A couple of years ago, our city had a mayor and a city manager who believed that our community wasn’t making progress unless they were spending the taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars on baseball fields, performing arts centers and neon-lighted guitars in the warehouse district, just to name a few of their hair-brained ideas.
The mayor, who was possibly the most evil person I have ever known and had a hard time telling the truth, was ousted from office because of his free-spending ways and the city manager, who flaps around in the political wind like a piece of tissue paper, got a mayor who brought her under control (although he should have asked the council to fire her).
The evil mayor and wild-haired city manager concocted a plan that would have resulted in demolishing the Municipal Auditorium so that the city could spend millions to build an arts center. The new arts center, the evil mayor would say, would attract untold numbers of tourists to our vibrant arts community.
Despite the soon-to-be ousted evil mayor’s plan, Lubbock citizens, who the mayor insinuated didn’t know what was good for them, revolted against the extravagant ideas, ultimately running him out of office.
Now comes the current mayor who has reminded city staff that the voters approved more than $4 million in bond money several years ago to repair and remodel the Lubbock Municipal Auditorium. The mayor told KCBD NewsChannel 11 recently (http://www.kcbd.com/global/Story.asp?s=12550127) that the time has come to move forward with the wishes of the voters.
I wonder how much money the evil mayor and the current city manager could have saved a couple of years ago if they had just done what the voters had instructed instead of moving forward with the many multimillion dollar issues that city staff, under the direction of the manager, dreamed up?
This past Sunday, I decided to get a new food and water bowl for our toy poodle, Brutus, to replace the old plastic 99-cent bowl that we got to feed a couple of cats we had shortly after Cara and I married more than 35 years ago.
There’s nothing really wrong with the brown bowl that Brutus had been eating from for the past nine years, but it had always bothered me that my regal puppy consumed his food out of an old hand-me-down bowl.
At PetsMart, there were so many food and water bowls from which to select that my head was spinning. There were chrome bowls with weights on the bottom, there were combination water-food bowls with cartoon characters, there were cheap plastic bowls and there were very expensive porcelain bowls placed inside holders of different heights to keep the dog from having to place his head and neck in an awkward position in order to consume his food.
We opted for a nice, $15 two-bowl porcelain feeder mounted on a one-inch high chrome holder, with one bowl marked “water” and the other marked “food.” To be honest, Brutus can’t read the labels on the bowls, but it’s a nice touch.
As soon as I got home with the bowls, I proudly showed them to Brutus and told him that he no longer had to eat from the cats’ bowl. I even pointed out to him the words “water” and “food” so that he would know what was what.
Then, I placed the bowls and their holder on his food mat, filled the bowl marked “water” with water and the one marked “food” with food. I thought about placing the water in the “food” bowl and the food in the “water” bowl, but Brutus already is neurotic enough.
That was Sunday afternoon. Late yesterday, I looked at his food bowl and nary a kernel had been removed. The water bowl also was full.
Apparently, Brutus doesn’t appreciate what I have done for him and appears to be holding out for the cheap, crappy plastic bowl.
Last night, Cara added some human meat to his bowl in an effort to encourage Brutus to eat. He pretty much ate the meat and left the dry food. Then, she put some food in her hand; he ate that food.
This morning, the level of food and water in the two bowls is unchanged, and I know for sure that he’s testing me.
He wants his old bowl back, but I want him to dine from his new bowl.
I’m hoping that he’ll become hungry enough that he won’t care about the type of container his food is in.
Over the nine years of his life, he’s won almost every battle he’s had with me. For some reason, I want to win this time.
I’m not going to give in (at least I don’t think I am).
This morning’s Lubbock Avalanche-Journal had a very interesting story that indicates ticket sales for this upcoming football season are on pace to set an all-time record at Texas Tech University.
How can that be?
When former head coach Mike Leach was fired in December, just days before the Red Raiders were to play in the Alamo Bowl, for mistreating a student-athlete with a brain concussion, the university began to hear from thousands upon thousands of season ticket holders (maybe a quarter-million or more!) who attend the games in the 54,000-seat stadium.
This massive horde of loyal Red Raider fans made it obvious that they were not going to attend any football games if Leach was not the coach. And, to make matters even more troubling, several thousand indicated that their annual check ($10 to $25) for the school’s scholarship fund would no longer be sent.
How do I know all of this? I read it on the internet where the hundreds of thousands of Leach supporters gathered to back their coach and throw grenades at the university and its administration.
