Tpa design binder1

BY JON [email protected]

Money has suddenly be-come an issue in the Dis-trict 81 representative race.

Not that either candi-date is hurting for contri-butions, but Austin Keithand Brooks Landgraf havequestioned from whereand whom the contribu-tions have come.

Because there is no De-mocrat challenger in therace, the winner of this pri-mary will take the position.

Keith, who has been thetarget of a number of ad-vertisements about en-dorsements he or hisaffiliated organizations

have given, said he thinkshe’s being attacked.

“I don’t like some of theattacks I’ve received,”Keith said. “I say (Land-graf) is being controlled.”

“I just think he’s going tobe controlled by the peoplegiving him money,” Keithsaid.

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 facebook.com/OdessaAmerican oaoa.com twitter.com/OdessaAmerican $1.50

BY JON [email protected]

The race for Precinct 4county commissioner hasbeen marked by two char-acteristics: Jo Ann Daven-port Littleton’s outspoken -ness, and Armando Ro-driguez’s absences.

Because there is no Re-publican challenger in therace, the winner of this pri-mary will take the position.

Although Rodriguez hasbeen available for mediainterviews and has a sig-nage presence aroundtown, he has declined toparticipate in two candi-date forums to debate hischallenger.

Davenport Littleton, onthe other hand, took ad-vantage of that in the firstforum Feb. 18 and contin-ues to blast the two-termincumbent on the issue.

“I’m really disappointed.I’m disappointed because I

Challengerattacks absences

of incumbent

BY NATHANIEL [email protected]

As the race to secure the Republicannomination for District 31 in the TexasSenate comes closer to a decision, theincumbent and the challenger are trad-ing barbs about the practices of theother during the campaign.

Sen. Kel Seliger has accused hischallenger Mike Canon of acceptinghelp from the political advocacy groupEmpower Texans in his attempt to un-seat the 10-year incumbent.

Seliger said the reason for the sup-port from the PAC, which on its web-site states it endorses Canon, isbacklash against Seliger’s Senate Bill346, a bill that would have shed light on

funding for some political nonprofitgroups.

The bill was eventually vetoed byGov. Rick Perry during the 83rdLegislative Session.

“I think negative campaigningand false campaigning are bad forour system,” Seliger said in aphone interview. “He (Canon)relies on Empower Texans todo his negative and falsestuff, which I think is polit-ical wimpiness.”

Canon denied takingany money from Em-power Texans — whichfiled campaign financesconfirms — adding that

$1,069 in cou ponsso far this

year withthe Odessa American.

(not in all areas)

March 4, 2014J O I N T G E N E R A L

P R I M A R Y E L E C T I O N101: Murry Fly Elementary

School, 11688 W. Westview.

102, 103, 104: KellusTurner Comm. Bldg, 2261 W.Sycamore St.

106, 107, 111: SherwoodComm. Bldg., 4819 N. Ever-glade.

108: University Park Baptist Church, 8650 N.Golder Ave.

109: Goldsmith Comm.Bldg., 310 E. Ave. H.

110: Jordan ElementarySchool, 9400 Rainbow Dr.

201, 209: Westlake Hard-ware, 4652 E. University Blvd.

202, 203: Nimitz Jr. HighSchool, 4900 Maple Ave.

204: Burnet Elementary,3511 Maple Ave.

205, 208: First Church ofthe Nazarene, 2223 LyndaleAve.

206: Life UnlimitedChurch, 4224 North East Loop338.

207: Gardendale Comm.Bldg., 4226 E. Larkspur.

301, 311: Pease Elemen-tary School, 1800 W. 22nd St.

302, 303: Bowie Jr. HighSchool, 500 W. 21st St.

304, 305: ECISD SpecialEd. Bldg., 804 N. Sam Houston.

306, 307, 308: Hood Jr.High School, 601 E. 38th St.

309, 312: Bonham Jr. HighSchool, 2201 E. 21st St.

401,408, 412: RedeemerLutheran Church, 824. E. 18thSt.

402: Woodson Comm.Bldg., 1120 E. Murphy St.

403, 405: Salinas Comm.Bldg., 600 W. Clements St.

404: Pleasant FarmsComm. Bldg., 4455 W. Apple St.

406, 407: Pal Comm. Center, 1015 N. Co. Rd. West.

409: Getsemani Church,8431 W. Hwy. 385.

POLLINGlocations

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WEATHERPartly cloudy.

Windnortheastat 10 mphto 20 mph.

I N D E XBRIDALS 7CCLASSIFIED 7DCROSSWORD 7CDEATHS 2-3B, 5BLIFE & TIMES 1DMOVIES 4BOPINION 4-5DSPORTS 1CTELEVISION 4B

B U S I N E S ST O D AY

DRILLING REPORT 10ABUILDING PERMITS 11ARESTAURANT REPORT 11APERRYMAN COLUMN 12ACHIEF’S APPRAISAL 16A

Save

INSIDE TODAY

Barbs fly in Senate raceGloves off — Kel Seliger, Mike Canon

disagree on campaign practices

KEL SELIGERR-AMARILLO,INCUMBENT

MIKE CANONR-MIDLAND

CHALLENGER

Experience, attacks highlight end of state race

AT A GLANCE>> Position: Senate District 31.>> Salary: $7,200 per year.>> Term: Four years.>> Duties: Senators serve in

the Legislature, with the auth -ority to write rules and bills.

>> The winner of theprimary election will face

Libertarian candidateSteven Gibson.

ELECTIONDAY

>> Pollswill be openfrom 7 a.m.

until 7 p.m.Tuesday.

Representative candidates try to distinguish themselves

EDYTA BLASZCZYK|ODESSA AMERICAN

District 81 state representative candidates Brooks Landgraf, left, and Austin Keith answer questions posed by the audience atTuesday’s candidate debate at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin Library and Lecture Center.

Pct. 4hopefuls

differ

REPRESENTATIVE BENEFITS>> Salary: $7,200 per year, $150

per day in the legislative session.>> Term: Two years.>> Benefits: Mileage rate at

the same rate for employees ofthe state of Texas, and morethan $2,800 pension per year ofservice, according to a recentTexas Tribune article. COMMISSIONER BENEFITS

>> Salary: $47,863.>> Benefits: County pays

$5,400 for automobile al-lowance, $2,250 for travel costs,and $826 for office supplies,professional expenses, tele-phone, and workers compensa-tion.

>> Other benefits: Countypays $24,660 in Social Securitytaxes, health insurance and re-tirement.

>> Term: Four years.

ELECTION ID To be eligible to vote in the 2014 primary and general

election, a person must have one of the following forms ofidentification:

>> Texas driver’s license.>> Texas personal identification card.>> U.S. passport book or card.>> Texas concealed handgun license.>> U.S. military identification with photo.>> U.S. citizenship certificate or certificate of naturalization

with photo.>> Election Identification Certificate (EIC).

TO APPLY FOR AN EIC, A PERSON MUST>> Bring documentation to verify U.S.

citizenship and identity.>> Be eligible to vote in Texas (bring a valid voter registra-

tion card or submit a voter registration application).>> Be a Texas resident.>> Be 17 years and 10 months old or older.

>> See PCT. 4 Page 7A

>> See SENATE Page 3A

MORE ELECTION COVERAGEPAGES 2A, 4A, 7B

>> See DISTRICT 81 Page 3A

A WWW.OAOA.COM SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014

PAGE 2 READO D E S S A

A M E R I C A NUSPS 402-960

Published every morning by the Odessa American,

222 E. Fourth Street, Odessa TX 79761

Second class postage paid atOdessa, TX

Postmaster: Send address changes toOdessa American, P.O. Box 2952,

Odessa, TX 79760-2952.

>> CUSTOMER SERVICE337-7314 or out-of-town

888-693-7191

>> TO SUBSCRIBE337-7314 or out-of-town

888-693-7191$23.83 per month$286.00 per year

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Fax Advertising: 333-8641Classified: 333-7777

(fax - 24 hours): 333-7619The Odessa American reserves the

right to accept or reject any advertisement. The Odessa Americanshall not be liable for errors, omissionor the failure to publish any ad for any reason. The Odessa American will notbe responsible for any representation

of fact in ads. Home delivery subscribers may be charged a higher

rate for holiday editions.

WWW.OAOA.COM

D E AT HN O T I C E S

ODESSA Jackie Truman DunnDellisa CalderonJaycee May McDanielDouglas Ray MontgomeryAmada Enriquez MadridReynaldo Reyes MartinezPatricia June PummillLuis OrnelasMark David OwensDanny Dwain SellarsJames Vernon “Jim” Smith, Jr.,Nessariah Rae Vasquez

NATAL, BRAZILRussell Ray Mayfield

KENNEDALEChera Josephine Clemmer

MIDLANDJohn C. Drissel

Obituaries and death notices.>> Pages 2-3B, 5B

T H I S D AYI N H I S T O R Y

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Today is Sunday, March 2, the61st day of 2014. There are304 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:>> In 1836, the Republic

of Texas formally declaredits independence fromMexico.

>> In 1861, the state ofTexas, having secededfrom the Union, was ad-mitted to the Confederacy.

L O T T E R YN U M B E R S

TEXAS WINNING NUMBERS

Saturday, March 1CASH 5

5 9 12 13 16PICK 3

LOTTO TEXAS18 33 41 47 49 50Jackpot: $13.5 million

POWERBALL3 8 25 30 47 13

Power Play: 4Jackpot: $60 million

DAILY 4MORNING DAY

5 4 3 9 21 6 3 6 9 24EVENING NIGHT

9 6 2 5 22 6 3 1 3 13www.txlottery.org

MORNING DAY0 2 8 2 9 6EVENING NIGHT4 1 6 9 3 2

NEW MEXICOWINNING NUMBERS

Friday, Feb. 28ROAD RUNNER CASH3 5 13 24 31

PICK 31 8 0

www.nmlottery.com

EDITOR’S NOTE: Uncon-tested races are not listed.

DemocraticPrimary Election

Precincts: 101, 102,103, 104, 107, 108,109, 110, 111, 201,202, 203, 204, 205,206, 207, 208, 209,301, 302, 303, 304,305, 306, 307, 308,309, 311, 312United States Senator

Maxey Marie ScherrMichael “Fjet” FjetlandDavid M. AlameelKesha RogersHarry Kim

GovernorWendy R. DavisReynaldo “Ray” Madrigal

Commissioner of AgricultureJim HoganHugh Asa Fitzsimons IIIRichard “Kinky” Friedman

Railroad CommissionerDale HenrySteve Brown

Precinct: 106United States Senator





Precinct Chairman, Precinct106

Suzan GentryKaren Howard-Winters

Precincts: 401, 402,403, 404, 405, 406,407, 408, 409, 412United States Senator





County Commissioner, PrecinctNo. 4

Armando S. RodriguezJoAnn Davenport Littleton

Justice of the Peace, PrecinctNo. 4

Jesse Porras IIIEddy W. Spivey

RepublicanPrimary Election


Linda VegaDwayne StovallChris MappKen CopeSteve StockmanReid ReasorCurt CleaverJohn Cornyn

United States Representative,District 11

Mike ConawayWade Brown

GovernorMiriam MartinezSECEDE KilgoreGreg AbbottLisa Fritsch

Lieutenant GovernorDan PatrickTodd StaplesDavid DewhurstJerry Patterson

Attorney GeneralKen PaxtonDan BranchBarry Smitherman

Comptroller of Public AccountsRaul TorresGlenn HegarHarvey HilderbranDebra Medina

Commissioner of the GeneralLand Office

George P. BushDavid Watts

Commissioner of AgricultureTommy MerrittJ. Allen CarnesJoe CottonEric OpielaSid Miller

Railroad CommissionerWayne ChristianBecky BergerMalachi BoyulsRyan Sitton

Chief Justice, Supreme CourtRobert TaltonNathan Hecht

Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 6, Unexpired TermJoe PoolJeff Brown

Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 8Sharon McCallyPhil Johnson

Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3

Barbara WaltherBert Richardson


Richard Dean DavisKevin Patrick YearyJani Jo Wood


David NewellW.C. “Bud” Kirkendall

State Senator, District 31Mike CanonKel Seliger

State Representative, District 81

Austin R. KeithBrooks Landgraf

Justice, 11th Court of AppealsDistrict, Place 3

Cade W. BrowningJohn Bailey

Precincts: 201, 202,203, 204, 205, 206,207, 208, 209United States Senator













Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 6, Unexpired TermJoe PoolJeff Brown

Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 8Sharon McCallyPhil Johnson












Precincts: 301, 302,303, 304, 305, 306,307, 308, 309, 311,312United States Senator













Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 6, Unexpired Term

Joe PoolJeff Brown

Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 8

Sharon McCallyPhil Johnson

























Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 6, Unexpired Term

Joe PoolJeff Brown

Justice, Supreme CourtPlace 8

Sharon McCallyPhil Johnson










S A M P L E B A L L O T

P E R M I A N B A S I N W E AT H E R : 5 DAY ODESSA & MIDLAND FORECAST

TODAY

PARTLY CLOUDY.WINDS NE AT

10 TO 20 MPH

56/44

THURSDAY

MOSTLY SUNNY.

71/49

WEDNESDAY

MOSTLY SUNNY.

62/37

TUESDAY

PARTLY CLOUDY.

55/29

MONDAY

PARTLY CLOUDY.

45/20

TEXAS WEATHER FORECASTNew MexicoOutlook

Hobbs: Partly cloudy.

High 53, low 42.

Ruidoso:Partly cloudy.

High 61, low 38.

FACTThe heaviesthailstone on

record weighed2 pounds,

4 ounces. It fellin Bangladesh on

April 14, 1986.

POLLEN & UVTrees ..............................................lowWeeds ............................................lowMold, Dust ....................low, moderateGrass..............................................lowUV Index ........................3 (moderate)

SUN & MOONSunrise today: ........................7:15 a.m.Sunset tonight: ......................6:47 p.m.Moonrise: ..............................7:56 a.m. Moonset: ..................................8:37 p.m.

New First Full Last

Mar. 30 Mar. 8 Mar. 16 Mar. 23

LAKE LEVELSCurrent Level Acre Ft.

