News from the Lone Star State

[TexasStooge]

Lawyer burden soaring in Collin County

In '04, taxpayers spent $5.3 million to defend indigents

By ED HOUSEWRIGHT / The Dallas Morning News

MCKINNEY, Texas - If you're poor, it's easier to get a free lawyer in Collin County than a free doctor.

County taxpayers shelled out $5.3 million last year to provide attorneys for indigent people accused of crimes, records show.

By comparison, the county spent less than $1 million on indigent health care.

Collin County officials say they're outraged at runaway legal defense costs, caused partly by a recent state law that makes it easier to get a free attorney. Other local counties have seen similar spikes.

This year, Collin County is on pace to spend $8.4 million on private lawyers for poor defendants, figures show.

"It's absolutely absurd," Commissioner Jerry Hoagland said. "We need a fundamental change in the way this is operating."

Next month, Collin County plans to start reviewing each defendant's application for a court-appointed attorney to make sure he or she meets income guidelines, officials say.

"Hopefully, this will have a substantial impact," said County Court at Law Judge John Barry. "By and large, the applications have been taken at face value."

Even some defense attorneys say it's too easy for an arrested person to get their services at no charge.

"I've had a number I think could have afforded an attorney," said David Haynes, a McKinney lawyer who regularly gets court appointments.

To qualify for a free lawyer in Collin County, a single person can earn up to $11,962 a year (vs. $4,785 annually to get free medical care), according to county guidelines. The head of a family of four can make up to $24,187 to qualify for a court-appointed attorney (vs. $9,675 for indigent health care).

"It's a flawed system," Commissioner Joe Jaynes said. "It's like criminals have more benefits than law-abiding citizens."

Don't blame attorneys for driving up the indigent defense tab, says Deric Walpole, president of the Collin County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

He says the county's decision to scrutinize each request for free representation is long overdue.

"It does seem to be a little easier for people to get a court-appointed attorney, but it's something oversight would fix," Mr. Walpole said.

Required by law

County officials blame the Fair Defense Act, a state law passed in 2001, for much of the rise in court-appointed attorney costs.

It says that defendants must be provided a free attorney – if they qualify as indigent – within four days of being arrested. Previously, no guidelines existed, and defendants could sit in jail for weeks without representation, said Wesley Shackelford, special counsel to the Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense.

Since the law went into effect, indigent legal costs statewide have shot up 50 percent – from $91.6 million to $138.1 million, Mr. Shackelford said.

During the same three-year period, Collin County's costs jumped 62 percent – from $2.5 million to $4.1 million, state figures indicate. The county's own records show that the total last year was even higher – $5.3 million.

In fiscal 2004, Collin County ranked among the top in Texas in indigent defense spending, state records show.

Harris County, the largest county, led with $19.7 million in legal expenditures, figures indicate. Dallas County, the second-largest, was next with $17.8 million.

Among other area counties, Tarrant County spent $10.7 million, Denton County $2.5 million, Ellis County $998,069, Kaufman County $720,487 and Rockwall County $280,435, state records show.

Too much incentive?

Collin County officials say that people who are truly indigent need a court-appointed attorney. But they suspect that many people in custody lie about their incomes to get free representation.

The Fair Defense Act has provided a windfall for some defense attorneys. For instance, nine law firms received more than $100,000 from indigent defense work in Collin County last year, records show.

Because of skyrocketing legal bills, Mr. Roach said, he thinks court-appointed attorneys should be paid a flat fee for different services – not an hourly rate.

"My view is, the indigent defense plans we use in Collin County have a lot of perverse incentives that encourage defense lawyers to gain as much as the case will bear," Mr. Roach said. "These incentives mean that cases don't get disposed of as quickly as they should because ... you make more money if you keep the case going."

The district attorney is flat wrong, said Mr. Walpole, president of the defense lawyers' association.

"I think there needs to be better screening and more discretion on the part of the DA's office," Mr. Walpole said. "They don't have to prosecute the case. We have to defend it.

"If I'm appointed to represent somebody, and I can win ... the last thing on my mind is how much it's going to cost the county."

Judges' discretion

Court-appointed lawyers in Collin County receive $75 to $150 an hour – more than in many Texas counties. Judges set the rate in each case and can refuse to pay the full bill submitted by an attorney.

Justice of the Peace Paul Raleeh initially decides if a person gets a court-appointed attorney. If he denies the request, the defendant can appeal to the trial judge.

Indigent defense costs incurred by counties are offset somewhat by reimbursement from offenders.

For instance, Collin County offenders paid back $382,416 in legal defense costs last year, state records show.

Collin County's indigent defense costs may soon drop – perhaps dramatically, officials say. When income verification is stepped up next month, fewer people may be granted court-appointed attorneys, and millions could be saved, officials say.

"If somebody is poor, they need to be properly represented, said Mr. Hoagland. "All I'm saying is, let's get rid of the fraud.

"It's the taxpayers' money."

[TexasStooge]

Grieving Texas City seeks solace

TEXAS CITY, Texas (AP) – Easter Sunday services at this Gulf Coast city's largest church combined mourning and healing after 15 people died – including three from Louisiana – and more than 100 were injured in an explosion at a BP oil refinery last week.

"Here in Texas City this last week we had a horrible disaster take place," the Rev. Bobby Tollison told congregants at First Baptist Church. "Not a one of them really thought that day would be the day they would stand before the Lord. Folks, the point is, we just don't know when our time is going to come. No one does."

Wednesday's explosion shot flames into the sky, blew out windows a half-mile away and showered the 1,200-acre plant grounds with blackened metal and ash.

The blast occurred in the isomerization unit – which boosts the octane level of gasoline – as a portion of the unit was brought up to full production after a two-week shutdown for routine maintenance.

Mr. Tollison urged support for those grieving lost friends and relatives.

"As those people who have lost someone near and dear to their hearts need something to hang on to, you can say, 'I know a God who is real, who cares about you and who loves you and who wants to help you through this,' " he said.

Royce White, 73, a retired school administrator who has lived in Texas City for nearly five years, said the community of 42,000 has learned to live with tragedy in the dangerous work environment.

"We're all aware there's a possibility of an accident of some kind. Whenever it does happen, it's shocking, horrific and sad, particularly when there's such a loss of life as what happened here," he said.

Eleven people remained hospitalized Sunday, five of them in intensive care.

The plant processes 433,000 barrels of crude oil a day and 3 percent of the nation's gasoline.

[TexasStooge]

Hit record rings hollow for incarcerated rapper

Pimp C laments hearing his songs produced by others

ROSHARON, Texas (WFAA ABC 8/AP) – From the seclusion of his prison cell in rural southeast Texas, Pimp C said he had little reason to celebrate the release of his first solo album.

He could barely stand listening to his own songs: The music coming from the radio didn't sound like his work at all.

"It just hurts my stomach to think that some dudes were sitting around producing my songs and taking freestyle raps and making songs out of them," Pimp C, (real name: Chad Butler) half of the celebrated southern rap duo Underground Kingz or UGK, told The Associated Press in a March jailhouse interview. "It's kind of strange. It's like I'm dead but I'm not dead. Like they trying to make a post-mortem album."

Mr. Butler's record sits at No. 8 on Billboard magazine's latest list of top rap albums.

Mr. Butler, 31, fell behind on the community service required after he pleaded no contest to aggravated assault. He was charged after brandishing a gun during an argument with a woman at a mall.

He began an eight-year sentence in January 2002 and will be eligible for parole in December.

In a visiting room at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Terrell Unit, about 35 miles south of Houston in rural Rosharon, Mr. Butler is introspective while discussing his lifelong love of music. He's clean-shaven and wears a white prison uniform and black eyeglasses with a slight tint. He wears a wooden cross.

Mr. Butler spends his days serving food in the prison cafeteria and his nights reading books and writing songs – he's penned more than 2,000 since his incarceration. Because he has no access to musical instruments, he includes notes like "insert guitar here."

[TexasStooge]

Grapevine siege ends after 14 hours

By BERT LOZANO / WFAA ABC 8

GRAPEVINE, Texas — Grapevine police ended a 14-hour standoff Saturday night, taking two aggravated assault suspects into custody at a home just north of D/FW International Airport.

The drama began shortly before 8 a.m. Saturday when a man and a woman from Houston who had been visiting with friends in the 2900 block of Mesa Verde Trail appeared at a neighboring house, severely beaten.

They said they woke up to find the people they had been staying with assaulting them with bats.

The Grapevine Emergency Response Team surrounded the house that the injured couple had fled. Police were reluctant to move in after communicating with the two suspects, who said they were in the home's attic with a cache of weapons.

The ERT tried tear gas and percussion grenades in an attempt to flush out the suspects. When that didn't work, they used technology to their advantage.

"We put our camera up in the attic and saw all he had was a stick instead of a firearm," said Grapevine police spokesman Sgt. Todd Dearing. "So they talked him down, went up and got him."

At around 9:30 p.m., officers took Mitchell Travis Thurston into custody. A woman identified as his girlfriend, Shane D. Wilson, was also arrested. Police said they were taken to a hospital for observation and will likely be charged with aggravated assault.

