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Friday, February 1, 2008
Mardi Gras in Waco Saturday night
A quick reminder before I sign off for the week that you can celebrate Mardi Gras in Waco Saturday evening from 8 p.m. to midnight right downtown on Austin Avenue.
The action will happen between Seventh and Eighth streets with a masquerade block party to benefit the Waco Performing Arts Company.
Tickets cost $100 and will let you go to any of the six venues and includes all food and drink, with the exception of a VIP dinner at the Green Room Grille.
For more information, go to mardigraswaco.org.
Weather should be nice for the event. Saturday’s afternoon high will be around 68 degrees and it’s only supposed to hit a low of 56 as a light south wind will blow and clouds will come in to retain the heat. There is a 20 percent chance of showers, which usually means we won’t see a drop.
The better chances for rain are Sunday and Monday.
Have a great weekend. And don’t eat too much during the Super Bowl Sunday night.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Headlines, Environmental
Judge rules in favor of Mart over Battle Lake residents
Trib reporter Tim Woods has just informed us that state district Judge Vicki Menard denied the temporary restraining order requested by 19 Battle Lake residents to prevent the city from forcing them off city-owned property.
In her ruling, Menard cited a lack of jurisdiction in the matter.
It’s interesting in that Mart city attorney Roger Gordon told Woods afterward, “There are no winners in this matter.”
The dispute centers around a tract of land near Battle Lake, which lies outside of Mart but is owned by the city. The 19 tenants lease the land from the city but own the homes on the land. The leases hold the tenants responsible when they vacate the land for the cost to remove any structure they built on the property. Some of the tenants have lived there as long as 25 years.
At a city council meeting in January, Mart’s council decided the city would not renew the leases beyond 2008 and would explore options for selling and/or developing the property. The money would be used for improvements to Mart’s infrastructure.
The 19 plaintiffs, represented pro bono by attorneys Rick Bostwick and Ryan Johnson, were claiming that the city of Mart had not negotiated new property leases in good faith.
Here’s the story we had in Thursday’s edition.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Headlines, Courthouse
Deadline today for ‘Chocolate and Cabernet’ evening
Today is the deadline for $100 reservations to the “Chocolate and Cabernet” evening of fine wine and fine dining at the Green Room Grille on Feb. 25. Snobby Tours Inc.’s Cork Club is sponsoring this event as part of the American Heart Association’s Go Red campaign during Heart Health Month.
The cost goes up after Feb. 1 to $115 per person.
The Green Room Grille’s executive chef is creating multiple special courses for the 5:30 p.m. event at 725 Austin Ave., across the street from the Hippodrome.
To ask questions, call 754-8687 or toll-free at 866-284-8687. The Web site is www.snobbytours.com or you can e-mail snobbytours@yahoo.com.
Permalink | | Categories: Headlines, Nonprofit news, This, that
Edwards’ campaign well-funded
Congressman Chet Edwards’ campaign has reported $1,016,900 cash on hand as of Dec. 31, 2007, according to the Federal Elections Commission report made public Thursday.
That figure is $101,900 more than he reported at the same point during the 2006 election.
Here’s a comment from Elizabeth Connor, Edwards’ campaign spokeswoman:
“With a proven record of effectiveness for our district, broad-based bipartisan support and over $1 million in the bank, Chet is strongly positioned for the 2008 election.”
And from the congressman:
“My first priority this year is to continue fighting for jobs, economic growth, and improved quality of life for the hardworking families of our district, but we intend to run a solid grassroots campaign.”
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Headlines, Politics
Teaff, Pennington-Russell speak at New Baptist Covenant convention
Former Baylor football head coach Grant Teaff and pastor Julie Pennington-Russell, who headed Waco’s Calvary Baptist Church for nine years before taking a new senior pastor role in Decatur, Ga. last year, were two of the guest speakers at the Celebration of a New Baptist Covenant convention in Atlanta.
Last night was key note speaker and best-selling author John Grisham.
Here’s coverage of Grisham’s talk from the Baptist Standard. It includes remarks from Teaff and Pennington-Russell.
Full disclosure: Pennington-Russell was our family’s pastor. She is a gifted speaker and a marvelous person. We miss her and her family, but feel that God has great things ahead for her.
Permalink | | Categories: Headlines, Religion
Exxon, Chevron make gains in 4th quarter
No surprise here if you’ve been going to the pump, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., the two biggest U.S. oil companies, reported large gains in fourth-quarter earnings after record crude prices more than made up for declines in output.
Permalink | | Categories: Business
Mills meets with judge to set trial date
Trib courts reporter Tommy Witherspoon tells us that Margaret Mills and her attorneys met behind closed doors in Judge Matt Johnson’s office this morning about setting a date for her trial on allegedly embezzling funds from Downtown Waco Inc.