Thomas ................1.61% ............3,220Spence ................3.12% ............16,119Ivie ......................12.91% ............71,562Source: www.crmwd.org

WATER DELIVERIES 2/28Usage in millions of gallons

Odessa ..........................................14.0Midland..........................................17.5Big Spring .......................................3.1Snyder ............................................1.7San Angelo......................................9.6

PRECIPITATIONMidnight to 6 p.m.:......................0.00”Month to date: ............................0.26”Year to date: ............................0.26”Last year this month:..................0.08”Last year to date: ........................1.53”

EXTREMESOdessa high ....................................82Odessa low ......................................47Texas high ........................92 in Del RioTexas low ......................20 in PerrytonNtnl high ..........................92 in Del RioNtnl low ..............-33 in Willow City, N.D.Today’s recordsRecord high ........................86 in 1986Record low ............................9 in 1980

WEATHERINFORMATION

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Pattison Lace-Up $155.00

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Trevitt Woven Venetian $99.99

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Selected styles. Selection varies by size and store. Call 1-800-345-5273 to nd a illard s store near yo .

Accountability First isone of those groups givingLandgraf money, with a$2,500 donation. Keith saidbased on stories he’s readin the media, those groupsexpect a certain amount ofloyalty including a six-point pledge to the group.

Landgraf said he signedthe Accountability Firstpledge, but doesn’t believeit’s a special interest be-cause he said the six-pointpledge conforms to the be-liefs of West Texans any-way.

The pledge includes eli -minating wasteful spend-ing, championing tax cutsand opposing increases,opposing more spendingthan population growthplus inflation, opposing re-stricting private propertyuse, opposing restrictionson markets and con-sumers, and disclosingconflicts of interest.

Landgraf said whetherhis job at Medical CenterHospital is a conflict of in-terest will need to be de-termined by the TexasAttorney General.

He also said if anyone isguilty of being beholden toother interests, it’s Keith,who Landgraf said hastaken much of his contri-butions from outside thedistrict and outside WestTexas. Landgraf also onceagain questioned the spe-cial interests taken up byKeith.

“For him to say that I’mcontrolled by any specialinterest is preposterouswhen that’s all he does inAustin,” Landgraf said.

Keith also accusedLandgraf of taking toomany out-of-district con-tributions, while financereports show both candi-dates do so with fewerPACs contributing to Land-graf.

Keith still insists it’s notthe number of PACs, butwhich PACs have con-tributed. And Accountabil-ity First is not one of thecontributors to Keith.

In response to Land-graf’s accusation thatKeith’s contributions listlooks like “alphabet soup”with all the PAC contribu-tions, Keith said he won’tfeel like he owes those con-tributors anything, but itactually helps forge con-nections that will be usefulin Austin.

Landgraf noted one spe-cific PAC supporting Keithwas the Texas Parent PAC,but said there are manyothers.

While the majority ofpolitical attacks have comefrom groups such as con-servative political actioncommittee Empower Tex-ans, Keith said, he has no-ticed Landgraf taking upcertain beliefs from thoseattacks.

One such belief was dis-played during a Tuesdayforum when Landgraf saidKeith has done things inAustin that wouldn’t makeWest Texans proud.

“We both have recordsworking in the state capi-tol, and I’m proud of mine,”Landgraf said. “I talk aboutit all the time.”

Keith said if Landgrafwants to attack his recordhe should not be so vagueand general.

“If you’re going to makean accusation against me,then I think you shouldbring it to the table. Whatdid Austin do wrong?”Keith said. “I have ab-solutely no idea what he’stalking about.”

But Landgraf said he

doesn’t see it that way —he sees it as distinguishingbetween the two candi-dates, not attacking.

“The campaign we arerunning is one that is posi-tive,” Landgraf said. “I’mtrying to show a distinctionbetween what I’ve doneand what my opponent hasdone.”

The two men havemany similarities in whatthey say they would dowhen they get to Austin, al-though a slight differencein tax philosophy, gun con-trol and other issues distin-guish them.

Instead, the two mostlyhave argued about theirdifferences in experience.

“I have 36 years of expe-rience,” Keith said. “He’snot even 36 years of age.”

Keith said not only hashe been in Odessa for along time, but also he’sowned and sold businessesand served on a variety ofdifferent boards.

But Landgraf said he hasa different type of experi-ence.

“He’s obviously olderthan I am, but his careerhas been spent doing onething. And everything thathe has done has been inpursuit of that one thing,”Landgraf said.

Landgraf claimed to bethe candidate with a di-verse background in oil,gas, agriculture and help-ing fight battles in the leg-islature for West Texas.

On taxes, Keith has re-fused to take a strong standagainst raising taxes. Al-though he said he doesn’twant taxes to be raised,Keith said he can’t make apromise like that withoutknowing the extent of thesituation in Austin.

On the other hand,Landgraf has repeatedlypromised not to raise taxes.

In the Tuesday candi-date forum, Keith said he isagainst fully automaticweapons, while Landgrafsaid he is against gun regu-lations, including fully au-tomatic guns.

Landgraf, throughouthis campaign, has refusedto take a stance on whetherhe will continue as generalcounsel for Medical CenterHospital, despite statestatutes that may prohibithim from serving in bothpositions.

Instead, Landgraf hassaid he would make sacri-fices, while still reservingthe final decision for afterthe election if he wins. Hehas also said he would seeka Texas Attorney Generalopinion on the matter if itwas necessary.

Keith said he will re-main as president and CEOof his company, Pinkie’sInc., but has structured thecompany to be able tothrive without him.

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 L O C A L ODESSA AMERICAN 3A

District 81>> From Page 1A

any flyers or ads the PACwants to put out are “freespeech.” Canon said he“absolutely” accepts Em-power Texans endorse-ment.

“One of the thingsthey’re trying to do is keepour Texas government fis-cally responsible,” Canonsaid in a phone interview.“I think it’s high time wehave an organization thatholds our legislature inTexas responsible.”

Campaign finance re-ports from Empower Tex-ans filed with the TexasEthics Commission statethat the PAC has spentmoney promoting Canon.Seliger said even if Canonhas not personally ac-cepted money, he shouldstill admit that the PAC en-dorses him financially.

“What’s the differencebetween ‘donating theirmoney to endorse him’ and‘accepting their moneypersonally?’ None. If some-one spends $100,000 tobenefit you in your cam-paign it’s exactly the sameas accepting $100,000 fromthem,” Seliger said.

Seliger has served as thestate senator for District 31since 2004. Due to a law inthe state constitution thatstates there must be a sen-ate race every electioncycle, Seliger — along withhalf of the other state sena-tors — were selected torun after a two year period

instead of the traditionalfour-year term.

“It’s all been rhetoricaland criticism of me,”Seliger said of Canon’scampaign.

Canon, a current oil andgas attorney and formerMidland mayor, said in the10 years Seliger has been inoffice, the incumbent hasbeen unable to bring morecontrol to the local leveland bring in money toproperly energy-impactedroads in the Permian Basinwithout touching thestate’s Rainy Day Fund.

During the 83rd Legisla-tive session, lawmakers al-located $225 million to helpmaintain roads in energy-impacted areas, with thePermian Basin receiving$58,265,869.

A state amendment willalso go to the voters in No-vember that, if approved,will divert half of the oiland gas severance tax thatfunds the Rainy Day Fundto roads, giving the high-way department a poten-tial boost of $1 billionannually.

Instead of dipping intothe state’s reserves, Canonhas proposed alternateways of raising money fortransportation, includingthe possibility of raisingthe motor fuel tax or regis-tration fees.

But the most importantthing, Canon said, was re-visiting the structure of theTexas Department ofTransportation.

“My first objective ismaking sure the depart-

ment of transportation isbeing run efficiently,”Canon said.

Seliger said in trans-portation issues, he wouldcontinue to work to makesure that the PermianBasin, and other energy-impacted roads, getsmoney for roads equal tothe amount of severancetax they put into the RainyDay Fund.

“Our district deservessome … of the money goingto Austin to get sent back,”he said.

In addition to trans-portation, Canon has saidthe other issue that needsimmediate addressing isreturning more power tolocal entities, includingmunicipalities and schooldistricts.

Saying there needs to bemore “program-based gov-ernment,” Canon said hewas in favor of allowingmunicipalities to decidewhich programs they wantto focus on.

“There’s too much regu-lation, unnecessary pro-grams and subsidies,”Canon said. “I think weneed to look at our socialwelfare spending to backto the local level to allow-ing local areas to be able toaddress the problem thatexists in their community.”

But Seliger said he hasworked with educators at

the local levels of publiceducation and with univer-sities and community col-leges to make sure there isenough funding to ensureteachers can properly edu-cate the state’s growingpopulation.

Seliger is also the chair-man of the Texas HigherEducation CoordinatingBoard.

“I think educators aredoing a good job, but we al-ways need to do better,”Seliger said. “We need totake a growing population… and see to it that we ed-ucate them all for the fu-ture.”

Seliger said even after 10years, he does not take hisre-elections for grantedand said he works hardevery day to properly rep-resent the district.

“You can’t be compla-cent and you can’t take vot-ers for granted,” Seligersaid. “I’m more determined(than ever).”

Canon said that after 10years, Seliger has failed toproperly represent the areaand is looking to be theface of new leadership.

“We need people downthere (in Austin) who areserious about properly al-locating our resources andmaking sure governmentperforming the functions itshould be performing,” hesaid.

The winner of the Re-publican nomination willface Libertarian candidateSteven Gibson during theNovember General Elec-tion.

Senate>> From Page 1A

‘We both have recordsworking inthe statecapitol,and I’mproud of

mine. I talkabout it all the time.’

BROOKS LANDGRAF

‘I have 36years ofexperi-

ence. He’snot even

36 years of age.’AUSTIN KEITH

4A ODESSA AMERICAN W W W . O A O A . C O M SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014

U.S. calls onRussia towithdraw THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON PresidentBarack Obama on Saturdaycalled on Russian PresidentVladimir Putin to de-escalate the tense at-mosphere in Ukraine bypulling his forces back to bases in the country’sCrimean re-gion and torefrain frominterferingelsewhere inthe formerSoviet repub-lic.

O b a m adelivered themessage toPutin during a 90-minutetelephone conversation, theWhite House said.

But Obama’s request appeared likely to go un-heeded as the Kremlin saidPutin, in turn, emphasizedto Obama the existence ofreal threats to the life andhealth of Russian citizensliving in Ukraine and thatRussia has the right to pro-tect its interests there.

Russian troops took overCrimea as the Russian par-liament on Saturdaygranted Putin authority touse the military to protectRussian interests inUkraine. Ukraine’s newlyinstalled government waspowerless to react to theswarm of Russian troops.

“President Obama expressed his deep concernover Russia’s clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorialintegrity,” the White Housesaid in a statement thatcalled the action “a breachof international law.”

Hours earlier, Obama’snational security team hud-dled at the White House toget updates on the situationand discuss policy options.Obama did not participate.Vice President Joe Bidenand Secretary of State JohnKerry participated byvideoconference.

BARACK OBAMAPRESIDENT

BY NATHANIEL [email protected]

Despite missing two candi-date forums and the chance tospeak the public about hisviews, the challenger for Justiceof the Peace Precinct 4 said heis still the best man for the jobbecause of his past service tothe public.

At the same time, the incum-bent of 20 years is seeking asixth term, saying his experi-ence with the position contin-ues to make him the best personto represent the precinct.

Jesse Porras III, owner ofAuto Oasis, said one of the mainissues in the race is having anopen door policy; something hesaid incumbent Eddy Spiveydoes not have.

“I can resolve it by givingthem … someone who will bethere,” Porras, 57, said.

But Spivey, 66, said he hashad an open door policy sincehe was first in office. The onlydifference is, Spivey said he isbound by state law to not beable to discuss specifics of acase with plaintiffs or defen-dants outside of the courtroom.

“Let me make it clear … youcan answer procedural ques-tions only,” Spivey said. “He

(Porras) can’t give legal adviceto the plaintiffs or the defen-dants, but if there is a questionabout how anything works, wecan do that.”

Porras is currently running tounseat 20-year incumbent EddySpivey for the Democratic nom-ination in the race for Justice ofthe Peace Precinct 4. The win-ner of the March 4 election willnot face an opponent in the No-vember General Election.

But Porras has not beenavailable to speak to the publicabout his platform.

The challenger said hemissed the Feb. 18 candidateforum held by Una Voz Unidabecause he was unable to findsomeone to take his place dur-ing a celebration at St. Mary’sCatholic Church for Rev. Santi-ago Udayar. In addition, a sec-ond candidate forum hosted bythe political group that wasscheduled for Feb. 25 was can-celled after two candidates saidthey could not make it. Porraswas one of the candidates.

But Porras said he had for-gotten about a fundraiser he was

holding the same day as the sec-ond forum, and said he told UnaVoz Undia President Art Leal hewould still make the forum andbe late to his own fundraiser.When it was cancelled, Poarrassaid he was taken by surprise.

“Because of the miscommu-nications, the person wanting tohave a forum … is supposed tocommunicate with everyone,”Porras said. “I apologize to theconstituents of Precinct 4 fornot being able to speak at thesecond one.”

Leal however, said that Por-ras never indicated to him thathe would still make the forum,adding that if Porras had toldhim that, he would have stillheld the event.

“He never said he wouldhave been late to the fundraiserat all,” Leal said. “It’s disap-pointing to me.”

Spivey said he could notcomment on Porras’ unavail-ability at the forums, but insteadsaid that it was personally im-portant to him to be there to askany questions the voters mighthave.

“I’m there and I will be thereto answer any questions for thecandidates in that race,” Spiveysaid.

While there have been nomajor issues in the race, Porrassaid he felt the precinct wouldbenefit more from having abilingual judge. Spivey has saidhe is not fluent enough to have afull conversation.

Instead, the incumbent has

said he surrounds himself withemployees who are fluent inSpanish and makes sure that aninterpreter is in the court whenrequested. Porras has said thathis time helping with publicevents will allow those whocome into the court to be moreat ease because they know him.