The beating victims, whose names were not released, were taken to hospitals for treatment. The woman was said to have two broken arms and other injuries; the man suffered a concussion. Polce said both are expected to recover.

[TexasStooge]

Duncanville teen faces devastating diagnosis

By JOLENE DeVITO / WFAA ABC 8

DUNCANVILLE, Texas — Some North Texans spent this Easter weekend supporting a young man whose life took an unexpected turn last summer.

In some ways, Duncanville high school senior Kendrick Sullivan is your typical teenager, according to his mother, Tamie Evans.

"[He's] the kid you have to tell 4 or 5 times to clean up their room. The kid you have to tell 4 or 5 times to wash dishes," she said.

But when it comes to his health, Kendrick Sullivan is anything but typical.

What started with a breathing difficulty last July ended with a devastating diagnosis and his friends rallying to support the 18-year-old.

Doctors said Kendrick suffers from hypereosinophilic syndrome, a rare disease that causes excessive numbers of eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) to accumulate in the blood. The condition results in damage to organ tissues.

The disorder is so rare that only two in one million people get it.

Friends and strangers took part in a blood drive Saturday afternoon at a Dallas jazz cafe.

Kendrick has had three heart attacks, pneumonia, and countless respiratory problems.

He lost his right hand and three fingers on his left hand to amputation three weeks ago. He may lose the rest of his left hand, too.

"The hardest part? I really don't have too much to complain about," Kendrick said, adding that there's no time to complain, because he has life to live and dreams to chase.

Doctors provided his mother with statistical evidence that people suffering with Kendrick's condition have an average survival rate of 9 months.

"Even when they tell me the bad things, I just look at them like you're looking at me," Evans said. "I hear you, but my mind is like, 'no, he's going to beat this.'"

Kendrick reflects his mother's determination that he will win his medical battle.

"I know I am. Somehow, some way... I will."

[TexasStooge]

VFW working to attract younger vets

By DAVID McLEMORE / The Dallas Morning News

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – It's early on a Thursday night at VFW Post No. 76, and the old door-gunner sits in the dimness of the lounge sipping his Miller Lite.

Across the room, obscured by a thin haze of cigarette smoke, two men at the long wooden bar watch a basketball game. A thin, gray-haired ex-Marine sniper ponders the jukebox choices before choosing Toby Keith and something raucous about honky-tonks.

"See how peaceful it is here," says Domingo Vasquez, 58, who spent 18 months of his youth as a Huey door-gunner above Vietnam's Central Highlands. "There's no fights, no trouble."

For thousands of veterans, the VFW hall is a place of easy refuge, of shared experiences of being in harm's way in a faraway place.

Time, however, is catching up with the VFW.

World War II vets, who make up about half the VFW's national membership, are dying at a rate of 1,100 a day. Nationally, there are 1.7 million VFW members, down from 2.1 million in 1992. In Texas, membership has fallen to 89,273 from 121,000 in 1993.

And newer veterans from the Gulf wars show little interest in joining – partly because they're busy building lives and careers, officials say. At Post No. 76, there are none.

"We've been aware for some time that we have to attract the younger veterans and create a greater awareness for all Americans about what the Veterans of Foreign Wars is," said Jerry Newberry, national VFW spokesman.

Part of that effort has translated into the VFW programs that support current National Guard, reserve and active-duty military personnel and their families.

"They know we're fighting for them. But as people get out of the military, they're pretty busy with the transition to civilian life, building new careers and raising families," Mr. Newberry said. "Once they're more established, they have time to give us their time. It's always been that way for the VFW, and it's that way today."

The beginning

The VFW formed in 1914 out of two groups of Spanish-American War veterans groups launched 15 years earlier to secure benefits for veterans. In San Antonio, Post No. 76 started in 1917, making it the oldest VFW post in Texas.

VFW has always been open only to those veterans who had served honorably in a war zone. After World War II, when the membership swelled to more than 3 million, the VFW became the most powerful veterans lobbying group.

As it has from the beginning, VFW continues to lobby for pay raises for active-duty soldiers and improved funding for veterans' benefits and education. The VFW was instrumental in raising funds for the National World War II Memorial dedicated last May in Washington.

In Texas alone, VFW members have provided $3 million for community service, such as telephone cards for troops in Iraq and emergency assistance funds for soldiers and their families.

"We take great pride in the services we provide both to veterans and to the communities in which we live," said Ray Grona, assistant state adjutant for VFW's Department of Texas. "To continue that work, we have to show these younger vets that there's a purpose here, we're not just drinking beer and trading war stories."

Back at Post No. 76, another Vietnam veteran, Danny Estrello, the post steward, echoes the sentiment. He emphasizes the community service projects at the post. The rummage sales and barbecues that help raise money for veterans' issues. But they need help.

"When we came back from Vietnam, a lot of the old World War II vets didn't want us around. We can't do that," Mr. Estrello said. "We have to show them its someplace where they can do some good and still bring their families and have a good time."

Historic post

Post No. 76 is one of the best-kept secrets of the community.

Surrounded by a string of machine shops and commercial buildings, the post is in a three-story 19th-century mansion along an undeveloped bend of the San Antonio River just north of downtown.

The bar and poolroom occupy the first floor and are open to the public. Beer is $1.50, and smoking is allowed. The jukebox finds room for both Keith Urban and Janis Joplin. Of the handful of customers this night, very few are younger than 50. And not all are veterans.

"You look around, and about 60 percent of the people here are not members and not even veterans," Mr. Estrello said. "They don't just sit around and drink. They volunteer for our projects. They pitch right in. Frankly, we couldn't exist without the nonmembers. They're the key to our survival."

Jaime Euresti, a teacher who works nearby, is a nonmember regular. He grew up in a military family but never joined the service.

"A friend brought me here a few years ago, and I just felt at home. These are down-to-earth people. If you need help, they give it."

He points around the room, from one graying man to another.

"Everyone here has seen things we can't imagine," Mr. Euresti said. "They'll tell some great stories. But no really dwells that much on the bad stuff."

'Home away from home'

Robert Ramirez, 57, sits on the porch, enjoying the night. A compact man in dark clothes, a leather vest and a western hat worn at a rakish angle, Mr. Ramirez greets each passer-by by name. A Vietnam vet like most of the members here, he didn't join the VFW, however, until 1995.

"I held a grudge for a while, but you get past that," he said. "A World War II vet brought me here, and what I found was a home away from home. It was like I'd always been here."

Like the post's other 210 members, Mr. Ramirez is proud of belonging to the state's oldest VFW post. He can recite the history of the house and stresses that the main work here is helping other veterans any way they can. And like everyone else, he's aware that the future of the VFW demands that they attract younger members.

"Everyone thinks we're just a bunch of old guys, but we're a proud bunch," he said. "And the kids serving in Iraq know what it means to be proud, too. And we can reach them.

"But we have to let them know there's a place for them. That we can speak their language and understand what they've been through," Mr. Ramirez said. "They've been to war, and life is different for them now. That's something we can tell them about. If we can get that across, we'll be here for a long, long time."

[TexasStooge]

Artistic differences plague Dallas center

At performing arts center, 3 architectural firms from 3 European countries don't seem to be coming together much in Dallas

By DAVID DILLON / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - When last seen, Rem Koolhaas and Sir Norman Foster were engaged in high-stakes architectural gamesmanship at the Meyerson Symphony Center, one showcasing an industrial-strength theater, the other a shimmering glass opera house with a glowing red core.

These are the flashy centerpieces of the $275 million Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, one of the most important cultural projects in the city's history and the exclamation point for its evolving Arts District.

The architects, both winners of the Pritzker Prize, the profession's highest honor, were selected in 2001 to create a new civic and cultural heart for the district. Yet that evening in June, collaboration appeared to be the last thing on their minds. They emerged from separate green rooms to present their designs to a black tie and bejeweled audience, then kept a cool distance during the reception afterwards, like rival movie stars thrown together by over-eager publicists.

Forward nine months: The Margot and William Winspear Opera House and the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre are moving ahead – the revised design for the latter will be unveiled Tuesday at the Dallas Museum of Art – but the big chill between the principals continues. The standoff complicates already difficult trans-Atlantic logistics, involving three architecture firms in three countries: France, Britain and the Netherlands.

They and their lead designers rarely show up in Dallas at the same time, preferring to communicate by e-mail, fax, conference calls and intermediaries. For a critical design meeting last week, only Spencer de Grey of the Foster office in London made the trip. Koolhaas associate Joshua Prince-Ramus, project architect for the Wyly Theatre, was in the Netherlands, and landscape architect Michel Desvigne was in Paris.

This pattern has produced frustration among performing arts center staff and some members of the building committees, who complain privately about lack of coordination and their once-a-month access to the decision-makers.

"We'd all be much happier if the two firms were comfortable sitting in the same room together," says Deb Mitchell, senior vice president for JJR Inc., the firm supervising the landscape design. "But there's not a lot of warm fuzzy feeling between them."

