Harvey changes plans around NB this weekend

By Alec Woolsey

The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

August 26, 2017

http://herald-zeitung.com/news/article_0e5481e2-89e9-11e7-a609-e704ba47ef5d.html

Although Hurricane Harvey is hovering along the Gulf Coast of Texas, its impact is expected to reach New Braunfels this weekend with some businesses, events and government facilities planning to close.

Comal County court proceedings scheduled for Monday, Aug. 28, will be canceled and the Guadalupe River will be closed starting from the county line to New Braunfels.

“Based on the rain and wind forecasts we’re seeing, it’s better to be proactive and make sure our deputies can focus their attention where it’s most needed,” County Judge Sherman Krause said.

The Guadalupe River closing took effect as of 5 p.m. on Friday until further notice from county officials.

New Braunfels parks will remain open this weekend, but events and some facilities will be closed on Saturday.

“We don’t have any park closings, but our activities for (Saturday) are canceled,” said Stacey Dicke, the director for the parks and recreation department in New Braunfels. “The pools will be closed and any programs we have will be canceled.”

The only planned cancellations and closings are for Saturday, Aug. 26, at the time of the newspaper went to press Friday night.

“We’re just going to take it one day at a time,” Dicke said.

The city of New Braunfels announced on Friday that trash pickup would be suspended until further notice because of personnel and safety concerns. The recycling center will be closed until further notice beginning on Saturday. More information is available at (830) 221-4040.

The city also announced that the New Braunfels Public Library, the Westside Branch Library, the RIOmobile bookmobile and the Westside Community Center will not be open for public use on Saturday. 

“We regret the impact that closing for the day will have for our library customers, however we do anticipate reopening on Sunday at the main library and resuming regular hours for all locations next week,” Gretchen Pruett, library director, said in a press release.

Events and venues

Gary Allan was expected to conduct a concert at Whitewater Amphitheater on Saturday, Aug. 26, but the event has been rescheduled because of safety concerns. Whitewater released a statement on Twitter announcing the concert has been rescheduled due to weather concerns and will now take place on Oct. 20. All tickets purchased at this time will be honored for the later date.

“If you cannot make the new date, please contact the venue or point of purchase by 4 p.m. on Aug. 31 for a refund,” the statement said.

Schlitterbahn Waterpark in New Braunfels will be closed on Saturday and Sunday this weekend because of concerns over weather conditions. South Padre Island, Galveston and Corpus Christi Schlitterbahn locations along the Gulf Coast are closed as well this weekend due to hurricane-related weather conditions.

Winter Prosapio, corporate director of communications and government relations at Schlitterbahn Waterparks, said the company encourages potential visitors to check the Schlitterbahn website before making plans to visit the water park. Any closings or openings will be announced there.

While the waterparks in New Braunfels and South Padre will be closed, the resorts will remain open with limited operations.

“Harvey is not being the most cooperative of hurricanes,” Prosapio said.

“Wine and Wag” is an annual fundraiser that benefits the Canyon Lake Animal Shelter Society (CLASS). It takes place at Cry Comal Creek Winery and Vineyards in New Braunfels with live music accompanying drinks on a relaxed Sunday evening.

The event was scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 27, but due to concerns over the weather the event is expected to be rescheduled for a date in September.

“We are now looking at a date in September,” said Jan Dunlap, a volunteer with CLASS who coordinated the event. “I don’t have a date yet because I need to get the band lined up.”

The Comal County Senior Center plans to remain closed on Monday, Aug. 28, due to hurricane-related weather. It closed its doors early Friday afternoon in preparation for the weather.

Jana Evans, volunteer coordinator at the senior center, said it would be closed because of the expected weather conditions this weekend.

Weathering the storm

Not all businesses plan to close their doors though.

According to a press release from H-E-B, a number of locations near the coast have been closed, but at this time the New Braunfels locations will not be impacted by weather conditions. Current information on store closings can be found at heb.com/disaster.

“We are gearing up to deploy our two H-E-B Mobile Kitchens, which will provide meals for first responders and residents affected by Hurricane Harvey,” the company said in a press release. “We are currently planning when and where we will dispatch our convoy.”

To benefit the mobile kitchen efforts, the company said H-E-B and Central Market customers in Texas will have the opportunity to donate $1, $3 or $5 to their grocery bills.