The meeting was held privately because the Attorney General’s Office that is prosecuting the case is tied up in a trial in Amarillo and the conference had to be held via teleconference.
Neither Mills nor her attorneys had any comment upon exiting the judge’s chambers.
Witherspoon has since learned that pretrial will be July 18 with the trial scheduled to begin Sept. 15.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: Courthouse
UIL realignment: Six-man ranks
Here’s the breakdown for six-man football in our area:
Division 1 will have a District 13 of Abbott, Aquilla, Blum, Bynum, Covington, Kopperl and Milford.
District 14 will be Apple Springs, Avalon, Coolidge, Oakwood, Penelope and Trinidad.
District 16 will have Buckholts, Calvert, Lometa and Prairie Lea.
Division 2 will have a District 14 of Cranfills Gap, Jonesboro, Mullin, Sidney and Star.
District 15 will be Iredell, Laird Hill Leveretts Chapel, Morgan, Oglesby and Walnut Springs.
Permalink | | Categories: High school sports
UIL realignment: Mart does drop, heads east
The expectation was that Mart would drop from the Class 2A ranks down to 1A and that did happen. Riesel also dropped back to 1A after a two-year stint in the larger class.
Those schools will be the westernmost members of a new District 22-1A that includes Bremond, Iola, Lovelady and Normangee.
Axtell, meanwhile, remains in District 21 in a six-team league with Dawson, Frost, Hubbard, Italy, Itasca and Wortham. Italy dropped a classification.
Bosqueville and Chilton will be in Region IV as members of District 25-1A with Evant, Goldthwaite, Meridian and Valley Mills.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: High school sports
UIL realignment: Longer trips for 2A teams
District 21-2A will move from Region III into Region II as District 16-2A with a few changes, most notably going from an eight-team district to one with six schools.
Bruceville-Eddy, Clifton, Crawford, Hamilton, McGregor and Moody will be joined by Troy and Hico. That’s a fairly significant trip north. Of course, that’s probably worse for Hico.
The new District 20-2A in Region III will be Franklin, Hearne, Leon, Marlin, Rosebud-Lott and Teague.
And District 25-2A in Region IV will be Florence, Jarrell, Lago Vista, Lexington, Little River Academy, Rogers and Salado.
Permalink | | Categories: High school sports
UIL realignment: District 16-4A jostled
Big change for District 16-4A in that it’s now an eight-team district with Waco High, University and Midway head north to join Cleburne, Corsicana, Ennis, Waxahachie and Midlothian.
Copperas Cove moved up to District 12-5A and Brownwood dropped to District 20-3A with Abilene Wylie, Breckenridge, Graham, Snyder and Sweetwater.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: High school sports
UIL realignment: Old 17-3A split over two regions
This UIL move will have people in the current District 17-3A scratching their heads: China Spring and Gatesville slide over to 7-3A in Region I for a district that includes Glen Rose, Hillsboro, West and Whitney.
The new District 19-3A will be Connally, La Vega, Groesbeck, Lorena, Mexia and Robinson.
That means the good rivalry of Connally vs. China Spring goes bye-bye. China Spring athletic director Mark Bell did tell Brice Cherry that its game with Robinson will continue.
Permalink | Comments (23) | Categories: High school sports
Stick with us this morning for UIL realignment
If you follow high school sports, the every-other-year University Interscholastic League realignment, which sets up the classifications and districts that Texas public schools compete in for the next two years, is always interesting.
Our Brice Cherry has a good column today about the speculation aspect for coaches before the packets are opened at 9 this morning.
Most people focus on what the changes mean for football, but this affects every sport as well as UIL academics and even the UIL marching band and solo and ensemble contests.
Check back in with us here. Brice Cherry will be at the Region 12 Education Service Center when the packets are handed out and coaches and athletic directors get their first peek at what the UIL has dropped in their laps. The UIL will post all this on its Web site, but in years past its server gets so overwhelmed with school officials and fans trying to log on that you usually can’t pull up the site during the morning.
We’ll be going a little back-door, low-tech in that Brice will call me about the moves that will affect our area as he looks over the paperwork in the packet and I’ll post that here as soon as I can.
So check back at wacotrib.com for updates on UIL realignment this morning.
Permalink | | Categories: High school sports
Colder start to Friday than expected
I didn’t check the thermometer before leaving the house this morning, too ticked off that my third-grader was still finishing his math homework as we’re needing to get out the door, and then noticing that my fifth-grade daughter left the lunch I packed for her field trip on the kitchen table.
That’s why my first blog isn’t getting to you until now. (Grumble, grumble, muttering something under my breath).
Anyhow, it’s a really nippy 26 degrees at Waco Regional Airport. It feels like 20 with the wind chill. But at least it’s sunny and should warm fairly quickly.
Looks like we got as low at 23 during the overnight hours.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Headlines, Weather
