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Backe among 11 cited at bar ‘riot’ By Chris Paschenko The Daily News Published October 6, 2008 GALVESTON — Police arrested 11 people, including Houston Astros pitcher Brandon Backe and a FEMA official, at a disturbance at a Galveston hotel bar early Sunday. However, one witness said police used force on people who were offering no resistance to police. “It’s blatantly obvious — this was the fault of the Galveston Police Department,” said Dennis Byrd, the owner of a seawall restaurant. Byrd said Backe’s treatment by police couldn’t be justified. It was not clear Sunday night how or whether that...

WASHINGTON - Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

GALVESTON, Texas - The final hours brought the awful realization to victims of Hurricane Ike that they had waited too long. This storm wasn't like the others, the ones that left nothing worse than a harrowing tale to tell...

More Ike pics.http://www.tpicks.com/pictures%20people%20have%20sent%20me.html

Schooled In Disaster by: Lance Nation, September 30, 2008 In the recent Senate Hearing, the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs attempted to establish whether the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina were effectively implemented along the gulf coast when Hurricane Gustav and Ike hit Louisiana and Texas this past summer. “I have some good news about the federal response,” stated Houston’s Mayor Bill White in his opening testimony. “President Bush, Secretary Chertoff, Administrator Paulison, and the most senior members of [the Federal Emergency Management Administration] and the Corps of...

One of the disadvantages of being a writer and former journalist is that I’m always sharing news and information. It’s also an advantage in times of crisis by providing instant therapy. Recipients of my Hurricane Ike email updates may have less flattering names for it. I attended a meeting on the Tuesday before Ike invaded our shores. One participant said we shouldn’t worry, because the Gulf is big and the chances of Ike hitting us were small. I predicted we’d see a lot of wind, rain, and flooding, something akin to Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001. Only without the...

For the first time since Hurricane Ike blew away much of the city, residents of Galveston began streaming home today. But the city is in such bad shape, those hurrying back home were given an ominous warning: Bring tetanus shots, rat poisoning and don't bring children. If that's not enough, planes are spraying the city with insecticide to prevent a boom in the mosquito population, the water isn't drinkable and people are urged to wear face masks to guard against inhaling toxic mold that is proliferating in the sweltering city. Nevertheless, highways into Galveston were jammed with cars today as...

I have dreaded a monster hurricane coming to our area for years. I even said that last year. My fears came true last week at this time when Hurricane Ike came crashing in. Granted it was just a Category 2 hurricane at landfall with large areas of Category 1 winds. You can hear the loud howling winds and rain. Also, you can hear the debris hitting the ground and transformers exploding and creating bright flashes that look like lightning. Going through a hurricane is torture, like having a bunch of large needles inserted into you one at a time. I...

GALVESTON, Texas — It's been nearly a week since Hurricane Ike bulled ashore, and the images of once-bustling coastal Texas communities reduced to only a faint shadow of their old selves are no less staggering. Survivors traipsing past debris piled higher than their heads. Loose livestock grazing beneath downed power lines. Before-and-after shots of whole neighborhoods washed away. Scores of people taking on the drudgery of making it all livable again for weary and anxious evacuees still waiting to come home.

The short - but eventful - life of IkeIn its brief lifespan of only 13 days, Hurricane Ike wreaked great deal of havoc. Affecting several countries including Cuba, Haiti, and the United States, Ike is blamed for approximately 114 deaths (74 in Haiti alone), and damages that are still being tallied, with estimates topping $10 billion. Many shoreline communities of Galveston, Texas were wiped from the map by the winds, storm surge and the walls of debris pushed along by Ike - though Galveston was spared the level of disaster it suffered in 1900. (28 photos total)   Some amazing...

With no idea of numbers, authorities say final accounting may take years GALVESTON, Texas - The death toll from Hurricane Ike is remarkably low so far, considering that legions of people stayed behind as the storm obliterated row after row of homes along the Texas coast. But officials suspect there are more victims out there and say some might simply have been swept out to sea. Exactly how many is anybody's guess, because authorities had no sure way to track those who defied evacuation orders. And the number of people reported missing after the storm, whose death toll stands at...

With a late evacuation, contradictory messages to her citizens and now a failed first attempt to give evacuees a chance to check their homes, it's been a tough week for Galveston Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas. The four hectic days were filled with Hurricane Ike's destruction and the reality that thousands of residents were reluctant to leave. Now there is the arduous task of keeping her promise to them that she would have them home soon while trying to combat a growing public health crisis. Tears welled in her eyes as she pleaded with her tiny quorum of three council members...