“I’ve been in the public eyeand they know me,” Porras said.“They know me as someonewho they can rely on.”

Spivey said he is still the bestperson for the job, even aftertwo decades in office

“I’m the best candidate be-cause of experience,” Spiveysaid. “The second thing is, Ienjoy doing the job for EctorCounty and the people ofPrecinct 4.”

AT A GLANCE>> What: Justice of the Peace

Precinct 4.>> Term: Four years.>> Salary: $60,946.34 with a

$5,050.08 auto allowance.>> Job description: Have original

jurisdiction in civil matters, and dealwith small claims and real estate is-sues. JPs also handle case of forc ibleentry and detainer and set bonds.

Challenger maintains he’s man for jobJesse Porras III,

Eddy Spivey vie for JP Pct. 4

‘I’m the best candidate because ofexperience. The second

thing is, I enjoy doing thejob for Ector County andthe people of Precinct 4.’

EDDY SPIVEYIncumbent

‘I’ve been in the public eyeand they know me. They

know me as someone whothey can rely on.’JESSE PORRAS III

Challenger

ON THE NET>> EctorCounty

Justice ofthe Peace:co.ector.tx.us/default

.aspx?Ector_County/Justice

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 W W W . O A O A . C O M ODESSA AMERICAN 5A

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ONE WEEK EVENTMarch 3-7


LOS ANGELES Saturatedmountainsides loomedover foothill communitieson Saturday as a stormcentered off California ro-tated bands of rain into astate that sorely needs themoisture but not at suchdangerously high rates.

Evacuation orders re-mained in effect for hun-dreds of homes in LosAngeles County foothillcommunities where fireshave burned away vegeta-tion that holds soil in place,and bursts of rain causedthe mountains to belch oc-casional debris flows.

The storm marked asharp departure frommany months of droughtthat has grown to crisisproportions for the state’svast farming industry.

Rain, slopesworry

Californians

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 O A O A . C O M ODESSA AMERICAN 7A

feel that as a taxpayer I de-serve more from my repre-sentative,” DavenportLittleton said. “As a candi-date I feel that the con-stituents have been dealtan injustice because theyneed to know the issues.”

The first candidateforum was Feb. 18 but Ro-driguez instead attended apriestly ordination an-niversary at St. Mary’sCatholic Church. For a sec-ond forum that Una VozUnida President Art Lealwas scheduling, Rodriguezsaid he would be busy talk-ing to people during earlyvoting.

Rodriguez said he triedto call Leal about schedul-ing the forum, despitetelling the Odessa Ameri-can that he would not at-tend the forum no matterwhen it was scheduled. Ro-driguez said “anythingcould happen” and hemight have shown up at aforum, but didn’t say for

sure whether he wouldhave.

And amid all the accusa-tions and anger floatingaround the issue, Ro-driguez said he doesn’t un-derstand why it’s still aproblem.

“Let’s not fight oversomething that didn’t hap-pen,” Rodriguez said.

Even with that state-ment, however, Rodriguezhas said in an email that hefelt “slapped” by Leal, notonly for the forums, but

also for not including himin a Martin Luther King Jr.Day declamation.

He said he doesn’t har-bor any ill will, but Leal hassaid he feels otherwise.

Rodriguez said he’s spo-ken with a lot of his con-stituents who say he’s donea good job in the past eightyears at communicating is-sues and representingthem.

“I was raised here andI’ve lived in Odessa all mylife,” Rodriguez said. “AndI’ve always been involvedin the community since Iwas young.”

Davenport Littleton has

consistently challenged the incumbent, however,claiming that he is not agood leader and that hedoesn’t communicate withconstituents or find outwhat they want.

“We need a person whocares, we need a personwho listens,” DavenportLittleton said. “I want to bethat person.”

As far as the issues inthe race, Rodriguez said hewants to create a water dis-trict in Precinct 4, helpmake it safer, and continueto work on subdivision reg-ulations so residents don’tend up in a subdivisionthat isn’t paved.

Davenport Littleton re-futed one of those topicsduring a candidate forumFeb. 18, when she said shebelieved developers shouldnot be forced to pave sub-divisions because it doesn’thelp attract them to thedistrict.

The challenger also saidshe thinks the precinctcould be made safer by im-plementing a programsuch as citizens on patrol

Pct. 4>> From Page 1A

‘I wasraised here

and I’velived in

Odessa allmy life. And I’ve always

been involved in thecommunity since I was

young.’ARMANDO

RODRIGUEZ

‘We need aperson whocares, we

need a person who

listens. I want to bethat person.’

JO ANN DAVENPORTLITTLETON

instead of counting onneighborhood watches andthe sheriff’s office to keepthe area safe.

Both candidates havesaid they want to continueto make Precinct 4 an areawhere businesses feel goodabout locating.

Precinct 4 stretchesfrom FM 1936 on the westborder to the eastern bor-der of the county, goesfrom the southern countyline north to Eighth Streetwhile east of Grant Avenue,and goes north to SecondStreet while west of GrantAvenue.

Dinette Designs & Bar Stools

1025 N. Midkiff Midland, TX • 432-520-6035

Open 10-6 • Mon. - Sat.

BY COREY [email protected]

Warren Verner startedcoming to help his dad atthe lawnmower shop whenhe was about 11-years-old,just like his father, Robert,did when he was a boy.

Warren’s grandfatherHugh Verner founded thebusiness, Lawnmower Salesand Service, after returningfrom his deployment toItaly during World War II.In the beginning it wasSpeedo-meter and BrakeService in a smaller shop on10th Street and Belmont Av-enue.

Then a contract came in1952 with a small-engineparts supplier, and it grewfrom there.

At the first of this year,Warren Verner took overthe business, the only oneof its kind in Odessa. By hisaccount, it services a couplehundred thousand pieces ofequipment in Odessa andthe surrounding areas.

“We just haven’t sloweddown,” he said, during a re-cent visit to the shop at 901Whitaker Ave., since theearly 1970s. “It’s taken careof our family for three gen-erations.”

That day, work includedrepair of an inventory oflawnmowers, weed eaters,generators and so forth inthe back shop. That is about60 percent of the business,but they sell parts and newequipment too.

Winter business is a bitslower, which WarrenVerner said he welcomed ashe seeks to hire a fourthmechanic.

“We’re about to get hitpretty hard this spring andwe just need to be pre-pared,” he said.

He came to manage thestore after his dad askedhim to about 12 years ago,when he had been workingfor an electric servicescompany in Arlington justout of college.

Back here, he met hiswife, Elia Verner, who ap-plied for a job with Lawn-mower Sales about sevenyears ago because she sawan ad and the business was

close to her home. Theymarried a couple years later.

Often Elia Verner worksup front, taking service or-ders and keeping the books.During the recent visit, shewas at the front of storetalking with Robert Ser-tuche. Sertuche is a cus-tomer when he needs totake care of his WestOdessa property but in thisinstance was just stoppingby to chat with the couplehe knows from church.

“They’re good friendlypeople,” Sertuche ex-plained.

Robert Verner calls him-self retired, but he stillcomes in to work on thespeedometers that make upa small corner of the morethan 10,000-square-footbuilding. That is what HughVerner did after selling himthe business in the 1970sand up until his death in1987. And Hugh Verner’sbusiness cards and trinketsstill decorate the work area.

Staying in business aslong as they have requiredflexibility, Robert Vernersaid.

In the early 1980s, for ex-ample, he opened up a ski-rental service in what isnow the show room of newlawn mowers. Oilfieldworkers headed for Rui-doso getaways during thatboom would rent theirequipment from the lawn-mower shop.

When the economy bot-tomed out in 1986 and suchvacations stopped, RobertVerner opened up a nostal-gia shop, selling items suchas “Coca Cola parapherna-lia” and juke boxes. OdessaHigh’s original P.A. systemstill sits in the room.

When the nostalgia shopslowed, he turned to a jani-torial supply company inthe early 2000s.

But now the business isback to small engine repairand sales. Since the boom, alot has been destined forthe oilfield, equipment suchas mobile wash units, all-purpose engines pumpsand generators, workers atthe lawnmower shop say.

Royce Woods, the seniormechanic, said he esti-

mated this makes up abouthalf of their work. And War-ren Verner said it kept themfrom suffering as lawnsdied during the drought.

“In fact, in the first cou-ple years of the drought, wehad our biggest years ever,”Warren Verner said. “And Ithink that’s because of theoil boom, doing a lot of thesmall engine stuff for theoilfield. We’ve kept busy.”

Robert Verner said grosssales in the mid-1970s wereabout $100,000 and nowmonthly sales exceed that.

“That’s really the secretto a lot of things — don’tquit. This hasn’t been an

easy business,” RobertVerner said. “You don’thave lots of time off. Youwork six days a week. Thisisn’t possible without fam-ily and a lot of good peopleworking for you.”

People like Woods, anemployee for about 13years, the Verner’s said, andWillie Benton, who workedfor 29 years before she re-tired in the early 1990s. Shedied soon after, but EliaVerner said longtime cus-tomers still share storiesabout her.

Another major compo-nent of the lawnmowerbusiness is long-standing

accounts that RobertVerner established. Theseinclude the City of Odessa,the Ector County Inde-pendent School Districtand several lawn busi-nesses. These buttress thelongtime individual cus-tomers.

Robert Verner said he al-ways hoped his son wouldtake over Lawnmower Salesand Service and that nowhe hopes his 15-year-oldgrandson will one day too,keeping alive what he de-scribes as a type of businessless common but still es-sential.

“I think there will always

be a demand for service-related businesses. Every-one wants to sell somethingand they don’t want to see itcome back,” Robert Vernersaid. “But people will alwayshave to fix stuff and we areone of the last like that.”

Warren Verner, for hispart, said that yes, it mightbe nice to see his son takeover someday, but it is notsomething he wants to pres-sure him to do. His focus,instead is on maintaininghis customers while tryingto bring in some new ones.

“Not to really changeanything,” Warren Vernersaid. “Just keep it up.”

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 B U S I N E S S ODESSA AMERICAN 9A

H O M E G R O W N : L A W N M O W E R S A L E S A N D S E R V I C E

Small engine shop sees third generationMan takes over family business

started by his grandfatherMechanicsRoyce Woods,left, and BillCooper work onthe choke of ageneratorbrought in forservice repair.Servicinglawnmowers,generators andother smallengines is alarge part of thecompany’sbusiness.

PHOTOS BY MARKSTERKELODESSAAMERICAN

Warren Verner and his wife, Elia, run Lawnmower Sales and Service that sells lawnmowers, weed trimmers, chain saws,generators and services small engines. The business has been in the family for 66 years.

ON THE NET >> tinyurl.com/

kq8wkp9

CONTENTS PREPARED BY THE ODESSA AMERIC AN ADVERTIS ING DEPARTMENT * TO SUBMIT INFORMATION C ALL 432-333-7602

Lone Star Land PartnersUnveiling Summit Springs in Texas Hill Country

Lone Star Land Part-ners specialize in bring-ing gorgeous, yetaffordable properties tomarket with incredibleattention to detail andtotal commitment to ex-cellence. Most recently,Lone Star Land Part-ners was responsible forthe development andsell out of The Summitat Cypress Mill and theVistas at Round Moun-tain. Other popular andsuccessful communitiesin the Austin area in-clude Stone RidgeMountain, OakwoodShores, Sunrise Bay,Blue Heron Bay,Chenango Ranch, TheOaks at SuncreekRanch, Wildwood Forestand many more!

Once again, LoneStar Land Partners, aTexas based real estateinvestment company, isunveiling its newestmountain-top commu-nity, Summit Springs, at

a Pre-Construction Saleon Saturday, March 8th,2014. Premium moun-tain-top five acre home-sites, within a private,gated residential com-munity, will be sold foronly $69,900 which is50% off retail! Many ofthese estate propertiesboast the highest peaksin the Texas Hill Coun-try, overlooking the Col-orado River Valley andback toward the city ofAustin. This property isunique in that it offerscentral water, exception-ally low taxes and capti-vating panoramic views,with an idyllic backdropof rolling hills, rich tow-ering oaks and lushgreenery. Select home-sites even feature activeflowing, perennialsprings. And an addedbonus is there’s no timelimit to build! SummitSprings is perfect forbuilding a retirementhome, a second home or

a great investment op-portunity, and Lone StarLand Partners offers thebest finance programsin the area.

Property owners atSummit Springs will livewithin minutes of finedining, shopping, the-ater, museums, andmuch more, in the heartof Texas’ infamous WineCountry! The charmingarea of Marble Falls isknown for its numerouslakes, water recreation,nature preserves andparks, with the “LiveMusical Capital of theWorld,” Austin, Texas,less than a 40-minutedrive from the commu-nity. Come experiencethe finest mountain-topliving in the Texas HillCountry and own largeacreage property for anincredible bargain!

Davy Roberts, Presi-dent of Lone Star Land

Partners noted, “Thereare several things aboutthis new community thatmake it unique. Theperennial live springsflowing on select home-sites is a definite bonus,but the real appeal andsavings for new ownerswill come when theydon’t have to dig a well,as Summit Springs of-fers central water to allproperties. On top ofthat, the carrying costsassociated with owningproperty here are verylow since the communityqualifies for agricultur-ally exempt taxes…soour owners will payaround 25% of what thetotal tax bill would be ona non-exempt piece ofland.”

For more informationcall 800-511-2430 or visitwww.SummitSpringsTX.com.

Beautiful scenery at Summit Springs

Property has a 30 mile view of Hill Country

Odessa Chamber of Commerce RibbonCutting

America's Wholesale Furniture 1909 Andrews Hwy.

In the photo is the Owner - Brandon Tate, Manager - WendyMitchell, staff - Lorena Gomez, Kimmie White, Angelica An-

chondo, Jasmine Dixon , Maria Deanda, Marissa Chapa, SoniaArteaga and the Odessa Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors.

