Day Three - Paula Lavigne

Transcription

C O L L I N
C O U N T Y
E D I T I O N
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Dallas, Texas, Tuesday, August 16, 2005
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Our top 25
Check out our preseason rankings of college
football’s top 25. Find out who’s No. 1.
Aromatherapy’s proponents believe the way to better health
might lie right under your nose.
◗ SPORTSDAY, 6-7C
◗ HEALTHY LIVING, 1E
Gaza eviction met
with tears, protests
Isolated storms
High: 92 Low: 75
5-day outlook, 2B
Sharon tries to placate nation as
Wednesday deadline approaches
◗ WORLD
Iraqis get more time
to draft constitution
Iraqi leaders were given
seven more days to draft a
new constitution after they
failed to meet Monday’s
deadline. 11A
spot, a sobbing settler pleaded with
a general not to evict him before
the two men embraced.
“It’s a painful and difficult day,
but it’s a historic day,” Defense
By AMY TEIBEL
tion notices Monday as Israel be- Minister Shaul Mofaz said.
Associated Press
gan to pull out from the Gaza Strip
Over the next three weeks, Israel plans to dismantle all 21 Jewish
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip after 38 years of occupation.
Police and soldiers waited pa- settlements in Gaza and four in the
— Tearful Jewish settlers locked
gates at their communities, formed tiently in the sweltering sun and northern West Bank.
human chains and burned tires to avoided confrontations at the beblock troops from delivering evic- hest of their commanders. At one
See GAZA Page 2A
MARCO DI LAURO/Getty Images
Soldiers and Jewish settlers are overcome as the army
evacuates a synagogue in Nissanit. Weeping settlers and
hugging soldiers were seen in several settlements Monday.
SPORTSDAY
Mavericks part
ways with Finley
THE PRICE OF PROSPERITY
The Mavericks waived
nine-year veteran
Michael Finley to save
the team $51 million
in NBA luxury taxes
over the next three
seasons. 1C
Nothing but the best
from Mom and Dad
DISD has
no record
of inquiry
Exclusive: Official who
used vendor’s boat had
cited ’04 audit findings
By JESSICA LEEDER
and PETE SLOVER
Staff Writers
Dallas school officials said Monday that they have no documents to
show for a $50,000 investigation —
an inquiry the district’s technology
boss said cleared him of taking gifts
from vendors.
“There was a report given [orally] to the board in closed session as
part of that audit,” said Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who
was appointed a year after the report was made. “I have not been
able to secure a written copy of that
report.”
Ruben Bohuchot, an associate
superintendent and DISD’s technology chief, is suspended with pay
pending a district investigation of
his frequent, free use of a 59-foot
boat provided by one of the district’s top computer vendors.
After his use of the boat was reported last month in The Dallas
Morning News, Mr. Bohuchot
pointed to an audit as evidence that
there was nothing improper about
his relationship with the boat’s
owners.
Mickelson holds
on, wins PGA
Phil Mickelson tapped
in a birdie on the 18th
green to win the
weather-delayed PGA
Championship by one
stroke. 1C
◗ NATION
Pain pills linked to
female hypertension
Women who regularly take
non-aspirin painkillers
have as much as double the
normal risk of developing
high blood pressure, researchers report. 2A
Mom at Bush ranch
decries spectacle
The mother of a slain U.S.
soldier says she will refocus
her vigil near President
Bush’s ranch on her central
anti-war message. 5A
Screenings keep
babies off flights
Babies have been kept from
boarding planes at U.S.
airports because their
names are the same as or
similar to those of possible
terrorists on the government’s “no-fly list.” 7A
INDEX
SECTION A
Lottery....................................2
People....................................3
Texas......................................4
Nation.................................5,7
World .........................11-12,16
Overnight..............................13
Editorials and Viewpoints .14-15
SECTION B — Metro
Weather..................................2
Collin County Classified ...........4
SECTION C — SportsDay
TV/Radio ...............................2
Baseball.........................4-5,12
SECTION D — Business
Market Day ........................6-10
SECTION E — Healthy Living
Comics and Puzzles ...........8-10
Television..............................10
Bridge ..................................11
Dear Abby ............................11
Arts Day ...............................12
SECTION F — Classified
©2005, The Dallas Morning News
N
. . . . . . . .
LARA SOLT/Staff Photographer
Kendall Compton of Plano was queen for a day as she celebrated her 11th birthday enjoying a pedicure party with
seven friends at Seventeen*studio*spa*salon in Plano, where services can run as high as $300 per person.
Nice cars, big allowances, fancy pedicures: In Collin County,
parents say the urge to spend stems from their children
Last of three parts
By PAULA LAVIGNE
Staff Writer
I
t’s the end of the day at Plano West Senior High School, and teenagers are
pouring into the parking lot.
One jumps into a BMW M3. Another takes off in a Jaguar X-Type. A Land
Rover joins the pack.
Senior Jodi Payson drives a black Hummer
H2. She carries a Louis Vuitton purse and a
credit card with no limit.
Last year, Jodi was among the privileged
class at Plano West that sets the unspoken
benchmark that many other students — and
therefore their parents — strive to attain.
Plano West stands out for its students’ affluence and their academic achievements, but
it is as representative as any Collin County
school in that parents say they feel pressure,
from their children and their surroundings, to
meet the highest lifestyle standards.
Competition starts early. Parents try to outdo one another on birthday parties with limousine chauffeurs and costumed characters.
By the time they’re teenagers, children can
shop on their own, which takes the spending
to a whole new level.
See KIDS Page 9A
INSIDE
■ When and how parents should
say no. 8A
■ Editorial, 14A
■ Jacquielynn Floyd: Obsession
with possessions is just sad. 1B
ON DALLASNEWS.COM
■ How does your family
compare? Calculate your Collin
County quotient.
■ Chat with reporter Paula
Lavigne at 11:30 a.m. today and
credit counselor Reid Remington
at 12:30 p.m.
‘There is no endgame here’
part of a crackdown on organized crime.
Later that day, just down the street on Paseo
Violence, which may worsen, is
Colón, an assassin with deadly accuracy amtaking its toll in Nuevo Laredo bushed Juan Resendez Jasso, firing at least 14
shots as the 33-year-old businessman drove his
By ALFREDO CORCHADO
white Silverado pickup with Texas plates after
Mexico Bureau
buying a takeout order of tacos.
The impact of such killings extends far beNUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — In the posh
Juárez neighborhood, bar manager Raul Cruz yond the victims and their families. With each
ALFREDO CORCHADO/Staff
prepared to issue pink slips to 45 employees at killing, Nuevo Laredo itself is slowly dying,
Las Cananas Revolution Bar. They lost their some residents say.
A gunman fired at least 14 shots at Juan
jobs Friday when the company chose to shut
Resendez Jasso, killing the businessman
See IMPACT Page 6A
who had just bought a takeout meal.
down rather than face a new midnight curfew,
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Sent by: rstumpf News
See DISD Page 10A
Developer,
wife flee
to NYC
Pair planning lawsuit
to block woman’s
deportation to China
By GRETEL C. KOVACH
Staff Writer
NEW YORK — The choice was
clear: Leave the country voluntarily
by Monday or be deported.
Instead of catching an international flight, Nicole Isenberg fled to
New York City with her husband,
Ralph, a former member of the
Dallas City Plan Commission, and
started preparing a federal lawsuit
against U.S. immigration officials.
“We are still trying so hard to
have a judge listen to our case and
keep our family together,” said Mrs.
Isenberg, who has a 6-week-old
child with Mr. Isenberg and a teenage daughter from her first marriage whom he adopted.
“We won’t give up.”
Mr. Isenberg, a Dallas real estate developer, vowed to continue
his fight for his Chinese wife’s freedom and her green card.
See DEVELOPER Page 10A
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
II
DallasNews.com
Having
it all has
its costs
Parents know the value of
a hard day’s work, something
their teen hasn’t had to learn
By PAULA LAVIGNE
Staff Writer
Photos by LARA SOLT/Staff Photographer
Stay-at-home mom Amber Hare, whose daughter Kaitlyn is tuckered out, plays dress-up with Hailey Hotchkiss at McKinney’s Happy Land Play Center.
Mommy nearest
Salaries in Collin County make it easier to live on one income,
and more families are keeping a parent at home with the kids
By PAULA LAVIGNE
Staff Writer
An executive-level salary doesn’t always buy belongings with big price tags.
Many Collin County-area families are
sacrificing material luxuries to afford
time with their children — a benefit they
deem priceless.
Families are tapping their income to
keep one parent — usually Mom — home
with the kids. More than half the stay-athome moms in America come from
higher-income households, and Collin
County’s wealth fits that profile.
Every major city around here has at
least one chapter of a MOMS Club, an international support group for stay-athome moms. Five chapters were formed
in Frisco to handle the demand there.
Nicole Furtaw, 35, is a member of the
Northeast Frisco chapter. She used to
work as a fundraiser for a local founda-
tion but quit soon after her son was born.
“I had a bachelor’s degree and a career,
but I wanted to be at home with my kids,”
she said.
The family relies on her husband’s salary as an engineering manager at Texas
Instruments. While they’re “financially
comfortable,” she said, they have to
watch expenses to make the arrangement work.
“We don’t eat out as much as we would
like to. … We live humbly to get by and not
get into debt,” she said.
She and her husband planned ahead.
They could have afforded a larger house
when they had two incomes and no children, but they bought something not so
large in preparation for Ms. Furtaw’s decision. Their home is worth about
$225,000.
Now they have two children, 5-yearold Cameron and 3-year-old Chloe. Ms.
Furtaw doesn’t plan to go back to work.
“Both of my parents worked as I grew
up, and I came home to an empty house,
and that wasn’t my ideal choice,” she said.
The understanding that stay-at-home
moms are fortunate financially is “kind of
one of those unspoken things” among her
MOMS group.
“There’s a general consensus we’re all
doing what we want to do. We’re all
where we want to be, and we’re very
thankful we can do it.”
