It's Monday, April Fools day, and we're up to our usual mischief here at LTJ. Last year we brought you a story about expensive tire air and the tragic consequences of filling your tires with natural gas. Imagine what it must be like to work for one of those "news" outlets like Fox or The Blaze, or World Net Daily where they just make shit up 24/7/365? Anyway, if you've figured out this year's prank, don't spoil it.

Also, happy belated Easter to everyone.

We have video from Saturday night's roller derby bouts, and have started work on getting them ready for YouTube. Hopefully we'll have the first bout posted by Tuesday.

Lewisville Lake is at 517.04 feet, or about 5 feet short of conservation pool.

The City Council agenda for tonight is posted. Major items include an incentive for renovation of the Lewisville West shopping center, and the passage of a new zoning ordinance which includes specific use permits. See the retreat discussion from this February.

TJ Gilmore posted his thoughts on the March 18th City Council meeting.

Today’s “musical” interlude:


The Texas House approved a fund to address water supplies.

North Korea thinks Austin would make a good target for a nuclear warhead.

Statistics may hide the truth about our schools.

LISD trustees received an update on the school finance lawsuit. Here's a Powerpoint slideshow.

Vial of deadly virus goes missing in Texas.

Jewish congregation’s move to Lewisville

Here's a news story about LISD's program to provide students with iPads.

Men against violence against women rally didn’t work out. We never heard about it until after the fact. Send press releases to editor@lewisvilletexan.com

Cross Timbers Gazette has more about the proposed rezoning of schools in Flower Mound.

Supreme Court declines to hear case against the Texas Open Meetings Act. This was the case where it was claimed that one of the Lewisville City Councilmen was signed on as a co-plaintiff or supporter, but nobody would fess up.

Rick Perry and some lawmakers want Texas to have its gold back on our soil in a new Texas Bullion depository.

House Bill 5 passed the Texas House. The bill puts an end to most of the high-stakes tests for high school students. Now it's time to contact our State Senators.

Big Sandy: Machine gun shoot video. Looks fun, but I don't know how they can afford the ammo, much less find any.

Well, shucks. Here it is Sunday night, and I'm back after a week of business travel. I've managed to squander most of the weekend, and it's just about bed time. I've been collecting a bunch of links for you, but I'll tell you - it's been a busy news week. The Legislature is in session, so I hope you're taking a look at the Texas Tribune every now and then. If you've sent me something that I've failed to post, I apologize. I'm not ignoring you, just treading water to keep up.

Testifying before the House Public Education Committee of the Texas Legislature, a high school student speaks out against high-stakes standardized testing.

Kiss of death for Google glasses. Apparently if you wear them you're an A-hole. Well, such admonition didn't stop d-bags from wearing BlueTooth earpieces and walking around in public talking on them.

Rick Perry doesn’t know the difference between the U.S. Debt and its Deficit. Speaking of Perry, he is the one man who just might be able to turn Texas into a blue state, according to Ronald Brownstein in a National Journal article:

Texas Democrats are too weak to much affect the Medicaid debate. But if state Republicans reject federal money that could insure 1 million or more Hispanics, they could provide Democrats with an unprecedented opportunity to energize those voters—the key to the party’s long-term revival. With rejection, says Democratic state Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas, Republicans “would dig themselves into an even deeper hole with the Hispanic community.”

Thank God it's Friday - that's all I can say. It's been one of those weeks.

Today’s musical interlude - also from the Sounds of Lewisville concert series last year:


As of this morning, Lewisville Lake is at 516.85 feet, which is 77% full, or a little over 3 feet below conservation pool.

Rep. Michael Burgess, (R - Lewisville) voted against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (A.K.A. Obamacare) but along with other House Republicans, wrote a letter to President Obama, asking him to extend coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. It's typical hypocrisy that mirrors the American people, who for the most part support the provisions of the PPACA, but oppose "Obamacare". It was good when it was a Republican idea, (you know, making people be responsible for themselves and buy insurance so we don't all have to pay for them) but when the Democrats said "yes" to it, it suddenly became "socialism".