Hard Candy Vapors3131 E. University Odessa, TX 79762

Front row left to right:Rosario Sanchez/OHCC Ambassador, Rudy Gue-vara/OHCC Ambassador, Andrea Quiroz/OHCC Ambassador with QuirozEvents and Productions, Brett Chazel/Owner's son, Carol; Uranga/OHCCAmbassador with Carol's Ambulance, Candy Chazel/Owner, Patty Valen-

zuela/OHCC Board with Mid America Mortgage, Benjamin Rubio Jr./OHCCBoard w/ Rubio's Paving, Mary Najar/OHCC Ambassador, Luis

Ramos/OHCC member with Wells Fargo, Elias De La Torre/OHCC memberwith Wells Fargo. Back row: Hard Candy Vapor's walk-ins.

Odessa Hispanic Chamber of CommerceRibbon Cutting


GILLSBURG, MISS. Resi-dents living above an oil-rich shale formation thatstretches across southwestMississippi and Louisianahave been waiting on aboom for years. A steadytrickle of drilling is alreadyboosting the rural region’seconomy, and spending bytwo oil companies couldmake 2014 the year thatmany other locals finallycash in on the oil far be-neath their feet.

Already, Max Lawsonhas spent hours watchingthe round-the-clock workof shoving pipe into theground in his back pasture.The process began twoyears ago when EncanaCorp. built a big gravelpad, but didn’t take offuntil late last year when aconvoy of 200 trucks

carted in a drilling rig andother equipment to boreinto the earth looking foroil.

“They call it the Gills-burg Christmas tree,” hesaid while standing nearthe brightly lit rig. “It lookslike a little city over here atnight.”

Gillsburg and surround-ing Amite County lieabove a prime section ofthe Tuscaloosa MarineShale, a geologic formationthat stretches inboomerang shape acrossLouisiana’s midsectionand into southern Missis-sippi. Drillers have knownabout the formation northof the Gulf of Mexico foryears, but affordable tech-nology to remove the oilfrom the shale’s tight poreswas slow to develop.

Thanks partly to ad-vances in hydraulic frac-turing techniques, EncanaCorp. and Goodrich Petro-leum plan to spend hun-dreds of millions of dollarsin the area in 2014. So far,

Goodrich and others havedrilled more than 30 wellsacross the region, trying tofind the right methods.

Goodrich Chief Operat-ing Officer Robert Turn-ham said that numbercould double or triple inthe area straddling the

state line just this year ifdrillers continue to makeprogress.

“It’s at a stage whereyou need more wells thathave consistent results,that show the repeatableresults there are in otherplays,” Turnham said.

10A ODESSA AMERICAN B U S I N E S S SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014

Permit applications ap-proved by the Texas RailroadCommission for Feb. 20 throughFeb. 26 for Districts 7C, 8 and8A. Numbers in parentheses in-dicate the number of permitsapproved for that leasehold.

>> Adventure ExplorationPartners II LLC, Calverley12, Glasscock, New Drill; Calver-ley 9, Glasscock, New Drill (2).

>> Aegis Fluids Manage-ment LLC, Aegis Olix B, Pecos,New Drill (2).

>> Anadarko E&P OnshoreLLC, University 19-1, Loving, NewDrill (2).

>> Apache Corporation, Sau43, Reagan, New Drill; Red Snap-per-Neal, Glasscock, New Drill;Condor 48, Glasscock, New Drill(2); SRH North, Reagan, New Drill(4); RS Windham, Upton, NewDrill; Ballenger, Glasscock, NewDrill (2); Hartley Unit, Glasscock,New Drill; Schwartz 36, Glasscock,New Drill; Spike S Unit, Irion, NewDrill (5); Carmichael CF, Andrews,New Drill; Mockingbird State Unit9, Loving, New Drill; Nichols,Glasscock, New Drill; Scott Sugg0910, Irion, New Drill (4).

>> Approach Operating LLC,University 45, Crockett, New Drill.

>> Athlon Fe Operating LLC,Hester 20, Howard, New Drill.

>> Athlon Holdings LP,Cooper 34, Glasscock, New Drill(2); TXL N 9-1, Midland, New Drill.

>> Atlantic ExplorationLLC, Rhoads, Reeves, New Drill.

>> Banner Operating LLC,Stephens, Irion, New Drill.

>> Berry Oil Comp., Garden-dale 12, Ector, New Drill (6); Gar-dendale 6, Ector, New Drill (10).

>> Big Star Oil & Gas LLC,Townes 34, Dawson, New Drill;Beall 28, Howard, New Drill; Peb-ble Beach 28, Howard, New Drill.

>> Bluestem Energy HoldingsLLC, Evans, Midland, New Drill.

>> Bonfire Operating LLC,Vaughan ‘7’, Crockett, New Drill.

>> Breitburn Operating LP,Smith 7, Glasscock, New Drill;Henson Dr 38, Midland, New Drill.

>> Brown, Geo. R Partner-ship LP, The Basinger Long Unit,Garza, New Drill (2).

>> Burnett Oil Co. Inc., Con-nell, Crane, New Drill; McKnightSand Hills Unit, Crane, Recom-pletion.

>> Capitan Energy Inc., ScottFee 36, Culberson, New Drill.

>> Capstone Natural Re-sources LLC, Crews Estate, An-drews, New Drill (7); Cope, H.R.,Gaines, New Drill.

>> Chevron U.S.A. Inc., FourCorners TXL Fee, Upton, NewDrill (5); Cope, E.B., Sterling, Re-completion; SOA Scharbauer SW,Midland, New Drill (4); Sterling‘K’ Fee, Sterling, Recompletion;Sterling ‘N’ Fee, Sterling, Re-completion.

>> Cimarex Energy Co.,Narrows 6-21, Reeves, NewDrill; University 18-22 B, Ward,New Drill; University 18-18Unit, Ward, New Drill.

>> Clear Fork Inc., J.Douglas Thorn, Coke, Re-completion.

>> COG OperatingLLC, Carter, Irion, NewDrill; Gipper State East,Reeves, New Drill; TXL ‘45’,Upton, New Drill; Big Chief,Reeves, Recompletion; Big Chief,Reeves, New Drill; Neal Ranch‘57’ Unit, Upton, New Drill; ThePreacher, Reeves, New Drill;Carter A, Irion, New Drill.

>> ConocoPhillipsCompany, Cowden, Clyde, Ector,New Drill (4); University An-drews, Andrews, New Drill.

>> CrownQuest OperatingLLC, Russell Unit 23, Howard,New Drill; Jones A, Glasscock,New Drill; Hillger High, Glass-cock, New Drill (2).

>> Devon Energy Produc-tion Co. LP, McKnight, M.B.,Crane, New Drill; Tatia, Ector,New Drill; University 46-3, Crock-ett, New Drill (3); University 47-11,Crockett, New Drill (2); Leon(AW), Ector, New Drill (2);Nakeisha, Ector, New Drill; May-berry, Ector, New Drill.

>> Diamondback E&P LLC,ST, Midland, New Drill (2); UL Dig-ger, Andrews, New Drill.

>> Draco Energy Inc.,Debus, Glasscock, New Drill.

>> Eagle Rock OperatingCompany LLC, Spencer ‘33’,

Reeves, Recompletion. >> Endeavor Energy Re-

sources LP, Damron ‘42’, Mid-land, New Drill; University Unit5-20-21, Irion, New Drill.

>> Enduring Resources LLC,Halfmann 1214, Reagan, New Drill(3).

>> Energen Resources Cor-poration, Wilbanks 15, Martin,New Drill; Frio, Glasscock, NewDrill.

>> Enervest Operating LLC,Mabee B, Martin, New Drill;Mabee E, Andrews, New Drill.

>> EOG Resources Inc.,Mayer, Irion, New Drill (2);Shannon Estate BB, Crockett,New Drill.

>> Estancia Oil & GasLLC, Smith, Borden, NewDrill.

>> Forge Energy LLC,Fisher 8, Andrews, New Drill.

>> Gungoll, Carl E. Ex-ploration LLC, Higg Ranch456, Gaines, New Drill (2).

>> Hannathon Petro-leum LLC, C.O. Speck 262,

Dawson, New Drill. >> Henry Resources, LLC,

Suzahn, Crane, New Drill (4).>> Highmount Exploration

& Production Texas LLC, Uni-versity 54 5, Schleicher, NewDrill; University 54 6, Schleicher,New Drill.

>> Iraan Brine Water Serv-ice LLC, Sconiers, Pecos, NewDrill.

>> Jones, L.E. OperatingInc., Page Royalty, Pecos, Re-enter.

>> Juno Operating Com-pany II LLC, Clark Wood Ranch,Crosby, New Drill (7).

>> Kinder Morgan Produc-tion Co. LLC, Yates Field Unit,Pecos, Recompletion (2); SacrocUnit, Scurry, New Drill.

>> Laredo Petroleum Inc.,Barbee-C-, Glasscock, New Drill.

>> Legacy Reserves Oper-ating LP, Brooks 10, Irion, Re-completion; Orson, Dr., Martin,New Drill; Orson, Dr. -A-, Martin,New Drill.

>> Linn Operating Inc., Allar29, Martin, New Drill; Nobles,Midland, New Drill; Cox 34, Mar-tin, Recompletion.

>> Memorial ProductionOperating LLC, Bosworth Farm,Hockley, New Drill; Cochran,Hockley, New Drill.

>> Mesquite SWD Inc., Fish-ing and Pleasure SWD, Reeves,New Drill (2).

>> Midenergy OperatingLLC, Neal, Upton, New Drill.

>> Newman Cubed, Inc.,Pecos Valley Oil, Pecos, Recom-pletion.

>> Occidental Permian Ltd.,Gibson Unit, Yoakum, New Drill(3); South Curtis Ranch, Martin,New Drill; Denver Unit, Yoakum,Recompletion; Gaines WassonClearfork Unit, Gaines, New Drill.

>> OXY USA Inc., Worsham‘42’, Ward, New Drill.

>> OXY USA WTP LP, Sparks,T.E., Gaines, Recompletion;Chevron Minerals 5, Reeves, NewDrill.

>> Paint Rock OperatingLLC, Russell, Menard, Re-enter.

>> Parallel Petroleum LLC,Lion Diamond ‘M’ Unit, Scurry,New Drill.

>> Petroplex Energy Inc.,White ‘20A’, Martin, New Drill.

>> Pioneer Natural Re-sources USA Inc., Sale Ranch28A, Martin, New Drill; Springer,Midland, New Drill; Kendrick, Mid-land, New Drill; Dunn, Midland,New Drill; Houston Ranch 12-Fowler A PU, Glasscock, New Drill;ET O’Daniel, Midland, New Drill;Rocker B, Irion, New Drill (6); King‘D’, Midland, New Drill; MabeeFoundation, Midland, New Drill;Gist ‘4’, Glasscock, New Drill.

>> Prime Operating Com-pany, Stimson-Burley, Martin,New Drill.

>> Red Willow ProductionLLC, University 41-20, Loving,New Drill.

>> Reliance Energy Inc.,Sale 26, Martin, New Drill;Yarbrough 45, Martin, New Drill;Mabee 240C, Andrews, New Drill(2); Johnson B, Martin, New Drill.

>> Ring Energy Inc., Fisher,Andrews, New Drill (3); MMFisher B, Andrews, New Drill;Fisher C, Andrews, New Drill.

>> Rosetta Resources Op-erating LP, Lone Ranger State192, Reeves, New Drill (2).

>> RSP Permian, LLC, Span-ish Trail, Midland, New Drill (2);Cross Bar Ranch, Andrews, NewDrill (2).

>> Saber Oil & Gas Ven-tures, LLC, J.E. Parker Estate -B-, Andrews, New Drill.

>> San Gabriel Resources,LLC, Armstrong State 42,Reeves, New Drill.

>> SDX Resources, Inc., Hol-laday, Dawson, New Drill.

>> Sheridan ProductionCompany, LLC, Aoco-HoopleClearfork Unit, Crosby, New Drill(7); Goldsmith Adobe Unit, Ector,New Drill (3); Dunbar B, Gaines,New Drill.

>> Silver Hill Energy Part-ners, LLC, Bullet 27-11, Winkler,New Drill.

>> Slate Holdings, Inc.,Frost 13, Cochran, New Drill.

>> Steller Energy & Invest-ment Corp., Parramore, Ster-ling, New Drill.

>> Strand Energy, L.C.,Hamilton, Irion, New Drill.

>> Tall City Operations,LLC, Middleton 38, Howard,Re-enter; Higginbotham 30-19,

Borden, New Drill. >> Tema Oil and Gas Com-

pany, Z&T 42, Loving, New Drill. >> Texland Petroleum LP,

Scarborough Unit, Andrews, NewDrill (2).

>> Thompson, J. Cleo, WestMeans (Grybg-San And)> Unit,Andrews, New Drill (6).

>> Three Rivers OperatingCo. II LLC, Tidwell, Howard, NewDrill; Guthrie West, Howard, NewDrill; Stallings Lomax, Howard,New Drill.

>> Trilogy Operating Inc.,BOA 12, Howard, New Drill.

>> Wapiti Operating LLC,N.E.I.A.B. Unit, Coke, New Drill(3).

>> Whiting Oil and Gas Cor-poration, Hutchings Stock Assn,Ward, Re-enter (6).

>> Williams, Clayton EnergyInc., Orson 27, Andrews, NewDrill; Burnett 24, Andrews, NewDrill.

>> XTO Energy Inc., Gold-smith, C.A., et al., Ector, New Drill(2); Russell Clearfork Unit,Gaines, New Drill.