Angie Kanter envies mothers such as
Ms. Furtaw. To pay for a $250,000 house
in Murphy, two cars and other expenses,
both she and her husband have to work.
Ms. Kanter, 33, placed her infant son
in a child care center close to her office,
but it’s not the same as raising him full
time at home.
“There are nine other babies he’s competing with for attention,” she said. “Is
there a half-hour where he’s crying, and
because there’s only two teachers to 10
babies that he’s not getting picked up?”
Stay-at-home moms contribute to
more than their own children’s develop-
ment. School district officials say they
provide a valuable resource to teachers by
volunteering in classrooms, chaperoning
field trips and organizing fundraisers.
“It helps tremendously,” Frisco school
Superintendent Rick Reedy said.
“There’s so many different roles they fill
for us.”
Up to 30 parents volunteer each week
at Norton Elementary School in Allen.
That’s a big boost to a school with 60
teachers and staff members, principal
Sandra Cheek said.
They help run the chess and drama
clubs, do clerical work and read to children, and some even translate foreign
languages, she said.
The volunteers in Allen are often
highly educated and skilled, she said. For
example, mothers with degrees in mathematics and engineering help run the
school’s new math lab, she said.
“They impact our everyday programs
in so many ways,” she said. “They help us
run our school, basically.”
E-mail [email protected]
When and how should parents say no?
Here are parenting tips addressing
spending on children from Mia Mbroh,
an educator with Practical Parent Education in Plano, a national nonprofit organization that develops parenting programs.
How can I resist the urge to overindulge my children?
It goes back to being aware of how
your behavior and choices influence
your children. Parents have to know
what they want their children to learn
from. The first step is being honest and
knowing what your values are in regards
to material possessions.
How much worth do you place on
the ownership of “stuff”?
How much time do you spend acquiring and talking about your stuff?
Children watch what their parents do.
They observe where their parents’ time
and attention goes.
If you understand the pitfalls of overindulgence, you are less likely to overindulge. It is not a matter of whether you
can or not. It is more an issue of whether
you should. It all begins with your ability to demonstrate self-discipline and
wise decision-making skills.
How can I withstand the peer pressure factor?
It is indeed difficult to deny your
child something that “everyone” else is
supposedly getting. But everyone else is
not your child. You know your children
best and know what is in their best interest.
Think of it as a life lesson. Everyone
in life does not have the same things,
and having what everyone else has is not
a requirement for a healthy and productive life. Sometimes we stand alone in a
decision or in an action.
How do I teach my children the
value of money?
The best way to start is with an allowance. The amount you give depends on
your expectations. When children waste
their own money on things, it provides
Kids romp in a bounce house set up by neighbors in Frisco’s Windsor Place subdivision. Child-rearing expert
Mia Mbroh advises parents to give their children an allowance to help them learn the value of money.
an opportunity to learn from a logical
consequence. As much as possible, have
children participate in finding resourceful and positive ways to contribute to the acquisition of their “wants.”
Allow your children to observe how
you make money-related decisions. Explain how to prioritize and save. Demonstrate how to balance a checkbook
and how credit really works.
All children, no matter how wealthy
their families are, should experience the
feeling of working and saving for something.
What can we do as parents to create a healthy understanding of limits
on material possessions?
Learn to say no. Children do not
have to have everything they want just
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because they want it. Limit the number
of gifts your child receives. Limiting
gifts also helps the child focus on and
appreciate what has been given instead
of going through an assembly line mentality of gift opening.
It is also a nice idea to involve your
child in selecting gifts for others. This
provides an opportunity to teach empathy. Let your children help you select
charities that your family will donate to
or assist in some tangible way.
How much is too much?
This is a question that parents ultimately have to answer themselves.
There is much to be said for delayed
gratification, stages, rites of passage,
maturing and growing up. It is a challenge to stay grounded and focused in
5 25 50 75 95
such a culture of affluence. We are constantly barraged with messages that tell
us if we buy this or acquire that we will
be more beautiful, more popular, more
respected and happier than we have ever been.
In actuality, extravagances grant
some momentary relief, but people still
struggle with issues of self-doubt and
self-esteem and feelings of being unworthy or unloved.
Parents have the ability to teach
their children how to keep balance in
their lives. Parents can show children
how much they love them by the time
they spend with them.
It was quite a birthday gift — a
brand-new luxury SUV in the driveway.
The 16-year-old boy’s father
splurged, envisioning the day that his
son would drive into the parking lot at
Plano West Senior High School and
bask in the admiration and envy of his
classmates.
But it took a while for that day to
come. The sweet new ride didn’t roll for
a year, waiting for its young new owner
to get around to picking up his driver’s
license.
His lack of enthusiasm stunned his
mother.
“When he walked out on the morning of his 16th birthday, he said,
‘Whoa,’ ” she said, explaining his nonchalance. “That’s all he said.”
She said she’s afraid she and her
husband have given him so much, the
gift did not surprise him.
“He’s grown up with everything he’s
ever wanted,” she said. “He’s thinking
the whole world lives the way kids in
Plano do.”
She opposed buying such an ostentatious vehicle from the beginning, she
said, but her husband insisted. He
wanted their son to stand out, to have
all the things he couldn’t as a child.
(But not too much attention: The
boy’s father did not grant permission to
The News for his family members’
names to be published or his son to be
interviewed. He also requested that the
make and model
of the vehicle not
be identified.)
The boy’s parents grew up in
poor families, his
in the Carolinas
and hers in the
Midwest.
When she was
a child, she put
cardboard in her
shoes to make
them last until
her parents could
afford new ones,
she said. And she
had to drop out of
pep club because
she didn’t have money for a letter
sweater.
She and her husband worked hard
to make it into their $900,000 west
Plano home. She said they’re not teaching that same discipline to their son.
“People have this tendency to give
their children way more than they
should be giving them,” she said. “And
then there’s this competition to fit in.”
Her son’s shyness led him to fall
through the cracks at Plano West, she
said. The school draws from some of
the highest-income neighborhoods in
Plano. Known for its academic prowess, it is not a place of slackers. A 4.0
does not guarantee a top spot in the
class. The average SAT score of 1,138
soars over the state average of 989.
Her son scored above the school’s
average on the SAT. He’s a quick learner, she said, but he didn’t always do his
homework. Her concern as her son
heads to college isn’t about whether he
is academically prepared, but whether
he can manage his own expenses.
His parents made him work last
summer and requested he save some of
his pay. When he collected his first
check, he spent $400 on a LoveSac, a
shredded foam sofa.
While her son snatches up designer
clothes and the latest movie releases,
his mother looks for deals at TJ Maxx,
Marshalls and Ross.
“My husband wanted to rise above it
[poverty] and never go back,” she said.
“I have risen above it. But I still identify
with my roots and know how I got to
where I am.”
As for her son, he might have to
“screw up and hit bottom” before he
figures out life on his own, she said. He
was accepted and will attend a fouryear, out-of-state university this fall,
but she wonders whether living on his
own will help him appreciate the value
of money.
“[Kids] don’t want to start out with
orange crates and cinder blocks to
make their entertainment centers like
we did,” she said. “Kids leave home
from this environment, and they want
everything we have.”
“Kids leave
home from
this
environment,
and they
want
everything
we have.”
DiscussLive: Chat with Mia Mbroh
about parenting issues at 12:30 p.m.
Wednesday on DallasNews.com/extra
A8 II 08-16-2005 Set: 23:28:11
Tell us: How are you teaching your
children about saving and spending?
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Photos by LARA SOLT/Staff Photographer
Plano West Senior High students Jodi Payson (left) and track star Erin Bedell had stretch Hummer limo driver Tim Jespersen stop at Deep Ellum on prom night.
Kids drive spending habits
Continued from Page 1A
They want bigger toys, including cars,
and they won’t settle for the type of jalopy
their parents drove when they were 16.
This area is one of the wealthiest in the
country, and it is also among the youngest.
About three in 10 residents of Collin
County are younger than 18.
Parents from all income levels say the
urge to spend is most powerful when it
comes to their children.
They might be in debt up to their eyebrows, but their child will have a cellphone and a Blackberry and a luxury car,
said Mia Mbroh, a parent educator for the
national nonprofit counseling organization Practical Parent Education in Plano.
“They do it out of love, and they don’t
want their kids to be the odd man out,” she
said. “Adults want to fit in as much as children.”
All for the kids
On a spring night in Frisco, Jenny and
Jeff Proznik invite six of their 30-something neighbors for an informal dinner
party.
As they crack jokes and pass around a
few beers, they talk about their lifestyles
and priorities. While they’re not the type
to be obsessed about Rolex watches and
the latest line of Vera Wang cocktail dresses, they acknowledge that they fuel the
Collin County-area consumerism.
“A lot of our spending is what you hear
upstairs,” Mike Pettis said, gesturing toward a playroom where 11 children were
giggling and trying out one another’s toys.
“We’re breeders,” Ms. Proznik said.
“There’s something in this water. You just
get into the mind-set that it’s all about the
kids.”
They all have their own playrooms, Mr.
Proznik said.
“There’s more toys up there in that
room than I had in my entire life. And
that’s just going to keep multiplying,” he
said.
Childhood has changed, said Mike’s
wife, Nikki Pettis. She recalled a Christmas party where the women passed
around pictures of themselves as children.
“We looked at the backgrounds. There
was a chair in the room or a couch. There
were no accessories,” she said.
“You do more for your kids than your
parents did for you,” Ms. Proznik said.
“My responsibility is to make [my daughter’s] life easier and better than mine.
That’s my job.”
The Prozniks say they won’t give in to a
child’s demand to buy something merely
because one of his or her friends has it, but
they also want their son and daughter to
fit in.
“I don’t want it to be that my kid is the
only one who doesn’t have a scooter, and
every other kid is zooming by on the
street,” Ms. Proznik said.
Surefire lure
Susan Tierney said she opened the
first, and only, Seventeen*studio*spa*salon in Plano based on the demographics of
west Plano and the close proximity to 13
high schools.