Now comes word from the school’s athletic department that with the opening kickoff more than three months away season ticket sales have surpassed 27,500. That number is higher than last year’s total sales and not too far away from the record 30,000 sold in 2008. (Here is the article: http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2010-05-24/despite-leach-outcry-football-season-ticket-sales-pace-break-records )
What happened to the pirate horde that descended upon Texas Tech in the first quarter of 2010 and said they were done with the university?
My guess is that they were nothing but clanging cymbals and didn’t really support the university and its athletic and educational programs in the first place.
One of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce’s most successful events is the annual Business Expo that has been held every May for the past several years at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.
The expo is a great opportunity to catch up on some of the newer businesses in Lubbock as well as learn about new services that many of the city’s established companies have developed.
I always enjoy going to the event, walking around the exhibit hall talking with old friends and picking up some of the more unusual “goodies” that businesses give away in an attempt to get me to remember them.
At the expo, I’ll be able to collect next year’s supplies of pens, notepads, and sticky notes. There will be an opportunity to get yardsticks, ice cream scoops, candy, and hot pads.
In addition to those items, I wonder what new trinkets they’ve come up with as giveaways?
In Lubbock and in many areas of Texas this past weekend, voters elected representatives to several elected governing boards, including city councils and independent school districts.
In my fair city, with the exception of one Lubbock City Council race, the outcome was pretty much determined when the filing deadline passed a few weeks ago. The incumbent mayor was expected to win handily, and he did with almost 70 percent of the votes cast, and a long-time resident of District 5, although a newcomer to politics, won as expected, with more than 70 percent of the votes cast, over a perennial candidate who runs only to bring attention to his business.
But the one race in which it was a real contest, District 1, between a former long-time Council member and a well-heeled experienced businessman who had held elected office previously in other communities, was the one that many political observers couldn’t predict.
District 1, which comprises much of North and Northeast Lubbock and has a heavy minority (mainly Hispanic) population, has been represented on the City Council by an Hispanic man or woman since the district was established three decades or more ago.
Just looking at the demographic makeup and the history of the district, an outsider to the Lubbock community would confidently predict that an Anglo candidate would have two chances of winning—slim and none.
So why is the Anglo businessman in a runoff with the veteran Hispanic former Council member?
District 1 probably has about 30,000 or so residents with Hispanics making up probably 60 percent or more of the residents. On the surface, it’s a lay down for Hispanic candidates…but it wasn’t this time.
Sure, there was a third Hispanic in the race who drew from the favored former Council member, but that guy only got 90 votes!
Victor Hernandez led all contenders with 617 votes (47.5 percent) with Glen Robertson coming in second with 591 votes (45.5 percent) to set up the June runoff.
Of the thousands of eligible voters in District 1, only 1,298 felt it was worth their while to cast a ballot?
What is the matter with the people of that district? If they care so little about their district and city, why should they expect the City Council or the city staff to care?
Here’s my prediction for the runoff:
Fewer than 900 people will vote (editor’s note: he really thinks the number will be less than 600 but he’s afraid to say it out loud) and the winner will top his opponent by fewer than 75 votes.
And when the people of the district moan about their representative or the lack of interest paid to them by the Council they can look into the mirror to see who is to blame.
Our country, in particular New York City, dodged a real bomb this week thanks to some very observant citizens and some fantastic first responders who acted quickly in Times Square to an SUV that was loaded with potential explosives.
In another area of our country, many people died as heavy rains in the Nashville area overwhelmed rivers, bridges, homes, schools, and amusement parks.
In the Gulf of Mexico, just a few miles south of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, a giant oil slick caused by a leaking oil well was creating havoc to the economy and environment.
In Louisville, Ky., a three-year-old thoroughbred racehorse with maybe one of the greatest jockeys in history onboard, thrilled tens of thousands at Churchill Downs and millions watching on television as it raced past 19 other horses to capture the 136th running of the Kentucky Derby on a sloppy racetrack.
In Lubbock, we learned that crime and highway drunks have not increased one iota since county citizens overwhelming approved wide-open liquor sales six months ago, despite warnings from anti-liquor forces to the contrary.
All in all, last Sunday morning was an awesome day for those of us who are news junkies.
Every one of the stories was worthy of front page coverage in the daily newspapers. Okay, I realize that the Lubbock story was worthy of front page coverage only in The Avalanche-Journal, but you get my point.
So, why weren’t they all on Page One of the A-J?
The answer—the Internet!