>> RAILROAD COMMISSION

P E R M I A N B A S I N D R I L L I N G R E P O R T

NevadaNew MexicoNew YorkNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexas-OffshoreTexas-Inland WaterDist.1-South Central Tx.Dist.2-Middle Tx. CoastDist.3-Upper Tx. CoastDist.4-Lower Tx. CoastDist.5-Northeast Tx.Dist.6-Far N.E. Tx.Dist.7B-N. Central Tx.Dist.7C-W. Central Tx.Dist.8-Far West Tx.Dist.8A-West Tx.Dist.9-North Tx.Dist.10-Tx. PanhandleTexas TotalUtahVirginiaWashington StateWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingTOTAL-United StatesCanada-LandCanada-OffshoreTotal CanadaGrand Total

U . S . W E E K LY R I G C O U N T

Alabama-LandAlabama-Inland WatersAlabama-OffshoreAlabama-TotalAlaska-LandAlaska-OffshoreAlaska-TotalArizonaArkansasCalifornia-LandCalifornia-OffshoreCalifornia-TotalColoradoFlorida-LandFlorida-Inland WatersFlorida-OffshoreFlorida-TotalGeorgiaHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaKansasKentuckyN. LouisianaS. Louisiana-InlandS. Louisiana-LandS. Louisiana-OffshoreLouisiana-TotalMarylandMichiganMississippiMontanaNebraska

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304

26181048

10200

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282

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132755335

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294292063

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00

27

531,769626

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2,395

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23660

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324

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2,403

L A S T R E P O R T

L A T E S T R E P O R T

CRUDE OILPrices listed Lastin dollars per barrel Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. Fri. Chg.West Texas Posted 99.00 98.25 99.00 99.00 99.00 98.75 0.25WEST TEXAS SPOT 102.82 101.83 102.59 102.40 102.59 102.20 0.39West Texas Sour 94.30 93.55 94.30 N/A N/A 94.05 0.25NATURAL GASNatural gas 5.445 5.096 4.541 4.511 4.609 6.135 -1.526

W E E K LY O I L & G A S P R I C E S


HOUSTON Oilfield servicescompany Baker HughesInc. says the number of rigsexploring for oil and natu-ral gas in the U.S. decreasedby two this week to 1,769.

The Houston firm saidin its weekly report Fridaythat 1,430 rigs were explor-ing for oil and 335 for gas.Four were listed as miscel-laneous. A year ago therewere 1,757 active rigs.

Of the major oil- and gas-

producing states, Alaskagained three rigs, Colorado,North Dakota andWyoming each gained twoand New Mexico and Ohioeach gained one.

Louisiana and West Vir-ginia each lost three rigswhile Kansas, Pennsylvaniaand Texas each lost two.Arkansas, California, Okla-homa and Utah were un-changed.

The U.S. rig countpeaked at 4,530 in 1981 andbottomed at 488 in 1999.

U.S. rig count down 2to 1,769 this week

BY COREY [email protected]

Midland crude pricesdropped below LouisianaGulf prices far enough in thelast several weeks that ship-pers began turning again tothe railroads to get theirproduct to market.

The main reason twoprice analysts gave was sea-sonal refinery maintenancethat reduced local demandas crude output continuedto increase.

“All of a sudden, we getsome phone calls that say,‘We want to ship somecrude oil,’ and we say OK,”said Bruce Carswell, theWest Texas operations man-ager for Iowa Pacific, whichoperates the closest short-line that works with railloading stations, the TexasNew-Mexico Railroad.“How long it lasts is yet to bedetermined.”

Carswell said the ship-ments began in January.

He would not say howmuch crude the railroadwas moving but said it was

less than what they weremoving last year whencrude-by-rail shipmentsspiked. Union Pacific alsodoes not release figuresabout how much crude thecompany moves by rail.And state agencies havelimited oversight, even asfirst responders say knowl-edge of how much crude isshipped and when andwhere could help planningfor emergencies.

Shipments of PermianBasin crude ebbed in thesecond half of last year asnew pipelines opened. Butcrude and rail analysts saythey still expect PermianBasin shippers to turn to railin times when productionsurpasses the ability ofpipelines to move the crudeto market at a cheaper cost.

According to data com-piled by Bloomberg lastweek, West Texas Interme-diate crude in Midland aver-aged $11.06 below LouisianaLight Sweet in January and$10.99 by Feb. 21, the greatestdiscount since April of lastyear.

“It suggests that produc-tion of that oil shale crude iscontinuing to rise and it’sprobably rising about as fastor in some cases faster thanthe takeaway capacity,” said

Tom Kloza, the editorial di-rector for Oil Price Informa-tion Service. “If it’s aquestion of ‘Geez, we can’ttake this out. We have tofind a place to move it.’ Theycut the price in order tomove the product to somewilling buyers.”

The discount is based onoil prices over $100 barrel.

“It’s not like we need toorganize a telethon forthem,” said Kloza, who saidcrude-by-rail shipmentsfrom the Permian Basinshould wane in the comingmonths because recent fore-casts sliced the price dispar-ity in half. In the meantime,Carswell said “pretty sub-stantial inbound” crude stillcomes to the Permian Basinvia rail from places such asUtah and Canada to beloaded into pipelines.

The re-emergence ofcrude-by-rail comes as thetransportation method is inthe national spotlight.

Federal regulators onTuesday issued an emer-gency order requiring testsof crude oil and prohibitingshipments using the least-protective packing require-ments before shipment byrail in response to a string oftrain explosions and firessince last summer.

The focus of the investi-gation has been on Bakkencrude, and The Pipeline andHazardous Materials SafetyAdministration issued awarning that it “may bemore flammable than tradi-tional heavy crude oil” be-cause of more gas content.

The worst accident hap-pened on July 6, when a run-away train carrying Bakkencrude derailed in Lac-Mé-gantic, Quebec, and killed 47people and destroyed some30 buildings.

Before the Tuesdayorder, shippers already hadto classify oil shipmentsbased on their risk for ex-plosion or fire, but federalinvestigators found thatmany shipments were beingmisclassified as less danger-ous. The order requirestesting for classification be-fore shipment.

Carswell said the railroadwelcomed those safetymeasures and that the ship-pers who must follow theemergency order can beproducers, midstream com-panies or even refiners buy-ing crude from thewellhead.

“I don’t think there isanything herculean thatpeople are having to dealwith,” Carswell said.

Price gap prompts crude-by-rail in PermianVolume remains

lower than what wasshipped last year


IRVING Retail gasolineprices this weekhave jumped by 2cents per gallonacross Texas.

AAA Texas onThursday reportedthe average unleaded priceat the pump statewide hasreached $3.22. The price

rose by 5 cents the priorweek. Gas prices nationallyrose by 6 cents to $3.44 per

gallon.The association

survey found driv-ers in Amarillo arepaying the leastamount at $3.15 per

gallon while those in Dal-las-Fort Worth are payingthe most at $3.32.

Retail gasoline prices climb two cents across Texas

Shale brings high hopes in MississippiLouisiana alsosees oil plays

A GoodrichPetroleumwell standsready formore work inDec. 2013,near Liberty,Miss. Oilcompaniesplan a bigincrease indrillingactivity in2014 insouthwestMississippi.

OA FILE PHOTO

Power TransmissionEquipment

SINCE 1981

Power Transmission Products

Odessa - 800-444-9504Hobbs - 800-870-1926

Your Category

Purchase thisspace

and reachover 67,000

readers.Call 333-7602


Feb. 17 to Feb. 21, 2014

N E W R E S I D E N T I A L>> Bernal Homes Inc., 7803

Giavanna Drive, $465,500; Beten-bough Homes, 610 E. 98th St.,$189,950; Betenbough Homes, 611E. 99th Court, $172,950; BassettConstruciton Inc., 903 Copus Cir-cle, $140,500; BetenboughHomes, 9915 McCraw Drive,$146,950; Bassett ConstructionInc., 901 Copus Circle, $140,500.

Total: 6 permits,$1,256,350.

R E S I D E N T I A L A L T E R A T I O N S A N D A D D I T I O N S

>> Nick Hernandez, 810Magnolia Blvd., kitchen/dining/den, $10,000; Frank Marquez, 6Shiloh Road, storage, $18,000;Addy Ramirez, 3200 Walnut Ave.,porch, $2,000; Dulces Fabela, 1123Lindberg St., storage, $17,000; Be-nigno Reyes, 1415 S. Lee Ave., ad-dition, $14,300; Maria Rivera, 1510Woodlawn Drive, fence, $1,000;Derek Wooten, 4313 N. GrandviewAve., fire damage demo, $15,000;Maria Castillo, 1120 BlackshearSt., carport, $1,500; Larry Es-parza, 3806 N. Texas Ave., en-

close carport to make bedroom,$1,200; Larry Morrow, 111 CasaGrande Drive, $180,000; CarltonRobinson, 2100 Pagewood Ave.,building, $10,000; Brandi Palma,1101 Terlingua Ave., fence, $2,500;Jose Morales, 2737 Kay Ave., util-ity room, $4,500; Jessica Castillo,600 Santa Rosa Ave., storage,$1,100; Manuela Anchondo, 1511 E.23rd St., garage, $1,200; FaustinoLopez, 912 E. 25th St., living room,$20,000; Eddie Stevenson, 402Pecos St., remodel, $9,500; IvanHernandez, 1416 Adams Ave.,fence, $1,200; Juan Castillo, 323Vine Ave., addition, $26,000;Robert Evans, 3712 E. 30th St.,storage, $20,000; Joe Melton,2114 Pagewood Ave., storage,$16,200; Helen Tyminski, 3907Merrill Ave., fence, $1,000; ElloyMedrano, 711 S. Sam HoustonAve., bedroom/closet/bath,$15,000.

Total: 23 permits,$388,200.

C O M M E R C I A L A L T E R A T I O N S A N D A D D I T I O N S

>> Shamrock Steel SalesInc., 238 S. County Road West,awning, $3,500; C&M Marquez,

820 N. County Road West, re-model, $100,000; Oitavio Car-rillo, 2239 E. 52nd St., remodel,$43,000; Smithco Construction,3510B Andrews Highway, con-struction trailer, $7,000; Logan’sRoad House Restaurant, 5105 E.42nd St., repair fire damage,$13,000; American Rental, 601 E.Seventh St., finish out interior,$630,000.

Total: 6 permits,$796,500.

C H A N G E O F U S E>> Nancy Adams, 2504 N.

Grandview Ave., $100.Total: 1 permit, $100.

Total permits: 36Total value: $2,411,150

Total permits (2014 yearto date): 307

Total value (2014 year todate): $49,027,405

Total permits (2013): 2,501Total value (2013):

$391,734,029

B U I L D I N G P E R M I T S

O N T H E N E T >> http://www.odessa-tx.gov/

index.aspx?page=217

These are the food inspectionscores for the week of Feb. 17through Feb. 21, performed by theEctor County Health Department.Violations dock points, with aperfect score starting at 100.

Violations of food tempera-ture/time requirements are fivepoints each; violations of person-nel, handling of food and foodand water source requirementsare four points each; and viola-tions of facility and equipmentrequirements are three pointseach, which establishments have10 days to correct.

A score of 70 or less requiresthe immediate shutdown of therestaurant until the violationsare corrected and a new inspec-tion is done. Closure is subject tocorrective action being made on-site.

Districts are set by thecounty, with some accounts an-nexed in order to give the fourinspectors an equal load.

C E N T R A L>> N2U Nutrition, 810 N.

Dixie Blvd., 2/18/2014 100.>> Angel Taco, 5202 N. Dixie

Blvd., 2/19/2014 94.

E A S T>> Jack in the Box, 3811 E.

42nd St., 2/19/2014 97.

S O U T H>> Red X Truck Stop, 5934 W.

Interstate 20, 2/18/2014 85.>> Primal Nights (Don Taco),

5934 W. Interstate 20, 2/18/2014100.

>> Golden Corral, 4261 JBSParkway, 2/19/2014 92..

>> McDonald’s, 5900 E. Inter-state 20, 2/19/2014 100.

>> Chili’s, 5025 E. 42nd St.,2/19/2014 81.

W E S T>> Dairy Queen, 2761 Grand-

view Ave., 2/28/2014 96.>> Taco Villa #11, 2120 42nd

St., 2/18/2014 97.>> McDonald’s, 1347 W. Uni-

versity Blvd., 2/19/2014 93.>> Lapa Lapa, 2400 W. Uni-

versity Blvd., 2/19/2014 96.>> Long John Silver’s, 1418

West County Road, 2/19/2014 100.>> The Depot Pizza & Deli,

2701 Kermit Highway, 2/20/2014100.

>> Pojo’s Restaurant, 2880Kermit Highway, 2/20/2014 92.

>> Jessie’s Café, 5901 GolderAve., 2/20/2014 97.

E C T O R C O U N T Y R E S TA U R A N T R E P O R T


Texas has immense capac-ity for energy productionfrom wind as well as

solar and biomass fuel.About 15 years ago, the Statedemonstrated its commit-ment to increase clean en-ergy through legislation aswell as government funding.

Our market-driven systemwith electric competition,incentives for renewables,and other factors in Texashas led to increased genera-tion capacity and impressivegrowth in clean energy.

Customers also havemore choices, and prices arelower than they would beotherwise. Progress in thisarena continues, and we re-cently passed an importantmilestone in the ongoing de-velopment of Texas’ renew-able energy resources.

In 1999, Senate Bill 7(SB7) opened the doors ofelectric power competitionin Texas. One of the goals ofthis legislation was to en-courage the addition ofclean energy into the Texaspower grid. The Bill pro-

moted the growth of renew-able energy by establishingthe Texas Renewable Portfo-lio Standard (RPS).

The RPS is the amount ofpower sold in the state thatmust be generated using re-newable sources. In essence,the RPS created a market forrenewable power by requir-ing the state’s electricproviders to either constructrenewable generation facili-ties themselves or buy fromother firms which did so.

Texas energy providershave far exceeded thesestandards. The original RPSgoal was 2,000 megawatts(MW) of additional, new re-newable resource generationcapacity by 2009. That levelwas surpassed in 2006. In2005, the Legislature uppedthe goal by passing SenateBill 20, which increased thetarget to 5,880 MW of re-newable energy by 2015 and10,000 by 2025 (including500 MW from non-wind re-newable sources). Texas ca-pacity topped the 2025 goalin 2010.

The Lone Star State leadsthe way in wind capacityamong all states by a largemargin, with 12,214 MW in-stalled as of June 2013 (ac-cording to the AmericanWind Energy Association).That’s more than twice asmuch as any other state. Wealso ranked first in new in-stallations in 2012, with anaddition of almost 1,826 MW.Wind provided 7.4 percent ofthe state’s electricity in 2012.

Wind farms require notonly a lot of wind, but also alot of space. The best areasfor placement are generallyin West Texas, the Panhan-dle, and some coastal areas.The problem facing the statewhen these assets began tobe developed was getting thepower from the windy areasto the populous regions ofTexas where it was needed.