Her salon caters to girls from 9 to 19,
and their mothers, with hairstyles, manicures, pedicures and other beauty services. It’s where Kendall Compton celebrated her 11th birthday, flopped on an
overstuffed couch with seven friends — all
soaking their feet in preparation for a ped-
ing “bratty” kids, but Julia said
icure.
just because she’s from an afMom Cindy Compton
fluent family doesn’t mean that
wouldn’t say how much she
she falls into that stereotype.
spent. Prices range from $40
She got her nice car because
per person for hair and makeup
she met her parents’ requireto $300 per person for a spa
ments: work more than 400
package with lunch, balloons,
hours of community service,
cakes and goodie bags.
make the top 10 percent of her
The party was a special treat
class, get into a good college
because it would be Kendall’s
and score high on the SAT.
last with her friends in Plano,
“I had proven myself as a
Ms. Compton said. She and her
leader at Plano West, which is
husband, a corporate executive
something hard to do. I don’t
with Pepsico Inc., were being Ads implore shoppers to spend at Stonebriar Centre,
think if I had not done all that,
transferred to Chicago.
but many teens have already gotten that message.
my parents would have bought
“A slower pace of life will be
me a car,” she said.
refreshing,” she said.
Julia
—
like any American teenager —
Plano is too materialistic and overON THE AIR
shops. On a sunny Saturday afternoon,
whelmed with commercialism, she said.
How much is the good life really
she and three of her friends tooled off to
“Kids here don’t have a very good idea of
costing you? Reporter Paula
The Shops at Willow Bend.
what the real world is like.”
Lavigne and McKinney bankruptcy
As they walked out of Jacqueline JarCynthia Garrison, an educator at Pracattorney Scott Lemke will discuss
rot, a high-end accessories store, Julia
tical Parent, tends to agree.
that question on The Glenn
said, “Twelve hundred dollars? Twelve
There’s no problem with a wealthy couMitchell Show at 1 p.m. today on
hundred dollars for a purse? Who would
ple living in a $500,000 home and driving
KERA-FM (90.1).
buy that?”
a BMW, she said. The problem comes
Later, over pizzas, the friends debated
when their children expect a BMW with“All the kids want is they want the box
whether they envied their classmates
out earning it.
built for them,” Mr. Weeks said. “Show
whose parents went over the top.
“That sets the child up for problems
them where it is, how big it is and where
Emily Tett spoke with defiance in her
when he gets out into the real world and he
the boundaries are and what’s in it for
eyes when she insisted that she was not
gets his $50,000 or $60,000 a year job …
them.”
jealous and that, furthermore, she was
and he can’t afford the half-million dollar
proud to own a Ford Escape. She was inhome or BMW,” she said.
‘Too much’ is relative
credulous when the group talked about a
Adult children who can’t fend for
boy who was driving a new Hummer H2.
themselves take a toll on some parents —
Parents diverge on the definition of
“What were their parents thinking?”
all the way to bankruptcy court. Janna L.
reasonable spending.
Emily said.
Countryman, standing Chapter 13 trustee
A dad who gives his son an allowance
“It’s to say, ‘I’m driving a big expensive
for the Eastern District of Texas, said
of $200 a month believes he is just as racar so you can enjoy its view,’ ” Nash Gamabout 15 percent of the cases she sees intional as the mom who gives her daughmill said.
volve parents still footing the bills for their
ter $20 a month.
Jodi Payson, the girl who drives the
adult children.
Julia Gossard, a recent graduate of
black Hummer H2, said she’s not trying
While the parents are asking the courts
Plano West Senior High School, was givto show off. She requested a Hummer beto forgive their own debt, they’re buying
en a $20-a-week allowance, money for
cause she wanted something safe for drivfood and making payments on new cars
gas and a new BMW M series sports car.
ing around her friends, whose lunch tabs
for college kids who don’t have jobs, she
It might seem like a lot, but mother
she picks up from time to time. T-shirts
said.
Dawn-L Gossard points out that her
and sweats are more her day-to-day style
Parents of teens going off to college ofdaughter was president of the speech and
than $400 designer outfits.
ten want to know how to pull back, but
debate club, vice president of the French
“My parents didn’t always have monthey don’t know how, said Mark Hundley,
Club, a member of the National Honor
ey, and I know what it’s like not to have it,”
director of guidance and counseling at
Society, a volunteer at Children’s Medical
she said. “I know not to take things for
Plano Senior High School.
Center and received a $30,000 scholargranted.”
Students with parents who begin to let
ship, which she will use to study corpogo and make their children responsible for
rate communications at Southern MethSame wish, different scale
their own purchases take pride in their reodist University.
sourcefulness and independence, he said.
“The impression you get about Plano
Jodi’s $1 million house is worth al“They become more responsible. They
West is that these kids get things and they
most four times as much as the home
fend for themselves. They tend to be their
don’t deserve them. They do,” she said.
where classmate Abby Taylor lives on the
own advocates,” he said.
About 92 percent of the students here
easternmost boundaries of Plano West’s
John Weeks’ oldest son attends the
sailed over Texas’ standardized tests,
territory.
University of Texas at Austin. The Plano
compared with 73 percent statewide.
Abby’s mom, Sally Taylor, said she was
dad agreed to pay for room and board, but
Students aspire to tougher classes, with
thrilled that her daughter made drill
he told his son to find a job if he wanted ex43 percent taking advanced placement
team captain even though she came from
tra spending money. He plans to do the
(or college level) tests in 2003, compared
a family of more modest means.
same for his younger son, a senior at Plano
with 16.1 percent statewide.
“Jane might be driving a new BMW
West.
Plano West has a reputation for havthat her parents gave her. Well, Abby’s
driving a new [Honda] Civic, and that’s
pretty wonderful in my opinion,” she said.
Ms. Taylor said seeing the other mothMARRIED WITH CHILDREN
ers dressed to the nines at a drill team
booster club meeting was intimidating at
Children make up 28.5 percent of the
p Collin County p Nationwide
first.
population in Collin County.
“I’d think, ‘Maybe your day was a
That’s a larger percentage than almost all of 50%
tough day because you couldn’t fit in a nail
40%
Collin’s wealthy peer counties and higher
appointment between the hair and perthan the nation’s overall 25.7 percent.
30%
sonal trainer,’ ” she said. Whereas she had
About 46 percent of the families in Collin
20%
to figure out how to get through an eightCounty are married couples with children.
10%
hour workday and then finish houseNationwide, 33 percent fit that description.
0
work.
Percentage of
Among families,
children
percentage of
“But once you find out that everyone
in population
married couples
has their kid’s best interest at heart and
with children
wants to help out, you quickly get over
that,” she said.
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data
TOM SETZER/Staff Artist
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5 25 50 75 95
ABOUT THIS SERIES
For this project, more than 120 residents,
business owners, economic experts and
other individuals were interviewed to
determine how the Collin County area’s
wealth compares to its peers around the
country. Information was analyzed from more
than 15 sources, such as U.S. Bankruptcy
Court, Claritas Market Audit, the U.S. Census
Bureau, the Texas Workforce Commission,
the state Office of the Comptroller, and the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In every
case, the newspaper requested the most
current data available. The data come from a
mix of individual headcount, or case-by-case,
records and surveys. Collin County’s 12 peer
counties were chosen based on income and
the availability of related data.
The findings
Á Collin County is the richest county in Texas
and among the wealthiest 1 percent
nationwide, based on the area’s high median
household income of about $71,500 per year.
Á On average, Collin County residents have
more credit card debt — $4,200 — than other
high-income counties.
Á Overall, residents show a lower net worth
than those in similar counties at $125,000.
Á Bankruptcies — about 3,500 last year —
more than doubled over five years, outpacing
all other similar-size counties.
Á About 3,300 homes were foreclosed upon
last year; two-thirds of those were in
higher-income neighborhoods.
Á Data cannot determine how many of Collin
County’s 600,000 residents live within these
spending and debt trends. There are
thousands of exceptions, including the truly
wealthy, residents who live well within their
means and the poor.
Á About 56 percent of the population hovers
around the median household income,
bringing in from $50,000 to $150,000
annually. As a group, residents are younger
than their counterparts around the country —
a median age of 33.4 years.
Coming up
Sunday: The Collin County area’s wealth
@
might not be what it seems.
@ Monday: The region is a lush target for
retailers hungry for frequent spenders.
■ Today: A look at the engine behind the
spending — the children.
DallasNews.com/extra
Review this series including an interactive
map of comparable suburbs nationwide and
answer questions to see how “Collin County”
your family is.
DiscussLive: Chat with reporter Paula Lavigne
about this series, her research and the
implications for Collin County families at
11:30 a.m. today. Chat with parent educator
Mia Mbroh about parenting amid the pressure
to spend at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
The team
Reporting and data analysis: Paula Lavigne
Staff photographer: Lara Solt
Graphic artist: Tom Setzer
Designer: Cindy Smith
Copy editors: Samantha Shaddock, Laura
Roddy and Wm. Tracy Cowle
Photo editor: Chris Wilkins
Project editors: Kamrhan Farwell and Chris
Buckle
Multimedia: Karen Davis, Alberto Gomez,
April Kinser
Web editor: Jodi Leese
If you have any comments or questions on this
series, e-mail
[email protected]
A9 II 08-16-2005 Set: 23:28:28
BLACK
YELLOW
MAGENTA
CYAN
14 A
_
DallasNews.com
Established October 1, 1885
Publishers
James M. Moroney III
Publisher and Chief Executive Officer
George Bannerman Dealey 1885-1940
Robert W. Mong Jr.
Editor
E.M. (Ted) Dealey 1940-1960
Joe M. Dealey 1960-1980
George Rodrigue
Vice President, Managing Editor
James M. Moroney Jr. 1980-1985
John A. Rector Jr. 1985-1986
Keven Ann Willey
Vice President, Editorial Page Editor
Burl Osborne 1986-2001
EDITORIALS
Worth the Wait in Iraq
Constitution — and democracy — are at stake
T
he televised images reeked of failure: As
the hours and then the minutes ticked
away, the members of Iraq’s national
assembly milled about, awaiting delivery of the
nation’s new constitution from the panel responsible for its drafting. The rumors were no
more comforting: Any draft was sure to leave
gaping holes where there should have been
provisions determining the status of women
and of the Sunni minority.