Calls for change echoed around NB

By Alec Woolsey

The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

March 27, 2018

http://herald-zeitung.com/news/article_b748b1aa-314c-11e8-9ef8-7f61f2035e3d.html

A local March for Our Lives organized protest, part of a wider event in cities across the United States. took place on the Main Plaza in downtown New Braunfels from about 2 to 4 p.m on Saturday. 

The event centered on a series of speakers on the bandstand, including Molly Bursey with the local Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America organization, current teacher Becky Stich and Kendra Manning, an 11th-grade student at Premier High School. 

According to Bursey, the event was largely planned by Manning while Moms Demand Action did the legwork promoting the event. Bursey said she is the volunteer local group lead for Moms Demand Action.

“She did this all on her own,” Bursey said. “Of course, you know, we spread the word.”

According to the official March for Our Lives website, the event was, “created by, inspired by and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar.” 

The protests were, in large part, spurred by the shooting deaths of 17 students in Parkland, Florida, on Feb. 14.

Manning, who wore a Supergirl outfit at Saturday’s protest, said she wasn’t sure of the total number of people in attendance.

“I didn’t expect this much though, so that’s awesome,” Manning said.

The event involved a handful of speeches from the bandstand and a march around the plaza, which was followed by protestors standing along the outside of the Plaza holding signs as cars passed by on the roundabout.

Some cars honked in support, but there were also some boos from people passing by.

“This is about gun reform and fighting for better gun laws for our kids,” Bursey said. “Simple rules that don’t infringe on the second amendment, laws that don’t infringe on the second amendment, but also keep our kids safer and our communities safer. Things like background checks on every gun sale, closing those loopholes, removing guns from domestic abusers.”

Manning said she saw the event as an opportunity to help bring an end to gun violence in schools and public places.

“I go to school, I go to church, I go anywhere I feel unsafe,” she said. “You can feel unsafe anywhere at this point because of this. For me, it’s going to end up being schools around us. Obviously schools are already affected and that’s terrible, but if we don’t stop this then it’s going to be everywhere. It’s not going to end on its own.”

Manning said what drove her to plan the event partly came from visiting a 5-year-old victim of the Sutherland Springs church shooting in November 2017.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” she said. “I don’t want to say this is more serious than other things, but I visited Ryland Ward in the hospital and since that I can’t stand by. I can’t just watch that happen.” 

Bursey said while the Moms Demand Action organization was present and involved with the event, the March for Our Lives protests were student-made.

“We’ve been in New Braunfels for like two years. … All the March for Our Lives across the country are student-organized,” she said. “Somebody just said hey, talk to Molly. Molly, meet Kendra and she told us what she wanted to do and she applied.”

According to Bursey, Manning attempted to reach out to several politicians and officials representing New Braunfels and the surrounding area to be present but many were unable to attend. A statement was release by U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett and read at the event by Manning. 

“These massacres at schools and entertainment venues are outrageous,” the statement from Doggett read. “As the students from Parkland have been demanding, we need comprehensive background checks so that those with a history of violence or criminal wrongdoing cannot purchase a gun.”

Local party officials react to bill ending straight-ticket voting

By Alec Woolsey

The New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

June 4, 2017

http://herald-zeitung.com/news/article_4b2a34c0-48cd-11e7-82b6-7310a1ddb1b6.html

The days of easily voting for a single party in Texas may be coming to an end. 

Texas House Bill 25 passed through the 85th legislature and was signed by Governor Greg Abbott on June 1, 2017. The bill, now law, eliminates straight-ticket voting on ballots in Texas.  

The bill passed largely along party lines, with Democrats opposed and Republicans in favor of eliminating the voting option.  Belinda Frisk, vice chair for the Comal County Republican Party, said she does not see this change as having a significant impact on local voters. 

Unlike major metropolitan areas like Houston or Dallas, Comal County has a more shallow pool of candidates. Frisk said the change may encourage voters to do more diligent homework on who they are electing.  

“I think that’ s a good thing,” she said. 

According to the Texas Tribune, 64 percent of ballots cast in the 10 largest Texas counties in 2016 used the straight-ticket option. 

Robert Rogers, a candidate to take over the position of chair for the Comal County Democratic Party, said he attributes the partisan pattern of voting on the bill as Republicans worrying about their political futures in the state. 