Speaking of hypocrisy, Ted Cruz was for the stimulus before he was against it.

Natural gas prices are headed back up to the $4 range for the first time since 2011. Drilling in the area had stopped due to the prices going down into the $2 range. We might see an increase in activity if the prices hold.

Medical Center of Lewisville lauded for emergency room improvements. I'm glad to hear it. The measures taken seem simple, but sometimes in spite of having a bunch of professionals who care about their jobs, you need a good manager to analyze the big picture and tweak things here and there that might not be obvious to the individual team members.

Nice roadmap of the Texas Legislative process. Only thing is, it's missing the stacks of cash and lobbyists that drive the process.

Texas Senators urge high speed rail alignment into DFW airport instead of Dallas and Fort Worth. Duh.

A business on East SH 121 Business burned Wednesday. You can listen to the fire radio recordings here. Call starts at 12:52 p.m. From the recordings, it sounds like some fuel gas containers exploded.

Lewisville man gets drunk and drives through the Denton County Jail when he is refused visitation with his son.

DCTA reported Thursday that one of its trains was involved in another accident, striking a vehicle on N. Kealy in Lewisville. They reported no major injuries, and a 40 minute delay to clear and inspect the tracks.

Lewisville has yet another distillery, and they make Texas Silver Star Spirit Whiskey.

Ammo is getting hard to find. Some people have to sacrifice just for the chance to buy some. (Link NSFW)

Not often this happens, but Bob Weir and I agree on something. H.B. 1496 cannot be passed. Contact your representatives.

Lewisville Police Officer and Denton Resident Jesse Flores would make a good choice for Constable in Precinct 1.

Lewisville City Council candidate Raymond Daniels has a Facebook page. His opponent, incumbent Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Rudy Durham will not be doing anything online. Both candidates have agreed to complete the LTJ questionnaire.

A lawmaker in Pennsylvania wants to make it a 2nd degree felony to photograph or record a farm, or post farm pictures or recordings on the internet.

Looking for new phone service? Here at the LTJ office, we use Vonage, and are quite pleased with it. Try it out using this link, and get a free month of service, while supporting LTJ at the same time.

Daylight saving time starts Sunday, so if you still have any old fashioned clocks, you need to set them forward one hour Saturday night before you go to bed. I'm looking forward to having a little more daylight left after I get off work each day.

Want a nice little sound track for today's links? Listen to Downtown Fever, covering Journey's "Faithfully" during the Sounds of Lewisville 2012 season. These guys nail it, I think.


Anyhow, we've been staying busy, and are barely keeping up. We still are looking for volunteer writers. Contact me at editor@lewisvilletexan.com.

One story we have in process is about a thriving industry in Old Town Lewisville that is drawing people into our city. I've just not had time to write it up, but maybe I'll get that done Sunday - just 2 weeks late.

Regarding our upcoming City Council and School Board Elections for 2013, I wanted to let everyone know that we've sent each and every candidate a questionnaire chock full of what we think are pretty tough questions. We hope to have the answers back next weekend. We may end up extending the deadline though, because these are pretty tough questions, and will take some time.

Here are some links we've collected for you over the week:

UNT’s president is stepping down.

A child with HIV has been cured. Yes, you read that right.

A University of Texas / Texas Tribune poll shows how Texas voters feel about various issues compared with the rest of the nation. One of the most interesting things is that only 29% of US voters think the country is headed in the right direction, but 45% of Texas voters feel that way.

The U.S. government said Friday that the economy added 236,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7% from 7.9%. The Dow hit yet another record high, making the fourth time this week.

Woman shot over friend’s puke.

A Lewisville man was killed in a rollover crash near Mathis, TX. At the accident scene, the JP there to pronounce his death was also hit by a car. A fire truck was also hit by an 18-wheeler.

Well, what do you know... Yet another fake story picked up by the right-wing blogosphere and put forth as fact to ruin someone’s reputation.