Foster and Partners and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, as Mr. Koolhaas' firm is called, inhabit different design universes: Foster linear, machine-smooth and precise as a Swiss watch, OMA messy, conceptual and intentionally jarring.

Other collaborations

Productive collaboration doesn't require that architects like each other. At the Meyerson, I.M. Pei and acoustician Russell Johnson faced off like a cobra and a mongoose until Morton H. Meyerson himself banged their heads together and heard a sound he liked.

Up Flora Street at the Nasher Sculpture Center, Renzo Piano and landscape architect Peter Walker threw off so many sparks that they were rarely invited to town at the same time. Raymond Nasher finally sat them down for a heart to heart, and the result is a small masterpiece of collaborative design.

No such enforcer has emerged at the performing arts center, though Bill Lively, president and CEO of its foundation, says that all projects are on schedule and on budget

"It's certainly been more challenging working with architects from Europe," Mr. Lively says, "but I don't think that has compromised us. It's not like there's been a vacuum."

However, planning and urban design, the basis for true place-making, have taken a back seat to architecture. The "master plan" unveiled in fall 2003 was little more than a device for placing the two buildings, while the site plan itself, the critical first step in any major development, is barely under way after two years.

"It's certainly much later in the process than I'd like," says Mockingbird Station developer Ken Hughes, a member of the site design committee.

"We made a conscious decision to address the architecture first," says Mr. Lively, "because the quality and functionality of the buildings is the most important thing. If they don't work, the whole project is for naught."

Yet this seem at odds with the foundation's own holistic pronouncements that the center is not only about three buildings (the opera house; the Wyly, new home to the Dallas Theater Center; and a City Performance Hall for smaller groups), but about creating a memorable civic destination where people will want to gather even if they don't have tickets to a performance.

"Great architecture won't be enough," says Deedie Rose, a founding board member. "We need a great place for the community to be, and that means all the public spaces have to be wonderful, too."

Such spaces don't just appear, like residue from construction. They come from careful planning informed by a shared understanding of basic principles for designing the public realm. "A street is a room by agreement," the architect Louis Kahn observed, and the same can be said of great squares, plazas and parks. Trafalgar Square in London, Central Park in New York, the Ramblas in Barcelona, Spain – all are products of such agreements.

Progress being made

Nevertheless, things are moving forward at the performing arts center.

Fund-raising is approaching $170 million, almost all of it from private sources, with about $90 to $100 million more required.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation is negotiating a long-term operating agreement with the city to maintain the center once it is finished. That could be completed by May.

And one key component, the Wyly Theatre, has evolved from a tantalizing but vague concept into a compelling, workable model. It is still an 11-story tower with 600 seats and a simple cubic form that plays suggestively against the horizontality of the rest of the Arts District. The stage is at street level, with all the support spaces stacked above, including a rooftop cafe.

In the version premiering Tuesday, the skin has been articulated to resemble a slightly billowy theater curtain, circulation has been clarified, and the relationship between interior and exterior spaces refined.

The status of the 2,200-seat Winspear Opera House, designed by Mr. de Grey of Foster and Partners, is harder to peg, in part because until last week Foster and Partners had been more secretive than the CIA about this work in progress.

Mr. de Grey's initial design was disarmingly simple and elegant: a red, multi-tiered auditorium, reminiscent of classic European opera houses, with mezzanines and lobbies framed in glass and shaded by an aluminum canopy that extended over a public plaza.

"We didn't want a temple of high culture," he says of it. "We wanted to create a democratic public space where people will gather, to break down barriers."

The populist premise remains intact in the latest version, which could see the light in late May, but many details have evolved. A restaurant and cafe now open onto the east side of the Grand Plaza, toward the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, while ramps for the underground garage slice into the southwest corner near the Meyerson, (and escalators pop up near the main entrance. The goal is for patrons to enter the building through the front door instead of from the garage, as in the Meyerson and the DMA.

And the canopy continues to evolve, appearing considerably lighter and airier than earlier versions, which covered most of the area between the Meyerson and the Arts Magnet High School, and to more than one observer made the opera house look like a tug boat stuck in an ice floe. The canopy has reportedly been a contentious issue among some board members concerned about its scale, cost and feasibility.

The latest version measures 370 by 440 feet, which is still huge yet less oppressive, more like a metal web than a roof. Drawings show cafe tables, tents, kiosks and fountains laid out below.

Mr. de Grey says there is nothing controversial about the canopy. "It's been in the budget from the beginning, and we've had some very positive feedback about it."

Foster and Partners is under fire for a massive swooping canopy proposed for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. Detractors say it is structurally unsound and might create an instant greenhouse effect, accusations the architects vigorously dispute.

The third piece of the center, the $25 million City Performance Hall by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago and Corgan Associates of Dallas, is in limbo. Voters approved $2 million for preliminary design in 2003, but the remainder of the funding awaits the next municipal bond election, tentatively scheduled for 2007.

"We think we have identified the needs of potential users," says project architect Brian George of Corgan. "But since we don't have a real budget we can't go very far with the design."

"The city has made a commitment to put money in the 2007 bond program," says council member Veletta Forsythe Lill, "and I expect the city will keep that promise to the small arts groups so that all three venues can open in 2009."

The glue that will hold these various architectural fragments together is the landscaping plan, which at the moment is sketchy at best. The French landscape architect Mr. Desvigne showed a few dreamy sketches in 2003 that had little connection to Texas or Dallas. He has shown nothing else publicly, though similar drawings are hanging in a landscape architecture exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art, labeled "Greenwich Peninsula, London, England."

JJR and Dallas landscape consultant Kevin Sloan have joined the site development team, so this piece of the design puzzle should start to fall in place. But they have catching up to do.

When he started working on the Winspear Opera House two years ago, Mr. de Grey cautioned that if the planning "deals only with the immediate pieces of the center, it will fail. There has to be a strategy for the whole Arts District, and that can't come only from the architects. It requires a full-scale public debate."

That strategy is still emerging, and most of the debate has been in-house. The larger public discourse, including substantive conversations with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra that occupies the Meyerson, the Arts Magnet High School, Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and other neighbors, has not really begun.

The arts magnet, with its 700 students and $40 million expansion in the works, is mostly in the dark.

'No dialogue'

"We've heard nothing about the site plan, the public spaces or what's happening with the buildings," says Nash Flores, chairman of the school's building campaign. "There's been no dialogue.'

Guadalupe Cathedral, which brings an estimated 12,000 worshippers into the Arts District every Sunday, is also out of the loop. "We've had one meeting three years ago," says Craig Melde, architect for the current cathedral restoration. "We would like to have had more."

Even the DSO, which will share a plaza with the opera house, has not been at the table, though its president, Fred Bronstein, says he's not especially concerned because of overlap in the organizations' boards.

"When we have finalized the program, we will talk to the neighbors," says Howard Rachofsky, the center's site committee chairman. "I'm always reluctant to put out a lot of stuff about designs that aren't final. People get ideas."

One of the ideas they might get is that, impressive as private support for it is, the center is also a major public project – built on public land, with public infrastructure and containing a publicly funded City Performance Hall. Those investments alone top $50 million, not counting the estimated $4 million to $5 million to operate and maintain the buildings in the future.

The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts will likely be the last major cultural institution in the Arts District, the last chance to complete a 30-year-old civic dream. And that will take as much collaboration as can be mustered.

[TexasStooge]

East Texas in the grip of meth

Henderson County has trained its sights on drug plague, but there's been no end to the devastation

By LEE HANCOCK / The Dallas Morning News

ATHENS, Texas – Meth horror stories are all too easy to find in Henderson County.

At the hospital, emergency room doctor Dan Bywaters is haunted by the abandoned toddler who vomited uncontrollably after eating methamphetamine.

At the jail, Sheriff J.R. "Ronny" Brownlow has scabby prisoners tell him to his face that they'll go back on meth the day they go free.

At the court building, state district Judge Carter Tarrance jokes about running a full-time meth court.

At Cedar Creek Lake, army retiree Al Gusner tells war stories about twitchy neighbors who rammed his car and held a knife to his throat for trying to chase meth users and labs from his neighborhood.

The drug known as "white-trash crack" has stalked the back roads of Henderson County, fueling child abuse, violence and misery for the last four years.

"Epidemic is almost not strong enough a word, because it doesn't go away," said Dr. Bywaters, the ER medical director at East Texas Medical Center-Athens, the county's only hospital. "It's hard to believe the scope of the problem, to be honest."

The problem is hardly isolated to Henderson County.

The drug is so easy to make, and so many labs have been discovered across the northern half of Texas since 2000, that the area stretching from the Panhandle, through Dallas, to the Louisiana-Arkansas line has become the state's meth belt.

Meth made up 54 percent of all confiscated items sent to the Department of Public Safety regional crime lab in Abilene last year. At Amarillo's regional DPS lab, it was 41 percent. At the Dallas and Tyler labs, meth accounted for about a third last year.

Among those nabbed across the region for using, making or selling the drug: schoolteachers, more than one state prosecutor, small-town police officers, a University of North Texas professor and a retired homicide cop in Houston.

