Hearts of Life Offers Valentine’s Adoption Opportunity
Bo is looking for a home—again. Bo was adopted but the family that adopted him did not follow through with their plan of having a house on a larger property. Bo isn’t a prospect for anyone living in an apartment. Bo is a very loving dog and Hearts of Life would like for him to have a loving home where he can have room to play.
Hearts of Life will present a Valentine’s Day Adoption opportunity Saturday morning at Petsense, 1707 Broadway in Sulphur Springs.
Hearts of Life is making progress on their additional space for homeless and orphaned dogs.
“Updated” County Taxing Entities Will Lose $6.62 Million; Local Coal Mining Operation to Close Permanently
thermo
Luminant Mining Company LLC will cease operations at its Monticello Mines. The closing will result in the elimination of all related operating jobs. Luminant calls this a difficult decision and states that all employees will be laid off according to the Collective Bargain Agreement. Locations included are in Sulphur Springs, Mt. Pleasant, and Winfield. The layoff is permanent as the entire mining operation will be closed.
Luminant will begin delivering WARN notices today, February 12th and layoffs will take place on April 29th of this year.
Taxing entities in Hopkins County lose $6,678,591.00 in business property and equipment with the closing of the mine. Land owned will continue to be taxed. When the mine closed the last time in 2011, the various entities suffered a $16 million tax loss in 2012 tax year. According to the tax appraisal office it is hoped that increasing values and new construction will replace the latest loss.
The Power Plan in Mt Pleasant will remain open using coal from the western United States. Western coal is considered cleaner coal.
Bill Bradford Road Closed Monday
Bill Bradford Road will be closed to thru traffic Monday between Broadway and Carter as reconstruction of the street begins. Utilities work has been underway on Tennessee Street, which is a part of the project. This $1.4 million project will include water and sewer utilities, underground drainage on the western end of the street and complete reconstruction of the street. Most of the street will be paved with asphalt, but both ends of the project will be rebuilt with concrete for 500’ on each end.
“Updated” Round Up Continues in ATV Thefts; Two Arrested Thursday
C. Garcia
Two more arrests have been made in connection with the organized crime ring that has been active in ATV thefts in three states. Christopher Brandon Garcia, 32, of Balch Springs, and Dustin Kyle “Dud” Garcia, 33, of Mesquite, (Pictures now available) were arrested Thursday afternoon in room 221 at the Seagoville Inn in Seagoville Texas. Both were transported to Hopkins County Jail where B. J. Teer set bond at $400,000 each. No JP’s were available in Seagoville according to Seagoville Police. With these two arrested on active warrants only one other active warrant remains. Christopher Lee Chambers of Maybank is also wanted in connection to the theft ring.
In late January, seven (7) individuals involved in the theft of utility, all-terrain vehicles in three states had been booked into Hopkins County Jail. Brian E. Wheeler of Balch Springs; David Paul Rockwell of Terrell; Ricardo Saldivar, 34, of Combine; James Lindy Minter, 37, Joshua Christopher Terry, 34, and Laronda Kaye Reed, 29, all of Kemp; and Darrell Wayne Waites from Deville, Louisiana. All have been charged locally with organized criminal activity. Hopkins County Criminal investigators, Sulphur Springs Police Department Detectives, and Investigator Tony Hurley have been working since last November with others to round up what is thought to be a ring plying their trade of theft in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas.
In late January twelve (12) Polaris Razors and two (2) Polaris Rangers had been recovered. Approximately $234,000 in stolen property has been recovered including six (6) units from the November theft at Nor-Tex Tractors totaling $74,000 and eight (8) units stolen from other jurisdictions in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas totaling $160,000.
Sergeant Bo Fox, Sulphur Springs Police Department said some of the suspects involved in the theft at Nor-Tex have been linked to burglaries in Lindale, Tyler and numerous other jurisdictions in Texas as well as other states as far east as Tennessee.
