Bush library going to SMU?
N.Y. newspaper quotes 'insiders'; White House, university aren't saying
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP Wire) - There's no White House confirmation, but the New York Daily News has declared Dallas the winner in the George W. Bush presidential library sweepstakes.
In today's editions, the newspaper quotes "Bush insiders" as declaring that the library will be built on or near the Southern Methodist University campus.
SMU officials, who have acknowledged they plan to bid for the library, could not be reached Saturday night for comment on the report. An unnamed White House official told the Daily News, "We're nowhere near any announcements or decisions or anything."
But the newspaper, without naming its sources, said the issue was settled, "barring a major turnabout by the First Family."
"Anyone who understands George and Laura can see where it's going," one source was quoted as saying.
Another source declared flatly: "It's going to be in Dallas."
Dallas – and SMU in particular – has been regarded as one of the front-runners in the competition for the library, which is projected as a prestigious landmark and a major tourist attraction.
The Bushes lived in the Preston Hollow area of Dallas before Mr. Bush was elected governor of Texas, and Mrs. Bush is an SMU trustee.
Other Texas entrants have promised strong bids as well. They include:
•Baylor University in Waco, which is just 20 miles away from the Bush ranch in Crawford.
•Arlington, home of the Texas Rangers, of which Mr. Bush once was part owner.
•The University of Texas at Austin, which already has Lyndon Johnson's library, and Texas A&M University, where Mr. Bush's father's library is.
•Midland, where Mr. Bush grew up and went into the oil business.
The White House has not announced a timetable for deciding on the library's location, but planning generally starts well before the end of the presidential term.
Bill Clinton announced that he would build his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., in November 1997, more than three years before he left office.
In November 2003, SMU bought the former Mrs. Baird's bakery at Central Expressway and Mockingbird Lane, sparking speculation that the site could be used for the Bush library.
The university never confirmed that, but acknowledged that it began planning to lure the library soon after Mr. Bush took office.
"It's no secret that SMU wants it," Thomas Barry, a university vice president, told The Dallas Morning News in December. "The president has known from the very earliest point that SMU is interested."
News from the Lone Star State
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The big man on campus reform
Lobbyist a go-to guy on school policy, but some question his motives
By SCOTT PARKS / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas – Sandy Kress is charting the future for America's schoolchildren. Ten years ago, he was president of the Dallas school board. In 2001, he helped President Bush shoulder the No Child Left Behind Act through Congress.
He's a lawyer, a lobbyist, an education policy wonk and a once-prominent Democrat who became a top adviser to Republicans. And today, at age 55, Mr. Kress is among the most influential players in the education-industrial complex.
Some critics see a conflict. On the one hand, Mr. Kress is a leading advocate of using test data to hold schools accountable; he says his motivation is to make education better for children. On the other, the accountability movement that he espouses benefits the clients who have made him wealthy.
"One of the things that irritates people is that he wraps George W. Bush around his neck like a mink stole, and he is really this highly paid hired gun who opens up education markets for big companies," said Carolyn Boyle, a former PTA mom who lobbies to maintain funding for public schools.
Mr. Kress dismisses such talk as hyperbole from people who "see hobgoblins" and "commies under the bed." What they should be focusing on, he said, is bad schools where most kids fail the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
"You wanna know what motivates me?" Mr. Kress asked. "Fixing that problem is what motivates me."
Whether to feed his passion or to pad his paycheck, Mr. Kress has picked up his briefcase and headed to the Capitol to join the legislative debate about reshaping schools and the teaching profession.
"I'm a radical education reformer," he said. "That is who I am. That is the definition of Sandy Kress."
Mr. Kress is a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which describes itself as one of the world's largest law firms. He operates from an office on the 21st floor of a downtown Austin high-rise. He lives in a million-dollar home with his wife, Camille. They have two children who attend public schools.
Mr. Kress seems to be involved in every serious conversation about education policy from California to New York. His schedule keeps him hopscotching across the country as a cheerleader for No Child Left Behind, the sweeping federal education law that enshrined test data as the centerpiece of school accountability.
Under the Texas Capitol dome this session, he is the paid lobbyist for conservative businessmen intent on imposing more accountability on public schools in return for increased funding. He consults for companies that sell products and services to state education agencies and school districts. And he advises corporate chief executives under the banner of business groups such as the Business Roundtable.
Mr. Kress declined to reveal his hourly rate. It varies by client, he said. Sometimes, he volunteers his time.
At legislative hearings and education conferences and in the press, he is usually identified as a former education adviser to President Bush or as a former Dallas school board president in the mid-1990s.
Rarely mentioned publicly, however, are Mr. Kress' connections to powerful companies and business associations that have a stake in a $500-billion-a-year public education machine fueled by a politically volatile mix of federal, state and local taxes.
"Sandy is old-school in that he wants to fly under the radar screen, particularly as it relates to his lobbying activities," said longtime friend Robert Spellings, a Washington lobbyist and husband of U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. "He quietly goes about his business, and he has credibility."
Mr. Kress says he follows all public disclosure laws for lobbyists. He frowned upon hearing his friend's metaphor. "I don't fly above or below anything," he said.
Legislative influence
Most lawmakers don't seem to care whom Mr. Kress represents. When he speaks, they listen.
Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, chairwoman of the state Senate's Education Committee, will be a key player in crafting controversial proposals based on test score data – things such as bonus pay for teachers and state sanctions for low-performing schools.
Mr. Kress "has been a vital part of everything I've done for the last two years. I say he is an adviser and mentor, and we share ideas," Ms. Shapiro said. "When it comes to public schools and the betterment of children, I don't know of anyone who cares more about that than Sandy Kress."
Ms. Shapiro said she sees Mr. Kress as a friend, not one of the estimated 300 Austin lawyer-lobbyists who represent clients interested in public education law.
"I have no idea who his clients are," she said.
Much of Mr. Kress' work takes place under the cloak of attorney-client privilege.
"I don't want to talk too much about what I do for my clients because I don't think they like that," he said.
Mr. Kress' relationship with Pearson Education, one of the world's largest education companies, illustrates how he works with some clients.
Pearson, among other things, publishes textbooks and runs high-stakes test programs for state education agencies. The company holds a $57 million contract to run the TAKS test program for 2004-05, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency that reports to Congress, says states will spend $1.9 billion to $5.3 billion to implement tests mandated by No Child Left Behind.
So what is Mr. Kress' value to a major player in the textbook and testing industries?
A January 2003 meeting of Pearson executives and their investors shed some light on that question. Mr. Kress was the featured speaker.
Marjorie Scardino, the Texarkana-born chief executive of parent company Pearson PLC (which also owns The Financial Times and Penguin Books), introduced Mr. Kress as one of "the leading advisers on education policy in America."
"He also is our adviser," she said. "He talks a lot to us about how NCLB is going to change things for us and what kinds of products and services might be appropriate for that kind of change."
Mr. Kress spent 20 minutes guiding Pearson investors through his encyclopedic knowledge of federal law, helping them understand No Child Left Behind's requirements and their effect on the market: more money for English language learners, new mandates for science testing beginning in 2006-07 and a hundred other details.
During a recent interview, he talked about how he sees himself and his work. The word "lobbyist" was not prominent in his self-analysis.
What he really does, he said, is use a unique blend of knowledge about public education law and education research to chart the future for his clients. He reads research. For example, he knows what middle school math textbooks should contain and who should be hired to write them.
"I may say, 'Here's what I think' or 'Here's what I see.' "
From Dallas to D.C.
How can he be both a professorial guru and a hired gun? One lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, likened Mr. Kress to Jell-O that's hard to grab onto.
In the mid-1980s, he was Democratic Party chairman in Dallas County. He ran for the Dallas school board in 1992 and won. Even back then, he advocated upgrading learning by using a standardized test to measure academic success and teacher performance.
In 1993, George W. Bush was preparing to run for governor and called Mr. Kress for a tutorial on education policy. They became friends.
By 1995, Mr. Kress had become Dallas school board president. It was an extraordinarily divisive period for the Dallas Independent School District. Mr. Kress and other whites on the board often voted with the Latino members in a bloc that became known as the "slam-dunk gang."
Black trustees accused him of running a dictatorship that targeted minority schools for punishment for academic problems. He said he was just trying to improve the schools, and in fact student test scores did rise during his tenure. Under his leadership, DISD also implemented an accountability system to link teachers' evaluations to the performance of their students.
But after four racially charged years on the board, he chose not to run for re-election in 1996.
"The political conflicts in Dallas were complex," he said. "I don't purport to fully understand them."
The political turmoil helped persuade Mr. Kress to leave Dallas in 1997 and establish himself in Austin. By then, he had become a confidant to both Democrats and Republicans. His loyalty to Mr. Bush had deepened.
In 2001, he turned up as a temporary government employee in Washington. With his bipartisan pedigree and education expertise, Mr. Bush saw him as the perfect choice to shepherd No Child Left Behind through Congress.
Mr. Kress got much of the credit for passing the law. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called him the president's "smooth talker." He left Washington with greater stature among Republicans, who were becoming the winning team in Washington and Austin.
Even so, Mr. Kress never switched parties publicly. He started referring to himself as "post-partisan."
Records show that he and his wife have contributed $7,000 to the Bush presidential campaigns. But he also contributed to his law firm's political action committee, which gives money to both Republicans and Democrats.
Voting records show that he participated in the 2000 Republican primary. In 2002, he voted in the Democratic primary. He didn't vote in either primary in 2004.
"I still get surprised when folks ascribe political motives to what I do," he said. "I work with Democrats. I work with Republicans. And I don't see myself, for better or worse, as making decisions to curry favor on a partisan basis."
The accountability fight
Mr. Kress also lobbies for Texas Businesses for Educational Excellence, a loose-knit group that wants a more productive public education system for their tax dollars.
The group advocates a tightly controlled industrial model for education called standards-based accountability.
The state develops a script – grade by grade and subject by subject – to determine what children should be taught. It's called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Teachers follow the guidelines, and children are tested to measure academic production.
Test results allow the state to target teachers and principals for praise or blame. The scores also point to schools that might need restructuring.
Teachers and other critics say this system steals creativity from the classroom and leaves no time for deeper learning and critical thinking. Mr. Kress dismisses those complaints. He says good teachers can find time for a well-rounded curriculum beyond TEKS.
"You cannot teach a whole semester on dinosaurs," Mr. Kress said. "With some teachers, it would be a whole semester on dinosaurs. It's a revolution. In the past, those decisions were made in the classroom."
Linda McNeil, a professor of education at Rice University, says the business model for public education is disrespectful of teachers.
"The idea is that teachers don't work hard and that they need to be shaped up by business people," said Dr. McNeil, a critic of the standards-based accountability movement.
The focus on a uniform statewide testing system, she argued, shifts public attention away from the poor school environment that many lower-income students endure each day – inferior libraries, too few textbooks, no running water in science classes.
"Sameness becomes a proxy for equity," she said. "The so-called accountability system becomes a mask for the old inequalities."
Critics say Mr. Kress' education philosophy equates teachers to salesmen. Mr. Kress is among those who advocate bonuses for schools that score better on TAKS, with principals deciding which teachers are rewarded.
He is also pushing the TEA to classify more Texas schools as "low-performing." Right now, some are ranked "acceptable" even though no more than 25 percent of their students pass the TAKS test.
Mr. Kress also advocates new, "muscular" sanctions for schools that remain low-performing for three years in a row when compared with schools with similar demographics.
