Frogtown

You might be a Ron Paulblican

2011-09-25T20:26:00.000-05:00

(Thanks as always to Rawhide for the text. I found the pictures everyplace.)

1. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You believe that the Federal Reserve kills puppies.

2. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You came to believe after being bitten by another RP supporter.

3. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You think that Rick Perry is the anti-Christ.

4. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You refer to amendments 11-27 as the Bill of Wrongs.

5. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You support RP for fear of being abducted, again.

6. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You believe that Satan is the patron saint of IRS agents, Washington politicians, and diet soda.

7. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You believe IRS stands for I Represent Satan.

8. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

Every conversation you have eventually returns to Ron Paul and his midi-chlorian level being off the charts.

9. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You believe that fiat money is the root of all evil.

10. You might be a Ron Paulblican if:

You believe that Ron Paul is actually 9 feet tall, but the weight of his conscience makes him look shorter.

Liz Moves to First Grade!

2011-09-11T20:41:00.000-05:00

After four years teaching second grade, Liz has been moved to first grade. At first, they were going to move her to kindergarten, but I think they witnessed her reaction and they changed their minds. Please refer to last year's article to compare and contrast the old room with the new.

So here we are in room B-120, all the way across the building from A-105. Our theme was going to be apples this year but we wound up doing bugs again, with apples as a sort of sub-theme. We wouldn't, after all, have apples without bees. Oh, and this is one of our two fire extinguishers.

This reading canopy (draped over our $2.49 reading couch) is the envy of the school. Liz found it at Oriental Trading.

A prairie dog from Science Spectrum keeps the bugs and the kids company.

The alphabet and the kids' cubbies. (No lockers in first grade.)

The traffic light discipline chart from previous years ...

... has been replaced by this possibly friendlier set of apples.

Tattling Turtle has returned from last year.

Franklin.

The bug curtains from last year are back.

Liz got this pocket chart stand from Really Good Stuff.

Kermit and the quasi-legal pinecone.

This angry Yellow Jacket probably dates from the '60's.

This flag holder, and another one just like it, were rescued from the old East Primary building.

The audience is listening, or will be.

Wild thing.

Liz found this mural in the teachers' lounge and posted it in the hall. It was still sealed and dated 1986.

I close with this classic poem Liz found:

I fell asleep in class today,
as I was awfully bored.
I laid my head upon my desk
and closed my eyes and snored.

I woke to find a piece of paper
sticking to my face.
I’d slobbered on my textbooks,
and my hair was a disgrace.

My clothes were badly rumpled,
and my eyes were glazed and red.
My binder left a three-ring
indentation in my head.

I slept through class, and probably
I would have slept some more,
except my students woke me
as they headed out the door.

Obstacles

2011-08-17T08:16:00.002-05:00

Another teacher video from Liz's workshop. Here's a link if you're having trouble viewing it.

A Hit Song Recorded in Odessa!

2011-08-16T17:58:00.000-05:00

From the Odessa American:

Studio used by duo still standing in 2011

BY NATHANIEL MILLER
Some people could say 1969 was a great year, if not the best year, for music — a culmination of the ’60s.

Creedence Clearwater Revival released “Bad Moon Rising,” and “Proud Mary.” The Who introduced the world to the “Pinball Wizard,” and Led Zeppelin showed they had a “Whole Lotta Love” to give.

The Beatles’ “Come Together,” and “Get Back” came out in ’69, as did Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” and the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women,” all of which spent time as the No. 1 song in America.

While those songs enjoyed success in their runs at the top of the chart, there was one song by a duo that spent more time at No. 1 than any of the four.

And Odessa has the honor of being the place that song was recorded.

“In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans spent six weeks at the top of the charts, from July 6, 1969, until Aug. 16, 1969, after being ousted from the top spot by the Rolling Stones.

Reigning during the time of Star Trek, the song was also No. 1 during the Apollo 11 moon landing July 20, 1969, and was at the top of the charts during the first two days of the Woodstock festival.

But the story about how the song came to be is still passed as lore among the Odessa music community.

Trans Global Productions Inc., located at 5600 Dixie Blvd., used to be a recording studio owned by Tommy Allsup before he sold it to current owner Bob Bailey. Allsup was the producer of the hit song and remembered when the track was recorded.

Allsup, 76, is also famous for playing guitar with Buddy Holly and losing the coin flip to Richie Valens on Feb. 2, 1959, before the famous plane crash that killed Holly, Valens and J.P “The Big Bopper” Richardson after a performance in Clear Lake, Iowa.

“(Zager and Evans) were performing at places like the Ramada Inn during their circuit tour and would come in and record some tracks,” Allsup said. “One time when they came in, I told them, ‘Let’s cut that weird song.’ ”

The weird song was “In the Year 2525,” and Bailey, the owner of Trans Global Productions Inc., said the band would perform it live and get a good reception from the crowd.

“People would walk up to them and ask them ‘Where can we buy this?’ ” Bailey said.

Recording only three tracks during their session, Allsup said he overdubbed some parts of “2525,” such as the strings section, using people from West Texas. Allsup said some students from Permian High School were used when the section was recorded.

“I wrote up the string section and handed it to them,” Allsup said. “The violins were played by kids back in 1968.”

Former Band Director J.R. McEntyre said 1968 was a great year for the band, and some of the players went on to be professionals, but he wasn’t aware of any students who participated in the recording, so they must have done the recording on their own time.

Producing only 1,000 copies on their own label Truth Records, the band sent a few records around the state, where it gained popularity, Bailey said. Eventually, a copy of the record made it to RCA Records where the duo signed a deal and produced their only album.

Bailey has a copy of one of the first 1,000 produced records, and a copy of the RCA record hanging on a wall in his office.

“(RCA) subdued the horns and strings but other than that, the pressings are almost identical,” Bailey said.

Allsup said the band went on to sell more than a million records that year.

“Back then, a million was a lot,” Allsup said. “That was something reserved only for Elvis and the Beatles.”

The song was the band’s only hit, and they failed to crack the Top 100 again. The closest they got was their follow up song, “Mr. Turnkey,” which peaked at No. 106.

Radio disk jockey J. Michael Scott with Classic Rock 102 said he recently played the track during the station’s “45 at 1:45” segment, but it’s not a highly requested song. The segment is usually reserved for one-hit wonders or much older songs.

“I’m sure I’ll play it again,” Scott said. “I think people should know (the song’s history.)”

Why the song became so popular is not known. The futuristic sounding music is not as dark as the lyrics, which repeat with the first verse toward the end, hinting that humans have been through the cycle of technological advancements before.

Bailey recalled the song being a “cool little tune” when he first heard it.

“I think the story drove home,” Bailey said. “It takes you along an idea and circled back at the end. It just seemed like it was possible.”

Scott said it was important for people to know the history of the song, especially since most stories about the song don’t indicate it was recorded in Odessa.

“They’ll say it was popularized in Odessa, but that’s not true,” Scott said.

Allsup said he doesn’t know why the song became so popular and to this day does not understand what people saw in the song.

“No one can take away the fact that it was a hit,” Allsup said. “But it wasn’t the best song of 1969.”

Here's the link if you can't see the video.

DID YOU KNOW:

Only one song stayed at No. 1 longer in 1969 than “In the Year 2525,” which held the position 35 days. “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by The 5th Dimension was No. 1 for 41 days in April and May.

Differentiated Instruction

2011-08-08T22:28:00.001-05:00

Liz will be teaching first grade this year. She went to a workshop today and they showed this video. Enjoy!

Robert's Week at Camp!

2011-07-16T23:13:00.000-05:00

Robert went to the second session of Mountain View Christian Camp near Ruidoso, NM. He is featured about three times in this video:

His mom and dad spent the week at home. Cool!

A Very Special Wedding!

2011-07-14T20:20:00.003-05:00

Wow!

Look at this place! This is the Marty Leonard Chapel in Fort Worth, TX. It is early April, and a very great wedding is about to take place.

This is where I get to give the bride, my niece, away. What an honor!

I shall do my best to be a good bride-aisle-walker-downer.

St. Francis and a squirrel.

Liz fixes Ricardo's boutonierre.

Of course, the beauty of the chapel is no match for the beauty of the bride.

Bubbles.

Robert, me, Ricardo, Nicky and Liz.

Congratulations Nicky and Ricardo!

The first two photos were stolen from the chapel's website. The last three, along with the boutonierre photo, were cheerfully stolen from Facebook.

Sheriff Roberts Convicted on All Counts

2011-06-19T22:24:00.000-05:00

From the Law Med Blog.

From Newswest9:
by Victor Lopez

MIDLAND COUNTY--Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts found guilty of retaliating against two nurses. Now he's not only facing jail time, he's out of job.

After Roberts was found guilty of retaliating against two former nurses, one of them says, justice has been served.

When you hear what sentence former Sheriff Robert Roberts received, some people might think it was kind of light. But, when you think about it, he'll be spending time in the jail he used to run.

Because of the guilty verdicts, Roberts was stripped of his title as Winkler County Sheriff. As for his punishment, Roberts agreed to let Judge Robert Moore sentence him, instead of the jury that found him guilty.

Following the state's recommendation, he was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay a one thousand dollar fine for each of the felony convictions. That sentence was suspended to four years probation and 100 days in county jail. Roberts also received 100 days in jail and a one thousand dollar fine for each of the misdemeanor convictions.

In addition to jail time and having to turn in his badge, Roberts was also ordered to surrender his license as a peace officer in the State of Texas.

Vicki Galle and Anne Mitchell were both present when those sentences were announced.

Galle said, as far as she is concerned, after two long years, justice has been served, "I am thankful to the Texas Attorney General for noticing this case, justice was served and we appreciate that. I do feel that our voice was heard and I'm thankful for that."

Roberts' fines total $6,000 and he cannot appeal his conviction. He will begin serving his sentence in the Winkler County Jail on June 27th. Calls to County Judge Bonnie Leck for a comment were not immediately returned.

Roberts is the second of four men facing these charges. Former hospital administrator Stan Wiley plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for his testimony. Next on the list to stand trial, Winkler County Attorney Scott Tidwell and Dr. Rolando Arafiles.

(And in a related story, Dr. Arafiles has found a new place to work.)

Intent to Harm

2011-05-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

(I keep finding good articles about the Arafiles scandal. This one is the first to interview Ms. Naomi Warren, with whom we are personally acquainted.)
From The Texas Observer:

Before everything happened, nurse Anne Mitchell says Kermit had a good little hospital. “We had an excellent nursing staff. We had great doctors. We provided very, very good care.”

In 2008, when the trouble began, Winkler County Memorial Hospital was the pride of Kermit, one of the few new buildings and success stories in town. This flat, dusty burg of 5,000, 35 (45 - DK) miles west of Odessa, is a ramshackle prairie town sprawling along Highway 18 in a motley collection of cinderblock and prefab siding. In the center of town, surrounded by a well-kept lawn and shuttered storefronts, sits a stately Depression-era courthouse. From any vantage point, you can see the face of Kermit the Frog, staring down at you from the water tower.

Before oil was discovered here in 1926, there was serious talk that the economic salvation of the county would be its sand, which residents hoped to sell in the Northeast for glassmaking. The oil boom altered that plan, catapulting a few local residents into staggering wealth. Those families—the Waltons, the Lecks, the Beckhams—still run things. The oil is still there, though the boom days are long over. On every road into town, pumps still peck at the ground, but fewer and fewer men work them. There is less and less work, period. Folks talk of the old days, when you didn’t have to drive to Odessa for everything.

If you get hurt in Kermit, as in most small Texas towns, there is one place to go. Car accidents, roughnecks with chemical burns, women in sudden labor—they all go to Winkler Memorial. It’s small, with 25 beds and two or three doctors on staff. But in the ultramodern, $13 million facility that opened in 2007 to replace the old hospital, Winkler Memorial provided basic care that a small community needs. Surgeries, non-emergency baby deliveries, serious trauma and other specialized procedures were sent to the bigger hospital in Odessa.

When the medical care is excellent, Kermit residents’ lack of choice isn’t a problem. But in a facility with just two or three doctors, it doesn’t take much to change the quality of care from excellent to downright dangerous. Until 2008, Winkler’s doctors were mostly foreigners, recent medical school graduates from places like India or Vietnam, here under the State Department’s J1 visa program. They usually worked three years, then moved on to bigger cities, bigger hospitals. Nurses were the backbone of Winkler Memorial, as they are at most small-town hospitals in Texas—experienced pros who could train the new doctors and monitor their work.

When the new hospital opened, Mitchell and fellow nurse Vickilyn Galle had been stalwarts of the Winkler Memorial staff for more than two decades. “I worked all over that hospital,” Mitchell says. “I was in infection control. I worked in home health. I was the director of nursing. I thought I’d work there till I retired.”

The two made an odd pair. Mitchell, a New York native, is serious and blunt. Galle, a native of nearby Jal, N.M., is quieter, grandmotherly; when Mitchell talks, Galle tends to fade into the background. But their approach to their work was the same. “The most important thing for us was the patients,” Mitchell says. “We were trained to look at every case and ask, how would I want a member of my family treated?”

In late 2007, when the hospital’s Board of Control replaced its retiring administrator, Galle was in charge of Winkler Memorial’s quality assessment program, which audited hospital records to monitor quality of care. Mitchell was the compliance officer, charged with making sure the hospital’s doctors and pharmacists stayed in line with state regulations. The hospital administration, they say, had always recognized the value of nurses’ role in overseeing the quality of care. “Everything was accessible,” Mitchell says. “There was nothing we couldn’t ask about or look at or have input into.” The budget was always tight, says another longtime nurse practitioner, Naomi Warren, but “we never compromised patient care.”

When the board hired Stan Wiley as the new administrator, that all changed. Wiley had left a job as hospital administrator in nearby Crane under cloudy circumstances. When he was hired at Winkler Memorial, he was selling mobile homes. Upon his arrival, Warren says Wiley made his priorities clear: He was going to bring in more revenue, and he was going to find doctors to move permanently to Kermit, ending the reliance on visa doctors.

Warren was skeptical. “It’s hard to get good doctors to move to a place like Kermit,” she says. “I told [Wiley], quality has to be our top priority, because incompetent doctors hang out in rural areas.” Wiley, the three nurses agree, wasn’t much for listening. “He didn’t want us looking at anything or making comments about anything,” Mitchell says. “He was the administrator, and that was how it was.”