When I became editor of The A-J in January 2000, Internet news was fairly new. Sure, most newspapers had a website where they simply shoveled their print news, but most newsies didn’t want to break stories there because they didn’t want to see their print stories on the six o’clock local news stations.
As editor, my philosophy about news was that there were lots of other places information from London, Washington, Dallas and other distance places could be obtained, but the only place A-J readers could get information about Lubbock was from The A-J.
For sure there are other news outlets in Lubbock, but as my friend Benji Snead will tell you, I was arrogant enough and competitive enough to believe that The A-J was the primary source for news about the goings on in Lubbock.
In fact, there are news sources in Lubbock who will say that I bullied them into telling us what was going on by threatening not to cover their news conference or event if they didn’t give us the story in time to publish it in the newspaper before their news conference.
They would be right!
As editor, I was all about local coverage. Other news from around the world was important, too; but I wanted our newspaper to be the “go to” news and information source about Lubbock.
As our Internet site, lubbockonline.com, continued to grow, I began urging our reporters and editors, who had ink in their blood and a contempt for electronic news, to begin pushing their stories to our website as soon as possible in order to add lubbockonline.com to that “go to” category.
To be frank, I was met with a helluva lot of resistance in the newsroom, so much that I began offering small bonuses for stories that were turned over to lubbockonline.com before the six o’clock newscasts.
Even then, though, I could be talked into holding a big and exclusive story from the Internet until 10 p.m. in order to make sure that it was in the print newspaper before the electronic media had it. I went along with those requests, I think, because I still had ink in my blood and believed that the newspaper was where “important” news should be “broken.”
Back in those days, if a big story broke from somewhere else in the world, it was still pretty easy to convince me that it belonged on the front page.
But, the truth is, as some of my newsroom editors will attest, I was happiest when every story and photograph on the front page was from Lubbock or the South Plains, and all wire copy, no matter how big the story was relegated to the inside pages.
So now let’s go back to last Sunday and examine the news menu and where I read about each of the events:
- I always start my day reading The A-J in print because I still enjoying holding the newspaper in my grubby hands. That’s where I learned about the impact of the alcohol sales, the deaths of the Census workers and a multitude of other stories that took place in Lubbock.
- I went to newyorktimes.com to read as much as I could about the foiled car bomb in Times Square (and returned several times that day as the story was continuously updated).
- The courierjournal.com in Louisville, Ky., was where I read about the Kentucky Derby and the hoopla surrounding the event. As fate would have it, that’s where many readers had to go because an electrical problem at the newspaper’s plant prevented the publishing and delivery of the Sunday paper until Monday morning—an editor’s nightmare for sure.
- In order to learn as much as I could about the flooding in the Nashville area, I pointed my computer browser to tennessean.com, the internet site for the Nashville newspaper and found stories and photographs that were available nowhere else in the world.
- As the oil spill disaster continued, I wanted to read what the New Orleans Times-Picayune was writing, ergo off to nola.com I went.
As much as I love The A-J, there is no way that it could have provided me with the information from these four national stories to whet my appetite. My newspaper had wire stories about each of these national events in less detail, but it had them nonetheless.
Many people, mainly those from my parents and my generation still turn to the newspaper for their news—they want to hold that precious newsprint in their hands. But the times are changing and the newspaper must change with it.
Quite frankly, it wouldn’t bother me to have a much smaller newspaper with 95 percent local news and information.
The other five percent of the news, if I were running the paper, would be headlined “News From Elsewhere,” pointing readers to the website of the local newspaper where the event occurred.
I know that not everyone has a computer or iPad or other devices to access the Internet, but it won’t be too much longer before every American will get their news digitally.
For me, it will be a sad day when the print newspaper finally goes away (and it will), but for news junkies who become accustomed to looking for news outside their hometown, they’ll hardly notice.
It may not be any different in Houston or Dallas or El Paso, but in Lubbock, known for its ultraconservative political views, our government officials throw money around like it grows on trees.
The city has been doing this for some time, see http://lookingatlubbock.com/2010/04/26/the-little-guy-gets-screwed-again/. The Lubbock Independent School District, notorious spenders already, now has joined the overspending club (although they’ve probably been a member long before the City Council).
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal reported in its April 30, 2010, edition that the school trustees approved three-quarters of a million dollars to buy two pieces of property in downtown.
Near Lubbock High, the trustees agreed to pay $500,000 for an old church that is carried on the Lubbock Central Appraisal District rolls at $499,460. The district expects to tear down the church and eventually use the space for educational purposes.