To escape those schools, parents might be given publicly funded vouchers to transfer their children to private schools. Or regulators might turn the operations of chronically low-performing schools over to private for-profit or nonprofit management companies.
"Whether it's done by school people themselves or contracted out to somebody else, I'm agnostic on that," Mr. Kress said. "But that it be done is essential."
Mr. Kress also says he believes state government should expand the number of charter schools in Texas. Educational choices for parents are a good thing, he said.
The opposition
Talk of vouchers and privatizing public schools is threatening to many teachers, administrators and other public school advocates.
Ms. Boyle, the former PTA mom, works with many of those who are alarmed. She runs the Coalition for Public Schools, an amalgam of 40 organizations that represent everyone from teachers to school administrators to elected school board members.
And she is suspicious of those who talk about issuing vouchers and corporations taking over failing public schools.
"I'm looking at all of this as a parent with a lot of heart involved," said Ms. Boyle, who spends her days fighting legislative proposals to divert money from public schools. "These guys are looking at schools with their brains and calculators."
Lobbyist a go-to guy on school policy, but some question his motives
By SCOTT PARKS / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas – Sandy Kress is charting the future for America's schoolchildren. Ten years ago, he was president of the Dallas school board. In 2001, he helped President Bush shoulder the No Child Left Behind Act through Congress.
He's a lawyer, a lobbyist, an education policy wonk and a once-prominent Democrat who became a top adviser to Republicans. And today, at age 55, Mr. Kress is among the most influential players in the education-industrial complex.
Some critics see a conflict. On the one hand, Mr. Kress is a leading advocate of using test data to hold schools accountable; he says his motivation is to make education better for children. On the other, the accountability movement that he espouses benefits the clients who have made him wealthy.
"One of the things that irritates people is that he wraps George W. Bush around his neck like a mink stole, and he is really this highly paid hired gun who opens up education markets for big companies," said Carolyn Boyle, a former PTA mom who lobbies to maintain funding for public schools.
Mr. Kress dismisses such talk as hyperbole from people who "see hobgoblins" and "commies under the bed." What they should be focusing on, he said, is bad schools where most kids fail the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.
"You wanna know what motivates me?" Mr. Kress asked. "Fixing that problem is what motivates me."
Whether to feed his passion or to pad his paycheck, Mr. Kress has picked up his briefcase and headed to the Capitol to join the legislative debate about reshaping schools and the teaching profession.
"I'm a radical education reformer," he said. "That is who I am. That is the definition of Sandy Kress."
Mr. Kress is a partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, which describes itself as one of the world's largest law firms. He operates from an office on the 21st floor of a downtown Austin high-rise. He lives in a million-dollar home with his wife, Camille. They have two children who attend public schools.
Mr. Kress seems to be involved in every serious conversation about education policy from California to New York. His schedule keeps him hopscotching across the country as a cheerleader for No Child Left Behind, the sweeping federal education law that enshrined test data as the centerpiece of school accountability.
Under the Texas Capitol dome this session, he is the paid lobbyist for conservative businessmen intent on imposing more accountability on public schools in return for increased funding. He consults for companies that sell products and services to state education agencies and school districts. And he advises corporate chief executives under the banner of business groups such as the Business Roundtable.
Mr. Kress declined to reveal his hourly rate. It varies by client, he said. Sometimes, he volunteers his time.
At legislative hearings and education conferences and in the press, he is usually identified as a former education adviser to President Bush or as a former Dallas school board president in the mid-1990s.
Rarely mentioned publicly, however, are Mr. Kress' connections to powerful companies and business associations that have a stake in a $500-billion-a-year public education machine fueled by a politically volatile mix of federal, state and local taxes.
"Sandy is old-school in that he wants to fly under the radar screen, particularly as it relates to his lobbying activities," said longtime friend Robert Spellings, a Washington lobbyist and husband of U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. "He quietly goes about his business, and he has credibility."
Mr. Kress says he follows all public disclosure laws for lobbyists. He frowned upon hearing his friend's metaphor. "I don't fly above or below anything," he said.
Legislative influence
Most lawmakers don't seem to care whom Mr. Kress represents. When he speaks, they listen.
Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, chairwoman of the state Senate's Education Committee, will be a key player in crafting controversial proposals based on test score data – things such as bonus pay for teachers and state sanctions for low-performing schools.
Mr. Kress "has been a vital part of everything I've done for the last two years. I say he is an adviser and mentor, and we share ideas," Ms. Shapiro said. "When it comes to public schools and the betterment of children, I don't know of anyone who cares more about that than Sandy Kress."
Ms. Shapiro said she sees Mr. Kress as a friend, not one of the estimated 300 Austin lawyer-lobbyists who represent clients interested in public education law.
"I have no idea who his clients are," she said.
Much of Mr. Kress' work takes place under the cloak of attorney-client privilege.
"I don't want to talk too much about what I do for my clients because I don't think they like that," he said.
Mr. Kress' relationship with Pearson Education, one of the world's largest education companies, illustrates how he works with some clients.
Pearson, among other things, publishes textbooks and runs high-stakes test programs for state education agencies. The company holds a $57 million contract to run the TAKS test program for 2004-05, according to the Texas Education Agency.
The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency that reports to Congress, says states will spend $1.9 billion to $5.3 billion to implement tests mandated by No Child Left Behind.
So what is Mr. Kress' value to a major player in the textbook and testing industries?
A January 2003 meeting of Pearson executives and their investors shed some light on that question. Mr. Kress was the featured speaker.
Marjorie Scardino, the Texarkana-born chief executive of parent company Pearson PLC (which also owns The Financial Times and Penguin Books), introduced Mr. Kress as one of "the leading advisers on education policy in America."
"He also is our adviser," she said. "He talks a lot to us about how NCLB is going to change things for us and what kinds of products and services might be appropriate for that kind of change."
Mr. Kress spent 20 minutes guiding Pearson investors through his encyclopedic knowledge of federal law, helping them understand No Child Left Behind's requirements and their effect on the market: more money for English language learners, new mandates for science testing beginning in 2006-07 and a hundred other details.
During a recent interview, he talked about how he sees himself and his work. The word "lobbyist" was not prominent in his self-analysis.
What he really does, he said, is use a unique blend of knowledge about public education law and education research to chart the future for his clients. He reads research. For example, he knows what middle school math textbooks should contain and who should be hired to write them.
"I may say, 'Here's what I think' or 'Here's what I see.' "
From Dallas to D.C.
How can he be both a professorial guru and a hired gun? One lawmaker, who asked not to be identified, likened Mr. Kress to Jell-O that's hard to grab onto.
In the mid-1980s, he was Democratic Party chairman in Dallas County. He ran for the Dallas school board in 1992 and won. Even back then, he advocated upgrading learning by using a standardized test to measure academic success and teacher performance.
In 1993, George W. Bush was preparing to run for governor and called Mr. Kress for a tutorial on education policy. They became friends.
By 1995, Mr. Kress had become Dallas school board president. It was an extraordinarily divisive period for the Dallas Independent School District. Mr. Kress and other whites on the board often voted with the Latino members in a bloc that became known as the "slam-dunk gang."
Black trustees accused him of running a dictatorship that targeted minority schools for punishment for academic problems. He said he was just trying to improve the schools, and in fact student test scores did rise during his tenure. Under his leadership, DISD also implemented an accountability system to link teachers' evaluations to the performance of their students.
But after four racially charged years on the board, he chose not to run for re-election in 1996.
"The political conflicts in Dallas were complex," he said. "I don't purport to fully understand them."
The political turmoil helped persuade Mr. Kress to leave Dallas in 1997 and establish himself in Austin. By then, he had become a confidant to both Democrats and Republicans. His loyalty to Mr. Bush had deepened.
In 2001, he turned up as a temporary government employee in Washington. With his bipartisan pedigree and education expertise, Mr. Bush saw him as the perfect choice to shepherd No Child Left Behind through Congress.
Mr. Kress got much of the credit for passing the law. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., called him the president's "smooth talker." He left Washington with greater stature among Republicans, who were becoming the winning team in Washington and Austin.
Even so, Mr. Kress never switched parties publicly. He started referring to himself as "post-partisan."
Records show that he and his wife have contributed $7,000 to the Bush presidential campaigns. But he also contributed to his law firm's political action committee, which gives money to both Republicans and Democrats.
Voting records show that he participated in the 2000 Republican primary. In 2002, he voted in the Democratic primary. He didn't vote in either primary in 2004.
"I still get surprised when folks ascribe political motives to what I do," he said. "I work with Democrats. I work with Republicans. And I don't see myself, for better or worse, as making decisions to curry favor on a partisan basis."
The accountability fight
Mr. Kress also lobbies for Texas Businesses for Educational Excellence, a loose-knit group that wants a more productive public education system for their tax dollars.
The group advocates a tightly controlled industrial model for education called standards-based accountability.
The state develops a script – grade by grade and subject by subject – to determine what children should be taught. It's called the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Teachers follow the guidelines, and children are tested to measure academic production.
Test results allow the state to target teachers and principals for praise or blame. The scores also point to schools that might need restructuring.
Teachers and other critics say this system steals creativity from the classroom and leaves no time for deeper learning and critical thinking. Mr. Kress dismisses those complaints. He says good teachers can find time for a well-rounded curriculum beyond TEKS.
"You cannot teach a whole semester on dinosaurs," Mr. Kress said. "With some teachers, it would be a whole semester on dinosaurs. It's a revolution. In the past, those decisions were made in the classroom."
Linda McNeil, a professor of education at Rice University, says the business model for public education is disrespectful of teachers.
"The idea is that teachers don't work hard and that they need to be shaped up by business people," said Dr. McNeil, a critic of the standards-based accountability movement.
The focus on a uniform statewide testing system, she argued, shifts public attention away from the poor school environment that many lower-income students endure each day – inferior libraries, too few textbooks, no running water in science classes.
"Sameness becomes a proxy for equity," she said. "The so-called accountability system becomes a mask for the old inequalities."
Critics say Mr. Kress' education philosophy equates teachers to salesmen. Mr. Kress is among those who advocate bonuses for schools that score better on TAKS, with principals deciding which teachers are rewarded.
He is also pushing the TEA to classify more Texas schools as "low-performing." Right now, some are ranked "acceptable" even though no more than 25 percent of their students pass the TAKS test.
Mr. Kress also advocates new, "muscular" sanctions for schools that remain low-performing for three years in a row when compared with schools with similar demographics.
To escape those schools, parents might be given publicly funded vouchers to transfer their children to private schools. Or regulators might turn the operations of chronically low-performing schools over to private for-profit or nonprofit management companies.
"Whether it's done by school people themselves or contracted out to somebody else, I'm agnostic on that," Mr. Kress said. "But that it be done is essential."
Mr. Kress also says he believes state government should expand the number of charter schools in Texas. Educational choices for parents are a good thing, he said.
The opposition
Talk of vouchers and privatizing public schools is threatening to many teachers, administrators and other public school advocates.
Ms. Boyle, the former PTA mom, works with many of those who are alarmed. She runs the Coalition for Public Schools, an amalgam of 40 organizations that represent everyone from teachers to school administrators to elected school board members.
And she is suspicious of those who talk about issuing vouchers and corporations taking over failing public schools.
"I'm looking at all of this as a parent with a lot of heart involved," said Ms. Boyle, who spends her days fighting legislative proposals to divert money from public schools. "These guys are looking at schools with their brains and calculators."