Excerpt - A part of the current problems with recovery from the ravages of Hurricane Ike is that the city of Galveston’s part-time, unpaid mayor has virtually all the power in the city. The person who runs the city every other day, the city manager, is secondary. That’s backwards, and it gets in the way of effective government in the face of dangerous community crisis. The person in charge in an emergency should be the person who has hiring and firing authority over city department heads. That person is Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc, and Galveston would be better off...

Friday, they prepared for the worst. Saturday, they watched and waited. What they saw Sunday was not good. "We're affected right now, huge," Landry's Restaurants chief Tilman Fertitta said after a hurricane assessment meeting with a dozen of his executives Tuesday.

GALVESTON, Texas -- A legendary Galveston nightclub and former dance hall that jetted out above the Gulf of Mexico was destroyed by the massive storm surge of Hurricane Ike, KPRC Local 2 reported Saturday. The Balinese Room, located at 2108 Seawall Blvd., was ripped apart when Ike came ashore. The decades-old Balinese Room was a famous, recognizable landmark that extended 600 feet from Seawall Boulevard at 21st Street into the Gulf of Mexico

Excerpt - GALVESTON — Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas on Monday ordered all city employees not to talk to news reporters. She did not say when that order would be lifted. Thomas and City Manager Steve LeBlanc will be the only officials allowed to talk to reporters. City spokeswoman Mary Jo Naschke vehemently denied the city was trying to clamp down on coverage. She said emergency personnel and city employees were too busy to talk to reporters. Naschke also said the city had been accommodating news reporters by allowing them access to the island when others weren’t allowed, giving them escorted...

Hurricane Ike, which swept through Galveston and Houston overnight, caused substantial damage to Reliant Stadium, so the Texans game against the Baltimore Ravens will not be played Monday night. The home opener, originally scheduled for Sunday, had been pushed to Monday night because of the storm. "The facility will not be usable," Shey Guinn, president of SMG, the company that manages Reliant Park, told the Houston Chronicle. "There's some structural damage to the roof. Part of it is off," Guinn said, according to the paper. "There's also some other damage on the property caused by wind and water. We're in...

Please take a moment to pray if you haven’t already for those in the path of Hurricane Ike. All day my thoughts have been on the stories I grew up hearing my grandmother tell of the “Galveston Storm of 1915” (that was before hurricanes were named) - of the last moments she had with my grandfather when he came home for lunch and walked to the sea wall with her and told her at what point she needed to head for other shelter, of his pausing at the front gate as he left for one last look and wave, Grandma...

.HURRICANE IKE TO AFFECT NO. TX. .SYNOPSIS.HURRICANE IKE WILL MAKE LANDFALL NEAR HOUSTON EARLY SATURDAY MORNING. IKE WILL QUICKLY MOVE NORTH.GENERALLY ALONG A LINE FROM HOUSTON TO PALESTINE TO PARIS. THE STORM WILL WEAKEN TO TROPICAL STORM STRENGTH LATE MORNING SAT AS THE SYSTEM MOVES ACROSS EASTERN PORTIONS OF NO. TX. WIDESPREAD HEAVY RAINFALL OF 2 TO 4 INCHES WITH HIGHER TOTALS.STRONG GUSTY WINDS.AND ISOLATED TORNADOES ARE EXPECTED. TXZ135-147-148-162-175-130400- /O.CON.KFWD.HI.W.0001.080913T0600Z-080914T0600Z/ HENDERSON-FREESTONE-ANDERSON-LEON-ROBERTSON- 509 PM CDT FRI SEP 12 2008 .HURRICANE WIND WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 1 AM SAT TO 1 AM CDT SUNDAY. .NEW INFORMATION. A HURRICANE WIND WARNING IS...

Click on the link for a slide show on the storm surge - Galveston is already a mess and the worst is yet to come.

Galveston Island, Texas Webcams (Various). At link.

Large and dangerous Hurricane Ike approaching the Upper Texas coast. Mandatory evacuations began in earnest Thursday as an estimated one million coastal residents headed inland. There were widespread reports of gas stations running out of fuel. The National Weather Service posted dire storm surge predictions of 20-25 ft storm surge along the coast and bay heads. Hurricane warnings covered a 400 mile swath of the Gulf of Mexico. Wholesale gasoline prices spiked 30 percent Thursday, or nearly $1 a gallon, out of fear of what Ike might do. Public Advisory Updated every 3 hours Discussion Updated every 6 hours Buoy...