“The Republicans clearly seem to be making moves to try and improve the chances of maybe not having a landfall in 2018, as we expect,” Rogers said. 

He said Democrats may have an issue with the change as it can be difficult to get voters out to the ballot boxes. 

“We have more registered voters in Comal County that are Democrats than we have Republicans,” he said. “The problem is we have is getting them to turn out.”

The change may not alter campaign strategies for most candidates, but that’ s not to say there won’ t be those affected by it. 

“It seems that the down-ballot candidates, like our judicial candidates, are the ones people are most unfamiliar with,” Frisk said. 

She said these candidates are often the unknowns, so without the option to vote straight-ticket, they may receive fewer votes in the future.  

“I have people who come to me, and I’ m sure come to a lot of folks who are active in the party, and say, ‘ I don’ t know much about these judges,’  particularly in a primary election where you have so many running,” Frisk said. 

Navigating the field of candidates for positions further down in the ballots could cause headaches for voters, but Frisk said the internet is probably the best resource despite its many faults. 

“Where do you begin to do your homework? That’ s a good question,” she said. 

Rogers said the new law only adds another hurdle. The new law will not take effect until September 2020, which gives parties and candidates time to prepare and adjust their strategies.

EDITORIAL: Ford, Kavanaugh will be ruined by nomination process

THE FACTS, Sept. 27, 2018

There is a storm hovering over Washington right now.

Of course, it always seems that way, but this one is bringing down two people’s lives in the process.

Jonathan Turley, political commentator and professor at George Washington University Law School, spoke Wednesday at the Brazosport College 50th Anniversary Luncheon at the Dow Academic Center. His presentation covering the history and politics of the U.S. Supreme Court had been planned long before Christine Blasey Ford was a name in national headlines.

For those out of the loop, Ford is a professor and a research psychologist in California who claims to have had an unwanted sexual encounter with the current nominee for the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh.

She is expected to speak in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today, as is Kavanaugh, in what will be a glorified “he said, she said” drama.

There will be no winners. The lives of these two people already are being torn apart.

“My family and I have been the target of constant harassment and death threats. I have been called the most vile and hateful names imaginable,” Ford said in a written testimony released Wednesday. “My family and I were forced to move out of our home. Since September 16, my family and I have been living in various secure locales, with guards.”

Kavanaugh, in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, fought back on the allegations from Ford and others against him. He has no other choice given stepping aside will leave him forever sullied, as Turley pointed out.

“These are smears, pure and simple,” Kavanaugh wrote. “And they debase our public discourse. But they are also a threat to any man or woman who wishes to serve our country. Such grotesque and obvious character assassination — if allowed to succeed — will dissuade competent and good people of all political persuasions from service.”

The tragedy of the nomination process and today’s hearing is how the situation has nothing to do with them, instead being the byproduct of an increasingly divided political system that has sunk its claws into the Supreme Court.

“I feel sorry for both of them, because they’ve both entered that strange universe of being a prop in political play. I don’t think either side really cares that much about them,” Turley said.

The Democrats have sided with Ford and the Republicans have sided with President Trump’s nominee. There are a few people in between who might be swayed by what is said during today’s hearing, but the political lines have been drawn. Minds have been made up regardless what emerges from the hearing.

As Turley pointed out, one of these two people has lied about the situation. Someone has created a story where there wasn’t one. But that’s where the country is politically, hanging on every word of what amounts to a tabloid gossip story.

There will be a ninth justice, and whichever way this goes, the story will largely be forgotten in a year. But nobody is backing down.

“Kavanaugh has no exit strategy,” Turley said. “People are talking today, ‘Will he withdraw?’ I don’t think that’s an option. If he withdraws, his name will never be cleared.”

And that’s because this story has nothing to do with Ford or Kavanaugh. It’s about politics.

Neither person will leave unmarked by this meeting, and that is a shame for a country in which truth has taken a back seat.

—-

This editorial was written by Alec Woolsey, assistant managing editor of The Facts.

EDITORIAL: Washington is still working, it seems

THE FACTS, Nov. 17, 2018

Something magical is happening in Washington: It’s working.

Amid all the hysteria of the midterms, Russia, a Supreme Court nomination and general chaos, legislators from different parties have come together to push for reform of something that was seen by many as being broken.

