SallyMac's Blog

Three years after Hurricane Katrina crashed ashore, city and state leaders vow they're better prepared to handle a similar storm.  Lessons have been learned.  Things that were done AFTER Katrina in 2005 are being done NOW, before Gustav even enters the Gulf.     

On the ride into New Orleans we saw dozens of buses heading to a staging area to wait on Gustav.  Levee districts have stockpiles of equipment ready to go, and the groundwork has been laid for possible mandatory evacuations all along coastal Louisiana. 

The Army Corps of Engineers will tell you, problems remain.  Three years wasn't long enough for them to take care of all the gaps in the system.  But the Corps feels the Gulf Coast is better prepared now than ever. 

On this 3rd anniversary, what are your thoughts and memories?     

Many parents who've lost a child to drowning are filled with so much guilt that they're embarassed to talk about it.  That's why I was so excited to meet Dionesia Grays last year.  Her four year old daughter, Bria, was one of three children to drown in the Houston area on Memorial Day weekend 2005. 

This summer Grays teamed up with the YMCA and other groups to educate families about water safety.  She targets apartment complexes, where far too many drownings are reported.  Grays has a great website, briashouse.net.  You can contact her through the website if you'd like to invite her to speak to your group!   

View Fox 26's story:  http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?co
ntentId=7117897&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&
pageId=1.1.1

You have to find some way to pass the time. 

Producer Chris Mayfield and I saved a baby bird outside the station.   

Dr. Jim found a not so soft spot to do some mental imagery of his forecast. 

Pattie Shieh attached caffeine to both hands.

And Ned "I can do it all" Hibberd polished his camera skills.

So did anyone actually watch the news at nine beginning at 12:50AM? 

Love him or hate him, I think few would dispute Quannel X deserves plenty of credit for helping find the bodies of those two precious children.  I've never seen Quannel speechless.  He actually walked away from the camera saying,  "I'm through." 

He's helped coerce confessions out of suspects before, but will X be in higher demand now?  How do you feel about law enforcement allowing someone from the outside "in" on an investigation?  In this case  I was happy to see Pasadena Police's pride didn't get in the way of finding the children.  

On a side note...I'm still wondering about the mother.  Will she be charged with child endangerment like the mother of baby Alijah was after she let the newborn go with his father, allegedly knowing he was unstable???  Remember that father is accused of stomping Alijah to death and leaving him on the side of the road.  I can't imagine Randy and Denim's mother didn't know her children might be in danger.  There had to have been warning signs.     

Sally Mac    

I wasn't around when Joseph Sybille wielded a shovel, striking his next door neighbor several times in the head.  But I didn't have to be to still cover the story.  A trip to Justina Court proved the long standing feud is far from over. 

It all started around 1996 over a fence.  Pretty soon, Sybille and Charles Van Wormer were fighting about pretty much everything:  grass clippings, water drops on the driveway, balls/toys touching the other's property.  Van Wormer started shining spotlights on the Sybille's house and installed the surveillance system that would eventually capture the infamous attack. 

We have pictures showing 12 years later, neither side will let it go.  Neighbors say Van Wormer was the first to put out a sign attacking Sybille's character.  Not to be outdone, Sybille planted one of his own, accusing Van Wormer of a heinous crime back in 1958.  Van Wormer was just a kid then, and I have so far been unable to confirm he did commit the crime Sybille alleges, so that's why we blurred the sign in our story.

Do you have any not so nice neighbor stories?  What would you tell these two....ahem...adults? 

The cost for less than two months of work is staggering:  $7 million to remove and then reunite 450 kids with their parents.  This includes court fees, DNA testing and, of course, food and shelter.  Just think of how much we could do with $7 million!!!  Should the FLDS bear any of the cost?  Was the cost worth what the state has accomplished?  (getting the FLDS to say it will no longer sanction the marriage of any female who's not of the legal consent age to wed)

Tuesday on Fox 26 News at Nine....

With the increased use of social networking sites comes the added scrutiny into what's appropriate for teachers to display online.  

During the last couple of weeks, we've looked at the personal web pages of hundreds of local school teachers.  The majority of pages are professional, but there are dozens that contain candid conversations, embarassing photos and foul language. Some of the more unprofessional ones that we found include a picture of a male HISD high school teacher holding a sex toy, a female middle school teacher with a photo album entitled "Taks Sucks, Drinking Does Not," and a male teacher at the mostly Hispanic South Houston High who describes his job as teaching geography to "kids who call me 'Meester' and couldn't read a 'See Spot Run' book."