Jane Marshall, a University of Texas professor who studies drug-abuse trends, said the problem has hit rural areas the hardest, "and it is exacting a huge price on local communities."

This is the story of a rural Texas county drowning in meth. Authorities have been on the offensive for two years; drug arrests have doubled, and crime has dropped. Still, the sheriff and others are pessimistic about ever getting the upper hand.

Said Judge Tarrance: "I feel like I'm bailing the ocean."

Consumed in a hurry

Meth has afflicted rural Texas for the same reason it has ravaged much of the nation's heartland: Anyone with inclination, a few hours and an Internet recipe can turn a vile brew of over-the-counter cold medicines, hardware-store solvents and farm chemicals into methamphetamine.

Experts say that the drug's psychological hook is more powerful than crack cocaine. One "bump" smoked, swallowed or injected induces a long, manic high that ends with an equally intense crash and craving for more. Paranoia is common, and regular users can suffer temporary psychosis and permanent brain damage.

And it has infested Henderson County with particular intensity.

Child-welfare workers, judges, doctors and cops talk about meth's impact with the weariness of combat veterans: babies born weekly with meth in their bloodstreams; 10- and 12-year-olds using meth; girls barely in their teens prostituted to support parents' habits; a cheerleader and homecoming princess coping with a mother on meth.

Arrests for drugs and violent crime in Henderson County have nearly doubled in the last seven years, even as statistics indicate such arrests have dropped in Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. For the last two years, property thefts reported to the Sheriff's Department have averaged $250,000 a month.

"It's behind the assaults, the child abuse," said Judge Tarrance, adding that the drug has fueled an outlaw economy reminiscent of the moonshine era. He said meth and its users are behind "90 percent" of all felony cases that come before him.

"They're burglarizing. They're writing hot checks. You see women with multiple cases of forgery, and it's a meth problem."

Though many users are blue-collar, meth has claimed businesswomen, an $80,000-a-year construction manager, little league moms and entrepreneurs. The biggest lab busted in the county was in a quarter-million-dollar lake house.

Probation officers say they find used needles every time they check the county court parking lot, and addicts regularly show up high for court even though their freedom and even keeping their kids hinges on staying clean.

State-funded treatment of the county's meth users has jumped sevenfold since 1999, outstripping rehab admissions for alcoholism for the last several years.

Dr. Bywaters said he was stunned when he came to the Athens hospital from a Denver suburb in 2001 and saw that at least half a dozen emergency-room patients a day tested positive for meth or showed clear signs of meth abuse. That has gone up, he said, and meth users now account for about 10 percent of the hospital's 80 to 90 emergency patients each day.

"It permeates every facet of the community," he said.

Just before Dr. Bywaters moved to town, he said, the county had a rash of poisonings and at least one death related to the drug. A meth cook had cut a batch with fire ant bait.

A paradise lost

Sheriff Brownlow said the drug hit hard in 2001, as he became a second-generation member of his family to serve as Henderson County's top lawman.

The county had a handful of old-time meth cooks who knew the black art of making meth in "P2P" labs, a complex, lengthy and dangerous process that waned in the 1990s after federal laws restricted sales of necessary chemicals and equipment.

But "almost overnight," a new kind of speed seemed to be everywhere, the sheriff said. Almost anyone could make it, with Sudafed or other cold remedies based on pseudoephedrine.

"I'd get seven, eight calls a day, people frustrated with their drug-dealing, drug-manufacturing neighbors," said the sheriff, a retired Texas Ranger. "We were just overrun."

Drug blight and crime began appearing in remotest corners of the county.

One hot spot was Cedar Creek Lake, on the county's west side. There, isolated subdivisions became havens for meth users and labs. Lake Palestine, on the county's eastern border, was another magnet, drawing cooks and users from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and locals who learned to brew the drug.

"These crooks know that we're very limited in manpower," the sheriff said. "They don't have to spend much time around here, in those subdivisions and lake areas, to realize that they don't see us very often."

Retired urbanites who'd been drawn to the county's sleepy lakefronts said they felt under siege. Along the quietest back roads, weird nocturnal gatherings and strange smells prompted a run on concealed-gun licenses and burglar alarms.

Mr. Gusner, 69, had come to Cedar Creek Lake to fish, putter and work on his ambition of being a boot-and-bolo-wearing Texan after a career in the Army National Guard.

The native Nebraskan said his plans evaporated as soon as he became president of his subdivision's garden club.

He learned how to spot meth-addled areas while trying to organize an attack on illegal dumping and blight in the aging, unincorporated clusters of weekend getaways and retirement homes that encircle the lake. "Wherever there's trash, there's meth," he said.

Meth cooks burned heaps of garbage to conceal the odor of their labs. Often, users were too strung out to keep up the rundown property they rented or squatted on.

In one of the worst-infested areas, a fetid backwater known as "the cut," meth heads squatted in some trailers and carted off all the metal they could pry from others to sell for scrap. Druggies cooked meth on boats and party barges in the middle of the lake, tipping the toxic chemicals into the water if strangers got too close.

Mr. Gusner and other lakefront retirees banded together with longtime residents and parents desperate to rescue their children from the drug. He got certified as a state environmental investigator, and Sandra Mallie, a school janitor, went to a state training program to learn how to deal with the toxic mess created by labs.

"It became an obsession," Mr. Gusner said.

The sheriff went to Austin and pleaded for grant money to beef up his one-and-a-half narcotics force. When that initially got nowhere, he and chiefs of the county's 14 small-town police departments formed a task force of five investigators in the spring of 2003.

The new group took down labs in homes, in moving vehicles and even a backyard tent. They busted a group gathered in a trailer for paid drug-cooking lessons. They caught one user peddling suitcases filled with cold medications and everything else needed for a lab. One lab burned part of a Lake Palestine motel; another nearly blew up several officers after a cook set fire to it during a bust.

The investigators also repeatedly found children in squalid drug houses, exposed to toxic fumes from their parents' meth labs. Kids were using the drug. Some were being traded for meth to boyfriends or even strangers.

Smallest victims

Child Protective Services workers in Athens say almost all of the county's abused and neglected kids have been touched by meth.

"It's all-consuming," said LeeAnn Millender, director of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of the Trinity Valley, a group that assists children brought in the courts. "There's more sexual abuse, more neglect, more extremes of neglect."

According to Child Protective Services data, the number of confirmed child-abuse victims in the county more than tripled from fiscal 1997 to fiscal 2004 – far outstripping the state increase.

CPS Supervisor Shelly Allen said the children coming into the system are more disturbed – and more expensive to care for – because of meth. CPS records indicate agency foster care expenditures in the county jumped from $548,000 in fiscal 1997 to $1.56 million last year.

Vickie Sussen, a CASA of Trinity Valley supervisor, said she has repeatedly seen babies exposed to methamphetamine in the womb develop such behavioral problems by the time they're toddlers that "foster parents say they can't handle this kid."

"I have one little girl, she's been in five foster homes already. And she's 4," Ms. Sussen said.

Ms. Allen said the agency is also getting children whose parents and grandparents are using the drug; that leaves nowhere for the kids to go but state foster care.

The agency is so swamped that many children aren't referred for help, such as family counseling, until abuse or neglect is too severe to avoid removing the child, CPS supervisor Ann Perry said.

Ultimately, officials say, virtually all the meth users who fall into the system end up losing their kids.

"We have lots of cases that we need to open for services," Ms. Perry said, "but we can't."

Progress, but little hope

Even so, Ms. Perry and other local social services workers say the countywide offensive has kept the area's meth crisis from getting worse.

The number of labs seized last year was half that of 2003, even as the number of drug arrests – mostly for meth – doubled to 338. Athens police say they saw assaults and other violent crime drop by more than half.

"They've kicked butt," Sheriff Brownlow said.

He and other law enforcement officials say they have high hopes for pending federal and state legislation that would regulate sales of cold products with pseudoephedrine, much like a law passed in Oklahoma last year. The law is credited with reducing lab seizures by 80 percent.

Another bill would expand a program, MethWatch, that members of Mr. Gusner's citizens group recently brought to East Texas. The program encourages retailers to post signs warning that they monitor and report suspicious purchases of products that can be used in meth labs.

Gov. Rick Perry launched MethWatch in 23 East Texas counties after Ms. Mallie, whose oldest son spent several years taking and making meth, did her own research and persuaded the governor to set it up.

But the sheriff and his task force remain pessimistic.

Meth is the cockroach of illicit drugs. Authorities say pressure in Henderson County has sent cooks scurrying to neighboring counties. Purchase limits imposed on cold medications at chain stores like Wal-Mart have sent meth heads piling into beater cars for buying runs in Dallas and Houston.

Even users who want help face big hurdles. Henderson County has no publicly funded treatment programs, and those available in neighboring counties have waiting lists.

Treatment programs statewide have become progressively shorter in recent years despite expert consensus that meth users need more intensive, longer-term help than other substance abusers. County officials say that increases the odds of failure for users who want to get clean.