Four months after he started, Wiley hired Dr. Rolando Arafiles, a Filipino family-practice doctor he’d met at the hospital in Crane. Arafiles and his wife bought a house in Kermit. They threw themselves into the town’s social life. Arafiles played golf with the county sheriff. Wiley, who wanted his doctors to be part of the community, was thrilled—so much so that when the nurses started to question Arafiles’ treatment of patients, the administrator tried to quash their complaints. When Mitchell, Galle and Warren finally sent damning evidence to state regulators, Wiley and two of Winkler County’s leading citizens took decisive action: They launched an attack on the nurses.

When Arafiles started working at Winkler Memorial in April 2008, he was assigned to the attached Rural Health Clinic. Naomi Warren, who had worked in the clinic for more than 10 years, says Arafiles was initially well-liked. He smiled a lot, patted people on the back, took an interest in their lives. “From almost the beginning, though, it was clear that his care was questionable,” Warren says. “He isolated himself. He had his own nurse. He gave care in the back of the clinic, so it was not obvious to all of us what kind of care he was giving.”

Not at first, anyway. Warren began to notice Arafiles’ patients leaving the clinic with “little bottles of various solutions or samples of drinks. Many patients told me they had been given samples of solutions to drink that he said would cure many ailments.”

As he would later admit in court, Arafiles was giving patients samples of dietary supplements, often in place of conventional medicine. He sold these supplements on his website, health2fit.net. According to some accounts, he also sold them out of his office in the clinic. Patient reviews on the doctor-review site Vitals.com complain about Arafiles’ pitching non-FDA-approved supplements that patients could only get from him. One commenter, “Judy,” writes that when she came to Winkler Memorial with a chronic complaint, Arafiles offered her a “magic pill.”

“I asked if I could read up on it in any pamphlets or studies,” Judy writes, “and he said it’s new so there isn’t any studies or pamphlets that show it actually works.” She says she asked if she could order the magic pill over the phone, and, “He says, ‘Oh no, you can’t get it at local stores ... but for $78.99 you can have a two month starter pack to try it out, and then it will be time for your next appointment with me.’”

The supplement was called Zrii, made of fruit juice and advertised as “based on the ancient wisdom of the Ayurveda” and sold by a multilevel marketing system. At the same time he was working in the hospital, Arafiles was holding seminars at the Kermit Pizza Hut and the Methodist Church, signing people up as Zrii distributors.

By July, Warren noticed that the new doctor had begun to “change medicines on patients who had been on thyroid meds for many years and were stable.” Worse, he was not rechecking them to make sure the new medications were working. Arafiles, as the Texas Medical Board would later find, also prescribed powerful thyroid-stimulating drugs to patients who came into the hospital with common maladies like stomach pains or sinus infections. Putting a healthy person on thyroid stimulants is dangerous, Warren says. The drugs can cause hyperthyroidism in healthy patients—unchecked, that can lead to permanent organ damage and death.

Now alarmed, Warren asked Arafiles to explain his treatments. “He attempted to get me to do the same thing,” she says. “He explained to me at length that the thyroid numbers in a lab aren’t important—that’s not what you look for. You look for obesity, extra fat behind the arm, fatigue, and that’s all you need to know.”

Warren had never heard of such a diagnostic practice, and she couldn’t find any support for it in the medical literature. She told Arafiles she wouldn’t prescribe thyroid stimulants on the basis of patients’ appearance without medical data to support it. So Arafiles gave her data that, she says, shocked her even more. “He brought two paperback books that were obviously alternative medicine. [The author] was a person—I’m not sure if he was a doctor, but he had studied corpses and had determined that these symptoms showed the need for thyroid.”

By September 2008, five months after Arafiles came to Kermit, the nurses in charge of Winkler Memorial’s quality control were getting strange reports of another serious problem with the doctor’s work. He was performing unconventional surgeries. He wasn’t a surgeon, and the hospital wasn’t supposed to perform surgeries.

There was, for starters, the patient who came in with a compound fracture on his thumb. According to the Medical Board, Arafiles “sutured part of a rubber tip removed from suture kit scissors to the wound on [the patient’s] right thumb.”

Then there was the woman who dropped a frozen turkey on her foot. Arafiles hammered a needle in to serve as a post to “stabilize the bone.”

And there was the 73-year-old diabetic who came in with a gash on his hand that would require a “full thickness skin graft.” In the past, such patients would be sent to Odessa. Arafiles took care of it himself. He cut a strip out of the man’s abdomen and did the graft. One week later, according to a nurse who worked under Arafiles, it had failed: “There was no blood supply. It was black, like charcoal.”

As Anne Mitchell read through the charts the floor nurses were leaving on her desk, she was dumbfounded. The things Arafiles was doing, she says, “just didn’t make sense. If we were in a Third World country and had no access to health care, I could understand. But we were 35 miles away from excellent medical care in Odessa. There’s no excuse for sticking a needle in someone’s toe, or putting a skin graft on a diabetic man.”

Because Arafiles wasn’t checking up on the patients, it fell to the nurses to catch his mistakes. According to Debby Eggers, a clinical nurse who sometimes worked with the doctor, Arafiles rarely even looked at the patient charts. “He didn’t even open up his charts to clarify age or the patient’s name,” Eggers says. “He never looked at anything. He told me that he was glad I worked on his side because I was his eyes, because he never looks at anything, he only signs his name. That’s word for word.”

As evidence of Arafiles’ bizarre doctoring mounted, Winkler Memorial’s old hands—nurses Warren, Mitchell and Galle—started trying to get the hospital administrator to rein him in. When she first went to Stan Wiley in September 2008 to express her concerns, Naomi Warren says she didn’t want Arafiles fired or reprimanded. She just wanted him to follow the rules. She assumed that Wiley, with his interest in keeping the hospital from being sued, would feel the same way.

“I told him that Arafiles was giving off-label, non-FDA-approved medicine, and that he was going to hurt people. I said, at least if you’re going to let him do this, you might as well have the patients sign a waiver so they know what they’re getting.”

The waiver, she says, was not a serious suggestion. “I was trying to get him to realize how ridiculous it was,” she says. Wiley thought it was a great idea. He asked Warren to write up a waiver form for Arafiles.

Anne Mitchell was also telling Wiley about the strange reports crossing her desk. In September, Wiley asked her to write a letter to Arafiles, reminding him about hospital policies. The policies cited in the letter were head-slappingly obvious. For example, “medications used by physicians and allied health care must have been approved by the regulating agency i.e. FDA, and have the necessary documentation indicating dose benefits, possible adverse effects, drug interactions, etc.”

Wiley declined to take any further measures. So Mitchell, Warren and Galle, the quality-control chief, took their complaints to the hospital board. At one meeting, Galle talked about the cases—including the failed skin graft and the needle-reinforced toe—that she was planning to send out for external review. As she spoke, she says, Wiley sat next to Arafiles with his arm over the doctor’s shoulder. “Arafiles looked like a little scolded schoolboy,” she says. “He said, ‘I didn’t know I couldn’t do those things.’”

At that point, Galle says, Wiley interrupted her presentation. The board, he said, would come back later to the complaints about Arafiles “when they had more information.”

“Mr. Wiley patted Arafiles on the back,” Warren recalls. “He said, ‘That’s OK, big guy. That’s OK.’”

Neither Wiley nor Bill Beckham, the president of the hospital board, was happy with the nurses. They seemed especially put out with the outspoken Mitchell. After a meeting in December 2008, Mitchell says, Beckham, a scion of one of Kermit’s oil-rich clans, told her that “everyone in the community liked Arafiles, and the only problems he was hearing from anyone were coming from me.”

Why were Wiley and Beckham protecting Arafiles? Wiley would later testify that Arafiles was a stellar employee, unfairly maligned. The nurses say Wiley had come to Kermit talking about how he was going to make the hospital money, and Arafiles was helping him do that—that the doctor was ordering lots of expensive, unnecessary tests and admitting patients to the hospital whether or not they needed to be there. When one man came in with an earache, Naomi Warren recalls, Arafiles ordered close to $1,000 in lab tests. “Arafiles never sent that man the lab results,” she says. “And he never looked at his ear.” The Texas Medical Board would later cite three instances in which Arafiles did “unnecessary genitourinary exams” on women who had come in with sinus or thyroid complaints.

As Mitchell continued to speak out about Arafiles’ treatments, Wiley allegedly tried to get rid of her behind the scenes. In addition to nursing, Mitchell worked part-time as the county Homeland Security director. In late 2008, Wiley tried to convince her boss there, County Judge Bonnie Leck, to take her on full-time. Leck declined.

At one point, the nurses thought they’d achieved a minor victory. Wiley set a meeting that was supposed to make clear for everyone—meaning Arafiles—what care was and wasn’t acceptable. But Wiley cancelled the meeting without explanation. Naomi Warren says she lost hope. “They beat me down,” she says. “I realized they were on a path they didn’t intend to get off of.” She quit in February 2009, 10 months after Arafiles was hired. According to another board member, when Beckham, the board president, learned she had quit, he said, “Well, if she doesn’t like Arafiles, let her go.”

When Warren took a job down the road in Monahans, more than 600 of her loyal patients chose to drive the extra 25 miles to Monahans to see her, resulting in revenue losses for Winkler Memorial. Her departure was part of a larger exodus of hospital and clinic personnel shocked by Arafiles and the hospital’s handling of him. Dr. Khoa Pham, the hospital’s chief of staff, had been fighting with Wiley about Arafiles and left in January 2009 as his contract expired. A few months later, Debby Eggers, the nurse who worked under Arafiles, and Corina Chavez, the clinic manager, quit to join Warren in Monahans.

Eggers says she left because “I couldn’t control Dr. Arafiles. And I couldn’t sleep at night wondering, what if I didn’t catch one of his mistakes?”

Mitchell and Galle were the only critical voices left in the hospital. In February 2009, they decided to report Arafiles to the Texas Medical Board. “We figured we’d tell the licensing body what was happening,” Mitchell says, “and let them decide what to do.”

This was a last resort. While the Bureau of Nurses Examiners requires that nurses take action when patients are being endangered, Winkler Memorial’s administration had issued different instructions. In a meeting in December 2008, Wiley had forbidden any reporting about doctors without his permission. The board changed the hospital bylaws to reflect the new policy.

Meanwhile, Naomi Warren was still troubled by what she’d seen at Winkler Memorial. She was working on her own letter to the Medical Board. She was also talking with Mitchell and Galle. In one of those conversations, Mitchell told Warren that she was worried about the complaint she was about to make to the Medical Board. Mitchell said she thought it was going to get her fired.

“I said, Anne, they can’t fire you,” Warren recalls. “They’ll never know we did it.”

In April 2009, the two met and compared notes. Their letters cited five patient charts each that the nurses felt were indicative of the problems the Medical Board needed to examine. The letters went out in the same envelope. Mitchell insisted on taking some security precautions. They mailed the complaint from Odessa, Warren says, “so it wouldn’t go through the Kermit mail.”

“I was a little bit put out with Anne,” Warren recalls, “because I thought, why are you being so cautious, why are you so upset and worried about your job?

“But I should have realized, I’m leaving—I don’t have to face the scrutiny of Winkler County and the officials there. I understand now. She had a much better handle on the kinds of people we were dealing with.”

Wiley and Arafiles had powerful allies—as powerful as it gets in Kermit. Two other men frequently attended hospital board meetings in which complaints were lodged against the doctor, though they didn’t work for the hospital. One was the county sheriff, Robert Roberts.

Roberts personified the phrase “West Texas sheriff,” with a big gut and a big voice. Roberts was good friends with Beckham, head of the hospital board, and Arafiles, whom he credited with saving his life during a heart attack in 2008. The sheriff and his wife signed on as Zrii distributors for Arafiles.

Rounding out the fivesome was Scott Tidwell, Arafiles’ and Roberts’ personal attorney. He had moved to Kermit in 2008 after being convicted of running a prostitution ring out of the Healing Touch massage parlor in Odessa. The sheriff had convinced Tidwell to run for Winkler County attorney, and helped him get elected.

In May 2009, Arafiles received notice from the Texas Medical Board that he was under investigation. As he later testified, the doctor went to Sheriff Roberts and asked him to find out who had reported him. Roberts got a warrant to seize Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Galle’s computers. He found a copy of their letter of complaint on Galle’s hard drive. Two weeks later, Wiley called the nurses into the hospital boardroom, one at a time, and fired them.

“He looked at me and said, Vickilyn, your services are no longer required,” Galle recalls. “That was it. There was no explanation. I just signed the paperwork and left. His secretary told me that usually she was supposed to escort people out. But since I’d worked there for a while, she’d let me leave on my own.”

Ten days later, County Attorney Tidwell convened a grand jury to indict the nurses for misuse of official information, a felony that carries a possible $10,000 fine and a 10-year jail sentence.

“I was stunned,” Mitchell says. “I couldn’t believe they got an indictment against us, because we’d done absolutely nothing wrong.”

The case sent shockwaves through the nursing world. “If a nurse can get criminally indicted for reporting unsafe care to a licensing board,” says Jim Willman, head counsel for the Texas Nurses Association, “it’s going to have a chilling effect on their ability to report anywhere. The primary role of nurses is to advocate for their patients. They’re the health care provider with the patient the majority of the time. If the nurse isn’t there to speak up for the patient, the patients are going to be harmed.”

The association raised $47,000 for Mitchell’s and Galle’s legal defense fund. The money came from nearly 700 nurses and doctors in 44 states. The first donation was a personal check for $500 from a nurse in New York.

The nurses found the case so unbelievable partly because Mitchell and Galle were obligated to report unsafe care. “If something serious had happened to one of the patients,” says John Cook IV, Mitchell’s lawyer, “the state would have come in and they would have asked Anne Mitchell, ‘Why didn’t you report any of this? You’re the compliance officer. This is your job.’ At the very least, she could have lost her license.”

Tidwell apparently realized his case was weak. In July, he offered to drop charges if Mitchell and Galle would pay a small fine, do probation and—according to Mitchell—write a letter of apology to Arafiles and the hospital. They refused.

“They dragged us through all this,” Mitchell says. “We deserved our day in court.”

Only Mitchell would get that day in court. A week before the trial in February 2010, Tidwell dropped charges against Galle. Before the jury, the county attorney argued that Arafiles had been the victim of “a consistent pattern of harassment” by Mitchell. He conceded that nurses have a duty to report questionable care—but only if they’re doing it in good faith. Mitchell, he said, “was on a personal vendetta [against Arafiles] from day one.”

The case against Mitchell, he said, “is about one thing. It’s about a public servant that let personal animosity drive her decisions. That’s all it’s about, very simple.”