GALVESTON — Tropical Storm Edouard formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and could make landfall near Galveston by Tuesday morning, said forecasters with the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Edouard is the hurricane season’s fifth named storm. What had been a cluster of storms around a low-pressure system on Saturday was upgraded to a tropical depression Sunday afternoon and then to a tropical storm at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Forecasters expect the storm will strengthen. The storm was hugging the Louisiana coast and moving west. A tropical storm watch was in effect from Port Arthur to Galveston. John...

Houston - This year's annual meeting of the Texas Gang Investigator's Association (TGAI) was held at the Omni Hotel in Houston in June. In addition to three days of training on recognizing and fighting gang violence in our communities, prisons, and schools, the 800 members present took time to recognize law enforcement officers, correction officers, and probation officers throughout Texas who have shown diligence and excellent work in fighting gang violence. The association recognized Judge Lonnie Cox of the 56th District Court as the Ted Poe "Damn Good Judge" of the year. In presenting the award to Judge Cox, Director...

Friendswood physician Robin Armstrong, a former medical missionary in Africa, recently was re-elected vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party, the only black person to serve in one of the state party's top two positions during the 20th and 21st centuries. Q: Affirmative action, what about that? A: I don't think it's a policy that's really necessary, and I think Barack Obama is a good example of that. People generally want to be helpful to minorities and want to see them succeed on their own. Sure, racism is out there, but I don't think that is the majority of people...

Every year county appraisal districts mail notices of appraised value changes to millions of property owners across the State which prompts protests by unhappy taxpayers. Even with fewer values than usual increasing in Galveston County this year, hundreds of property owners attended classes to learn how to be effective in the protest process. I know because I taught those classes and attendees confirmed what seems to me to be obvious -- the system needs to be changed. In 2006, the Governor’s Task Force on Appraisal Reform traveled the state collecting information on problems associated with our current property tax system....

Joy from rescue of 5 Aggie boaters turns grim when 6th member of capsized boat crew is found dead amid wreckage A day that started with the joyous rescue of five crew members of a Texas A&M University at Galveston sailboat closed with the somber discovery of the sixth sailor's body in the wreckage of the sunken ship. Roger Stone, whose body was recovered by a salvage crew Sunday about 27 miles southeast of Freeport, was called a hero for helping two students escape from below decks seconds before the Cynthia Woods capsized. "I'm sure that's what lost his life,"...

It has been roughly three months since residents of Huntsville and Walker County attended town hall meetings to voice their opinion on the Trans-Texas Corridor/I-69 project to the Texas Department of Transportation. There was no question then that there was strong opposition to the proposed 1,600-mile national highway, and it seems as though residents’ efforts to stop it has not lost any of its momentum. Several residents attended the Walker County Commissioners Court on Monday morning, expressing concerns about the project and encouraged the court to take another step of action. The five-member court agrees with the majority of the...

Down here in Galveston County, the Ron Paul bots tried to hijack the convention using subterfuge and tactical advantage of surprise, that would have made al Queda proud (high-placed sleeper, multiple coordinated attacks with a goal of causing a larger scale effect at the State convention and later at the National convention. Unfortunately for them it was discovered and thwarted for the most part by perceptive Republicans that took action and alerted others to help block their efforts. But it did make for a long and chaotic mess. Like jihadists, they took advantage of a weak Party leadership in transition...

Plots by Communists to infiltrate America. The disintegration of borders and rural areas. Citizens mobilizing and rising up against government agencies and big business. It all sounds like the plot for a summer blockbuster, but it's something that could be happening in your own backyard. These were just a few of the topics addressed in the "How to fight the TTC" workshop, held Monday at the Pitser Garrison Civic Center in Lufkin. The conference served as an informational meeting aimed at informing citizens and local government officials how they can unite in trying to stop the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor project....

The Obama camp hotly disputed a claim this week by Galveston County Democratic Chairman Lloyd Criss that on election night, Obama supporters took caucus sign-in sheets to their campaign headquarters and added names to them. Criss, a Clinton supporter, made the claim earlier this week. But he said that since it didn’t change how many delegates the candidates got, he wasn’t that concerned about it. But Aaron Schiller, who ran the Obama campaign in Galveston, insisted it didn’t happen. “He was taking a free shot at us,” Schiller said. On Friday, Criss said he wasn’t sure that Obama supporters took...