"I don't think we're ever gonna put it down," said the sheriff, who laughs at his own mention of the anti-drug slogan "just say no."

The sheriff says he'll talk to any inmate who wants to kick the drug, and he urges all who will listen to turn to Jesus. Among those he has counseled is the daughter of a man at his church. He didn't make the connection until the father stood in tears one morning before their Baptist Sunday school class and asked those gathered to pray for his jailed, drug-addicted child.

"The approach that we're taking is not gonna work," the sheriff said.

Both the sheriff and the judge said they need more drug courts and treatment options, as well as more mental assistance for chronic users who cycle repeatedly through the legal system.

"They're talking about building a new jail," Judge Tarrance said. "I don't think the citizens understand. You'll fill that jail up."

[TexasStooge]

Be their guest for newer, nattier digs

Several hotels are renovating to keep up with the competition

By ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas - Some of Irving's more prominent hotels are undergoing nips and tucks.

Hotel officials say the remodeling will help make their hotels more competitive among business and leisure travelers.

New hotel construction in nearby cities "requires everyone to step up to the plate and keep up," said Maura Allen Gast, executive director of the Irving Convention and Visitors Bureau, which plans to promote the hotel upgrades this year. "You have a continued buyer's market that requires you to do whatever it takes to get business."

Sheraton Grand Hotel at D/FW is in the middle of an $8 million renovation. Crews have remodeled more than 300 guest rooms, adding new furniture, carpet, drapes and larger desks, said Reiner Rietig, the hotel's general manager. Bathrooms received new floors and granite countertops.

Hotel officials plan to remodel the restaurant and lobby bar this year. Crews will also add new revolving doors to the front of the hotel.

Mr. Rietig hopes the changes makes his hotel stick out from the crowd.

"Everybody is our competition, and everybody tries to do a little better," he said. "If you don't do it, you're going to get hurt."

The Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas is spending about $1.4 million on upgrades this spring. The lobby and lobby bar will get a fresh look. A ballroom will be retrofitted with new paint and wall and floor coverings. Crews also will improve a couple of suites.

In addition, all of the hotel beds – more than 500 – will be replaced, and crews will install new electronic door keys.

While the hotel is keeping its competition in mind, it's also trying to please its customers, said John Branciforte, the hotel's director of sales and marketing.

"It's what clients are looking for," he said. "It's what the customers demand. They're worth it. ... We want to give our guests the best hotel experience."

The Wyndham Las Colinas will embark on a $2.5 million renovation by this fall. Crews will upgrade hotel room bathrooms, including new tiling, toilets, sinks and marble countertops. Public spaces also will get an updated look.

The renovations are in addition to a $1 million project last fall that added new bedding to each of the hotel's 168 rooms. Rooms also received new cordless phones and ergonomic chairs.

Hotel officials hope the renovations "give us more of an advantage or edge," said Sehila Dearmore, the hotel's director of sales.

"We want to make it a little more comfortable, a little more enjoyable for business travelers," she said. "It's going to be absolutely amazing when we're done with it."

[TexasStooge]

About Town: Paintball player taking Journey of Hope

By DEBORAH FLECK / The Dallas Morning News

IRVING, Texas - Travis Dusek gave up being a professional paintball player this year to train for a cycling trip across the country.

The senior at the University of Texas at Arlington will embark on a 64-day, 3,900-mile "Journey of Hope" in June to raise funds for Push America, an organization founded by Pi Kappa Phi fraternity members in 1977 to help people with disabilities. "We are the only fraternity that runs its own charity," Mr. Dusek said.

The Journey of Hope is one of the charity's many programs. The goal of the charity is to raise awareness, volunteerism and funding to help those with disabilities, he said.

Mr. Dusek hopes to raise at least $5,000 from his journey. The son of David and Sandra Dusek of Irving and a graduate of MacArthur High School, he will earn a business degree in May from UTA. Then he will head to San Francisco to take the southern route of the journey along with about 30 to 40 other cyclists. Two other groups will travel along different routes.

Along the way, the cyclists stop to hold activities with disabled people. For example, he said, "We might take a group of disabled children to Hurricane Harbor when we stop in Dallas." The journey will end in Washington, D.C., in August.

How does a paintball player prepare for cycling? He said he follows a pretty extensive online training program, where he logs hours and follows a recommended diet.

The deadline for donations is April 8. Call 817-905-0269 or e-mail pikap269@yahoo.com . The Web site is http://www.pushamerica.org.

A new home for the animals

The DFW Humane Society has kicked off its $1 million Founders Campaign for its new animal shelter. Named Corky's Cottage in memory of a member's pet, the new shelter will be housed in a 10,000-square-foot facility on Irving Boulevard just east of Pioneer Road. It will have space for about 200 pets, more than double the current shelter's capacity.

Eight members of its Founders' Circle have committed $40,000 to the project. Thanks to a grant from the Stemmons Foundation, all gifts to the campaign will be matched, up to $100,000 per year for five years. Jennings Smith, chairman of the campaign, hopes the grant will bring in 92 more Founders' Circle members. That number of donors at the $5,000 level will leverage the matching grant funds.

"There is no better cause than providing homeless and unwanted pets a second chance at a happy life," said Sarah Kammerer, manager of the no-kill shelter. "We don't want to keep turning away pets because of lack of space."

To donate or volunteer, call 972-253-3333.

Four Seasons kudos

The Pro Shop at the Four Seasons Resort and Club was named among the "100 Best Golf Shops" in the country by Golf World Business magazine. It was the 12th time the shop has made the top 100 since 1986.

Director of public relations Angela J. Enright said the award complements the recognition Paul Earnest, director of golf, recently received. The PGA of America named him Resort Merchandiser of the Year. And for the sixth consecutive year, Mr. Earnest has been recognized as the North Texas PGA Merchandiser of the Year.

In addition to running golf operations, Mr. Earnest raised $40,000 through his personal golf marathon for the Irving Healthcare Foundation. The funds went to the Irving Cancer Center at the hospital.

He will soon be busy with the EDS Byron Nelson Championship, which comes to the Four Seasons May 11 through 15. Visit http://www.fourseasons.com/dallas.

[TexasStooge]

Students served breakfast, scholarships at gathering

IRVING, Texas (The Dallas Morning News/WFAA ABC 8) - The 18th annual Breakfast with the Stars was Thursday at the Four Seasons. Sponsored by the Irving Schools Foundation, the program presents students with scholarships.

Eight new scholarships were added to this year's event. And the foundation's executive director, Elizabeth Philipp, announced that a Carol Wood scholarship already was being endowed for next year.

A scholarship established in the name of Spc. Josiah Vandertulip, a graduate of Irving High, was among the new ones for this year. It was presented to Irving High student Dao Tran by Louise and Robert Vandertulip in honor of their son, who lost his life while serving in Iraq last fall.

The many achievements of the scholarship recipients impressed the audience as well as Channel 8 (WFAA) news anchor and Irving resident John McCaa, who was the program's emcee. He noted that these students indicate the future is in good hands, adding, "Forget all that stuff you see in the news; we live in a great society."

[TexasStooge]

Mexicans in U.S. seek vote back home

By Diane Smith, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - Sebastian Martinez's music store doubles as a municipal hall for immigrants from Zacatecas, Mexico.

Inside Poder Musical (Musical Power) in northeast Fort Worth, photos document the projects Martinez has helped complete in his hometown, Tacoaleche: A church tower with a new clock. A hacienda converted into a museum/music conservatory.

Soon, leaders of 22 immigrant groups will meet at his store and decide how $400,000 raised in the Fort Worth area will benefit communities in Zacatecas.

Martinez and his fellow Mexican expatriates say such contributions to their native land have earned them the right to vote in Mexican elections without traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles to cast their ballots.

In past elections, they could vote only in Mexico. But Mexican lawmakers are debating whether to allow millions of expatriates to cast ballots from outside Mexico. Immigrants from several other countries already can cast ballots in the United States.

"It's a right one has as a Mexican, that as human beings we have," said Martinez, a Haltom City resident and president of the Federación de Clubes Zacatecanos de Fort Worth, or the Federation of Clubs of Zacatecas in Fort Worth.

Some expatriates are using the hard-earned economic clout of Mexican immigrant communities to influence a decision that they hope will be made by this summer, in time for next year's Mexican presidential election.

These proponents of out-of-country voting foresee a great payoff -- changing Mexico's political landscape and the conditions that force Mexicans to leave in search of better futures.

If an absentee voting plan is approved, Mexican nationals envision a system in which they could cast ballots in cities such as Dallas, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York -- anywhere that has a large concentration of Mexican expatriates.

"They have a right to vote. What they don't have is the mechanism to vote," said Yvonne Mariajimenez, a Los Angeles resident. She is a member of the advisory council of Mexico's Institute of Mexicans Abroad, which acts as a liaison between Mexican officials and communities of expatriates.

Proponents compare the process to the Iraqi out-of-country voting that took place in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Nashville, Tenn., in January. During that three-day event, 24,335 Iraqi expatriates voted in the United States.