Cook, Mitchell’s lawyer, stood up. “Shame on them,” he said, pointing at Roberts, Wiley and Tidwell. “Shame on them for abusing their public trust. Shame on them for using the powers entrusted to them by us for their own personal gains and wishes. Shame on them for seeking to destroy professionals who for more than 20 years gave them their labors, their hearts and their soul. Shame on them for not having the honor to admit their mistakes. Shame on them for subjecting all Texans to ridicule by their Boss Hogg mentality.”

The jury took less than an hour to acquit Mitchell.

In June 2010, the Texas Medical Board filed a formal complaint against Arafiles, citing, along with his alleged medical infractions, his “unprofessional behavior” in getting the nurses indicted. On Oct. 4, 2010, Stan Wiley left his keys and a letter of resignation on his desk and slipped out of the hospital, never to return.

Read the transcript of Anne Mitchell's trial.

I met Mitchell and Galle in January in the Winkler County Community Center, a squat, brick building across the street from the old courthouse. In the year since their trial, they have been feted as symbols of courage in nursing. They have received national nursing awards and are frequent speakers at nursing conventions. In August 2010, they won a $750,000 settlement from the county. In response to what happened in Winkler, the Texas Legislature is considering a bill, filed by Republican state Sen. Jane Nelson of Flower Mound, that would make it illegal to retaliate against a nurse for reporting anyone to a state licensing board. On March 1, Mitchell went to Austin to testify in support of the bill.

Despite being famous in the nursing world, Mitchell and Galle still can’t get jobs. Mitchell has applied for four medical jobs in West Texas, including one as a clinic receptionist. She hasn’t gotten any of them. She still works part-time as the county’s Homeland Security director.

“They ruined my career,” Mitchell says. “They ruined her career. I mean, where are we going to go? We both have lives here.”

Being known as a whistleblower, she says, doesn’t help. “They’re all patting you on the back, they’re all giving you accolades. No one wants to hire you. Hospitals think it’s great that oversight happens—they’re happy to implement changes from other places. But no one wants it coming from their facility. No one wants anyone looking at their doctors.”

As she talked about what happened, Mitchell alternated between bitterness and sadness. Galle, who is involuntarily retired at age 55, was more resigned. “I loved my job,” she says. “I thought I was going to work until I retired, then work part-time in the clinic. I guess that didn’t work out.”

I asked what she thought would happen to Arafiles. “Oh,” she says, “he’s a charismatic man. There are plenty of desperate hospitals in Texas. He’ll be fine.”

That is, if he doesn’t wind up in prison—along with his friends Stan Wiley, Sheriff Roberts and County Attorney Tidwell. In December 2010, David Glickler, a special prosecutor from the state attorney general’s office, convened a grand jury and indicted Arafiles on charges of felony retaliation and, in a karmic twist, misuse of official information. Three weeks later, he indicted Roberts and Tidwell for misuse of official information, official oppression and (for Wiley) felony retaliation.

The trial is set for June. None of the indicted men would speak to the Observer, saying that their attorneys had forbidden it.

In February, the Texas Medical Board released its final judgment on Arafiles. They let him keep his license, but put him on probation, required him to take continuing education classes and fined him $5,000. (A doctor in Odessa was given a $10,000 fine for yelling at a staff member in 2009.)

“This wasn’t really the outcome I was expecting,” Mitchell says. “I could have had a verbal confrontation with him, and he would have been more strongly reprimanded. I really believe that they still feel that nurses are expendable.”

Arafiles is out on bail and back at work at Winkler Memorial, although the board has decided to let his contract—which expires in April—run out without renewing it.

Most of the current staff I interviewed at the hospital express anger with Mitchell and Galle, whom they blame for making Winkler Memorial look bad. Shortly after Arafiles’ arrest, the hospital’s director of nursing, Donna Paehl, sent a letter to the Winkler Post, Winkler’s online newspaper, arguing that Mitchell and Galle had made nurses’ lives more difficult. “We have found ourselves in the position of policing the Physician’s [sic] because we are under such scrutiny,” she wrote. “It is not a nursing function to police the physicians and we will no longer be doing this.” But “policing the physicians” is an essential nursing function.

The hospital’s new compliance officer, the one who replaced Mitchell, is Peggy Armstrong. When I asked her about Arafiles, she said, “He’s a great doctor. Great. You shouldn’t believe the bad press.”

I asked Armstrong where the bad press had come from. She rolled her eyes: “Oh, you know. Just a bunch of vindictive small-town people.”

Read Dr. Arafiles' censure and reprimand from the New York Medical Board.

Contributing writer Saul Elbein lives and freelances in Austin.

One Big Battery at Notrees

2011-05-05T19:12:00.000-05:00

Duke Energy photo.

From Grist, an environmental blog:

They like to do things big in Texas, so it's no surprise that the Lone Star state will launch the world's largest wind battery storage project.

Duke Energy is not a Texas company, but it owns the aptly named Notrees wind farm in the Texas panhandle. The North Carolina power giant is teaming up with an Austin area startup called Xtreme Power to install a 36-megawatt battery at the 153-megawatt Notrees Windpower Project near Kermit, Texas.

That's one big battery. Such technology is likely to become crucial as wind farms become ever larger but erratic suppliers of electricity to the grid. In wind-blown West Texas, the region's massive turbine farms can generate more electricity than the grid can handle at some times while all but ceasing production at other times. That creates headaches for grid operators, and the ability to store wind energy and release it when needed would help smooth out the ebbs and flows of the electricity stream.

"This system will store excess wind energy and discharge it whenever demand for electricity is highest -- not just when wind turbine blades are turning. In addition to increasing the supply of renewable energy during periods of peak demand," Duke said in a statement.

Pacific Northwest grid operators will probably be watching the experiment closely. That region boasts abundant hydropower and huge wind farms, which has created situations when there's a surplus of both wind and water power and insufficient capacity on transmission lines to offload the electricity. Batteries would help, though it probably would take huge banks of them to have a significant impact.

The federal government is obviously interested in the technology. The Department of Energy has thrown in $22 million for the project, with Duke matching the grant with another $22 million.

Duke and Xtreme plan to plug in the battery by late 2012.

Could a Three-Inch Lizard Shut Down the West Texas Oil Industry?

2011-05-03T16:32:00.001-05:00

(Hannity opened his radio show with this West Texas story the other day.)

From mywestexas.com:
Mella McEwen
Midland Reporter-Telegram

A three-inch lizard that thrives in desert conditions could shut down oil and gas operations in portions of Southeast New Mexico and in West Texas, including the state's top two oil producing counties.

Called the Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, it is being considered for inclusion on the federal Endangered Species listing by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A public rally to oppose this move is being sponsored by the Permian Basin Petroleum Association on Tuesday, April 26 at Midland Center beginning at 5 p.m. Congressman Mike Conaway will speak, as will Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson; other public officials have been invited. (Here's a story about the rally.)

"We are very concerned about the Fish and Wildlife Service listing," said Ben Shepperd, president of the PBPA, noting the service also has proposed listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken next year. "The wolf at the door is the lizard; we're concerned listing it would shut down drilling activity for a minimum of two years and as many as five years while the service determines what habitat is needed for the lizard. That means no drilling, no seismic surveys, no roads built, no electric lines."

The move would impact activity in Andrews, Crane, Gaines, Ward and Winkler counties in Texas and Chaves, Eddy, Lea and Roosevelt counties in New Mexico.

Not only would the move impact oil and gas operations but agriculture, Shepperd noted, shutting down agricultural activities like grazing and farming -- "anything that disturbs the habitat." While the industry is perfectly willing to undertake conservation measures to protect the lizard's habitat, he said, naming it an endangered species "would shut down activity and be devastating not only to Permian Basin economies but to the national economy. We are the one bright spot month after month; in our economic turnaround, the main driver is the oil and gas industry."

The concern is, he said, that the Fish and Wildlife Service lacks enough data to conclude that the tiny lizard is endangered and is basing its action on flawed methodology. "They didn't spend enough time looking for them or the right technique to find them," he said.

In New Mexico, where the lizard can be found on both private and public lands, Shepperd said a number of companies have entered into voluntary agreements to help conserve the lizard's habitat, mitigate threats to the lizard and remediate any damage while continuing to operate. He said he wants the same to happen in Texas. The association favors such joint agreements between the federal government and landowners to protect the lizard's habitat while allowing drilling operations to continue responsibly.

"The point is, we think the best way is for land owners and industry actually on the ground where the lizards are, who know how to protect the lizard, to be in charge instead of the feds putting up 'Do Not Enter' signs on every gatepost," Shepperd said.

A sign of hope is that four counties -- Lea, Andrews, Ward and Winkler, and the town of Monahans, have passed resolutions demanding to have standing during the comment phase, which ends May 16. Under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA, Shepperd said, the federal government is required to work with local governmental entities when they make such a request.

"This will enable them to bring in the economic impact," he said. "We feel like the counties demanding to be part of the process should require the Fish and Wildlife Service to work with them to develop a reasonable conservation process that we all can live with."

He said he hopes those attending Tuesday's rally "will be inspired and better prepared to testify at the public hearing" being held by the Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday, April 27. The public hearing will also be at Midland Center, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The public comment period is scheduled to close May 16, 2011, and the earliest date the Fish and Wildlife Service will make a final listing decision is, as of now, December 15, 2011.

"Tax Man, Come and Get Me Now!"

2011-04-19T23:09:00.000-05:00

says this lady's obit. (Didn't know her.)

Welcome to New Mexico

2011-04-17T18:41:00.000-05:00

From ABC News:
A New Mexico man drove the decomposing body of his paraplegic friend around for three days, unaware that she was dead despite what others described as an overpowering stench and a horde of flies around the body.

Amy Marquez, 33, had been slumped in the passenger side of the car, but her friend Jerry Maestas, 64, assumed she was sleeping, police said. It wasn't until her back began turning blue that Maestas brought Marquez to a hospital, police said.

Lt. Christian Lopez said when he arrived at the parking lot of Espanola Hospital, the odor emanating from the car was overwhelming.

"There were flies all over. I don't know how he didn't know," Lopez said. "He's not all there, I guess. I have no confirmation that he has a mental illness but this guy isn't running on all cylinders."

Police determined Marquez had been dead about 66 hours.

Lopez said Maestas told him that Marquez was fine on Sunday, and had spent the day drinking alcohol with him as he drove around town with no destination in mind. Maestas told the officer that he didn't think anything of Marquez lying still since, as a paraplegic, she cannot move the lower half of her body, Lopez said.

Lopez said Maestas reasoned that because she wore an adult diaper she would not have needed to use a bathroom during her three-day excursion around town.

Maestas, a retired prison guard, admitted to Lopez that he drank alcohol most of Sunday with Marquez and that after she fell asleep, he continued driving around town and would stop to drink alone.

"From the position she was in, and the fact that she was drinking large amounts of alcohol, my guess is that it was a positional asphyxiation," Lopez said. He explained that people who suffer from paralysis don't get signals to their brain alerting them to a body position that may be cutting off their oxygen supply.

Hospital nurses said that when Maestas arrived at the emergency room, he told them his friend was ill and needed a wheelchair, but when they got to the car, they found Marquez's decomposing body.

"We handled the situation as best we could," Cheryl Marita of Espanola Hospital told the ABC affiliate KOAT-TV in Albuquerque.

"There's no way to describe what we're dealing with," Lopez said.

An autopsy was performed Wednesday and there were no preliminary reports of foul play, Lopez said. Toxicology reports will reveal how much alcohol Marquez may have had in her system and whether she had been taking any drugs. The results won't be in for at least four weeks, he said.

They charged Maestas, of Espanola, with failing to report a death, a petty misdemeanor. A judge set a $500 bail, but no one has yet posted a bond for Maestas, Lopez said.

When Will It Rain?

2011-04-16T23:15:00.000-05:00

Welcome to West Texas

2011-04-07T00:25:00.000-05:00

Stolen from A.W.'s Facebook page.

The Jesus Tortilla of Lake Arthur, New Mexico

2011-04-02T10:37:00.001-05:00

(I go through the tiny village of Lake Arthur about once every three months, but I first heard about the tortilla in this book. The tortilla is also the basis for a 2007 movie.)

From roadsideamerica.com:

No one realized at the time, but the 1977 appearance of Jesus Christ on a flour tortilla set the international standard for miracle sightings. Once confined to obscure grotto appearances, the Tortilla was the crossover miracle that put God in the Extra Value Meal of the average American.

Now, no object is too outrageous for an Almighty (or Virgin Mary) cameo. He's materialized on a Pizza Hut billboard in a plate of spaghetti; on a bowling alley chimney; reflected from a porch light onto a car bumper (until the light was turned off and the car moved); on a diner place mat; and even on a dead priest's shoe.

But the Miracle Tortilla was the first to fully wrap around the collective pop subconscious.

In October of 1977, Maria Rubio was rolling up a burrito for her husband Eduardo's breakfast, when she noticed a thumb-sized configuration of skillet burns on the tortilla that resembled the face of Jesus. Needless to say, Eduardo went hungry that meal as Maria told family and neighbors of the miraculous event. It happened in the small town of Lake Arthur, New Mexico, 40 minutes south of Roswell.

Space Alien fever had yet to infect the state, and visitations were of a predominantly religious nature. NM's historic Santuario de Chimayo, with its miracle dirt pit, drew thousands of annual visitors looking for spiritual connection to the miraculous cross that burst from the hillside in 1810. Elsewhere, statues occasionally shed a tear, or passing clouds took on the shape of the Blessed Mother.

Wide-eyed believers call them "signs."

Cranky skeptics ascribe them to a human faculty for delusion called "pareidolia," a perception of pattern and meaning from natural randomness. At the same time, scientists believe humans are hardwired to recognize facial patterns, our hunkered fore-apes' need to quickly identify foe, friend or mate. We'll perceive a familiar face in an unfamiliar place, before seeing, say, a locomotive or a cotton gin.

Despite the braying of scientists and skeptics, the Holy Tortilla quickly developed a solid fan base. By 1979, over 35,000 people had visited, bringing flowers and photos of sick loved ones.

Mrs. Rubio quit her job as a maid to attend full-time to the hastily constructed "Shrine of the Holy Tortilla" in her home. When away, she'd leave the door unlocked so that no one would be denied access.

She mounted the Tex-Mex Relic in a wooden frame under glass, a puffy wad of cotton along the bottom making it appear as if Tortilla Christ was suspended just inside the Pearly Gates.

In the wake of this first Tortilla visitation, all heaven broke loose. November 1977 -- a competing Miracle Tortilla appeared in the skillet of Phoenix housewife Ramona Barreras. It was the face of Jesus, this time accompanied by the letters K, J, C, and B, which Ramona believed stood for "King Jesus is Coming Back." According to the Phoenix New Times in 1997, the Barreras Miracle Tortilla "rests in a Plexiglas box in a kitchen drawer."