Remember when James O’Keefe made that doctored video of his “undercover” operation at ACORN offices? Well, it just cost him a $100,000 settlement with one of employees that his lie harmed.

The testimony of another former Republican on how her party left her

Fence repair co-op: Flower Mount man has a good idea.

In Flower Mound, Mayor Pro Tem Kendra Stephenson not running for re-election.

In Argyle, the mayor is stepping down.

Sometimes employees screw up. This one will make you sad.

Nerds...

Motorcycle crash in Lewisville last Sunday injured two.

Ugh - new Sim City game requires always-on internet connection. If you look at my college transcript, you might be able to pick out the semester when I first discovered the original Sim City. That's the semester where I stayed up all night playing the game, and made poor grades. I'm not into video games now, but I have heard good things about the new Sim City, and might be willing to try it. Then again, I am way behind on doing the stuff I need to do, so I should probably avoid it.

In a recent update, I mentioned NextDoor.com - a nice neighborhood social networking site meant more for hooking people up with their neighbors for things like crime alerts, and very hyperlocal issues. I do like the site a lot. I also mentioned that if you sign up through the link I provided, and start a new group for your neighborhood that has at least 10 people sign up (which should be very easy), we both get $50 Starbucks cards. I had a couple people take me up on that, and I just got my first $50 card in the mail today. It's free to sign up.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

On this day in 1836, the people of Texas declared independence from Mexico, forming the Republic of Texas, which existed until 1845 when it was annexed into the United States. For almost 10 years, Texas was an independent nation. Then in 1861, Texas was the last state to secede and join the confederacy. Even after the Civil War, Texas has maintained at least a mindset of independence, which is mostly a source of pride, but occasionally can be a source of embarrassment, such as when our governor made comments alluding to secession, or when a bunch of numbsculls petitioned the White House to secede.

Still, we love Texas and couldn't think of having our home anywhere else. (Although it becomes awful tempting to visit our Northern states right around August) We have our Texas flag flying today, and we pause to remember all of those who sacrificed to settle our state and secure our independence from Mexico.

Very Busy - Help Wanted
As you know, the Lewisville Texan Journal is an all-volunteer, community-supported publication, trying to fill in the gaps in media coverage about our fair city. I write most of the articles, but I've been pretty busy with my day job lately, and dealing with just a bit of burnout. We're coming into local election season, and I need to get on the stick about covering local elections. We're looking for volunteer writers to help cover local news. There is no shortage of stuff to cover, so we can definitely provide you the ideas if you can contribute your time. There is no pay— just the undying gratitude of an engaged public who cares about their community. Contact editor@lewisvilletexan.com if you are interested.

Here are some miscellaneous links to stories we thought were interesting:

State Representative Ron Simmons has filed legislation which would require TCEQ to obtain approval from cities like Lewisville before granting approval on any permits for landfill expansions. If this were to pass, it would put an end to the Camelot Landfill expansion. You can read the full text of the bill here.

Lewisville's best known home-style restaurant, Mama's Daughters' Diner lost its Mama this past week. Norma Manis, known as "Mama" passed away. She was 80.

An article in the Lewisville Leader points out that restaurant sales do not seem to have been affected by the city's new smoking ban.

Denton County Sheriff Will Travis faces a lawsuit from two employees he terminated upon taking office. Employees are supposed to have civil service protections, but their Civil Service Commission apparently dragged its feet on getting its bylaws passed.

Bond rating agency Fitch has rated Lewisville ISD's Series 2013 Bonds AAA with an underlying AA+ rating. Fitch gives it a stable outlook and notes high debt levels, but a strong financial position and favorable demographics. (Login required)

What teachers really want to tell parents.

The Contact Crisis Line helps people who just need someone to talk to. Their phone number is (972) 233-2233. Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow says you should put their number in your phone's contact list right now.

A gun range in Dallas caught fire after some idiot shot tracer rounds. Tracers have incendiary inserts that burn while the bullet travels, so that the shooter can see where the bullets are going. They are useful in certain combat situations, but wholly unnecessary and dangerous in marksmanship practice.