The push for Mexican out-of-country voting is marked by a collective awareness among immigrants that the grass-roots contributions they have been making to their homeland are opening doors. Mexicans sent home $13.2 billion in 2003, according to the Pew Hispanic Center.

They believe victory is almost within their reach, but that there are still some hurdles.

Some Mexican lawmakers are wary of making it easier for expatriates, who often question the status quo, to vote. And creating a voter registration system and setting up polling sites to accommodate the estimated 10 million Mexican immigrants in the United States would be costly and cumbersome, some Mexican leaders have argued.

Some expatriates say the current system is already cumbersome for them.

Last Fourth of July, Martinez traveled to Zacatecas so he could vote in the governor's race. Martinez said he is a patient man, but the time to move is now.

"We know it's not easy," he said. "Nobody said it had to be easy."

Lobbying for 'el voto'

Self-described binationals say many have evolved from young laborers with no money and no rights to hard-working, self-made entrepreneurs who want a voice.

"I want to vote from here," said Jorge Navarrete Olalde, a community leader in Cleburne who also serves as a regional member of Mexico's Institute of Mexicans Abroad.

Many immigrants wire portions of their U.S. salaries weekly or monthly to relatives in Mexico. Some pay Mexican taxes and own property in Mexico.

"We participate in this country's economy and in the other country's economy. It's double the sacrifice," Martinez said.

Proponents remind Mexican dignitaries who visit North Texas of these sacrifices.

"It's irrational that a simple thing like the vote has us pulling our hair," said Roberto Chavarria, a Dallas businessman and president of Federation of Clubs from Michoacán in Texas.

Chavarria said the clubs help Mexican municipalities that need money for roads, ambulances and other projects that past elected officials promised but never delivered. Chavarria reluctantly proposes a drastic move such as a remisa boycott if their cry goes ignored. Remisa is the term for money sent to Mexico.

Some Mexican officials are concerned about the cost of absentee voting. Luis Carlos Ugalde, president of the country's Federal Electoral Institute estimated the price tag at about $320 million, The Associated Press reported.

But proponents, some of whom have traveled to Mexico to lobby lawmakers, have a tentative blueprint for how it could work.

Voting would be modeled after the recent Iraqi out-of-country voting, said Jose Artemio Arreola, a member of the coalition Vamos por el voto in Chicago. For example, registration and voting sites would be set up in places with at least 15,000 Mexican expatriates. Chavarria has proposed using U.S. post offices as polling sites.

Some Mexican officials who have reservations about absentee voting say U.S. authorities would target illegal immigrants when they came to vote, but immigrant leaders dismiss that notion as an excuse.

"The American authorities know perfectly well where immigrants are concentrated. If they want to do raids, they'd do them," Martinez said.

And U.S. immigration experts note that expatriates from other countries -- Australia, Ukraine and Poland, for example -- don't experience problems voting in the United States.

But the push for Mexican absentee voting could irk some U.S. anti-immigration forces, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.

"It is the kind of issue that has the potential to cause a lot of anger among certain Americans," she said.

The expatriates

At Roberto Chavarria's car lot in Dallas, talk of absentee voting turns into a Mexico history lesson laced with philosophy.

The 44-year-old said that immigrants who came to the United States during the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s also wanted to cast votes from here.

In recent elections, Mexican nationals who are legal permanent residents in the United States and those who are U.S. naturalized citizens have typically been the ones who traveled to Mexico to cast ballots, Mariajimenez said. Their legal status enables them to travel freely between Mexico and the United States.

"People who are undocumented in the United States don't have the practical ability to go back and vote because they can't come back in," she said.

Mexican voters must have the proper registration card to cast ballots. The card is issued only in Mexico to Mexican nationals who were born there or have recovered their nationality.

Potential out-of-country voters live throughout the United States. In 2000, most Mexican-born immigrants lived in California, Texas or Illinois. Their numbers continue to grow as more come searching for jobs.

Immigrants who have green cards or U.S. citizenship help pave the way for newcomers by becoming vocal about immigration, safety, health and education reforms on both sides of the border.

Some of these leaders argue for absentee voting as they pose hard questions to Mexican lawmakers.

"Why did I have to leave my family? Why did I have to leave my customs? Why did I have to leave my language? And why did I have to cross a dangerous border?" asks Olalde, who helps immigrants in his community.

These binationals are also exporting U.S. political ideals they've picked up during their American experiences.

Some immigrants are moving into Mexican politics to become elected decision-makers. Chavarria, who first came to the United States at age 13 to pick grapefruit, hints that he might want to run for governor of Michoacán. Last year, Martin Caravajal, a Fort Worth businessman, was elected mayor in San Pedro Apulco, Zacatecas. Caravajal lives there now and visits relatives who still live in Fort Worth.

Chavarria said he pulled himself up by his bootstraps in the United States. Because of these opportunities, he said, expatriates are willing to die for the United States. But he can't turn his back on his birthplace, he said.

"Es tu tierra. Tu patria. Tu país. [It's your land. Your mother country. Your country]," he said. "That feeling doesn't go away when you leave your border."

[TexasStooge]

Inmate is found dead in cell

By Don Chance, Special to the Star-Telegram

DECATUR, Texas - A man sentenced to a total of 119 years in prison Thursday was found dead in his cell at the Wise County Jail on Sunday, said Sgt. Debbie Denney of the Wise County Sheriff's Department.

Denney said that John Robert Morris, 35, who lived near Rhome, had apparently used a bedsheet to hang himself from the cell door handle.

"He was in segregation," Denney said. "They were calling [on the intercom] to see if he wanted to go to church service and didn't get any kind of response."

Denney said no one at the jail saw it happen, and an inmate in a nearby cell said he had heard nothing. Denney said Morris was discovered just before 2 p.m., and jail officers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Morris was taken to the Wise Regional Health Systems hospital, where he was pronounced dead by Justice of the Peace C.D. Archer.

Morris was convicted in Judge John Fostel's 271st District Court of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in 2001.

"Who knows what makes a person take their own life?" Fostel said. "He got a 99-year sentence on the aggravated sexual assault of a child, which is the max on that. And then he got a 20-year sentence on the indecency [charge]. At some point, he would certainly have been eligible for parole."

Jana Jones, Wise County district attorney, said she wasn't surprised to hear about Morris.

"He had made threats years ago to the victim and told her that if he were ever prosecuted, he would kill himself before he went to the pen," Jones said. "That was some time ago, but you have to take that seriously. So, because of that, and because he'd just been convicted, he was on a suicide watch."

Denney confirmed that, because he had just received the steep sentence, Morris was on "special" watch while awaiting transfer to Huntsville for processing and evaluation.

Wise County Sheriff David Walker said the last hanging at the jail took place more than a dozen years ago.

The death was reported to the Texas attorney general's office and the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, Walker said. Jailers who were upset were sent home and offered counseling, he said.

"Just because he's an inmate doesn't make it any easier, on the family or us," Walker said. "He's still a human, and it is upsetting."

Walker said that he and Texas Ranger Dwayne Dockery are investigating to make sure the appropriate procedures were followed.

Morris' family was not available for comment.

Funeral arrangements for Morris are pending at Coker Funeral Home in Decatur.

[TexasStooge]

Close Van Zandt-Guinn, report says

By Aman Batheja, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - Van Zandt-Guinn Elementary School is at 103 percent capacity, it's in poor condition and its students should be transferred, according to a report released Monday.

The approximately 300 students could go to I.M. Terrell Elementary, which is at 66 percent capacity, and other schools, the report says.

The school board received the report Monday morning from Ed Humble, a senior partner of MGT of America, a Florida company hired by the district to suggest ways to save money.

The district would save at least $600,000 by closing Van Zandt-Guinn, Humble said.

The school district recently spent $319,000 renovating Van Zandt-Guinn as part of its $398 million bond program.

Board members had few comments on the report, saying they needed time to analyze it. Jean McClung and Christene Moss said examining the findings should be a priority because the recommendations that the district follows will heavily affect other issues.

"This needs to be on the fast track, I think," McClung said.

Board member T.A. Simms said he is troubled by the suggestion to close Van Zandt-Guinn.

"I don't know why you would recommend closing a school that's at capacity and is a recognized school," Simms said at the meeting.

Van Zandt-Guinn received a "recognized" rating by the Texas Education Agency this year, based on state assessment-test scores from last spring. Overall, Fort Worth had two exemplary, 31 recognized and 80 academically acceptable schools in 2004.

James Sloan, first vice president of the I.M. Terrell Alumni Association, said he is "somewhat relieved" that the report didn't recommend closing his alma mater.

"Right now, it looks like it's going to pit supporters of the I.M. Terrell School against supporters of the Van Zandt School," Sloan said.

Sandy Joyce, former PTO president at Van Zandt-Guinn, said closing the school would affect the whole community, not just students. She said Van Zandt-Guinn and I.M. Terrell have supported each other.

"VZGE-IMT in perpetuity, that has been one of our slogans," Joyce said. "We really need both schools."