In March 1983, housewife Paula Rivera claimed the image of Jesus appeared on a corn tortilla she was making in Hidalgo Texas. She created her own "Shrine of the Holy Tortilla."

In the meantime, the faithful still traveled to Lake Arthur to see the original. Mrs. Rubio eventually moved it to a small wooden shed in the backyard. Years of merciless southwestern heat have literally fried and refried the tortilla. The image, once recognizable even in photographs, has faded to a half dozen brown spots and a wiggly burnt blotch.

There are no signs that any healings have happened recently -- no leftover crutches -- so perhaps this miracle has run its course. But Mrs. Rubio's family is perfectly happy to open up the shrine for any and all visitors....

UPDATE - December 2006: Disaster! In 2005, Mrs. Rubio's granddaughter took the Miracle Tortilla into school for Show and Tell, and it was dropped and broken! The shed shrine has been closed and the remains retired to a drawer in the Rubios' home.

Former Hospital Administrator Takes Plea Deal

2011-03-26T23:52:00.001-05:00

Winkler Post photo

Story from the Houston Chronicle:
(See also the Newswest9 Video and the Winkler Post story)
Ex-hospital head takes plea in retaliation case
By BETSY BLANEY Associated Press © 2011 The Associated Press
March 21, 2011, 8:16PM
KERMIT, Texas — A former West Texas hospital administrator accused of retaliating against two whistle-blowing nurses accepted a plea deal Monday and could testify in trials for a doctor, sheriff and prosecutor facing similar charges.

Stan Wiley ran Winkler County Memorial Hospital in Kermit when the nurses were unsuccessfully prosecuted after they complained anonymously to the Texas Medical Board in 2009 that Dr. Rolando Arafiles Jr. was unethical and risking patients' health.

Both nurses were fired from the hospital in June 2009 and a month later indicted with misuse of information after they complained anonymously to state regulators about Arafiles' medical procedures.

Wiley, who fired the nurses, pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor charge of abuse of official capacity. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $2,000. As part of the plea deal, Wiley agreed to cooperate with the prosecution of the three remaining defendants.

Arafiles, Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts and County Attorney Scott Tidwell face retaliation and other charges for pursuing cases against Vickilyn Galle and Anne Mitchell.

The case against Galle was dropped, and Mitchell was exonerated of a felony charge of misuse of official information at a February 2010 trial. Both women were in the courtroom Monday.

During the hearing, Visiting Judge Robert H. Moore s also heard from the other defendants' attorneys and scheduled Roberts' trial to start June 6. Roberts and Arafiles declined to comment after the hearing.

Tidwell's attorney, David Zavoda, told Moore his client should be protected by prosecutorial immunity because he was only doing his job.

Prosecutor David Glicker called that argument "shocking."

"You're not acting like a prosecutor if you do something unlawful," Glicker told the judge.

Moore rejected Zavoda's argument.

Investigators contend that Arafiles approached his close friend Roberts, who was also a patient, after the Texas Medical Board contacted the doctor about the complaint. Arafiles asked his friend to help him find out who filed the complaint and Roberts used his authority to get a copy, investigators said.

Arafiles and other officials were then able to determine the identities of those who filed the complaint — names that would have been protected from disclosure if law enforcement officials had not misused their position to obtain confidential information, the Texas attorney general's office said in a news release Monday.

Among the nurses' complaints in their unsigned April 2009 letter to the medical board were that Arafiles improperly encouraged patients to buy herbal medicines from him and had wanted to use hospital supplies to perform a procedure at a patient's home.

Arafiles, licensed in Texas since 1998, has said the nurses' letter to the board was intended to harm him personally.

The women sued the county and accepted a $750,000 settlement after they were cleared.

Arafiles faces two counts of misuse of official information and retaliation. Roberts and Tidwell each face two counts of misuse of official information, two counts of retaliation and two counts of official oppression.

The medical board technically suspended Arafiles in February but said he could continue to practice medicine while on probation for four years, if he completed additional training. The board also said Arafiles must be monitored by another physician and submit patient medical and billing records for review. The monitor will report his or her findings back to the board.

You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

2011-03-22T23:54:00.000-05:00

(Thanks to Rawhide for the text. I found the pictures everyplace.)

1. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You believe Joe Biden is a Muslim.

2. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You have ever referred to yourself as a ‘smart-a** cracker'.

3. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You get two pizzas, both half cheese and half pepperoni.

4. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You whine about socialism for an hour and then break into tears.

5. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You write “Ready, Aim, Fire!” on the palms of your hands.

6. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You think there really is a government program called "Obamacare".

7. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You have ever added a small mustache to a picture of Obama.

8. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You like to crumple up dollar bills and throw them at disabled people.

9. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You've ever made an information request to the Hawaii Department of Vital Records and you're not a resident of Hawaii.

10. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You need to bring a lawn chair to a 1 hour political rally.

11. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You think the 2008 Presidential election was a choice between two communist-fascists.

12. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You think armed militias are a sensible idea.

13. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You think Obama was born in Kenya, that a death panel will kill your grandmother, and argue there is no evidence of global warming.

After this winter, you still believe in global warming?

Death panel.

14. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You think George Soros wrote 1984.

15. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You argue that 'separation of Church and State' came out of Adolf Hitler’s mouth.

16. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You think the greatest threat to America is liberal media bias.

17. You Might Be a Tea Partier If ...

You have a photo shopped picture of Obama, have carried a toilet plunger to a political rally or have ever decried a public option.

Tea partier's brain.

Faith

2011-03-21T14:46:00.001-05:00

From fugly.com

Our First Tea Party

2011-03-20T14:41:00.000-05:00

I got a funny e-mail about tea parties, and I may still use it, but first I thought I would show you actual photos of the Odessa Tea Party held on April 17 of 2010, to give you an idea of what a tea party is like, at least in my neighborhood. Your experiences and your mileage may vary.

Robert claims this park for the United States of America.

It was cold and misty on this day. Glad the planet is warming up, or it might have been much colder.

Sleepless in Midland's blog has another review of the event, plus he took better pictures than I did.

I did not see anyone carrying a plunger. However, we were in Roswell the previous month and just barely missed seeing Joe the Plumber.

I didn't see anyone throwing crumpled dollar bills at any disabled person, or any other act of cruelty.

I didn't see or hear any racist remarks. I didn't see any police presence at all.

Liz was interviewed by a reporter for the Midland paper.

Here's the man we mostly came to see. His name is Mark Williamson, founder of Federal Intercessors, and he also happens to be our preacher's son.

Above: Here is Mr. Williamson on February 17 of this year, leading the opening prayer before the U. S. House of Representatives. (You don't have to watch all 16 hours and 10 minutes of the video.)

After about an hour, we were ready to leave. We needed to go shopping and find adequate facilities. Meanwhile, Robert and two boys were staging a lightsaber fight on the hill.

Robert was decidedly not ready to leave.

The Future is Back!

2011-03-15T00:03:00.003-05:00

Robert sees a DeLorean for the first time in Odessa.

Wow!

From the Pakistan Daily Mail, which all Kermit residents read
by Andrew Thompson

Twenty-six-year-old Cameron Wynne is a champion wakeboarder and fan of the electro-funk band Chromeo. His long hair, tanned skin and girlfriend-who-works-in-fashion go a long way toward completing his cool-kid persona. But his beyond-exotic ride provides the finishing touch. “When I was at the Roosevelt in L.A., they moved a Lamborghini Murcielago so they could park it in front of everything—a Murcielago!” Wynne says. “And they didn’t charge me anything. All week.” “It” is Wynne’s 1981 DeLorean DMC-12. Yes, that gull-wing stunner best known as the time machine in the 1985 Robert Zemeckis film, Back to the Future. (Wynne’s edition is wrapped in black, with matte shard effects that were a 2009 limited-edition design for The Hundreds clothing line.)

Against all expectations—and possibly common sense—the DeLorean is back in limited production, and with it has come a boomlet in DeLoreaniana. Last November Nike’s 6.0 Dunk SE DeLorean sneakers sold out online in minutes. A DMC-12 holds a prime spot in Xbox’s bestselling Gran Turismo videogame. Next month Mattel’s Hot Wheels DeLorean edition will begin its fifth product run in the past year. Not to mention the car’s popularity in the music and film communities. Pop singer Ke$ha drove one to the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards; will.i.am owns one; Kanye West and Die Antwoord are vocal fans. The British band Neon Neon devoted its entire 2008 album, Stainless Style, to DeLorean. At least four movie projects—some backed by DeLorean’s children—are making the rounds in Hollywood.

The DeLorean DMC-12 features gullwing doors, unpainted stainless steel body panels, and a rear engine.When John DeLorean launched the original as a challenge to the Corvette in 1981, its 130hp, 2.8-liter V6 went from 0mph to 60mph in 10.5 seconds. It cost $25,000. Since then the car has garnered both favor and contempt. It became notorious in 1982 when DeLorean, desperate to generate cash (a $27 million stock issue had fallen through), became the target of an FBI investigation into drug trafficking. When the Feds caught him on camera in a Los Angeles Sheraton transferring a suitcase filled with 220 pounds of cocaine and famously saying, “It’s as good as gold and just in the nick of time,” their case seemed made.

Now, 30 years later, the brand is making a comeback based on its own merits. “People like the car for the car,” emphasizes Stephen Wynne, the 54-year-old CEO of DeLorean Motor Co. Along with son Cameron and 16 employees, Wynne is building and restoring DeLoreans at a 40,000-square-foot facility in Humble, Tex., 30 miles north of Houston. A former mechanic with long caramel bangs, a Carolina Herrera shirt and Prada loafers, Wynne grew up in Liverpool obsessed with cars—his parents’ trick to calm him as a toddler was to put him behind the wheel of the family sedan. Wynne moved to California in 1980 and developed an expertise in repairing DeLoreans, since the intricacies of their French-made Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV) engine and Lotus-designed chassis were second nature for someone used to European vehicles. It didn’t hurt that he could “talk the same language” when tracking car parts across Europe—back in the day DeLorean cars were assembled in Northern Ireland, thanks to millions of dollars in development incentives from the British government.

While in California Wynne heard that a company called Kapac had DeLorean engineering data and thousands of spare parts lying fallow. In 1997 he bought out Kapac’s stocks for under a million dollars and by 1999 was the proud owner of all DeLorean branding rights and subsidiaries. Today’s DeLorean Motor Co. makes about six “new” cars a year—they have stainless-steel reproduction chassis and a combination of new-old stock (NOS), original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and reproduction parts. DMC also sells about 60 certified used DeLoreans annually. (The bulk of the business comes from service, repairs and restoration—and, increasingly, from licensing agreements.) The $57,500 new builds have a few modern options—like a CD player, GPS and iPod/Bluetooth—but their look is identical to those built in the 1980s.

They’re fun to drive, too. A DMC-12 is not going to win many drag races (though it will be challenged to them often), but it is nimble enough and feels smooth cruising at 70mph down the interstate. Speed aside, the steering is slightly stiff (power steering is not available); the clutch, brake and accelerator pedals are narrow and sit closely to one another, which requires some adjustment. Stateside quality control and retooling on the doors worked out the kinks in subsequent generations, and the new DeLoreans are built on a lighter chassis and can be wrapped in any color or pattern to protect the steel panels.

Wynne says he has enough original parts to build 500 more new-old cars, including a limited-edition Final Run of 50 to commence production this June. So far, so good: Wynne demurs when asked about profit totals but says DMC revenue has grown to six times the totals of the early 1990s, and last year had an 8% increase in net profits over 2009.

Greetings Earthling

2011-03-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

From the Whatever.

Winkler County DA to Retire

2011-03-13T11:47:00.001-05:00

From The Odessa American:
KERMIT District Attorney Mike Fostel of Winkler County will be stepping down effective April 30, Fostel said Wednesday.

The 65-year-old, who has held the position for 29 years, recently has faced external challenges to his duties as a prosecutor in the 109th Judicial District.

After being sidelined by illness and surgery in recent years, a lawsuit brought by Kermit resident and Winkler County Hospital Board member John Walton claimed Fostel hadn’t done his full duty since March 2009. Winkler County Attorney Scott Tidwell filed the motion but made a motion to dismiss it Feb. 1.

At the time, Fostel said he had no immediate plans to retire, and Fostel said Wednesday the suit was the work of a few people, so it didn’t affect him.

Fostel said the personal toll from the Feb. 6 death of his 32-year-old daughter Paige Fostel was the motivating factor in his retirement as a prosecutor, but not in general.

“I’m not quitting law, I’m quitting being district attorney,” Fostel said.

Fostel said he planned now to go across the street to One Court Place and hopefully restart the long-time private practice he gave up about two years ago.

Looking back on his career, which included three years of pure private practice, seven-and-a-half as county attorney in addition to his time as DA, Fostel recalled that just 42 days after stepping in, he had to prosecute the case of Odessa-based serial killer Michael Eugene Sharp, executed in November 2007 for the 1982 stabbing deaths of Brenda Kay Broadway, 32. He was also convicted in the murder of Broadway’s 8-year-old daughter Christie Elms.

Fostel said it was his first and only death penalty case, and he wouldn’t let Sharp bargain for a lesser sentence.

Fostel said he wasn’t sure who Gov. Rick Perry would choose to replace him.

Housing is "Up"!

2011-03-12T23:41:00.000-06:00

(Credit: © National Geographic Channel/Stewart Volland)

From C-net's Crave Blog:

Ever wished real life could be more like a Pixar movie? It was for a little while on Saturday, as a team of awesomizers managed to successfully lift a house into the air, "Up" style, using a cluster of brightly colored balloons.

The adorable 2,000-pound, 16x16-foot yellow house took to the skies with the aid of 300 weather balloons that grow to 8 feet tall when inflated. From top to bottom, the entire aircraft measured 10 stories high and reached an altitude of 10,000 feet. It flew for about an hour at dawn from a private airfield east of Los Angeles. Oh, and there were people (of the non-animated variety) aboard.

The floating feat sets a world record for the largest balloon cluster flight ever attempted, according to the National Geographic Channel. It filmed the flight as part of a new series called "How Hard Can It Be?" that's set to debut in the fall.

And if you're wondering how hard it can be to set a balloon-supported house aloft, well, "it was pretty hard," Paul Carson, the show's host, notes in the behind-the-scenes video below. "It was very difficult actually."

