2015 Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner Award Recipients
2015 Hopkins County Chamber of Commerce
Law Enforcement Appreciation Dinner
Award Recipients
Hopkins County EMS Paramedic of the Year
Jeff Sanderson
Hopkins County Sheriff’s Posse Member of the Year
Joe Hooten
Hopkins County Sheriff’s Department Officer of the Year
Michael Russell
Sulphur Springs Police Department Officer of the Year
Seth McDaniel
Sulphur Springs Fire Department Firefighter of the Year
David James
Highway Patrol Trooper of the Year
Aaron Hanna
Hopkins County Fire Department
Firefighter of the Year
Brian Fairchild
Volunteer of the Year
A.G. Sandifer
Most Dedicated
Joel Pace
Attendees in no particular order:
Organized Criminal Activity Nipped in the Bud
Three men from Atlanta, Georgia were arrested in Hopkins County just before 1 p.m. Thursday after they were found to be in possession of 110 credit and debit cards issued to third parties, along with a card reader and writer and two laptops. DPS Trooper Aaron Hanna stopped the vehicle the three men were in for a traffic violation on I-30 at the 134-mile marker. He searched the vehicle and found the items. 23-year old Ira Lorand Davis, 27-year old Henri Joel Origuinowet and 36-year old Georges Tene were charged with fraudulent use or possession of identifying information and engaging in organized criminal activity before JP Brad Cummings. JP Cummings set bond on each man at $50,000 for engaging in organized criminal activity and $35,000 for fraudulent use or possession of identifying information.
Child Porn Arrest
A 31-year old Greenville man, a third party employee of Columbia Advisory Group contracted to Texas A&M University-Commerce rather than a direct employee of the university, was arrested at 1 p.m. Thursday for on-line solicitation of a minor and for three counts of possessing child pornography. Michael Henry Shahan was charged before JP B.J. Teer who set bond at $100,000 for on-line solicitation of a minor and $20,000 for each of the three counts of possession of child pornography. The Commerce Police Department and the Texas A&M-Commerce Police department assisted the Hopkins County Sheriff’s Department with the arrest. It is alledged that the man thought he was talking to a juvenile to set up a sexual liaison when he was really talking with a Sheriff’s deputy. The man’s phone, which was seized, reportedly contained images of child porn.
Place 3 Councilman Oscar Aguilar Filed Wednesday
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Tax Aid and Income Tax Preparation Available at WUMC
AARP’s free Tax Aide income tax return preparation program gets underway Tuesday at Wesley United Methodist Church in Sulphur Springs. It will take place Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. until April 14. It is open to people of all ages. Instructor Cheryl Spears says she and all Tax Aide volunteers have been trained and tested on tax return preparation. People should bring last year’s return, info on all income and anything being written off and proof of insurance or exemptions. Ms. Spears says they can’t do depreciations, inventory, large businesses, farms or rent houses. Ms. Spears was a guest on KSST’s Good Morning Show with Enola Gay Thursday morning
All Seven Incumbents File for Reelection With No Opposition
All seven incumbents for Sulphur Springs City Council, Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board and Sulphur Springs School Board have filed for reelection with no opposition so far.
Place 2 City Council member Clay Walker filed Thursday morning. Place 1 councilman Craig Johnson and Place 3 councilman Oscar Aguilar filed Wednesday.
For Hospital Board, Dr. David Black filed for reelection Thursday. Dr. Suzanne Thomas Bankston filed Wednesday.
For School Board, both Don Sapaugh and Jason Dietze filed Wednesday.
Filing will continue through February 27. Election day is May 9.
Jail Progress (Video & Photo)
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jail
Sen. Donna Campbell Wants to Ban Foreign Control of Alamo
by Eva Hershaw, The Texas Tribune – January 30, 2015
SAN ANTONIO — One state lawmaker wants the world to remember this about the Alamo: It belongs to Texas.
A legislative proposal by state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, would ban any foreign entity from owning, controlling or managing the Alamo complex. Campbell proposed the Protect the Alamo Act in response to a nomination that could make the San Antonio Missions — including the emblematic Alamo — a World Heritage site in July through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“It’s already one of the most recognizable landmarks on the planet,” Campbell said. “The Alamo is the story of Texas. It was there that Texas first stood her ground to be free, and the U.N. doesn’t have any business there.”
If passed, the bill would prohibit the Texas General Land Office, which manages the Alamo and surrounding properties, from entering into a contract that would allow an “entity formed under the laws of another country” to manage the historic site, known for the pivotal Battle of the Alamo in 1836.
But according to former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, the ownership of the Alamo has never been at risk. He presided over the General Land Office when the Alamo was formally placed on the list of nominated World Heritage sites, and can’t understand the need for a bill to protect the Alamo.
“The only way that the Alamo could pass into the hands of a foreign institute is if the Legislature did that – and do I think there’s any risk that the Legislature will transfer ownership of the Alamo to the U.N.?” Patterson said. “Not this week. Can you imagine an elected official in Texas transferring anything to the U.N.?”
As land commissioner, Patterson said he supported the World Heritage nomination as long as concealed handguns would continue to be allowed at the Alamo and Texas would continue to have sovereignty over the property.
