News from the Lone Star State
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- TexasStooge
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Shooting at Dallas mobile home park
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - One person was hospitalized after a shooting at a mobile home park in southeast Dallas, according to police.
The shooting at 410 West Lawson, Lot 54, took place just before 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
The injured person was transported to Baylor University Medical Center.
Officers made an arrest at the scene.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - One person was hospitalized after a shooting at a mobile home park in southeast Dallas, according to police.
The shooting at 410 West Lawson, Lot 54, took place just before 7:00 p.m. on Thursday.
The injured person was transported to Baylor University Medical Center.
Officers made an arrest at the scene.
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- TexasStooge
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Suspect named in Dallas double murder
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/The Dallas Morning News) - Dallas police have identified the suspect in Thursday's shooting which left two dead as 28-year-old Kevin James Hall.
Mr. Hall, who sustained a gun shot wound to his arm during the shoot out at the intersection of Overton and Lancaster roads, has been charged with capital murder.
He did not know the deceased.
He is now at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center.
No other charges have been made against a man and woman who were with him at the time of the shooting.
Family members said that about 4:45 a.m. on Thursday, Henry Pate and Cedric Mosley, 26-year-old amateur music promoters who were starting their own hip-hop record label, were headed to get something to eat after attending a rap concert in downtown Dallas when they stopped at Overton and Lancaster roads.
Police said two men and a woman in a pickup had just left a nearby convenience store and edged up alongside their green Ford Focus. Mr. Pate and the truck's male passenger began arguing – about what, police are unsure.
"We don't know if it was something as harmless as one looking at the other the wrong way, or what," said Sgt. Ross Salverino, a Dallas homicide supervisor.
It's unclear who fired first, but shots were exchanged, police said. The pickup fled. Mr. Pate died in his car. Paramedics found Mr. Mosley mortally wounded just outside the car, amid several spent shell casings. He died two hours later at Dallas Methodist Medical Center.
About 6 a.m. Thursday, a man with a gunshot wound showed up at Parkland Memorial Hospital, saying he was hurt in Pleasant Grove. Detectives rushed to the hospital and, after questioning him, determined he was one of the passengers in the pickup.
Within hours, detectives located the pickup's driver and the woman passenger. They were being questioned at police headquarters near downtown Dallas on Thursday.
Mr. Mosley and Mr. Pate met and became friends after high school. Mr. Pate attended Lancaster High, and Mr. Mosley went to Carter in Dallas.
They shared a love of hip-hop music, family members said, which prompted them to go into business together. They promoted local acts, and sold compact discs in parking lots and at businesses.
"Henry loved music," said Kay Pate Marks, Mr. Pate's mother. "He was not a musician, but he liked to listen to music and play around with it. He always smiled and went around telling everybody everything was going to be all right."
They also shared something else: fatherhood. Mr. Mosley's girlfriend is expecting a son in the spring, and he frequently sought advice from Mr. Pate, whose son just turned 3.
Family members said neither man had any known enemies.
"Cedric is not that type," said his aunt, Emily Mosley, 23, who grew up with him. She was barely able to speak through her sobs. "He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. [The killer] just doesn't know how much he hurt my family."
Lakeshia Williams, Mr. Pate's girlfriend of seven years, said that he never sought trouble but did carry a gun. "He had a [concealed weapon] license," she said. "He just got his gun. He kept it with him at all times. He had been going to the range. It was for safety."
She last saw him a few minutes before the gunbattle. About 4:30 a.m., Mr. Pate dashed through the door of their home, asking if she was hungry. Mr. Mosley waited in the car outside.
"They had just come back from the club," she said. "I had no inkling anything bad had happened. He was cracking jokes. I told him to get back to the house."
After a while, she grew worried. When she saw her boyfriend's distinctive green car on the TV news at about 5 a.m., she felt sick. The shooting was a mile from their home.
Mr. Pate's mother said that her family's Thanksgiving holidays are forever marked.
"We're a close family," she said. "We will still get together, but it won't be the same."
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/The Dallas Morning News) - Dallas police have identified the suspect in Thursday's shooting which left two dead as 28-year-old Kevin James Hall.
Mr. Hall, who sustained a gun shot wound to his arm during the shoot out at the intersection of Overton and Lancaster roads, has been charged with capital murder.
He did not know the deceased.
He is now at the Lew Sterrett Justice Center.
No other charges have been made against a man and woman who were with him at the time of the shooting.
Family members said that about 4:45 a.m. on Thursday, Henry Pate and Cedric Mosley, 26-year-old amateur music promoters who were starting their own hip-hop record label, were headed to get something to eat after attending a rap concert in downtown Dallas when they stopped at Overton and Lancaster roads.
Police said two men and a woman in a pickup had just left a nearby convenience store and edged up alongside their green Ford Focus. Mr. Pate and the truck's male passenger began arguing – about what, police are unsure.
"We don't know if it was something as harmless as one looking at the other the wrong way, or what," said Sgt. Ross Salverino, a Dallas homicide supervisor.
It's unclear who fired first, but shots were exchanged, police said. The pickup fled. Mr. Pate died in his car. Paramedics found Mr. Mosley mortally wounded just outside the car, amid several spent shell casings. He died two hours later at Dallas Methodist Medical Center.
About 6 a.m. Thursday, a man with a gunshot wound showed up at Parkland Memorial Hospital, saying he was hurt in Pleasant Grove. Detectives rushed to the hospital and, after questioning him, determined he was one of the passengers in the pickup.
Within hours, detectives located the pickup's driver and the woman passenger. They were being questioned at police headquarters near downtown Dallas on Thursday.
Mr. Mosley and Mr. Pate met and became friends after high school. Mr. Pate attended Lancaster High, and Mr. Mosley went to Carter in Dallas.
They shared a love of hip-hop music, family members said, which prompted them to go into business together. They promoted local acts, and sold compact discs in parking lots and at businesses.
"Henry loved music," said Kay Pate Marks, Mr. Pate's mother. "He was not a musician, but he liked to listen to music and play around with it. He always smiled and went around telling everybody everything was going to be all right."
They also shared something else: fatherhood. Mr. Mosley's girlfriend is expecting a son in the spring, and he frequently sought advice from Mr. Pate, whose son just turned 3.
Family members said neither man had any known enemies.
"Cedric is not that type," said his aunt, Emily Mosley, 23, who grew up with him. She was barely able to speak through her sobs. "He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. [The killer] just doesn't know how much he hurt my family."
Lakeshia Williams, Mr. Pate's girlfriend of seven years, said that he never sought trouble but did carry a gun. "He had a [concealed weapon] license," she said. "He just got his gun. He kept it with him at all times. He had been going to the range. It was for safety."
She last saw him a few minutes before the gunbattle. About 4:30 a.m., Mr. Pate dashed through the door of their home, asking if she was hungry. Mr. Mosley waited in the car outside.
"They had just come back from the club," she said. "I had no inkling anything bad had happened. He was cracking jokes. I told him to get back to the house."
After a while, she grew worried. When she saw her boyfriend's distinctive green car on the TV news at about 5 a.m., she felt sick. The shooting was a mile from their home.
Mr. Pate's mother said that her family's Thanksgiving holidays are forever marked.
"We're a close family," she said. "We will still get together, but it won't be the same."
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- TexasStooge
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Firefighters battle two-alarm fire
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Firefighters are tackling a two-alarm apartment fire at Chapel Creek and Webb Chapel in Dallas.
Smoke can be seen billowing from the building.
Some seven units are reported to have been damaged.
There was " a lot of fire" at the complex, according to initial reports.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Firefighters are tackling a two-alarm apartment fire at Chapel Creek and Webb Chapel in Dallas.
Smoke can be seen billowing from the building.
Some seven units are reported to have been damaged.
There was " a lot of fire" at the complex, according to initial reports.
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School directories make student data public
Policies over school directories confuse parents, educators
By KRISTINE HUGHES / The Dallas Morning News
RICHARDSON, Texas - When Elaine Spikes enrolled her 14-year-old daughter at Berkner High in Richardson this year, she learned a lesson on open records laws: Andrea's name, address and phone number could be bought and become public.
"I don't think it's clear enough at all that if you allow for it to be published in the student directory that it would be made available to anyone who walked in off the street," she said.
Mrs. Spikes discovered something many parents probably don't know: Texas public schools are required by the state's Public Information Act to provide student directory information to anyone who requests and pays for it unless the parent tells the district to withhold it. District personnel also are not allowed to ask what the information will be used for.
North Texas school officials say they aren't surprised parents don't know the rules or are confused by them. They say even they have trouble interpreting seemingly contradictory federal and state laws, especially since a new statute passed by the Texas Legislature took effect Sept. 1.
As a result of the uncertainty, most Texas school districts use different formats to explain the process to parents and few handle the release of information the same way.
The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which became law in 1974, protects the privacy of students' educational records such as grades and disciplinary reports. It also requires schools to define what directory information includes and gives them the option of releasing the information but doesn't require it.
U.S. Department of Education spokesman Jim Bradshaw said that information is protected only at the request of parents or students.
The Texas attorney general's office, however, says information that belongs to a tax-supported school district belongs to the public, with a few exceptions.
State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, authored the recent law calling for school districts to make parents' options clearer. He was also inspired by stories from constituents who had found their children's personal information online, or whose children received letters from inmates, or were contacted with propositions for modeling.
"Because of the interaction between federal and state law it was possible for a sex offender to go in and get student directory information," Mr. Williams said. "Parents were routinely consenting to the release of this information, and they did not understand what it included."
Opting out
Proponents of the law hope it will increase the number of parents who opt out of the third-party directories or restrict the information that's included.
For now, personal information for tens of thousands of students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is available to the public.
The Dallas Morning News requested directories for five of Richardson's 55 schools. Those directories listed 2,250 students with their names, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates.
Directory information can include name, address, phone number, date and place of birth, photo, grade level, dates of attendance, enrollment status, previous school, honors and awards, activities and height and weight for athletic team members.
The new statute requires school districts to spell out – in 14-point type – which of those details they include in the directory information definition and then let parents approve the release of each piece of data. Before that, parents were only able to approve or decline the release of all information, so most approved its release to make sure their children wouldn't be excluded from the yearbook, sports programs and local media reports.
This year, PTAs, high school ring makers, driver's training companies and military recruiters have purchased those lists in Richardson.
Employees listed in staff directories also are fair game. Financial planners, civic organizations, private schools, home developers and seminar providers have purchased those Richardson directories.
Cost of lists
Depending on the extent of the list the cost ranges from $5 to $100. That's much less than the cost of mailing lists or direct marketing services.
Chad Henry, president of the 1-2-3 Driving School in Plano, said using the lists helps him provide a service to parents now that many schools no longer offer driver's education.
"It's the best way to get our information out there," he said. "And I do mean information – not necessarily a sales pitch."
To his and other vendors' frustration, Allen, Frisco, McKinney and Mesquite school districts have ruled in recent years that addresses and phone numbers are not directory information.
"I understand the need for public access to information, but the only public wanting this type of information are marketing and sales people," said Mesquite spokesman Ian Halperin. "Our parents were tired of the sales calls and junk mail."
The Allen school board voted this year to also exclude addresses and phone numbers from its directories, spokesman Tim Carroll said. The district's new form explains that decision as well as the new state statute, but it may have confused many. Thousands of parents omitted their children from all publications, including school yearbooks.
Many districts, like Richardson, still incorporate addresses and phone numbers in their directory definitions, including Coppell, Rockwall, Grapevine-Colleyville, Irving, Lewisville, Grand Prairie and Carrollton-Farmers Branch.
"With identity theft as it is today, not to mention the fact that sexual predators – just predators period – could get their hands on it, that's just wrong," Richardson parent Tony Allred said. "I can't believe you trust your children to the school and they would allow that information to get out."
She said learning that, though, finally explains all the mail she's received addressed to "the parents of Lindsey Allred."
Policies over school directories confuse parents, educators
By KRISTINE HUGHES / The Dallas Morning News
RICHARDSON, Texas - When Elaine Spikes enrolled her 14-year-old daughter at Berkner High in Richardson this year, she learned a lesson on open records laws: Andrea's name, address and phone number could be bought and become public.
"I don't think it's clear enough at all that if you allow for it to be published in the student directory that it would be made available to anyone who walked in off the street," she said.
Mrs. Spikes discovered something many parents probably don't know: Texas public schools are required by the state's Public Information Act to provide student directory information to anyone who requests and pays for it unless the parent tells the district to withhold it. District personnel also are not allowed to ask what the information will be used for.