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Missing woman's car found in Corsicana
CORSICANA, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) – Authorities are searching for a 77-year-old woman whose car was found abandoned off a muddy road in Corsicana.
Iris Owens has been missing since Tuesday, when search officials say she was apparently headed to a Wal-Mart, about 14 miles from her home in the town of Purdon.
On Saturday morning a farmer found her car on a road east of Interstate 45, about 10 miles from the Wal-Mart. A beer can was found in the car, and Ms. Owens doesn't drink, said Dana Ames with United Response, a search-and-rescue team helping to look for the woman. The seat had been pushed back.
None of Ms. Owens' personal items were found in the car, the keys were missing and the car was locked, searchers said.
CORSICANA, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) – Authorities are searching for a 77-year-old woman whose car was found abandoned off a muddy road in Corsicana.
Iris Owens has been missing since Tuesday, when search officials say she was apparently headed to a Wal-Mart, about 14 miles from her home in the town of Purdon.
On Saturday morning a farmer found her car on a road east of Interstate 45, about 10 miles from the Wal-Mart. A beer can was found in the car, and Ms. Owens doesn't drink, said Dana Ames with United Response, a search-and-rescue team helping to look for the woman. The seat had been pushed back.
None of Ms. Owens' personal items were found in the car, the keys were missing and the car was locked, searchers said.
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TexasStooge
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Astronauts' route to space uncertain at best
NASA tells last class of high fliers they might not reach final frontier
HOUSTON, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) – George Zamka has been an astronaut for almost seven years, and he still hasn't made it to space. He's far from alone.
Grounded for two years, a third of the nation's nearly 150 astronauts have never flown in space, and some wonder when they will.
"Part of being at NASA is very few people get to fly in space," Mr. Zamka said. "Everyone else gets their enjoyment by contributing to the space mission."
The last class of astronauts has already been warned that it's unclear whether any of them will fly during the shuttle era – which ends in five years. All face an uncertain future, and development of the next-generation space vehicle could take until 2015.
"They knew very well that they arrived at the sunset of the shuttle and the dawn of the new vehicle, and they may be exposed to the gap in between the two," Mr. Zamka said of the newest class of astronauts. "For the last classes, there has been an effort made to make sure they are informed as to what the wait may be like. And they come anyway."
Forty-six of the nation's 142 astronauts have not flown in space; some of them are rookies, others have waited for years.
Mr. Zamka didn't think his wait would be so long. He expects to be assigned to a flight in two years and hopes to fly within the next four.
By that time, he'll have waited a decade.
"The nature of the business is it is a risky business, and certainly, part of that risk is delays and unforeseen events," Mr. Zamka said. "A lot of these things are just out of my control."
Astronaut Mark Polansky, who has flown one space mission and is set to command a mission next year, said some of his colleagues have expressed concern about where they are in line and when the opportunity to fly will come their way.
Mr. Zamka tries not to focus on it and says it only crosses his mind when he's idle.
"We are not stewing over here because we are not flying," he said. "We are all busy trying to get back to flying. We all turn ourselves to the task at hand, and that is how we deal with it."
They get inspiration from former astronauts, such as Story Musgrave, who waited 16 years to fly. He was selected as an astronaut in 1967 and didn't make it to space until 1983.
"I never had the attitude, 'I finally made it,' " Mr. Musgrave said from his Florida home. "That wasn't the way I was thinking."
Instead Mr. Musgrave said he concentrated on the tasks before him and working to be the best in the business.
'Space is my calling'
"Space is my calling," he said. "It was not a steppingstone to something greener. It was a calling, so I just took it as far as I could."
Mr. Musgrave ultimately flew on six shuttle missions before leaving NASA in 1997. Since his departure, he has written numerous scientific papers and worked as a consultant.
Shuttle missions have been halted since the Columbia accident two years ago that killed all seven crew members. May is the target for the next shuttle flight, but even that is a tentative date.
There was a similar grounding of shuttles after the Challenger explosion in January 1986 while repairs were made. But back then, only two or three astronauts worked full time to correct the solid rocket booster problem that caused that disaster, astronaut Pam Melroy said.
This time it's different.
Virtually all astronauts are intimately involved in the shuttle improvements, which include the ability to make repairs in space.
"The focus is very heavily on the astronauts and the crew, because they are going to have to actually go out and do this," Ms. Melroy said of the in-orbit repairs.
Almost everyone in the astronaut office is involved with return-to-flight in some way. The training, studying and additional work have been relentless, the astronauts say.
Those who aren't in a shuttle crew are assigned a variety of return-to-flight tasks and research on the development of a new space vehicle and President Bush's moon-to-Mars plan outlined last year.
Astronaut Andy Thomas, one of the crew members tentatively set to fly in May, has been concentrating on the three spacewalks for the next mission, which will test a variety of inspection and repair techniques.
'A very busy time'
"Even though we are not flying, it is a very busy time; it really is," Mr. Thomas said as he made sure two of his colleagues were properly strapped in and lowered into the neutral buoyancy lab pool. "It is an ambitious undertaking."
NASA would like to get a few more flights out of its three aged shuttles – built on 30-year-old technology – before they are phased out in 2010.
After the shuttles are retired, it could take until 2015 for NASA to have a new vehicle ready.
"People are not shirking that opportunity just because there is a wait in front of them," Mr. Zamka said. "This is a wonderful opportunity to be in the line or the window to fly in space at some time."
NASA tells last class of high fliers they might not reach final frontier
HOUSTON, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/AP) – George Zamka has been an astronaut for almost seven years, and he still hasn't made it to space. He's far from alone.
Grounded for two years, a third of the nation's nearly 150 astronauts have never flown in space, and some wonder when they will.
"Part of being at NASA is very few people get to fly in space," Mr. Zamka said. "Everyone else gets their enjoyment by contributing to the space mission."
The last class of astronauts has already been warned that it's unclear whether any of them will fly during the shuttle era – which ends in five years. All face an uncertain future, and development of the next-generation space vehicle could take until 2015.
"They knew very well that they arrived at the sunset of the shuttle and the dawn of the new vehicle, and they may be exposed to the gap in between the two," Mr. Zamka said of the newest class of astronauts. "For the last classes, there has been an effort made to make sure they are informed as to what the wait may be like. And they come anyway."
Forty-six of the nation's 142 astronauts have not flown in space; some of them are rookies, others have waited for years.
Mr. Zamka didn't think his wait would be so long. He expects to be assigned to a flight in two years and hopes to fly within the next four.
By that time, he'll have waited a decade.
"The nature of the business is it is a risky business, and certainly, part of that risk is delays and unforeseen events," Mr. Zamka said. "A lot of these things are just out of my control."
Astronaut Mark Polansky, who has flown one space mission and is set to command a mission next year, said some of his colleagues have expressed concern about where they are in line and when the opportunity to fly will come their way.
Mr. Zamka tries not to focus on it and says it only crosses his mind when he's idle.
"We are not stewing over here because we are not flying," he said. "We are all busy trying to get back to flying. We all turn ourselves to the task at hand, and that is how we deal with it."
They get inspiration from former astronauts, such as Story Musgrave, who waited 16 years to fly. He was selected as an astronaut in 1967 and didn't make it to space until 1983.
"I never had the attitude, 'I finally made it,' " Mr. Musgrave said from his Florida home. "That wasn't the way I was thinking."
Instead Mr. Musgrave said he concentrated on the tasks before him and working to be the best in the business.
'Space is my calling'
"Space is my calling," he said. "It was not a steppingstone to something greener. It was a calling, so I just took it as far as I could."
Mr. Musgrave ultimately flew on six shuttle missions before leaving NASA in 1997. Since his departure, he has written numerous scientific papers and worked as a consultant.
Shuttle missions have been halted since the Columbia accident two years ago that killed all seven crew members. May is the target for the next shuttle flight, but even that is a tentative date.
There was a similar grounding of shuttles after the Challenger explosion in January 1986 while repairs were made. But back then, only two or three astronauts worked full time to correct the solid rocket booster problem that caused that disaster, astronaut Pam Melroy said.
This time it's different.
Virtually all astronauts are intimately involved in the shuttle improvements, which include the ability to make repairs in space.
"The focus is very heavily on the astronauts and the crew, because they are going to have to actually go out and do this," Ms. Melroy said of the in-orbit repairs.
Almost everyone in the astronaut office is involved with return-to-flight in some way. The training, studying and additional work have been relentless, the astronauts say.
Those who aren't in a shuttle crew are assigned a variety of return-to-flight tasks and research on the development of a new space vehicle and President Bush's moon-to-Mars plan outlined last year.
Astronaut Andy Thomas, one of the crew members tentatively set to fly in May, has been concentrating on the three spacewalks for the next mission, which will test a variety of inspection and repair techniques.
'A very busy time'
"Even though we are not flying, it is a very busy time; it really is," Mr. Thomas said as he made sure two of his colleagues were properly strapped in and lowered into the neutral buoyancy lab pool. "It is an ambitious undertaking."
NASA would like to get a few more flights out of its three aged shuttles – built on 30-year-old technology – before they are phased out in 2010.
After the shuttles are retired, it could take until 2015 for NASA to have a new vehicle ready.
"People are not shirking that opportunity just because there is a wait in front of them," Mr. Zamka said. "This is a wonderful opportunity to be in the line or the window to fly in space at some time."
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TexasStooge
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What sort of circus freak steals the whole tent?
By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News
BEAUMONT, Texas - Harry Houdini would be impressed with this disappearing act.
Piccadilly Circus' enormous tent – a 5-ton monster at 150 feet by 350 feet with 65-foot aluminum poles – is gone from its winter storage at the Beaumont fairgrounds.
Circus officials discovered the red-and-white tent, along with its poles and miles of cable, missing just after Thanksgiving.
They said they didn't alert Beaumont police because circus workers didn't notice the tent was missing from its storage truck until they were in Florida days later preparing for a show.
"It's a very odd occurrence," said Philip M. Dolci, circus manager. "I can't imagine how this could have happened."
The Beaumont fairgrounds were the winter quarters for the national show, which includes daredevils, clowns, jugglers, contortionists and trained horses.
The theft could not have been easy, Mr. Dolci said. It would have taken a team of 20 to 30 men or a crane to move the 2-year-old tent from its storage in a large truck.
The circus, owned by Garden Family Shows of Sarasota, Fla., hired a private eye who has been unable to crack the case. Mr. Dolci believes it was probably shipped and sold overseas. The circus said there was no insurance on the tent.
"It would have to leave the country or we'd know about it," he said. "It's hard to miss."
The circus is offering a $10,000 reward for information about the tent theft. Send tips to the circus Web site: http://www.funcircus.com.
Of course, the show must go on. The circus bought a replacement tent for $175,000.
It's hot pink.
By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News
BEAUMONT, Texas - Harry Houdini would be impressed with this disappearing act.
Piccadilly Circus' enormous tent – a 5-ton monster at 150 feet by 350 feet with 65-foot aluminum poles – is gone from its winter storage at the Beaumont fairgrounds.
Circus officials discovered the red-and-white tent, along with its poles and miles of cable, missing just after Thanksgiving.
They said they didn't alert Beaumont police because circus workers didn't notice the tent was missing from its storage truck until they were in Florida days later preparing for a show.
"It's a very odd occurrence," said Philip M. Dolci, circus manager. "I can't imagine how this could have happened."
The Beaumont fairgrounds were the winter quarters for the national show, which includes daredevils, clowns, jugglers, contortionists and trained horses.