The process of placing the San Antonio Missions on the World Heritage nominations list took nearly six years. After four years on the tentative list of sites considered by the United States, the Alamo and other missions were moved to nominated status in 2012 by then-Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
A World Heritage designation would add up to $105 million in additional economic activity to Bexar County by 2025, as well as up to 1,100 jobs and as much as $2.2 million in additional hotel tax revenue, according to a 2013 report by the Harbinger Consulting Group.
The role of the General Land Office, in terms of control of the complex, would not change.
“In terms of practicality, the World Heritage status does not change management or ownership,” said Susan Snow, the World Heritage coordinator at the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. “This is a designation that gives us the right to put the San Antonio Missions at the same level as the pyramids of Giza or the Great Wall of China.”
“People hear United Nations or UNESCO and they think, ‘Agh, foreign control!’” Snow added.
On Thursday afternoon in San Antonio, the sun reflected off the Alamo’s white stone facade. Tour buses and the Alamo trolley made rounds through the downtown blocks, while a mix of foreign and Texas tourists sat in the shade of the oak trees outside the mission.
“We think that the UNESCO nomination could possibly bring more tourists, and maybe more donations, too. That’s the word around the ‘mo,” said Vince Maldonado, who works for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the longtime caretakers of the Alamo. He rents audio equipment to visitors who want to take a guided tour.
“It deserves that nomination — it’s one of the most interesting places in the world,” said Susan Baker, a lifetime San Antonio resident. “I can’t imagine that UNESCO would want to change anything here.”
But for Campbell, with six months until the 2015 designated World Heritage Sites are released, there is no reason to take any risks with something as dear to the heart of Texans as the Alamo.
“I see it as UNESCO getting in a feather in their cap, not the Alamo getting one in theirs,” said Campbell, who said she is neutral about the UNESCO designation. “The designation might be harmless, but so is my bill about the Alamo. I’m just building in a protection that says nobody can take it.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/01/30/donna-campbell-looks-ban-foreign-ownership-alamo/.
School Choice Supporters to Gather at Capitol
by Morgan Smith, The Texas Tribune – January 29, 2015
As pressure mounts for Texas lawmakers to pass a private school voucher program, educators, parents, students and other advocates will gather Friday at the Capitol for what’s being billed as the state’s largest-ever school choice rally.
The event is part of National School Choice Week, which has included dozens of events in states across the country. It comes two weeks into a legislative session in which Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, has renewed efforts he began as a state senator to create a publicly financed scholarship fund to help low-income parents send their children to private schools.
State Sen. Donna Campbell, the New Braunfels Republican who is carrying the 2015 scholarship bill, is set to speak at the rally, which begins at 10 a.m. The coalition planning the event includes a number of education and business-oriented advocacy groups, like the Texas Charter Schools Association, the Texas Institute for Education Reform, the Texas Private Schools Association and the Texas Business Leadership Council. It also includes organizations with an explicit political bent, like Americans for Prosperity and the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Many of the rally’s attendees will be young students — attending as part of their school day. Four schools in the Austin area will be sending their students to the rally, said Dioceses of Austin spokesman Christian Gonzalez, adding that he expected at least one school from each of the state’s 14 dioceses to participate. Gonzalez said the Texas Catholic Conference extended invitations to all Catholic schools in the state encouraging them to participate in the rally.
He added that whether to attend was left to school administrators. Parents at the Cathedral School of Saint Mary in downtown Austin received notice earlier this week that students in fifth through eighth grade would be going to the event, said Patrick Sutton, whose has two children there. Sutton said when he learned more about the event, he was “pretty perplexed and upset” that students would take part in it as a school activity because of its political overtones.
When he asked for clarification from school administration, Sutton said he was told his fifth-grade student could stay behind while the rest of the class attended. A call to the school was not returned. Randan Steinhauser, a spokeswoman for the coalition organizing the event, said it was not being held in support of a specific bill — and that its participants, coming from a variety of backgrounds including charters and traditional public schools, don’t all favor the same policy proposals. But she added that a so-called opportunity scholarship — along with the expansion of charter schools and increased mobility for students in traditional public schools — would be among the measures many there would support.
In the 2013 legislative session, the Texas House quickly blocked attempts to pass a private school scholarship program when members overwhelmingly passed a budget amendment banning public education money from going to private schools. House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, has since become a target of various conservative groups that want to see school choice reforms.
Following the rally, Steinhauser said she expected a “very heavy advocacy day at the Capitol,” with various groups of attendees meeting with lawmakers to discuss their agendas for the legislative session. “I’d say that we are definitely going to make sure we stop by Joe Straus’ office,” she said. Disclosure: The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. The Texas Business Leadership Council was a corporate sponsor of the Tribune in 2013. See a full list of Tribune donors and sponsors here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/01/29/school-choice-supporters-gather-capitol/.
Wildcats Soccer Wins First Home Match Against Marshall
The Wildcats Soccer team opened district play with a 3-0 victory over Marshall at Gerald Prim Stadium Tuesday night. This was their first home game in the season. They were on a three game losing streak coming in to this first home game. The goals scored that night were by Scott Galarza, and Chris Espinoza with two of the three goals. I talked with Wildcat soccer coach Andy Holt. The Wildcats will be at Gerald Prim again Friday night where they host Mt Pleasant.
