Home > Waco Breaking News > Archives > 2008 > April > 01
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Trib staff wins three more awards
Tribune-Herald staff members won three awards from the paper’s parent company Tuesday, days after the paper garnered honors from a state newspaper association.
The Tribune-Herald received plaudits for non-deadline reporting and writing, column writing and best use of multimedia in the community division of the 2008 Best of Cox Awards. During this past weekend’s annual Texas Associated Press Managing Editors convention in Galveston, the Tribune-Herald also was honored with seven awards.
Staff writer Cindy V. Culp won the 2008 Best of Cox community newspaper award for non-deadline reporting and writing for her story about an area man who was killed during an attempted robbery in Dallas while responding to an online car ad.
According to contest judges, Culp’s “attention to detail and crisp writing propelled the reader from one paragraph to the next. She clearly got the family of the victim and the police to open up to her as she crafted a gripping tale from start to finish.”
The judges added, “She kept us wanting to turn the page.”
Over the weekend, Culp won two awards from the APME for her series about the religious group Homestead Heritage, including a highly coveted Star Investigative Report of the Year Award and a second-place award for feature series.
Opinion page editor John Young also was honored Tuesday with a column writing award in the Best of Cox community division.
The judges said the award was in part for Young’s writing about a dying veteran.
“His column on the dying veteran gave a voiceless man a voice, and put a human face on the tragedy of the nation’s forgotten veterans,” the judges wrote. “When the former soldier faced the horrible fate of going through death alone, Young’s columns reconnected the man to his past and to friends and relatives.”
The judges also credited Young’s columns on controversy in the state Legislature and the community censorship.
Tribune-Herald staff also won the 2008 Best of Cox community division award for best use of multimedia.
Judges said that in a competitive category dominated by video, the Tribune-Herald stood out by presenting “a compelling range of interactive multimedia.”
The judges said the “Rock the Prom” coverage was especially effective, turning “a routine annual dance into an in-depth, audience participation event that included a chance to vote on which dress and tux one couple should wear, and other polls.”
In response, readers gave wacotrib.com 3.5 million page views, the judges said.
They also highlighted wacotrib.com features such as “EmZone” and “In Like Quinn” as “quirky, engaging slices of local life.” The video features were produced by WacoTrib.com videographer Chris Oliver with on-camera personalities Emily Ingram and Erin Quinn, respectively.
“The World War II and ‘Centex Showdown’ entries were also notable for their use of photographs, audio, and other media to tell stories,” the judges wrote.
During last weekends APME awards, staff writers J.B. Smith, Tommy Witherspoon and Erin Quinn were honored for team effort in their coverage of former Downtown Waco, Inc. executive director Margaret Mills’ arraignment. Among other honors, entertainment editor Carl Hoover won a second-place APME award for comment and criticism. Photographers Jerry Larson and Rod Aydelotte won first- and second-place awards, respectively, for feature photography.
Newsroom staffer Nathan Wade won an APME honorable mention for his blog on fatherhood at wacotrib.com. The blog concerns his challenges as a single dad raising a child adopted in Guatemala.
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Waco council approves $280,000 contract to move graves at Texas Ranger Museum site
The undeveloped section of Fort Fisher Park should be rededicated as a cemetery, City Manager Larry Groth recommended Tuesday, before the Waco City Council authorized a new $280,000 contract to continue archaeological work to relocate graves at the site.
The council hired PBS&J of Austin to continue moving graves out of the path of a water line that is being built toward new buildings at the Texas Ranger Museum complex. The council had already allocated $437,000 to American Archaeology, which found some 160 bodies along the water line route. The firm was fired over deadline and staffing issues.
In recent months, evidence has grown that most of the Fort Fisher site was a historic cemetery, and the cemetery marker removal that occurred in 1968 missed most of the bodies.
A museum master plan had called for further expansion into that area, but Groth said that would not be respectful to the dead.
“Knowing what we know now, there’s not any sense of planning more construction in that area,” he said. “It should become part of First Street Cemetery.”
Groth said he hopes the museum can still be expanded, but it could be on the front side of the museum grounds, possibly going up two or three stories.
Also, Groth said the city is studying the possibility of boring under the remaining graves in the path of the water line to avoid further disturbances.
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Museum grounds may be re-dedicated as old cemetery
Waco City Manager Larry Groth today proposed that much of former cemetery ground surrounding the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum be rededicated as a cemetery because of confusion over the number of bodies still buried there.