North Texas school officials say they aren't surprised parents don't know the rules or are confused by them. They say even they have trouble interpreting seemingly contradictory federal and state laws, especially since a new statute passed by the Texas Legislature took effect Sept. 1.
As a result of the uncertainty, most Texas school districts use different formats to explain the process to parents and few handle the release of information the same way.
The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which became law in 1974, protects the privacy of students' educational records such as grades and disciplinary reports. It also requires schools to define what directory information includes and gives them the option of releasing the information but doesn't require it.
U.S. Department of Education spokesman Jim Bradshaw said that information is protected only at the request of parents or students.
The Texas attorney general's office, however, says information that belongs to a tax-supported school district belongs to the public, with a few exceptions.
State Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, authored the recent law calling for school districts to make parents' options clearer. He was also inspired by stories from constituents who had found their children's personal information online, or whose children received letters from inmates, or were contacted with propositions for modeling.
"Because of the interaction between federal and state law it was possible for a sex offender to go in and get student directory information," Mr. Williams said. "Parents were routinely consenting to the release of this information, and they did not understand what it included."
Opting out
Proponents of the law hope it will increase the number of parents who opt out of the third-party directories or restrict the information that's included.
For now, personal information for tens of thousands of students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is available to the public.
The Dallas Morning News requested directories for five of Richardson's 55 schools. Those directories listed 2,250 students with their names, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates.
Directory information can include name, address, phone number, date and place of birth, photo, grade level, dates of attendance, enrollment status, previous school, honors and awards, activities and height and weight for athletic team members.
The new statute requires school districts to spell out – in 14-point type – which of those details they include in the directory information definition and then let parents approve the release of each piece of data. Before that, parents were only able to approve or decline the release of all information, so most approved its release to make sure their children wouldn't be excluded from the yearbook, sports programs and local media reports.
This year, PTAs, high school ring makers, driver's training companies and military recruiters have purchased those lists in Richardson.
Employees listed in staff directories also are fair game. Financial planners, civic organizations, private schools, home developers and seminar providers have purchased those Richardson directories.
Cost of lists
Depending on the extent of the list the cost ranges from $5 to $100. That's much less than the cost of mailing lists or direct marketing services.
Chad Henry, president of the 1-2-3 Driving School in Plano, said using the lists helps him provide a service to parents now that many schools no longer offer driver's education.
"It's the best way to get our information out there," he said. "And I do mean information – not necessarily a sales pitch."
To his and other vendors' frustration, Allen, Frisco, McKinney and Mesquite school districts have ruled in recent years that addresses and phone numbers are not directory information.
"I understand the need for public access to information, but the only public wanting this type of information are marketing and sales people," said Mesquite spokesman Ian Halperin. "Our parents were tired of the sales calls and junk mail."
The Allen school board voted this year to also exclude addresses and phone numbers from its directories, spokesman Tim Carroll said. The district's new form explains that decision as well as the new state statute, but it may have confused many. Thousands of parents omitted their children from all publications, including school yearbooks.
Many districts, like Richardson, still incorporate addresses and phone numbers in their directory definitions, including Coppell, Rockwall, Grapevine-Colleyville, Irving, Lewisville, Grand Prairie and Carrollton-Farmers Branch.
"With identity theft as it is today, not to mention the fact that sexual predators – just predators period – could get their hands on it, that's just wrong," Richardson parent Tony Allred said. "I can't believe you trust your children to the school and they would allow that information to get out."
She said learning that, though, finally explains all the mail she's received addressed to "the parents of Lindsey Allred."
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- TexasStooge
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Center rocks around Christmas tree
By Deborah Fleck / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - The trees this year will be decked with guitars. And maybe blue suede shoes.
The Irving Arts Center is stepping back to the rock 'n' roll times of the '50s and '60s as it celebrates the holidays.
The center's elegant Main Gallery will once again feature trees decorated by local schools participating in the annual competition. Thirteen district schools, the Irving Council of PTAs, the North Hills School, St. Luke's Catholic School and the Sloan School will try their best in adorning trees to honor rock 'n' roll music.
The most creative trees will be announced during the free Holiday Open House from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 9.
As an added treat, the center will hold a dance party at 9 that night in Carpenter Performance Hall. Vegas headliners Beary Hobbs' Drifters, Cornell Gunter's Coasters and the Platters will perform. Tickets are $20 to $25. Call 972-252-2787.
Also tied to rock 'n' roll is a photographic exhibit in the Focus Gallery called "Ferry Cross the Mersey: The British Invasion." Twenty-two photographs provide a look at British groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Herman's Hermits.
For more information about the center's Rock 'n' Roll Holidays, visit http://www.irvingtartscenter.com.
This tradition's the best
Move over, Nutcracker and Scrooge. Here comes another holiday tradition. It's the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a humorous tale about staging a holiday pageant.
ICT Children's Theatre will present the play by Barbara Robinson from Dec. 2 to 11 in the Dupree Theater at the Irving Arts Center.
Thirty-one actors ages 7 to 17 will join in the mayhem. The actors in the leading roles are seasoned performers who have dedicated themselves to the theater company for several years, said theater administrator Jill Stephens. Academy of Irving ISD student Byran Wade, who plays Father, made his debut performance as Charlie in the company's production of the play in 1999.
Ms. Stephens said the tradition stops this year, however. "This is the last time we plan on doing the show," she said.
So to catch Joshua Moore, Erin Sellars, Alexandra Rutherford and Jeff McQuitty be inventively awful as the Herdman kids, call the box office at 972-252-2787 or visit http://www.irvingtheatre.org.
Seminary auxiliary
Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving now has an auxiliary looking out for it.
Development director Patricia Martin and Aline Duca, mother of seminary rector Monsignor Michael G. Duca, have founded Trinitarian Auxiliary. Officers were elected at an organizational meeting in September. Charter officers are DeLiza Trevino, president; Laura Fearn, vice president; Betty Monaghan, secretary; Lewis Duca, treasurer; Mrs. Martin, historian; and Monsignor Duca, chaplain.
A Mass of Investiture for officers and members was held Sunday with Bishop Charles V. Grahmann as celebrant, assisted by Monsignor Duca and seminary priests.
The auxiliary will assist the rector, pray daily for seminarians and conduct an annual fundraising event. Membership is open to both women and men from any diocese. Parents of priests and seminarians will be given special recognition. Charter memberships will be accepted through Dec. 31. The fee to join is $20. Contact Mrs. Martin at 972-438-2212, ext. 505, or pmartin@holytrinityseminary.com.
By Deborah Fleck / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas - The trees this year will be decked with guitars. And maybe blue suede shoes.
The Irving Arts Center is stepping back to the rock 'n' roll times of the '50s and '60s as it celebrates the holidays.
The center's elegant Main Gallery will once again feature trees decorated by local schools participating in the annual competition. Thirteen district schools, the Irving Council of PTAs, the North Hills School, St. Luke's Catholic School and the Sloan School will try their best in adorning trees to honor rock 'n' roll music.
The most creative trees will be announced during the free Holiday Open House from 5 to 7 p.m. Dec. 9.
As an added treat, the center will hold a dance party at 9 that night in Carpenter Performance Hall. Vegas headliners Beary Hobbs' Drifters, Cornell Gunter's Coasters and the Platters will perform. Tickets are $20 to $25. Call 972-252-2787.
Also tied to rock 'n' roll is a photographic exhibit in the Focus Gallery called "Ferry Cross the Mersey: The British Invasion." Twenty-two photographs provide a look at British groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Herman's Hermits.
For more information about the center's Rock 'n' Roll Holidays, visit http://www.irvingtartscenter.com.
This tradition's the best
Move over, Nutcracker and Scrooge. Here comes another holiday tradition. It's the play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, a humorous tale about staging a holiday pageant.
ICT Children's Theatre will present the play by Barbara Robinson from Dec. 2 to 11 in the Dupree Theater at the Irving Arts Center.
Thirty-one actors ages 7 to 17 will join in the mayhem. The actors in the leading roles are seasoned performers who have dedicated themselves to the theater company for several years, said theater administrator Jill Stephens. Academy of Irving ISD student Byran Wade, who plays Father, made his debut performance as Charlie in the company's production of the play in 1999.
Ms. Stephens said the tradition stops this year, however. "This is the last time we plan on doing the show," she said.
So to catch Joshua Moore, Erin Sellars, Alexandra Rutherford and Jeff McQuitty be inventively awful as the Herdman kids, call the box office at 972-252-2787 or visit http://www.irvingtheatre.org.
Seminary auxiliary
Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving now has an auxiliary looking out for it.
Development director Patricia Martin and Aline Duca, mother of seminary rector Monsignor Michael G. Duca, have founded Trinitarian Auxiliary. Officers were elected at an organizational meeting in September. Charter officers are DeLiza Trevino, president; Laura Fearn, vice president; Betty Monaghan, secretary; Lewis Duca, treasurer; Mrs. Martin, historian; and Monsignor Duca, chaplain.
A Mass of Investiture for officers and members was held Sunday with Bishop Charles V. Grahmann as celebrant, assisted by Monsignor Duca and seminary priests.
The auxiliary will assist the rector, pray daily for seminarians and conduct an annual fundraising event. Membership is open to both women and men from any diocese. Parents of priests and seminarians will be given special recognition. Charter memberships will be accepted through Dec. 31. The fee to join is $20. Contact Mrs. Martin at 972-438-2212, ext. 505, or pmartin@holytrinityseminary.com.
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- TexasStooge
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Meeting set on property near North Lake
Coppell: City wants to buy developer's land; owner seeks complex
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
COPPELL, Texas - Coppell officials plan to meet next week with a company interested in building a residential development near North Lake, the mayor said.
The city hopes it can strike a deal with Billingsley Co. to buy some of its land after extending an offer this month, Mayor Doug Stover said. But the company hasn't accepted the offer, developer Lucy Billingsley said earlier this week.
The city would use the land for parks and housing. City officials have threatened to condemn property if Billingsley rejects their offer.
The developer's plans to build houses, apartments and shops concerns Coppell officials, who say the development will overcrowd schools and overwhelm city service providers. The proposed Cypress Waters development would be in Dallas, but the property borders Coppell and Irving, and most of the land is in the Coppell Independent School District.
Mr. Stover is encouraged about the meeting.
"It gives me a lot of confidence that ... some good-faith negotiations will occur that will benefit the city of Coppell and the developer," he said.
In an e-mail, Ms. Billingsley wouldn't speculate on what the company may do about the purchase offer.
"Hopefully, we can keep the lines of communication open because there are a lot of rumors in Coppell," she wrote, "and I hope we will be able to offer the true facts about Cypress Waters."
She added, "Most communities welcome an upscale, safe, mixed-use development, especially when it will generate new tax dollars that help lessen the burdens on the residential taxpayers."
School officials, who have also extended an offer to buy some of Billingsley's land, may be involved in next week's discussions, Coppell City Manager Jim Witt said. A school spokesman couldn't be reached for comment earlier this week.
The school district would build schools on the new land. Billingsley has already offered to sell some land to the school district so it can build a school, Ms. Billingsley wrote.
City and school officials would like to buy about 200 acres, leaving Billingsley enough land to develop, Mr. Stover has said. The city might set aside at least $1 million to buy land, Mr. Witt said, and a bond election would be held to cover the city's costs.
The city and school district decided last week to proceed with eminent domain proceedings, but Mr. Stover said the city plans to only file condemnation petitions while meeting with Billingsley officials. If a deal isn't reached, the mayor said, the city may continue with condemnation plans. The city has authority to condemn land outside city limits, Mr. Witt said.
Ms. Billingsley wrote that the city's threatened legal action "will be expensive and is certainly not in the best interests of Coppell or Dallas citizens."
Billingsley wants to use about 325 acres south of the lake for residential development. Ms. Billingsley has said she's interested in the land because it's near the lake and has access to LBJ Freeway. She wrote that Cypress Waters will be an attractive, upscale community that is "unlike any neighborhood in our area."
But Mr. Stover has said the developer's plans would "alter the complexion of our community drastically.
"No measures are too aggressive to live up to our responsibilities to provide for the maintenance of the quality of life" in Coppell, he said.
Dallas' planning commission as of Tuesday had not scheduled a review of Billingsley's zoning application, Ms. Billingsley said. Dallas officials have expressed support for the project.
While Coppell meets with Billingsley officials, it also plans to talk with TXU about the city's interest in buying about 10 acres of that company's land, Mr. Witt said. The city has delivered an offer to TXU, which also owns land near the lake.