Van Zandt-Guinn Principal Constance Goines said that she was disappointed by the recommendations but that if her school were closed, her students should go to Terrell.

"I think that could be the best place to serve the kids," she said.

Humble said that beginning in October, his team evaluated every school in the district. He said elementary schools should have 400 to 700 students, middle schools 700 to 900 and high schools 1,200 to 1,600.

The report shows that several elementary schools are well over capacity, the worst being Richard Wilson, which has 658 students but is meant for 342, meaning it's at 192 percent capacity.

Most middle schools are under capacity.

Five high schools are at or over capacity, the worst being Arlington Heights and Western Hills, both at 111 percent.

Humble urged the board to take community input into account and said that compared with other districts he's worked for, Fort Worth residents seem especially invested in their schools' future.

"There's a passion in this school district I don't always see," he said.

Staff Writer Cynthia Garza Contributed to This Report.

[TexasStooge]

Court: Dismiss murder charge

By Melody Mcdonald, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH, Texas - For the second time, the 2nd Court of Appeals has recommended dismissing a murder charge against a 44-year-old woman accused of fatally shooting her husband, saying it would be double jeopardy to try her again.

In an opinion released last week, the local appeals court reversed a trial judge's ruling that Swanda Marie Lewis, whose first trial ended in a mistrial amid allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, should be retried in the death of her husband, Kenneth Wiley, 37.

"This is great news," said defense attorney Danny Burns. If the ruling stands, "she goes home and the case is dismissed."

Chuck Mallin, chief of the appellate division of the Tarrant County district attorney's office, said the case is not yet over. He said he expects to ask the local appeals court to reconsider the decision or take the case to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Lewis was tried in November 2001 in Wiley's death, but the case ended in a mistrial after the defense argued that prosecutor Mick Meyer asked Lewis a question that violated her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent after her arrest.

According to the court transcript, Meyer asked Lewis, "After speaking with [Detective] John McCaskill on August 10th of the year 2000, did you have the occasion to learn the next day, on August 11th of the year 2000, John McCaskill wanted to speak with you?"

"Yes," Lewis replied.

"And did you deny him the opportunity to speak?"

Before Lewis answered the question, Burns objected, and state district Judge Sharen Wilson told jurors to disregard Meyer's question.

Burns then requested a mistrial, which the judge granted.

Burns later argued that the mistrial was prompted by prosecutorial misconduct and that the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy barred Lewis from being tried again in the same crime.

During a hearing on the issue, Meyer defended his actions, saying he asked the questions in an attempt to "shore her up on prior inconsistent statements." He said he had not been trying to "recklessly, intentionally or knowingly goad the defense to having to move for a mistrial."

Wilson rejected Burns' arguments and ruled that Lewis could be retried. Burns subsequently appealed to the 2nd Court of Appeals, which reversed Wilson's decision and ordered the case dismissed.

Prosecutors then appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals, which reviewed the case and sent it back to the 2nd Court of Appeals with a request that it reconsider the ruling.

The 2nd Court of Appeals again reviewed the case and again ruled for dismissal.

In their most recent opinion, issued this month and written by Justice Anne Gardner, the justices said Meyer twice asked Lewis direct questions about her failure or refusal to speak to law-enforcement officers.

"As the prosecutor himself admitted, he was well aware that the use of post-arrest silence is impermissible and yet he chose to disregard a prior sustained objection and instruction to disregard in pursuing this impermissible line of questioning," Gardner wrote. "Therefore, we hold that the prosecutor flagrantly and persistently pursued this improper line of questioning."

According to court documents, Lewis and Wiley began having problems shortly after they married in 1991. Lewis eventually found out that Wiley had AIDS, and the couple sought counseling.

According to court documents, Lewis said Wiley raped her without using a condom, and the shooting occurred hours later.

During her trial, Lewis testified that Wiley was trying to leave and that while he was taking clothes to the car, she saw his gun at the foot of the bed.

She testified that when she saw the gun, she became afraid and put it in the back of her pants and that when Wiley came back inside, they struggled and she pointed the gun at him in an attempt to scare him.

Lewis testified that she did not intend to pull the trigger but that the gun went off, according to court documents.

Lewis remains in the Tarrant County Jail awaiting final appeals.

"I've talked to her, and she wants to go home right now," Burns said. "I would too -- she has been there four years. But she will have to stay there until the last decision is made."

[TexasStooge]

DEA memos questioned border killings

By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA ABC 8

LAREDO, Texas - More is now known about the role of American federal agents in a series of murders in Juarez, Mexico.

Last year, News 8 reported that a U.S. drug informant participated in as many as a dozen murders there while he was on the U.S. payroll.

Luis Padilla was one of a dozen victims murdered, then buried behind a house across the border from El Paso more than a year ago. Today, his wife Janet still mourns his death and raises their children alone.

News 8 has new proof that Padilla's death and those of ten others might have been stopped.

A branch of the Department of Homeland Security permitted the murders to continue in hopes of making a drug bust. The agency even allowed Guillermo Ramirez, a U.S. employee, to participate in the killings.

Memos obtained by News 8 under the Freedom of Information Act tell a story of two agencies: the DEA and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE. The memos said ICE looked the other way as their paid informant watched a dozen murders occur one by one, and weeks later knew of another for a total of 13 killilngs.

A DEA supervisor believes the whole thing was wrong from the beginning. Sandy Gonzales, who wrote the memos, was in charge of the DEA in El Paso during the murders. DEA agents discovered Ramirez was involved in the killings while on the ICE payroll.

Gonzales wrote he "couldn't accept any reasons" why a confidential source of U.S. law enforcement was allowed to "participate in a crime spree" that yielded "thirteen unwarranted dead individuals."

Raul Loya represents the Padillas and four other families whose loved ones were murdered.

"It's still a very devastating loss for each of the families," Loya said.

Neither the U.S. Attorney nor ICE officials would comment to News 8 about the case.

[TexasStooge]

Path of downtown DART line plotted

But whether it will be on street or under it is still being debated

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - The creation of a second downtown Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail line – maybe underground, maybe not – inched closer Monday to winning the Dallas City Council's blessing.

Members of the council's transportation and telecommunication committee agreed the second line should run north-south along Griffin Street, then east-west along Jackson, Wood or Young streets, following a consultant's recommendation. The consultant, Jacobs Engineering, also had studied two alternative routes.

The City Plan Commission and the full council will review the proposal before council members vote on it in May, committee chairwoman Sandy Greyson said. The proposal would then fall to DART, which has ultimate control over the rail line.

In the meantime, Ms. Greyson said, city officials and downtown business interests will search for consensus on key details.

For example, a section of the line running north-south between Ross Avenue and Commerce Street would need to run underground to avoid clogging traffic, but other sections could run at street level, Jacobs Engineering Project Manager Terry Watson told the council committee.

Alice Murray, president of the Central Dallas Association, argued that a ground-level rail line wouldn't jibe with downtown redevelopment plans.

"It's going to have to be fully underground, and it's going to have to be as close to Commerce Street as possible," Ms. Murray said.

Council member Bill Blaydes expressed concern that a Jackson Street closed to automobile traffic would overload east-west thoroughfares. Motorists attempting to cross the Trinity River into Oak Cliff would find doing so especially difficult, he predicted.

DART's existing downtown rail line runs almost exclusively at street level along Pacific Avenue and Bryan Street, dipping underground only as it begins to travel parallel to U.S. Highway 75. Building underground rail lines, at $100 million per mile and likely more, is considerably more expensive than laying ground-level lines.

The council committee also considered – but made no recommendation – on the consultant's suggestion to convert several one-way downtown roadways, such as sections of Pearl, Canton, Cadiz, Houston and Live Oak streets, into two-way streets.

The consultant's plan, which the city, Dallas County, DART and the North Central Texas Council of Governments funded over two years for $1.5 million, also calls for enhancing sidewalks along a half-dozen downtown streets. The enhancements would create "pedestrian corridors" linking such attractions as the West End, Arts District and Farmers Market, under the city's vision.

"Our whole downtown street system is based on how to get businesspeople in and out quickly," Ms. Greyson said. "This is a definite change in how we think about that."

[TexasStooge]

Megachurches put their faith in unity

Local pastors agree to a joint worship event, 90 days of service

By FRANK TREJO and JEFFREY WEISS / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Some of Dallas' best-known evangelical pastors have agreed to an unusual reach across traditional lines of doctrine, race and geography. Imagine Tom Hicks, Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban working on one event. But while sports is like religion for some folks, this event really is about faith and good works.

The first Global Day of Prayer, an international event scheduled for May 15, will include a multichurch service at Reunion Arena. Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Potter's House in southwest Dallas and Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship are among the large churches that have signed on.

These evangelical megachurches, along with smaller churches, have agreed to an unusual combination of prayer and service.

The day of prayer will be followed by 90 days of work, organizers say. The goal is to marshal a new army of church-connected volunteers willing to build homes, clean up trash, paint schools and otherwise improve conditions in southern Dallas.

Those three megachurches alone have a combined membership of about 60,000 people – about the population of Allen. Organizers hope that members of many other smaller churches will also join the effort.