Sergeant Fox said that Sulphur Springs Police Department has received assistance from numerous agencies during the investigation including the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Office and Tony Hurley with the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TCRA) Special Rangers as well as police departments and sheriff’s offices across Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
D.Garcia
Morning Chapel Baptist Church – Soul Food Cafe
Morning Chapel Baptist Church – Soul Food Cafe
Back by popular demand, the Soul Food Cafe is back. Proceeds benefit the Youth Ministry Trip to Missouri.
Chamber Connection February 11th, 2016 by Meredith Caddell
Chamber Connection
February 11, 2016 by Meredith Caddell
Saddle Up & Save the Date…2/18 is the Annual Chamber of Commerce Banquet
Dust off your boots and put on your jeans for a rip-roarin’ good time at the 90th Annual Chamber of Commerce Banquet/Annual Membership Meeting! This is a great night to enjoy a delicious meal and congratulate the deserving recipients of the many awards! Tickets are $25 with seating on a first come/first served basis. If you would like to reserve a table for 10, you may do so for $300. Dinner will be catered by Big Smith’s BarBQue! Please call the Chamber at 903-885-6515 to make reservations by Monday, Feb. 15th.
Ribbon Cutting & Grand Opening for Sulphur Springs Imaging Center, Thursday, Feb. 11th from 4-6
Please join us as we welcome Sulphur Springs Imaging Center to the Chamber of Commerce and to Sulphur Springs. They will be hosting their grand opening on Thursday, February 11th from 4-6pm and we will have their ribbon cutting at 5:00. This facility is able to do MRI’s, CatScans, and XRays. For more information, please call 903-919-5220! They are located at 109 Medical Circle.
Biggest Loser Community Challenge begins February 29th…Register NOW!!! Local prize money-$3500!
The Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce is so excited to announce our partnership with NBC’s The Biggest Loser Community Challenge! This is a national wellness initiative designed to help employees become healthier. This company vs company competition invites teams of four to join an eight-week, online health & wellness community challenge. The challenge is for companies of all sizes (no limit to the amount of teams you can sign up!) and people of all fitness levels. It is truly designed to get our community moving, eating better and having fun!
This company vs company competition invites teams of four to join an eight-week, online health & wellness community challenge. The challenge is for companies of all sizes (no limit to the amount of teams you can sign up!) and people of all fitness levels. It is designed to get our community moving, eating better and having fun!
The Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce is going to enhance this 8-week challenge! The winning Hopkins County team was originally going to receive $1000 but NOW, thanks to Sulphur Springs Dodge & an anonymous donor who offered $1000 each and Alliance Bank who offered $500 the new final prize will be $3500 to the winning team!!!Also, every week, the Chamber will offer a community-wide workout opportunity on Saturday mornings! We will kick off the challenge on February 29th on the Square at 5:30pm! Register now!!! Healthy People. Healthy Companies. Healthy Communities! More information, registration and key dates can be found online at: www.biggestlosercommunity.com.
Reilly Springs Jamboree featuring Monty Tipps and Shelby Glenn & Texas Thunder, Feb. 20th
Make plans now to attend the Reilly Springs Jamboree featuring Monty Tipp along with Shelby Glenn & Texas Thunder on Saturday, February 20th at 7:00pm. Enjoy the evening of Real Country Music for just $10. The Reilly Springs Community Center is located at 109 CR 1439, Sulphur Springs. For more information, please contact Enola Gay at 903-348-3568.
Tubby Adkisson Memorial Mobile Mammography-Feb. 25th in Spring Village Shopping Center
All insurances accepted at Hunt Regional are also accepted for the Mobile Mammography Coach, including Medicare and Medicaid. They can also help with payment resources for uninsured/income-eligible women or those who choose to pay cash. For help with payment resources please call Judy Quan, RN at 903-405-5720. To schedule individual screening mammograms, please call 903-408-5010. Appointments and pre-registration are requested.
That’s all for now…have a GREAT week!