The company is working to accommodate the city's requests, TXU Power spokesman Tom Kleckner said.
"We're open to working with them to discuss alternatives," he said. "We're looking to see how we can best meet their interests."
Coppell: City wants to buy developer's land; owner seeks complex
By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News
COPPELL, Texas - Coppell officials plan to meet next week with a company interested in building a residential development near North Lake, the mayor said.
The city hopes it can strike a deal with Billingsley Co. to buy some of its land after extending an offer this month, Mayor Doug Stover said. But the company hasn't accepted the offer, developer Lucy Billingsley said earlier this week.
The city would use the land for parks and housing. City officials have threatened to condemn property if Billingsley rejects their offer.
The developer's plans to build houses, apartments and shops concerns Coppell officials, who say the development will overcrowd schools and overwhelm city service providers. The proposed Cypress Waters development would be in Dallas, but the property borders Coppell and Irving, and most of the land is in the Coppell Independent School District.
Mr. Stover is encouraged about the meeting.
"It gives me a lot of confidence that ... some good-faith negotiations will occur that will benefit the city of Coppell and the developer," he said.
In an e-mail, Ms. Billingsley wouldn't speculate on what the company may do about the purchase offer.
"Hopefully, we can keep the lines of communication open because there are a lot of rumors in Coppell," she wrote, "and I hope we will be able to offer the true facts about Cypress Waters."
She added, "Most communities welcome an upscale, safe, mixed-use development, especially when it will generate new tax dollars that help lessen the burdens on the residential taxpayers."
School officials, who have also extended an offer to buy some of Billingsley's land, may be involved in next week's discussions, Coppell City Manager Jim Witt said. A school spokesman couldn't be reached for comment earlier this week.
The school district would build schools on the new land. Billingsley has already offered to sell some land to the school district so it can build a school, Ms. Billingsley wrote.
City and school officials would like to buy about 200 acres, leaving Billingsley enough land to develop, Mr. Stover has said. The city might set aside at least $1 million to buy land, Mr. Witt said, and a bond election would be held to cover the city's costs.
The city and school district decided last week to proceed with eminent domain proceedings, but Mr. Stover said the city plans to only file condemnation petitions while meeting with Billingsley officials. If a deal isn't reached, the mayor said, the city may continue with condemnation plans. The city has authority to condemn land outside city limits, Mr. Witt said.
Ms. Billingsley wrote that the city's threatened legal action "will be expensive and is certainly not in the best interests of Coppell or Dallas citizens."
Billingsley wants to use about 325 acres south of the lake for residential development. Ms. Billingsley has said she's interested in the land because it's near the lake and has access to LBJ Freeway. She wrote that Cypress Waters will be an attractive, upscale community that is "unlike any neighborhood in our area."
But Mr. Stover has said the developer's plans would "alter the complexion of our community drastically.
"No measures are too aggressive to live up to our responsibilities to provide for the maintenance of the quality of life" in Coppell, he said.
Dallas' planning commission as of Tuesday had not scheduled a review of Billingsley's zoning application, Ms. Billingsley said. Dallas officials have expressed support for the project.
While Coppell meets with Billingsley officials, it also plans to talk with TXU about the city's interest in buying about 10 acres of that company's land, Mr. Witt said. The city has delivered an offer to TXU, which also owns land near the lake.
The company is working to accommodate the city's requests, TXU Power spokesman Tom Kleckner said.
"We're open to working with them to discuss alternatives," he said. "We're looking to see how we can best meet their interests."
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Club looks to slay reading slowdown
Irving: Librarians devise program to keep teens interested in books
By EMILY POWELL / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas – Crossing an icy river of death, fighting evil and befriending dragons – all in a day's work for the heroes and heroines of some of today's popular young adult fantasy novels.
Their adventures – chronicled in such books as Sabriel, Harry Potter and Eragon – were the subject of this month's Java Makes Me Jump book club meeting. More than 20 middle-schoolers gathered at Barnes & Noble in the Irving Mall to talk about what they read.
Started three years ago by Bowie Middle School librarian Hope Krum, the club is a concentrated effort by the Irving school district's middle school librarians, the bookstore's staffers, parents and teachers to keep students' reading momentum high.
"Students read a lot in elementary school," Ms. Krum said. "In middle school, they stop reading. It's where we lose readers."
Each month the club has a theme, such as mystery or nonfiction. November's theme was fantasy, 12-year-old Jordan Shelton's favorite kind.
He loves reading all kinds of books, but he especially loves books with dragons.
"It can't really happen," he said, nodding to his stack of books – two of which feature dragons on the cover. "But as you read, it's like you're caught up in it."
And that love of reading is exactly what Ms. Krum and her colleagues have in mind.
For this meeting, she was joined by librarians Heather Lamb and Cindi Rockett. All three dressed up, to varying degrees, in fantasy costumes to set the mood.
Meetings are generally a mixture of games and volunteer book reports by students and librarians. This month included Harry Potter trivia questions and door prizes for passes to the newest movie in the popular J.K. Rowling series.
The reports help students become comfortable speaking in public and spread the word about good books, Ms. Krum said.
After students deliver their report, they pick a free book, usually from that month's genre. And at the end of each meeting, students receive a long list of recommended books for extracurricular reading.
Jordan previewed Eldest, the sequel to Eragon. He wasn't quite finished with the novel but heartily recommended it to his peers because "it's about dragons, and there's a lot of fighting."
Irving: Librarians devise program to keep teens interested in books
By EMILY POWELL / The Dallas Morning News
IRVING, Texas – Crossing an icy river of death, fighting evil and befriending dragons – all in a day's work for the heroes and heroines of some of today's popular young adult fantasy novels.
Their adventures – chronicled in such books as Sabriel, Harry Potter and Eragon – were the subject of this month's Java Makes Me Jump book club meeting. More than 20 middle-schoolers gathered at Barnes & Noble in the Irving Mall to talk about what they read.
Started three years ago by Bowie Middle School librarian Hope Krum, the club is a concentrated effort by the Irving school district's middle school librarians, the bookstore's staffers, parents and teachers to keep students' reading momentum high.
"Students read a lot in elementary school," Ms. Krum said. "In middle school, they stop reading. It's where we lose readers."
Each month the club has a theme, such as mystery or nonfiction. November's theme was fantasy, 12-year-old Jordan Shelton's favorite kind.
He loves reading all kinds of books, but he especially loves books with dragons.
"It can't really happen," he said, nodding to his stack of books – two of which feature dragons on the cover. "But as you read, it's like you're caught up in it."
And that love of reading is exactly what Ms. Krum and her colleagues have in mind.
For this meeting, she was joined by librarians Heather Lamb and Cindi Rockett. All three dressed up, to varying degrees, in fantasy costumes to set the mood.
Meetings are generally a mixture of games and volunteer book reports by students and librarians. This month included Harry Potter trivia questions and door prizes for passes to the newest movie in the popular J.K. Rowling series.
The reports help students become comfortable speaking in public and spread the word about good books, Ms. Krum said.
After students deliver their report, they pick a free book, usually from that month's genre. And at the end of each meeting, students receive a long list of recommended books for extracurricular reading.
Jordan previewed Eldest, the sequel to Eragon. He wasn't quite finished with the novel but heartily recommended it to his peers because "it's about dragons, and there's a lot of fighting."
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Police target holiday sales crime
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
It's the holiday rush and that means shoppers are packing the malls. Any one of them could become a crime victim.
"We have a lot of robberies up here, where individuals get held up coming from their car to or from the mall and the stores," said Roman Gilmore of the Dallas Police.
So Dallas police have extra patrols including some on horseback at malls and shopping centers looking for trouble makers.
"We are hopefully part of a deterrence program here. Hopefully, if anybody is coming around here to get someone else's gifts or presents seeing us out here patrolling they might just move on down the road," said Silverio Valencia, who was patrolling on horseback on Friday.
Police closely monitor the parking lots and garages. Shoppers say they like the extra police officers watching out for them.
"Just because I feel like there's more police here to check on cars and people walking and all that," says shopper Erica Longoria.
"I feel better leaving my car in the parking lot without necessarily turning on alarm systems," added Java Johnston.
But, police say it's also up to shoppers to be responsible about their own safety.
"So they need to be aware. Actually, I think that's probably one of the biggest problems. Most people aren't really aware of who they are around," added Gilmore.
Police say there are plenty of con-artists and crooks out there this time of year waiting for an easy target.
Here are some prevention tips from police:
- Shop during daylight hours.
- Don't carry large amounts of cash.
- Don't wear expensive jewelry, as it's something crooks look for.
- Don't overload yourself with packages. It is important to have clear visibility and freedom of motion.
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
It's the holiday rush and that means shoppers are packing the malls. Any one of them could become a crime victim.
"We have a lot of robberies up here, where individuals get held up coming from their car to or from the mall and the stores," said Roman Gilmore of the Dallas Police.
So Dallas police have extra patrols including some on horseback at malls and shopping centers looking for trouble makers.
"We are hopefully part of a deterrence program here. Hopefully, if anybody is coming around here to get someone else's gifts or presents seeing us out here patrolling they might just move on down the road," said Silverio Valencia, who was patrolling on horseback on Friday.
Police closely monitor the parking lots and garages. Shoppers say they like the extra police officers watching out for them.
"Just because I feel like there's more police here to check on cars and people walking and all that," says shopper Erica Longoria.
"I feel better leaving my car in the parking lot without necessarily turning on alarm systems," added Java Johnston.
But, police say it's also up to shoppers to be responsible about their own safety.
"So they need to be aware. Actually, I think that's probably one of the biggest problems. Most people aren't really aware of who they are around," added Gilmore.
Police say there are plenty of con-artists and crooks out there this time of year waiting for an easy target.
Here are some prevention tips from police:
- Shop during daylight hours.
- Don't carry large amounts of cash.
- Don't wear expensive jewelry, as it's something crooks look for.
- Don't overload yourself with packages. It is important to have clear visibility and freedom of motion.
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Rush for electonic goods in Frisco
By MARY ANN RAZZUK / WFAA ABC 8
FRISCO, Texas - The doors at Circuit City in Frisco opened to the sound of the season's hottest electronics today. Nearly 300 customers had camped out the night before.
"The iPod videos are the newest craze right now. Those are the hardest thing to come by," said sales manager, Jeff Venuto.
Flat screen televisions are selling fast too.
"It's for me, myself and I and I hope I find one," said Billy Waits, a shopper.
Videophones and satellite radio are appealing to people on the run. But then again, anything new seems to be hot.
"I'm a technology junkie and it's probably because of my generation. Everything is so new and we're very much into getting everything that's new and want it now," said shopper Mehuash Karim.
If it is sold out, store officials say they'll call around or special order to try and get the product in the customer's hands before Christmas.
Visibly missing from the hands of many shoppers was that long list of gifts for family and friends.
"I do that on the 24th so today with the sales I'm just getting what I need," said shopper Bryan Holliday.
By MARY ANN RAZZUK / WFAA ABC 8
FRISCO, Texas - The doors at Circuit City in Frisco opened to the sound of the season's hottest electronics today. Nearly 300 customers had camped out the night before.
"The iPod videos are the newest craze right now. Those are the hardest thing to come by," said sales manager, Jeff Venuto.
Flat screen televisions are selling fast too.
"It's for me, myself and I and I hope I find one," said Billy Waits, a shopper.
Videophones and satellite radio are appealing to people on the run. But then again, anything new seems to be hot.
"I'm a technology junkie and it's probably because of my generation. Everything is so new and we're very much into getting everything that's new and want it now," said shopper Mehuash Karim.
If it is sold out, store officials say they'll call around or special order to try and get the product in the customer's hands before Christmas.
Visibly missing from the hands of many shoppers was that long list of gifts for family and friends.
"I do that on the 24th so today with the sales I'm just getting what I need," said shopper Bryan Holliday.
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'Child with lighter' caused fire
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Firefighters tackled a two-alarm apartment fire in Dallas on Friday which investigators said was started by a child playing with a cigarette lighter.
Smoke could be seen billowing from the Dallas Chapel Creek Apartments.
Some seven units were reported damaged in the fire.
Three children and one adult were treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries.
DALLAS, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - Firefighters tackled a two-alarm apartment fire in Dallas on Friday which investigators said was started by a child playing with a cigarette lighter.
Smoke could be seen billowing from the Dallas Chapel Creek Apartments.
Some seven units were reported damaged in the fire.
Three children and one adult were treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries.
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TX woman poses as another to escape jail
ARDMORE, Okla. (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – A Texas woman escaped from the Carter County Detention Center after assuming the identity of another female inmate, authorities said.