A visionary plan embod-ied in SB20 identified Com-petitive Renewable EnergyZones (CREZ) with highwind potential and called forthe Electric ReliabilityCouncil of Texas (ERCOT)

to come up with the optimalway to link these areas to thepopulation centers whereelectric power was needed.

After reviewing potentialroutes and options, ERCOTinitiated a plan in about2008. Transmission projectsinvolving billions of dollarsin investment and years ofconstruction have been on-going since that time. Theselines originate in windyareas around Amarillo andthe High Plains, the PermianBasin, Abilene, and west ofSan Angelo. From there, theygenerally go east to serve thelarge metropolitan areasalong the I-35 corridor.

It was a massive under-taking. Finalizing the routesto try to avoid sensitiveareas and attempt to satisfylandowners was a huge proj-ect in and of itself which hadto be completed before thefirst shovel moved the firstdirt. If you happened todrive along one of theselines as it was going up, youmay have seen not onlycranes and trucks, but also

helicopters and other spe-cialized equipment.

The final tab on the in-vestment is approaching $6.9 billion, with 3,588 milesof lines. The cost has beenborne by transmission utili-ties which are regulated bythe Public Utility Commis-sion of Texas. These compa-nies will recover theirexpense through fees paidby retail providers of elec-tricity. Our firm was pleasedto conduct the related im-pact studies that helped toquantify the effects of bothconstruction and the addedpower in a market setting.

As of the end of last year,the dots were connected,and all of the major trans-mission projects in the planwere completed. The enor-mous resource of windpower can now be utilizedwhere it is needed, thanks tothe added transmission ca-pability. It was a visionaryplan, and I applaud the manypeople who dedicatedcountless hours to make it areality.

THEECONOMIST

M. RAYPERRYMAN

>> Perrymanis the head ofThe Perryman

Group andserves as a

distinguishedprofessor at

theInternationalInstitute forAdvancedStudies.

Dots connected: Texas’ growing alternative energy market

Better Business Bureauis joining with fed-eral, state and local

government agencies topromote consumer edu-cation during the 15th an-nual National ConsumerProtection Week,March 2 throughMarch 8, 2014.

Thousands ofconsumers turn toBBB as the leadingreliable businessresource, and ourgoal is to go theextra mile in en-couraging con-sumers to take fulladvantage of theirrights.

As part of Na-tional ConsumerProtection Week(NCPW), BBB of-fers five easy waysto become asmarter and savvierconsumer.

Always checkout a business withBBB first. Searchfor a trustworthybusiness using BBB Mem-ber Pages, which listslocal BBB AccreditedBusinesses by industry.You can also visit bbb

.org/central-texas tocheck a company’s BBBBusiness Review.

A BBB Business Re-view will tell you howmany complaints a com-pany has received and

whether the com-pany responded tothe complaints.

>> Get everything inwriting and always readthe fine print. Con-tracts are meant toprotect a businessand consumers byoutlining the termsof the agreement.While it’s natural towant to skimthrough parts ofthe long-writtenterms and condi-tions, it is impor-tant that customersfully understandtheir rights andwhat they’re agree-ing to. Wheneversigning a contract,BBB recommendsreading the fineprint carefully—

even if it means taking it home and sleeping onit.

Don’t just take a salesassociate’s word for it; get

all verbal promises inwriting.

>> Protect your identity—and your pocketbook. Fight-ing identity theft meansstaying vigilant online andoffline. Always shred sen-sitive documents that in-clude personal financialinformation such as bank,credit card and Social Se-curity numbers.

>> Monitor your financial ac-counts closely to more quicklydetect suspicious activity.Make sure your computer

has up-to-date anti-virussoftware and be extremelyselective when openingattachments or clicking onlinks in e-mails. Shop on-line through secure sitesonly and always confirmthat the business is trust-worthy before enteringyour credit or debit cardnumber.

>> Never wire money tosomeone you don’t know.Many scams deceive vic-tims by convincing themto wire money. Scammers

know it’s extremely diffi-cult to track and it isnearly impossible to getyour money back once it’sbeen sent via wire.

>> Know where to complain.If you’ve been a victim ofa scam or treated unfairlyby a business, there aremany organizations and

government agencies youcan turn to for help.

You can file a com-plaint with:

>> Better Business Bureau:www.bbb.org/central-texas

>> Federal Trade Commis-sion: www.ftc.gov

>> Your state Attorney Gen-eral’s office

BBB celebrates national consumer protection week

START WITHTRUST

TYLERPATTON

>> Patton isthe RegionalDirector of

the PermianBasin Better

BusinessBureau.

Check out thewebsite

www.bbb.orgor call

563-1880.

SANTA FE SQUARE3952 E. 42ND

ODESSA • 432-367-7463STORE HOURS: 9:30-6:00

MON. THRU SAT.We fit the hard to fit.

6105 E. HIGHWAY 191 • ODESSA, TX 79762432.362.1000 • CATERING: 432.260.5611


Question: With my com-puter on, modem on, but notin any web based programactive, can a spammer orhacker still get into my com-puter? Few days back, I had apopup stating that I wasbeing watched by two peo-ple. Have Skype with camerathat would show me in frontof the computer, but Skype isnot active.

>> Glen H.Shalimar, Fla.

Answer: I think you’re beinga little tripped up by simplesemantics, Glen. You’re alsocreating an excellent demon-stration of why it’s so impor-tant to carefully andcompletely read dialog boxesbefore dismissing them, be-cause the dialog box mostlikely indicated what soft-ware created it.

If I look at my Geek Lightson the Corner Facebook ac-count, it tells me that I ambeing followed by almost 700people. Yet, when I look overmy shoulder, there is nobodythere. Why? Because Face-book uses the word “Follow”to indicate that somebodyhas expressed an interest in atopic, and wants to be noti-

fied when there are any up-dates to it. Facebook alsohappens to use the words“Like” and “Watch” in waysthat don’t necessarily matchtheir more traditional defini-tions.

I see complaints from peo-ple all the time in the com-ments section on tragic newsstories, asking why so manypeople “Like” this horriblenews. It’s not that people ac-tually like the news, but that’sthe word Facebook chose forpeople to indicate they havean interest in a page, a post, apicture, or a story.

Many people “Like” astory on Facebook not be-cause they like the topic, butbecause they want to knowwhen the article is updatedor someone else commentson it. Another reason to“Like” something is to let theperson who posted it knowthat you read it without actu-ally having to comment on it.The word “Like” works wellin many cases, but is awk-ward on the ear when talkingabout certain events.

Try this one: New postfrom Jeff Werner: My catdied today. (Glen H. likes

this) If I saw that, I’d knowthat you read my post, andyou probably are not actuallyliking the fact that my catdied, but you’re acknowledg-ing reading about it, andyou’ll also get notified whenother people “Like” the post,or comment on it. Facebookis not the only social mediasite that does this. For exam-ple, Google has its own “+1”function that works in a simi-lar manner.

So, Glen, I believe thatwhat’s happening is that onsome social media site youhave a couple of fans. Theymay be relatives, friends, co-workers, or just people whoappreciated something thatyou posted online.

Whoever they are, theyasked the social media soft-ware to watch for new postsfrom you, and let them knowwhen it sees any. They aren’treally “watching” youthough. That’s not to say it isimpossible to remotely acti-vate someone’s webcam andwatch through it, becausethere are very well-docu-mented instances of exactlythat.

However, the people who

engage in that kind of activitydon’t normally pop-up notifi-cations on your systemtelling you that they aredoing so.

Q: I have an HP OfficeJetPro 8600 All-in-one. I amable to print wirelessly butcannot scan wirelessly. Scan-ning works fine when con-nected via USB cable.

Both printing and scan-ning wirelessly worked finewith the 17” MacBook Prorunning OSX Lion. Thisproblem occurred after up-grading to OSX Mavericksand installing the associatedHP printer driver/software.

This problem remains un-solved after a number ofscreen share sessions withApple and HP tech support. Ialso upgraded the modem atabout this same time.

>> Michael C.Destin, Fla.

A: Spouse Peripheral and Ipicked up a similar printerlast month after our venerableold HP all-in-one decidedquite suddenly that it nolonger wanted its job. “Tooexpensive to fix,” they toldme. Thanks, Bi … um, I mean,

whoever is in charge over atHP! I’m not at the top of mygame diagnosing problems onMac systems. However, thereading I’ve done says that ifyou can print but not scan,check for a firewall blockingthings.

So, try disabling your fire-wall(s) and see if that helps. Ifso, then you’ll need to getmore specific, since you don’twant to be completely with-out a firewall. Beyond that, acomplete removal and re-in-stallation of the HP softwaresuite would be my only sug-gestion. That assumes thatthe driver checks to be sureeverything is working as it in-stalls.

Optionally, you might justneed to be more persuasivewith HP Customer Service.With a little persistence, I’vehad good luck in the past withtheir online chat service andtheir telephone support, aslong as the device you’re in-quiring about is still underwarranty.

To view additional content,comment on articles, or sub-mit a question of your own,visit ItsGeekToMe.co (not.com!)

Can hackers get to your PC while not on web program?

IT’S GEEK TO ME

JEFFWERNER

>> Werner isa software

engineer andhas been

writing thiscolumn since

2007.

Read It!


FREMONT, CALIF. Men’sWearhouse told Jos. A.Bank on Friday that it needssome more information be-fore the rival men’s clothingretailers can hammer out anacquisition agreement.

The Houston company’sCEO, Douglas S. Ewert, saidin a letter to Jos. A. BankChairman Robert N.Wildrick that the companywould send their rival a listof limited information theyneeded to review in connec-tion with a proposed acqui-sition bid. Men’s Wearhousealso said it was ready tomeet to discuss the struc-ture of a deal and the nextsteps needed to complete it.

“We look forward toreaching a transaction thatcreates value for all of ourshareholders,” Ewert wrote.

The letter was sent a dayafter Jos. A. Bank ClothiersInc. rejected the latest ac-quisition bid from Men’sWearhouse but said it waswilling to meet and discussa higher bid.

Men’sWearhouse

to Jos A. Bank:Let’s meet

3327 W. Wadley Ave • Midland, TX 79707432-697-0427

Hours: M-F 9-6P • Sat 10-5P

Corner of Garfield and Wadley432-682-2843

WWW.CARTERSFURNITUREMIDLAND.COM

SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 2014 W W W . O A O A . C O M ODESSA AMERICAN 15A


Texas Property Taxlaws require all busi-nesses to pay property

tax based on the value ofthe assets used in thebusiness to generate in-come. Those assets in-clude inventory, furniture,fixtures, machinery,equipment and vehicles.

By April 15 of each year,business owners mustprovide the appraisal dis-trict with a listing of thoseassets. Your businessshould have received aConfidential Business Per-sonal Property Renditionfrom the appraisal district.

If you haven’t receivedthe form, please call us at432-332-6834. You can alsovisit our website www.ec-torcad.org and selectForms List under theLinks section of the navi-gation bar, which directsyou to the State Comptrol-ler form. If you own multi-

ple business locations, youwill need to complete therendition form for each lo-cation.

Providing the asset in-formation means we canmore accurately appraiseyour individual business.

We understand that noone is more knowledge-able of your business thanyou and we strive to en-sure that all property isappraised at market value.With more informationavailable to the appraisalstaff, each business will beaccurately and equally ap-praised.

Sometimes it is difficultto determine whetheryour filing is based onyour original cost at thedate of acquisition or yourgood faith determinationof value. If the method ofyour value estimate isn’tclear or you choose toprovide a good faith esti-

mate, we may request anexplanatory statementfrom you containing doc-umentation to supportyour value determination.This information must beprovided within 21 days ofthe date you receive therequest.

Timely filing alsomeans that your businessdoes not incur the ten per-cent penalty for failure torender by the April 15thdeadline. To encouragebusinesses to provide theinformation, the TexasLegislature enacted lawsthat require businesses totimely render their prop-erty or pay a penalty. Thelaw also establishes moresevere penalties for fraud-ulent submissions.

A rendition found tohave been filed with theintent to commit fraud,evade taxes or alter, hide,destroy or conceal docu-

ments will result in an ad-ditional 50 percentpenalty.

To protect your rightsand ensure the accuracyof our appraisals youshould contact our officeif you opened, moved orclosed a business in 2013.

Upon written request,the filing deadline shall beextended to May 15th.This extension must berequested before the April15th deadline. If you haveany questions regardingfiling, don’t hesitate tocontact us. Your field ap-praiser will be happy toassist you.

Please call us if youhave any concerns orquestions regarding anyaspect of your rights or re-sponsibilities as a tax-payer. We realize that it’snot glamorous, but we liketo talk about propertyvalue and taxes.

File your business property rendition on time

THE CHIEF’SAPPRAISAL

ANITACAMPBELL

>> Campbellis the chiefappraiser

for the EctorCounty

AppraisalDistrict. Hercolumn ontax issues

appears onthe first

Sunday ofeach month.

Some-times it isdifficult todeterminewhether

your filingis basedon youroriginal

cost at thedate of ac-quisitionor your

good faithdetermi-nation of

value.


CUPERTINO, CALIF. AppleCEO Tim Cook is still try-ing to convince sharehold-ers that the iPhone makerremains a step ahead in therace to innovate, eventhough recent perform-ance of the company’sstock lags behind othertechnology trendsetters.

In making his case Fri-day, Cook struck a familiarrefrain during Apple’s an-nual shareholder meetingat the company’s Cuper-tino, Calif. headquarters.

Cook promised thatApple Inc. is working onnew gadgets that will ex-pand the company’s prod-uct line-up beyondsmartphones, tablets,music players and personalcomputers without di-vulging any details. Hecited the company’s nearly$4.5 billion investment inresearch and developmentduring the last fiscal yearand the completion of 23acquisitions in the past 16months as a precursor ofthe big things to come.

“There is a ton of stuffgoing on,” Cook said.