These are fundamental matters, and Iraq’s
inability to resolve them on schedule is cause
for dismay. But, given what is at stake, assembly members were wise to vote themselves another week to strive for an accord.
Under the rules of the game, Shia delegates,
who hold a majority of seats in the assembly,
could have run roughshod over other factions.
But such a constitution might well have been
rejected at the polls, where the rules make it
easier for a disgruntled minority to block it.
With that possibility firmly in mind, taking a
few extra days is no big deal.
That said, the big deals — the question of
federalism and of Islam’s role in the new state
— may prove impossible to resolve in the next
week. Iraq’s political and ethnic divisions are
clearly deeper than many architects of the war
grasped. The furious negotiations of recent
days have yielded as many reversals as advances.
If history offers any comfort, perhaps it lies
in the distant mists of our own national story.
What few Americans probably appreciate is
how difficult our forebears found it to forge a
government that would endure. The first attempt, set out in the Articles of Confederation,
foundered precisely because many former colonists — exactly like many Iraqis today — resisted vesting power in a central government.
Even our current Constitution, drafted as a
replacement in 1787, contained compromises
that are monstrous by today’s standards. Congress was forbidden to tamper with slavery for
20 years. Slaves’ only legal standing was that
each was to count as three-fifths of a person for
the purpose of apportioning congressional
seats.
Democracy is habitually messy. It is often
slow. It is never perfect. It justifies any amount
of political toil. And it is certainly worth the investment of seven more days.
Wanting It All — Right Now
Conservatives, or the ultimate consumers?
A
t the end of the unconventional Christmas classic Trading Places, characters
played by Eddie Murphy, Dan Aykroyd
and Jamie Lee Curtis lounge around a beautiful tropical paradise. They have just become
fabulously wealthy and are wondering what to
have for lunch: cracked crab or lobster. Then
someone asks the obvious question: “Can’t we
have both?”
“The Price of Prosperity,” a three-part series
that wraps up in The Dallas Morning News today, paints the picture of a growing “Can’t we
have both?” mentality in modern society. Although the statistics and stories focus on Collin
County, one of the richest areas in the U.S., the
mentality is evident on lesser scales throughout North Texas and, indeed, the nation.
The story is just a little more ironic in Collin
County because it is, perhaps, the reddest
county in a very red state. And it’s home to a lot
of fiscal conservatives who preach family values — while spending more than they have and
spoiling their children.
Some of the same people who have filed for
the record number of bankruptcies in Collin
County in recent years surely have criticized
political leaders for “not making tough choices.” With tax dollars, it seems so clear to them.
But with credit cards lining their wallets and
an image to keep up, somehow rhetorical
“tough choices” seem impossible.
To be sure, not everyone in Collin County,
and not everyone with credit card debt, is in
too deep. But to many so-called fiscal conservatives, it seems perfectly OK to cut taxes and
increase spending on a war at the same time.
And if that’s defensible, then it certainly makes
sense to buy those new $10,000 granite countertops now, rather saving for them. After all,
the Joneses have them now.
And it also seems reasonable to optimistically extend your credit, predicting nothing
but sunny skies ahead, even when those
around you have been washed away by rainy
days they never saw coming.
So, in a world where buying a brand-new
Honda Civic instead of a brand-new BMW for
Little Suzy on her Sweet 16 is seen as conservative, why not give her everything she wants and
still expect her to understand the value of money and hard work?
And therein lies the true danger. If parents
today sheepishly admit to wanting it all, their
children, never knowing anything else, will absolutely demand it.
How does your family compare? Calculate your
Collin County quotient. Also, chat with series
reporter Paula Lavigne today at 11:30
Time to Step Aside
Hill or his nominee should do what’s best for city
T
oday is Tuesday. You are reading a newspaper. If you stick your head out the window and it comes back wet, it’s raining.
These are facts.
Opinions are something else.
Here’s one: “Tom Craddick would make a dynamite secretary of education.”
Or, more to the point: “Nominating Ken Lay
to the Securities and Exchange Commission
would be a strange choice, considering the circumstances.”
Back on Planet Earth, a
similar oddity is actually playing out at Dallas City Hall. We
can’t understand why Dallas
Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill so
doggedly wants to keep his
nominee, D’Angelo Lee, on the
Lee
City Plan Commission, considering the circumstances.
Mr. Lee is the subject of an FBI investigation
into corruption at City Hall, as is Mr. Hill and
council colleague James Fantroy. Mr. Lee faces
IRS tax liens and questions over who really
owns that car he drives. He has been accused of
accepting consulting fees and other benefits for
real estate projects he voted on while a plan
commissioner.
Just an opinion, but don’t these issues compromise Mr. Lee’s ability to perform in his appointed position?
Mayor Laura Miller certainly thinks so and
says she intends to ask the council Wednesday to
forcibly remove Mr. Lee from his “job.”
Mr. Hill, unfortunately, takes Ms. Miller’s
opinion as a personal affront to his “ability to represent [City Council] District 5 in the way I
think is best.”
The point Mr. Hill misses is that his goal does
not have to be in conflict with Ms. Miller’s, as
long as they both keep in mind what should be
the overriding question: “What’s best for the
city?” Not what’s best for District 5. Not what’s
best for the key players at City Hall.
Dallas. The whole city. All of it.
Ms. Miller, ironically, has had her own troubles with a problematic plan commissioner.
Ralph Isenberg did the right thing for the city
and resigned when his wife’s shaky immigration
status became public knowledge.
With Mr. Hill apparently unwilling or unable
to get him out of the job, Mr. Lee could do everyone a favor and just make himself disappear.
You know, considering the circumstances.
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LETTERS
Hill, Lee must go
Re: “Miller wants Hill appointee to quit — Stance on Lee angers
mayor pro tem, who’s also FBI target,” Saturday Metro.
Dallas LULAC Council 4496
calls upon Dallas Mayor Pro Tem
Don Hill and City Plan Commissioner D’Angelo Lee to resign immediately. The citizens of District
5 deserve representation based on
a sound foundation built on integrity, ethics and moral values.
Why would Mr. Hill even entertain the idea of reappointing
Mr. Lee when, according to media
reports, he accepted consulting
fees and benefits for real estate
projects he voted for on the City
Plan Commission? Why would
Mr. Hill allow Mr. Lee to have the
access code to the mayoral suite?
As a District 5 resident, business owner and taxpayer, I’m also
appalled that Mr. Hill is now playing the race card. A growing Hispanic population in our district is
very disheartened by these recent
actions, based on calls I’ve gotten.
Playing the race card may have
worked in the 1960s, but it will not
work in 2005.
Jesse Diaz, president,
Dallas LULAC Council 4496,
Dallas
THE CINDY SHEEHAN CONTROVERSY
Another military mom who supports her
I went to Crawford on Saturday with other moms in support of
Cindy Sheehan. Three of the four in our group were raised in military families; one’s husband is a 30-year Air Force veteran who did
two tours in Vietnam.
We went because this war was started on false pretenses. Still,
we continue fighting there and our soldiers are dying.
The huge crowd of supporters Saturday was made up of current
and past war veterans, families of veterans, families of soldiers
killed in Iraq and supporters of peace.
The question we ask everyone who still supports war in Iraq:
“Are you and/or your sons and daughters enlisting in the military
right now? Put yourself and your family where your mouth is!”
Priscilla Dayton Wisnewski, Plano
Her tune has changed since first Bush meeting
In her June 2004 meeting with President Bush, Cindy Sheehan
asked him to make her son’s sacrifice count for something.
After that meeting, she told her hometown newspaper, “I now
know he’s sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis. I know he’s
sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he’s a man of
faith. … That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together.”
So was she misrepresenting then or now?
Tamara Miller, McKinney
If only she had donated richly for access
And where is the line?
Re: “Not All Speech Is Free,”
Saturday Editorials.
Did some junior, junior, junior
editor who graduated from DittoHead University slip this by while
the boss was taking a nap?
Where will the line be drawn on
acceptable political speech, and
who does the drawing? You quoted Yvonne Ridley comparing Tony
Blair to Pol Pot, and I agree that is
way over the top, but what if I were
to say that the “real terrorists are in
the White House”? Does that give
the Plano police the right to haul
me off to jail?
When a free society uses draconian methods to suppress political
speech, no matter how reprehensible, it ceases to be free and becomes the antithesis of what it
seeks to protect.
A better cause would be served
if this newspaper started asking
hard questions about the real reasons we went to war in Iraq. But
that would be too gutsy.
Ron Mershawn, Plano
Senate gets it right
Having just returned from my
first Boy Scout jamboree, I applaud the Senate for its recent vote
to allow U.S. military bases to continue to host Boy Scout events.
Boy Scouts of America has an
almost 100-year history of instilling character and leadership in
young men. An oath to God should
not keep Boy Scouts from being
treated the same as other national
youth organizations.
Scott Tucker, ninth grade,
Prestonwood Christian Academy,
Plano
A missed opportunity
Why are the Israelis forcibly
evicting settlers from Gaza? If
things were as bad as the Israeli
government must think they are,
the settlers would be falling all
over themselves to get out.
As it is, a great chance for communication, and maybe even a
step for peace, is being lost. What
is not clear is whether the homes
will be torn down. Again, more
chances to start to build a peace
will be lost.
Practicing scorched earth with
the neighbors seems to be self-defeating.
Charles Anderson, Sunnyvale
Army Spc. Casey Sheehan
How could Cindy Sheehan possibly expect President Bush to meet with her?
She only gave her son for the
Iraq war. If she had given
$25,000 to the Republican
National Committee, the
president would have been
more than glad to talk to her.
I doubt that any of those
donors at the fundraiser
have lost a son or daughter to
this misguided war.
Freddie Smith, Garland
Why all the venom directed at grieving mom?
I do not understand the venom being whipped up around the
concept of an aggrieved military mother who believes her son’s
death was in vain.