Karen Neveling, jailed Wednesday on a series of charges including false personation and counterfeiting, was released when bond was posted for Misty Dawn Johnson by an Ardmore bail bond agency early Thursday, Sheriff Harvey Burkhart said.
Neveling, Johnson and possibly others apparently were involved in the identify switch, Burkhart said. Neveling had Johnson's personal effects when she left the jail with Rick Feiler, owner of the bond company.
Burkhart said Neveling apparently telephoned a man in Dallas, letting him in on the plot. Neveling told the man she would impersonate Johnson and to bring cash for Johnson's bond. The two women then switched cells.
When Feiler arrived, Johnson's name was called in a cell block but it was Neveling who appeared. Feiler had bonded Johnson previously but apparently did not realize the woman was not the person he had bonded before.
Burkhart said the detention center system also failed.
"When the information was put into the computer a photo of Johnson should have appeared, allowing employees to do an actual visual comparison. The photo did not come up on the screen," Burkhart said.
Feiler drove Neveling around Ardmore in search of her vehicle when jailers discovered the switch. Burkhart said officials telephoned Feiler and he confirmed she was still with him. He was returning her to jail when Neveling jumped from his truck and disappeared, Feiler told authorities.
Neveling's husband, Daryl, was arrested with his wife for possession of counterfeit $100 bills and equipment used to manufacture fake money. He remains in custody.
ARDMORE, Okla. (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – A Texas woman escaped from the Carter County Detention Center after assuming the identity of another female inmate, authorities said.
Karen Neveling, jailed Wednesday on a series of charges including false personation and counterfeiting, was released when bond was posted for Misty Dawn Johnson by an Ardmore bail bond agency early Thursday, Sheriff Harvey Burkhart said.
Neveling, Johnson and possibly others apparently were involved in the identify switch, Burkhart said. Neveling had Johnson's personal effects when she left the jail with Rick Feiler, owner of the bond company.
Burkhart said Neveling apparently telephoned a man in Dallas, letting him in on the plot. Neveling told the man she would impersonate Johnson and to bring cash for Johnson's bond. The two women then switched cells.
When Feiler arrived, Johnson's name was called in a cell block but it was Neveling who appeared. Feiler had bonded Johnson previously but apparently did not realize the woman was not the person he had bonded before.
Burkhart said the detention center system also failed.
"When the information was put into the computer a photo of Johnson should have appeared, allowing employees to do an actual visual comparison. The photo did not come up on the screen," Burkhart said.
Feiler drove Neveling around Ardmore in search of her vehicle when jailers discovered the switch. Burkhart said officials telephoned Feiler and he confirmed she was still with him. He was returning her to jail when Neveling jumped from his truck and disappeared, Feiler told authorities.
Neveling's husband, Daryl, was arrested with his wife for possession of counterfeit $100 bills and equipment used to manufacture fake money. He remains in custody.
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Bracelet breaks the cycle of DWIs
To keep convicts sober, judges use technology and special courts
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
As the holidays approached, the office pool began. Folks in Dallas district Judge Vickers Cunningham's office last year figured at least a few convicted drunken drivers on probation would fall off the wagon.
Stone-cold sobriety is typically a condition of a defendant's probation. Yet it's always been hard to hold defendants to that condition because the body metabolizes alcohol much quicker than drugs, making random urine tests practically useless.
But last year, Judge Cunningham started using a new tool to combat and monitor the drinking problem of probationers: the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, an ankle bracelet that detects alcohol consumption.
"I've been on the bench 11 years, and this is the best criminal justice tool I've ever had," said Judge Cunningham, who announced this week that he is stepping down from the bench to pursue another elected office. Political insiders speculate he will run for Dallas County district attorney.
He is among judges across the nation who are turning using new technology and innovative programs to deal with a problem that jail time doesn't seem to solve: people who can't stop driving after drinking.
"It's extremely frustrating," Judge Cunningham said. "We have all these programs and all these intervention-type deals, and these people keep coming back."
Nearly everyone who appears before Judge Cunningham to face drunken driving charges already has multiple drunken driving convictions. But he's seen more success stories since he started putting the ankle monitor on probationers, he said.
The device, SCRAM for short, detects alcohol by testing unnoticeable sweat emissions. It's so finely tuned that it can detect if the person takes cold medicine containing alcohol or even a swig of alcohol-based mouthwash. It also alerts the monitoring agency if the ankle device has been tampered with.
When Judge Cunningham asked Dallas-based Recovery Healthcare to start providing and monitoring the devices about two years ago, he was just trying to figure out a quick and cost-effective way to implement SCRAM. The device is often too expensive for tight probation office budgets, and he has his defendants pay Recovery Healthcare themselves. Alcohol Monitoring Systems, which developed SCRAM, now touts that partnership nationwide as a model program.
"The Dallas area is fortunate because it had every tool: our tool, a strong treatment program and judges really enforcing the program," said Kathleen Brown, the company's spokeswoman.
Another initiative
In Denton County, county criminal court judge David Garcia has fallen for the device, too. But he's also spearheaded another initiative to battle multiple offenders.
"I don't want to push paper; I want to be able to make a difference," Judge Garcia said. "It doesn't do us any good if we punish them, send them back on the street and they do the same thing. We're trying to change that philosophy."
In July, a team of his county's law enforcement and legal officials headed to Austin for a program that trained them in establishing a court that specifically deals with repeat offenders. The program isn't aimed at social drinkers or people with a single alcohol-related infraction. Instead, it targets people who seem to be alcoholics.
DWI courts, as they're called, use existing space and resources. Judges usually set aside a specific day or afternoon – depending on the need – to hear, monitor and judge defendants who are have become familiar faces.
Probationers are typically required to come to court weekly so the judge can assess progress they've made in staying sober and getting their life together. They're expected to hold down jobs, pay child support and live up to other financial responsibilities. Besides checking in with a probation officer, defendants must also attend alcohol treatment sessions.
"We all recognize it as a disease," Judge Garcia said. "Some people for whatever reason turn to alcohol. And then they get behind the wheel, and I'm trying to stop them and to change their everyday life pattern."
Nationwide popularity
Like the SCRAM device, DWI courts are becoming increasingly popular nationwide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration helped fund the Austin training session, which included teams from Denton, Dallas and Collin counties. It was the agency's first of about 10 such sessions in the country.
David Hodges, a judicial liaison for the program, said the reason such programs are gaining in popularity is because they do something jail time doesn't seem to: get people to stop drinking.
"What sold me is every judge that I have talked to that has participated, their faces light up when you talk about it," said Mr. Hodges, who was a McLennan County judge for about 20 years. "They tell me, 'I was so burnt out. This has saved my career. I'm really making a difference in people's lives.' "
But it's not just judges who rave about the program, Mr. Hodges said. The defendants and their families like it. It's successful, he said, because it doesn't just threaten defendants, it teaches them how to alter the behavior that keeps getting them into trouble.
"All of a sudden everybody started going, 'You know, just throwing people in jail and throwing away the key might not be the solution to this,' " Mr. Hodges said. "It's not like a ... liberal type of thing. We're doing it because it works."
When such innovative initiatives don't keep probationers from drinking, Judge Cunningham has little patience. And sure enough, SCRAM devices alerted him during the 2004 holiday season that three people on probation had fallen back into old habits. Their punishments: 30 days in jail.
"Talk is cheap," Judge Cunningham said. "I want performance."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW IT WORKS
The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, straps onto a person's ankle and tests imperceptible emissions of sweat about once an hour. Once a day, a modem downloads the data, which manufacturer, Alcohol Monitoring Systems stores. If the person had had any alcohol – even mouthwash – it shows up. "It's as obvious as the nose on your face," said Dallas District Judge Vickers Cunningham. Some courts, like Judge Cunningham's, use a third-party treatment provider for the device. Others rely on internal probation officers to administer the program. When the downloaded data shows an "alcohol event," Alcohol Monitoring Systems lets the courts, the probation office or the treatment provider know. The wearer is quickly called into court or their probation office. Offenders face penalties ranging from a few days in jail to revocation of probation. Larry Vanderwoude, SCRAM program manager for Dallas-based Recovery Healthcare, provides the device and monitors to law enforcement in conjunction with treatment. He has about 200 patients who use the bracelet and said while he has no complete data on its success because of the small sample size and short amount of time it's been available, even those on it seem to appreciate it after time. "I think it's been probably the most successful thing in working with repeat DWI offenders," he said. "This seems to work."
To keep convicts sober, judges use technology and special courts
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
As the holidays approached, the office pool began. Folks in Dallas district Judge Vickers Cunningham's office last year figured at least a few convicted drunken drivers on probation would fall off the wagon.
Stone-cold sobriety is typically a condition of a defendant's probation. Yet it's always been hard to hold defendants to that condition because the body metabolizes alcohol much quicker than drugs, making random urine tests practically useless.
But last year, Judge Cunningham started using a new tool to combat and monitor the drinking problem of probationers: the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, an ankle bracelet that detects alcohol consumption.
"I've been on the bench 11 years, and this is the best criminal justice tool I've ever had," said Judge Cunningham, who announced this week that he is stepping down from the bench to pursue another elected office. Political insiders speculate he will run for Dallas County district attorney.
He is among judges across the nation who are turning using new technology and innovative programs to deal with a problem that jail time doesn't seem to solve: people who can't stop driving after drinking.
"It's extremely frustrating," Judge Cunningham said. "We have all these programs and all these intervention-type deals, and these people keep coming back."
Nearly everyone who appears before Judge Cunningham to face drunken driving charges already has multiple drunken driving convictions. But he's seen more success stories since he started putting the ankle monitor on probationers, he said.
The device, SCRAM for short, detects alcohol by testing unnoticeable sweat emissions. It's so finely tuned that it can detect if the person takes cold medicine containing alcohol or even a swig of alcohol-based mouthwash. It also alerts the monitoring agency if the ankle device has been tampered with.
When Judge Cunningham asked Dallas-based Recovery Healthcare to start providing and monitoring the devices about two years ago, he was just trying to figure out a quick and cost-effective way to implement SCRAM. The device is often too expensive for tight probation office budgets, and he has his defendants pay Recovery Healthcare themselves. Alcohol Monitoring Systems, which developed SCRAM, now touts that partnership nationwide as a model program.
"The Dallas area is fortunate because it had every tool: our tool, a strong treatment program and judges really enforcing the program," said Kathleen Brown, the company's spokeswoman.
Another initiative
In Denton County, county criminal court judge David Garcia has fallen for the device, too. But he's also spearheaded another initiative to battle multiple offenders.
"I don't want to push paper; I want to be able to make a difference," Judge Garcia said. "It doesn't do us any good if we punish them, send them back on the street and they do the same thing. We're trying to change that philosophy."
In July, a team of his county's law enforcement and legal officials headed to Austin for a program that trained them in establishing a court that specifically deals with repeat offenders. The program isn't aimed at social drinkers or people with a single alcohol-related infraction. Instead, it targets people who seem to be alcoholics.
DWI courts, as they're called, use existing space and resources. Judges usually set aside a specific day or afternoon – depending on the need – to hear, monitor and judge defendants who are have become familiar faces.
Probationers are typically required to come to court weekly so the judge can assess progress they've made in staying sober and getting their life together. They're expected to hold down jobs, pay child support and live up to other financial responsibilities. Besides checking in with a probation officer, defendants must also attend alcohol treatment sessions.
"We all recognize it as a disease," Judge Garcia said. "Some people for whatever reason turn to alcohol. And then they get behind the wheel, and I'm trying to stop them and to change their everyday life pattern."
Nationwide popularity
Like the SCRAM device, DWI courts are becoming increasingly popular nationwide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration helped fund the Austin training session, which included teams from Denton, Dallas and Collin counties. It was the agency's first of about 10 such sessions in the country.
David Hodges, a judicial liaison for the program, said the reason such programs are gaining in popularity is because they do something jail time doesn't seem to: get people to stop drinking.
"What sold me is every judge that I have talked to that has participated, their faces light up when you talk about it," said Mr. Hodges, who was a McLennan County judge for about 20 years. "They tell me, 'I was so burnt out. This has saved my career. I'm really making a difference in people's lives.' "
But it's not just judges who rave about the program, Mr. Hodges said. The defendants and their families like it. It's successful, he said, because it doesn't just threaten defendants, it teaches them how to alter the behavior that keeps getting them into trouble.
"All of a sudden everybody started going, 'You know, just throwing people in jail and throwing away the key might not be the solution to this,' " Mr. Hodges said. "It's not like a ... liberal type of thing. We're doing it because it works."