Groth made the recommendation as the Waco City Council considered a $280,000 contract with the Austin archaeology firm PBS&J to continue work at Fort Fisher Park to exhume, study and relocate graves.
The graves were discovered along the path of a utility line that is supposed to connect to new Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum buildings.
For 40 years the area near old First Street Cemetery has been known as Fort Fisher, a tree-shaded riverside park that centers around Waco’s most popular museum. Until recent years, the 35-acre site also housed a major RV park and was the grounds of the Brazos River Festival.
It now appears Fort Fisher may sit atop hundreds of deceased Wacoans, including rich and poor, Confederate soldiers, a World War II veteran and a former slave who became a Texas legislator. Burials range from 1856 to 1966, archives show, contradicting city leaders’ speculations that the cemetery was abandoned since the early 20th century.
More than 160 bodies have been found along the path of a utility line that is being dug toward the new Texas Ranger Company F building and education center behind the city-run museum.
The excavation project has delayed the opening of the facilities by several months. Up to 200 more graves might be discovered along the line, says James Bruseth, director of the Texas Historical Commission’s archaeology division.
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Waco man chosen to lead Brazos River Authority board
AUSTIN - Gov. Rick Perry named Christopher DeCluitt of Waco as chair of the Brazos River Authority Board of Directors. He also appointed 10 members to the board, which is responsible for developing and conserving the surface water resources of the Brazos River Basin.
DeCluitt is vice president of the Sovereign Corp. He is past president of the Waco Jaycees and vice president of the Waco Texas A&M Club. He is also a member of the National Apartment Association, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Rotary International.
Additionally, DeCluitt is a member of the American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas and American Intellectual Property Law Association. He received a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa. His term expires Feb. 1, 2011.
Another apointee from Central Texas is Patricia S. Bailon of Belton, a retired political consultant. She volunteers for the Retired Senior Volunteer Program and Scott and White Hospital. Bailon attended Rogers State College. She replaces Roberto Bailon of Belton for a term to expire Feb. 1, 2009.
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Kelley case to go before Texas Supreme Court
Oral arguments are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in the city of Waco’s appeal of a 10th Court of Appeals order that Kelley should be reinstated as a commander. That is one rank lower than the position he held at the time of his suspension but a rank higher than sergeant, which is what a third-party arbiter said he should be reinstated as.
The city has appealed at every level, saying Kelley should not be returned to work after a DWI conviction because of the message that would send.
Kelley’s attorney, LaNelle McNamara, said it could be up to a year before the Supreme Court issues a ruling in Kelley’s case.
— Tommy Witherspoon
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Google gets funny, too
Australian and British newspapers aren’t the only ones having fun with April Fool’s Day as I noted in a previous blog entry. CNet.com reports:
As expected, Google’s Gmail rolled out a fake “custom time” feature, which purports to let users send e-mails into the past and consequently never miss important deadlines again. The new feature “utilizes an e-flux capacitor to resolve issues of causality,” Google wrote.
There’s also this link to Virgle, a fake colloboration between Google and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic for a Mars expedition. Pretty funny stuff.
Happy April Fool’s Day and don’t get your leg yanked too hard.
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Man escapes San Antonio jail, no one notices for a day
Law enforcement officials in San Antonio are trying to understand how a convicted felon managed to escape from jail without anyone noticing his absence for a full day.
Esequiel Pena, 35, escaped from a private San Antonio jail sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday afternoon. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Thomas J. Smith said officials believe he escaped by climbing eight stories down a fire escape at the facility directly across the street from the city’s police headquarters.
Pena was being held at the privately operated Central Texas Detention Facility for violating terms of his supervised release. He was previously convicted of an unspecified weapons charge and later re-arrested for a different offense, Smith said
The facility, which has nearly 700 inmates, is operated by The GEO Group. Company spokesman Pablo Paez said Tuesday that the company is assisting the U.S. Marshals Service in its investigation, but he would not say how Pena may have escaped or why it took so long to discover he was gone.
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2 dead, 1 hurt at N.C. business shooting
Police say two people are dead and a third is injured after an early morning shooting at a business in the town of Louisburg, N.C., northeast of Raleigh.
The shooting was apparently part of a domestic dispute.
Louisburg Police Chief Rick Lassiter told WRAL-TV that a man and a woman are dead, and the man appears to have been the shooter. Another woman was shot in the hip, but her injury was not considered life-threatening.
Lassiter says that the Tuesday morning incident at Phelps Temporary Staffing Service happened around 8:45 a.m.