She is not dishonoring the troops or her son’s memory. She is
not being unpatriotic. I have tremendous respect for the real and
potential sacrifices that people make when they enlist.
And it is because of that respect that I believe that what President Bush and his supporters are doing is far more unpatriotic and
anti-troop than anything Cindy Sheehan could ever hope to do.
Jacob Bilhartz, Dallas
Giving in only adds to terrorists’ resolve
I have one son in the Marines and another who will begin his
Marine career upon high school graduation.
These fine young men are what is great and glorious about this
nation. They understand the price of freedom and what the world
will be like if we do not respond to terrorism now.
Stay the course, Mr. President. Don’t let the sacrifices made by
the brave men and women of the armed forces go for naught. If we
give in to the Cindy Sheehans of the world, all we do is fill the terrorists with a terrible resolve.
David Marks, Plano
Two views of the protest in Crawford: Viewpoints, 15A
This makes no sense …
Was she not Hispanic?
Re: “DISD set to vote on bilingual proposal — Plan would require some principals to learn
Spanish,” Wednesday Metro.
I cannot understand Dallas
school board members Joe May
and Lois Parrott’s thinking. When
my grandparents came here from
Germany, they never gave any
thought to having the school principal learn German so he or she
could communicate with them.
If the parents don’t want to
learn English, let them be responsible for bringing an Englishspeaking friend or relative to communicate with the principal.
Do you think if I moved to Mexico with my children the principal
there would learn English to communicate with me?
Midge Douglas, Dallas
Re: “Missing sensitivity — Both
Natalee Holloway and Latoyia Figueroa disappeared recently, but
only one has gotten much media
coverage,” by Froma Harrop, Saturday Viewpoints.
A slow news day in Providence
must have moved Ms. Harrop to
question whether cable channels,
magazines and tabloids care more
about victims who are white and
less about similar tragedies involving blacks or Hispanics.
Ms. Harrop, posing as a guardian of political correctness, smugly
propounds that the national media obsessed over Laci Peterson,
the missing 27-year-old from
Modesto, Calif., who was “white
and college-educated,” but not
Evelyn Hernandez, 24, who was
also pregnant and whose body was
found in the same bay.
… so give parents a task
Alas, Ms. Harrop failed to do
her
homework. Laci Rocha PeterIf principals will be required to
learn Spanish, it is only fair to re- son was, indeed, college-educated.
She also was Hispanic.
quire parents to learn English.
Peter Bargmann, Dallas
Audrey Pincu, Plano
LETTERS & VIEWPOINTS POLICY
We value reader submissions. We receive far more than we can print and publish
a representative sample. Limit letters to 200 words, with not more than one
published every 30 days. Viewpoints columns should not exceed 600 words
and also are edited for length and clarity. Include your name, address with ZIP
code and daytime phone number. Submissions become property of The News.
E-mail:
[email protected]
[email protected]
Fax:
metro 972-263-0456
A14 _ 08-16-2005 Set: 18:58:25
Sent by: shanan Opinion
Mail:
Letters From Readers
Box 655237
Dallas, Texas 75265
BLACK
◗ METRO
ARTSDAY
Good ‘Jill’ Hunting?
B
A pair of New York actresses will play Matt Damon
and Ben Affleck in the Fort Worth run of the
sharp-edged off-Broadway hit Matt & Ben. 12E
YOU DON’T SAY?
Deluge at
D/FW is
not enough
Two days of rain haven’t
washed away drought
conditions across North
Texas, but they brought
relief to parched tarmacs.
Rainfall totals at
Dallas/Fort Worth
International Airport hit
2.38 inches for Sunday and
Monday. That’s more wet
stuff than the airport had
from June 1 to Aug. 13,
National Weather Service
meteorologist Daniel
Huckaby said.
It also guarantees that
August will be the first
above-average rainfall
month since January at the
airport. But Mr. Huckaby
said it might not be until
winter when drought
conditions recede.
“We need 6 to 9 inches of
additional rain to get us
back to normal in North
Texas,” he said.
Paul Meyer
SHE SAID IT
“They do it out of love.
… Adults want to fit in
as much as children.”
Going gets tough on budgets
City Council leaning toward
leaner property tax increase
By DAVE LEVINTHAL
Staff Writer
This much is certain: The majority of Dallas City Council members are bent on scaling back the
property tax rate increase proposed in the budget that City
Manager Mary Suhm formally
presented to them Monday.
“We are conservative. We
know the public does not want to
see a property tax increase,”
Mayor Laura Miller said.
“It could be at or less than 2
cents,” added Mayor Pro Tem
Don Hill, asking his colleagues
to consider pruning the proposed increase of 2.7 cents per
$100 of property valuation.
Such talk visibly surprised
council member Mitchell Rasansky, chairman of the body’s
finance, audit and accountability committee and unofficial budget hawk.
“I never thought I’d hear you
say that,” he said, chiding Mr.
Hill.
See CITY Page 4B
Dallas County’s decisions may be made without
knowing the cost of new court, sheriff expenses
By JAMES M. O’NEILL
Staff Writer
Dallas County commissioners
find themselves in the odd position of having to determine the
county’s new budget and tax rate
without knowing the real cost of
some of their major new expenses.
Over the next two weeks, the
commissioners will have to decide
which new expenses to scale back
or eliminate, and whether they
should raise the tax rate past the
threshold that could trigger a rollback election.
Part of the problem stems from
the fact that commissioners have
not yet decided the best way to address a backlog of child abuse and
other cases in the courts — by adding dozens more prosecutors, as
District Attorney Bill Hill has requested, or by making other
changes.
And county officials — from
Sheriff Lupe Valdez to budget officer Ryan Brown — have yet to
hammer out just how many new
staffers the county needs to bring
the jail into state compliance.
W-H students adjust
to new surroundings
Mia Mbroh of Practical
Parent Education in Plano,
on parents’ urge to spend
on their children
Couple flee to NYC
in deportation fight
A Chinese citizen and her
husband, a millionaire
developer and former
Dallas Plan Commission
member, have fled to New
York City and plan to sue
U.S. immigration officials
seeking to deport her.
Audit files? DISD
says there are none
A coalition of downtown
business owners threatened
to fight any November bond
proposition designed to
fund a homeless assistance
center downtown. 5B
TEXAS &
SOUTHWEST
Special session close
to failure — again
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst all
but delivered the eulogy for
school finance and tax
legislation as the special
legislative session sputtered
toward its conclusion. 4A
BUSINESS
JACQUIELYNN FLOYD
Utterly
consumed
with stuff
T
PAGE 1A
INSIDE
Businesses serve
notice on shelter
See COUNTY Page 4B
he most talked-about item
in Monday’s paper seems
to have been a single paragraph buried innocuously toward
the bottom of Page 13A. It was a
comment made by a Collin County
man interviewed for a series about
well-to-do suburbanites living beyond their means.
The man, identified only as Jeffrey, went bankrupt last year and
has had a rough ride: Even after he
was downsized out of his telecom
job, he and his wife kept spending
until they were drowning in debt.
Chapter 7 made their backbreak-
Story on 1A
Dallas school officials say
they have no documents to
show for a $50,000 investigation — a probe that
the district’s technology
boss said cleared him of
taking gifts from vendors.
Sheriff Valdez originally asked for
75 positions, and Mr. Brown has
estimated 16 positions would suffice.
“By setting up a contingency
account, we can provide some flexibility in dealing with the jail and
courts,” said Commissioner Mike
Cantrell.
But County Judge Margaret
Keliher opposes putting money for
jail compliance into a contingency
fund.
Parents say kids are driving the
spending in Collin County. 1A
NATALIE CAUDILL/Staff Photographer
Roosevelt High School principal Leon Dudley directed Ashley Veals, 16, to her classroom on Monday. Roosevelt is
one of 25 southern Dallas campuses that have Wilmer-Hutchins students in attendance.
First day of school in DISD also marks debut of uniforms on many campuses
By TAWNELL D. HOBBS
and HERB BOOTH
Staff Writers
Wilmer-Hutchins’
2,700
students blended into Dallas
schools on Monday — right
down to their uniforms.
Those two changes — new
classmates and a new uniform
policy — highlighted the first
DISD teachers to get
modest raise. 8B
day of school in the Dallas Independent School District.
Dallas officials scrambled
over the past month to make arrangements for the WilmerHutchins students, whose district did not have the money to
operate this year. The only hitch
on Day One: A few students
showed up at the wrong bus
stops.
spent some of the day welcoming students back to school —
including the new WilmerHutchins students.
“We are glad to have you
here,” he told Wilmer-Hutchins
student Ashley Scott as she sat
at her desk at South Oak Cliff
High School, which took in
Wilmer-Hutchins’ 200 seniors.
But not everyone was
pleased with the new additions.
Student Erica Jones predicted there would be more fights on
campus because, she said, some
South Oak Cliff students don’t
DANNY GAWLOWSKI/Staff Photographer want the Wilmer-Hutchins kids
around. Some students hanging
Freshman Nemeshia Swoopes, 15, waits to meet with a
outside the school on Monday
counselor at South Oak Cliff High School.
agreed with Erica.
On the uniform front, some quired polo-style shirt. Those in
“Students at our school were
DISD kids were turned away shirts without collars also were already fighting each other,”
when they arrived out of dress told to go change.
said Erica, 17. “I’m not happy
code. The biggest violators were
Superintendent Michael Hi- about this at all.”
students who wore button- nojosa, who is starting his first
down shirts instead of the re- full school year with the district,
See W-H Page 8B
ing credit card debts evaporate,
but they have had to scale back on
their expenses.
Jeffrey says he is ashamed. Not,
as you might expect, to have
bought things he couldn’t pay for,
but because of the car he now
drives.
He called it the “embarrassment factor”:
“I don’t care about driving a
Volvo instead of a Mercedes,” he
told my colleague Paula Lavigne. “I
care that other people notice I’m
not driving a Mercedes and now
I’m in a Volvo.”
Is he kidding?