When such innovative initiatives don't keep probationers from drinking, Judge Cunningham has little patience. And sure enough, SCRAM devices alerted him during the 2004 holiday season that three people on probation had fallen back into old habits. Their punishments: 30 days in jail.
"Talk is cheap," Judge Cunningham said. "I want performance."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOW IT WORKS
The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, straps onto a person's ankle and tests imperceptible emissions of sweat about once an hour. Once a day, a modem downloads the data, which manufacturer, Alcohol Monitoring Systems stores. If the person had had any alcohol – even mouthwash – it shows up. "It's as obvious as the nose on your face," said Dallas District Judge Vickers Cunningham. Some courts, like Judge Cunningham's, use a third-party treatment provider for the device. Others rely on internal probation officers to administer the program. When the downloaded data shows an "alcohol event," Alcohol Monitoring Systems lets the courts, the probation office or the treatment provider know. The wearer is quickly called into court or their probation office. Offenders face penalties ranging from a few days in jail to revocation of probation. Larry Vanderwoude, SCRAM program manager for Dallas-based Recovery Healthcare, provides the device and monitors to law enforcement in conjunction with treatment. He has about 200 patients who use the bracelet and said while he has no complete data on its success because of the small sample size and short amount of time it's been available, even those on it seem to appreciate it after time. "I think it's been probably the most successful thing in working with repeat DWI offenders," he said. "This seems to work."
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Store robbed 4 times in 2 weeks
Oak Cliff: Shop hit twice Wednesday; same man suspected in 3 holdups
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Gracie Black isn't sure why the Diamond Shamrock convenience store she works at in north Oak Cliff keeps getting robbed. In less than two weeks, the same store has been held up four times.
She was frozen behind the counter during one of those robberies on Wednesday.
"I was scared," Ms. Black said as she helped customers during her slow Thanksgiving shift. "I was thinking about quitting. But you can get robbed anywhere."
Dallas police believe the same man committed three of the four robberies at the store in the 500 block of South Hampton Road.
The first robbery took place Nov. 9, when a man wearing a white T-shirt came in with a brown jacket bundled around his right hand. It was unclear whether the man had a gun in the bundle he carried, but he got away with a few hundred dollars.
Police say the same man returned Nov. 11, this time with his hand hidden under a baseball cap. Again, the man demanded money but instead took 12 cartons of cigarettes.
And on Wednesday, two other men robbed the store about 11 a.m. One walked in with a large, green sack slung over his shoulder. He and his accomplice started loading cigarette cartons into the bag before driving away in a silver Mitsubishi.
About six hours later, according to a police report, the suspect in the first two robberies returned to the Diamond Shamrock, stole more than $300 worth of cigarettes and fled in an older-model black Jeep Grand Cherokee. The clerk recognized him from an earlier robbery.
Dallas police Detective Scott Sayers said he is frustrated by the rash of convenience store robberies.
"I was taught not to take things that weren't mine," he said. "It makes me very angry that these guys are brazen enough to walk in and steal things – and walk out like nothing happened. Hopefully someone will give us a call."
Oak Cliff: Shop hit twice Wednesday; same man suspected in 3 holdups
By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Texas - Gracie Black isn't sure why the Diamond Shamrock convenience store she works at in north Oak Cliff keeps getting robbed. In less than two weeks, the same store has been held up four times.
She was frozen behind the counter during one of those robberies on Wednesday.
"I was scared," Ms. Black said as she helped customers during her slow Thanksgiving shift. "I was thinking about quitting. But you can get robbed anywhere."
Dallas police believe the same man committed three of the four robberies at the store in the 500 block of South Hampton Road.
The first robbery took place Nov. 9, when a man wearing a white T-shirt came in with a brown jacket bundled around his right hand. It was unclear whether the man had a gun in the bundle he carried, but he got away with a few hundred dollars.
Police say the same man returned Nov. 11, this time with his hand hidden under a baseball cap. Again, the man demanded money but instead took 12 cartons of cigarettes.
And on Wednesday, two other men robbed the store about 11 a.m. One walked in with a large, green sack slung over his shoulder. He and his accomplice started loading cigarette cartons into the bag before driving away in a silver Mitsubishi.
About six hours later, according to a police report, the suspect in the first two robberies returned to the Diamond Shamrock, stole more than $300 worth of cigarettes and fled in an older-model black Jeep Grand Cherokee. The clerk recognized him from an earlier robbery.
Dallas police Detective Scott Sayers said he is frustrated by the rash of convenience store robberies.
"I was taught not to take things that weren't mine," he said. "It makes me very angry that these guys are brazen enough to walk in and steal things – and walk out like nothing happened. Hopefully someone will give us a call."
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Small crowds at Crawford peace rally
CRAWFORD, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) — A repeat of last summer's dueling rallies against the war and in support of President Bush drew much smaller crowds to Crawford on a cool, rainy Saturday.
About a dozen Bush supporters stood downtown with signs, one reading: "Real America won't wimp out." Throughout the morning, shoppers and a few tourists leaving souvenir stores stopped in the tent to voice their support for the president.
Closer to the Bush ranch, where the president celebrated Thanksgiving with his family, about 200 people rallied around Cindy Sheehan in a continuation of California woman's summer protest against the war that claimed her son.
They used the same private lot, near one of two Secret Service checkpoints, where Sheehan held part of the 26-day August vigil that reinvigorated the anti-war movement and made Sheehan a national figure.
Some 20 demonstrators also stood in a ditch beside the other checkpoint about a mile away, avoiding violating recently passed roadside camping bans that led to 12 arrests a few days ago.
"We have both of his exits covered," said Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year and who called on her supporters to resume the protest this week to coincide with Bush's ranch visit.
"We are exercising our patriotic duty to dissent," she said.
The scene Saturday was far different from the last weekend in August, though, when several thousand Bush supporters and war protesters held separate rallies in the one-stoplight town of 700 residents. Both sides attributed Saturday's low turnout to the holiday weekend and rainy weather.
The day's biggest demonstration in Crawford turned out to be one involving about 500 Americans from Ethiopia, which has experienced political unrest and violence since the disputed May election. Demonstrators called on Bush to pressure the Ethiopian government to release detained opposition party leaders, who accused authorities of rigging the polls that returned the ruling party to power.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Bush mourned the growing number of fallen troops in the war with Iraq but vowed to keep fighting for the cause they died for.
The president thanked U.S. service members and military families "who are making great sacrifices to advance freedom's cause."
Sheehan's summer protest, particularly its use of crosses with the names of fallen soldiers, sparked the counter-demonstration in downtown Crawford by the father of a fallen Marine who felt his son and other troops were being disrespected by the war opponents.
"It is time to put an end to this unwarranted, unethical and un-American protests using our fallen heroes' names," Qualls said Saturday.
He said he had recommended legislation to U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, to ban anyone but the media from using a fallen soldier's name or picture without family permission. Carter could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Sheehan's group still planned to release nearly 300 blue and white balloons with anti-war messages and pictures and names of fallen soldiers.
Bill Mitchell said he was honored that his son Mike was being remembered.
"I'm very grateful for anyone who sees pictures and reads stories about Mike and to recognize the loss," Mitchell said. "Whatever your beliefs on this war, we've lost some great boys and girls."
CRAWFORD, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) — A repeat of last summer's dueling rallies against the war and in support of President Bush drew much smaller crowds to Crawford on a cool, rainy Saturday.
About a dozen Bush supporters stood downtown with signs, one reading: "Real America won't wimp out." Throughout the morning, shoppers and a few tourists leaving souvenir stores stopped in the tent to voice their support for the president.
Closer to the Bush ranch, where the president celebrated Thanksgiving with his family, about 200 people rallied around Cindy Sheehan in a continuation of California woman's summer protest against the war that claimed her son.
They used the same private lot, near one of two Secret Service checkpoints, where Sheehan held part of the 26-day August vigil that reinvigorated the anti-war movement and made Sheehan a national figure.
Some 20 demonstrators also stood in a ditch beside the other checkpoint about a mile away, avoiding violating recently passed roadside camping bans that led to 12 arrests a few days ago.
"We have both of his exits covered," said Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq last year and who called on her supporters to resume the protest this week to coincide with Bush's ranch visit.
"We are exercising our patriotic duty to dissent," she said.
The scene Saturday was far different from the last weekend in August, though, when several thousand Bush supporters and war protesters held separate rallies in the one-stoplight town of 700 residents. Both sides attributed Saturday's low turnout to the holiday weekend and rainy weather.
The day's biggest demonstration in Crawford turned out to be one involving about 500 Americans from Ethiopia, which has experienced political unrest and violence since the disputed May election. Demonstrators called on Bush to pressure the Ethiopian government to release detained opposition party leaders, who accused authorities of rigging the polls that returned the ruling party to power.
In his weekly radio address Saturday, Bush mourned the growing number of fallen troops in the war with Iraq but vowed to keep fighting for the cause they died for.
The president thanked U.S. service members and military families "who are making great sacrifices to advance freedom's cause."
Sheehan's summer protest, particularly its use of crosses with the names of fallen soldiers, sparked the counter-demonstration in downtown Crawford by the father of a fallen Marine who felt his son and other troops were being disrespected by the war opponents.
"It is time to put an end to this unwarranted, unethical and un-American protests using our fallen heroes' names," Qualls said Saturday.
He said he had recommended legislation to U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, to ban anyone but the media from using a fallen soldier's name or picture without family permission. Carter could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Sheehan's group still planned to release nearly 300 blue and white balloons with anti-war messages and pictures and names of fallen soldiers.
Bill Mitchell said he was honored that his son Mike was being remembered.
"I'm very grateful for anyone who sees pictures and reads stories about Mike and to recognize the loss," Mitchell said. "Whatever your beliefs on this war, we've lost some great boys and girls."
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Deputy, intern hurt in fiery crash
DENTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A fiery crash overnight injured a Denton County Sheriff's Department deputy and a criminal justice student who was his passenger.
Deputy Billy Wilson was at a stoplight on FM 720 at Highway 380 in Oak Grove around midnight Friday when a pickup truck driven by James Patrick Jr., 32, slammed into the rear of his Ford Crown Victoria squad car.
The impact caused the vehicle's fuel tank to burst into flames. "It completely engulfed the vehicle," said sheriff's department spokesman Tom Reedy. "There was ammunition going off, their weapons going off; it was a bad scene."
Texas Woman's University intern Kelly Fair, 24, was with the deputy on a ride-along.
Because of damage to his vehicle, Wilson, 28, had to exit the squad car through the passenger's side door. He suffered first and second degree burns to his face and second and third degree burns to his hands and arms up to his elbows.
Fair had a bad gash and first and second degree burns on both hands.
Wilson and Fair were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Fair was treated and released. Wilson remained hospitalized in fair condition on Saturday. Reedy said he faces possible surgery and skin grafts.
Fair was treated and released.
"I tell you what: They were lucky to get out on this one," Reedy said. "If they'd been in there much longer, they'd've been gone."
Patrick, the driver of the truck, was taken to Denton Regional Medical Center to test for alcohol. The Texas Department of Public Safety will determine whether Patrick will face any charges.
Dallas police Officer Patrick Metzler was killed three years ago when his Crown Victoria patrol car was hit from behind by a suspected drunk driver and burst into flames. The incident led the city to retrofit more than 700 of its vehicles with fire supression technology.
Reedy said the Denton County Sheriff operates more than 100 Crown Victorias, all of which have had fire safety enhancements installed by Ford.
WFAA-TV photojournalist Robert Flagg contributed to this report.
DENTON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8) - A fiery crash overnight injured a Denton County Sheriff's Department deputy and a criminal justice student who was his passenger.
Deputy Billy Wilson was at a stoplight on FM 720 at Highway 380 in Oak Grove around midnight Friday when a pickup truck driven by James Patrick Jr., 32, slammed into the rear of his Ford Crown Victoria squad car.
The impact caused the vehicle's fuel tank to burst into flames. "It completely engulfed the vehicle," said sheriff's department spokesman Tom Reedy. "There was ammunition going off, their weapons going off; it was a bad scene."
Texas Woman's University intern Kelly Fair, 24, was with the deputy on a ride-along.
Because of damage to his vehicle, Wilson, 28, had to exit the squad car through the passenger's side door. He suffered first and second degree burns to his face and second and third degree burns to his hands and arms up to his elbows.
Fair had a bad gash and first and second degree burns on both hands.
Wilson and Fair were rushed to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Fair was treated and released. Wilson remained hospitalized in fair condition on Saturday. Reedy said he faces possible surgery and skin grafts.