The real kick in the taxpayers’ butts came when the trustees approved a quarter-million dollars to buy a piece of property valued at less than $76,000 that is located right next to the school administration facilities!
They claim that the property will be cleared and turned into a green space. But we all know that there eventually will be offices built for the growing number of administrators.
I was told that one school trustee said on the radio that basically the price of property is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it. In the case of government, though, that silly statement doesn’t fly.
Kudos to trustee Chris Comer, who voted against purchasing the property near the administration building because LISD was paying more than three times its value. Comer, a banker, pointed out that if someone wanted to borrow $250,000 to buy the property, no banker would loan the money.
What? Common sense from an elected official? What’s the matter with Chris Comer?
Bill White, Democratic candidate for Texas governor, was on KFYO this morning and was asked more than two or three times if he would support an immigration measure similar to that recently signed by the Arizona governor.
In today’s political environment that is a tough question and one that possibly will alienate many voters or win the support of voters. At the same time, it’s a legitimate question to ask a candidate for governor.
Mr. White, who has served as mayor of Houston for several years, answered the question at least once by saying something like, “That’s a hypothetical question and I don’t answer hypothetical questions.” He never said yes or no.
While this question is indeed hypothetical as it pertains to Texas, it’s not hypothetical to the voters. He either would be for the bill signed by the Arizona governor or he wouldn’t be. How simple can it be?
His answer is exactly what is wrong with politics today. Sure, it’s a hypothetical question, but it’s an issue that he may be facing if he wins this race, and the voters have a right to know his position.
The City of Lubbock, when it buys property, has an unusual way of arriving at “fair market” value.
When the City wanted to build a visitor’s center at a location that was carried on the Lubbock Central Appraisal District rolls at around $600,000, it forked over $1.3 million to the building owner.
When the City purchased a piece of property at Fourth Street and Slide Road in order to widen Slide, it paid $1.9 million for a house and land that was carried on the rolls at less than a million.
Now 98th Street is caving in because the City didn’t perform due diligence while it was being built several years ago.
The problem on the street has virtually destroyed at least one home (carried on the LCAD roles at slightly more than $142,000). If what is being reported by my favorite newspaper is true, the City is offering to pay the homeowner, who was a long-time police officer, a little more than $150,000! http://lubbockonline.com/stories/042610/upd_624462251.shtml
If we are to believe that Lubbock CAD rolls are accurate, the taxpayers got screwed when the City bought the warehouse in the Depot District, and we got it again in the shorts when they bought the Tara House and its property.
Now, a taxpayer, whose wife became so ill when the insulation began seeping into the home because of the screw up she had to move, is getting “fair market” value for his home?
I look forward to hearing from my friends on the Council as to why the City pays one taxpayer the “right” price for his property and gives away the farm to two other property owners.
This is shameful and so unfair.
If you’ve ever traveled on highways near the U.S.-Mexico border, you have encountered checkpoints that have been established by the U.S. Border Patrol in our nation’s fight to stem the flow of illegal immigrants as well as to intercept illegal drugs.
These checkpoints are generally 20 to 30 miles from major cities on highways and are fairly permanent with a concrete slab and a large covered canopy.
Whenever I encounter these checkpoints, I’m generally asked two questions by a physically fit officer wearing a gun. The first one is, “where are you headed today, sir?” The second one is either, “are you a U.S. citizen?” or “what is your citizenship?”
As a U.S. citizen, I resent having to answer those questions. The only reason I do is that I want to continue my trip unimpeded. However, what business is it of the government’s to know where I am going today if I’m not doing anything illegal? And, why am I being asked my citizenship in my own country?
As Arizona enacts some sort of legislation to combat illegal immigration into the state because the federal government won’t do it, I find myself thinking that what they are doing is just plain wrong.
I have no idea how they are going to make U.S. citizens prove that they are in fact citizens, but I find it offensive that American citizens, no matter their ethnicity, may be asked to prove their citizenship.
We all know that the target of the legislation is people who have brown skin and may not be able to speak fluent English.
The truth, though, is that in many parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, there are brown-skinned people whose ancestors were in this part of the country long before many of my European ancestors got on the boat to come here.
Illegal immigration is a real problem in this country, but the way Arizona has decided to address it is just wrong. Do like New Mexico did and send the National Guard to the border.
Better yet, the federal government needs to step up to the plate and send the Army to stop the invasion.