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has no chance of winning the Republican presidential nomination, but the libertarian iconoclast has pressed on with his national campaign. And he has done so even as he faces a more pressing challenge to his political future back home: a challenge in his March 4 Republican House primary in the state’s 14th District, located in and around the southeastern Texas cities of Victoria and Galveston. The 72-year-old Paul, who is allowed to run simultaneously for president and for re-election to Congress under Texas law, is being opposed in the 14th District primary by Chris Peden, a...

US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), 72, has represented the 14th District in Texas for 20 years, and while he has faced some serious Democratic challengers in the past, this year he is confronting a major battle in the Republican Primary. His opponent is Chris Peden, mayor pro tem of Friendswood. Whether or not the race is close is a matter of conjecture. No independent polls have been released and both camps claim their internal surveys show them with comfortable leads. Mark Elam, Paul’s congressional campaign manager, blogging on the Lone Star Times website, contends Paul is leading by about 60%...

White House Contender Raised Millions, Sparked Debate, Now Fights for Day Job In the House, they are but one lone vote, one voice in a fractured chorus of 435. In Congress, they are members on the world's second greatest deliberative body. But if they're not in the majority, they don't often get to debate much at all. On the campaign trail for president, however, they can raise their profile from local pol to national voice. They can raise millions, draw crowds, rally the base, needle the front-runners, and maybe, just maybe, start a movement or at least force a dialogue....

TIKI ISLAND, Texas – It's tough to think of a political endeavor more audacious than trying to unseat a 10-term member of Congress – except, perhaps, to attempt a jump from the U.S. House to the Oval Office as an anti-war Republican. Voters in the 14th District get to choose between two such dreamers – Rep. Ron Paul, the odd man out at one GOP presidential debate after another, with his call for a return to the gold standard, an end to the drug war and a radically shrunken federal government; and a challenger who has forced him to divert...

Errors on the Republican primary ballot have the party’s chairman questioning the effectiveness of those in charge of Galveston County elections. Six races, including candidates for president and U.S. representative District 22, have the candidates listed in alphabetical order, despite the party’s submission of its ballot draw, which determined the place each candidate should have been listed on the ballot. Kerry Neves, chairman for the Galveston County Republican Party, said Wednesday the party met according to state law and drew names to determine candidates’ places on the ballot. But when the ballots were printed, all Republican candidates were listed in...

TEXAS CITY — A massive superhighway that Texans have protested at public hearings statewide drew heated opposition among Galveston County residents, who said they feared the toll road would cripple the local shipping industry and do nothing to improve insufficient hurricane evacuation routes. The Trans-Texas Corridor would wind from Laredo to Corpus Christi, wrap around the western edge of Greater Houston, parallel Interstate 59 through East Texas and leave the state in Texarkana. But residents at a public hearing Thursday night in Texas City questioned the real purpose for the road, which would also be part of a national Interstate...

The Texas Republican Party is reminding its auxiliary clubs about a cardinal rule: Keep those Democrats and other non-Republicans away from your microphones and stages; you're not in the business of boosting the opposition.But the warning has created a near-revolt in at least one corner.One of the events that prompted the reminder took place in early summer, when state Rep. Craig Eiland addressed the Galveston Island Pachyderm Club.Pachyderm Clubs — there are 30 in Texas with about 2,000 members — are named after the Grand Old Party's mascot, the elephant.Eiland is a Democrat — in the mascot world, a donkey.His...

GALVESTON — After 8 1/2 hours of deliberation over two days, jurors today said they were hopelessly deadlocked in the trial of well-known bird watcher Jim Stevenson on animal cruelty charges for the killing of a feral cat. Galveston County District Judge Frank Carmona declared a mistrial after the four men and eight women on the jury sent out a note saying they could not change their votes without violating their consciences. Eight jurors voted to convict and four held out for acquittal in an at times heated atmosphere, according to juror Donald Cook, 42, a network administrator from League...

GOVERNMENT SCHOOL TO SUE ... a parent? The government school district in Galveston, Texas is threatening to sue a parent for what the school district says is libelous material on the parent's website. http://news.galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=67e7147b74f58ff1 Sandra Tetley runs a site – www.gisdwatch.com – where she posts information about the local government school system and its officials. If she does not remove the statements from the website, the district plans to sue her. Tetley accuses trustees and administrators of breaking the law. Her group, Galveston Alliance for Neighborhood schools, has a history of criticizing the district for reconfiguring its middle schools, closing...

GALVESTON — A Scott Elementary School librarian has been charged with hitting a child with a stack of shelf markers. Lise Van Borssum, 64, is charged with assault by contact after she was accused of striking a child on the leg with a stack of six or seven of the markers, which are similar to bookmarks. The incident is alleged to have happened April 25. Shelf markers are thin, plastic strips that slide between shelved books to mark where material has been removed, according to a sales representative from DEMCO, a leading supplier of school library materials. The child did...