The theft could not have been easy, Mr. Dolci said. It would have taken a team of 20 to 30 men or a crane to move the 2-year-old tent from its storage in a large truck.
The circus, owned by Garden Family Shows of Sarasota, Fla., hired a private eye who has been unable to crack the case. Mr. Dolci believes it was probably shipped and sold overseas. The circus said there was no insurance on the tent.
"It would have to leave the country or we'd know about it," he said. "It's hard to miss."
The circus is offering a $10,000 reward for information about the tent theft. Send tips to the circus Web site: http://www.funcircus.com.
Of course, the show must go on. The circus bought a replacement tent for $175,000.
It's hot pink.
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TexasStooge
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Flag's battle never ends
Relic of the Alamo, long sought by Texas, turns up in Mexican museum
By DIANE JENNINGS and BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Remember the Alamo flag?
More than a decade ago, just as Texas officials stepped up efforts for Mexico to return the only remaining banner known to have flown at the Battle of the Alamo, the Mexicans said they'd lost it.
But recently, a reporter found the flag once more on display in Mexico's National History Museum, a faded scrap of silk hung in a glass case amid 19th-century rifles and portraits. The once-blue fabric is faded to dirty white. Its fringe is intact, an eagle still spread across the middle over the words "God & Liberty."
"It's well taken care of," said Nina Serratos, a museum official in Mexico City. "The museum restored it."
The banner of volunteer Alamo defenders from New Orleans, a cherished bit of sacred cloth in the secular religion of Texana, is no closer to coming home than when the Mexican army took it away 169 years ago.
But spokesmen for Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Mexican President Vicente Fox, in answer to questions from The Dallas Morning News, indicated the door might be open to a deal that would return the Alamo flag to Texas.
"The governor has discussions with Mexican officials all the time," said Perry spokesman Robert Black. "I'm sure that at the appropriate time the governor will broach this.
"It's certainly something that Governor Perry would like to see back in the Texas archives."
Said Agustín Gutiérrez Canet, a spokesman for Mr. Fox: "If the United States has some Mexican flags, perhaps there could be an exchange. But that's a hypothetical idea."
As it happens, reciprocity is not so hypothetical a notion. Texas' archives has the battle flags from Mexico's Toluca, Guerrero and Matamoros battalions, captured in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto.
The state has offered them to Mexico since 1995 and discussions about exchanging flags have taken place since 1934.
There have been plenty of false starts in the quest to return the Alamo flag, despite the vigorous diplomatic efforts of U.S. congressmen, legislators and governors – not to mention amateur historians and ordinary Texans.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush expressed hope in 1995 that "I'm the governor that is able to hold the flag up." Mr. Bush, now a second-term U.S. president, seems no closer to realizing his hope. His White House office declined to comment on the flag.
"We still haven't gotten the flag?" said U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, one of about 75 members of Congress whose "return the flag" effort failed 20 years ago. There has been no official overture for its return since 1998.
While Mr. Gutiérrez Canet hinted at a possible swap, he added that the matter is not Mr. Fox's to solve.
"The objects that are in museums don't belong to the Presidencia," the spokesman said. "In this case, this museum is part of the National Council of Culture and the Arts."
Luciano Cedillo, director of the national museum, was out of the country and unavailable for questions, his office said.
Mr. Ortiz said it might be time to open talks again.
"We have never had the right approach, and I think we need to start from ground zero and move on and see if we can come up with a strategy," he said.
"And I am willing to give it another try."
Two views of the flag
The 4-by-3-foot silk Alamo flag, trimmed with gold metallic fringe, is emblazoned with the words "First Company of Texan Volunteers! from New Orleans." The New Orleans Greys company, formed amid Texas' conflict with Mexico, carried the banner.
Several flags reportedly flew at the Alamo, but the Greys' is the only one known to have survived the battle at the San Antonio mission that fell on March 6, 1836. A small band of Texas fighters, including volunteer defenders from many American states, held out for 13 days against the Mexican army 10 times their number.
The triumphant Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna sent the New Orleans Greys flag to Mexico City with a message that the flag "will show plainly the true intentions of the treacherous colonists and of their abettors, who came from parts of the United States of the North."
The Alamo fight fanned the flames of independence from Mexico as Texans sought revenge for the siege. Just a month later, Texas troops needed just 18 minutes to defeat Gen. Santa Anna's larger army at San Jacinto.
Texans have been trying, often clumsily, to bring the Alamo banner home since at least the 1930s.
Tussles have been waged from the Texas Legislature to the halls of Montezuma, occasionally sparking international tempests. In the mid-1980s, retrieval efforts resulted in the flag being removed from public view.
Questioned in 1994, the Mexican government declared the banner lost. It's unclear whether that ever was true; some Texas officials doubt it. Ms. Serratos, of the museum, said she didn't know.
After a News reporter asked about the flag recently, Ms. Serratos said she believed it was returned to public display in fall 2003. The museum is in Chapultepec Castle, a former residence for Mexican rulers.
Efforts to return the flag
Through the decades, Mexican officials have refused to let the flag leave the country. Not even on loan. Not for a minute.
The New Orleans Greys' banner has a different significance in Mexico. If it's a holy relic for Texans, it's a war trophy for Mexicans, a symbol of not just a victory but of national pride. Even Texas historians say the feeling is justified.
"By right of arms, it's theirs. They captured it in battle," said Dr. Bruce Winders, historian and curator of the Alamo.
"Part of their reluctance to send it back is the feeling they have over Texas and the loss of Texas, and the loss of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada coming out of the war with Mexico. Not to be flippant, but it's, 'You may have the territory, but we've got the flag.' "
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which operates the Alamo, refrains from taking a lead role in efforts to retrieve the flag, "because we don't want to create a controversy," Dr. Winders said.
Some eager citizens have suggested exchanging other artifacts – from Santa Anna's cork leg to Pancho Villa's death mask – for the flag. But the leg remains a star attraction at an Illinois museum, while the mask was returned to Mexico 21 years ago. In 1950, the United States also returned dozens of battle flags from the war with Mexico. And Mexico has returned war relics to the United States and other nations.
Still, the Alamo flag has not been returned.
"There is not anything I can really think of that would prompt an exchange," Dr. Winders said. "They may contact us and say, 'We'd like Texas back.' "
Politicians who have tried to strike a deal know how hard it is.
"I was naive in thinking that we could recover the flag," said former state Sen. Carlos Truan. Ten years ago, the Legislature passed Mr. Truan's bill that authorized the state archives to negotiate a loan or exchange. The ensuing negotiations in 1998 failed.
Losing Texas "continues to be a sore spot" for Mexico, Mr. Truan said.
Alan Smiley, a narcotics officer who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, was part of the 1998 effort.
"Pride is a powerful force in Latin America, and history dies hard," Mr. Smiley said. "Especially in Mexico. We may have forgiven Japan for Pearl Harbor, but Mexico is still a long way from forgiving the U.S. for the loss of its northern territories."
For Mr. Smiley, the effort was familial: His ancestor Daniel Cloud died at the Alamo.
'They were invaders'
The issue "touches a very sensitive area" for some Mexicans, said Mexico City historian Jesús Velasco Márquez.
"By God, I don't want to hear the Texans and the Americans tell us we have to return the flag of some martyrs who weren't martyrs at all," he said. "They were invaders who had no right to do what they were doing.
"This little flag is a flag that shows the illegality of an armed U.S. intervention in Mexican territory. It shows the illegal meddling by the United States in Mexican affairs."
Miguel González Quiroga, a historian at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Monterrey, disagreed about Mexican passion for the flag.
"In Mexico, there isn't much interest in the flag or in Texas' independence," Dr. González said. "My view is that many Mexicans aren't aware of many of these big historical issues, and they're not that interested. A small flag would interest them even less. It's something that only interests a few of us historians."
And so the flag battle will go on.
"If it had been any other battle, it wouldn't matter," said historian Stephen Hardin, who doesn't think battle flags should be returned. "The Alamo, for a lot of people, has become a secular religion."
The flag is "an icon of Texas history, Texas heritage and Texas independence," said Steven Beck, former curator at the Alamo.
"The image of the flag is burned into my brain," he said. "I've handled Crockett's vest and Santa Anna's cot and Travis' ring. But I would love to touch that flag ... to see it."
Brendan M. Case reported from Mexico City and Diane Jennings from Dallas contributed to this report.
Relic of the Alamo, long sought by Texas, turns up in Mexican museum
By DIANE JENNINGS and BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Remember the Alamo flag?
More than a decade ago, just as Texas officials stepped up efforts for Mexico to return the only remaining banner known to have flown at the Battle of the Alamo, the Mexicans said they'd lost it.
But recently, a reporter found the flag once more on display in Mexico's National History Museum, a faded scrap of silk hung in a glass case amid 19th-century rifles and portraits. The once-blue fabric is faded to dirty white. Its fringe is intact, an eagle still spread across the middle over the words "God & Liberty."
"It's well taken care of," said Nina Serratos, a museum official in Mexico City. "The museum restored it."
The banner of volunteer Alamo defenders from New Orleans, a cherished bit of sacred cloth in the secular religion of Texana, is no closer to coming home than when the Mexican army took it away 169 years ago.
But spokesmen for Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Mexican President Vicente Fox, in answer to questions from The Dallas Morning News, indicated the door might be open to a deal that would return the Alamo flag to Texas.
"The governor has discussions with Mexican officials all the time," said Perry spokesman Robert Black. "I'm sure that at the appropriate time the governor will broach this.
"It's certainly something that Governor Perry would like to see back in the Texas archives."
Said Agustín Gutiérrez Canet, a spokesman for Mr. Fox: "If the United States has some Mexican flags, perhaps there could be an exchange. But that's a hypothetical idea."
As it happens, reciprocity is not so hypothetical a notion. Texas' archives has the battle flags from Mexico's Toluca, Guerrero and Matamoros battalions, captured in the decisive Battle of San Jacinto.
The state has offered them to Mexico since 1995 and discussions about exchanging flags have taken place since 1934.
There have been plenty of false starts in the quest to return the Alamo flag, despite the vigorous diplomatic efforts of U.S. congressmen, legislators and governors – not to mention amateur historians and ordinary Texans.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush expressed hope in 1995 that "I'm the governor that is able to hold the flag up." Mr. Bush, now a second-term U.S. president, seems no closer to realizing his hope. His White House office declined to comment on the flag.
"We still haven't gotten the flag?" said U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, one of about 75 members of Congress whose "return the flag" effort failed 20 years ago. There has been no official overture for its return since 1998.
While Mr. Gutiérrez Canet hinted at a possible swap, he added that the matter is not Mr. Fox's to solve.
"The objects that are in museums don't belong to the Presidencia," the spokesman said. "In this case, this museum is part of the National Council of Culture and the Arts."
Luciano Cedillo, director of the national museum, was out of the country and unavailable for questions, his office said.
Mr. Ortiz said it might be time to open talks again.
"We have never had the right approach, and I think we need to start from ground zero and move on and see if we can come up with a strategy," he said.
"And I am willing to give it another try."
Two views of the flag
The 4-by-3-foot silk Alamo flag, trimmed with gold metallic fringe, is emblazoned with the words "First Company of Texan Volunteers! from New Orleans." The New Orleans Greys company, formed amid Texas' conflict with Mexico, carried the banner.