A national model

The official announcement of the partnership is scheduled for today. The Dallas event is billed as the model for other American prayer events.

Bishop T.D. Jakes of Potter's House and the Rev. Jack Graham of Prestonwood – both nationally famous pastors – are among the leaders of the local activities. The Rev. Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, another pastor of a megachurch with a nationwide reputation, is also participating.

"For most of us who are involved, the prayer event is not what is motivating us," Dr. Graham said. "Hopefully, a transformed church will be more active in transforming the community."

The promise of good works to follow high-profile worship helped bring Bishop Jakes on board.

"We all agreed that we were weary of attending one-day events that didn't follow through," Bishop Jakes said. "We're beginning to forge ahead in developing real relationships that exist beyond special events."

Start in Africa

The idea for the Global Day of Prayer started in Africa a couple of years ago. Last year, organizers say, people in 273 towns in South Africa and all 56 countries in Africa participated in a Day of Repentance and Prayer for Africa.

This year, the aim is worldwide in 150 countries, with the Reunion Arena event planned as the flagship for a half-dozen United States events. As in this country, the international leaders are evangelical Christians who want people to pray for spiritual transformation.

Bob Bakke, director of the National Prayer Advance of the Minnesota-based Evangelical Free Church in America, sought out Dallas preachers to host the main U.S. event.

"There are very few places that have the religious wherewithal on very many different fronts as Dallas," Dr. Bakke said.

That, he said, is why Dallas was selected to create the North America model for the Global Day of Prayer events.

The Rev. Rick Warren, senior pastor at Saddleback Church in California and the author of the bestselling Purpose-Driven Life, is scheduled to participate in the Dallas prayer event. Habitat for Humanity and the Salvation Army are among other religious organizations that have agreed to participate.

Ten days of prayer will lead up to the Reunion Arena event, followed by the three months of work. If the program is successful, organizers hope it will lead off five years of specific cooperation among Dallas-area churches.

How unusual is this kind of evangelical cross-denominational work? Plenty, experts say.

Dr. Graham is the former president of the religiously conservative Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination that has split with other Baptists over questions of doctrine. Bishop Jakes leads a nondenominational church and has been criticized by some conservative theologians for his interpretation of what they call key Christian doctrine – such as the definition of the Trinity.

And evangelical churches are less likely to work together than others, said Cynthia Woolever, professor of sociology of religious organizations at the Hartford Seminary in Connecticut.

"It is something of note for churches like these [Prestonwood and Potter's House] to be cooperating in that way," she said. "The groups most likely to work with other congregations are reform and conservative temples, in other words the Jewish community, and then also Muslim mosques."

But leaders of this event say they're focusing on similarities.

"You come away from our conversations with the old adage, more unites us than divides us," Dr. Graham said. "We can work together and still maintain our own denominational and doctrinal distinctives."

Previous work

Bishop Jakes had already worked with Dr. Graham on a prayer service in 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"So we already had that relationship with Prestonwood, there was no big wall to climb," Bishop Jakes said. "Even though we're serving different parts of the community and are in different geographic locations, the things that unite us far outweigh those that separate us."

Megachurches elsewhere are also finding ways to work together, said Carol Childress, a church growth expert with WorldconneX, a missions network.

"In this case you have two very large churches with very high public profiles, that are very media savvy, that are of similar congregation size and have leaders who in many ways are similar," she said. "They understand they cast very large shadows, wherever they go."

She noted that even though the two large churches would appear to be different, they do share much in common in part because of their size.

Huge churches, she said, "have more in common with another megachurch, in terms of the complexities of how they operate and how they serve their members."

And, she added, the 90 days of community service work also illustrates another trend among churchgoers and churches.

"It's one thing to just talk about faith; it's quite another thing to put that faith into practice," she said. "It makes for much more effective evangelism."

[TexasStooge]

Experts: Web boosts library use

By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Scholars at the end of the 19th century believed the newly invented telephone would signal the end of the public library.

They said the same of microfilm as it became popular after World War II. And the Internet – the library's latest top enemy – was supposed to serve the final blow in the '80s and early '90s.

"Almost every new technological development that has come out was supposed to end libraries," said Carol Brey-Casiano, president of the American Library Association.

"The truth is, with the Internet, what we have seen is the converse has happened. The Internet has brought more people into libraries."

In Dallas, library circulation – the number of books, magazines or other material checked out – has increased 59 percent from 1998 to 2004, and similar increases have been seen at libraries nationwide.

Many experts say the Internet, along with a few other factors, is responsible for the country's burgeoning bookworm population.

In San Diego, circulation jumped almost 11 percent from 2002 to 2004. The Naperville Public Library near Chicago has seen double-digit percentage increases in circulation each year since 2000. Checkouts at the Columbus Metropolitan Library system in Ohio grew 4 percent last year.

Patrick Losinski, executive director of the Columbus libraries, said he's noticed a change in library patrons in the last decade. They're better prepared, thanks to the research they've done online at home, work or school.

"In the past, visitors come in and say, 'I'm looking for gardening books,' and they'd go over to the section and browse," he said. "Today, they come in with a list of 10 specific titles."

In Dallas, the bookish don't have to leave their homes to search the library's shelves. They can comb the library's catalog online and reserve materials or get them transferred to a branch location for pickup. The absent-minded can even avoid late fees by renewing their library loans online.

"Through the Internet, people are finding out that specific items are available that 20 years ago they never would have known about," said Dale McNeill, public service administrator for the Dallas library system. "Then they come to the library to find them."

The Internet itself, and not just the information it provides, is also attracting more patrons. People without access to the Web elsewhere now visit the library to use its computers and ask librarians for help with the Internet's information deluge.

"I like to say that the ultimate search engine is the librarian," said Ms. Brey-Casiano, who's also director of the El Paso Public Library. "The librarian can help you sift through all that information – the 400,000 hits you get – and find what you need."

The Internet, however, is not the only factor in the nationwide circulation upswing, according to the American Library Association. New and updated library buildings, an increase in new books published each year and a declining economy all contribute.

Officials at the libraries in Naperville, Ill., said the Internet has helped drive circulation growth by 15 to 16 percent each year since 2000, but the economy has had a big effect, too.

Technology-sector layoffs brought visitors to the library in droves looking for books on writing résumés and investigating new industries, said Mark West, the system's deputy director.

"Folks who had gone to the bookstore or Blockbuster before were coming to the library," he said.

Still, Mr. West says, the circulation increases have continued despite an improved economy. Now there are three libraries for Naperville's 130,000 residents, and circulation per capita is 30 checkouts a year. About 350,000 items will be reserved for pickup through the system's online catalog this year.

"The Internet is not going to put us out of business," he said.

Locally, recent circulation booms have also been influenced by what Mr. McNeill calls "the Harry Potter phenomenon."

"There's something about those series of books that have gotten more people interested in reading than any series of books I ever remember doing in the last 20 years," he said.

Although 4-year-old Jayden is too young for Harry Potter, children's books are what drew his mother to the downtown Dallas library. Jennie Alba of Dallas said she hadn't been to a public library for years before she brought her son for his first visit last week. They returned the next day.

"He had so much fun yesterday, he begged to come back today," she said during their visit to the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library.

Many factors – including the Great Depression and the information superhighway – have affected circulation over the years, but don't expect dust to form on the shelves of your local library any time soon.

"The public library has been around for 150 years in this country," Ms. Brey-Casiano said, "and every indication is that they are strong and are going to be around for a long time to come."

[TexasStooge]

Texas road projects on hold

List of affected plans could be available this week, official says

AUSTIN, Texas (The Dallas orning News/AP) – State transportation officials have put the brakes on hundreds of road construction projects because money to build them hasn't been approved.

The Texas Bond Review Board this month delayed a vote to approve the sale of about $1 billion in bonds that would bankroll the Texas Mobility Fund.

The delayed vote prompted Texas Department of Transportation Executive Director Michael Behrens to send a memo to district engineers statewide telling them it will be necessary to postpone or eliminate projects.

Randall Dillard, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation, would not speculate on whether his agency had made too many assumptions in laying out plans for hundreds of projects.

"We were very aggressive," he said. "We were expecting [the money], and we were trying to use all the resources available to us."

Mr. Dillard said a list of affected plans could be ready this week.

Continuing with the plans would have put the agency $62 million in the red by the end of August, he said. The anticipated money would have come from the sale of Texas Mobility Fund bonds, which are financed by traffic fines.

The bond review board's next meeting is scheduled for May 19.

The governor, lieutenant governor, comptroller and House speaker sit on the board but can appoint alternates.

At the board meeting March 17, a representative for Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn read a statement that said Mrs. Strayhorn supports issuing the bonds but opposes plans to make only interest payments in the first three to five years instead of paying part of the principal.

Mark Minor, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said last week that Mr. Dewhurst "is supportive of the bonds" but that there are "technical issues that need to be worked out, and that will be done."

Robert Black, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, said Monday: "We understand there may be some on the board who have concerns. We'll work with them to get those concerns ironed out."