Meredith Caddell
President/CEO
Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce
300 Connally Street
Sulphur Springs, TX 75482
903-885-6515-office
903-885-6516-fax
www.sulphursprings-tx.com
Savor the Flavor by Johanna Hicks
“Savor the Flavor” is the theme for this year’s National Nutrition Month. “According to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans we should enjoy a healthy eating pattern and choose foods and beverages with limited amounts of added sugars, sodium and saturated fats,” said Dr. Sharon Robinson a Registered Dietitian with the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Healthy food choices can still have great flavor! Try these ideas to “savor the flavor”:
1) Choose snacks such as naturally sweet fresh fruit instead of cake and cookies and drinks such as water with lemon or unsweet tea to reduce added sugar.
2) Use tasty herbs and spice instead of salt to flavor your foods. At the store, compare food labels and select foods lower in sodium.
3) Include a variety of protein-rich foods such as fish, poultry, lean meats, eggs, beans and seeds to reduce saturated fat and add flair to your meals.
With Hopkins County’s interest in improving health, I wanted to share some nutrition and physical activity tips. These are all excellent ways to start on the road to a healthier you!
– Eat Breakfast – Include at least 3 of the food groups. Try a breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs, low-fat cheese, salsa and a whole grain tortilla, or a yogurt parfait with low-fat yogurt, fruit, and whole grain cereal.
– Make Half Your Plate Fruits & Veggies – These add color, flavor, texture, vitamins, minerals, and fiber to your plate. Experiment with canned, fresh, and frozen.
– Watch Portion Sizes – Use half your plate (based on a 9-inch plate) for fruits and vegetables and the other half for grains and lean protein foods. To complete the meal, add a serving of fat-free or low-fat milk or yogurt.
– Be Active – Regular physical activity has so many health benefits. Start by doing what exercise you can for at least 10 minutes at a time. Children and teens should get 60 or more minutes of physical activity per day, and adults should get two hours and30 minutes per week. You don’t have to hit the gym—take a walk after dinner or play a game of catch or basketball.
– Fix Healthy Snacks – Choose from two or more of the MyPlate food groups. Try raw veggies with low-fat cottage cheese, or a tablespoon of peanut butter with an apple or banana.
– Get to Know Food Nutrition Labels – Reading the Nutrition Facts panel can help you shop and eat or drink smarter.
– Follow Food Safety Guidelines – This includes: regular handwashing, separating raw protein foods from ready-to-eat foods, cooking foods to the appropriate temperature by using a food thermometer, and refrigerating food quickly at a proper temperature to slow bacteria growth.
– Dine Out without Ditching Your Goals – Look for healthier options that are grilled, baked, broiled or steamed. Include plenty of veggies!
– Enact Family Meal Time – Plan to eat as a family at least a few times each week. Turn off the TV, phones and other electronic devices to encourage mealtime talk. Get kids involved in meal planning and cooking and use this time to teach them about good nutrition.
– Banish Brown Bag Boredom – Whether it’s a lunch for work or school, prevent brown bag boredom with easy-to-fix, healthy lunch ideas. Try a whole-wheat pita pocket with veggies and hummus or a low sodium vegetable soup with whole grain crackers or a salad of mixed greens with low-fat dressing and a hard-boiled egg.
– Drink More Water – Quench your thirst by drinking water instead of sugary drinks.
– Eat Seafood Twice a Week – Seafood—fish and shellfish—contains a range of nutrients including healthy omega-3 fats. Salmon, trout, oysters and sardines are higher in omega-3’s and lower in mercury.
– Cut Back on Added Sugar – Foods and drinks with added sugars can contribute empty calories and little or no nutrition. Reviewing ingredients on the food label can help you identify sources of added sugar.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service offers many educational programs which help consumers adopt healthy habits that promote health and reduce the risk for chronic disease. Programs include: Dinner Tonight, Better Living for Texans, Walk Across Texas, and Do Well Be Well with Diabetes among others. Teaser – add May 20, 9:00 a.ma . to 12:00 noon, to your calendar. The mutli-county team of Family & Consumer Sciences Agents from Hopkins, Rains, and Wood Counties, along with a guest chef and other guest presenters, will be conducting “Cooking Through the Seasons,” with cooking demonstrations, exhibition of kitchen gadgets and knife skills, and much more. Watch for details, but save the date!