This should come as no surprise whatsoever, but a federal court has ruled that there is no constitutional right to carry a concealed firearm.

20,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a Sunoco pipeline into a creek in Tyler County.

The Flower Mound Leader has a good story about the school rezoning controversy in Flower Mound, and the board workshop Wednesday night where trustees narrowed the options.

Some folks advocate, and many cities have now implemented bans on single-use plastic bags. Here is a creative video urging such a policy. While I'm not sure I'm ready to be that heavy-handed, I will say that I've pulled more than my fair share of plastic bags out of trees, creeks, and streams, as well as plastic water bottles. What do you think?

Yesterday was George Washington's birthday. In honor of our first President's belated birthday, we bring you this edition of the Saturday Morning Update.

I've been out of town all week working for a client, and am currently in a project that is going to take some intense focus for awhile, so these updates may not be as regular as they should be. Hopefully Brandon Cooper will step in to fill in the gaps.

New Tool for Neighborhoods
The first thing I want to let you know about is a new social media website for neighborhoods called NextDoor.com. I don't normally jump on the bandwagon for new social media sites, but I think this one can serve a good purpose. The site links physical neighborhoods to allow neighbors to discuss those hyper-local neighborhood issues like crime, streets, development, and so forth. My neighborhood has about 20 people signed up so far. The site requires the use of real names, and uses address verification to ensure that only residents of the neighborhood can join the group and see posts. So it's not same kind of thing as the other types of social media websites.

Other local cities - notably our neighbor, Flower Mound, have homeowner associations that help connect residents to each other and to their city government. This type of thing may be just what we need to help get more involvement. So I hope you'll consider logging in and signing up. If you use this link to sign up, and you're the first in your neighborhood, and your neighborhood site gets the 15 or so people it takes to launch, NextDoor will give us both a $50 Starbucks card. (Sweet huh?)

The Lewisville Leader has a pretty good article about Lewisville City Councilman Rudy Durham's bid for re-election. We'll do our best to get an interview or questionnaire to him and the rest of the candidates in the coming month.

Lewisville Lake Redevelopment
The Dallas Morning News has a story about the plans for re-development by Lewisville Lake. This was one of the items covered in the City Council Retreat this year. You can watch the video here, but we've not written anything up about it yet. Councilman TJ Gilmore does have some thoughts on the topic that he shared in his blog.

Miscellaneous Links
Ruth's Room is a thrift shop that benefits Habitat for Humanity.

Research shows that conservatives go for name brand goods, while liberals will go for generics. I guess that works out for us, because we only buy name brands for things like Dr. Pepper and Stubbs.

Should UNT walk away from its football program? I've been saying yes to that for years. It's wasteful, and a drain on resources that should be used for education.

Florida Atlantic University wants to name a football stadium after a private prison company. Bad idea. Both that we have private prison companies, and that they want to advertise.

Good dental floss ad.

If you ever feel bad about yourself or think maybe you made some bad decisions, you could always look at these idiotic tatoos and feel just a little bit superior.

Sick marriage counselor seduces a husband of a couple she's counseling.

A fisherman found a dinosaur bone in Lewisville Lake.

Freedomworks made a sex tape.

Is the Veterans Administration covering up the causes of Gulf War Syndrome?

Texas Sharon takes another look at that case of water contamination in Parker County. You remember the one where the guy's well was spitting out natural gas, and Range Resources sued him for defamation because he dared to blame them after they fracked a well nearby? Sharon says "I told you so."

RIP Mindy McCready.

By Brandon Cooper

Your editor is in Louisiana; you know the drill.

The Lewisville High School girls and boys basketball teams just barely made the playoffs, but already have some interesting stories to tell. The girls’ team, which went 6–24 during the season, defeated the District 6-5A champion Colleyville Heritage, who were 25-11, in the first round, but were defeated in the second round by Mansfield Timberview.

