiving from the dietitian I am meeting each week.

I know that Billy Crystal’s SNL character “Fernando” would say it is “better to look good than to feel good.” Baloney. I feel great. I’ll settle for that gladly as I continue along this journey.

economic news, local news

Princeton does the inevitable

Princeton’s City Council had no choice but to do what it did Monday night by extending the building moratorium it had placed on new single-family dwelling and apartment construction.

It voted to extend its four-month building ban another six months.

So, let’s see. That means it will be 10 months before the city could start issuing building permits on those types of dwellings. This is just me, but my gut tells me another extension could be in the deck of cards that council members would want to play.

Princeton’s population continues to explode, But ,.. wait! The city needs more police officers, more firefighters, more medical emergency personnel, better streets, more electric utilities, more natural gas lines.

Moreover, the city needs much more commercial development, which isn’t part of the public financing obligation associated with infrastructure development. That commercial development is on the verge of become a reality.

A Princeton resident told CBS News Texas Channel 11 last night that folks here have to go to places such as McKinney and Allen for entertainment or to just purchase needed goods and commodities.

Princeton has developed an ocean of single-family rooftops. That’s fine, but the strain on new residents’ tax obligation is more than many of the newbies would care to absorb.

The city has some catching-up to do and I’m not sure six months extra time is enough.

local news, political news, State news

Abortion to ‘challenge’ Texas Legislature?

2 Comments

The headline atop the front page of the Dallas Morning News screamed out that the new Texas Legislature faces many “challenges” as it prepares to get to work on our behalf for the next five months.

One of them surely is going to be abortion and whether legislators are intent on banning all abortive procedures, all of ’em, making women, spouses and docs criminals.

Newly sworn in Rep. Brent Money, R-Greenville, says categorically that Texas must ban all abortion, citing what he said is “God’s creation” being sacred to merit legislation by mere mortal human beings. He appeared this morning on WFAA-TV’s “Inside Politics” program.

I will disagree with the gentleman. He doesn’t seem to take into account what happens to a child who is born with debilitating deformities. Who cannot care for herself or himself. Whose birth puts Mama’s health — and life — in jeopardy.

I offer those caveats as a pro-life Texas resident myself. I consider myself pro-life, however, I do not believe in legislating from afar whether a woman can take command of her own body or whether she must surrender her reproductive rights because some lawmaker in Austin forces her to do so.

Rep. Money is taking the seat once held by another right-wing extremist, Bryan Slaton, who was drummed out of the House because he got a female legislative staffer drunk as a skunk before having sex with her.

I am going out on a limb here, but I do not believe most Texans adhere to Money’s view that we need to ban all abortion, period.

There in could lie Texas lawmakers’ huge “challenge” as they prepare to convene their next session this week.

May the force of common sense and compassion be with all of them.

local news, media news

Remembering final big move

1 Comment

Thirty years ago this week, I piled most of my worldly possessions into a 1987 Honda Civic and set out for what would be the final stop on my fun-filled career in print journalism.

I had spent nearly 11 years pursuing my craft in Beaumont, Texas, but then an opportunity presented itself in a community far from the Gulf Coast … but still part of this vast state of ours.

I moved to Amarillo. People have asked me over the years when I moved to the Panhandle, and I have been able to tell them the precise date. I reported for work at the Amarillo Globe-News on Jan. 9, 1995. I departed Beaumont on Jan. 6; it took a while to drive from the swamp to the High Plains.

I made one overnight stop in Fort Worth to see some dear friends before trudging northwest along U.S. 287.

But I got to Amarillo. I would learn later of a quip I adopted and have used many times: It is so flat in the Panhandle that if you stand on your tiptoes, you can see the back of your own head. 

It helps, too, that the region is so barren that there’s little tall timber to block that view.

The point of this brief blog? It’s to highlight the flexibility and adaptability I didn’t realize I possessed when I decided to move from my native Oregon to Texas in 1984.

They used to run a tourism ad that called Texas a “whole other country.” How true it is. Beaumont not only is a lengthy mileage distance from the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast possesses a whole other culture. Whereas the Panhandle prides itself on its cowboy tradition, the Golden Triangle takes pride in its Cajun southern culture. Both places appeal to me greatly.

Life took another huge turn in March 2013 when my granddaughter came into this world. My bride and I set about preparing to move from the Panhandle to the Metroplex. It took a while, but we got here.

I guess I want simply to salute the journey my career enabled me to take. Kathy Anne and I saw much of this country and a good part of world on that trek. Texas gave us the opportunity to live a wonderful life.

We have been blessed beyond all measure. My journey continues.

local news

New mayor pledges ‘transparency’

Stop me if you’ve heard this before … a new politician promises to bring transparency to a government he wants to lead, but then somehow falls short of delivering fully on the pledge.

Princeton’s new mayor, Eugene Escobar Jr., has said he wants to improve transparency at City Hall. OK, fine. The person he defeated in the December runoff, Mayor Brianna Chacon, made the same promise back when she first was elected to the office.