Closing Thought
“You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves” – Abraham Lincoln
Johanna Hicks
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension
Family & Consumer Sciences
1200-B W. Houston
P.O.Box 518
Sulphur springs, TX 75483
903-885-3443 – phone
903-439-4909 – Fax
[email protected]
A Crash Course on the Presidential Election
Steven Payne
by intern Steven Payne
The 2016 Presidential Election is well underway, with candidates from both sides now traveling the nation from state to state in order to prove who’s the best fit for President. For people who aren’t already aware of how the entire process works, the election of a President can be confusing and overwhelming, leaving many people lost in the dust and unsure if they voted for the right person or if their vote even counted in the end. In truth, the election is a confusing process, with so many ins and outs and middlemen that it can be surprising that it even works at all. This article will offer a “Crash Course” on the Presidential Election and clarify how exactly someone’s vote helps put the next person at the reigns of what is considered one of the most powerful nations in the world.
The process to nominate a presidential candidate officially begins with what is called the “Primaries.” The Primaries are determined by each state in one of two ways: a caucus or a primary. A caucus is when the members of a specific political party meet together at a chosen time and place in order to discuss and debate the candidates and their merits. Voting in a caucus is done publicly, with people raising their hands or splitting into groups where votes are counted manually for each candidate. Only registered members of that political party are allowed to vote in the caucus system, meaning that only registered Democrats and Republicans actually have their votes counted. The caucus system was the original way in which presidential elections were determined, but states wanted a more private method of voting, and so the primary was created.
Caucus
A primary, unlike the caucus system, is considered a more fair, balanced and democratic method of voting. It is similar to the standard voting method, with people casting confidential ballots determining their choice for the presidential nominee of their party. Unlike the caucus which is directly run by that political party, the primary is run by the state and local government. The primary is a very diverse method with multiple variations from state to state. The variations include Closed:(registered party members only), Semi-Closed:(registered party members plus unaffiliated), Open:(registered voters can vote regardless of political party and can vote for one candidate per party), Semi-Open:(registered voters can vote only once in all), Run-Off:(ballot is open to all political parties), and Mixed Systems:(state law determines voting method).
Primary
The people voting in caucuses and primaries are not directly voting for their candidate of choice, but are actually determining how many of their state’s delegates each candidate will receive at each party’s national convention. At the end of the Primaries, each party holds a national convention in order to determine which candidate to choose to represent their party in the election. This is where Delegates come into play. Delegates are often party activists, local political leaders, or early supporters of a candidate given the job of representing their state’s chosen candidate in the national convention. At the convention, delegates vote for the candidate according to their state’s popular choice until one candidate for that party comes out as the primary choice. Not all delegates, however, are required to vote according to their state’s popular choice. “Unpledged” delegates, or Superdelegates may vote for whoever they choose in their political party, deciding whether or not to follow their state’s suggestion for the top choice. Unlike the “winner-take-all” method of the Democratic National Convention, the Republican National Convention awards delegates to multiple candidates. Republican delegates are either assigned proportionally, winner-take-all, or hybrid where the state determines the process. After one person from each party is now chosen, voting for president begins in November.
Every four years, November marks the month when people vote for President of the United States of America. During this time, the Electoral College dominates the news cycles. The Electoral College is not an actual college, but a process by which Electors vote for President and Vice President, and where electoral votes are counted. The number of a state’s electoral votes is the sum of its representatives and senators, with the state of Texas having 38, second only to California with 55. Because of the system of Electoral Vote assignment, more power is given to smaller states to compensate for the lesser amount of votes. This works by having states with a lesser population to require less people to attain one electoral vote as opposed to states with a larger population that require more people to attain one electoral vote. Wyoming vs California is one such example, where three times as many people are required to equal one electoral vote in California than in Wyoming. When people vote for president in November, they are voting their state’s Electors to one of the political parties. On the presidential ballots, the list of Electors is found just below the candidate’s names. These Electors represent one electoral vote. With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, the winning political party gains all of the Electors in the state for voting in the Electoral College.