Several flags reportedly flew at the Alamo, but the Greys' is the only one known to have survived the battle at the San Antonio mission that fell on March 6, 1836. A small band of Texas fighters, including volunteer defenders from many American states, held out for 13 days against the Mexican army 10 times their number.
The triumphant Gen. Antonio López de Santa Anna sent the New Orleans Greys flag to Mexico City with a message that the flag "will show plainly the true intentions of the treacherous colonists and of their abettors, who came from parts of the United States of the North."
The Alamo fight fanned the flames of independence from Mexico as Texans sought revenge for the siege. Just a month later, Texas troops needed just 18 minutes to defeat Gen. Santa Anna's larger army at San Jacinto.
Texans have been trying, often clumsily, to bring the Alamo banner home since at least the 1930s.
Tussles have been waged from the Texas Legislature to the halls of Montezuma, occasionally sparking international tempests. In the mid-1980s, retrieval efforts resulted in the flag being removed from public view.
Questioned in 1994, the Mexican government declared the banner lost. It's unclear whether that ever was true; some Texas officials doubt it. Ms. Serratos, of the museum, said she didn't know.
After a News reporter asked about the flag recently, Ms. Serratos said she believed it was returned to public display in fall 2003. The museum is in Chapultepec Castle, a former residence for Mexican rulers.
Efforts to return the flag
Through the decades, Mexican officials have refused to let the flag leave the country. Not even on loan. Not for a minute.
The New Orleans Greys' banner has a different significance in Mexico. If it's a holy relic for Texans, it's a war trophy for Mexicans, a symbol of not just a victory but of national pride. Even Texas historians say the feeling is justified.
"By right of arms, it's theirs. They captured it in battle," said Dr. Bruce Winders, historian and curator of the Alamo.
"Part of their reluctance to send it back is the feeling they have over Texas and the loss of Texas, and the loss of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada coming out of the war with Mexico. Not to be flippant, but it's, 'You may have the territory, but we've got the flag.' "
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas, which operates the Alamo, refrains from taking a lead role in efforts to retrieve the flag, "because we don't want to create a controversy," Dr. Winders said.
Some eager citizens have suggested exchanging other artifacts – from Santa Anna's cork leg to Pancho Villa's death mask – for the flag. But the leg remains a star attraction at an Illinois museum, while the mask was returned to Mexico 21 years ago. In 1950, the United States also returned dozens of battle flags from the war with Mexico. And Mexico has returned war relics to the United States and other nations.
Still, the Alamo flag has not been returned.
"There is not anything I can really think of that would prompt an exchange," Dr. Winders said. "They may contact us and say, 'We'd like Texas back.' "
Politicians who have tried to strike a deal know how hard it is.
"I was naive in thinking that we could recover the flag," said former state Sen. Carlos Truan. Ten years ago, the Legislature passed Mr. Truan's bill that authorized the state archives to negotiate a loan or exchange. The ensuing negotiations in 1998 failed.
Losing Texas "continues to be a sore spot" for Mexico, Mr. Truan said.
Alan Smiley, a narcotics officer who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, was part of the 1998 effort.
"Pride is a powerful force in Latin America, and history dies hard," Mr. Smiley said. "Especially in Mexico. We may have forgiven Japan for Pearl Harbor, but Mexico is still a long way from forgiving the U.S. for the loss of its northern territories."
For Mr. Smiley, the effort was familial: His ancestor Daniel Cloud died at the Alamo.
'They were invaders'
The issue "touches a very sensitive area" for some Mexicans, said Mexico City historian Jesús Velasco Márquez.
"By God, I don't want to hear the Texans and the Americans tell us we have to return the flag of some martyrs who weren't martyrs at all," he said. "They were invaders who had no right to do what they were doing.
"This little flag is a flag that shows the illegality of an armed U.S. intervention in Mexican territory. It shows the illegal meddling by the United States in Mexican affairs."
Miguel González Quiroga, a historian at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Monterrey, disagreed about Mexican passion for the flag.
"In Mexico, there isn't much interest in the flag or in Texas' independence," Dr. González said. "My view is that many Mexicans aren't aware of many of these big historical issues, and they're not that interested. A small flag would interest them even less. It's something that only interests a few of us historians."
And so the flag battle will go on.
"If it had been any other battle, it wouldn't matter," said historian Stephen Hardin, who doesn't think battle flags should be returned. "The Alamo, for a lot of people, has become a secular religion."
The flag is "an icon of Texas history, Texas heritage and Texas independence," said Steven Beck, former curator at the Alamo.
"The image of the flag is burned into my brain," he said. "I've handled Crockett's vest and Santa Anna's cot and Travis' ring. But I would love to touch that flag ... to see it."
Brendan M. Case reported from Mexico City and Diane Jennings from Dallas contributed to this report.
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TexasStooge
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'Real World Austin' gets rumor mill going
This is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house and have their lives taped, and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas - Just for the record, only the producers of MTV's The Real World know what's really happening in Austin as the granddaddy of all modern reality shows takes its first bite of Texas.
The cable network gives no details about the show's taping until the season is a wrap. MTV will confirm only that The Real World Austin started in January and will air beginning in June.
Otherwise, it's all a big secret. Shhh.
But the information blackout hasn't stopped curious Austinites from trying to find out about the show, and details have leaked out, through blogs, local newspapers and word of mouth among late-night barhoppers. Some are oft-repeated rumors turned local legend. The cast sightings and other details recorded on this page are culled from such accounts. The names are confirmed from several sources who have met cast members, even if the meetings occurred outside a bar at closing time.
THE CAST
MTV asks that applicants for the show be 18-24 years old and willing to have their relationships, fights and private moments televised. This time, the best we can offer are first names and phonetic spellings. Also, there's a debate over whether they're as hot as previous cast members. Their names: Johanna, Wes, Dan, Nehemiah, Lacey, Melinda, Rachel.
THE HOUSE
Their high-tech home in Austin (above) is one of the show's coolest houses yet. It's in about 23,000 square feet of former warehouse space at San Jacinto Boulevard and East Third Street. That's about three blocks from the legendary Sixth Street strip. It was supposed to be a center for Internet startups in 2001, but it and several similar office buildings stand empty. The "house" reportedly has a pool and hot tub and a huge, neon replica of Big Tex inside. At night, the windows light up different colors. On top, there's a neon "Austin" sign. Look for it in the show's opening montage.
HANGOUTS
Word is the cast loves the Sixth Street bar district and has also been spotted shopping at Urban Outfitters (and harassing the staff there), eating dinner at P.F. Chang's and Iron Cactus, working out at the nearby Gold's Gym and cruising down Congress Avenue on foot. Their No. 1 favorite place to party: Dizzy Rooster on Sixth Street.
The rest, in no particular order: Chuggin' Monkey, The Aquarium, Paradox and The Drink.
THE JOB
The cast is going to follow a band during the annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (March 16-20) and make a documentary. Emmy-winning documentary maker Paul Stekler (a University of Texas professor) reportedly will be cracking the whip on the project. He won't confirm or deny. Nobody seems to know if they've picked out a band yet.
THE FALLOUT
It's hard enough to find parking in downtown Austin. About 9 o'clock one night, Austin resident Anthony Hailey parked near the Real World house, along with eight or nine other cars, during a business dinner nearby. He returned to find that his car had been towed. A temporary warning sign down the block clued him in to the fact that Austin had let MTV block off the street near the house, presumably to keep back gawking fans.
Mr. Hailey waited for his ride and hurled obscenities at the cast members filming a scene in front of the house. He forked over $140 to get his car back and wasn't happy about it.
"It looks like the city granted some permit for them to close off two sides of the block to these punk kids to come to town and make this stupid show that's totally contrived, where parking is ultra-necessary, right by the convention center and all the restaurants," he said.
REAL WORLDS COLLIDE
T.K. Hall of the Austin American-Statesman observed last month, "You know there are too many reality television shows when two of them meet up at the same place."
The Ice Bats hockey team went to Sixth Street during the filming of a reality show based on minor-league hockey. They ran into the Real World cast at – you guessed it – the Dizzy Rooster.
Later, the paper reported, two team members hung out at the Real World house.
This is the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house and have their lives taped, and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.
By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas - Just for the record, only the producers of MTV's The Real World know what's really happening in Austin as the granddaddy of all modern reality shows takes its first bite of Texas.
The cable network gives no details about the show's taping until the season is a wrap. MTV will confirm only that The Real World Austin started in January and will air beginning in June.
Otherwise, it's all a big secret. Shhh.
But the information blackout hasn't stopped curious Austinites from trying to find out about the show, and details have leaked out, through blogs, local newspapers and word of mouth among late-night barhoppers. Some are oft-repeated rumors turned local legend. The cast sightings and other details recorded on this page are culled from such accounts. The names are confirmed from several sources who have met cast members, even if the meetings occurred outside a bar at closing time.
THE CAST
MTV asks that applicants for the show be 18-24 years old and willing to have their relationships, fights and private moments televised. This time, the best we can offer are first names and phonetic spellings. Also, there's a debate over whether they're as hot as previous cast members. Their names: Johanna, Wes, Dan, Nehemiah, Lacey, Melinda, Rachel.
THE HOUSE
Their high-tech home in Austin (above) is one of the show's coolest houses yet. It's in about 23,000 square feet of former warehouse space at San Jacinto Boulevard and East Third Street. That's about three blocks from the legendary Sixth Street strip. It was supposed to be a center for Internet startups in 2001, but it and several similar office buildings stand empty. The "house" reportedly has a pool and hot tub and a huge, neon replica of Big Tex inside. At night, the windows light up different colors. On top, there's a neon "Austin" sign. Look for it in the show's opening montage.
HANGOUTS
Word is the cast loves the Sixth Street bar district and has also been spotted shopping at Urban Outfitters (and harassing the staff there), eating dinner at P.F. Chang's and Iron Cactus, working out at the nearby Gold's Gym and cruising down Congress Avenue on foot. Their No. 1 favorite place to party: Dizzy Rooster on Sixth Street.
The rest, in no particular order: Chuggin' Monkey, The Aquarium, Paradox and The Drink.
THE JOB
The cast is going to follow a band during the annual South by Southwest Music and Media Conference (March 16-20) and make a documentary. Emmy-winning documentary maker Paul Stekler (a University of Texas professor) reportedly will be cracking the whip on the project. He won't confirm or deny. Nobody seems to know if they've picked out a band yet.
THE FALLOUT
It's hard enough to find parking in downtown Austin. About 9 o'clock one night, Austin resident Anthony Hailey parked near the Real World house, along with eight or nine other cars, during a business dinner nearby. He returned to find that his car had been towed. A temporary warning sign down the block clued him in to the fact that Austin had let MTV block off the street near the house, presumably to keep back gawking fans.
Mr. Hailey waited for his ride and hurled obscenities at the cast members filming a scene in front of the house. He forked over $140 to get his car back and wasn't happy about it.
"It looks like the city granted some permit for them to close off two sides of the block to these punk kids to come to town and make this stupid show that's totally contrived, where parking is ultra-necessary, right by the convention center and all the restaurants," he said.
REAL WORLDS COLLIDE
T.K. Hall of the Austin American-Statesman observed last month, "You know there are too many reality television shows when two of them meet up at the same place."
The Ice Bats hockey team went to Sixth Street during the filming of a reality show based on minor-league hockey. They ran into the Real World cast at – you guessed it – the Dizzy Rooster.
Later, the paper reported, two team members hung out at the Real World house.