To my admittedly feeble eyes, Chacon fell a bit short of delivering the goods. I am going to cite the city’s hiring of Mike Mashburn as its city manager in early 2024. Chacon called it a “transparent” process … but it wasn’t.

I was covering the City Council meeting the night Mashburn got the nod. A lot of the run-up process caught me by surprise. Transparent? No.

Chacon had interviewed Mashburn, who was an assistant city manager in Farmers Branch. She was the primary interviewer. Chacon said she brought in some “key” department heads to talk to the young man.

Then, on the night of the council meeting, she introduced Mashburn to the council members. They were meeting him for the first time in executive — or closed — session. After visiting with the fellow for about an hour, they voted unanimously to hire him. Council then reconvened the open session and affirmed the decision with a unanimous vote.

I submit that Mashburn’s hiring was not a transparent process. It was shrouded in secrecy. If the new mayor is intent on improving transparency to city government, he can start with opening up the way the city hires its key management personnel.

The city manager is the only person the council hires. The manager is in charge of hiring everyone else. However, the mayor presides over the city government and he or she can set the transparency tone simply by insisting that these processes be conducted in full public view.

Princeton opened its new municipal complex touting its many windows as a symbol of transparency. Perhaps the new mayor can deliver on the symbolism.

local news

It’s me vs. solicitors

My friends tell me I possess a fairly even-tempered disposition, that they like that as a rule I don’t get too rattled.

I am afraid that’s about to change as it regards door-to-door solicitors.

I have posted next to my front porch a “No Solicitation” sign. It’s been out there for years. And … for years solicitors have ignored it.

I young man rang my doorbell today, carrying some material for a home security system. I said “no” to him. He was on his way.

He chose to ignore the sign, I guess.

From this very moment on, I am going to tell solicitors of the sign. I want to point it out to them. I might also spew a few four-letter words at them for seemingly ignoring my plea to stay away.

I am declaring a state of war between me and the door-to-door cabal out there. I feel better now.

local news

Here’s to a new year, a new outlook

Here is a sample of the chatter I have seen on my social media circle of friends and acquaintances: I don’t remember ever wanting a year to end like this one. Don’t know what 2025 has in store but has to be an improvement.

You and I know what this individual is talking about. If not, I’ll spill the beans: It’s the presidential election and the result it produced.

This person is a former elected official, a friend of mine and someone with whom I share his disdain over the election result. I, too, wish it had gone differently. It went the wrong way. I am dealing with it.

I have been able, though, to compartmentalize events of 2024 and separate them from the events of the previous year. 2023 was the worst year of my life. I lost my dear bride to glioblastoma (cancer of the brain) at the start of the year; then near the end of the year I let my puppy, Toby, go because of the cancer that ravaged him.

I looked forward to 2024 being a far better year than ’23. For me personally, it damn sure was a lot brighter. If you include the presidential election result, why … even the year that is passing into history turned out better than its immediate predecessor.

I was able to travel in ’23 and in ’24. My trek in 2023 took me to both coasts, where Toby and I visited family and dear friends. The 2024 version allowed me to fly twice to Europe. In the spring, I visited beloved friends in Nuremberg, Germany. In September, I boarded another long-haul jetliner and flew to Greece, where I met my cousin and her son; we soaked up some late-summer sun on the island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea.

Not only that, upon my return from Greece, I received another new member of my family: Sabol the Puppy, who needed someone to care for her. We fell in love at first sight. So … there you go! How can it get any better than that?

I am going to rely on the strength of our Constitution to withstand the pressure it will feel from the new government in DC. My faith in the founders’ wisdom is strong. So is my faith in my government to hold fast and steady in the tempest that awaits.

local news, medical news

New year, challenge await

Long ago, I vowed to cease making New Year’s resolutions for reasons you’ll understand … I don’t follow through on them.

So, what the hell is the point?

However, 2025 is going to mark the start of a new journey I intend fully to complete. I wrote on this blog a while ago that I have sought professional help to lose the weight I gained since February 2023. I buried myself in comfort food after losing my dear bride, Kathy Anne, to glioblastoma brain cancer.

I packed on way too many pounds.

I reached out to the Veterans Administration Medical Center where I get my medical care. They have a nutrition program at the Sam Rayburn Clinic in Bonham. On Friday I will engage with a nutritionist to begin a 16-week class on building a better, healthier lifestyle.

The VA calls the program MOVE. I don’t know what MOVE means, although the all-capital-letter identifier suggests it’s an acronym; I’ll ask when I sign in Friday morning.

I used to have sufficient self-discipline to accomplish weight-loss goals by myself. That discipline has vanished. I decided to admit to a lack of self-starting ability. The VA has been most helpful in preparing me for the start of this class.

My weight-loss goal is substantial. I hope to achieve it by the end of 2025. I figure that if I succeed in meeting the MOVE goals during my class period, I’ll reach my target weight according to plan.

I won’t chronicle my progress regularly on this blog. I am taking a moment today to tell my friends and family members — and others who read my messages — that this old man is about to try a new approach to achieving what we all want … to live a long and fruitful life.

I am not yet ready to check out of this Earthly world. Therefore … I’ll see y’all at the end of the road.