Incumbents Sign Up to Run Again
Five incumbents filed for places on the Sulphur Springs School Board, Sulphur Springs City Council and Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board Wednesday, the first day to file. For two seats on the Sulphur Springs School Board, incumbents Don Sapaugh and Jason Dietze filed Wednesday morning. There are three seats up for grabs on the Sulphur Springs City Council. Place One incumbent Craig Johnson and Place Three incumbent Oscar Aguilar filed Wednesday morning. The other incumbent is Clay Walker in Place 2 and he has not filed yet at last report. There are two seats up this time on the Hospital Board. Incumbent Dr. Suzanne Thomas Bankston filed Wednesday morning. Incumbent Dr. David Black has indicated he will file for another term but he has yet to file at last report. Filing will continue through February 27.
Eight Wildcats Made the Academic All-State Football Team
Eight Wildcats made the Academic All-State Football Team. Offensive lineman Seth Harred was selected to the Elite Team. Quarterback Drew McCullough and linebacker Parker Aguilar made the First Team. Nose guard Carson Hicks and offensive linemen Isaac Perez and Landon Watkins made the Second Team. Receivers Ben Brooks and C.J. Stephens made Honorable Mention.
Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board called a May 9 Board Election
The Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board called a May 9 Board Election at a regular meeting Monday night. Two seats are up this time. Incumbents are Dr. Suzanne Thomas Bankston and Dr. David Black. Both indicated they would be filing for reelection. Filing begins Wednesday and will run through February 27
NTHS Induction Ceremony
On Monday, January 26 at 6p.m. the National Technical honors Society held an induction ceremony for their new members. These new members were seniors Hunter Allen, Ty Bench, Laura Graham, Emily Gray, Vanessa Gonzalez, Alyssa Gutierrez, Karla Martinez, Drew McCullough, Joseph Moreno, Deketra Mosely, Mariah Nelson, Billy Phillips, Maison Price, and Jennifer Zavala. The new junior members were Stephanie Arciga, Spencer Bramlett, Lilibeth Gallegos, Molly Johnston, Brooklyn Moon, Lexi Moore, Evan Ost, Austin Reyes, Sarah Scott, and Allie York.
The NTHS was founded in 1984 by Jon Poteat and Allen Powell in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. Since then, NTHS has thousands of members across the country. The SSHS chapter of the NTHS is named the Geral Kennedy Chapter. Geral Kennedy was the first Vocational Director at SSHS when he began his tenure in the 1966-67 term. He started the Machine Shop program, the Vocational Office Educaton program, the Marketing and Distributive Education program, the Industrial Cooperative Training program, and the Vocational Education for the Handicapped program. Kennedy retired from SSHS in 1985 after 37 years of service to public education.
Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board Meeting Notes
The Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board voted at give all current employees of the Hospital District a 2% raise retroactive to October 1, 2014 at a meeting Monday night. The idea came from board member Joe Bob Burgin.
Financial officer Donna Wallace told the board December was a good month for revenue. She added both the clinic and hospital met budget.
The board also helped CEO Michael McAndrew in a quest to accomplish two things that are not easy to do: find a Program Director for the hospital’s planned graduate medical education program and find a neurologist. The board approved contracts for both that will help McAndrew in his negotiations on both fronts.
The board also called a May 9 Board Election. Two seats are up this time. Incumbents are Dr. Suzanne Thomas Bankston and Dr. David Black. Filing begins Wednesday and will run through February 27.