I guess not, because this series
(which focused on Collin County
but could have been reported in
hundreds of places) is replete with
people whose lives are utterly engorged with stuff — cars and furniture, big houses with spas and wine
closets and media rooms, Louis
Vuitton purses, golf club memberships and thousand-dollar pedicure parties for 11-year-old girls.
Now that he’s driving that
shameful Volvo, Jeffrey has no
choice but to face up to his problems.
Still, he says, “It wouldn’t be
hard to slip back into it. I still look
at expensive cars and think, ‘Wow,
that would be kind of cool.’ ”
See OBSESSION Page 2B
TI enlists NASCAR
to pitch its TV chips
Texas Instruments plans to
sponsor a NASCAR team to
rev up publicity for the
company’s high-definition
TV technology. 1D
INDEX
Regional Roundup ................................2
Weather ...............................................2
Gromer Jeffers Jr. ..................................3
Obituaries .........................................6-7
At A Glance ........................................10
C++
. . . . . . . .
Allen man, 52, killed in rare head-on bicycling collision
The Sunday morning crash had
area
cyclists buzzing Monday as
Plano: Second cyclist
they exchanged phone calls and
hurt on popular route posted messages on regional oncycling forums.
in southeast part of city lineJim
Hoyt, owner of Richardson
Bike Mart, said he’s never heard of
By PAULA LAVIGNE
a fatal head-on collision in his 50
Staff Writer
years of cycling. “We can’t figure it
A head-on collision between out.”
One cyclist, 52-year-old Mitwo bicyclists killed one man and
injured another on a popular cy- chael Mahoney of Allen, was taken
to Medical Center of Plano, where
cling route in southeast Plano.
B0816AB001PQ
B0816AB001PK
B0816AB001PY
B0816AB001PM
B0816AB001PC
5 25 50 75 95
he died Sunday. The Collin County
medical examiner’s office would
not release a cause of death Monday, but a family friend said he
died of severe head trauma.
The other cyclist, 37-year-old
Jordan Muller of Richardson, was
treated in the emergency room
and released, a hospital spokeswoman said. Mr. Muller could not
be reached Monday.
Both were riding road bikes
and were wearing helmets, police
said.
Nancy and Doug Clark have
been friends of Mr. Mahoney and
his wife, Nadine, for almost 25
years.
Mr. Mahoney had worked for
J.C. Penney since the late 1970s,
and both families had been transferred, at different times, by the
company from Wisconsin to
North Texas.
“He loved his family more than
anything, and he had friends that
B1 C++ 08-16-2005 Set: 00:18:38
are going to miss him forever,”
Mrs. Clark said. She said he had
started cycling about four years
ago after knee surgery forced him
to give up running.
On Sunday, he and Mr. Muller
were cycling in opposite directions
near Wyngate Boulevard and
Wynwood Drive in an industrial
section of southeast Plano, Plano
police Officer Carl Duke said.
See ALLEN Page 9B
BLACK
YELLOW
MAGENTA
CYAN
Page 2B
UV ADVISORY
C
POLLEN ADVISORY
WEATHER
The UV Index for today is 6. On a 15 point scale,
6 is high. Exposed skin may burn in less than 20
minutes. Use SPF 20+.
WFAA-TV chief weathercaster Troy Dungan
(center) with meteorologists Greg Fields and
Steve McCauley.
D-FW REGIONAL ROUNDUP
Fungus is expected to be
the predominant pollen
in the air today.
WFAA-TV’S DALLAS-FORT WORTH 5-DAY OUTLOOK
TODAY
Diary
Highs & Lows
Yesterday’s temperatures
and relative humidity
Midnight
77
82%
1 a.m.
76
84%
2 a.m.
76
84%
3 a.m.
78
81%
4 a.m.
78
84%
5 a.m.
77
87%
6 a.m.
77
87%
77
87%
7 a.m.
8 a.m.
77
87%
79
85%
9 a.m.
10 a.m.
82
77%
11 a.m.
86
67%
Noon
89
57%
1 p.m.
90
49%
2 p.m.
92
45%
3 p.m.
94
39%
4 p.m.
95
38%
5 p.m.
95
38%
6 p.m.
95
44%
7 p.m.
75
88%
8 p.m.
80
78%
9 p.m.
77
84%
10 p.m. †
76
92%
78
75%
11 p.m. †
Nation’s high
Death Valley, Calif. ......105
Partly cloudy,
a few storms
High 95, Low 75
TOMORROW’S
STATE
90s
FORECAST
Wichita Falls
Fort Worth Dallas
Abilene
100s
Tyler
El Paso Odessa Midland
Waco
Austin
Beaumont
Marfa
San
Antonio
80s
Houston
90s
Del Rio
Texas low
Dalhart ............................59
100s
Pollen
Grains per cubic meter
measured in North Dallas
Total ................ 2,578
KEY: l=low, m=medium,
h=high, vh=very high
SOURCE: Dr. Jeffrey
Adelglass. For current
reading call 972-ALLERGY,
or log on to
www.entdocs.com
For the latest weather every 10
minutes, turn to TXCN, Cannel 38
Corpus
Christi
Laredo
For the
Record
SATURDAY
Hot,
humid
High 98, Low 77
Hot,
humid
High 99, Low 78
Yesterday
City
Hi Lo Prec
85 70 .65
Abilene
73 61
t
Amarillo
Austin
94 77 .05
Beaumont/Pt Arthur 94 77 .11
96 80
Brownsville
80 65
Childress
93 74 .31
College Station
98 79
Corpus Christi
Dalhart
69 59
Del Rio
90 76 .01
92 73
t
Denton
84 66
El Paso
Galveston
93 80 .28
Houston
93 75
t
Junction
89 70 .33
Laredo
102 83
94 74
Longview
76 64 .02
Lubbock
Lufkin
93 73 .15
Marfa
81 61 .11
McAllen
97 80
Midland/Odessa
78 66 .53
97 72 .11
Paris
San Angelo
86 68 .07
San Antonio
96 79
Temple
91 75
Texarkana
92 73 .15
92 73
Tyler
94 76 .20
Victoria
Waco
94 76
Wichita Falls
85 71 .42
Lubbock
Texas high
Laredo ............................102
FRIDAY
Partly cloudy,
hot, humid
High 96, Low 76
Amarillo
Nation’s low
Bondurant, Wyo. ............26
Fungus...............2,578 h
THURSDAY
WEDNESDAY
Partly cloudy,
storms
High 92, Low 75
Brownsville
High Low
97
75
D/FW International Airport
Dallas Love Field
96
75
Ft. Worth Meacham Intl. Airport
94
75
Normal
95
74
Year ago
87
71
Record high
107 in 1951
Record low
64 in 1955
Precipitation
Inches
Monday (from midnight to 8 p.m.)
0.16
Month to date
1.74
Normal month to date
0.97
Year to date
15.65
Normal year to date
22.00
Maximum wind speed
26 mph at 9 p.m.
Low barometer
29.98 at 1 a.m.
High barometer
30.09 at 11 a.m.
All data recorded at D/FW International Airport except
where noted. † temperatures are forecast estimates.
* Record
Today Tomorrow
Hi Lo For Hi Lo For
87 73 ts 95 74 pc
87 66 ts 93 67 ts
96 74 pc 96 75 ts
92 76 ts 93 76 ts
96 80 ts 96 80 sh
87 70 ts 91 72 ts
95 76 ts 96 75 ts
96 76 ts 96 76 sh
88 63 ts 94 63 ts
96 78 pc 98 78 pc
89 72 ts 93 74 ts
90 70 ts 94 72 pc
92 82 ts 92 82 ts
94 75 ts 96 75 ts
92 72 ts 94 73 pc
104 82 pc 104 77 pc
93 74 ts 93 74 ts
85 70 ts 92 70 ts
93 73 ts 95 73 ts
84 63 ts 85 61 ts
100 80 pc 100 80 pc
90 73 ts 98 72 pc
88 71 ts 91 73 ts
90 74 ts 95 74 pc
96 77 pc 96 75 pc
93 74 pc 96 75 ts
90 74 ts 93 75 ts
92 75 ts 94 73 ts
94 74 ts 97 74 ts
92 74 ts 97 77 ts
89 72 ts 96 74 ts
TODAY’S NATIONAL WEATHER MAP
70s 60s
Seattle
90s
Fargo
Billings
80s
70s
Portland
Rapid City
60s 70s 80s
90s
Casper
Boise
Omaha
Salt Lake
City
Denver
90s
Roundup
pop. 27
Albuquerque
100s
70s
Phoenix
Fort Worth Dallas
El Paso
80s
80s
Little
Rock
Raleigh
Atlanta
Charleston
90s
New
Orleans
Rain
Snow
100s
Miami
90s
Ice
Honolulu
Durango
Mazatlan
HAWAII
Cabo
San Lucas
Puerto
Vallarta
80s
40s
60s 50s
Storms
Orlando
90s
80s
Monterrey
Havana
CUBA
90s
70s
Tampico
Cancun
Merida
Guadalajara
Fairbanks
90s
Vera Cruz
70s
Shown are noon
positions of weather
systems and
precipitation.
Temperature bands
are highs for the day.
Juneau
BELIZE
Mexico City
Anchorage
80s
Acapulco
ALASKA
GUATEMALA
HONDURAS
NICARAGUA
Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow
Hi Lo Prec Hi Lo For Hi Lo For
City
Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow
Albany, N.Y.
Albuquerque, N.M.
Anchorage, Alaska
Atlanta
Baltimore
Bangor, Maine
Birmingham, Ala.
Bismarck, N.D.
Boise, Idaho
Boston
Buffalo, N.Y.
Burlington, Vt.
Casper, Wyo.
Charleston, S.C.
Charleston, W.Va.
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Colorado Spgs, Colo.
Columbia, S.C.
Columbus, Ohio
Concord, N.H.
Denver
Des Moines, Iowa
Detroit
Fairbanks, Alaska
Fargo, N.D.
82
79
63
92
89
80
96
83
92
68
80
80
80
93
94
82
84
77
71
94
76
75
85
81
80
81
83
Flagstaff, Ariz.
