The Lewisville Texan Journal

A Talk with Constable Jerry Raburn: Workloads, Efficiency, Relationships, and Emails

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:16:33 -0000

The Manila Envelope

During election season, the Lewisville Texan Journal receives email messages, Facebook messages, phone calls, and the occasional anonymous manila envelope on a regular basis. People hear things or find things about candidates and elected officials that they want looked into.

One such manila envelope showed up on my doorstep in March, and it contained printouts of emails that seemed to paint a picture of Constable Raburn's office that was less than flattering. You had prominently in the packet, an email from one of Raburn's deputies that referred to President Obama using a highly offensive racial slur, and a memo regarding the same deputy who left her loaded service weapon in the ladies room there in the government building where Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Becky Kerbow, Raburn, and County Commissioner Bobbie Mitchell work. The emails also seemed to show a flawed working relationship with Kerbow. Then there was a memo from a seemingly agitated Raburn apparently trying to regain some control and discipline in his office.

Links and Cartoons for Wednesday Morning

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:02:50 -0000

Just a few today:

Nothing new about this type of voter fraud. But the hypocrisy is still stunning.

Gay rights in America

Lewisville company runs to federal court to sue Weight Watchers because Weight Watchers disputes their competing marketing claims.

Our article on Pat Fallon's residence got picked up by D Magazine's Frontburner blog.

WFAA has a photo, apparently taken last year by a student, showing the Hedrick Middle School coach who resigned last week lifting a student up by his armpits.

Facebook founder renounces his citizenship to avoid taxes. People ought to have to leave their assets behind when they do that. At any rate, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.

Forgotten History of the Black Community in Lewisville, Part 4: Progress

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:40:00 -0000

Note: Parallel Development is a column by contributing writer Brandon Cooper about Lewisville’s rich (yet often untold) history and how it relates to the issues we’re facing today. This entry is the final part of a four part series. The first part is here. The second part is here. The third part is here.

Quote:

[...]rather we should be content if we can furnish accounts that are inferior to none in likelihood, remembering that both I who speak and you who judge are but human creatures, so that it becomes us to accept the likely account of these matters and forbear to search beyond it.
-Plato, Timaeus

After Lewisville schools integrated in 1964, history got better for the black community in Lewisville, even if historians did not. Writers in Denton County, as they did elsewhere in the south during this period, frequently examined historical events from a defensive perspective, one that passive-aggressively attempted to "reclaim" history. In his otherwise well-researched History of Denton, Texas From Its Beginning to 1960 written in 1978, C.A. Bridges frequently refers to the Civil War as the "War for Southern Independence".

As mentioned in the last entry in this series, black residents were not counted as part of Lewisville in the 1940 census. This remained true for the 1950 census, and the 1960 edition only counted 74. The 1970 census included 504, and in 1973, Lewisville elected its first black councilmember, a clergyman named Lenard Levosha Woods. Today, L.L. Woods Park is named for Woods. Bobbie Mitchell, the first black mayor of Lewisville, was elected in 1993.

Evoluting Fabulously

Mon, 14 May 2012 02:48:30 -0000

60) this.width=60" />Will Durst - Raging Moderate

A thousand rainbows of congratulations to Barack Obama for bursting out of his own personal policy closet and fabulously proclaiming he believes "same sex couples should be able to get married." Sir! Welcome to the third year of the second decade of the 21st century, sir! You also might want to check out some of the strides we've been making in communications.

The president went on to explain he was slow in using his powers for good because it had taken a while for those thoughts to go Darwinian. Sadly, he stopped short of endorsing transmutation and neglected to hail Hugh Jackman as the best entertainer on the face of the PLANET!

What we witnessed was no eon eating, natural selection-type evolution; this native political animal spontaneously grew flippers and walked on dry land, prodded only by a nudge from the Biden fossil. Come to think of it, maybe flippers aren't the only body parts BHO grew.

You might even call it a chrysalis, with a caterpillar emerging from its cautious cocoon to sprout wings and fly to a lonely position atop the moral high ground previously inhabited by such disparate denizens as Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank and, unaccountably, Dick Cheney. Facing extinction.

As predictable as a brush-back pitch following a grand slam, Republicans began to howl from eight different vantages. One right-wing rag claimed he "Buckled" on the issue. Others called him the First Waffler. Might be difficult to hide Mitt Romney's 8000 waffles behind this big one of Obama's, but they'll give it the old prep-school try.

Was Texas House Candidate Pat Fallon a Resident of Denton County When he Voted Last Fall?