On the financial side,Cook told shareholdersthat Apple’s board will an-nounce whether the com-pany will increase itsdividend and spend moremoney buying back its ownstock by the end of April.Money management is amajor issue for Apple be-cause the company is sit-ting on nearly $159 billionin cash, including $124 bil-lion held in overseas ac-counts to avoid U.S. taxes.

On the labor front, Cookpledged to continueApple’s fight for the rightsof the low-paid workerswho build the company’sdevices in overseas facto-ries. The workplaces arefrequently depicted as op-pressive sweatshops.

“I don’t think there is

any CEO who talks abouthuman rights more than Ido,” he said. “I get a lot ofspears for it, but I don’tgive a crap.”

Cook, who becameApple’s CEO shortly beforethe October 2011 death ofApple co-founder SteveJobs, also showed a playfulside. He tantalized thecrowd by telling them heplanned to provide aglimpse at Apple’s upcom-ing products, but it turnedout to be a tease. “I’ve gotto have some fun,” he said.

The meeting looked likeit would be a tense affairuntil earlier this monthwhen activist investor CarlIcahn abandoned a high-profile campaign aimed atpressuring Apple’s boardto increase the company’s$60 billion budget for buy-ing back its stock. Thecompany has already spentmore than $40 billion ofthat amount.

Most shareholders atFriday’s meeting seemedsupportive of Cook, al-though a couple expressedfrustration with Apple’sstock price when he tookseven questions from theaudience.

Investors are worriedabout the company’sshrinking market share inthe smartphone market asits rivals introduce a widerselection of devices offer-ing lower prices and largerscreen sizes. Wall Street isalso wondering if Applelost some of its inventive-ness with the death of thevisionary Jobs.

Apple’s stock dipped$1.43 to close Friday at$526.24. That’s 25 percentbelow its peak price of$705.07 reached September2012. Over the samestretch, the stock of GoogleInc. — a bitter rival — hassurged by 66 percent andthe technology-drivenNasdaq composite indexhas gained 35 percent.

Apple CEO teases,reassures shareholders


Seeking some sizzle, theowner of the Steak ‘n Shakeburger chain is buying men’smagazine Maxim. The pub-lication has struggled, withad dollars dropping 28 per-cent last year to $80.7 mil-lion, bucking a 1 percentgain for consumer maga-zines overall, said the Asso-ciation of Magazine Media.The San Antonio-basedcompany said Maxim willcontinue under its currentmanagement team and staybased in New York.

Burger chainowner aims

to buy Maxim

COURTESY PHOTO

November is a great time for taking rose cuttings.This is a healthy terminal shoot, perfect forpropagating. This cutting can be stuck in an east ornorth facing bed, kept moist and will root out duringthe next 12 months, then moved to its new home.

Diana Venegashas made

great strideswith PBRC

D iana Venegas couldn’twalk when shestarted going to the

Permian Basin RehabCenter at nearly 3 yearsold; in fact, still took sev-eral more years before shecould walk without assis-tance.

Diana has been diag-nosed with cerebral palsy,which causes tightnessand weakness in her legs.

While her diagnosisand progress through theyears weighed in her selection as the RehabCenter’s poster child, several people said it washer personality that hasreally shone through.

Physical therapy assis-tant Pat Fierro said Dianawould work only with himat the start of her therapyat the Rehab Center.

“One of the things wenoticed for sure when shefirst started was that shewasn’t walking,” Fierrosaid. “She was still beingcarried.”

Elena Ramirez, Diana’sgrandmother, said througha translator that the girlwas born three months

premature and didn’t startcrawling or sitting untilshe was about 1 year old.

“I took it real hardwhen I saw her with allthe tubes (after birth),”Ramirez said. “I’ve alwaysbeen kind of disappointedshe can’t do all the thingsthe other kids can do, but

I’m proud of what she cando now.”

Ramirez, who also liveswith Diana and her mom,said after a year Diana stillwasn’t standing andcouldn’t stabilize herself,at which point theybrought her to the doctor.

>> More onthe Center:

http://tinyurl.com/k7avcgq

7-year-old serves as poster child

Seven-year-old DianaVenegasworks on herupper bodystrengthduring arehabilitationsession at thePermian BasinRehabilitationCenter.

T H E FA C E O F T H E R E H A B C E N T E R

LIFE & TIMESPETS | 3D

OPINION | 4-5DBRIDAL Q&A | 6D

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2014 OAOA.COM SECTION D

>> CHECK IT OUTDon’t forget about this year’s

Empty Stocking Fund. Call 332-0738 for information.

There are actually a lot of thingsthat can happen in the garden,right now. Despite the recent

cold, there are plenty of nice daysto get out and what can be done inthe beauty of fall.

While it is tempting to cut yourgarden back after a hard freeze, itis best to leave it standing until justbefore new growth begins in latewinter and spring. Leaving the gar-den standing gives visual reliefthrough the winter months. Manyornamental grasses, perennials andother dormant plants maintaintheir structural integrity and lookgood through the winter. They alsohelp channel winter moisture intothe soil and reduce runoff. Oneother benefit is the food and shel-ter standing plants provide forbeneficial insects, birds and othercritters. So, leave the leaves, untilFebruary.

Warm season vegetables liketomatoes, peppers and squash canbe removed from the garden, which

frees up the space for soil improve-ment. Layers of leaves, grass clip-pings, and shredded newspapercan be added as material becomesavailable and then turned underfor composting in place. This iscalled sheet composting and it ishighly beneficial and relativelyeasy to do. By spring, raw organicmatter will be decomposed and thebed will be ready for growing. If thewinter is very dry, be sure to waterthe area once every three weeks orso to ensure decomposition.

November is a great month totake rose cuttings. Roses propagatefrom cuttings rather easily by se-lecting tip cuttings that are about6-8 inches long. The leaves fromthe lower half of the cutting can bestripped off and that portion stuckinto compost enriched, moist soil.Ideally this temporary bed can bein an east- or north-facing bed forrooting purposes. Any convenientspot will do as long as it is pro-tected from hot afternoon sun.

Rooting hormone powder can beapplied to the cutting before stick-ing, but isn’t essential. Keep soilmoist for the first year with regularwater and mulch. By the first fall orwinter, cuttings should be rootedout enough to be moved to theirpermanent new home.

November and December areexcellent months to plant woodytrees and shrubs, so if you areneeding a shrub bed update or anew tree, don’t hesitate. Whilewoody plants may be dormant orsemi-dormant, their roots are stillactive and will grow. Establishmentin the fall is much better than try-ing to establish plants in latespring or summer. Plants canstruggle in spring cold and sum-mer heat, so fall planting is a goodway to go.

Re-leaf comes by enjoying beau-tiful fall days in the garden, so takeadvantage of them as they come.You could be propagating, plantingand composting to name a few.

R E - L E A F

RE-LEAF

DEBBIEFROST

>> Frost is alocal

horticulturistspecializingin regionallyappropriatehorticulture.

[email protected]

Despite the cold, there’s still gardening

Diana Venegas, 7, looks through a cutout in the playroom at the Permian Basin Rehabilitation Center during a rehabilitation session.

Pat Fierro, a physical therapy assistant at Permian Basin Rehabilitation Center, stretches thelegs of 7-year-old Diana Venegas, who has cerebral palsy.

Physical therapy assistant Pat Fierro helps 7-year-old DianaVenegas, who suffers from cerebral palsy, walk on a treadmillduring a rehabilitation session at the Permian BasinRehabilitation Center. S T O R Y BY J O N VA N D E R L A A N | P H O T O S BY C O U R T N E Y S A C C O

>> See POSTER Page 2D

OPINIONPAGE 4D OAOA.COM SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2014

From the Nazis to the Stalin-ists, tyrants have always startedout supporting free speech,and why is easy to understand.Speech is vital for the realiza-tion of their goals of command,control and confiscation. Basicto their agenda are the tools ofindoctrination, propagandizing,proselytization. Once they gainpower, as leftists have at manyuniversities, free speech be-comes a liability and must besuppressed. This is increas-ingly the case on universitycampuses.

Back in 1964, it was MarioSavio, a campus leftist, who ledthe free speech movement atthe Berkeley campus of theUniversity of California, amovement that played a vitalrole in placing American uni-versities center stage in theflow of political ideas, no mat-ter how controversial, unpatri-otic and vulgar. The freespeech movement gave birth tothe hippie movement of the’60s and ’70s. The longhair, un-kempt hippies of that era havegrown up and now often findthemselves being college pro-fessors, deans, provosts andpresidents. Their intolerance offree speech and other ideas hasbecome policy and practice onmany college campuses.

Daniel Henninger, deputyeditor of The Wall Street Jour-nal’s editorial page, updates uson the campus attack on freespeech and different ideas inhis article titled “Obama Un-leashes the Left: How the gov-ernment created a federalhunting license for the far left”(http://tinyurl.com/mp5x428).

Former Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, one of thenation’s most accomplishedwomen, graciously withdrewas Rutgers University’s com-mencement speaker after twomonths of campus protestsabout her role in the Iraq War.Some students and professorssaid, “War criminals shouldn’tbe honored.” One wonderswhether these students wouldsimilarly protest Hillary Clin-ton, who, as senator, voted forthe invasion of Iraq.

Brandeis University officialswere intimidated into rescind-ing their invitation to Somaliwriter and American Enter-prise Institute scholar AyaanHirsi Ali, whose criticisms ofradical Islam were said to haveviolated the school’s “core val-ues.” Brandeis decided that al-lowing her to speak would behurtful to Muslim students.

I take it that Brandeis stu-dents and officials would seecriticism of deadly Islamist ter-rorist gang Boko Haram’s kid-napping of nearly 300 Nigeriangirls, some of whom have beensold off as brides, as unaccept-able and violative of the uni-versity’s core values.

Azusa Pacific University, aprivate Christian university,canceled a planned address bydistinguished libertarianscholar Charles Murray out offear that his lecture mightupset “faculty and students ofcolor.” In response to the can-cellation, Murray wrote anopen letter to the students,which in part read: “The task ofthe scholar is to present a casefor his or her position based on

evidence and logic. Anothertask of the scholar is to do so ina way that invites everybodyinto the discussion rather thandemonize those who disagree.Try to find anything under myname that is not written in thatspirit. Try to find even a para-graph that is written in anger,takes a cheap shot, or attackswomen, African Americans,Latinos, Asians, or anyoneelse.” Unfortunately, such ascholarly vision is greeted withhostility at some universities.

Earlier this year, faculty andstudents held a meeting at Vas-sar College to discuss a partic-ularly bitter internal battle overthe school’s movement to boy-cott Israel. Before the meeting,an English professor an-nounced the dialogue would“not be guided by cardboardnotions of civility.” That pro-fessor might share the vision ofAdolf Hitler’s brown-shirtedthugs of the paramilitary wingof the Nazi party in their effortto crush dissent.

Western values of liberty areunder ruthless attack by the ac-ademic elite on college cam-puses across America. Thesepeople want to replace per-sonal liberty with governmentcontrol; they want to replaceequality with entitlement. Assuch, they pose a far greaterthreat to our way of life thanany terrorist organization orrogue nation. Multiculturalismand diversity are a cancer onour society. Ironically, we notonly are timid in response butfeed those ideas with our taxdollars and charitable dona-tions.

America’s budding tyrants

“I read somewhere that thesun’s getting hotter every year,”said Tom genially. “It seems thatpretty soon the earth’s going tofall into the sun — or wait aminute ... it’s just the opposite— the sun is getting colderevery year.”

>> F. Scott Fitzgerald, ‘The Great Gatsby’ 1925

My oldest got married out-doors this past weekend in Ten-nessee, so we were watchingthe weather models and theirpredictions from the 10-dayforecast until the day of theBlessed Event. The weathermodels initially indicated 80 de-grees and zero percent chanceof rain, but during the week thepredictions vacillated all overthe map. By the day of the wed-ding, we had a 70 percentchance of rain and a 55-degreehigh for the day. They were off25 degrees, and missed the rain.

So I am thinking, if climatol-ogists cannot accurately predictthe weather in a three-day fore-cast, how in the world can weexpect them to be right whenthey tell us the earth is going towarm a degree in 20 years?

Most of the predictions andmodels that fuel the globalwarming hysteria of the leftcome from academia, but I re-main an agnostic on the matter.If there is global warming, atleast I look good in shorts. Thepredictors also make moneyproviding a solution to theproblems they foretell. Ask anyscientist propagating the globalwarming narrative about hisviews and he will say, “Yes, andhere is my card. You can pay meto advise you on how to cope

with the impending doom, oranother professor I know.”

What the members of the leftdo in any political battle is whatthey have done with globalwarming: They put someoneout there like Al Gore (knownfor his gassy emissions). Gore, aman no one would listen to oth-erwise, evangelizes about globalwarming. If you get stuck on anelevator with Gore he will gointo his spiel. I’d rather be on el-evator with Beyonce’s sister.

Gore and others make a dec-laration of untruth like “the sci-ence on global warming issettled.” They then attack any-one who disagrees, or makesfun of them using derisiveterms like “climate change de-niers” or “flat earthers.” Mostopponents cave. Propagandist-in-Chief Obama says, “The de-bate is settled” on globalwarming, and “Climate changeis a fact.” I guess he is right on“climate change,” but we usedto just call it the weather. It hap-pens more in the spring, fall,summer and winter, but yes, theclimate changes.

Saying any science is “set-tled” is unscientific. Science isalways evolving. Was the sci-ence settled on Y2K, acid rain,holes in the ozone layer, cancerprotocols, etc.?

This is nothing more than so-cialism. Predicated on the liesthat “if you like your health careplan or your doctor, you cankeep them,” and that Oba-macare would lower a family’shealth care costs, Obama fraud-ulently took over one-seventhof the U.S. economy. Healthcare was taken over with lies;will our climate be next? It is all

about being able to tax and con-trol us.

When anything becomespoliticized, truth is the first ca-sualty. Those pushing globalwarming blame any weather onit. Although it was the only bighurricane to hit the East Coastthat year, Democrats blamedHurricane Sandy on climatechange. Republicans blamed iton gays being able to marry.

The fact is that lately wehave had fewer hurricanes, tor-nadoes and floods. The leftistmedia just hypes them now inorder to advance their climatechange narrative.