Fair was treated and released.
"I tell you what: They were lucky to get out on this one," Reedy said. "If they'd been in there much longer, they'd've been gone."
Patrick, the driver of the truck, was taken to Denton Regional Medical Center to test for alcohol. The Texas Department of Public Safety will determine whether Patrick will face any charges.
Dallas police Officer Patrick Metzler was killed three years ago when his Crown Victoria patrol car was hit from behind by a suspected drunk driver and burst into flames. The incident led the city to retrofit more than 700 of its vehicles with fire supression technology.
Reedy said the Denton County Sheriff operates more than 100 Crown Victorias, all of which have had fire safety enhancements installed by Ford.
WFAA-TV photojournalist Robert Flagg contributed to this report.
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Seeds of change sown in 1955
Elvis, Rosa Parks and (yes) Lucy rocked our world
By CHARLES EALY / The Dallas Morning News
The Fifties are popularly remembered as a period of shiny complacency, but in reality, American culture was being shaken to its core by mid-decade.
In 1955 alone, the nation sat up and took notice of Elvis and rock 'n' roll. It witnessed the introduction of the McDonald's fast-food chain and the first home microwaves. It saw the rise of teen culture, with James Dean representing youth alienation in East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause. And it ushered in an era of children's entertainment with the opening of Disneyland, the TV debut of The Mickey Mouse Club and the first Saturday morning TV cartoon, The Mighty Mouse Playhouse.
It was also a year of political upheaval, with the birth of the civil rights movement, the disaffection of the suburban middle class, the push toward oral contraceptives and the introduction of U.S. military advisers in Vietnam.
And when we look at America in 2005, it's fairly clear that many of our achievements – and difficulties – date back 50 years.
"It's a crucial year in a crucial decade in so many ways," says Christopher Sharrett, a professor of communications and film studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. "I think the year represents the increasing discontent of Americans during a period of great prosperity and expansion" after World War II.
It's easy to overemphasize one year such as 1955 and not see history as a continuum, historians say. But "we begin to see major cracks in the plaster of American culture," Dr. Sharrett says.
"Freedom is the key word," adds Michael Roth, president of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. "You can see the emergence of various groups who value freedom above all and who are trying to create the conditions for psychological and political liberation."
Take, for instance, America's youth.
Before 1955, children and teenagers weren't really considered a separate, powerful market force by corporate America. But all that began to change with cultural and technological shifts after World War II.
Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, expressed youthful disappointment in suburban life at the same time that it introduced sexual tension, not only between a young man and woman, but also between two young men.
And then there was Blackboard Jungle, which explored teen rebellion in schools. Partly because of the movie's popularity, "Rock Around the Clock," which was on the soundtrack, was the first rock tune to top the charts.
The emergence of the teen market coincided with the rise of rock 'n' roll. Before 1955, mainstream America really hadn't embraced rock – or Elvis, who was primarily a Southern phenomenon. But all of that changed when Elvis sealed a record-breaking deal with RCA. And in March of '55, Elvis made his TV debut.
"You have the appearance of black rhythm and blues before the white middle class via TV," says Dr. Sharrett. "And with Elvis, you have the convergence of poor black and poor white music. It was an affront to the white middle class at first, but it was embraced by the youth culture of the time."
Still, few people would argue that white teens threw off the shackles of historical racism in 1955. "With Elvis, you saw white kids becoming fascinated with black music," Dr. Sharrett says. "But in a racist society, there had to be a white man to act as a bridge between those two cultures."
Teen identification with music originating from the African-American tradition dovetailed with yet another world-shaking event in '55: the rise of the civil rights movement.
It would be a disservice to black Americans to say that the struggle for freedom didn't date back to pre-Civil War days, "when thousands of African-Americans fled from slavery every year," says John Hope Franklin, a historian and professor emeritus at Duke University.
But Dr. Franklin sees mountains and valleys in history's landscape. And many historians, including Dr. Franklin, agree that the modern civil rights movement and the struggle for equality reached a high point in '55 partly because of two events: the murder of Emmett Till and the acquittal of his killers, and the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her bus seat, leading to the first large-scale, organized, civil rights boycott of the century.
Both events occurred one year after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court, striking down the notion of separate but equal schools. And both events helped set the stage for what was to come: the rise of Martin Luther King Jr. and the protest movements of the 1960s.
The transformations in 1955, of course, weren't limited to teens and black Americans. For women, it was a year of great contradictions and struggles. And nowhere was that seen more clearly than on television.
The typical image of white picket fences and tidy homes began to disintegrate on the very medium that helped idealize consumerism and American family life with such shows as Father Knows Best and O zzie and Harriet.
"Cultural clashes started playing out on TV in the '50s," says Marsha Cassidy, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s . And some of these clashes can be seen with the rise of the controversial sob-story shows during daytime telecasts.
By the mid-1950s, two of the biggest daytime TV hits were Glamour Girl and Queen for a Day. Both featured women who told sad stories, and the person with the biggest tear-jerking tale that prompted the loudest audience applause would get a prize. In the case of Glamour Girl, the prize was a makeover. And on the surface, Glamour Girl appeared to be "advocating the return to domesticity, the idea of charm, the idea that you need to be glamorous and be made into a new postwar ideal," Dr. Cassidy says.
But the sad stories women had to tell to win also undermined the national image of prosperity.
Both Queen for a Day and Glamour Girl, in fact, turned out to be "an affirmation that women were in a difficult spot" economically and culturally, Dr. Cassidy says. "From a feminist point of view, one could see these shows as exploitation. But it was also a way of hearing every day how other women were experiencing some of the constraints put upon them by the 1950s" – a precursor to the consciousness-raising sessions of the women's movement two decades later.
As marketers turned to TV to sell everything from washing machines to frozen dinners and microwaves to the idealized ladies at home, one of the most popular prime-time shows, I Love Lucy, was based on the notion that women wanted to express themselves and find fulfillment outside the home. Such wishes may have been the source of the show's humor, but those same wishes were also subversive.
"Even though Lucy is set in the domestic scene with Ricky, the unresolved premise of the show is that she's always trying to escape, to get out of domesticity, to get into showbiz or do a commercial," Dr. Cassidy says.
While teens, blacks and women were in the early stages of rebellion, the American white male adult was having second thoughts as well. And why wouldn't he, with Elvis swiveling his hips, Marilyn Monroe starring in The Seven Year Itch and Vladimir Nabokov writing the sexually subversive Lolita?
Adult males could take some comfort in the rise of the adult TV Western, with the debuts of Gunsmoke and Cheyenne. But one of the biggest best-selling books of '55 was Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, which documents the travails of Tom Rath, a public relations executive who worries about how to support his family and comes home each night and starts knocking back highballs.
"To me, in 1955 you see these contradictions," says Dr. Sharrett. "There's one image of a nice suburban world, with everybody happy. But on the other hand, there's discontent being expressed at every level of culture, a discontent that would overflow in the 1960s."
But why in 1955, you might ask?
The answers vary. But Char Miller, director of urban studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, says it's probably related to the fact that "the United States formally becomes the most important superpower in the world. But we're troubled by that as a culture. We're tangled up with power, and we're trying to figure out our role in places like Vietnam and Korea."
He and others see the year as a point of convergence: the rise of television, consumerism, rock 'n' roll and prosperity, paired with a larger dialogue about recognition, equality and justice for teens, women and black Americans.
"Groups that haven't had their voices heard are speaking out and being heard in a growing common culture," adds Dr. Roth. "People take for granted now that they deserve to be heard, the idea that everybody has a story to tell. But that didn't start till the 1950s."
And this led to the generational, gender and racial battles that played out in the '60s and are still facing us today.
Dr. Miller acknowledges that by looking back at 1955, "we can find the source of our mistakes but probably not their resolution."
"But on the whole," he says, "I much prefer to live in a society where people who have long been discriminated against no longer face such egregious discrimination. We owe an enormous debt to Rosa Parks and others in the civil-rights movement, as well as to James Dean, who opened up a dialogue about what it means to be a teenager. We wouldn't be where we are if those people didn't struggle."
Elvis, Rosa Parks and (yes) Lucy rocked our world
By CHARLES EALY / The Dallas Morning News
The Fifties are popularly remembered as a period of shiny complacency, but in reality, American culture was being shaken to its core by mid-decade.
In 1955 alone, the nation sat up and took notice of Elvis and rock 'n' roll. It witnessed the introduction of the McDonald's fast-food chain and the first home microwaves. It saw the rise of teen culture, with James Dean representing youth alienation in East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause. And it ushered in an era of children's entertainment with the opening of Disneyland, the TV debut of The Mickey Mouse Club and the first Saturday morning TV cartoon, The Mighty Mouse Playhouse.
It was also a year of political upheaval, with the birth of the civil rights movement, the disaffection of the suburban middle class, the push toward oral contraceptives and the introduction of U.S. military advisers in Vietnam.
And when we look at America in 2005, it's fairly clear that many of our achievements – and difficulties – date back 50 years.
"It's a crucial year in a crucial decade in so many ways," says Christopher Sharrett, a professor of communications and film studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. "I think the year represents the increasing discontent of Americans during a period of great prosperity and expansion" after World War II.
It's easy to overemphasize one year such as 1955 and not see history as a continuum, historians say. But "we begin to see major cracks in the plaster of American culture," Dr. Sharrett says.
"Freedom is the key word," adds Michael Roth, president of the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. "You can see the emergence of various groups who value freedom above all and who are trying to create the conditions for psychological and political liberation."
Take, for instance, America's youth.
Before 1955, children and teenagers weren't really considered a separate, powerful market force by corporate America. But all that began to change with cultural and technological shifts after World War II.
Rebel Without a Cause, starring James Dean, Natalie Wood and Sal Mineo, expressed youthful disappointment in suburban life at the same time that it introduced sexual tension, not only between a young man and woman, but also between two young men.
And then there was Blackboard Jungle, which explored teen rebellion in schools. Partly because of the movie's popularity, "Rock Around the Clock," which was on the soundtrack, was the first rock tune to top the charts.
The emergence of the teen market coincided with the rise of rock 'n' roll. Before 1955, mainstream America really hadn't embraced rock – or Elvis, who was primarily a Southern phenomenon. But all of that changed when Elvis sealed a record-breaking deal with RCA. And in March of '55, Elvis made his TV debut.
"You have the appearance of black rhythm and blues before the white middle class via TV," says Dr. Sharrett. "And with Elvis, you have the convergence of poor black and poor white music. It was an affront to the white middle class at first, but it was embraced by the youth culture of the time."
Still, few people would argue that white teens threw off the shackles of historical racism in 1955. "With Elvis, you saw white kids becoming fascinated with black music," Dr. Sharrett says. "But in a racist society, there had to be a white man to act as a bridge between those two cultures."
Teen identification with music originating from the African-American tradition dovetailed with yet another world-shaking event in '55: the rise of the civil rights movement.
It would be a disservice to black Americans to say that the struggle for freedom didn't date back to pre-Civil War days, "when thousands of African-Americans fled from slavery every year," says John Hope Franklin, a historian and professor emeritus at Duke University.
But Dr. Franklin sees mountains and valleys in history's landscape. And many historians, including Dr. Franklin, agree that the modern civil rights movement and the struggle for equality reached a high point in '55 partly because of two events: the murder of Emmett Till and the acquittal of his killers, and the refusal of Rosa Parks to give up her bus seat, leading to the first large-scale, organized, civil rights boycott of the century.
Both events occurred one year after the historic Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court, striking down the notion of separate but equal schools. And both events helped set the stage for what was to come: the rise of Martin Luther King Jr. and the protest movements of the 1960s.
The transformations in 1955, of course, weren't limited to teens and black Americans. For women, it was a year of great contradictions and struggles. And nowhere was that seen more clearly than on television.
The typical image of white picket fences and tidy homes began to disintegrate on the very medium that helped idealize consumerism and American family life with such shows as Father Knows Best and O zzie and Harriet.
"Cultural clashes started playing out on TV in the '50s," says Marsha Cassidy, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of What Women Watched: Daytime Television in the 1950s . And some of these clashes can be seen with the rise of the controversial sob-story shows during daytime telecasts.
By the mid-1950s, two of the biggest daytime TV hits were Glamour Girl and Queen for a Day. Both featured women who told sad stories, and the person with the biggest tear-jerking tale that prompted the loudest audience applause would get a prize. In the case of Glamour Girl, the prize was a makeover. And on the surface, Glamour Girl appeared to be "advocating the return to domesticity, the idea of charm, the idea that you need to be glamorous and be made into a new postwar ideal," Dr. Cassidy says.