Pixar's 10th animated feature focuses on the fate of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, his house, and a wayward 8-year-old who happens by one day. Launched into the sky together by a cluster of balloons tied to the roof of Fredricksen's house, the two set off on what could safely be called a high-flying adventure.

It took the National Geographic team of scientists, engineers, and balloon pilots two weeks to pull off their version of the "Up" house--from the initial assignment through planning, building, and rigging the house and setting it aloft in the clear skies to cheers down below.

Carson picks "incredulity" to describe the dominant feeling among the crew as the house made its way skyward. As for us, "grinning like dopes" would about cover it.

Liz Writes a Play!

2011-03-10T23:26:00.000-06:00

(Liz was dared by her second-grade students to write a play featuring Justin Beiber. This is the wonderful result. Some of these lines are actual quotes attributed to Mr. Beiber, and I have rendered these in red for your convenience.)

Justin Bieber: A Play
By
Mrs. Kirk’s Second Grade Class

Narrator: Our play begins with meeting Brittany, who just learned that she has won a date with Justin Bieber before his big concert in Kermit, TX at Walton Field.
BRITTANY: OMG, I have a date with Justin Bieber!!! What will we do? What will I wear? What if….
GRANDMA: What are you talking about, silly girl? You ain’t going on no date with no Justin Bieber, and you sure ain’t going to the concert at Walton Field.
BRITTANY: But Grandma, I won the date fair and square, and he’s expecting me to go out with him and go to the show.
GRANDMA: Then plan on me comin’ along, just to make sure he doesn’t hurt my sweet Brittany’s feelings!!!
BRITTANY: But Grandma….
GRANDMA: Young lady, either I go with you on the date and to the concert, or NOBODY’S going!
BRITTANY: OK (sighs).
GRANDMA: Guess I’ll go see which church dress will look best at the concert. Don’t want to call attention to myself. (walks out the door)

BRITTANY: What am I going to do ? I can’t have Grandma coming with us….but
(At this moment, the doorbell rings. Brittany runs to answer the door. Standing at the door is Justin Bieber, along with his bodyguard, Gus).
GUS: Are you Brittany?
BRITTANY: (nods, unable to speak)
GUS: Brittany, this is my boss, Justin Bieber.
JUSTIN: Hello, Brittany. (hands her a single rose). I am so happy to see you.
BRITTANY: (still unable to speak)
JUSTIN: Are you ready to go?
(Just then, Grandma comes out of her bedroom in a brightly-flowered dress, straw hat, and white shoes. She sees Gus and Justin).
GRANDMA: Are you that Bieber that my granddaughter can’t stop talkin’ about?
JUSTIN: Yes ma’am.
GRANDMA: And who is that guy with you?
GUS: I am his bodyguard, Gus.
GRANDMA (looking both of them up and down): Not much body to guard, is there?
BRITTANY: GRANDMA!!!!!
GRANDMA: I have just a few questions for you, Bieber.
JUSTIN: Please…my friends call me Justin.
GRANDMA: Bieber, what is your favorite thing in the world?
JUSTIN: Nothing gets my pulse racing like hockey. Well, nothing except Beyonce, but that wasn’t until I was 12 or so. It’s like I opened my eyes and noticed the world is full of beautiful girls, and I’ve had a hard time thinking of anything else ever since.
GRANDMA: SO…is my granddaughter Brittany pretty in your opinion?
JUSTIN: I haven’t seen any other girls here in Kermit. So…I guess she’s pretty….for a Kermit girl.
BRITTANY: (angry) A KERMIT GIRL!!!!
JUSTIN: Don’t get upset…I mean….I haven’t seen any girls that look like you.
BRITTANY: What does that mean?
GRANDMA: Settle down, Brittany! I have just one more question: What do you look for in a girl?
JUSTIN: A girl has to have a beautiful smile, beautiful eyes and she should have a good sense of humor. It would be a shame to go out with a hot girl you can’t have a decent conversation with.
BRITTANY: WHAT?????
JUSTIN: Just letting Grandma know what I like in a girl.
BRITTANY: Then you go out with Grandma! I’m not going!!! (Runs to her room)
GRANDMA: Are you ready to go to Allsup’s for a chimichanga?
JUSTIN: (Swallows hard)

GUS: Guess you have a date for Allsup’s.

Meet Our Endangered Lizard!

2011-03-04T23:57:00.001-06:00

From KQRE:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing endangered species listing for a small lizard found only in southeastern New Mexico and West Texas.

The dunes sagebrush lizard is in danger of extinction throughout its entire range and faces significant threats due to oil and gas activities and herbicides, the agency said.

The light brown lizard, less than 3 inches long, lives in a small area of shinnery oak dunes in northeastern Chaves County, Roosevelt County, eastern Eddy and southern Lea counties in New Mexico and in a narrow band of the dunes in Gaines, Ward, Winkler and Andrews counties in Texas.

Yes, these are oaks. This is how tall they get.

The lizard has been affected by habitat loss and fragmentation from oil and gas development due to the removal of shinnery oak and the building of roads and pads, pipelines and power lines, Fish and Wildlife officials said.

The executive director of WildEarth Guardians in Santa Fe, John Horning, said he's cautiously optimistic about the Monday decision. He noted Fish and Wildlife officials propose to list the lizard under the Endangered Species Act, rather than saying a listing is warranted but precluded at this time, as it has done for other species.

The Endangered Species Act makes it illegal to kill or harm a listed species. It requires federal agencies to minimize the impact of their activities on listed species and directs Fish and Wildlife to develop and carry out recovery efforts for those species.

In just the last two days, the agency said the Sonoran desert tortoise in the Southwest and the wolverine found in several western states warranted protection under the Endangered Species Act but won't be listed because of higher priorities - other species considered to be in greater danger.

Horning said he hoped the lizard could be listed in about six months. The final decision will be made by the Interior Department secretary.

"This is getting closer to the day the species will be afforded the protection the agency itself has said it has needed for a decade now," Horning said.

Fish and Wildlife will take comments on the listing through Feb. 14.

Steve Henke, president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said his organization was disappointed by the listing decision but not surprised.

"Anytime you're dealing with an endangered species on existing oil and gas leases, it creates additional challenges," Henke said.

The federal agency placed the lizard on the candidate list for endangered species protection in October 2001.

WildEarth Guardians said scientists warned 13 years ago it may be too late to save the lizard from extinction.

Horning said the species has declined since then and "faces an urgent situation."

(See also the Pecos Pupfish.)

UFO Over Jerusalem

2011-03-01T22:12:00.000-06:00

From Fox News: (Thanks to Rawhide)

A glowing orb filmed hovering over the skyline of Jerusalem has left UFO experts dumbfounded.

The circular object was seen descending slowly over the holy city's iconic Dome of the Rock before flickering and shooting skyward like a rocket. Similar clips have been seen before and debunked as hoaxes. But this latest sighting has proved more difficult to dismiss -- as it was recorded from four different perspectives.

Some UFO enthusiasts believe the videos -- which have taken the Internet by storm -- are final proof that aliens exist, while others say the unidentified object was the Hebrew god Elohim.

Adding to the mystery is the fact that flying over the Dome of the Rock landmark -- an ancient Islamic shrine -- is forbidden.

Two witnesses at the Armon Hanatziv panoramic lookout near Mount Zion filmed the object at 1am on Saturday. A little after one minute into the clip, the object descends slowly, almost to ground level.

The craft hovers there for a short while and then flickers before shooting upwards at an incredible speed.

Former Ministry of Defense UFO investigator Nick Pope said: "If these are real, they are some of the most incredible videos ever shot.

"If they are not, then this is a very well-planned and coordinated hoax designed to eliminate elements of doubt.

"The way it shoots up into the sky suggests it is unmanned, because no living thing could survive those kinds of G-forces.

"We know the Israeli army has some very high-tech drones at its disposal. If this is one, it is one of the most advanced pieces of technology created by man."

Another set of observers also uploaded their mobile phone footage to YouTube on Saturday.

They wrote: "Have fun debunking this one." In their video, the American tourists can be heard saying: "We've seen them in Mississippi like this."

Two other clips filmed from different viewpoints were posted online. Skeptics have noted the views come from perspectives that could make nearby objects seem farther away and faster-moving. Others say the whole thing was faked and have prepared several alternative versions of the videos which they say prove they are not real.

These include stabilized versions in which the brightness and contrast have been increased, which they claim highlights a major flaw of perspective.

Another is motion-tracked, and apparently shows the UFO "bouncing around like crazy" -- which, say the sceptics, shows the makers had trouble inserting it into the scene.

The Constellation Project

2011-02-27T00:11:00.000-06:00

Welcome once again to Kermit Elementary, where Mrs. Kirk's second-grade class attempts to form a line in order to go see the hall project.

Fourth and fifth grades were pressed for time, so instead of constellations, they did pictures of planets surrounded by Christmas lights. Or wedding lights, to be exact.

Sadly, this must all be taken down after about a day, in order to prepare for the much-dreaded TAKS test.

The inflatable sun.

All together now: "My Very Educated Mother ...

Just ...

Serves ...

Us ...

Nine ...

um..."

Oh, I miss Pluto!

The asteroid belt looks suspiciously like a bunch of wadded paper. No asteroids can be hung from the ceiling due to fire code.

This asteroid looked so much like a fortune cookie that Liz added a fortune, much to the artist's consternation.

And around the corner is third grade's project.

This is Draco the Dragon.

Canus Major.

The Big Dipper.

Canus Minor.

Even the exit doors have snappy star paper on them, to darken the hallway.

Leo the lion.

Orion the hunter.

The rest of the second-grade teachers did the phases of the moon.

Saving the best for last, this is the beginning of Liz's section. This remote-controlled moon model above can show all eight lunar phases.

Ursa Minor. Liz included drawings of the animal, person or object represented in the constellation.

Ursa Major.

Libra, the scales.

Aquarius, the water bearer.

I put up most of the door.

Student-made comets.

As you may know, the zodiac was redone in January, probably by the same people who voted Pluto out of the solar system. My astrological sign (not included in this project) is now Ophiuchus,

the serpent handler. What a happy thing! You don't want to mess with this guy!

Railroad History

2011-02-22T08:25:00.001-06:00

From flickr.

The Ruckus Rails blog has a very detailed history of the Texas-New Mexico Railroad that runs through Kermit. Check it out!

Funny Protest

2011-02-21T08:33:00.002-06:00

From Found Stuff.

Get Service

2011-02-20T09:55:00.001-06:00

Thanks to Rawhide!

OK, YOU Can Has Cheezburger!

2011-02-19T09:45:00.002-06:00

From Texas Hill Country.

Satan in the Shower

2011-02-18T09:12:00.003-06:00

From Jesus or Squirrel?:

You’d think that cleanliness was next to godliness, but for the Csrefko family of Budapest, Hungary, they’ve stopped using their shower after seeing the devil’s face in their brand new shower tile.

According to the World Net Daily:

"I was naked coming out of the shower and I could suddenly see his eyes staring into me," said a horrified wife, Andrea Csrefko, after bathing for the first time. "I just screamed and ran.”

“We can't clean it off and it wasn't there when we put the tiles up," said Andrea's 52-year-old husband, Laszlo. “It just appeared overnight and nothing can move it. The room is always ice cold no matter how high we turn the heating up and we've just stopped using it because it's too spooky. We wash in the sink downstairs now."

The family has now hired an exorcist to purge the evil spirits from the bathroom.

My biggest question is how clean can you get in a sink?

Fragile Moments

2011-02-17T08:37:00.010-06:00

"There are things that we don't want to happen but have to accept,
things we don't want to know but have to learn,
and people we can't live without but have to let go."

Author Unknown

(In honor of our friend.)

Irony

2011-02-16T08:37:00.000-06:00

From colinmulvany.com.

We Can Build A Snowman ... Wait ...

2011-02-15T09:23:00.002-06:00

From Random Funny Pictures.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T15:06:00.000-06:00

Photo from an Arabic site.

The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
by Francis William Bourdillon

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying of the sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

The No Dog Days Are Over!

2011-02-12T23:46:00.000-06:00

From this site.

Dr. Arafiles Placed on Probation

2011-02-05T23:59:00.000-06:00

From NewsWest9:
Associated Press - February 4, 2011 4:15 PM ET

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas medical regulators on Friday placed on probation a West Texas doctor involved in the unsuccessful prosecution of 2 nurses who complained anonymously that the physician was unethical and risking patients' health.

The Texas Medical Board meeting in Austin technically suspended Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr., but said he could continue to practice medicine while on probation for four years, if he completed additional training.

In January, Arafiles was indicted on two counts each of misuse of official information and retaliation that stem from the prosecution of Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Galle, both former nurses at Winkler County Memorial Hospital.

Charges were dropped against Galle, and Mitchell was exonerated in February 2010.

In June, the medical board filed a complaint against Arafiles, alleging he used "poor medical judgment."

Lucas Believes World Will End in 2012

2011-02-04T08:28:00.001-06:00

(Thanks to Rawhide.) From the Toronto Sun:

Funnyman Seth Rogen was left stunned by a recent encounter with his moviemaking hero George Lucas - because the Star Wars director spent 20 minutes telling him the world would end in 2012.

Rogen was left speechless when Lucas and Steven Spielberg joined a movie meeting he was a part of - but the encounter has left him worried his life will be over next year.

He recalls, “George Lucas sits down and seriously proceeds to talk for around 25 minutes about how he thinks the world is gonna end in the year 2012, like, for real. He thinks it.

“He’s going on about the tectonic plates and all the time Spielberg is, like, rolling his eyes, like, ’My nerdy friend won’t shut up, I’m sorry...’

“I first thought he (Lucas) was joking... and then I totally realized he was serious and then I started thinking, ’If you’re George Lucas and you actually think the world is gonna end in a year, there’s no way you haven’t built a spaceship for yourself... So I asked him... ’Can I have a seat on it?’

“He claimed he didn’t have a spaceship, but there’s no doubt there’s a Millennium Falcon in a garage somewhere with a pilot just waiting to go... It’s gonna be him and Steven Spielberg and I’ll be blown up like the rest of us.”

CAN'T WAIT TILL 2012?

Harold Camping's ministry says the world will end on May 21, 2011.

Enough of the Snow

2011-02-03T20:53:00.000-06:00

From The Definition of Procrastination:

Lost and Found in Odessa: Dusty Hill's Hat

2011-02-02T22:49:00.000-06:00

From the Odessa American:

Hat gone from dressing room before Odessa concert
January 19, 2011 4:40 PM
BY LYXAN TOLEDANES

Missing: Gray-brown Stetson. Reward: $150 worth of ZZ Top merchandise.