Louisburg is a town of about 3,000 people, about 30 miles northeast of Raleigh.
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French prez asks Colombia rebels to free hostage
French President Nicolas Sarkozy implored Colombia’s rebels to free ailing hostage Ingrid Betancourt, saying today that she is in danger of dying.
In a televised message to rebel leader Manuel Marulanda, Sarkozy said that the latest information about the health of Betancourt, held more than six years, is “profoundly alarming.”
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Australian, British papers get into April Fool’s mode
Apparently the Australians and Brits have a sense of humor — or is that spelled “humour”? — about April Fool’s as Reuters reports today about some of the hoaxes pulled in the media.
Some people, the story reported, went online to book one of airline Virgin Blue’s “no chair fares” for half price as advertised in Australian newspapers today. When they went to the site there was one message: — April Fools!
Various companies and media organizations got into the swing of April 1 when pranks are allowed until noon with a range of hoaxes designed more to amuse than trick people, the story says.
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Local AARP Tax-Aide site extends rebate filing service
Because of the expectations for getting bombarded with people filing forms in order to get their economic stimulus rebate, the AARP Tax-Aide site at NeighborWorks Waco site, 922 Franklin Ave., will stay open during afternoons until April 30. Here’s the release:
Volunteer Tax Preparers Available to Assist Public With Filing for the Economic Stimulus Rebate
While the April 15th income tax filing deadline is quickly approaching, a local AARP Tax-Aide site will stay open until April 30th to assist with filing for the federal economic stimulus rebate. From April 16th to April 30th, the AARP Tax-Aide site located at NeighborWorks Waco on 922 Franklin Avenue will be open Monday through Friday from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Volunteer preparers will only be assisting those who are filing for the rebate, and will not be able to file a regular income tax return.
“Our goal during these extra two weeks is to assist those who are not required to file a 2007 income tax return but need to file this year in order to receive the rebate,” said Diane Waltman of AARP Tax-Aide. Those whose only income is from Social Security, military veteran benefits or railroad retirement benefits usually do not need to file an income tax return. Questions regarding the need to file can be directed to AARP Tax-Aide at 752-1647.
This and other Waco AARP Tax-Aide sites are a part of the Asset Building Coalition of Waco (ABC Waco), coordinated by NeighborWorks Waco, which assists low- and moderate-income, disabled, elderly, and English Second Language taxpayers in achieving a better quality of life through community partnerships that deliver financial education and awareness, build assets, and provide tax preparation assistance. ABC Waco serves as a means of connecting area government entities, for-profits, financial institutions, employers, local foundations, non-profits, faith-based agencies, academic institutions, and social service agencies in their efforts to build assets for working families in Central Texas.
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P.S., Astros lost season opener
Because the Houston Astros opened the season on the West Coast with a start time of 9:05 p.m. locally, we weren’t able to get their score or game story with San Diego in today’s paper.
2007 National League Cy Young winner Jake Peavy beat the Astros and his good friend, starting pitcher Roy Oswalt, 4-0. Peavy also drove in two runs for the Padres.
Tonight’s game also starts at 9:05.
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Zimbabwe leader reportedly eyes ceding power
Advisers of President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai are discussing the possibility of Zimbabwe’s longtime leader relinquishing power, The Associated Press has learned today.
Independent observers say trends indicate Tsvangirai won the most votes in the presidential race, but not enough to avoid a runoff — a prospect that could be humiliating to the 84-year-old president.
No returns from Saturday’s presidential vote have been made public, fueling fears of rigging. Mugabe has been accused of stealing past elections, though that was before Zimbabwe’s economy collapsed and leading members of his own party openly defied him.
A person close to the Electoral Commission told the AP that Mugabe has been informed he is far behind Tsvangirai in preliminary election results, and that there could be an uprising if Mugabe were declared the winner. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said aides to both men were discussing Mugabe’s ceding power.
There has been no official confirmation from either side.
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Front’s here
That cold front is now blowing through Waco and it’s dropping temperatures a bit, we’re now at 60 and that breeze is a little cool on the skin.
I might regret having sent my kids to school in short sleeves this morning.
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Waco tie in story about Fort Worth killer
The story about the U.S. Supreme Court declining to take up the case of a Fort Worth killer has a Waco connection in that Elkie Lee Taylor was arrested in 1993 at the end of a 120-mile chase with Taylor driving a stolen semi that was stopped only after an officer shot out the tires in Waco.