Sun, 13 May 2012 23:10:00 -0000

The Question
Did candidate for State Rep., and current City Councilman Pat Fallon, of Frisco commit a crime last fall when he registered and voted using an address of a house he rented in Denton County? That was the question asked by one of our readers recently, and hinted at in the comments to one of our other posts. At a time when Republican legislators claim rampant voter fraud, with scant or non-existent evidence, we thought it was worth looking into.

200) this.width=200" />200) this.width=200" />What We Know
We found that Fallon, a Republican, registered to vote in Denton County last October, switching his registration from Collin County. Fallon was in the process of having a house built in the Denton County portion of Frisco that falls within the newly drawn House District 106. According to Fallon, he was concerned that the house would not be completed on time to move in and establish residence by the November 6th deadline that would have applied under the primary schedule that applied at the time. So Fallon says he paid October rent on a house in the Frisco portion of the district, not far from where his new home was being built.

Voter registration cards were submitted for Fallon and his wife Susan on October 5th and 6th of 2011. Both cards were processed by Denton County on October 9th. Fallon and his wife both voted early, but on separate days; Fallon voted on October 26th and his wife on October 27th.

Election judges are trained to ask prospective voters to verify their address after presenting their identification to check in. The election judge we spoke to, Peggy Chenault, said that the wording of the question is very specific: "Will you please verify your address?" Chenault says they phrase it this way so that they're not giving out the address on record.

200) this.width=200" />Records show that Pat Fallon would have verified residing at the rental property, and that he voted without incident. It was Susan Fallon's response to the question that raised a red flag for poll workers that day. Chenault says she remembers that when Susan Fallon checked in, the address she gave did not match. When the election worker asked Susan about 2118 Fox Ridge Trail, the address of the rental house, she reportedly responded "I don't know where that address is, and I've never lived at that address." As is the policy, election judges required her to fill out a Statement of Residence. Susan provided the address of their new home, (which they had yet to take title to) and was allowed to vote.

View HD 106 Candidate addresses in a larger map

McDearmont Endorses Will Travis for Sheriff

Sun, 13 May 2012 17:46:19 -0000

Editor,

Denton County early voting begins May 14 and Election Day will be May 29. I would like to encourage my friends, neighbors and colleagues to support Will Travis for Denton County Sherriff in the Republican primary. Will came to my house, knocked on my door and he shared with me and my family the reasons he is running for Sherriff. I was extremely impresed, as Will Travis has not a political bone in his body. You will not hear buzzwords or catchphrases from Will. He has been blessed with a career in law enforcement as well as a successful business locally. Will wants to serve the people of Denton County and to that end he is out in the community meeting folks and knocking on doors to gain grassroots support. Again I would ask you to join me in supporting Will Travis for Denton County Sherriff. Will has my full support and endorsement in his campaign.

Scott R McDearmont, MD
Highland Village, Texas

Municipal Election Results - May 12th, 2012 - Lewisville, Flower Mound, LISD

Sat, 12 May 2012 02:10:00 -0000

In Lewisville, Mayor Dean Ueckert kept his seat with a 71% victory over challenger Winston Edmondson. In the City Council Place 2 race, Neil Ferguson defeated 3rd-time candidate Steve Hill by 55% - 45%. Turnout was 1,985, with just over half of that in early voting.

In the Lewisville ISD race, former Trustee Kathy Duke achieved 62% in a 4-way race where only a plurality was needed to win. Paige Shoven made a strong showing with 24%, followed by June Ehinger with 9% and Tracee Ali with 5%. Trisha Sheffield pulled off an upset by defeating incumbent Vernell Gregg in the Place 2 race. Sheffield got 52% of the vote, Gregg had 40%, and Cornel Bekker got 7.86%.

In Highland Village, Pat Davis squeaked out a 51% - 49% victory over Bill Irwin in the Mayor's race.

In Flower Mound, the "NFL" team of Mayor Melissa Northern, Councilman Al Filidoro, and Councilman Steve Lyda were swept out by wide margins in a complete pendulum swing from 2010 when the trio ran on a platform of protecting Flower Mound from urban drilling too close to homes. This year economic development seemed to be the issue. Councilman Tom Hayden beat Mayor Northern by 64.5% - 34.4% in heavy turnout with 5,734 votes cast in that race - almost triple the turnout of neighboring Lewisville. Alan Cloud got just over 1% in that race. Bryan Webb beat Filidoro by 63.7% - 36.3%, and Steve Dixon beat Lyda 61% - 35%, with Jay Cannon garnering just under 4%.