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Hartford, Conn.
Helena, Mont.
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Jackson, Miss.
Juneau, Alaska
Kansas City, Mo.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Las Vegas, Nev.
Little Rock, Ark.
Los Angeles
Louisville, Ky.
Memphis, Tenn.
Miami
Milwaukee
Mpls/St Paul, Minn.
Nashville, Tenn.
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Omaha, Neb.
Orlando, Fla.
Pensacola, Fla.
Philadelphia
Phoenix, Ariz.
73
81
77
88
89
73
98
61
78
94
90
98
77
86
96
93
79
78
96
93
78
80
81
97
92
87
99
67
64
50
73
74
63
73
50
57
65
61
63
48
76
70
60
72
66
54
74
69
64
54
60
64
57
56
.04
t
t
.16
.12
t
t
.02
.15
.02
.26
-
80
87
66
90
80
80
93
84
92
75
80
83
86
94
78
82
79
81
82
96
80
79
86
87
84
78
82
58 ts
66 ts
54 c
74 ts
66 ts
55 pc
74 ts
60 ts
63 s
62 pc
60 pc
58 pc
55 ts
76 ts
65 ts
64 pc
63 ts
61 pc
56 ts
75 ts
62 ts
54 pc
58 ts
65 pc
61 pc
53 s
61 ts
AIR QUALITY
Unhealthy
Moderate
Unhealthy for
sensitive groups
Good
82
90
64
90
86
83
91
85
88
84
75
78
84
92
83
86
85
81
82
92
85
85
86
86
83
71
76
53 s
66 ts
52 r
74 ts
64 pc
47 pc
75 ts
59 ts
58 pc
62 s
56 s
49 pc
52 ts
75 ts
63 pc
64 s
66 pc
62 s
56 ts
73 ts
63 s
51 s
58 ts
67 pc
62 s
49 pc
59 ts
50
60
67
46
75
69
73
57
63
72
68
73
64
72
76
78
61
58
71
77
74
70
56
74
77
74
78
t
t
.02
.06
.08
t
t
.15
t
.03
.16
.01
.15
72
83
81
86
89
82
95
68
88
89
95
90
80
83
90
92
82
84
89
94
81
86
87
95
92
81
101
48 ts
57 pc
55 pc
57 pc
75 pc
64 pc
73 ts
50 c
65 pc
70 ts
75 ts
72 ts
64 pc
70 ts
72 ts
80 sh
63 pc
65 ts
71 ts
77 ts
68 sh
70 ts
65 pc
76 ts
78 ts
66 sh
83 s
76
84
88
76
88
84
92
69
91
87
98
89
80
86
87
92
84
86
87
92
86
92
91
96
91
86
105
48 ts
63 s
55 s
53 ts
75 pc
65 pc
75 ts
53 r
70 pc
70 ts
76 s
75 ts
64 pc
70 pc
76 ts
80 sh
65 s
67 pc
71 ts
79 ts
68 s
73 ts
67 pc
76 ts
78 ts
69 pc
83 s
City
Yesterday
Today
Tomorrow
Pittsburgh
Portland, Maine
Portland, Ore.
Providence, R.I.
Rapid City, S.D.
Raleigh, N.C.
Reno, Nev.
Richmond, Va.
Sacramento, Calif.
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Santa Fe, N.M.
Savannah, Ga.
Seattle
Shreveport, La.
Sioux Falls, S.D.
Spokane, Wash.
Syracuse, N.Y.
Tallahassee, Fla.
Tampa, Fla.
Tucson, Ariz.
Tulsa, Okla.
Washington, D.C.
Wichita, Kan.
79
74
90
75
82
95
89
97
81
76
90
72
72
76
96
86
91
77
89
83
94
94
92
84
90
73
67
63
63
68
52
72
63
77
57
69
65
66
57
55
74
58
73
54
54
64
73
76
67
71
79
65
t
.41
.01
.02
.47
.36
t
t
.30
.15
1.99
.29
79
76
80
78
91
94
84
87
92
83
83
72
72
83
94
74
93
85
86
81
94
94
94
89
83
88
60 sh
58 pc
58 pc
58 pc
63 pc
72 ts
56 ts
68 ts
58 s
67 pc
64 ts
66 pc
57 pc
58 ts
75 ts
56 pc
75 ts
64 pc
56 s
58 pc
74 ts
78 ts
76 ts
70 pc
68 ts
67 pc
82
79
74
86
88
86
90
79
93
89
85
72
70
87
94
68
95
89
76
80
94
94
100
93
86
91
c=cloudy pc=partly cloudy sf=snow flurries t=trace
i=ice
r=rain
sh=showers
s=sunny
ts=thunderstorms sn=snow
MEXICO
Full
Last qtr.
New
First qtr.
Aug. 19 Aug. 26 Sept. 3 Sept. 11
Sunrise
6:51 a.m. Tuesday
Sunset
8:11 p.m. Tuesday
Sunrise
6:52 a.m. Wednesday
Moonrise
6:11 p.m. Tuesday
Moonset
3:59 a.m. Wednesday
Vega is a brilliant blue-white star that
shines high overhead every evening this
month. It is the brightest star in the constellation Lyra, the harp. The rest of the
stars in Lyra are much fainter than Vega.
They form a small diamond, with Vega
off to one side.
City
Acapulco
Cancun
Chihuahua
Durango
Guadalajara
Guanajuato
Hermosillo
Mazatlan
Merida
Mexico City
Monterrey
Puerto Vallarta
Saltillo
Veracruz
EUROPE
Yesterday
Today
Hi Lo Prec Hi Lo For City
91
95
83
79
79
81
102
95
99
74
98
94
84
91
72
74
54
50
63
58
73
73
74
54
72
68
57
76
.18
.03
.01
.02
.01
.02
-
87
94
86
82
84
82
99
91
96
78
93
90
88
88
79
79
64
57
64
58
77
79
74
57
77
79
66
77
Yesterday
Today
Hi Lo Prec Hi Lo For
pc
ts
ts
ts
ts
pc
s
pc
pc
sh
s
pc
pc
ts
Amsterdam
66 54 .04 70
Athens
91 74 - 91
Belgrade
80 60 .87 70
Berlin
74 47 .04 77
150
Brussels
65 48 .04 73
Budapest
71 57 .72 68
33 at 9:23 p.m.
Copenhagen
72 53 .04 70
Dublin
68 50 - 70
100
Frankfurt
66 41 .43 77
Geneva
66 51 .24 72
Helsinki
66 54 .04 63
50
Istanbul
86 76 - 90
Lisbon
93 73 - 90
London
76 52 - 79
– by UT-McDonald Observatory, 512-471-5285
Madrid
102 58 - 97
0
www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/mcdonald.html
LATIN AMERICA
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Moscow
73 52 - 72
The Planets
CARIBBEAN
Oslo
75 52 .04 68
Aug. 16 10 p.m.
69 53 - 73
Bogota
66 47 .07 65 45 r Paris
POLLEN COUNTS
Rise
Set
83 60 .07 82
Buenos Aires
55 37 - 66 50 r Rome
Daily averages for Aug. 16-20, 1991-2002
Venus
9:42 a.m. 9:51 p.m. Caracas
Fungus Grasses Weeds Trees
72 52 t 72
93 75 .01 88 64 sh St. Petersburg
Mars
11:47 p.m. 12:58 p.m. Havana
73 53 .06 68
91 74 .01 90 74 pc Stockholm
Jupiter 10:58 p.m. 10:35 p.m.
Very high
61 56 1.52 63
92 79 .05 91 81 ts Vienna
Saturn
5:18 a.m. 7:08 p.m. Kingston
73 52 .04 73
Lima
67 57 - 66 60 s Warsaw
High
Lyra
Nassau
93 74 - 91 79 pc
ASIA/PACIFIC
Vega
Panama City
89 72 .05 90 75 ts Bangkok
Moderate
91 78 .22 88
Moon
Rio de Janeiro
82 70 - 78 70 s Beijing
94 79 .13 84
Low
St. Thomas
92 79 .01 88 79 pc Ho Chi Minh City 91 75 .35 86
Santiago
61 47 .08 53 45 r Hong Kong
16
17
18
19
20
89 81 .39 87
North
East
South
SOURCE: Dr. Jeffrey Adelglass, www.entdocs.com
San Juan
91 77 .31 90 78 ts Jakarta
91 74 - 87
San Jose
81 66 .10 82 63 ts Manila
88 76 .09 84
8-14 Day Outlook
Sao Paulo
81 61 - 73 60 pc New Delhi
98 86 - 99
Aug 23-29
San Salvador
88 70 .05 86 68 ts Seoul
90 77 .09 90
200
TEMPERATURE
CANADA
Above normal
Below normal
Calgary
Edmonton
Halifax
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Below normal
SOURCE: Climate
Prediction Center
58
53
67
81
83
82
79
74
52 .02
45 58 .11
61 59 57 61 54 -
56
53
71
80
80
82
72
69
42
42
56
62
59
62
56
52
sh
sh
s
ts
ts
s
pc
pc
AFRICA
PRECIPITATION
Above normal
60 s
58 pc
60 pc
62 s
60 ts
68 ts
58 s
66 ts
58 s
70 pc
66 ts
66 pc
57 pc
57 ts
75 ts
56 sh
73 ts
64 pc
52 sh
49 s
74 ts
78 ts
78 s
75 ts
70 pc
72 pc
INTERNATIONAL FORECAST/ HIGHS AND LOWS
SKY WATCH
Addis Ababa
Cape Town
Cairo
Casablanca
Dakar
Johannesburg
Kinshasa
Lagos
Nairobi
75
57
103
90
88
75
85
82
77
Authorities are investigating
the death of a Flower Mound man
whose body was found in his home
Monday afternoon. The man,
whose name was not released
pending notification of relatives,
was found about 3:30 p.m. by a
neighbor in the 5000 block of Coker Drive. Flower Mound police Lt.
Wendell Mitchell said the man had
suffered a gunshot wound to the
head, but it was unclear whether
the death was a suicide or homicide.