After more than a month of waiting, ZZ Top’s bassist and vocalist, Dusty Hill, is ready to get his beloved Stetson back. Hill’s hat went missing a few hours before ZZ Top’s concert at the (Odessa) Ector County Coliseum Dec. 9 (which we attended - DK).

“You travel all over the world and then it comes up missing in Texas,” Hill said. “It just killed me.”

In an attempt to recover his hat, Hill and the ZZ Top team are offering up a $150 reward to spend at the ZZ Top merchandise website to the person who currently has the Stetson.

“We’re going to give that person the key to the ZZ Top website,” Bob Merlis, ZZ Top’s publicist, said.

Merlis said there will be no questions asked of the person, and they can even remain anonymous.

Hill has worn his Stetson, trimmed with a ribbon of black horse hair, to most of the shows for the past two ZZ Top tours. Fans at the Coliseum, however, may have noticed that instead of the cowboy hat, Hill wore a baseball cap.

The day of the concert started out normally for Hill, spending that Thursday afternoon performing a sound check with the rest of the band and crew. Shortly thereafter, Hill went back to his hotel room, leaving his hat in his dressing room. He returned later to find the hat gone.

“About 30 minutes before the show, my hat’s (still) not there. Everyone was scrambling around trying to find it,” Hill said.

Hill said he tried looking again after the concert, but the search turned up empty, and Hill left Odessa the next morning, hatless.

“Dusty Hill walked into Ector County Coliseum wearing his hat, and when he left the hat was gone,” Merlis said. “It sounds silly, but it’s a big drag separating a Texan from his favorite hat – that’s harsh.”

Hill’s attachment to the hat is reasonable, considering the fact that it’s was custom made for him when he had a cameo appearance on the third season of HBO’s “Deadwood.”

“I went and had one made by the people who do that show. It’s not shaped like your everyday rodeo hat, it’s more round,” Hill said.

Hill hopes that the person in possession of his Stetson will return the hat as soon as possible. He even wants to thank the person, should they choose to return it.

“The thing is, if I were that person, I wouldn’t get my satisfaction out of wearing it or showing it to people under the circumstances,” Hill said. “It’s not going to create a lot of enjoyment in their hands.”

UPDATE 1/24 - ZZ Top bassist's Stetson returned

ZZ Top’s bassist and vocalist Dusty Hill can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

After more than a month of searching for his missing Stetson, the custom-made hat was found and is now sitting in the Odessa American office waiting to be returned to its owner.

Hill lost his hat just hours before ZZ Top’s Dec. 9 concert at Ector County Coliseum. The OA reported the hat’s missing status last week and that a reward to spend at the ZZ Top website was offered.

Photos of an unidentified man wearing the hat were emailed to the OA over the weekend.

Several people called and emailed about knowing the whereabouts of the hat through the weekend. On Monday morning, one person, who declined to give his name, discreetly dropped the hat off outside the OA office.

The Stetson will be shipped back to Hill later in the week, per arrangements with ZZ Top’s publicist, Bob Merlis.

Merlis said Hill was “over the moon” on hearing his hat was
found.

The hat was made for Hill during a cameo on HBO’s “Deadwood.”

The Frozen Man of Carlsbad

2011-02-01T22:35:00.000-06:00

From the Carlsbad Current-Argus:
Woman allegedly froze husband's body, kept receiving his retirement
By Matlin Smith
Current-Argus Staff Writer
Posted: 01/26/2011 04:14:32 PM MST

CARLSBAD, New Mexico — Investigators with the Eddy County Sheriff's Office have released bizarre details in the case of the man's body found Monday evening in the freezer of a home south of town. (Video here)

According to information from Capt. Jeff Zuniga, at 7:50 p.m. Monday, the body of a human male was discovered in a chest-type freezer at a residence on the 1200 block of Haston Road.

The body was discovered by a daughter and son-in-law who were cleaning out the home of their mother, Barbara Sharpe, who passed away in November 2010.

Upon finding the body, the pair loaded the freezer into the back of a pickup truck and transported it to the Carlsbad Police Department. After determining that the incident occurred in the county, the CPD turned the investigation over to the sheriff's department.

"The body located within the freezer may be that of James Sharpe of Carlsbad, who has been unaccounted for since 1997," said Zuniga.

James Sharpe was known to be the husband of the late Barbara Sharpe, who died of health complications at the age of 63.

Before her death, Barbara Sharpe most recently went by Barbara Campbell, after assuming the last name of a male companion who came into the picture a few years after Sharpe's death.

According to investigators, at this point in the investigation nothing has surfaced to indicate that the companion was aware of the body in the freezer. Prior to its discovery, the freezer reportedly was in Barbara Sharpe's bedroom on Haston Road.

Investigators say information uncovered so far leans towards the possibility that James Sharpe may have died due to a terminal health condition in 1997; he would have been in his early 70s then.

"Barbara had mentioned to a health care worker prior to her death that she had stored her late husband in a freezer. The health care worker dismissed the statement due to Barbara Sharpe's grave condition," Zuniga stated.

The health care worker is the only person who has come forward with any knowledge of the body thus far, said Zuniga.

Additionally, documentation allegedly drafted by Barbara Sharpe was found in her personal property explaining why her husband was in the freezer.

The documentation reportedly indicated that she was remorseful, but couldn't afford to survive without his retirement income.

"The ECSO Special Investigations Unit will continue to work closely with the Office of the Medical Investigator to confirm the official identity of the decedent as well as the cause and manner of death," said Zuniga.

OTHER BLOGS THAT CARRIED THIS STORY INCLUDE:

A funeral blog for people who don't plan to die.
A freezer site.
A Cthulhu/Lovecraft blog.

Winkler County Officials Indicted

2011-01-15T23:50:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times:

A state grand jury in Winkler County, Tex., has indicted the sheriff, the county attorney and a hospital administrator for their roles in orchestrating the prosecution of two whistle-blowing nurses after they had reported allegations of malpractice.

The sheriff, Robert L. Roberts Jr., and county attorney, Scott M. Tidwell, each face six counts, including misuse of official information and retaliation, which are third-degree felonies. Stan Wiley, the administrator of Winkler County Memorial Hospital, in the dusty West Texas town of Kermit, was indicted on two counts of retaliation.

The case was investigated by the state attorney general after a jury last year acquitted one of the nurses of charges that she had misused official information by providing patient case numbers to the Texas Medical Board. In 2009, the nurse, Anne Mitchell, and a colleague, Vickilyn Galle, included the case numbers in an anonymous letter to the board about the practices of Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr., who had recently joined the small hospital in Kermit.

The case against Ms. Galle was dropped before trial. Dr. Arafiles, who was arrested last month, faces four criminal counts, and has been charged civilly by the medical board with a variety of practice violations.

The charges issued by the grand jury on Thursday stem from Dr. Arafiles’s approach to Sheriff Roberts after the doctor learned the medical board was investigating him. The sheriff, who was a patient and friend of the doctor, opened an investigation and, according to the indictment, used deceptive means to obtain the anonymous letter from the medical board.

The letter included details that implicated the nurses. Mr. Wiley fired the two women, who had a combined 47 years at the hospital, and Mr. Tidwell handled their prosecution.

The nurses sued the county and settled last year for a shared $750,000.

What's Going On In Arkansas?

2011-01-04T08:28:00.002-06:00

From the New York Times:

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Published: January 3, 2011
Times Square had the ball drop, and Brasstown, N.C., had its descending possum. But no place had a New Year’s Eve as unusual, or freakishly disturbing, as Beebe, Ark.

Around 11 that night, thousands of red-winged blackbirds began falling out of the sky over this small city about 35 miles northeast of Little Rock. They landed on roofs, roads, front lawns and backyards, turning the ground nearly black and terrifying anyone who happened to be outside.

“One of them almost hit my best friend in the head,” said Christy Stephens, who was standing outside among the crowd at a party. “We went inside after that.”

The cause is still being determined, but preliminary lab results from the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission revealed “acute physical trauma” in samples of the dead birds. There were no indications of disease, though tests were still being done for the presence of toxic chemicals.

Karen Rowe, the bird conservation program coordinator for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, said the prevailing theory was that the birds had been startled by New Year’s Eve fireworks and suddenly dispersed, flying low enough to run into chimneys, houses and trees. Pyrotechnics are used to scatter blackbirds for bird control, though only during the day, given the birds’ poor vision.

Beebe (pronounced BEE-be) is a congregating spot for blackbirds, and one witness told Ms. Rowe that he saw the birds roosting earlier in the day and heard them again at night just after the fireworks started.

“It was the right mix of things happening in a perfect time sequence,” Ms. Rowe said.

At most recent count, up to 5,000 birds fell on the city. Sixty five samples were sent to labs, one of which is at the Livestock and Poultry Commission and the other in Madison, Wis.

Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the commission, said he was not aware of a case this large. “About nine years ago we had some ducks,” he said, “but that was only a couple of dozen.”

The town contacted an environmental cleanup firm, which by Monday afternoon had picked up nearly all the birds, some of which were bagged and left at the end of driveways by residents.

“It just looked as if it had rained birds,” said Tracy Lightfoot, a member of the City Council, declining to speculate on the reason. “There’s lots of theories running around. I have no idea. I just don’t have a clue.”

State scientists believe one thing to be almost certain: that the bird deaths were not related to the roughly 85,000 fish that died a few days before near Ozark, in the western part of the state, the biggest fish kill in Arkansas that anyone can remember. They were spotted by anglers along the Arkansas River last week and reported to the Game and Fish Commission, which spent New Year’s Eve measuring and counting dead fish that had spread out for nearly 20 miles.

In that case, the victims were almost all drum, and almost all younger ones. That suggests the culprit was disease, said Mark Oliver, the chief of fisheries for the commission. He said fish kills were not uncommon, especially in winter when the fish are packed more closely, but he did not recall one of this size.

Meanwhile roughly 500 dead birds were found on Monday outside New Roads, La. Those birds were much more varied, with starlings and grackle in addition to blackbirds, and a few samples picked up by James LaCour, a wildlife veterinarian with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, did not show any signs of trauma, he said.

The Saints of the Drug Cartel

2011-01-03T20:15:00.000-06:00

(I find this fascinating but I don't know why. My thanks to Liz for doing all the research for this post.)

Santa Muerte is thin.

From mywesttexas.com:

U.S. Marshal: Religious items can be used to help target drug lords

by Audrie Palmer
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Nearly 200 agents and officers from West Texas law enforcement groups took part Thursday (12-16-2010) in a daylong training class geared to helping them recognize religious tools criminals use in the Mexican drug underworld.

"A lot of these officers are not aware they're using this as protection. (The class is) to help them become familiar with the different images and icons and to enhance their safety," U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte said. "The bottom line is the criminals pray for protection from law enforcement. They pray all the way up to God and all the way down to the devil."

Almonte has been traveling around the state of Texas giving the presentation to area agencies and setting up displays of religious sentiments, including candles and crosses, he's collected over the course of his career. A model replica statue of Santa Muerte -- the "saint of death" -- stood on a folding table near the front of the classroom.

Authorities say that many involved in drug rings continue to add different religious elements to their homes and the use of these elements are spreading around the United States.

"It's another weapon the cartel is using, and they've been using it for awhile," Almonte said.

Investigators believe recognizing religious elements and sacred items used for rituals will help to aid officers working in the field and alert them to possible criminal activity.

The popularity of such elements presents a challenge to many officers, Almonte said, and law enforcement should not rely solely on the religious aspects but conduct further investigations into the crimes.

Still, recognizing one or more of the items displayed could be a possible indicator of criminal activity.

Many who own the icons and images also have the beliefs embedded into their hearts, souls and minds, Almonte said, and they continue to believe in their faith even after they've been arrested.

Authorities are hoping their investigators and officers will make the association between some of the images and illegal activity happening inside community.

"This is an additional tool I want to leave with you guys. I think we all agree criminal activity is evil. I want to take you on a journey to the dark side of that activity," said Almonte, starting the Powerpoint presentation for the class. "The things you are going to see are of importance. It could be a matter of life and death."

Audrie Palmer can be reached at apalmer@mrt.com.

FURTHER READING:

Drug cartel 'saint' is actually anything but.
An early Frogtown post mentions the "Law Stay Away Candle" and similar items.
Wikipedia article on Jesus Malverde.
Wikipedia article on Santa Muerte.

Two Churches Fight in Roswell

2010-12-29T21:56:00.000-06:00

From God Discussion:

Members of two different churches in Roswell, New Mexico, are fighting over who interprets scriptures correctly.

Armed with signs, Bibles, and a camera, members of Old Paths Baptist Church showed up in front of the Church on the Move on November 28 to proclaim that Church on the Move's members were headed to hell.

This weekend, KOB Eyewitness News released a video of the ensuing shouting match and physical fights. Associate Pastor Savino Sanchez, 63, of the Church on the Move was taken to the ground by members of Old Paths Baptist Church. Three members of Old Paths Baptist Church, including their leader, street preacher Jeremy De Los Santos, were charged for the incident. Members of Old Paths had been in at least two other incidents around the city just a day earlier.

"They may not like our method, they may think or method is too confrontational, nevertheless its our right to preach in public," proclaimed De Los Santos.

The Hobbs Grinch

2010-12-27T00:05:00.002-06:00

Holiday Grinch Turns Himself In
By Geena Martinez
NewsWest 9

HOBBS, N.M. - Hobbs Police got an early Christmas present on Thursday afternoon.

A man they said stole cans from a little girl and then cashed them in for money turned himself in but he said he's innocent and wants people to hear his side of the story.

"I came to turn myself in man, I'm getting charged with a crime I didn't do," Roque Castillo said.

He's known as 'the Grinch' who stole Christmas, but 28-year-old Roque Castillo says he's innocent and the only reason he turned himself in Friday is to begin the process of clearing his name.

"Guess my name's Grinch, guess it fell at the right time at Christmas," he said. "But I ain't guilty. I'm not going to plead guilty to a crime I didn't do."

Hobbs Police said Castillo stole cans from a little girl who was saving them to earn money for Christmas presents.

Then they said he brought the cans to a local metal shop for the money, but Castillo said he was just doing a favor.

He said a friend brought him the cans and asked Castillo to cash them in for him because he didn't have an ID.

"I was at the house with my kids that day, getting ready for Christmas," Castillo said. "I just did it for a friend, I was trying to help him out because it's Christmas time."

Castillo is no stranger to the law but he said those days are behind him.

"You think I'd take something stolen over there with my ID?" he said. "C'mon on man, let's be real, I am a criminal. I live right now, you know I got kids. I don't do nothing wrong anymore."