Lady Cats Soccer Loses Last Pre district Game Friday
The Lady Cats’ soccer team lost 3-1 at Paris Friday night. It was the Lady Cats’ last match before the start of district play at Marshall Tuesday night. The Lady Cats are 1-5-2 this season. Lady Cats Coach Jesus DeLeon said his team had another slow start on Friday falling behind 2-0 due to a defensive mistake and trouble with a Paris set piece. Faith Singleton scored the Lady Cats goal getting an assist from Esmeralda Sanchez
SSHS Powerlifting Meet Last Saturday
About 300 athletes, both boys and girls, competed in Saturday’s Sulphur Springs Powerlifting Meet. The Wildcats finished in 11th place. Wildcats Powerlifting Coach Jeremy Offutt said two Wildcats qualified for medals, Jonathan Alvarez, a freshman, finished second in the 123-pound class and Alex Gamez was fifth in the 220-pound class. Coach Offutt said several other Wildcats lifters just missed placing by just a few pounds. He noted every one of his lifters got better on Saturday. The Wildcats will compete at an Emory Rains Meet this Saturday.
Nondiscrimination Ordinance Battle Goes Statewide
Nondiscrimination Ordinance Battle Goes Statewide by Bobby Blanchard, The Texas Tribune January 24, 2015
As fights brew in several Texas cities over nondiscrimination ordinances protecting gay people, state lawmakers are poised to dive into the fray.
Since 2013, San Antonio, Houston and Plano have passed ordinances that offer lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people certain protections against discrimination in employment, housing and public places like restaurants. In Houston and Plano, opponents of the ordinances are seeking to repeal them. Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth have had such ordinances for more than a decade.
Now, some Republican lawmakers — including state Rep. Jeff Leach of Plano and state Sen. Donna Campbell of New Braunfels — say they plan to take aim at the city ordinances. Among those who have opposed such ordinances are Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott, who, when he was the state attorney general, said the San Antonio ordinance would stifle speech and repress religious freedom. Campbell is “concerned about the hostility that we are seeing towards Texans of faith, especially in regards to some of these local city ordinances,” said Jon Oliver, a spokesman for the senator.
This comes as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider whether same-sex marriage should be legal and a federal appeals court weighs whether to strike down Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage. And it foreshadows the next landmark gay rights issue the high court might address, said Texas A&M University law professor Meg Penrose: the balance between religious liberties and gay rights. “You’re talking about competing individual freedoms,” Penrose said. “The religious liberty issue really is the next big question. It’s very hard to predict.”
Advocates for gay rights say the ordinances are needed to ensure the safety in public spaces of all Texans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. And they say efforts to target the ordinances are a backlash against recent same-sex marriage victories in federal courts across the country. “The more advances we make on behalf of equality for the LGBT community, the more threatened our opponents become — and this is the way they lash out,” said Equality Texas Foundation President Steve Rudner. “The people on the other side are losing, they know they’re losing, and it’s freaking them out. And their response is to lash back in ways that are clearly illogical.” A proposal filed by Campbell calls for asking voters to amend the state constitution to say that “government may not burden an individual’s or religious organization’s freedom of religion or right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief.”
Campbell filed similar legislation last session; it did not gain traction. An aide to Leach said Friday that the representative is working on a proposal related to the ordinances that seeks to protect religious liberties. “After hearing from concerned citizens, business owners and community leaders from all across Texas, I look forward to leading the charge, in conjunction with my colleagues in the Texas House and Senate, to craft legislation that aims to protect religious liberty and the fundamental Constitutional rights of Texans,” Leach said in a statement. Before Plano passed its nondiscrimination ordinance in December, Leach was one of several Republican lawmakers who signed a letter opposing it. He was joined by Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Frisco; Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker; and Rep. Matt Shaheen, R-Plano. State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, has filed a proposed constitutional amendment similar to Campbell’s, but he said he is not targeting city ordinances; rather, he’s seeking to ensure the right of a county courthouse to display a Nativity scene or a high school valedictorian to speak about God. “Our legislation was in no way intended to limit the ability of municipalities or cities to implement this type of ordinances that they believe might be beneficial to their community,” Villalba said. He declined to say whether he supported the nondiscrimination ordinances.