Holly Yan
FORT WORTH
Ex-officer sentenced for
excessive force in arrest
A former Fort Worth police officer was sentenced to 27 months in
prison for using excessive force
during an arrest. Ruben Omar
Ruiz, 45, was sentenced in federal
court Monday by Judge Terry R.
Means. In April, a federal jury convicted Mr. Ruiz on a count of deprivation of civil rights resulting in
bodily injury. After a police chase
that stretched from Forest Hill to
Arlington on Sept. 13, 2000, five
other officers held David Davis Jr.
to the ground. Mr. Ruiz then
kicked Mr. Davis several times, including in the head, and he struck
the victim on the head.
Holly Yan
Officials have identified a woman who died from two shotgun
wounds Friday night in a double
homicide near Krum as Michele A.
Ek, 51. Kenneth Keller, 42, who
lives about two miles from the residence, was charged with capital
murder and remains in Denton
County Jail with bail set at
$200,000. Officers found Ms. Ek’s
body outside a house on FM2450
north of Hopkins Road after Owetta Cawood, 53, flagged down a
passing motorcyclist. Ms. Cawood
suffered facial and chest injuries
from a shotgun blast but is expected to survive. Jeffrey Anderson,
55, died inside the house from
close-range shotgun blasts to the
head and chest.
Denton Record-Chronicle
LEWISVILLE
NATIONAL FORECAST/ HIGHS AND LOWS
City
Man found in home
with fatal shot to head
Woman identified in
fatal shootings at home
Richmond
Jackson
Shreveport
FLOWER MOUND
KRUM
Washington
Cincinnati
Birmingham
Houston
90s
L
Austin
Hermosillo
Chihuahua
80s
New York
Memphis
Oklahoma
City
Boston
Pittsburgh
Louisville
Tulsa
70s
Cleveland
Indianapolis
St. Louis
Wichita
Santa Fe
90s
Los
Angeles
Buffalo
70s
Chicago
Kansas City
60s
Las
Vegas
Milwaukee
Detroit
80s
70s
80s
Des Moines
70s
San
Francisco
Minneapolis
90s
70s
70s
80s
70s
L
DallasNews.com
52 .02 72 48 r
51 - 58 43 s
75 - 101 76 s
68 - 87 71 s
75 - 85 73 c
49 - 68 48 pc
71 - 86 70 pc
71 .07 78 70 ts
48 - 70 47 r
Shanghai
Singapore
Sydney
Taipei
Tokyo
94
91
72
93
90
79 78 .25
49 77 78 .19
94
86
68
90
84
57
75
55
57
54
54
57
59
54
54
54
72
68
57
66
52
50
55
64
55
52
57
59
pc
pc
r
pc
pc
r
pc
pc
pc
pc
sh
pc
pc
pc
s
pc
c
pc
pc
c
sh
r
pc
76
69
76
80
73
77
82
78
80
78
52
77
75
ts
r
ts
ts
sh
ts
c
ts
ts
ts
s
pc
sh
MIDEAST
Beirut
Dubai
Jerusalem
Riyadh
Tehran
Tel Aviv
89
104
91
109
91
96
77 - 86 77 s
83 - 106 89 s
67 - 95 72 s
84 - 105 86 s
69 .04 90 74 pc
74 - 91 74 s
AccuWeather.com
Forecasts and maps provided
by AccuWeather Inc.©2004
5-day outlook provided by
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Driver who tried to run
over pedestrian is sought
ing the assault of a pedestrian who
was struck by a vehicle in the 1000
block of Business Highway 121 early Monday. Lewisville police
spokesman Richard Douglass said
the pedestrian, whose identification was not clear Monday afternoon, was crossing the street about
5:20 a.m. when a motorist attempted to run over him. The pedestrian began to flee, but the driver chased him onto an
embankment on the side of the
road, struck him and fled. Officer
Douglass said the pedestrian was in
the trauma center at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
Brandon Formby
what prompted the shooting. Police did not have a detailed description of the assailant, who was driving a 2000 or 2001 white Cadillac
sedan with gold trim. Anyone with
information can call 214-671-3661.
Holly Yan
SOUTHEAST DALLAS
Man arrested in killing
in apartment parking lot
Police have arrested a man in
connection with the shooting death
of a 30-year-old man Saturday
night. Keenan Smith, 20, was taken into custody after he turned
himself in to police Monday morning. He is being held in the death of
MCKINNEY
Joe Nathan Harden Jr., who was
Authorities investigating shot in the parking lot of the Woodland City Apartments in the 200
theft of nearly 50 guns
block of South Jim Miller Road
McKinney and Allen police are about 10 p.m.
Holly Yan
working with federal agents to
track down nearly 50 guns stolen
SOUTHLAKE
from two residences late last
month. An Allen homeowner re- Boil-water notice issued
ported more than 40 guns stolen, to some neighborhoods
including semi-automatic rifles.
Lightning hit an antenna at
The next day, a McKinney homeowner reported a safe containing Dove Street/White Chapel Water
Tower late Sunday, causing water
nine guns stolen.
From staff reports pump problems in some Southlake
neighborhoods. The public works
NORTH DALLAS
staff was working to fix the problem
was putting notices on affected
Forest, Marsh areas to be and
homes. These residents are asked
sprayed for mosquitoes
to boil their water until this evening
City of Dallas crews will spray and not water their lawns. Resifor mosquitoes in two areas on dents will be notified when good
Wednesday and Thursday nights. water samples are reported. The afThe third human case of West Nile fected area is bordered by Florence,
virus was reported Friday. The city’s Randol Mill, Peytonville, Southmosquito samples also tested posi- lake, Johnson and North Pearson
tive for the virus. An area bordered Lane. A map of the affected area is
by Forest Lane, Inwood Road, Roy- available on the city’s Public Works
al Lane and Midway Road will be page at www.cityofsouthlake.com.
Holly Warren
sprayed between 10:30 p.m.
UNIVERSITY PARK
Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday.
An area bordered by Townsend
Drive, Marsh Lane, Merrell Road Board OKs division
and Webb Chapel Road will be of single-family lot
sprayed from 10:30 p.m. Thursday
Impassioned pleas from a dozen
to 6 a.m. Friday. Residents should
neighborhood
residents couldn’t
stay indoors with pets and avoid
persuade
University
Park’s fivecontact with the spray.
Holly Warren member Planning and Zoning
Commission to deny a homePLEASANT GROVE
owner-initiated request to divide a
single-family lot in half. All
Driver sought; road rage large
five commission members voted
blamed in fatal shooting for the replat request at the board’s
Police are looking for a man who meeting Monday night. Several
fatally shot an 18-year-old after an members said that they agreed
apparent road rage incident. Jdion with the neighbors but legally they
Ervin King was a passenger in a car had no choice. The request to replat
that was stopped on southbound the lot on the northeast corner of
Jim Miller Road at Bruton Road Southwestern Boulevard and Hillwhen he was shot about 1:45 a.m. crest Road will now go before the
Sunday. Dallas police Senior Cpl. University Park City Council for fiMax Geron said an altercation ap- nal approval.
Kristen Holland
parently started about three miles
north, near Samuell Boulevard and
Jim Miller Road, but it was unclear
Lewisville police are investigat-
JACQUIELYNN FLOYD
Obsession with possessions
can buy you a bunch of grief
Continued from Page 1B
Somebody send this man to
AA! No, wait — tie him to a chair
and make him watch It’s a Wonderful Life 10 times, start to finish.
He evidently still has some issues
to work through.
Jeffrey’s sad remarks summed
up the awful emptiness that seems
to be reflected in these stories
about people whose joy isn’t so
much in having possessions but in
showing them off, in believing that
they tell the world what it needs to
know about them.
I felt kind of sorry for the guy,
but a lot of readers were just plain
mad:
“I don’t have too much sympathy for people forced to drop from
a Mercedes to a Volvo,” one writer
e-mailed The Dallas Morning
News. “Why don’t you do some stories on ‘normal people’ and how
they manage to survive on considerably less?”
Well, it’s all relative, of course. I
can’t begin to imagine attending
high school in a place where teenagers drive their own BMWs and
Hummers. At some schools, everybody drives an old Chevy or a pickup; at others, everybody rides the
bus. If people earn their own money, it’s their business how they
spend it.
After all, I would be remiss in
failing to disclose that I like shopping a lot myself. I can turn a twominute stop for bread at the store
into an hour of browsing.
Some readers thought we unfairly stereotyped suburbanites as
greedy, irresponsible and materialistic.
“Nice hatchet job on Plano,” one
exasperated reader wrote. “If you
wanted to show Plano in the worst
possible light, you did a good job.”
Collin County, with its fast
growth and retail explosion, offered plenty of examples of people
spending more than their incomes
can handle.
But there are people in every
neighborhood in the nation who
are in money trouble, who spend
more than they should, who can’t
break the crack habit of acquiring
costly new stuff.
Honestly, are you really that
preoccupied with your neighbor’s
car, stereo system or patio furniture? Being the kind of person who
takes a vulgar pride in finding
pants for $5 at Target, I can’t honestly say I worry about what the
people across the street think of my
car. I assume that they don’t think
about it at all and never will, unless
I accidentally drive it over their flowerbed.
What good does it do to wheeze
on to our kids about “character”
and “personal responsibility” if we
behave like it’s our clothes, cars and
houses that define us?
And if Jeffrey tootles by in his
humble Volvo, wave and give him a
thumbs-up. He could use some
positive reinforcement.
Tuesday Special
From
VALUES GREATER THA
N TH
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ST OF
YOUR NE WSPAPER
METRO
DallasNews.com
© 2005, The Dallas Morning News
Deputy Managing Editor
for Metro News . . . Dwayne Bray
CONTACT US
Phone: 214-977-8456
Fax: 214-977-8319
E-mail:[email protected]
Mail:P.O. Box 655237, Dallas,
TX 75265
Valid thru August 22, 2005 at participating locations. Please present coupon when ordering.
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Day Three - Paula Lavigne

Transcription

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