Friends and family of Castillo held signs in support of their 'Grinch' as he made his way to the police department. Castillo's mother, Janie, said it's all a big misunderstanding and his tattoo just happened to make good timing for all the headlines.

"They're playing off the whole grinch thing because it fell around Christmas. You know the Grinch who stole Christmas," Janie said. "My son didn't steal Christmas. He's got two little girls and he wouldn't do that."

The family said they've got an attorney and their next step is legal action for what they call slander in the newspaper.

And as for Castillo, he said he hasn't heard from the friend since.

"Ever since then, I ain't seen him," he said.

Castillo did bail out of jail on a $529 bond.

Dr. Arafiles Arrested

2010-12-26T00:05:00.006-06:00

Winkler Post photo.

From the Odessa American:
KERMIT The ongoing saga of the whistle-blowing Winkler County nurses took a turn for the karmic Tuesday with the arrest of Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles on charges of retaliation and misuse of official information. Both are third-degree felonies.

(Ironically, one of these charges is the same as what the Kermit nurses were originally charged with. - DK)

Agents with the Texas Attorney General's Office presented the arrest warrant to Arafiles in Odessa and he agreed to come with them to Winkler County where 109th District Judge James Rex magistrated him, office spokesman Thomas Kelley said. Arafiles left the Winkler County Jail on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond and had his passport revoked. (Arafiles is a native of the Philippines).

Arafiles' arrest results from the criminal investigation of nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle.

They were fired from Winkler County Memorial Hospital and were indicted and arrested by local authorities in 2009 in connection with misuse of official information after they sent an anonymous letter to the Texas Medical Board with examples of 10 patients they believed Arafiles had not properly treated.

Arafiles’ criminal charges come from the Texas Attorney General’s Office. In the arrest warrant affidavit, Arafiles is accused of giving patient information to Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts, Arafiles’ friend and also a patient, so that Roberts could investigate the source of the anonymous accusations against him. After determining the patients themselves hadn’t made the complaints, Roberts identified Galle and Mitchell as the whistleblowers, setting into motion all future events that brought national attention to the small community.

But prosecutors dismissed the case against Galle, and Mitchell was acquitted by jury in February. In August, the pair received $750,000 after Winkler County settled a federal civil suit against many of the officials involved.

The affidavit said Arafiles disclosed the information to Roberts to stop what he characterized as harassment against him, but that wouldn’t be considered a proper governmental purpose, especially against certified nurses with a duty to report harmful medical practices. The affidavit also said Arafiles’ inquiries should have been directed to the Texas Medical Board, not a local law-enforcement officer.

Hospital Board member John Walton said he thought the whole matter was through when the civil suit was settled, but the hospital continues to struggle after the resignation of administrator Stan Wiley in October and continues to need another doctor after one that came in left to work in Odessa.

“What it’s done is made people not trust the hospital,” Walton said.

(No kidding! - DK)

CLICK HERE to see CBS7's story on the arrest. (He runs from the camera. - DK)

CLICK HERE to read the arrest affidavit.

CLICK HERE to read the Texas Medical Board's civil complaint against Arafiles.

(Repost) To Touch an Angel by Paul Crume

2010-12-25T00:05:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas everybody! I posted Paul Crume's 1967 masterpiece three years ago and illustrated it with some rather spooky angel images. This year I thought I would repost it, with pictures we took at Odessa's Starbright Village. This may be a hare-brained idea, but you be the judge.

You can see the Dallas Morning News animated version here and read more about the author here.
View the Starbright Village tree-lighting ceremony here.

Liz and Robert.

"A man wrote me not long ago and asked me what I thought of the theory of angels. I immediately told him that I am highly in favor of angels. As a matter of fact, I am scared to death of them.

Any adult human being with half sense, and some with more, knows that there are angels.

If he has ever spent any period in loneliness, when the senses are forced in upon themselves, he has felt the wind from their beating wings and been overwhelmed with the sudden realization of the endless and gigantic dark that exists outside the little candle flame of human knowledge.

He has prayed, not in the sense that he asked for something, but that he yielded himself.

Angels live daily at our very elbows, and so do demons, and most men at one time or another in their lives have yielded themselves to both and have lived to rejoice and rue their impulses.

But the man who has once felt the beat of an angel's wing finds it easy to rejoice at the universe and at his fellow man.

It does not happen to any man often, and too many of us dismiss it when it happens.

I remember a time in my final days in college when the chinaberry trees were abloom and the air was sweet with spring blossoms and I stood still on the street, suddenly struck with the feeling of something that was an enormous promise and yet was no tangible promise at all.

And there was another night in a small boat when the moon was full and the distant headlands were dark but beautiful and we were lonely.

The pull of a nameless emotion was so strong that it filled the atmosphere. The small boy within me cried.

Psychiatrists will say that the angel in all this was really within me, not outside, but it makes no difference.

There are angels inside us and angels outside, and the one inside is usually the quickest choked.

Francis Thompson said it better. He was a late 19th-century English poet who would put the current crop of hippies to shame.

He was on pot all his life. His pad was always mean and was sometimes a park bench.

He was a mental case and tubercular besides.

He carried a fishing creel into which he dropped the poetry that was later to become immortal.

"The angels keep their ancient places," wrote Francis Thompson in protest. "Turn but a stone, and start a wing."

He was lonely enough to be the constant associate of angels.

There is an angel close to you this day. Merry Christmas, and I wish you well."

Fallen Officers' Memorial.

Robert.

egalliV thgirbratS.

More about Starbright Village

Christmas in Liz's Room!

2010-12-18T00:17:00.000-06:00

Two recurring themes this year: Snowmen and Snoopy.

This banner has little blue twinkling lights. Very festive.

We still have the quasi-legal pinecone.

Most of the Snoopy items make music. This one drums to the "Linus and Lucy" tune.

I had never seen a Charlie Brown Nativity before. We found it at Mardel.

The Breen Machine and Other Links

2010-12-08T22:03:00.004-06:00

We saw this man and his vehicle passing through Notrees on his way to Kermit. We were headed east and he was heading west. He's on a 30,000-mile trek in his CyclOcar, trying to set a world's record. Read his blog post about his Notrees/Kermit adventure. He even stopped at the Huddle House.

Also, Kermit is one of the safest cities in the U.S. according to Buzzle.com, who have never lied to me before because I've never heard of them. (Scroll down after jump.)
The military's secret plot to hire or recruit bloggers!
The Church of Ireland's official blog mentions the KISD choir and their (then-upcoming) visit.

Golf Etiquette

2010-12-07T22:00:00.001-06:00

Maybe He Overspent ...

2010-12-06T22:32:00.002-06:00

... on that Hawaiian trip!

Lunchtime Surprise!

2010-12-05T23:21:00.000-06:00

H/T Gazelle.

This I Wanna See!

2010-11-27T10:18:00.002-06:00

Human Nature

2010-11-26T10:21:00.000-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!

2010-11-25T10:31:00.003-06:00

(H/T Thinking Out Loud.)

Does Al Gore Know?

2010-11-24T22:10:00.000-06:00

From Geek.com: Wi-Fi Killing Trees?

WiFi may bring with it all of the good things in life — fun, entertainment and more — but it may be bringing about a miniature environmental apocalypse along with it: the death of the trees around you.

The surprising finding comes from the city of Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands, which noticed that its trees were starting to mutagenically sprout strange growths and other abnormalities otherwise not usually seen in arborology.

To figure out what was behind the strange outbreak, Aplhen aan den Rijn commissioned a study half a decade ago from a researcher at Wageningen University. He found that over 70% of the trees today in the urban areas of the Netherlands exhibited strange tree growth, while only ten percent did five years ago.

It’s not entirely certain what is causing the outbreak, but there’s some pretty strong correlation suggesting that the rise of WiFi is to blame. As part of his study, the researcher exposed twenty ash trees to various radiation sources for three months; those placed closest to a WiFi router quickly developed a “lead-like” shine on their leaves that was caused by the death of the upper and lower epidermis of the leaves, and eventually kill off parts of the leaves entirely.

It’s not just trees: the researcher also discovered that WiFi could inhibit the growth of corn. Is the death of the plants around you enough to make you shackle yourself to a Cat-5 again?

Read more at Antennebureau

Biggest Moth in the World?

2010-11-22T21:37:00.001-06:00

More news from slightly north of me:

From Fox News:

HOBBS, N.M. – The discovery of what could be a complete mammoth skeleton in Lea County has local archeologists excited.

The New Mexico Natural History Museum Foundation will hold a special event at the Western Heritage Museum next week during which Executive Director Calvin Smith will announce the historic find.

"It is a major discovery," Smith told the Hobbs News-Sun. "We usually find pieces and parts, but if this is a complete skeleton, it is very important."

So far, amateur archaeologists have unearthed a femur, tibia, fibula and a carpal.

Smith helped excavate more than 20 mammoths at a dig site near Waco, Texas, and has found the remains of five mammoths in Lea County, but this could be the first complete skeleton.

"It is a significant find and one that deserves a lot of attention," he said. "If we are on the bottom of it, we are through, if we are on the top of it, we have another year's work."

How important it could be for Lea County is yet to be seen, but the potential is huge, Smith said.

"When I was at Baylor, I heard about the mammoths found out in (the Waco) ravine," he said. "There were five found. My first trip I found three more eroding out of the bank. We ended up with 23 mammoths and they are building a $4 million building over the site and it is being approved to become part of the National Parks system.

"I am not saying this is what will happen, but it is certainly a possibility."

The mammoth was discovered last year by Lea County resident Delbert Sanderson, who saw the femur bone fossil sticking up out of the middle of a two-track road in the desert.

Sanderson was visiting the area to explore a different archaeological find he first noticed as a teenager more than 50 years ago.

"There was this bone running all the way across the road," he said. "I dug at it with my pocket knife and pried a piece out."

Sanderson took the fossil fragment to Smith, who immediately knew what he was seeing.

The announcement of the find was delayed for several reasons, one being worries about thieves. Another was getting permission to keep the fossils in Lea County from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History, which has authority over all fossil finds in the state.

Smith petitioned the museum for permission to keep the bones local for an exhibit at the Western Heritage Museum and was granted a loan of fossils previously found in the area that are currently in the state museum's collection.

Smith will be using the fossils to create an exhibit on the Guadalupe Reef, as many of the fossils are of extinct sea animals that lived in a small sea covering what is now southeast New Mexico.

Other mammoth fossils found in Lea County include pieces of a skeleton found south of Jal in the 1940s or 1950s and a piece of tusk found during excavations for building foundations at the Urenco USA site, Smith said.

There are rumors an intact skull has been found in Lea County and, if true, Smith believes the find could be one of the greatest for the area.

"I would like to know more if someone does know of a significant find like that," he said.

No Longer Lost

2010-11-21T22:38:00.000-06:00

A touching story from a few miles north of me:

From KQRE and other places:
By Levi Hill

HOBBS, N.M. — Hidden among the prairie grass and mesquite bushes a few miles east of Jal, an old barbed-wire fence and wooden cross were the only evidence four nameless children lost their lives at that spot more than a century ago.

On Oct. 25, 103 years after the children were laid to rest, the names and faces almost lost to history have been returned to Violet, William, Newton and Earl Sparks.

For their nephews, Jack and Frank Sparks, the story began on March 16, 1957.

According to the Sparks family’s oral histories and research by local historian David Minton, that was the day the four children’s mother, Effie Sparks, broke down crying and told a niece she had four children buried somewhere in New Mexico or Texas but had no idea where.

The revelation set Effie’s grandchildren, Frank and Jack, on a quest that would take them more than 50 years.

“It means closure in a sense,” said Jack Sparks, looking across the site where his uncles and aunt were buried. “Our great hope is when we walk through those pearly gates, those children are going to meet us there. If they know what we did now, they are certainly rejoicing. In the hereafter we will certainly be able to share the story.”

The brothers, along with Frank’s son, Joe Bill Sparks, and family members Bobbie Sparks and Marc Bradberry placed a four-foot headstone to honor their long-lost relatives.

Minton, who has placed headstones on unmarked graves across Lea County for years, joined the family in cleaning up the site.

“To me, it is just a great thing that these children are no longer lost to history,” Minton said. “They have been found and remembered.”

The search for his long-buried relatives drew Jack Sparks into the Lea County Assessor’s Office one day in 2008 in search of records on the homestead his grandfather, James Monroe Sparks, claimed near Nadine in 1902.

It was perhaps fate that Sparks told one of the staff the story of the Sparks family just as David Minton walked into the office. The words, “lost graves” sparked Minton’s curiosity and the two began to talk.

It came to Minton’s mind — a Jal resident had told him years ago about an unmarked grave east of the small town that was the final resting place of four children who died of scarlet fever on their way to the doctor.

The story fit with what Spark’s father, Cecil, had told him and a search began.

“It was just so lucky I had walked in the door when he had said that,” Minton said. “It never would have happened otherwise.”

As the story goes, and as Minton writes it, it was 1907 and all six of the Sparks children — Cecil, Violet, William, Newton, Earl and infant Eva Mae — became ill with either diphtheria or scarlet fever.

The family loaded them into a wagon and started for Midland, the closest and best medical help at the time. A rider was sent ahead to get medicine and meet the family on the trail, but along the way four of the children died.

They were buried, and the wagon, bedding and items taken for the trip were burned to prevent the spread of the disease.

James and Effie Sparks returned to Nadine with their surviving children, Cecil and Eva Mae, where they lived until about 1915, when the family returned to Coke County, Texas, along with two new children, Relia and Vera, who had been born in Nadine.

Minton, with the help of Jal area ranchers who still remembered the story passed down from their fathers, found the family grave.

It is unknown who put the barbed-wire fence or a more recent pipe-fence around the site and the marker, a wooden cross tied with barbed-wire, was also added by some unknown Samaritan.

Around the site, pieces of crockery and shards of glass bottles aged by the sun until they have turned purple are still evident. A single nut and bolt, possibly from the burned wagon, was found not far from the grave.

The headstone reads, “In memory of four children lost to scarlet fever in 1907 along this trail trying to get to a doctor.”

On the other side are lyrics from a song Effie Sparks was believed to have sung to her children as they lay dying — “Dear mother, put my little shoes away.”

Robert in Uniform

2010-11-17T23:20:00.000-06:00

October 29 was the last home game of the year, and the junior high band (including Robert) got to march with the high school band for the very first time!