Charter propositions passing: 1,2,3,4,5,9,10,11,12
Charter propositions failing: 6,7,8

The charter propositions that passed passed by wide margins in the 70-80% range. Those that failed failed just barely, with 1 - 4% margins. All of those that failed had to do with removing antiquated language that would allow either 15% of registered voters or 300 (whichever is higher) to submit a valid petition for referendum. Flower Mound's population is so large now that 300 would never be higher than 15%. Nonetheless, voters wanted to keep that language in the charter.

The Lewisville Texan Journal thanks the Cross Timbers Gazette for joining us in election night coverage of these races. We set an all-time record for page views here on Lewisville Texan Journal, with 28,192.

Full results below:

Early Voter Counts for LISD Election, By City

Fri, 11 May 2012 18:00:00 -0000

Here are the early voting counts for the LISD Board election, by city of residence of the voter:

Argyle	1
Carrollton	301
Coppell	0
Copper Canyon	17
Double Oak	16
Flower Mound	3469
Frisco	379
Grapevine	0
Hebron	0
Highland Village	530
Lewisville	1351
Little Elm	1
Plano	38
The Colony	599
Total	6702

You might ask "Little Elm? Really?" Yup, that's what was in the early voter list. I guess we either have some territory there, or the elections office mis-coded a precinct.

Links on Friday Morning

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:46:52 -0000

Dallas Morning News endorses Amber Fulton in the race for State Representative, District 106.

Local fire rescue agencies received sonar training.

The American economy has now recovered ALL private sector jobs lost since January, 2009. This has got to be deeply troubling to Republicans who count on selling the big line of bullshit that the Obama administration hasn't fixed their mess quickly enough. Of course, we're still not back up to the same level of public sector jobs, thanks to radical Republicans across the country who have used the crisis as cover for their ideological agenda to cut public education. And as this blog points out, there were huge losses prior to January 2009 when President Obama took office.

Hey, what do you know? A bipartisan bill passed the House and Senate and was signed into law in 2010 forcing the government to communicate in plain writing. 33 Republicans voted against the House version of the bill for plain writing, including Rep Michael Burgess, (R, Lewisville). 82 Republicans voted against the final passed version, including Burgess. Talk about taking the "party of NO" a little too far...

Pay no attention to the fact that schools are under-funded and are increasing class sizes to save a buck. Ignore that bullying is still a big problem. Forget about the fact that overreaching state accountability standards driven by the Testing-Industrial Complex have our teachers wasting 45 days a year on test prep. What gets the peanut gallery really good and riled up is when schools do something like this. Poor, poor persecuted proselytizers!

Municipal Elections, 2012 - Vote Saturday, May 12th

Fri, 11 May 2012 04:00:00 -0000

Municipal elections this year are on Saturday, May 12th. Numerous local cities and school boards will elect council members and trustees. The Lewisville Texan Journal will provide coverage for City of Lewisville, Lewisville ISD, and Flower Mound.

Races

Lewisville ISD
- Trustee, Place 2 - Vernell Gregg, Trisha Sheffield, Cornel Bekker
- Trustee, Place 1 - Kathy Duke, Paige Shoven, June Ehinger, Tracee Ali

City of Lewisville
- Mayor - Dean Ueckert, Winston Edmondson
- Place 2 - Neil Ferguson, Steve Hill

Town of Flower Mound
- Mayor - Tom Hayden, Alan Cloud, Melissa Northern
- Place 2 - Bryan Webb, Al Filidoro
- Place 4 - Steve Lyda, Steve Dixon, Jay Cannon
- Charter amendments

Opinion Polls

The Lewisville Texan Journal has polls on these races here.

Endorsements

In the Lewisville Mayor's race, we recommend a vote for Dean Ueckert.
In the Lewisville Council Place 2 race, we recommend a vote for Neil Ferguson.
We are not making endorsements in the LISD Board race, but here are some thoughts. More on LISD issues...

Early Voting

Early voting is concluded.

Election Day Voting

Election Day is Saturday, May 12th, 2012
All polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
On election day, you may only vote at your designated polling location based on your precinct. Denton County residents can find their precinct number by either looking at your 2012 voter ID card (they've been recently renumbered), or by looking up their voter registration on the Denton County website. Dallas County residents check here.

Lewisville Election Day Polling Locations

Lewisville City Hall
151 W. Church St.
Denton County Precincts 3018, 3013, 3019, 3020, 3021

Memorial Park Recreation Center
1950 B S. Valley Pkwy.
Denton County Precincts
3012, 3013, 3014, 3015, 3016, 3017, 3022, 3023

Lewisville Municipal Annex
1197 W. Main St.
Denton County Precincts 3006, 3007, 3008, 3009, 3010, 3011
Dallas County Precincts 2400, 2807, 2808, 2810, 2910, 2911

Additional Denton County locations can be found here.
Additional Dallas County locations can be found here.