GALVESTON — After devoting much of his life to protecting wild creatures, a prominent naturalist here now faces trial on a felony charge of cruelty to animals. Jim Stevenson, 53, a well-known bird-watcher and founder of the Galveston Ornithological Society, was indicted this week by a Galveston County grand jury on charges that he killed a feral cat Nov. 8 with a .22-caliber rifle. "What really bothers me, this cat was down there killing endangered species of birds and others protected by law," Stevenson said in an interview Thursday. "Feral cats are not protected by law, and I stopped a...

The political bitterness that is the 2006 campaign season wasn’t isolated to the candidates during the weekend. Election Day poll workers stepped into the fray with accusations of disorganization and lack of ballot security. Election judges and clerks, all with allegiances to the Republican Party, were up in arms at the county clerk’s handling of the distribution of polling equipment and supplies Saturday. County Clerk Mary Ann Daigle, a Democrat, acknowledged a rough start in getting the equipment and materials into the hands of election workers, but scoffed at the frenzy, calling it a “political ploy.” Poll workers were to...

Documents Show that Galveston Co. Judge, Jim Yarbrough, caused a marketing and sales promotion of a company in which he is a shareholder and director, to be made to the county: To download the PDF and read the details contained in this 33 page document go here. Troubling conflict? Lapse in judgment? "Good Old Boy" cronyism? You judge the Judge! >>>>GO HERE see this document. http://www.jarbobayoutimes.comVOTE REPUBLICAN VOTE FOR MY GOOD FRIEND CHRIS STEVENS

TEXAS CITY — The way Loretta Bigford sees it, her efforts to force a rollback election of Texas City’s recently adopted tax rate will amount to a belated Christmas present for residents — and maybe at the same time put some coal into the stockings of city commissioners. The Texas City resident is among a handful of folks who launched a petition drive last week after city commissioners unanimously approved a tax rate, which, while not different from last year’s rate, was high enough to make it vulnerable to an election forcing a decrease. The group has until about Christmas...

Even Dolph Tillotson’s exposing the city manager’s arguments (The Daily News, Sept. 12) as specious and self-serving won’t awaken this apathetic community to action. Why haven’t the zealous actions by the county judge and city manager to greedily keep taxes high caused a community uprising? The Daily News published an article that explained why this community lacked the will to revolt against excessive taxes. The article’s statistics showed that more than 37 percent of the employees in the county receive wages from government or bureaucratic agencies. It pointed out that private businesses receive high-dollar contracts with or through bureaucratic agencies....

Kelly Hodge carries a penguin that survived an accident on a Texas highway Tuesday. About two dozen penguins, tropical fish and an octopus spilled out when the truck carrying them overturned. "We had a penguin wreck," Department of Public Safety Trooper Richard Buchanan said. He said Hodge, 34, the truck driver, swerved, overcorrected and then rolled the vehicle into a ditch.

GALVESTON - The judge in the 2003 murder trial of New York millionaire Robert Durst found the cleanly severed front legs and head of a gray cat in front of her home Thursday. Galveston Police Chief Kenneth Mack said late Friday that investigators do not know if the partial cat carcass is related to the Durst case — where the former heir of a real estate magnate was acquitted of murder charges in the death of his Galveston neighbor, but admitted to cutting up the man's body and tossing the parts into Galveston Bay. The man's head was never recovered....

SAN ANTONIO - The Republican Party of Texas elected a new vice chairman Saturday, choosing Dr. Robin Armstrong, the first black to hold the position since Reconstruction. Armstrong, an internal medicine doctor from Dickinson, said he grew up in a household of Democrats but became a Republican in 1989 at age 19. His decision was associated with his religious faith, he said, because he became a "born-again believer." "My philosophy is more conservative," Armstrong said, explaining that his opposition to abortion was a key issue in his party choice. He said he has been an active Republican at the local...

(Austin, TX) Representative Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood) joined Texas House members passing four bills, commonly known as the Sharp Plan. "It's high time Texans receive tax relief, said Rep. Taylor." Within the first two weeks, the House was able to comply with the Texas Supreme Court order and fix the broken property tax system, provide homeowner's significant tax relief and establish a long term plan that prevents those taxes from rising again." By reforming the current franchise tax, we've effectively lowered the tax rate and broadened the base." - House Bill 1, uses $2.1 billion in state surplus funds to buy...