The boys team, on the other hand, defeated defending 5A state champs Marcus High School in a “loser goes home” tiebreaker game to decide who went to the playoffs. Word has it Marcus lost its rhythm when the LHS team refused to break for tea and crumpets. LHS plays–you guessed it–Colleyville Heritage on Tuesday night.

Argyle is getting its first grocery store. Hold on while I change my pants.

Apparently unaware that there is a such thing as "public image", the City of Farmers Branch is in the process of paying over $1 million on legal fees to fight the creation of a single-member district that would probably lead to a Hispanic city council member. That’s in addition to the $6 million plus they’ve spent on legal fees for their failed immigration policies.

Lewisville is getting its first synagogue. L'chaim, I suppose.

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has released it's Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) information from the latest school year. You can look it all up on their website. Be prepared to use the zoom function on your browser, because the data pretty much scream "I hate your eyes."

Finally, Lewisville's newest distillery will be having a tasting at Hall's Liquor in Colleyville on Friday between 1 and 4 p.m. I've been told the official hashtag for the event will be "#Lewisarioadfzkxcndfwer".

Alright, I've fallen behind again at posting an update. Basically, I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and most of the day Sunday either videoing or producing video of the City Council Retreat or the roller derby bouts. It's taking up all my spare time. Still, I've been collecting some links for you:

Don't forget: Tonight at 8 p.m. is the State of the Union address. You can watch an enhanced live-stream here.

Norma Manis, the "Mama" of Mama's Daughters' Diner is hospitalized after suffering a stroke.

Some d-bag dumped out a few pigs in Lewisville, then turned some dogs loose on them.

Asteroid to pass Earth Friday. It will be at least 20 years before it comes back to obliterate us.

Easy mistake to make: violating the Texas Open Meetings Act. Dumb: joking around about it.

"Obamacare" in plain English.

California Governor Brown: Perry ads barely a fart.

Incredible 360°, zoomable video of erupting volcanoes.

Bang with friends. No, I'm not on there, but thank you for asking.

Are property taxes being used to drive minorities off their land? One group says they are.

News flash: Republicans are mostly white.

By Brandon Cooper

During the discussion over the city’s upcoming long-term plan at the Lewisville City Council retreat this weekend, the idea of using social media as a way to promote participation came up. Everyone in the room was well aware that face-to-face communication will still be the crux of the process, but there’s no denying the fact that social media outlets provide a new way to expand participation in Lewisville and encourage communication between city leaders, businesses, the media, and residents.

That said, some of that is easier said than done, especially if you don’t know where to look or who to follow. With so many possible subjects to explore on various social media networks, seemingly routine municipal matters can quickly sputter down your news feed when competing against pictures of grumpy cats and quotes from famous people superimposed over solemn photographs.

The purpose of this post is to point the average reader in the direction of social media accounts and websites that anyone active with city issues can–and should–actively engage with. To make it this bit more dynamic than just a list of links, I’ll be using an embedded Storify article:

It's Superbowl Sunday, and not a single damn is given here in our household. I should be on a plane to New Orleans tonight so I can go work for my client, but the Superbowl has the city all jam-packed, and no hotel rooms are available anywhere at any reasonable prices. So, instead, I'll be in town all week again. Yeah, I've got the TV on, but really only to see funny commercials.

This past week was the start of filing in local elections, which is always exciting to me. I look forward to the end of the filing period when we can really focus in on the candidates and bring our readers the information necessary to make good choices.

Steve Blow has Four core principles that would revive the GOP: Live within your means. Live long and prosper. Live and let live. Live it up!

A Flower Mound man was killed in a one-car rollover in Lewisville.

Papa Johns goes after media sites who covered their CEO's anti-Obamacare whining, and asks them to remove stories.

Meanwhile, this past week, Applebees attempted to commit corporate PR suicide by firing a server who posted a picture on Reddit of a receipt on which a Christian pastor had attempted to stiff a waitress. The pastor wrote "I give God 10% Why do you get 18?", and zeroed out the tip. Not content to be exposed for their admittedly awful behavior, they called Applebees, which fired the server who posted it. Applebees added gas to the fire by not handling the backlash well on social media. Then again, this is the same company selling inflatable "decoys".