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TexasStooge
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District not sold on plan
Some say fiscal gains from House proposal are probably minimal
By RUSSELL RIAN / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - State analysts say Irving would be among the larger beneficiaries under school finance legislation proposed in the Texas House last week, but Irving school district officials say the changes would more likely turn out to be a wash or small financial gain because of new costs and other cuts.
Estimates by the Legislative Budget Board suggest Irving ISD would gain about $524 more per student in 2006 and more than $1,000 more in 2007 under the plan. The estimates are available online at http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/road map/CSHB_2_district_runs.pdf.
Sounds great, but the figures don't reflect the loss of some local revenues, cuts to other funds and new mandated expenses, Irving officials said. State figures used also often overstate student counts and are based on other flawed data, they added. Irving ISD's current budget is about $182 million.
Bottom line, Irving school officials say, is the proposed formula would probably be a wash or slight increase for the district, but it is still not the long-term solution that school officials were hoping for after a court declared the state's financing formulas unconstitutional.
"It's better than staying even, but it doesn't even come close to what the trial court indicated," said Superintendent Jack Singley, who made criticisms similar to those of other educators around the state, who say the funding proposals don't go far enough.
"They're moving money around," Mr. Singley said, rather than adding to the statewide education funding pot.
Debbie Cabrera, the district's budget director, agreed, saying provisions cutting insurance supplements, increased retirement payments, incentive pay requirements and other provisions would undercut gains the district might see.
"It comes with a lot of strings," she said. "It's creating more costs on the expense side."
The district would be penalized for offering a homestead exemption under the proposed legislation, she said. Irving is one of a few districts still offering a homestead exemption, which has dropped in recent years from 20 percent to 5 percent. Property taxes would be reduced, however, with the state capping local taxes at $1 rather than the current $1.50 rate.
Mr. Singley said he doesn't favor the heavier reliance on sales tax under the House Bill 2 plan, because it is regressive, meaning lower income families feel the tax hit more acutely than higher income families.
The measure also fails to address important issues such as health care for school employees and imposes mandates on districts such as when to start school and when to hold elections that infringe on local decision-making authorities.
"There's not too many bright spots," he said.
Some say fiscal gains from House proposal are probably minimal
By RUSSELL RIAN / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - State analysts say Irving would be among the larger beneficiaries under school finance legislation proposed in the Texas House last week, but Irving school district officials say the changes would more likely turn out to be a wash or small financial gain because of new costs and other cuts.
Estimates by the Legislative Budget Board suggest Irving ISD would gain about $524 more per student in 2006 and more than $1,000 more in 2007 under the plan. The estimates are available online at http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/road map/CSHB_2_district_runs.pdf.
Sounds great, but the figures don't reflect the loss of some local revenues, cuts to other funds and new mandated expenses, Irving officials said. State figures used also often overstate student counts and are based on other flawed data, they added. Irving ISD's current budget is about $182 million.
Bottom line, Irving school officials say, is the proposed formula would probably be a wash or slight increase for the district, but it is still not the long-term solution that school officials were hoping for after a court declared the state's financing formulas unconstitutional.
"It's better than staying even, but it doesn't even come close to what the trial court indicated," said Superintendent Jack Singley, who made criticisms similar to those of other educators around the state, who say the funding proposals don't go far enough.
"They're moving money around," Mr. Singley said, rather than adding to the statewide education funding pot.
Debbie Cabrera, the district's budget director, agreed, saying provisions cutting insurance supplements, increased retirement payments, incentive pay requirements and other provisions would undercut gains the district might see.
"It comes with a lot of strings," she said. "It's creating more costs on the expense side."
The district would be penalized for offering a homestead exemption under the proposed legislation, she said. Irving is one of a few districts still offering a homestead exemption, which has dropped in recent years from 20 percent to 5 percent. Property taxes would be reduced, however, with the state capping local taxes at $1 rather than the current $1.50 rate.
Mr. Singley said he doesn't favor the heavier reliance on sales tax under the House Bill 2 plan, because it is regressive, meaning lower income families feel the tax hit more acutely than higher income families.
The measure also fails to address important issues such as health care for school employees and imposes mandates on districts such as when to start school and when to hold elections that infringe on local decision-making authorities.
"There's not too many bright spots," he said.
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TexasStooge
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'About Towne' talent shines in front of camera, behind scenes
By DEBORAH FLECK / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - It was 20 years ago today that About Towne first hit the airwaves. The show on ICTN (Irving Community Television Network) about the arts in Irving is a labor of love for its host and producer, Cathy Whiteman.
Ms. Whiteman loves the city that has let her explore wonderful stories about the talent within its borders.
"Irving is rich in talent," she said, "and people have a passion about the arts."
She especially relishes finding those smaller "nuggets that touch your heart."
While she has interviewed scores of celebrities, she takes more pride in the stories about unsung artisans and artists.
She once had dreams of being a celebrity and "taking Broadway by storm." But after she earned her drama degree from the University of Dallas in 1980, she realized she had to save some money before heading to Broadway.
She landed an internship at the Irving Public Library as an assistant to Patty Landers. Ms. Landers was helping the city look into cable programming.
"It was very exciting to be on the ground floor of something new," Ms. Whiteman said.
On Oct. 12, 1981, the station went on the air with six staffers and an annual budget of less than $200,000.
The station's main program, Week in Review, debuted Aug. 6, 1982, and a few years later it was split, first into About Towne on March 6, 1985, and then into Irving Review and Open Line a year later. Sports Scene first aired in 1988.
Ms. Whiteman did everything in the early days of the network. "It was a great place to get real-world experience, and I felt like an integral part of the staff," she said. She ran the camera, covered the City Council and wrote grants.
But then the acting itch flared up, and she decided to leave to be an actress. For about 10 years, she performed throughout Dallas and in Houston, but she free-lanced for ICTN, which led to more and more work at the station.
She also married and had two sons. Eventually, she started hosting the show and then writing and producing the weekly program.
In 1995, she was named producer and is now helping the city and staff celebrate the show's 20th anniversary.
ICTN's executive producer, Paul Wahlstrom, and Ms. Whiteman are the two staffers who have been with ICTN from the beginning. "I first met Cathy when she picked me up at the airport for an [job] interview," he said. Little did he know it was the start of a long friendship and a long career at the station.
"Everyone loves Cathy," he said. "She is very much a part of the community, and she loves the arts."
Bruce Coleman agrees. The director and drama teacher first met Ms. Whiteman when she auditioned for a play he was directing in Dallas in the early '80s. "We stayed in each other's lives through the years," he said.
They became even closer when he moved to Irving about four years ago. He watches her show and credits its success to her personality. "She is one of the most generous and warmest human beings I have ever met. She has a light inside that glows, and she's real," he said.
Ms. Whiteman may dismiss the praise, but her show and ICTN have garnered more than 100 state, regional and national awards, including Katie Awards from the Dallas Press Club and Awards for Cable Excellence from the National Academy of Cable Programming.
Ms. Whiteman said she is glad she stayed in Irving instead of heading to Broadway.
She admits there are challenges sometimes, but overall she said, "It is just a joyful thing what I get to do."
By DEBORAH FLECK / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - It was 20 years ago today that About Towne first hit the airwaves. The show on ICTN (Irving Community Television Network) about the arts in Irving is a labor of love for its host and producer, Cathy Whiteman.
Ms. Whiteman loves the city that has let her explore wonderful stories about the talent within its borders.
"Irving is rich in talent," she said, "and people have a passion about the arts."
She especially relishes finding those smaller "nuggets that touch your heart."
While she has interviewed scores of celebrities, she takes more pride in the stories about unsung artisans and artists.
She once had dreams of being a celebrity and "taking Broadway by storm." But after she earned her drama degree from the University of Dallas in 1980, she realized she had to save some money before heading to Broadway.
She landed an internship at the Irving Public Library as an assistant to Patty Landers. Ms. Landers was helping the city look into cable programming.
"It was very exciting to be on the ground floor of something new," Ms. Whiteman said.
On Oct. 12, 1981, the station went on the air with six staffers and an annual budget of less than $200,000.
The station's main program, Week in Review, debuted Aug. 6, 1982, and a few years later it was split, first into About Towne on March 6, 1985, and then into Irving Review and Open Line a year later. Sports Scene first aired in 1988.
Ms. Whiteman did everything in the early days of the network. "It was a great place to get real-world experience, and I felt like an integral part of the staff," she said. She ran the camera, covered the City Council and wrote grants.
But then the acting itch flared up, and she decided to leave to be an actress. For about 10 years, she performed throughout Dallas and in Houston, but she free-lanced for ICTN, which led to more and more work at the station.
She also married and had two sons. Eventually, she started hosting the show and then writing and producing the weekly program.
In 1995, she was named producer and is now helping the city and staff celebrate the show's 20th anniversary.
ICTN's executive producer, Paul Wahlstrom, and Ms. Whiteman are the two staffers who have been with ICTN from the beginning. "I first met Cathy when she picked me up at the airport for an [job] interview," he said. Little did he know it was the start of a long friendship and a long career at the station.
"Everyone loves Cathy," he said. "She is very much a part of the community, and she loves the arts."
Bruce Coleman agrees. The director and drama teacher first met Ms. Whiteman when she auditioned for a play he was directing in Dallas in the early '80s. "We stayed in each other's lives through the years," he said.
They became even closer when he moved to Irving about four years ago. He watches her show and credits its success to her personality. "She is one of the most generous and warmest human beings I have ever met. She has a light inside that glows, and she's real," he said.
Ms. Whiteman may dismiss the praise, but her show and ICTN have garnered more than 100 state, regional and national awards, including Katie Awards from the Dallas Press Club and Awards for Cable Excellence from the National Academy of Cable Programming.
Ms. Whiteman said she is glad she stayed in Irving instead of heading to Broadway.
She admits there are challenges sometimes, but overall she said, "It is just a joyful thing what I get to do."
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TexasStooge
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Nimitz Band Boosters’ fundraiser a tasty success
IRVING, Texas (Irving Rambler) - Nimitz High School Band Boosters sponsored their first Taste of Nimitz fundraiser last Monday. Hundreds of people participated in the evening’s dinner, filling the Nimitz’ cafeteria to overflowing. In addition to dinner, the Taste of Nimitz included a silent auction and raffle.
“The event is going wonderfully,” Scott Curry, Nimitz Band Booster’s president, said during the event. “I was hoping to sell at least 500 tickets. I thought in my wildest dreams that if we sold 600 tickets at $5.00 a ticket, we would yield $3,000 in ticket sales; and if we could get another $1,500 in the silent auction, I would go home happy. I would guess we have at least 700 and maybe closer to 800 people here tonight; we will have to wait for the final count.”
“We had some of our restaurants start to run out of food early, and that was a good problem to have. The restaurants were very accommodating; they went back and got more food for us. Any time you do something the first time, you make your best plans and you don’t really know what to expect. This event exceeded our highest expectations,” Mr. Curry said.
“The Taste of Nimitz is very important to us this year. Nimitz had 180 band students this year with just two directors. Next year the band is projected to have 220 students, and we really need another band director. There are only two band directors on the Nimitz’ paid staff, and the band boosters are providing the money to pay two assistant directors: Mario Luna works with the percussion and Melanie Barajas works with the Color Guard. We want to be able to continue to provide these assistant directors next year; therefore, we were hoping this event would be a success,” Mr. Curry explained.