Taylor’s lawyers said he should be spared the death penalty because he was mentally retarded when he and an accomplice strangled a 65-year-old war veteran during the 1993 robbery.
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Adam Sandler breaks an ankle
What’s the bigger news to you — that Adam Sandler broke his ankle over the weekend while playing basketball, or that he’s filming a Disney movie?
Anyhow, the star of Happy Gilmore and I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, broke an ankle, but still won the game, while playing basketball, according to a statement sent to The Associated Press from Sandler’s representative.
Sandler’s Disney film, Bedtime Stories, is due out later this year, Sandler plays as a hotel handyman whose bedtime stories magically come true. The statement said the injury will not affect production.
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New memory chip coming out
CNet.com has a story about a new type of memory chip and the promise it holds.
They are called phase change memory (doesn’t that sound Star Trek-ian?) chips, and Numonyx, the memory joint venture between STMicroelectronics and Intel, is already shipping samples to customers.
PCM chips will be shipped commercially later this year, CEO Brian Harrison said at a press conference Monday.
Here’s more about the chips and some pretty technical explanations of how they work.
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Time looks at Texas delegate battle
The Time.com Web site mentions our city a couple of times in its coverage of the county and district conventions held Saturday. An example: ’ Clinton presidential committee chairman Terry McAuliffe rode frenetically up and down Interstate 35 between Austin and Waco, dropping in on county conventions along the way to spur Hillary’s supporters.
The story even uses a McAuliffe quote from our newspaper, though it refers to us as the Waco Tribune, not the Tribune-Herald. But I nitpick.
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Congress wants answers from Big Oil
I thought Congress taking up the steroids issue in baseball a big waste of our government’s time. But today’s visit to Capitol Hill by Big Oil executives is completely worthwhile, in my opinion.
Senior executives of the five largest U.S. oil companies were to appear before a congressional committee today where they were likely to find frustrated lawmakers in no mood for small talk.
“These companies are defending billions of federal subsidies … while reaping over a hundred billion dollars in profits in just the last year alone,” complained Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., in previewing the hearing.
Wonder if anything will come out of this?
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China claims Tibet has ‘suicide squads’
China escalated its rhetoric against supporters of the Dalai Lama today, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate’s backers of planning suicide attacks.
The Tibetan government-in-exile dismissed the allegation, saying it remained dedicated to the nonviolent struggle long promoted by their Buddhist leader.
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Bush backing Ukraine NATO bid
This could get interesting: President Bush is putting his full weight behind the desire by Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO even though Russia is opposed and the alliance is split.
Bush today pledged complete support for the bids despite vehement Russian opposition and French and German objections to allowing the former Soviet states to begin the NATO admission process.
His strong stance sets up a showdown in the trans-Atlantic military alliance, whose leaders will decide this week whether to give Ukraine and Georgia “membership action plans.”
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Police: Denton man shoots pastor and wife
An 18-year-old man shot a pastor and his wife as they were getting ready to leave for church services in Denton, apparently blaming them for his breakup with his girlfriend, officials said.
Arturo Silva Jr., 18, was being held early this morning at the Denton County Jail on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Bond was set at $250,000. It was unclear if he had an attorney.
Denton County sheriff’s Lt. Allen Gibson said Silva shot Pedro Beltrain, 32, and his wife, Zaida, 33, as they were getting ready to leave for church with Silva’s former girlfriend. The 27-year-old ex-girlfriend had recently obtained a restraining order against Silva, Gibson said.
The pastor was shot in the arm and his wife in the mouth, Gibson said. Both are in stable condition at a hospital in Dallas.
“He blamed them for the girlfriend’s breakup with him,” Gibson said.
Silva fled before deputies arrived, leaving a .22-caliber pistol on the porch. Deputies also found six spent shells on the ground, Gibson said.
Silva turned himself in Monday.
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Forecast calls for snow … nah, it’s April Fool’s
My wife teaches fourth grade and she does not enjoy April Fool’s Day because it just gives her students extra incentive to try to snooker their teachers. She doesn’t expect to get a straight answer all day.
My daughter, meanwhile, spent the morning obsessing on trying to figure out a “good” April Fool’s joke to use on classmates. I think she’s considering the old “I hurt my arm; see, it’s all wrapped up” trick.
Here’s today’s forecast, no fooling: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 p.m. It’ll be mostly cloudy, with a temperature falling to around 63 by noon, so we’re probably already about as warm as we’re going to be. We’ll have north-northeast winds between 15 and 20 mph later today.
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