My thought is that as long as the posting didn't reveal any credit card information, I really don't see how it violates any privacy. This pastor obviously wanted her identity known, because she didn't just sign it, but put her title on it. It definitely doesn't rise to the level of termination. At any rate, it's interesting to see how the public reacts when a franchisee does something, and the entire chain is punished. It's basically the opposite of the reason why you join a franchise, which normally brings with it a certain amount of goodwill. These days, I'm wondering if it's not more of a liability. Any particular franchisee can do something really dumb, and the whole chain will suffer. For instance, a Denny's franchisee took it upon himself to impose an "Obamacare surcharge" on his guests, which caused major problems for the chain and threats of boycotts from the left. Yet another Denny's franchisee recently caused threats of boycotts from the right after kicking out some detectives for having their guns in plain view. As for me, I don't eat at either restaurant. I prefer to support locally owned and operated independent restaurants or small chains for the most part. Applebees lost my business years ago by serving watered-down drinks at premium prices.

A recent investigation finds that some Texas public schools are still violating the separation of church and state, by teaching Christian theology. I have no problem with schools teaching comparative religion, or teaching the Bible and other religious texts as literature. But I believe the First Amendment requires that government leave the theology to parents and churches. From what I've seen, even the local group who supports LISD teaching bible courses really does so from the perspective of hoping to use it to proselytize, based on their comments to the school board in support of it.

The NRA has an enemies list, which pretty much just serves two purposes:
1. It makes them look crazy.
2. It makes them look outnumbered.
Seriously, how does it bolster one's argument to post a gigantic list of celebrities, dignitaries, and respected organizations that you say support the other position? As I've said before, I'm a gun owner, and I support the second amendment, but I ditched my NRA membership years ago. They don't represent me; they represent crazy.

Here is a review of the last gun show in Lewisville, which had attendees lined up nearly around the corner. I've been a couple times too, and will say that they pretty much have everything you could want. The problem right now is that the hoarders are in full paranoia mode, and you can't buy anything for the right price.


A report says Texas has the 5th most regressive tax system. Regressive systems are those that ask the poorest to pay the highest percentage of their income. Sales tax is regressive because those with lower incomes spend much more of their income on taxable goods. Years ago, I wrote some commentary on the "Fair Tax" proposal which would eliminate income taxes in favor of regressive sales taxes.

I'm shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you, that Lewisville Councilman John Gorena didn't send us a press release announcing his re-election bid. Then again, he apparently didn't send one to the Lewisville Leader either, who instead interviewed him and let him say any old stupid ignorant thing he wanted to say. There is so much stupidity in this article, I'm basically speechless. Actually, I've got plenty to say, but it will be in a separate article.

The other day, my oldest son said the food in his school cafeteria was nasty, and it tasted like there was horse meat in the burgers. I have no idea how he would know what horse meat tastes like. In England, Burger King and Aldi got burned by a beef supplier using horse meat. They found equine DNA in the meat.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic ... e-meat.html#axzz2Jiam3aMN

State Rep. Myra Crownover filed a bill to allow county courts to review district creation.

The High Performance Schools Consortium, of which Lewisville ISD is the largest member, has sent its first report to the Texas Education Commissioner, requesting waivers from state education laws, as allowed under SB 1557. Texas Observer says the schools basically would like to secede from Texas' overbearing high-stakes testing system.

Irving City Manager Tommy Gonzalez is under investigation for soliciting inappropriate gifts from people with business before the city.

A famous retired Navy SEAL sniper was killed Saturday, shot at point blank range by a former Marine suffering from PTSD. For some reason, they were on a shooting range, and the Marine turned his gun on them.

A former Williamson County District Attorney faces a court of inquiry in the wrongful prosecution of a man who spent almost a quarter of a century in prison for the murder of his wife. The prosecutor withheld clearly exculpatory evidence, and now faces criminal action and disbarment.

This bit of idiocy was posted in the Denton County Republican Party's Facebook group.