Global warming is at bestplausible, but it is certainly notproven. Given the Ice Age andpre-SUV climate changes, at-tributing it to human behavioris a real stretch. Let’s not gowith Harry Reid’s hunch on thisone and turn $1 trillion tax dol-lars and control of the weatherover to politicians.

Regulation and Obama’staxes have already doubled ourcost for a gallon of gas, from$1.80 when he took office totwice that today. Even with aboom in natural gas from frack-ing, prices have doubled underObama’s “green” thumb.

P.J. O’Rourke said that “fash-ionable worries” like thesemake the worrier feel impor-tant. If an adult skips down thestreet singing “Last Train toClarksville,” people call him afool. But lean over to the personnext to you on a subway andask, “How can you smile whilethe earth is dying?” and you ac-quire a reputation for serious-ness — and more room to sitdown on the subway.

A C C O R D I N G T O J O H N B R A N C H

Global warming and a wedding

THUMBS UPto everyone

drivingsafely on the

roads thisMemorial

Day weekend.

>> This representsthe opinion

of theOdessa

American.Email

[email protected] to

submit athumbs

nomination.

WILLIAMS

WALTERWILLIAMS

>> Williams isan economicsprofessor at

GeorgeMason

Universityand is also asyndicatedcolumnist.

FIND OUTMORE

>> Check outDaniel

Henninger’sarticle titled,

‘ObamaUnleashesthe Left:How the

governmentcreated afederalhunting

license forthe far left’

attinyurl.com/

mp5x428

HART

RON HART

>> Hart, alibertariansyndicated

op-edhumorist,

awardwinning

author andTV/radio

commentator,can be

reached atRon@Ronald

Hart.com,Twitter

@RonaldHartor visit

RonaldHart.com

any media outlets, including the OdessaAmerican, ran a letter penned by ECISD Su-perintendent Thomas Crowe to his employ-ees last week.

The letter, among other things, showed a side tothe still relatively new ECISD boss that is hearteningin the wake of several recent tragic and scandalousevents.

Crowe, who has been impressive to say the least,manages to both encourage educators and employ-ees while also offering a stern warning.

“Over the past two weeks our Ector County ISDfamily and our ECISD community have experiencedan unbelievable range of emotions. It began with anallegation against one of our veteran teachers, thatteacher’s death, and continued through the arrest ofa former teacher on similar charges of an improperrelationship with a student. We suffered loss, anger,hurt, and confusion.

In my 40 years in education I have not beenthrough something quite like this, and I hope I neverface it again. Be certain we will continue to supportour staff members, our students, and our families inany way we can as we work through the effects ofthese tragic events.

Time is the only way to heal these wounds … Iwant to assure our community, I will not accept mis-conduct by our school district employees. All allega-tions brought to our attention will be investigated,and if evidence is found to support the allegation wewill work with local authorities to prosecute.”

While Crowe offered his shoulder to those stillreeling from the suicide of popular Permian HighSchool teacher Mark Lampman following allegationsof an improper relationship with a student, he alsowarned that he will not tolerate misconduct by dis-trict employees. He also indicated that more trainingis on the way to help employees walk the line be-tween caring for and helping students versus allow-ing a relationship to become too personal.

Good for him and good for all of ECISD.This past year has brought another unwanted na-

tional spotlight on Odessa’s Permian High School asfive employees have been accused of having im-proper relationships with students. While none ofthese cases has been fully resolved and all are pre-sumed innocent until found guilty — the allegationsare still an embarrassment.

Crowe is right to reach out to employees and notignore what is now a national scandal. We applaudhim for not only putting his employees on notice thatmisbehavior will not be tolerated but also for encour-aging the vast majority of educators to continuedoing the good work they always do. That’s the markof a true leader.

He is also right to point out that students, as wellas teachers, are accountable and that any forward be-havior by students toward teachers will not be toler-ated.

Despite the recent number of arrests and allegations that have thrust Permian back into a na-tional spotlight, we all need to remember that theseevents are not typical of the quality teachers here atECISD.

The majority of teachers go through their daysdoing their best to educate, encourage and some-times even serve as parental role models to many oftheir students.

The job is hard. The pay is never enough and thethanks? Well, the thanks don’t really come as often asthey should.

But Crowe’s letter does offer up celebration ofwhat the vast majority of our educators are doing.Good for him. It’s important to lead and that is whathe is doing by both encouraging his employees whilealso setting out firm expectations.

We also offer our thanks to educators doing thehard work needed here and our sincere hopes forhealing at the school as this 2014 class graduates.

Time neededto heal wounds

O U R V I E W

THE POINT — ECISD superintendent is right — timewill help emotional scars from recent events.

M

WINNER PULITZER PRIZE 1988

JEREMY L. HALBREICHChairman and CEO of AIM Media Texas LLC

WILLIAM R. “RICK” STARKSPresident and COO of AIM Media Texas LLC

PATRICK CANTY LAURA DENNISRegional Vice President Editor

L A W M A K E R SF E D E R A L O F F I C I A L S

>> U.S. Rep. Mike Conaway, Republican of Midland, 2430 Ray-burn House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515-0001. Phone202-225-3605. Fax 202-225-1783. Odessa Office, 411 W. Eighth St.,Fifth Floor, Odessa, TX 79761. Phone: 432-331-9667. Fax 432-332-6538. Midland Office, 6 Desta Drive, Suite 2000, Midland, TX79705. Phone 432-687-2390. Fax 432-687-0277. Email:http://conaway.house.gov/Contact/default.aspx.

>> U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego, Democrat, 431 Cannon House Of-fice Building, Washington, D.C., 20515. Phone 202-225-4511. Email:https://gallego.house.gov/contact/email-me.

>> U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Republican, 517 Hart Senate OfficeBuilding, Washington, D.C., 20510-4304. Phone 202-224-2934. Fax202-228-2856. Email: http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactForm.

>> U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican, 455 Dirksen Senate OfficeBuilding, Suite SDB-40B, Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone 202-224-5922. Email: http://www.cruz.senate.gov/contact.cfm.

S T A T E O F F I C I A L S>> Sen. Kel Seliger, Republican of Amarillo, Odessa Office,

4840 E. University, Suite 205, Odessa, TX 79762. Phone 432-550-7476. Fax 432-367-0034. Midland Office, 6 Desta Drive, Suite 3360,Midland, TX 79705. Phone 432-620-0436. Fax 432-686-7748. AustinOffice, Room E1.606, Capitol Extension, P.O. Box 12068, Austin,Texas 78711. Phone 512-463-0131. Fax 512-475-3733. Email: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist31/dist31.htm.

BY ADAM [email protected]

Edward Gonzales didn’thave any competition Fri-day afternoon, but thatdidn’t matter.

That he got to competein the West Texas Relays

was a historic accomplish-ment in itself.

Gonzales, a 17-year-oldPermian High School jun-ior who was born with anunderdeveloped lowerbody, became the firstwheelchair athlete tocompete in Odessa’s 70-year-old track and fieldmeet. He completed threeevents at Ratliff Stadium— the 100 meters, 400

meters and shot put —and received gold medals,rounds of applause andstanding ovations for eachperformance.

“Awesome, man,” Gon-zales said. “I’m glad I gotthis opportunity.”

Gonzales and otherphysically challenged highschool athletes can thankthe University Inter-scholastic League, whichgoverns public-school ath-letic competition in Texas.In October the UIL Leg-

islative Council approveda proposal to add aWheelchair Division tothe state track and fieldmeet in Austin, with ath-letes such as Gonzaleshaving a chance to qualifyat a preceding, sanctionedcompetition.

During the first year ofthe UIL’s pilot program,state hopefuls mustachieve predeterminedqualifying marks in eachevent. The top nine boys

Unlikely hero forFalcons

FORT SMITH, ARK. JasonArmsteadtook onlyone shotFriday, butit put theUTPBmen’s bas-ketballteam onthe vergeof makingprogram

history.Armstead, a junior

guard who logged fourminutes of action in aHeartland ConferenceTournament semifinalat the Stubblefield Cen-ter, made a 3-point goalat the buzzer to lift theFalcons to an 81-79,overtime win againsttop-seeded Arkansas-Fort Smith. UTPB (17-10) will face Texas A&MInternational (21-8), ateam it split two gameswith during the regularseason, in today’s 4 p.m.conference champi-onship game.

Today’s winner auto-matically qualifies forthe NCAA Division IItournament. UTPB hasnever been to the na-tional tourney, losing toTexas A&M Interna-tional in its only otherappearance in the con-ference-title gamethree years ago.

Anthony Dees ledthe Falcons on Fridaywith 14 points and agame-high 11 rebounds,and reserve ThomasFeeney also recorded adouble-double with 11points and 10 rebounds.Alex Cooper scored agame-high 26 points offthe bench for Arkansas-Fort Smith (21-6).

OC rollsBORGER Odessa Col-

lege’s softball team im-proved to4-0 inWesternJunior Col-lege Ath-leticConfer-ence playon Fridaywith a pairof run-rule

victories over FrankPhillips College.

The 10th-rankedLady Wranglers routedFrank Phillips 17-1 infive innings in Game 1,and took Game 2 bythe score of 10-1 in sixinnings.

Janessa Flynn threwher second one-hitterin as many days in theGame 1 victory whileOC’s offense poundedout 16 hits. Kristin Ti-jerina earned the winin Game 2.

Wranglers sweepOdessa College’s

baseballteamearned asweep ofLunaCommu-nity Col-lege of LasVegas,N.M., onFriday at

American Legion Park.The Wranglers over-

came five errors to edgethe Rough Riders 4-1 inthe opener, with Bray-den Bouchey earningthe win on the moundand improving to 3-1.

In Game 2, OdessaCollege scored 11 runsover the second, thirdand fourth innings, andheld off Luna for a 12-7victory. Simon Clarkewas 3-for-4 with a homerun and five RBIs.

The Wranglers (15-5overall, 5-1 WJCAC) willgo for their second con-secutive WJCAC serieswin today, with anotherhome doubleheaderscheduled to start atnoon today against theRough Riders.

SPORTSPERMIAN BASIN SCOREBOARD | 2D

DISTRICT 2-5A SOCCER | 3DTHIS WEEK IN SPORTS | 3D

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2014 OAOA.COM SECTION D

>> CHECK IT OUTBe sure to visit oaoa.com and

facebook.com/oavarsity for more local sports coverage.

S P O R T SB R I E F SSTAFF REPORTS

H I G H S C H O O L S O F T B A L L : D I S T R I C T 2 - 5 A

MARK STERKEL|ODESSA AMERICAN

Odessa High’s Hope Deanda is surrounded by teammates Friday after her game-winning three-runhome run in the bottom of the seventh inning against rival Permian at the Ratliff Softball Complex.

7 0 T H W E S T T E X A S R E L AY S


Permian’s Edward Gonzales raises his hand toward the cheering crowd at Ratliff Stadium on Friday as he crosses the finish line at the end of the first everwheelchair 100-meter event at the 70th West Texas Relays. Gonzales, a junior, also competed in the 400 and shot put wheelchair events.

A day to remember

Gonzales makeshistory and hasa good time, too

MORE WEST TEXAS RELAYS | 2D

Wall’s Odessa visit better this time

WEST TEXAS RELAYS>> SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE

at Ratliff Stadium (Division I, JV):

Field Events, 10 a.m.;3,200 final, 10:30 a.m.;

timed running finals, 2:30 p.m.;“announcements,” after 400

>> Division I teams:Carlsbad (N.M.), Cedar Hill,Hobbs (N.M.), Midland High,Midland Lee, Odessa High,

Ozona (girls), Permian


Wall High School’s Hagen Stoute clears 13 feet, 6 inchesFriday at the West Texas Relays. Stoute later cleared 14-6.

Deanda deliversa walkoff win

BY LEE [email protected]

Odessa High’s Hope De-anda just needed to hit theball into a gap.

The one she found wasbetween the outfield walland the fence surroundingthe Ratliff Softball Com-plex.

When Permian’s starterMiranda Martinez got apitch up in the strike zone,Deanda made her pay witha one-out, three-run homerun in the bottom of theseventh to lift the Lady

Bronchos to a 3-0 victoryover their rivals in District2-5A softball play at TheCorral.

The victory stopped atwo-game district skid byOdessa High, which im-proved to 8-4 overall, 1-2 indistrict.

“This is a great feeling,especially after coming soclose in our other districtgames,” Deanda said after-ward, referencing a 4-2 lossto Midland High and 3-2,nine-inning defeat againstMidland Lee.

“I was just trying to hitthe ball. I was pretty nerv-ous.”

Permian dropped to 10-4 and 2-1 with the loss.

Until the final inning,Martinez, a freshman, had

Home run liftsOHS past rival

Permian

BY ADAM [email protected]

The last time Wall’sboys track and field teamcompeted at Ratliff Sta-dium, it left feeling frus-trated and unfulfilled.

This time the Hawksheaded home with plentyof hardware, and they alsofelt encouraged about thenext time they’ll be com-peting in Odessa.

Luke Dacy and HagenStoute narrowly missedqualifying for last year’s

UIL Track and Field StateChampionships, becausethey were just outside thetop two at the Region I-2Ameet held at Ratliff Sta-dium. Dacy placed third inthe boys 200 meters andStoute was fourth in thepole vault, with the vaulterwho finished just ahead ofhim earning the wild-cardberth to the state meet.

Both won those eventsFriday at the West TexasRelays, and the Wall boyswon four other events enroute to winning the Divi-

sion II team title. It was theHawks’ first team win atthe West Texas Relays,which is celebrating its70th anniversary.

“That’s our biggest winin as long as I can remem-ber,” Dacy said. “We’ve al-ways had some guys thatcould run pretty good, butour team hasn’t been whereit used to. That’s exciting tohave a title in a track meetthis good. It’s real good.”

Brock Pettiet won the

>> See GONZALES Page 2D

Hawks win six individual events en route to team title

>> See WALL Page 2D

>> See WINNER Page 2D

JASONARMSTEADUTPB HERO

JANESSA FLYNNODESSA COLLEGE

SIMON CLARKEOC BASEBALL

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