But the sad stories women had to tell to win also undermined the national image of prosperity.
Both Queen for a Day and Glamour Girl, in fact, turned out to be "an affirmation that women were in a difficult spot" economically and culturally, Dr. Cassidy says. "From a feminist point of view, one could see these shows as exploitation. But it was also a way of hearing every day how other women were experiencing some of the constraints put upon them by the 1950s" – a precursor to the consciousness-raising sessions of the women's movement two decades later.
As marketers turned to TV to sell everything from washing machines to frozen dinners and microwaves to the idealized ladies at home, one of the most popular prime-time shows, I Love Lucy, was based on the notion that women wanted to express themselves and find fulfillment outside the home. Such wishes may have been the source of the show's humor, but those same wishes were also subversive.
"Even though Lucy is set in the domestic scene with Ricky, the unresolved premise of the show is that she's always trying to escape, to get out of domesticity, to get into showbiz or do a commercial," Dr. Cassidy says.
While teens, blacks and women were in the early stages of rebellion, the American white male adult was having second thoughts as well. And why wouldn't he, with Elvis swiveling his hips, Marilyn Monroe starring in The Seven Year Itch and Vladimir Nabokov writing the sexually subversive Lolita?
Adult males could take some comfort in the rise of the adult TV Western, with the debuts of Gunsmoke and Cheyenne. But one of the biggest best-selling books of '55 was Sloan Wilson's The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, which documents the travails of Tom Rath, a public relations executive who worries about how to support his family and comes home each night and starts knocking back highballs.
"To me, in 1955 you see these contradictions," says Dr. Sharrett. "There's one image of a nice suburban world, with everybody happy. But on the other hand, there's discontent being expressed at every level of culture, a discontent that would overflow in the 1960s."
But why in 1955, you might ask?
The answers vary. But Char Miller, director of urban studies at Trinity University in San Antonio, says it's probably related to the fact that "the United States formally becomes the most important superpower in the world. But we're troubled by that as a culture. We're tangled up with power, and we're trying to figure out our role in places like Vietnam and Korea."
He and others see the year as a point of convergence: the rise of television, consumerism, rock 'n' roll and prosperity, paired with a larger dialogue about recognition, equality and justice for teens, women and black Americans.
"Groups that haven't had their voices heard are speaking out and being heard in a growing common culture," adds Dr. Roth. "People take for granted now that they deserve to be heard, the idea that everybody has a story to tell. But that didn't start till the 1950s."
And this led to the generational, gender and racial battles that played out in the '60s and are still facing us today.
Dr. Miller acknowledges that by looking back at 1955, "we can find the source of our mistakes but probably not their resolution."
"But on the whole," he says, "I much prefer to live in a society where people who have long been discriminated against no longer face such egregious discrimination. We owe an enormous debt to Rosa Parks and others in the civil-rights movement, as well as to James Dean, who opened up a dialogue about what it means to be a teenager. We wouldn't be where we are if those people didn't struggle."
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Gangs pose border threat
By DAVID McLEMORE / San Antonio Bureau
DEL RIO, Texas – Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan has dealt with smugglers and drug gangs for decades, both as sheriff and as a customs agent.
But in the last year, the risks of drug-fueled terrorism have raised the stakes to scary levels. Rifles and handguns have been replaced by rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and high-caliber machine guns.
"Now the bad guys have more sophisticated training and better equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said. "They're better armed and willing to shoot."
This month, Border Patrol officials reported that assaults against agents all along the border nearly doubled from the previous year.
As President Bush prepares to tour the U.S.-Mexico border this week, law enforcement officials in counties up and down Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico are coping with issues of national security, increased illegal immigration, and a growing fear that the drug cartels are moving upriver and just across the border from here.
Val Verde County, a stony outcrop of sheep and goat ranches and sharply etched limestone canyons, rests along the Rio Grande 150 miles west of San Antonio.
It's biggest city, Del Rio, and its Mexican neighbor, Ciudad Acuña, have missed the explosion of drug violence that has enmeshed Laredo and Nuevo Laredo 180 miles downriver.
But law enforcement officials know it's coming. They've seen the signs.
"We're in a time of transition," said Chief Deputy Terry Simons.
"Our concerns are just how strongly the cartels' sphere of influence will extend through this county."
Federal investigators have blamed the increasing level of violence along the border on the bloody turf battle between three violent cartels, a battle leaving 158 dead and accounting for more than 40 kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo alone.
The FBI has told Congress that the continuing violence centered in that city stems from the battle between rival smuggling organizations: the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, remnants of the Juárez cartel and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's Federation, a splinter group of the Juárez organization.
"We've gathered intelligence that indicates the Zetas, the Gulf cartel's enforcers, are making an appearance in Ciudad Acuña," Chief Deputy Simons said. There's also an indication of a presence of MS-13, a Colombian-born drug gang with tentacles in the United States that provides muscle for the Guzmán cartel.
"To make matters worse, a few months ago we picked up information that a new order went out from the Zetas that no more drug loads would be lost," he said. "It used to be that losing a load now and then was a cost of doing business. Now the Zetas are telling their people they can't give up a load. They're to fight the cops. ...
"We're caught in the middle until somebody wins," Chief Deputy Simons said. "It's not just drug smuggling anymore. You have to think of it as narco-terrorism."
Gangs have ties in U.S.
In a Nov. 17 congressional hearing on border security, Chris Swecker, FBI assistant director for criminal investigations, testified that each of the competing cartels has cemented ties to U.S. street and prison gangs, including the Texas Mexican Mafia, the Texas Syndicate and Los Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos, or The Brotherhood of Latin Gunmen.
For the border sheriffs, it is, at best, an uneven battle.
Sheriff Jernigan has 13 deputies to patrol a county of 3,100 square miles – roughly three-fourths the size of New Jersey. Most of the county's 45,000 residents live in Del Rio. The rest are scattered across isolated ranches and small communities, connected to state highways via gravel ranch roads or private twisting dirt roads. The deputies also patrol roughly 90 miles of river frontage, including thick stands of carrizo (cane) and limestone cliffs.
Val Verde County provides each deputy with a military-style automatic rifle and a vehicle. Deputies supply their own side arm. Each vehicle – usually a heavy-duty four-wheel drive truck – is equipped with water, food, extra fuel, tow straps, a GPS device, a change of clothes and extra ammunition, much of it paid for out of the deputies' pockets.
In the rocky, isolated terrain, radios frequently don't work and cellphone coverage fades not far from the city limits.
"When you're out there, driving ... to some call about a man with a gun, you're by yourself," Deputy Joe Faz said. "The other deputy on duty has to watch the rest of the county. You can call the Border Patrol for backup, but you know they're 20 minutes or more away. So it's just you."
Six months ago, a smuggler's car was seized with a highly sophisticated communication system superior to anything the deputies have in their vehicles. And last year, deputies found a modern baseball-style grenade along a dirt path leading up from the river. They believe someone running security for a load of drugs dropped it. Deputies have also gathered information on smugglers armed with an RPG-7, a shoulder-fired rocket, and white phosphorous grenades.
"What we need is money to put more boots on the ground and give these guys better training and equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said.
"But this isn't just our fight. ... If border law enforcement doesn't work, than the rest of the country is going to lose."
Bracing for violence
That sentiment is echoed all along the border.
"El Paso County sees these types of criminal behaviors more often than we would like," El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said. "The border is so wide open this will be problematic until lawmakers in Washington, D.C., address these national-security concerns."
Officials on both sides of the border in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez area are bracing for an increase in drug violence.
Two weeks ago, gunmen killed two Mexican police officers in Ciudad Juárez. And earlier in the month, police found the bodies of a former Interpol chief and his lawyer crammed into oil drums and sealed with concrete. Both men appeared to have been suffocated with plastic bags, authorities said.
Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.3 million, is infamous for its powerful drug hub controlled by the Juárez cartel, whose No. 2 leader was arrested Nov. 11, along with other suspects. .
When President Bush visits El Paso this week, said Manuel Mora, the new FBI agent-in-charge, he will discover that while counterterrorism remains the top national security issue, drug trafficking remains the priority and poses the biggest criminal threat for the border city across from Ciudad Juárez.
"This is El Paso, Texas, and everyone here is vigilant about the drug problem and the crime that comes with it," said Mr. Mora. "I can't say that I've seen any of the alarming signs, but that doesn't mean we're not concerned," he said.
A senior Mexican intelligence official, however, had this sober assessment: "We're seeing the violence gradually move from the Nuevo Laredo region up the Rio Grande into the Juárez-Chihuahua area," the official said. "The war continues. What changes are the battle sites."
Sheriffs want help
This year, the sheriffs of 16 Texas counties joined forces to form the Texas Border Sherriffs' Coalition to lobby state and federal officials for help. They recently received a $500,000 state grant from Gov. Rick Perry.
"We know that border violence has escalated in Nuevo Laredo, and we have heard about activity pushing west towards El Paso County," said Rick Glancey, interim executive director of the group. "With the presence of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, we hope to intercept those problems before they make a hard push in any direction."
The coalition enthusiastically endorsed a bill introduced Nov. 17 by U.S. Reps. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, and John Culberson, R-Houston, which would authorize $100 million to pay the direct costs of training and equipping additional deputies and pay overtime costs. It would also direct some funds to build detention beds to house illegal immigrants taken into custody.
The Homeland Security Department recently addressed another major complaint of border sheriffs – the loophole in immigration law that allowed illegal immigrants from nations other than Mexico, known as OTMs, to be released with a "notice to appear," pending deportation proceedings.
This month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a temporary stop of the notice to appear – known derisively along the border as "catch and release" – as part of a new border security initiative that includes funding for additional Border Patrol agents.
"If they want to fix it, they need to make it permanent," Sheriff Jernigan said. "The OTMs were coming through in droves from all over the world. They'd come up to us, asking where to find a Border Patrol agent. We'd see them later, waiting to hitch a ride along Highway 90. And no one had any idea of where they were going or what they might do once they got there."
It's not just drugs
Not all the border concerns stem from drugs or illegal immigration. In Vega Verde, a neighborhood along the river west of Del Rio that borders a major smuggling route,thieves come across the river, hit the homes there and get back to Mexico before deputies can arrive.
"They're taking guns, jewelry, air conditioners, anything they can get on a raft and get across," Deputy Faz said. "Landowners are frustrated. And my concern is that people will start taking the law in their own hands. What's going to happen if residents take up their hunting rifles against some Zetas bringing a load of dope across?"
Recently, deputies frustrated with the inaction of Mexican authorities staged an impromptu raid, taking boats across the river and seizing stolen property.
"The funny thing is, with all this activity on the river, the Border Patrol never showed up," Deputy Jose Luis Blancarte said. "We're bringing back TVs and air conditioners and nobody saw it? We don't have to worry about terrorists sneaking suitcase nukes across the border. They could be bringing whole bombs, and no one would know."
The border sheriffs say their main concern is the safety of their residents. "We don't want to be immigration officers," Sheriff Jernigan said. "We just want to make sure our counties are safe. To do that we need help, and that help has to come from the federal government.
"My nightmare is that it will take another 9-11 attack to wake up this country about the vulnerability of the border," he said. "And some border sheriff is going to have to say it came through his county."
Staff Writers Alfredo Corchado in Mexico City and Diane Jennings in Dallas contributed to this report.
By DAVID McLEMORE / San Antonio Bureau
DEL RIO, Texas – Val Verde County Sheriff D'Wayne Jernigan has dealt with smugglers and drug gangs for decades, both as sheriff and as a customs agent.
But in the last year, the risks of drug-fueled terrorism have raised the stakes to scary levels. Rifles and handguns have been replaced by rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs, and high-caliber machine guns.
"Now the bad guys have more sophisticated training and better equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said. "They're better armed and willing to shoot."
This month, Border Patrol officials reported that assaults against agents all along the border nearly doubled from the previous year.
As President Bush prepares to tour the U.S.-Mexico border this week, law enforcement officials in counties up and down Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico are coping with issues of national security, increased illegal immigration, and a growing fear that the drug cartels are moving upriver and just across the border from here.
Val Verde County, a stony outcrop of sheep and goat ranches and sharply etched limestone canyons, rests along the Rio Grande 150 miles west of San Antonio.
It's biggest city, Del Rio, and its Mexican neighbor, Ciudad Acuña, have missed the explosion of drug violence that has enmeshed Laredo and Nuevo Laredo 180 miles downriver.