Bowie, Lamar and DeZavala Middle Schools and the Nimitz High School bands provided music for the evening. Food for the event was provided by 10 area restaurants: Outback Steakhouse, Applebee’s, Mama’s Daughter’s Diner, Cool River, Chic-fil-A, CiCi’s, Roly Poly, Pizza Hut, Sonny Bryan’s BBQ, and El Chico.
IRVING, Texas (Irving Rambler) - Nimitz High School Band Boosters sponsored their first Taste of Nimitz fundraiser last Monday. Hundreds of people participated in the evening’s dinner, filling the Nimitz’ cafeteria to overflowing. In addition to dinner, the Taste of Nimitz included a silent auction and raffle.
“The event is going wonderfully,” Scott Curry, Nimitz Band Booster’s president, said during the event. “I was hoping to sell at least 500 tickets. I thought in my wildest dreams that if we sold 600 tickets at $5.00 a ticket, we would yield $3,000 in ticket sales; and if we could get another $1,500 in the silent auction, I would go home happy. I would guess we have at least 700 and maybe closer to 800 people here tonight; we will have to wait for the final count.”
“We had some of our restaurants start to run out of food early, and that was a good problem to have. The restaurants were very accommodating; they went back and got more food for us. Any time you do something the first time, you make your best plans and you don’t really know what to expect. This event exceeded our highest expectations,” Mr. Curry said.
“The Taste of Nimitz is very important to us this year. Nimitz had 180 band students this year with just two directors. Next year the band is projected to have 220 students, and we really need another band director. There are only two band directors on the Nimitz’ paid staff, and the band boosters are providing the money to pay two assistant directors: Mario Luna works with the percussion and Melanie Barajas works with the Color Guard. We want to be able to continue to provide these assistant directors next year; therefore, we were hoping this event would be a success,” Mr. Curry explained.
Bowie, Lamar and DeZavala Middle Schools and the Nimitz High School bands provided music for the evening. Food for the event was provided by 10 area restaurants: Outback Steakhouse, Applebee’s, Mama’s Daughter’s Diner, Cool River, Chic-fil-A, CiCi’s, Roly Poly, Pizza Hut, Sonny Bryan’s BBQ, and El Chico.
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TexasStooge
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Long wait ends for Arlington parents
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) — A long week of roughing it finally ended Monday morning for some Arlington residents.
Dozens of parents had been camping outside the Arlington Independent School District's student affairs building since last Tuesday, waiting to get transfers for their children as soon as they became available.
Parent Mark Kundysek was in line since early last week. "We weren't actually planning to come until Wednesday night, but a friend of ours called and said, 'if you're going to camp, you need to go Tuesday, because there were already six cars out here,'" he said. "We made number seven."
Arlington students can transfer to the school of their choice as long as room is available.
Students can also transfer to campuses that offer programs their home campuses do not.
WFAA-TV contributed to this report.
ARLINGTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) — A long week of roughing it finally ended Monday morning for some Arlington residents.
Dozens of parents had been camping outside the Arlington Independent School District's student affairs building since last Tuesday, waiting to get transfers for their children as soon as they became available.
Parent Mark Kundysek was in line since early last week. "We weren't actually planning to come until Wednesday night, but a friend of ours called and said, 'if you're going to camp, you need to go Tuesday, because there were already six cars out here,'" he said. "We made number seven."
Arlington students can transfer to the school of their choice as long as room is available.
Students can also transfer to campuses that offer programs their home campuses do not.
WFAA-TV contributed to this report.
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TexasStooge
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SMU denies lock on Bush library bid
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Southern Methodist University would not confirm a report that it has secured the right to build the George W. Bush Presidential Library on its campus.
Over the weekend, an article in the New York Daily News quoted "Bush insiders" who said the library will be built at or near SMU.
Speculation centered on a site at Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway formerly occupied by a Mrs. Baird's bakery facility. SMU purchased the property in 2003.
But in a statement released Monday morning, the university was noncommital. "SMU is enthusiastic about the opportunity to present a proposal to become the site of the George W. Bush Presidential Library," the statement said. "We have no indication of any preferences at this time."
Other Texas cities—including Waco, Midland, Austin and Arlington—would also like to host the library.
"When I was at the White House this week, the information I got was that it was a fairly long period of time before it would be decided," said Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck. "If it goes to Dallas, that's good for everybody in the Metroplex, though."
The White House has not announced a timetable for establishing the library's location.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Southern Methodist University would not confirm a report that it has secured the right to build the George W. Bush Presidential Library on its campus.
Over the weekend, an article in the New York Daily News quoted "Bush insiders" who said the library will be built at or near SMU.
Speculation centered on a site at Mockingbird Lane and Central Expressway formerly occupied by a Mrs. Baird's bakery facility. SMU purchased the property in 2003.
But in a statement released Monday morning, the university was noncommital. "SMU is enthusiastic about the opportunity to present a proposal to become the site of the George W. Bush Presidential Library," the statement said. "We have no indication of any preferences at this time."
Other Texas cities—including Waco, Midland, Austin and Arlington—would also like to host the library.
"When I was at the White House this week, the information I got was that it was a fairly long period of time before it would be decided," said Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck. "If it goes to Dallas, that's good for everybody in the Metroplex, though."
The White House has not announced a timetable for establishing the library's location.
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Couple Faces Murder Charges In Infants' Deaths
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - A Conroe father's statement to police about the death of his 2-month-old son was the subject of a pretrial hearing Friday for his capital murder trial, Local 2 reported.
Bruce Moren, 26, has been charged with capital murder of a baby boy, 2-month old Kyle Moren, in August 2003, and a baby girl, 5-month-old Cheyenne Moren, in January 2001.
Bruce Moren appeared before a judge Friday for a pretrial hearing. The judge is expected to decide if his statements to police would be admissible for his upcoming capital murder trial.
In that statement, Bruce Moren's attorney Gerald Bourque said his client told investigators that he possibly caused the baby's deaths by wrapping the children too tight in their blankets.
Despite that statement, Bourque said his client his innocent.
"Even the explanation of 'I must have wrapped the baby too tightly,' really is in response to information he has received from law enforcement officers," Bourque said.
Local 2 asked Bourque why his client made that statement.
"He's trying to find out what happened," Bourque said.
Investigators originally thought Jessica and Bruce Moren's son died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2003. However, investigators became suspicious when they discovered that the couple's daughter died of the same illness in 2001.
In September 2004, a judge charged the couple with capital murder in the infants' deaths.
"At first, (the medical examiner) thought it was a SIDS death due to natural causes. But after looking at this case more closely, and also looking at the fact that there was another child in the same home that died -- probably in the same manner -- (the medical examiner) changed the findings from natural causes to possible suffocation," Child Protective Services spokesperson Estella Olguin told Local 2 during a September 2004 interview.
The Morens remain in the Montgomery County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond each on capital murder charges after their Sept. 13 arrests at their Conroe apartment.
Bruce Moren's mother told Local 2 in September that her son is innocent of the charges and never hurt his children. But she and other sources said they went through the couple's apartment after they were arrested and found disturbing items that raised serious questions about the children's mother.
Local 2 reported that Bruce Moren was not the biological father of either child. He reportedly met Jessica Moren when she was pregnant with her first child. After the first child died, the couple separated but reunited when she was pregnant again with someone else's child.
Jessica Moren, currently in jail, is pregnant with her third child.
Officials said Bruce Moren worked as a prison guard for the Texas Department of Corrections, and Jessica Moren works for a temp agency.
Panorama Village Police Chief Jim Green told the Houston Chronicle in September that he could not disclose why investigators are treating the 2003 case as a homicide. But the police inquiry prompted Conroe police to reopen the case into the Jan. 18, 2001, death of Jessica Moren's daughter, Cheyenne.
If convicted in court of capital murder, the Morens could be sentenced to death.
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - A Conroe father's statement to police about the death of his 2-month-old son was the subject of a pretrial hearing Friday for his capital murder trial, Local 2 reported.
Bruce Moren, 26, has been charged with capital murder of a baby boy, 2-month old Kyle Moren, in August 2003, and a baby girl, 5-month-old Cheyenne Moren, in January 2001.
Bruce Moren appeared before a judge Friday for a pretrial hearing. The judge is expected to decide if his statements to police would be admissible for his upcoming capital murder trial.
In that statement, Bruce Moren's attorney Gerald Bourque said his client told investigators that he possibly caused the baby's deaths by wrapping the children too tight in their blankets.
Despite that statement, Bourque said his client his innocent.
"Even the explanation of 'I must have wrapped the baby too tightly,' really is in response to information he has received from law enforcement officers," Bourque said.
Local 2 asked Bourque why his client made that statement.
"He's trying to find out what happened," Bourque said.
Investigators originally thought Jessica and Bruce Moren's son died of sudden infant death syndrome in 2003. However, investigators became suspicious when they discovered that the couple's daughter died of the same illness in 2001.
In September 2004, a judge charged the couple with capital murder in the infants' deaths.
"At first, (the medical examiner) thought it was a SIDS death due to natural causes. But after looking at this case more closely, and also looking at the fact that there was another child in the same home that died -- probably in the same manner -- (the medical examiner) changed the findings from natural causes to possible suffocation," Child Protective Services spokesperson Estella Olguin told Local 2 during a September 2004 interview.
The Morens remain in the Montgomery County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bond each on capital murder charges after their Sept. 13 arrests at their Conroe apartment.
Bruce Moren's mother told Local 2 in September that her son is innocent of the charges and never hurt his children. But she and other sources said they went through the couple's apartment after they were arrested and found disturbing items that raised serious questions about the children's mother.
Local 2 reported that Bruce Moren was not the biological father of either child. He reportedly met Jessica Moren when she was pregnant with her first child. After the first child died, the couple separated but reunited when she was pregnant again with someone else's child.
Jessica Moren, currently in jail, is pregnant with her third child.
Officials said Bruce Moren worked as a prison guard for the Texas Department of Corrections, and Jessica Moren works for a temp agency.
Panorama Village Police Chief Jim Green told the Houston Chronicle in September that he could not disclose why investigators are treating the 2003 case as a homicide. But the police inquiry prompted Conroe police to reopen the case into the Jan. 18, 2001, death of Jessica Moren's daughter, Cheyenne.
If convicted in court of capital murder, the Morens could be sentenced to death.
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Head-On Collision Kills Woman, Injures 5 Firefighters
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - Five firefighters were recovering Monday after a head-on collision in northeast Harris County Sunday that killed a woman, Local 2 reported.
Authorities said the driver of a car crashed head-on into an Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department truck on Will Clayton Parkway and Atascocita Road at about 6 p.m. Sunday.
Officials have not said who was at fault or what caused the accident.
The Jaws of Life was called to the scene to remove the car's female driver from the vehicle.
LifeFlight transported the woman to Memorial Hermann Hospital, but she did not survive.
A passenger inside the car was taken to a nearby hospital.
Five firefighters were treated for minor injuries.
Officials said the firefighters were en route to their station after attending a fund-raising event.
The accident remains under investigation.
This story comes from Local 2's exclusive partnership with Houston Community Newspapers and the Humble Observer.
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - Five firefighters were recovering Monday after a head-on collision in northeast Harris County Sunday that killed a woman, Local 2 reported.
Authorities said the driver of a car crashed head-on into an Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department truck on Will Clayton Parkway and Atascocita Road at about 6 p.m. Sunday.
Officials have not said who was at fault or what caused the accident.
The Jaws of Life was called to the scene to remove the car's female driver from the vehicle.
LifeFlight transported the woman to Memorial Hermann Hospital, but she did not survive.
