Skunk With Rabies Bites North Texas Man

When I first found out I might be interviewing a man who was bitten by a skunk that tested positive for rabies, I have to admit I was a little nervous.

Would he be contagious? Any chance I could get the disease?

After doing a little research, I found out no, it’s not contagious at this point.  Because he got quick treatment, he doesn’t actually have rabies.  (He needs to get a series of shots — and not in the stomach, like in years past — and he’ll be totally cured.)

When I met him at his door, he looked totally normal.  He was joking with other family members about his misadventure with the skunk.

I promised not to use his name, or show his face in the story, because he says he is too embarrassed about what happened.

He was out walking his dog very early on Tuesday morning when  he noticed the skunk.  To make a long story short, the skunk ended up biting him on the foot.  He killed the animal with some nearby rocks, bagged it up, and rushed to the hospital.

Health experts later tested the skunk and determined it had rabies.

The man will be fine as long as he continues his series of shots.  And in the meantime, he will live a normal life.

He joked that he learned his lesson about staying away from wild animals.  It’s a good lesson for others as well.

And by the way, one footnote to the story which I forgot to mention on TV… The skunk never sprayed him. Perhaps because the skunk was in the advanced stages of rabies and wasn’t able to defend itself as it otherwise would.

NBC5i.com story
NBC5i.com video

FAA Whistleblowers Get Award

Those two FAA safety inspectors from Dallas who blew the whistle on alleged safety lapses in the airline industry are getting an award.

Here’s the press release from the U.S. Office of Special Counsel:

What to Rename Industrial: Cesar Chavez Riverfront Boulevard?

When Dallas city leaders asked the public what to rename Industrial Boulevard, the result was overwhelming: Cesar Chavez Boulevard, in honor of the Mexican civil rights leader.

But now, the same city leaders who solicited the poll don’t seem to like the results.  They apparently are set to rename the street Riverfront or Waterfront Boulevard.

Today, Industrial is a street few people would want named after them.  It’s full of beer joints, strip clubs and bail bond companies.

But the huge Trinity Project is set to transform the street.  Years from now, it might be a tourist destination.

Latino leaders feel slighted, and the controversy is on the verge of becoming racial.  If African-Americans can get a street named after Martin Luther King, they argue, why can’t Latinos get a street named after a Latino hero like Chavez?

City council member Dwaine Caraway, who happens to be black, says it’s not about race.  He argues the street should reflect the Trinity project, and not be named after a person.  He says he also doesn’t support naming the street after Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a prominent African-American political leader in Dallas.

Caraway is floating a compromise, of sorts.  His idea: What about renaming Jefferson Boulevard, or Davis Boulevard, which run through the heart of heavily Latino Oak Cliff, Cesar Chavez Boulevard?

Not a bad idea, and one many Latinos would support.  Activist Carlos Quintanilla, who hadn’t heard of the possible compromise until I told him right before we interviewed him, would take Jefferson over Industrial anytime.

City council member Elba Garcia says ignoring the public poll and renaming Industrial something other than Cesar Chavez would sent the wrong message to the public.  But when I spoke to her on the phone, she seemed willing to some compromise, which includes renaming Industrial “Cesar Chavez Riverfront Boulevard.”  Try fitting that on the street signs!

Garcia and Caraway are both on the city council committee that is supposed to decide the issue on Tuesday.

Expect some bickering.  Whatever they decide, somebody won’t be happy. 

But it does look like there are some compromises that would ultimately satisfy everyone.  And hey, there’s one thing on which everyone agrees.  The name Industrial has to be replaced.

Meeting Someone Else With Your Name

You’ve probably done the same thing I’ve done over the years: Check the phone book to see how many other people have the same name as you.

So I know they’re out there, but I had never had a chance to meet another Scott Gordon.  Until the other day when I was doing a story.

It was about a professional fisherwoman named Helen Gordon, and about how she’s fighting for tougher boating laws.  She’s teamed up with the family of a teenage girl who was killed on Lake Lewisville a few years ago.

When I first talked to her via e-mail, I told her that Helen was my grandmother’s name.  Then, she did me one better.  She told me her husband’s name was Scott.  Scott Gordon.  Hey, that’s my name!

It got a little stranger when I met him when we shot our story at the lake.  I reached out my hand as I always do when I meet someone new, and I blurted out my name.  “Scott Gordon, nice to meet you.”

We both got smiles on our faces.

 

The Other Woman Who Disappeared from DFW Airport

The disappearance of a mother who left her 12-year-old boy at DFW Airport Friday morning reminds me of another woman who vanished from the airport several years ago.

While both are mysteries, the case of 71-year-old Margie Dabney is especially puzzling.

She wandered off from her scheduled flight and simply vanished on December 7, 2001.

Witnesses last saw her walking along the service road and after that, she was never seen again.

At 5 foot 2 and 95 pounds, she suffered from Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

It certainly makes you wonder what happened to her.  All these years later, still nobody knows.

Today’s disappearance of the mother is troubling, but a little less mysterious.  According to surveillance video, Jolanda Newberg walked away from Terminal A on her own, ditching her 12-year-old son when he stopped to use the restroom.

I am sure police will end up finding her, and hopefully she will get whatever mental help she needs.

As for Margie Dabney, that will probably be a mystery that is never solved.

 

 

How to Save Money on Electricity

Just a reminder that with the electricity market deregulated in Texas, you are free to choose your electricity company.