But law enforcement officials know it's coming. They've seen the signs.
"We're in a time of transition," said Chief Deputy Terry Simons.
"Our concerns are just how strongly the cartels' sphere of influence will extend through this county."
Federal investigators have blamed the increasing level of violence along the border on the bloody turf battle between three violent cartels, a battle leaving 158 dead and accounting for more than 40 kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo alone.
The FBI has told Congress that the continuing violence centered in that city stems from the battle between rival smuggling organizations: the Matamoros-based Gulf cartel, remnants of the Juárez cartel and Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán's Federation, a splinter group of the Juárez organization.
"We've gathered intelligence that indicates the Zetas, the Gulf cartel's enforcers, are making an appearance in Ciudad Acuña," Chief Deputy Simons said. There's also an indication of a presence of MS-13, a Colombian-born drug gang with tentacles in the United States that provides muscle for the Guzmán cartel.
"To make matters worse, a few months ago we picked up information that a new order went out from the Zetas that no more drug loads would be lost," he said. "It used to be that losing a load now and then was a cost of doing business. Now the Zetas are telling their people they can't give up a load. They're to fight the cops. ...
"We're caught in the middle until somebody wins," Chief Deputy Simons said. "It's not just drug smuggling anymore. You have to think of it as narco-terrorism."
Gangs have ties in U.S.
In a Nov. 17 congressional hearing on border security, Chris Swecker, FBI assistant director for criminal investigations, testified that each of the competing cartels has cemented ties to U.S. street and prison gangs, including the Texas Mexican Mafia, the Texas Syndicate and Los Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos, or The Brotherhood of Latin Gunmen.
For the border sheriffs, it is, at best, an uneven battle.
Sheriff Jernigan has 13 deputies to patrol a county of 3,100 square miles – roughly three-fourths the size of New Jersey. Most of the county's 45,000 residents live in Del Rio. The rest are scattered across isolated ranches and small communities, connected to state highways via gravel ranch roads or private twisting dirt roads. The deputies also patrol roughly 90 miles of river frontage, including thick stands of carrizo (cane) and limestone cliffs.
Val Verde County provides each deputy with a military-style automatic rifle and a vehicle. Deputies supply their own side arm. Each vehicle – usually a heavy-duty four-wheel drive truck – is equipped with water, food, extra fuel, tow straps, a GPS device, a change of clothes and extra ammunition, much of it paid for out of the deputies' pockets.
In the rocky, isolated terrain, radios frequently don't work and cellphone coverage fades not far from the city limits.
"When you're out there, driving ... to some call about a man with a gun, you're by yourself," Deputy Joe Faz said. "The other deputy on duty has to watch the rest of the county. You can call the Border Patrol for backup, but you know they're 20 minutes or more away. So it's just you."
Six months ago, a smuggler's car was seized with a highly sophisticated communication system superior to anything the deputies have in their vehicles. And last year, deputies found a modern baseball-style grenade along a dirt path leading up from the river. They believe someone running security for a load of drugs dropped it. Deputies have also gathered information on smugglers armed with an RPG-7, a shoulder-fired rocket, and white phosphorous grenades.
"What we need is money to put more boots on the ground and give these guys better training and equipment," Sheriff Jernigan said.
"But this isn't just our fight. ... If border law enforcement doesn't work, than the rest of the country is going to lose."
Bracing for violence
That sentiment is echoed all along the border.
"El Paso County sees these types of criminal behaviors more often than we would like," El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said. "The border is so wide open this will be problematic until lawmakers in Washington, D.C., address these national-security concerns."
Officials on both sides of the border in the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez area are bracing for an increase in drug violence.
Two weeks ago, gunmen killed two Mexican police officers in Ciudad Juárez. And earlier in the month, police found the bodies of a former Interpol chief and his lawyer crammed into oil drums and sealed with concrete. Both men appeared to have been suffocated with plastic bags, authorities said.
Ciudad Juárez, a city of 1.3 million, is infamous for its powerful drug hub controlled by the Juárez cartel, whose No. 2 leader was arrested Nov. 11, along with other suspects. .
When President Bush visits El Paso this week, said Manuel Mora, the new FBI agent-in-charge, he will discover that while counterterrorism remains the top national security issue, drug trafficking remains the priority and poses the biggest criminal threat for the border city across from Ciudad Juárez.
"This is El Paso, Texas, and everyone here is vigilant about the drug problem and the crime that comes with it," said Mr. Mora. "I can't say that I've seen any of the alarming signs, but that doesn't mean we're not concerned," he said.
A senior Mexican intelligence official, however, had this sober assessment: "We're seeing the violence gradually move from the Nuevo Laredo region up the Rio Grande into the Juárez-Chihuahua area," the official said. "The war continues. What changes are the battle sites."
Sheriffs want help
This year, the sheriffs of 16 Texas counties joined forces to form the Texas Border Sherriffs' Coalition to lobby state and federal officials for help. They recently received a $500,000 state grant from Gov. Rick Perry.
"We know that border violence has escalated in Nuevo Laredo, and we have heard about activity pushing west towards El Paso County," said Rick Glancey, interim executive director of the group. "With the presence of the Texas Border Sheriffs' Coalition, we hope to intercept those problems before they make a hard push in any direction."
The coalition enthusiastically endorsed a bill introduced Nov. 17 by U.S. Reps. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, and John Culberson, R-Houston, which would authorize $100 million to pay the direct costs of training and equipping additional deputies and pay overtime costs. It would also direct some funds to build detention beds to house illegal immigrants taken into custody.
The Homeland Security Department recently addressed another major complaint of border sheriffs – the loophole in immigration law that allowed illegal immigrants from nations other than Mexico, known as OTMs, to be released with a "notice to appear," pending deportation proceedings.
This month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced a temporary stop of the notice to appear – known derisively along the border as "catch and release" – as part of a new border security initiative that includes funding for additional Border Patrol agents.
"If they want to fix it, they need to make it permanent," Sheriff Jernigan said. "The OTMs were coming through in droves from all over the world. They'd come up to us, asking where to find a Border Patrol agent. We'd see them later, waiting to hitch a ride along Highway 90. And no one had any idea of where they were going or what they might do once they got there."
It's not just drugs
Not all the border concerns stem from drugs or illegal immigration. In Vega Verde, a neighborhood along the river west of Del Rio that borders a major smuggling route,thieves come across the river, hit the homes there and get back to Mexico before deputies can arrive.
"They're taking guns, jewelry, air conditioners, anything they can get on a raft and get across," Deputy Faz said. "Landowners are frustrated. And my concern is that people will start taking the law in their own hands. What's going to happen if residents take up their hunting rifles against some Zetas bringing a load of dope across?"
Recently, deputies frustrated with the inaction of Mexican authorities staged an impromptu raid, taking boats across the river and seizing stolen property.
"The funny thing is, with all this activity on the river, the Border Patrol never showed up," Deputy Jose Luis Blancarte said. "We're bringing back TVs and air conditioners and nobody saw it? We don't have to worry about terrorists sneaking suitcase nukes across the border. They could be bringing whole bombs, and no one would know."
The border sheriffs say their main concern is the safety of their residents. "We don't want to be immigration officers," Sheriff Jernigan said. "We just want to make sure our counties are safe. To do that we need help, and that help has to come from the federal government.
"My nightmare is that it will take another 9-11 attack to wake up this country about the vulnerability of the border," he said. "And some border sheriff is going to have to say it came through his county."
Staff Writers Alfredo Corchado in Mexico City and Diane Jennings in Dallas contributed to this report.
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Neighbors build on a community's past
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
Neighborhoods pulse with life just as their inhabitants do, growing younger or older with shifting populations, richer or poorer, friendly or fearsome.
Change can be slow and steady or sweep through almost overnight. But change comes.
Bear Creek, a historically black neighborhood now split between Irving and Grand Prairie that was once home to 1,000 families, has grown increasingly diverse. It's also experiencing a wave of new development.
As Irving takes steps to preserve some of the community's heritage, new residents of different ethnic backgrounds continue to move in.
Dallas' Vickery Meadow, filled with apartment buildings designed for single professionals, transformed into a neighborhood of mostly poor immigrants, families jammed together in small spaces.
North, south and east of the city, rural enclaves all but disappear in the rush to the newest suburbs. And the inner-ring cities face the struggle to remain vital as residents and their housing age.
The Dallas Morning News will look at these neighborhoods and others – their past and present, their history and heritage – and try to gauge what the future might hold.
By MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News
Neighborhoods pulse with life just as their inhabitants do, growing younger or older with shifting populations, richer or poorer, friendly or fearsome.
Change can be slow and steady or sweep through almost overnight. But change comes.
Bear Creek, a historically black neighborhood now split between Irving and Grand Prairie that was once home to 1,000 families, has grown increasingly diverse. It's also experiencing a wave of new development.
As Irving takes steps to preserve some of the community's heritage, new residents of different ethnic backgrounds continue to move in.
Dallas' Vickery Meadow, filled with apartment buildings designed for single professionals, transformed into a neighborhood of mostly poor immigrants, families jammed together in small spaces.
North, south and east of the city, rural enclaves all but disappear in the rush to the newest suburbs. And the inner-ring cities face the struggle to remain vital as residents and their housing age.
The Dallas Morning News will look at these neighborhoods and others – their past and present, their history and heritage – and try to gauge what the future might hold.
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Plano woman missing
PLANO, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - A 62-year-old Plano woman was missing Saturday, and police suspected foul play. Investigators began looking for Ellen W. Hancock about 11:40 a.m. after her son told police she was missing from their apartment at Oaks of Collin Creek in the 200 block of Dogwood Place, Plano police Officer Dennis McLaughlin said. Plano police would not say what they found inside the apartment, but Officer McLaughlin said there were signs of “obvious foul play.”
PLANO, Texas (The Dallas Morning News) - A 62-year-old Plano woman was missing Saturday, and police suspected foul play. Investigators began looking for Ellen W. Hancock about 11:40 a.m. after her son told police she was missing from their apartment at Oaks of Collin Creek in the 200 block of Dogwood Place, Plano police Officer Dennis McLaughlin said. Plano police would not say what they found inside the apartment, but Officer McLaughlin said there were signs of “obvious foul play.”
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Plano woman missing; foul play suspected
By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8
PLANO, Texas — Plano police are investigating the case of a missing woman, and they believe foul pay may be involved.
Officers were summoned to the Oaks at Collin Creek Apartments just before noon Saturday. Investigators found signs of a violent struggle at the home of Ellen W. Hancock, 62.
The woman had been living at the apartment complex with her son and his girlfriend. "The call originally indicated that the son woke up, found his mother missing, and also appeared to be a struggle inside the apartment," said Plano police Detective Jerry Minton.
Investigators suspect foul play. They searched a nearby creek and wooded area, but found no trace of the missing woman.
Hancock's family extends to the many residents at the complex who affectionately regard her as "Granny."
"Everybody here is hoping and praying Granny is okay, and hope she comes back to us," said Deanna Galyean, a friend who added that she knows of know one who would want to harm Hancock, who worked as a security guard at the apartment complex.
"She would meet and greet you at the gate," Galyean said. "We have a 10 month old. Last night she stopped us and gave us a hard time. 'Why you got that baby out so late? She needs to be sleeping.'"
Plano police said there is no history of family violence. They said the Hancock's son and girlfriend were cooperating with the investigation and volunteered to go to the police department for further questioning.
By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8
PLANO, Texas — Plano police are investigating the case of a missing woman, and they believe foul pay may be involved.
Officers were summoned to the Oaks at Collin Creek Apartments just before noon Saturday. Investigators found signs of a violent struggle at the home of Ellen W. Hancock, 62.
The woman had been living at the apartment complex with her son and his girlfriend. "The call originally indicated that the son woke up, found his mother missing, and also appeared to be a struggle inside the apartment," said Plano police Detective Jerry Minton.
Investigators suspect foul play. They searched a nearby creek and wooded area, but found no trace of the missing woman.
Hancock's family extends to the many residents at the complex who affectionately regard her as "Granny."
"Everybody here is hoping and praying Granny is okay, and hope she comes back to us," said Deanna Galyean, a friend who added that she knows of know one who would want to harm Hancock, who worked as a security guard at the apartment complex.
"She would meet and greet you at the gate," Galyean said. "We have a 10 month old. Last night she stopped us and gave us a hard time. 'Why you got that baby out so late? She needs to be sleeping.'"
Plano police said there is no history of family violence. They said the Hancock's son and girlfriend were cooperating with the investigation and volunteered to go to the police department for further questioning.
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