A passenger inside the car was taken to a nearby hospital.
Five firefighters were treated for minor injuries.
Officials said the firefighters were en route to their station after attending a fund-raising event.
The accident remains under investigation.
This story comes from Local 2's exclusive partnership with Houston Community Newspapers and the Humble Observer.
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State To Investigate Company That Allegedly Abandoned 2 Teens
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - The Texas Workforce Commission said they are launching an investigation into a company that allegedly abandoned two Houston-area teens at bus stations in cities hundreds of miles away, Local 2 reported Monday.
The commission told Local 2 they are looking into whether the magazine sales company, Great Lakes Circulation, violated any child labor laws.
The company reportedly recruits teens to sell magazines door to door in Houston and other Texas cities, promising them they can earn money and qualify for trips.
Two Houston-area families told Local 2 they were outraged after the organization apparently abandoned their teenage daughters hundreds of miles from home after things did not work out.
Both 17-year-old girls, one from Webster and the other from La Porte, were left at a bust station -- in Austin and Dallas, respectively -- after they were unable to continue selling magazines.
The girls' mothers told Local 2 Friday they were furious that the organization would abandon their daughters in cities hundreds of miles away.
Ashley Schmidt, the teen from La Porte, made it home Thursday, unharmed, but Kayla Lawrence, of Webster, has not made it back yet.
Lawrence's mother told Local 2 that her daughter called home Friday night to let her know she was safe and that she was staying with a former colleague's family. The mother is working with a church group to get her back to Houston.
Commission investigator Sue Nixon said door-to-door solicitation is illegal for anyone under 18 years old. Texas law allows 17-year-olds to work with parental permission and other provisions, however door-to-door selling is prohibited.
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - The Texas Workforce Commission said they are launching an investigation into a company that allegedly abandoned two Houston-area teens at bus stations in cities hundreds of miles away, Local 2 reported Monday.
The commission told Local 2 they are looking into whether the magazine sales company, Great Lakes Circulation, violated any child labor laws.
The company reportedly recruits teens to sell magazines door to door in Houston and other Texas cities, promising them they can earn money and qualify for trips.
Two Houston-area families told Local 2 they were outraged after the organization apparently abandoned their teenage daughters hundreds of miles from home after things did not work out.
Both 17-year-old girls, one from Webster and the other from La Porte, were left at a bust station -- in Austin and Dallas, respectively -- after they were unable to continue selling magazines.
The girls' mothers told Local 2 Friday they were furious that the organization would abandon their daughters in cities hundreds of miles away.
Ashley Schmidt, the teen from La Porte, made it home Thursday, unharmed, but Kayla Lawrence, of Webster, has not made it back yet.
Lawrence's mother told Local 2 that her daughter called home Friday night to let her know she was safe and that she was staying with a former colleague's family. The mother is working with a church group to get her back to Houston.
Commission investigator Sue Nixon said door-to-door solicitation is illegal for anyone under 18 years old. Texas law allows 17-year-olds to work with parental permission and other provisions, however door-to-door selling is prohibited.
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TexasStooge
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Police Search For Missing Woman In Navarro County
Family Members Suspect Foul Play After Car Found Abandoned Off Muddy Road
CORSICANA, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- The search continues for a North Texas woman who disappeared on her way to a store last Tuesday in Navarro County.
Family members suspect foul play in the disappearance of Iris Owens, 77, after her car was found abandoned off a muddy road in Corsicana on Saturday. None of Owen's personal items were found in the car.
Search crews concentrated Sunday on a wooded area near the car.
"We are just very worried and we want her found," said Dana Ames of the United Response Search and Rescue team.
Several empty beer cans were found in Owens' car.
Family members said she doesn't drink.
Family Members Suspect Foul Play After Car Found Abandoned Off Muddy Road
CORSICANA, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- The search continues for a North Texas woman who disappeared on her way to a store last Tuesday in Navarro County.
Family members suspect foul play in the disappearance of Iris Owens, 77, after her car was found abandoned off a muddy road in Corsicana on Saturday. None of Owen's personal items were found in the car.
Search crews concentrated Sunday on a wooded area near the car.
"We are just very worried and we want her found," said Dana Ames of the United Response Search and Rescue team.
Several empty beer cans were found in Owens' car.
Family members said she doesn't drink.
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TexasStooge
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Texas Man's T-Shirts Hot Topic After Part In Movie
GRAPEVINE, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- As Napoleon Dynamite would put it, a sweet deal has fallen into Randall Sowa's lap.
For four summers in the 1980s, Sowa hawked T-shirts with a helicopter image on them designed by pal Phil Goettl.
Each summer there was a different design -- and each summer Sowa sold a couple of hundred shirts to the rough-and-tumble guys who used dynamite to search for oil and natural gas.
Two decades later, the geeky, quirky, tetherball-loving Napoleon -- title hero of the wildly popular movie -- showed up onscreen wearing these same shirts.
Since "Napoleon Dynamite" was released last spring, Sowa has sold several thousand of the helicopter tees online. Starting this week, the Grapevine man's shirts will be for sale in 600 Hot Topic stores in malls in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
GRAPEVINE, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) -- As Napoleon Dynamite would put it, a sweet deal has fallen into Randall Sowa's lap.
For four summers in the 1980s, Sowa hawked T-shirts with a helicopter image on them designed by pal Phil Goettl.
Each summer there was a different design -- and each summer Sowa sold a couple of hundred shirts to the rough-and-tumble guys who used dynamite to search for oil and natural gas.
Two decades later, the geeky, quirky, tetherball-loving Napoleon -- title hero of the wildly popular movie -- showed up onscreen wearing these same shirts.
Since "Napoleon Dynamite" was released last spring, Sowa has sold several thousand of the helicopter tees online. Starting this week, the Grapevine man's shirts will be for sale in 600 Hot Topic stores in malls in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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TexasStooge
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Officer Shoots, Kills Carjacking, Kidnapping Suspect
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - A suspected carjacker and kidnapper was shot and killed by a Houston police officer Monday afternoon, Local 2 reported.
Police said it began shortly before 2:30 p.m. when a man carjacked a vehicle and took a hostage in southeast Houston.
An officer chased the carjacking suspect and confronted him in the 9600 block of Radio Road at Almeda Genoa.
Witnesses said they then heard three gunshots.
"The guy knew he was being chased. I guess, the guy who apparently was a hostage, he pulled in back of a back yard. There's a lot of land where you can just run off and the police car pulled behind him, apparently made a radio call saying, 'Hey, we've got a hostage situation here.' Other cops came and that's when the gunfire started," said Lupe Leal, a witness.
Details on what led to the shooting were not immediately provided.
The suspect's name was not released.
An investigation is under way.
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - A suspected carjacker and kidnapper was shot and killed by a Houston police officer Monday afternoon, Local 2 reported.
Police said it began shortly before 2:30 p.m. when a man carjacked a vehicle and took a hostage in southeast Houston.
An officer chased the carjacking suspect and confronted him in the 9600 block of Radio Road at Almeda Genoa.
Witnesses said they then heard three gunshots.
"The guy knew he was being chased. I guess, the guy who apparently was a hostage, he pulled in back of a back yard. There's a lot of land where you can just run off and the police car pulled behind him, apparently made a radio call saying, 'Hey, we've got a hostage situation here.' Other cops came and that's when the gunfire started," said Lupe Leal, a witness.
Details on what led to the shooting were not immediately provided.
The suspect's name was not released.
An investigation is under way.
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TexasStooge
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Baby Dies, Another Hospitalized From Shaken Baby Syndrome
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - Child Protective Services is investigating two cases of suspected child abuse against babies over the weekend. Both infants are believed to have been victims of shaken baby syndrome, Local 2 reported.
In the first case, an 8-month-old girl died from injuries she received while at her southeast Houston home Sunday.
"According to the parents, the child had been under the care of the father all day while the mom was at work," said Estella Olquin, with CPS.
Hospital workers said the baby had bruising and bleeding of the brain, as well as severe eye trauma. She died at Texas Children's Hospital.
A similar case involves a 5-month-old boy, who lives in the 17400 block of Imperial Valley in northeast Houston.
"He has skull fractures consistent with shaken baby syndrome," Olquin said.
The baby's mother is 19 years old and his father is 20 years old. The baby was hospitalized at Memorial Hermann Hospital Sunday night and is listed in very critical condition.
Abuse charges could be filed against both sets of parents, officials said, depending on the results of an autopsy and physicians report.
"We're all thinking that we're seeing so many of them happening, especially because we've just had some recent cases," Olquin said. "Every year, we see that the child dying in our community from abuse and neglect are the very young."
CPS said that of the 37 children who died from abuse or neglect in Houston last year, 80 percent of them were under 3 years old.
Officials hope that a public service campaign, including billboards and posters, will help educate everyone about the dangers of shaken baby syndrome.
The Children's Crisis Center said everyone could intervene with struggling parents of infants.
"Don't wait until someone has to ask for help. Offer to give them a break to come over, to just spend time with them or to allow them to be away from the child for a while," said Kim Tore, with Child Protective Services.
HOUSTON, Texas (KPRC NBC 2) - Child Protective Services is investigating two cases of suspected child abuse against babies over the weekend. Both infants are believed to have been victims of shaken baby syndrome, Local 2 reported.
In the first case, an 8-month-old girl died from injuries she received while at her southeast Houston home Sunday.
"According to the parents, the child had been under the care of the father all day while the mom was at work," said Estella Olquin, with CPS.
Hospital workers said the baby had bruising and bleeding of the brain, as well as severe eye trauma. She died at Texas Children's Hospital.
A similar case involves a 5-month-old boy, who lives in the 17400 block of Imperial Valley in northeast Houston.
"He has skull fractures consistent with shaken baby syndrome," Olquin said.
The baby's mother is 19 years old and his father is 20 years old. The baby was hospitalized at Memorial Hermann Hospital Sunday night and is listed in very critical condition.
Abuse charges could be filed against both sets of parents, officials said, depending on the results of an autopsy and physicians report.
"We're all thinking that we're seeing so many of them happening, especially because we've just had some recent cases," Olquin said. "Every year, we see that the child dying in our community from abuse and neglect are the very young."
CPS said that of the 37 children who died from abuse or neglect in Houston last year, 80 percent of them were under 3 years old.
Officials hope that a public service campaign, including billboards and posters, will help educate everyone about the dangers of shaken baby syndrome.
The Children's Crisis Center said everyone could intervene with struggling parents of infants.
"Don't wait until someone has to ask for help. Offer to give them a break to come over, to just spend time with them or to allow them to be away from the child for a while," said Kim Tore, with Child Protective Services.
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TexasStooge
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Sherman Man Convicted Of Murder
Man Faces Death Penalty
SHERMAN, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) - A north Texas jury took only 35 minutes to find a Sherman man guilty of capital murder Monday.
Andre Thomas was charged of killing his 4-year-old son, his estranged wife and her 1-year-old daughter nearly a year ago.
The guilty verdict is for the death of the young girl only.
The jury is now deciding his punishment, which includes the death penalty option.
Man Faces Death Penalty
SHERMAN, Texas (KXAS NBC 5) - A north Texas jury took only 35 minutes to find a Sherman man guilty of capital murder Monday.
Andre Thomas was charged of killing his 4-year-old son, his estranged wife and her 1-year-old daughter nearly a year ago.
The guilty verdict is for the death of the young girl only.
The jury is now deciding his punishment, which includes the death penalty option.
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