The Electoral College was established in the Constitution by the Founding Fathers of America during the Constitutional Convention of 1781. The Founding Fathers originally did not believe that citizens were capable of properly choosing the nation’s leader. To fix this, the Electoral College would allow the state representatives and senators to vote for President with only minimal participation by the popular vote. Since then, the popular vote has been given a more important role in the Electoral College with the inclusion of Electors who represent the state.
Once the Electors are assigned to each of the political parties, they meet in their respective states and cast their ballots. There is a total of 538 electoral votes with the majority vote required to win the presidency being 270. Most Electors vote according to the popular choice of their state, but they are not legally required by federal law to do this. There is no Constitutional provision or Federal law that requires Electors to vote according to the result of the popular choice in their states. Some states, however, require Electors to cast their votes according to the popular choice. These pledges fall into two categories—Electors bound by State law and those bound by pledges to political parties. However, Texas, along with 24 other states, has no legal or political requirements for its Electors, allowing them to vote regardless of the popular choice. It is possible for a candidate to lose the popular vote, but win the Electoral vote. This happened in the 2000 election when Al Gore won the popular vote by .51%, but lost to Bush in the Electoral College 266 to 271. The Electoral votes are counted in a joint Congress session in January. The House of Representatives and the Senate meet in the House Chamber for the official tally of votes, which is presided over by the current Vice President who is the President of the Senate.
After the votes are counted, the President of the Senate declares the new President and Vice President of America. The President-Elect takes the oath of office and is sworn in on January 20 in the year following the Presidential Election. With the new President now in office, the clock resets for the next four years until the Presidential Election can begin again.
Swearing in of the President
Sources
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/about.html
http://www.cfr.org/elections/role-delegates-us-presidential-nominating-process/p15414
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Caucus_vs_Primary
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/electors.html
Wildcats Baseball At Terrell Friday for Scrimmage
The Wildcats Baseball Team batted around and scored nine runs in the seventh inning to take a 9-2 win at a scrimmage game at Sherman in cold, windy conditions Monday night. Coach Jerrod Hammack called it a good first day and what he expected. Wildcats’ batters were facing live pitching from a mound for the first time. He said the seven or eight hits his team got in the seventh inning were all sharply hit. Triston McCormick had two hits and drove home four runs.
Coach Hammack said Wildcats pitchers allowed only two unearned runs due to a couple of fielding errors. There were also some base running mistakes according to Coach Hammack. On the mound, Coach Hammack said Ryan Humphries was very efficient issuing no walks. Richard Green had a quick 1-2-3 out seventh inning. Tyler Follis and Heston Golightly also pitched for the Wildcats.
The Wildcats will scrimmage at Terrell Friday beginning at 6 p.m. The weather is expected to be warmer and Coach Hammack is hoping for an 8 to 10 inning scrimmage to get a look at some other pitchers.
Lady Cats Prepare to Host Tournament Next Week
softball
The Lady Cats Softball Team battled back late to earn a 7-7 tie in a timed scrimmage game at Lindale Tuesday night. Coach David Carrillo continues to like the way the Lady Cats are hitting and fielding. He would like to see his pitchers be more consistent in throwing strikes.
Coach Carrillo is receiving help from primary schools P.E. Teacher Jennifer Short who has volunteered to work with Lady Cats pitchers and catchers.
Home fans can see the Lady Cats in action Friday night beginning at 6 p.m. at Lady Cat Park as the Lady Cats will scrimmage North Lamar and then Prairiland. The Lady Cats will open the regular season at their own three-day Sulphur Springs Tournament beginning on Thursday, February 18.