Red Ribbon Week/Fall Festival/Spook Parade

2010-11-15T22:02:00.000-06:00

(Photo from KISD website.) Liz wore this costume for Red Ribbon Week. She's supposed to be a hippie chick, but some thought she looked like Ozzy.

You won't be able to sleep tonight until you check out all 32 pictures of Red Ribbon Week on KISD's site.

Spelling is important: This student's priceless drawing of a "h*** storm" actually got hung in the hall. (Click image to make it biggerer.)

For the Fall Festival, Liz hosted the dance party. Behold the twin skeletons of John Travolta.

Gift bouquet from fellow teacher.

(From the KISD website.)

Liz dressed as a jester for Halloween, but some of her kids were reminded of this fellow. Now, how do you suppose they knew about that?

Liz hung this cute sign on her projector as a gentle reminder to the techs and administrators. (Click image to enlargerate.)

Be sure to see all 87 of Kermit Elementary's pictures of the Fall Festival.

Kokomo (aka Koko) didn't care much for the alien costume.

Robert doesn't care much for holding the dog.

Examine all 104 (and still growing) of the Winkler Post's photos of the Spook Parade.

The M-I-B and his alien captive.

The Haunting of LCU and Other Links

2010-11-13T07:51:00.002-06:00

Here are some things, some wise and some weird, that I'm in the mood to share:

Ghosts seem to haunt college campi. LCU is no exception.
Odessa's UTPB, Liz's alma mater, is haunted by a spirit named Matilda. (You will have to scroll down after the jump.)
Where do I get one of these?
Meet Twinkle Dwivedi, the girl who cries blood.
Here's an excellent post about the disease of perfection. (Thanks to shallowfrozenwater.)
My parent is an idiot!
Ten reasons Trey Morgan loves living in a small town.

What Has Science Done?

2010-11-12T08:00:00.002-06:00

Liz found this while searching for Veteran's Day material.

Darth Vader's Hawaiian Vacation

2010-11-11T17:52:00.001-06:00

From Hawaiian Seamonkey by way of Neatorama:
Even the Dark Side takes a break every now and then, and Darth Vader’s choice of getaway is Hawaii! Jill Ulander caught a series of photographs of the Dark Lord kicking back on the Big Island.

Don't Text and Fly

2010-11-01T16:59:00.000-05:00

(From El Fin del Internet.)

Time Traveller?

2010-10-29T22:08:00.001-05:00

Halloween 2010

2010-10-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

Robert is an M-I-B this year.

With mom.

Coming soon: The alien chiweenie.

Politically Incorrect Halloween Costumes

2010-10-11T22:52:00.000-05:00

From Dribbleglass.com:
By Scott Roeben

Before you choose a Halloween costume this year, it's important to consider whether it's appropriate. You may feel your costume is creative, but in these politically correct times, you need to take the feelings of others into account! The following costumes have been deemed politically incorrect, so beware.

Raggedy Ann. This costume clearly objectifies women.

Werewolf. Offensive to animal advocates and those with male-pattern baldness.

Cave man. The proper term should be "evolutionally challenged"; "man" is overtly sexist; also insulting to those in loincloths.

Cop. Authority figures should not be ridiculed.

Grim Reaper. Trivializes death; may also encourage children to use scythes without the necessary supervision.

Napoleon. Offends the French. (In much the same way deodorant does.)

Frankenstein's Monster. Pokes fun at those with psychological or emotional problems, as well as those with identity crises.

Bride of Frankenstein. Extremely offensive to women—they should not be known by, or valued more, merely because of their husbands.

Skeleton. Exhibits an insensitivity toward those with eating disorders.

Angel. Mocks religion and the religious.

Hunchback of Notre Dame. Ridicules those with physical deformities, as well as those suffering from "ligyrophobia," a fear of noise.

Dracula. Endorses the irresponsible practice of transmitting bodily fluids.

Sigmund Freud. Insults those with the lifelong opinion that a cigar is just a cigar.

Flapper. Demeaning to women and tassel salesmen.

Gladiator. Insensitive to cross-dressers.

Cowboy. Encourages violence, cruelty to animals and spontaneous "whooping."

Mafioso (mobster, "wise guy"). Unfairly stereotypes Italian-Americans. OK, actually, fairly stereotypes Italian-Americans, but it's still stereotyping.

Tarzan. Condones mistreatment of minorities and animals. Again, hurtful to those in loincloths.

Ghost. Glorifies the occult.

Witch. Religious persecution. Also pertains to warlocks, Gnostics, conjurers, chiromancers, shamans and Druids.

Leprechaun. Shows contempt for the Irish-American community, as well as the diminutive.

Presidents. Encourages scorn and contempt for authority figures, at least half of whom have no criminal record whatsoever. (See also "Cop.")

Characters from Star Wars. Offensive to Star Trek fans.

Characters from Star Trek. Offensive to Star Wars fans.

Mummy. Offends Egyptians, embalmers and the undead.

Genie. Objectifies women; subjects those who may be "buxom challenged" to ridicule. (Note: Same applies to wenches.)

Pirate. Distasteful to those with hooks for hands and the vision impaired (wearers of eye patches), not to mention parrot owners.

Zombie. Disrespectful of the dead.

Princess. Contributes to myth that women must be "rescued" to live happily ever after (same goes for Snow White); also insulting to certain Jewish-Americans.

Gorilla. Condescending to our friends in the wild kingdom.

Medusa. Exploits animals; sends the wrong message to young girls by implying women are defined by their physical appearance.

Gumby. Ridicules those with disfigurements (especially of the head).

Knight. Offensive to dragons, I imagine.

Baby. Promotes a lack of respect for youth, human life and those who drool voluminously.

Biblical Figures. Religion is no laughing matter, except for that part about Noah fitting four million species of animals onto one boat.

Ballerina. Cruelly mocks the short, not to mention the waif-like.

Indian. Native-Americans have been oppressed, slaughtered and persecuted—imitation buckskin and feathers are the final insult.

Devil. Affront to demons and those currently possessed by demons; Satanists are people, too, all right?

Sports Figures. Belittles our heroes.

Convict/Prisoner. See "Sports Figures"—the groups often seem to overlap.

Fairy. Offensive to interior designers and choreographers. (Note: The same guideline applies to sprites and pixies.)

Priest. The Catholic church has enough to worry about without being the butt of jokes (if you'll pardon the expression).

Bandito. Racial stereotype; subtly condones handlebar mustaches.

Headless Horseman. Blatantly sexist; wrongfully pigeonholes equestrians; also involves another physical deformity—offensive to amputees and the headless.

Viking. Endorses razing; in addition, glorifies pillaging and ravishing.

Porky Pig. Insensitive to members of the Jewish-American community (as well as members of Weight Watchers).

Klingon. Unjustly hurtful to illegal, as well as resident, aliens. (See also "Characters from Star Trek.")

Hobo. Derides the economically and hygienically disadvantaged.

Professional wrestlers. Offensive to just about everybody. (See also "Sports Figures.")

Mermaid. Slights women and aquatic life simultaneously.

Daffy Duck. Unkind to those with speech impediments. (Same goes for Elmer Fudd and Barbara Walters.)

Phantom of the Opera. Unfeeling toward those with physical malformations; shows contempt for those committed to ridding the civilized world of musicals.

Ninja. Perpetuates stereotype of Asians; also promotes "lurking."

Albert Einstein. Insulting to those who have a problem comprehending the particle nature of light.

Chinaman. Sexist; racist; upsetting to immigrants and honor students.

Clown. Deeply offensive to Geraldo Rivera.

Aunt Jemima. Racially inflammatory; serves to exacerbate the already incendiary "pancake vs. waffle" debate.

Robin Hood/Merry Men. Suggests an intolerance for those with alternative lifestyles.

Aside from those costumes, you should be just fine. Get out there and enjoy your Halloween! Oh, and don't use the phrase "trick or treat." Hookers are people, too.

Baa, Baa, Fake Sheep

2010-10-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

(From, of course, the Sacred Sandwich.)

Vatican to Baptize Alien?

2010-10-06T07:14:00.000-05:00

From Light Sound Dimension quoting the Guardian:

An alien – ‘no matter how many tentacles it has’ – could have a soul, says pope’s astronomer.

Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as “bad theology” that had been “hijacked” by American creationist fundamentalists.

Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope’s astronomers, said he would be “delighted” if intelligent life was found among the stars. “But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it’s probably not a practical question.”

Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul.” Would he baptise an alien? “Only if they asked.”

Church Gives Away Free Weddings

2010-10-05T08:06:00.001-05:00

From the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal:

By Kellie Bramlet

LEVELLAND Six cakes. Six couples. Six weddings. One weekend.

The equation makes things pretty busy for South Plains Church this weekend.

The church offered six free weddings, complete with decorations, cake, a photo and video package and hair and makeup provided, for six lucky couples.

Approximately 32 church members came together to make the wedding weekend happen.

“This is a privilege for us to be a part of,” said Pat Trice, organizer of the wedding weekend and wife of pastor Eddie Trice.

Trice said she hoped the free weddings would encourage long-lasting marriages.

For the first of the six couples to celebrate their wedding the special weekend meant a second chance.

J.D. and Jessica Rodriguez were married in 2002, but their relationship fell apart. The couple got a divorce. But a year and a half later, they mended their tarnished relationship. On Friday they said “I do” for the second time.

“We’re trying to do it God’s way the second time,” Jessica Rodriguez said.

When the couple planned to marry again, they sought marriage counseling at the church, where they are members. When Pat Trice came up with the idea for the wedding weekend, she first asked the Rodriguez’ if they would like one of the free weddings. The other five were available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The couple captured the idea behind wedding weekend: a family trying to make it work, Pat Trice said.

When Eddie Trice asked who presented the bride, three small voices shouted “We do!”

The Rodriguez children, Donovan, Orchid and Clover, made up most of the wedding party, and part of the reason why the couple celebrated the second wedding. Jessica said she wanted her children to see the importance and sacred nature of marriage.

J.D. and Jessica said they were very grateful to all those who had made their special day complete.

“This church is really out to help our community,” Jessica said. “They take what God says to do and make it happen for them.”

The Hidden Costs of Teaching

2010-10-04T08:38:00.000-05:00

From Scholastic Instructor:
What other profession expects employees to spend their own money to furnish their workplace?
By Megan Kaesshaefer

You want your students to get the best education possible, even if it means dishing out your own money to help make it happen. 97 percent of teachers do just that and more (case and point below), and with budgets tightening, spending for students is on the rise. We asked Instructor readers how much they sacrifice each year.

"I am in a high-poverty district where supplies and contributions are limited. I spend hundreds of dollars of own money buying supplies for 25 students, but when I see where they live and that they have so little, I know it will make for a more successful school year." -Amanda Graham, via Facebook

"I teach in the city, and students rarely bring in anything. Teachers are not given supplies, so I spend between $1,000 and $1,500 per year." -Lisa Haley Berardini, Rochester, NY

"I spent $800 last year. This year, I began with practically nothing, and have had to beg, borrow, and buy to make a functional classroom." -Jola Sulaiman, via Facebook

"My mom, a retired teacher, volunteers in my classroom, and between the two of us we spend $100 a month. It's not just on supplies, it's food, too!" -Marjie DeWilde, Nixa, MO

"I teach in an inner city school with over 900 free-or reduced-lunch enrolled. I help pay for field trips for kids, buy socks and underwear, and granola bars to keep in my closet at the beginning of the year for needy kids. It's not just teaching supplies; it's life supplies!" -Mary Anne Feller, Evansville, IN

The Truth About Teacher-Spending:
More than half of teachers aren't equipped with the basic everyday classroom supplies they need, and in a job that pays less than the big bucks, we know you feel the strain. Here's the truth about teacher spending.

$623. Amount the average teacher spends for classroom supplies out of pocket
79% of teachers say they need more school supplies or better equipment for their classrooms
70% of teachers claim their schools do not provide them with the necessary tools needed to effectively teach students
28% of teachers say they have to cut-back on spending for their own families in order to use the money for their classroom
65% of teachers think that most parents don't know educators spend their own money on supplies for their kids
32% of teachers say they would give up two vacation days if it meant their students' learning environment could improve

Source: National Teaching Realities Survey, Kelton Research, 2010

About the Author:
Megan Kaesshaefer is Assistant Editor of Scholastic Instructor.

Homecoming

2010-10-03T08:33:00.001-05:00

In my day, guys didn't wear homecoming garters. Now they do, in Kermit anyway. This was the first year Robert wanted one.

Robert chased the bee (mascot) at the game. Photo by Robert. We wound up losing but we put up a good fight.

What's Wrong With These Pictures?

2010-10-02T08:09:00.001-05:00

Centennial and Celebration

2010-10-01T19:03:00.000-05:00

Sure looks like we're in for a spell of celebratin'. Yup.

Kermit is nowhere near Route 66.

Kermit Celebration Days are an annual observance; The Winkler County Centennial is a one-time deal. Remember that now.

Happy tie-dyed Robert.

It's almost like a fair. You can smell the food and hear the sound of parents being separated from their money. (Photo from the Winkler Post. See all 180 of their shots here and here.)

Old gasoline signs.

Chihuahua races! Next year Kokomo can enter! (Post photo.)

Here's some antique kitchen items for your politically incorrect friends.

Liz found this cool panther candle warmer.

Helicopter rides were $40 per person. I offered to let Robert go, but he declined. (Post photo.)

The only Kermit in evidence.

This claims to be a 1929 John Deere Hit-n-Miss Ice Cream Machine.

A hole where the 1960 time capsule used to be, and four golden shovels.

Burying the new time capsule.

This is just a ceremonial burial.

The real one won't be buried until next week.

Be sure to check this blog in 2060 for the opening of this time capsule,

for which Liz's students have written letters. Hers was the only elementary class to contribute to the new capsule.

Here's some of the things from the 1960 time capsule:

These items are perfectly preserved, which is amazing because the old "capsule" is a now-rusty section of pipe which was welded shut.

The "Brothers of the Brush" were a group of guys that grew beards to promote the 1960 celebration:

Some of them had a shaving permit ...

... and some carried a card like these so they wouldn't be mistaken for beatniks! Nothing worse!

The oil fields and the sand dunes haven't changed much.

Come meet the regular fire.

This is interesting and touching. Two children wrote letters after their father passed away suddenly:

Caught Looking Grumpy ...

2010-09-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

Robert and me at the Relay for Life back in May. (Winkler Post photo.)

Chiweenie

2010-09-25T22:20:00.001-05:00

This is our new 4-week-old chiweenie pup.

He is so tiny that when he eats, his hind legs rise off the floor. I guess his head weighs more than the rest of him.

We have yet to name him. Any suggestions?