And we have our senator, John Cornyn, to thank for some of that.

He is one of the senators spearheading First Step Act, a prison reform bill that passed through the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.

After major revisions, which were based on some of Cornyn’s previous reform efforts, the bill would reduce mandatory sentencing for non-violent drug offenses and change the punishment for the three strikes policy down to 25 years. Currently, that punishment sits at life.

It would also allow judges to use more discretion to avoid mandatory sentencing.

Prison reform is something that has been needed for a long time, and mandatory sentences have sent many people to prison with severe sentences that might only have been levied because the judge’s hands were tied by law.

There is more to the bill, but basically it is aimed at cleaning up some of the mess the justice system has become over the years.

While that is admirable, what’s interesting is how things are coming together.

The sudden attention being placed on this bill was ignited by President Donald Trump after he told reporters he would put his support the legislation.

The lead sponsor of the Senate bill is Cornyn, but senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) have been pursuing changes for several years, and with the support of the president, it looks like it might have a spark of life still in it.

There are still hurdles. In order to be voted on, the legislation will need to be rushed through, requiring consent from senators to skip procedural hurdles. Congress will leave Washington for the year Dec. 14, and it will have new members when both chambers return in January.

“It’s going to take, basically, consent by 100 senators to proceed in some expedited fashion,” Cornyn told The Hill.

“Today’s announcement shows that true bipartisanship is possible and maybe it will be thriving,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. “When Republicans and Democrats talk, debate and seek common ground, we can achieve breakthroughs that move our country forward and deliver for our citizens.”

And the president is right. In an era of hyper-partisanship, the country needs to stop bickering and find a way to come together in order to take care of the needs of its people, leaving petty fights about wedge issues and posturing for political gain on the sidelines.

After all, that’s what they are elected to do: write and pass bills, not win points for their next election.

It is also promising to see the president using the power of the office to push Congress when it is catching its breath from the midterms. Every day, people are affected by sentencing rules, and another day going by with what are seen as unfair laws by both sides is not justified.

Maybe this is the exception to the rule and there is another political blunder that will hog the headlines for the next few weeks, but to see the wheels of policy turning provides a glimmer of hope.

—-

This editorial was written by Alec Woolsey, assistant managing editor for The Facts.

EDITORIAL: Caution is good when protecting coast

THE FACTS, Nov. 29, 2018

When it’s a matter of when, not if, the next big storm heads for the Texas Coast, it is easy to get in a rush for solutions.

And its even easier when that solution has been trapped in the meeting room-stages for nearly a decade, but it sounds like action is actually going to happen soon after the Army Corps of Engineers released its proposal for a coastal spine project along the Texas Gulf Coast.

But Velasco Drainage officials pumped the brakes before signing off on an agreement for the project, saying they wanted time to consider the project.

Although it might be frustrating to people wanting solutions, this is likely the right path forward.

According to County Judge Matt Sebesta, the part of the project that would affect Brazoria County would focus on levees that currently help to protect Dow Chemical Co.

“It is modernizing the levee system that is pretty much the Velasco Drainage District. It would be improving their levee system,” he said.

The price tag on that has been reported as being in the ballpark of $4 billion, and that big “b” should give officials pause. Not because it’s unreasonable for a project of this magnitude, but because the local share is a lot of dollars to commit.

And for the district, that takes a bit of patience.

If the drainage district spends money before the memorandum of understanding is adopted, then they can’t accumulate costs related to the project to put toward its share, Kidwell told The Facts. If approved, the understanding would not decide any pending finances or project designs yet, he said.

“I can’t recommend approval on it the way we got it right now,” Kidwell said during the drainage board’s discussion of the agreement.

This may be holding up the design phase of the coastal spine project, but it’s necessary and other entities will likely do the same. The design phase of the project begins after agreements are made, and the construction won’t begin until two to three years after that phase is completed.

This is a long-term project that is going to take in billions from the federal government and millions from local entities to build, and it will require cooperation along the coast as the very nature of storm protection is reshaped.

That’s not something that should be rushed through a brief meeting, and not pushing a decision is a responsible move by the board.

Solutions will take years to be implemented, so let’s not take minutes to make a decision.

—-

This editorial was written by Alec Woolsey, assistant managing editor for The Facts.