Millions of Texans are paying millions of dollars too much.  What a better time to switch than now, at the beginning of summer when we all end up using a lot of electricity.

The key is to find out how much your are paying now per kilowatt hour.

Then, you can compare rates.  Click here to compare rates and see if you are getting ripped off.  Just put in your zip codes and it will give you a list of companies, plans, and rates.

If you want to switch companies, you can do it easily online in most cases, or call the toll-free number and they’ll be happy to help you.

Whatever Happened to NBC 5’s Nigel Wheeler?

It’s not everyday a TV news reporter quits work to tour the country in a rock band, but my friend and (former) colleague Nigel Wheeler did just that several months ago.

He paid a surprise visit to the newsroom tonight while he was passing through town, so I thought I’d pass along an update on his life as Kali Green, lead vocalist for the band Egress.

He looks great, and says his new career as a rock star is awesome.

As he left the station, he was headed to Florida for a series of concerts there. 

The old used RV his band bought died a long time ago and is parked in some junkyard in Whitney, Texas.  So now, they travel in a large van and haul a trailer loaded with their gear.

He has some major new sponsors, which makes paying the bills a lot easier.  Among them are Holiday Inn and Arbys (what a combination). So he’ll never go hungry, and will always have a place to stay, although he says at times the band has to sleep on the floor out of necessity.

The band plans to travel to Europe later this year.

Anyway, Nigel, errr Kali, is doing very well.

His mother still isn’t thrilled.  He jokes that she is offering to pay his way through grad school anywhere he wants to go. But for now, life on the road is the life he chooses.

His old friends at NBC 5 only wish him the best!

Judge: Crackdown on Illegals Illegal

Federal Judge Sam Lindsay’s smackdown of Farmers Branch and its anti-illegal immigration law came as no surprise.

Months ago, the judge minced no words when he issued a preliminary injunction, forbidding the city from enforcing the law. It sought to restrict illegal immigrants from renting homes.  The judge’s ruling Wednesday made that temporary injunction permanent.

Judge Lyndsay summed up a long written order by saying it’s the federal government’s sole responsibility to enforce the nation’s immigration laws and determine who is here legally.

Both sides are very passionate in this debate, so that makes it an interesting story to cover.  And I’ve been there from the beginning, when then-city councilman Tim O’Hare first brought up his controversial idea and the issue exploded, landing Farmers Branch in the national spotlight.

Now, Councilman O’Hare is Mayor O’Hare, and he won with widespread support of the city’s voters.

Critics say it’s not only unconstitutional, but also a waste of money. They say taxpayers have doled out more than a million dollars for lawyers to defend an ordinance which has never been enforced and may never be.  Mayor O’Hare says the correct figure is more like $700,000.

Whatever the exact number, a hundred thousand here and a hundred thousand there adds up.  And the legal fees won’t get any cheaper if it goes all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which it could.

I wonder if backers of the crackdown will decide at some point that it’s just not worth the cost, especially with no guarantee of an ultimate victory.

A lot of other cities are watching.  The new mayor of Carrollton, for example, is in touch with O’Hare and is interested in cracking down on illegal immigrants in that city. But it’s taxpayers in Farmers Branch who will foot the legal bill for now.

They say there are two sides to every story. I don’t know if that’s true, but it sure is in this case.

It’ll be a fascinating legal fight to watch, and we’ll try to continue to provide people with unbiased reporting all the way.  We give you both sides.  You decide who’s right.

Raid in Hurst: Should Gambling Be a Crime?

I’m a little surprised that my story from over the weekend about a raid on a gambling house in Hurst is generating so much buzz. Twenty-two comments, at last count, at the bottom of the web story.

To some, it might seem like overkill. A “SWAT team” going in and raiding the place — a house that had been converted into a professional poker operation off Highway 10, also called “Hurst Boulevard.”

Police hauled the 10 organizers and employees to jail and charged them with engaging in organized crime, a felony. The customers got misdemeanor citations, something similar to speeding tickets, and were allowed to leave.

Investigators seized the cards and chips and several large Texas Hold ‘Em tables as evidence. They also recovered about seven thousand dollars in cash.

A victimless crime? Yes and no.

Yes, everyone was there voluntarily. Nobody gets hurt. Police found no drugs or guns in the house.

But no, the argument can be made that the state is the victim. Do you really think the operators paid taxes on their thousands of dollars in profits?  Organized gambling, where the house keeps a cut, is against the law.

The debate seems to be whether it really rises to the level of sending in undercover cops and a SWAT team to shut it down.  In defense of the police, how else are they going to do it other than simply ignore it?  (20-30 cars parked in front of a house every night is hard to ignore.) The cops are just enforcing the law that we as a society passed.

Yes, there are more serious crimes out there. A lot more serious. And police enforce those laws, too.

Think gambling should be legal? Marijuana too? And what about prostitution? Those could also be considered “victimless” crimes.  Laws change all the time. Example, prohibition…

So it seems to me that if someone wants to criticize the law, that’s fair game.  It’s a lot’s more on target than blasting the cops for doing their jobs.

What do you think?

Does Anyone Fax Anymore?

I was working on a story the other day when someone asked me for my fax number to send a written statement.

It occurred to me it had been months, if not years, since anyone faxed me anything.

These days, “What’s your e-mail?” has replaced “What’s your fax number” as the favored way to send information.

Just an observation.  I’m not sure what this means but it is interesting how these things change over time.