Daniel Williams, a legislative specialist with Equality Texas, said Texas already has protections for religious liberties. He pointed to the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was passed in 1999. “We have strong religious liberties protections in this state that work well,” Williams said. Legislation like that filed by Campbell and Villalba “isn’t about the protection of religious liberties, it’s about overturning good law that we’ve had for a decade and a half and replacing it with a broad exemption.” Opponents of ordinances in Houston and Plano say they have gathered enough signatures to force voter referendums on the matter. Houston denied the opponents’ petition, saying too many of the signatures were invalid, and the city is now embroiled in a lawsuit with the opponents. Plano city officials received the signatures and are still in the process of verifying them, a city spokesman said Friday. “The ordinances create a category of protected characteristics that is simply indefensible legally. It addresses a problem that doesn’t exist and creates a criminal class for people who believe in the traditional Judeo-Christian viewpoint of marriage, family and gender,” said Pastor Dave Welch, a leader of the Texas Pastors Council and one of the opponents of the ordinances. “We can’t just sit back and let that freedom be taken away without opposition.” Before Houston’s City Council passed its ordinance last year, more than 200 people testified — including a mother of a transgender daughter who said that when LGBT youth grow up, “there is nobody there to protect them from the bullying.”
Rudner said the ordinances protect LGBT people from workplace discrimination — a protection not offered by federal or state law. According to a 2013 survey from the Pew Research Center, about 21 percent of LGBT adults faced discrimination in the workforce. “We have nondiscrimination ordinances in place, and nothing bad has happened to anyone. It hasn’t interrupted anyone’s life, it hasn’t intruded on anyone’s liberty,” Rudner said. “The cities are frustrated by the failure of our state Legislature to adopt a statewide nondiscrimination ordinance.” These ordinances aren’t new to Texas. In 2000, Fort Worth became the first major Texas city to update its nondiscrimination ordinance to include protections for sexual identity. Then-Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr said he couldn’t remember facing the kind of opposition council members in Houston and Plano have faced. “Frankly, I don’t remember any specifics of the debate about it,” Barr said this week. “That speaks to the fact that we passed it without a whole lot of fanfare.”
Disclosure: Texas A&M University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://www.texastribune.org/2015/01/24/equal-rights-ordinance-battle-goes-statewide/.
Wednesday is the first day to file for seats on the Sulphur Springs City Council, Sulphur Springs School Board and Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board.
Wednesday is the first day to file for seats on the Sulphur Springs City Council, Sulphur Springs School Board and Hopkins County Memorial Hospital Board. There are three city seats and two each for the school and hospital. Filing will continue through February 27.
*New Info* Walmart Evacuation & Gun Scare
A man who carried a gun into Wal-Mart in Sulphur Springs forcing the store to be evacuated Friday night around 10 p.m. was arrested Saturday morning for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (truck) from a Hope, Arkansas auto dealer. The man has been identified as 40-year old Hollis Blaine Sartin of Sulphur Springs. He’s in the Hopkins County Jail facing a charge of Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle.
Sartin is expected to have a magistrate’s hearing Sunday morning. The man left a stolen GMC truck in the grocery entrance at Wal-Mart shortly after 10 p.m. Friday. He was seen putting a gun into a pocket of a hoodie before entering the store. The incident caused Wal-Mart to be evacuated and resulted in the local Special Response Team searching the store for the man. He was not found. The man was identified on store video, which also showed him leaving the store through the Automotive area before the SRT arrived.
The handgun was later found to be a BB gun according to Sulphur Springs Chief of Police Jay Sanders. Sanders stated Sartin said was only trying to disassociate himself with the vehicle. He had no intention of robbing Wal-Mart or doing any harm. Sartin was arrested Saturday morning for unauthorized use of a stolen vehicle out of Hope, Arkansas. Sanders said Sartin was hitchhiking at the time of his arrest.
At 6:20 a.m. Saturday, the man was spotted back at the Wal-Mart parking lot getting into another vehicle and heading eastbound on Highway 11. Sartin was hitchhiking. Sheriff’s Deputy Michael Russell set up on Highway 11 and stopped the man and arrested him without incident.
