Everybody has influences….
Are you an influencer, or influencee ?
Written on January 24, 2012 | Posted in Mookie's Musings | No comment
You are currently browsing entries posted in: January, 2012
Fire spreads from garage through Arlington home
By Mitch Mitchell in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram Fire caused an estimated $100,000 in damage to a house Monday afternoon after fire spread from the garage up through a wood-shingle roof, a fire official said. The occupant of the house in the 3000 block of West Shadow Drive called 911 at 4:25 p.m. and told [...]
Written on January 24, 2012 | Posted in Metroplex | No comment
Historic apartment complex in south Fort Worth burns
By Domingo Ramirez, Jr. in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram See photos from WFAA News here. Firefighters remained on the scene of a fire that heavily damaged a historic apartment complex on the city’s south side that had been boarded up, a fire official said. No injuries were reported at the Victorian Inn Apartments. Firefighters arrived [...]
Written on January 24, 2012 | Posted in Metroplex | No comment
Large tanker fire in Rusk County
By Amanda Roberson at KYTX News, Tyler Longview Jacksonville See photos from KLTV News here. The Elderville Lakeport Volunteer Fire Department is on the scene of a large tank fire in Rusk County off CR 2165D. Rusk County dispatch says the fire has not been contained yet, but no injuries have been reported. Rusk County [...]
Written on January 24, 2012 | Posted in North East | No comment
South Texas oil boom emergency calls straining understaffed volunteer fire departments
By Phil Anaya at KENS News, San Antonio South Texas is booming with oil, but it’s also causing a boom in more emergency calls – something volunteer firefighters say is a challenge for their already small staffs. Chuck Garris has been the Pleasanton Fire Chief for 20 years. For most of that time he said [...]
Written on January 24, 2012 | Posted in Upper South | No comment
Million-dollar mansion in The Woodlands destroyed by fire
From KHOU news, Houston See video here. Arson investigators are trying to determine what sparked a two-alarm fire that destroyed a million-dollar home in The Woodlands Monday night, according to fire officials. The Woodlands and Magnolia Fire Departments joined together to extinguish the blaze that broke out at a home on S. Lamerie Way at [...]
Written on January 24, 2012 | Posted in Gulf Coast | No comment
Alpine Fire Crews Extinguish Large Brush Fire
From KOSA and The Alpine Fire Rescue website At approximately 12:32 p.m this afternoon the Alpine Fire Department was called to a large brush fire that started off of the 300 block of south Mosley Lane. The fire originated off in a pasture inside a fenceline. Today was a Red Flag day for our area [...]
Written on January 23, 2012 | Posted in West | No comment
- Jim Runge: Robert, I was at the Greenwood NHS ceremony tonight. I am 68 so am probably much older than you, but still thought our paths might have crossed somewhere along the way. I grew up in Eldorado, was in scouts, athletics, etc. Went to A & M and NTSU, lived in McKInney, Austin, and a few other Texas cities. If you are not the one I knew, maybe I knew one of your relatives?
- Mookie: To say that the TLGC was instituted by communists is one of the most contrived statements and shows little, if any, understanding of what the code states and what it's purpose is. Mr. Henson has crack in his grits. There is no more individual statute standing in front of public information for those whose citizens have granted Civil Service than for those who have not. Only the step by step process has to be followed, and for those who write for a living or who are CPA's, step by step processes should pose no difficulty. Often times, overzealous journalists seeking to break a story (even at the expense of the truth) need to be reminded that facts rule decisions; not the expediency by which you can get your eyeballs on an adult's personnel file. Mayor David Cook can absolutely be whatever percentage granted him by you, as a commenter, correct. But that doesn't mean that Civil Service is being sought by the firefighters to try and hide their behavior in any way. More often than not, the attorney fees come in when the City Management or elected Council decide that there is no reason to follow due process and that 'they know what's best'. That, even to a communist, is the definition of the good ole' boy system. A 50,000 person city needs rules, structure, and processes by which cooler heads prevail. Mr. Barg, it shouldn't be too awfully hard to follow the rules, and you know as well as the rest of us that 99% of your Mansfield firefighters follow those rules. Who are they to turn to when those rules are thrown asunder by their boss or bosses? Will you be there to make sure that every time these men and women need guidance in fair practices that they will get their fair shake? Mr. Barg, how many Mansfield firefighters have you sat and spoken to about this issue? Have you spoken to the Mansfield Firefighters Association? Have you talked to their wives and children? Communist's love their children, too, Mr. Barg. And they have to provide for them. It is not easier to provide with Civil Service, it is simply more fair. It absolutely levels the playing field, and I can empathize with why that would scare folks who want to control. But, c'mon; communism and grits is the best the opposition has? (For the record; I live in Central Texas; have never been to Mansfield, don't like grits, and was born in Ft. Worth. Lastly, comments on a website run by firefighters for firefighters should be about the last place to post anit-civil service rhetoric.....)
- Andrew Barg: In the 1940s and 1950s, progressives ( the progressive party was started as a disguised communist party in the early 1900's) implemented civil service reforms under Chapter 143 as a mechanism to protect public servants against machine politics, says About 70 cities voted to adopt Chapter 143. In the early 1970s, the legislature passed the state's open records law, which opened up internal affairs records of police departments to public scrutiny. But in 1989, police associations succeeded in convincing the state legislature to pass an exemption to the open records law for Chapter 143 cities. That meant internal affairs investigations in cities like Dallas who never adopted Chapter 143 remained readily accessible to the public. Meanwhile, cities like Garland, Houston, Fort Worth and others were able to hide many of their internal affairs records from public view. "It just makes it virtually impossible to evaluate police misconduct in any but the most extreme cases," said Henson, who now writes Grits for Breakfast, a blog that focuses on Texas criminal issues. "It makes departments less accountable. The public is less informed. It allows bad cops to act with impunity, knowing they will never be exposed in most cases." In this case, months later, I did subsequently obtain the Morrow internal investigation through other means. Source - dallas morning news 2010 article http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/03/about-eight-months-ago-i.html It seems to me that Mayor David Cook is 100% correct in opposing this measure being implemented in Mansfield. The firefighter union supports it because it allows them to be exempted from open records laws and, thus, remain unaccountable to the public. They also support it, as the president of the firefighters association stated, to have rights to an appeal process to hiring and presumed firing of public SERVANTS. This makes it very difficult to fire anybody. Lawyers will have to spend considerable time defending the city every time they try to fire a worker. It can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fire a single worker. Call me a good ol boy, but I think the mayor, the city council, and any other ELECTED mansfield politician should be able to fire civil servants at will, for any reason whatsoever. Let us vote and decide if they abuse that privelege. Not some group of "volunteers" stacked by the firefighters union making decisions that are exempted from open records laws. Vote NO on proposition 1
- mary sanders: Was there ever a determination of what caused this fire? This was my nephew's ex-wife, Christian Hoffman
- B Elsom: Previous post should say "entrance" not "interest".
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