All of the profiles we accessed were public with no restricted access to pictures.  Anyone could sign up for a facebook account, join the Houston network and view the profiles. 

Would the sites matter if no students see them? 

Should area school districts have policies related specifically to social networking sites?  In other parts of the country, teachers have been suspended or fired for posting questionable material online.  Would you complain if you saw something inappropriate on the web page belonging to one of your child's teachers?

I was honored to attend the 8th annual "Senior Signing Day" for YES Prep students.  For the 8th year in a row, 100% of seniors (78 this year) have been accepted to four year colleges.  Until now many of the students have kept their college choice a secret.  But on Monday each took the stage to proudly announce his/her next BIG move. 

(After announcing their plans, students' parents join them on stage to sign letters of intent.)

The students will tell you, it's one thing to be accepted to college and quite another to pay for it.  Combined the seniors have received scholarships and grants totaling close to 4.5 million dollars.  Do you remember the day you decided which college you would attend?  How did you pay for higher education?

We're not talking about children but animals!

My good friend over at the SPCA tells me hundreds of baby sparrows, Mockingbirds, Carolina Wrens, Owls, Starlings and Doves are arriving each day by the dozens.  The SPCA has a new state of the art wildlife center to care for them.  (Baby bird season runs from March through July)

The wildlife center needs volunteers!  The good people there will train you to care for these precious babies until they can be released into the wild.   www.WRandE.org or call 713-861-WILD

And speaking of wildlife....my husband built me a squirrel feeder!!!  Word is out in the neighborhood, and there have already been several fights!

Sally Mac

The United Nations Food Agency said Tuesday the world is facing a silent tsunami when it comes to soaring food prices. 

Kids' Meals is a meals on wheels program designed just for kids!  Nearly 80% of HISD kids are on a free or reduced lunch plan, but there's nothing to help their younger siblings.  My photographer Bart and I tagged along for a route this afternoon.  We got a kick out of our driver.  She lets the kids/families know she's in the neighborhood by honking her horn.  She liked to apply the brakes rather quickly, too, which sent Bart flying across the bags of vegetables!  He couldn't get out of the van fast enough.

Here's a short clip taken once he made it out. 

Kids Meals

To learn more...visit their website kidsmealshouston.com

They hope to expand to a lot more neighborhoods soon!

They don't get much weirder than this...

Here's a bit of the back story and what I didn't have time to mention on the 9 o clock news...

31 year old William Johnson recently leaves his home in Tennessee in his grandma's Blue Buick.  He tells her he's going to take a woman to a bus stop.  Somehow they miss the bus, so he offers to drive her to Arkansas.  Once they get to AK, Johnson meets a man who offers him some kind of work in Brazoria, TX.  He shows up here within the last couple of weeks.   He's living out of a camper in an RV park that has no electricity.  Neighbors say he talks non stop about his love of reptiles. 

Last week Brazoria cops find him in a fast food parking lot causing problems.  They cite him for public intoxication and notice his hand is swollen.  No big deal...he just has a FOUR AND A HALF FOOT water moccasin crawling in the back of his car!!!!! 

A couple days later he shows up at the RV park soaking wet.  He invites neighbors to his car.  (Off on a Tangent:  I saw the car in an impound lot today.  I've smelled a lot of bad things over the years, but Grandma's Buick takes the cake.  Here's what I can remember seeing in the car:  an animal's skull, several "Hits of the 50s" CDs, a chainsaw, Irish Spring soap, a roll of toilet paper, a large pink comb, beer, beer and more beer, and a notepad

Oh yeah, and there's a six foot gator unrestrained in the back seat.  He told neighbors he wrangled it with his bare hands and planned to give it to a friend who had a pond.  Then the story gets even better.  He allegedly breaks into the RV of his employer's son.  He pockets a beard trimmer and a Nintendo Wii game controller.  Then he starts rolling out a rather large television set.  He asks the neighbors for help.  The neighbors say, 'Uh, that's not yours.'  Johnson ends up dropping the television set.  Neighbors told me it sounded like a gun shot.  The TV breaks, and Johnson scrams with the gator, beard trimmer and game controller. 

Burglary Suspect Description goes out:  Man with large gator

A couple hours later a DPS Trooper spots the driver of a Buick making weird U Turns and pulls over Johnson.  Trooper believes Johnson saw GREEN when he snagged the gator.  He thinks Johnson would have gotten about $300 for the gator meat over in Louisiana.  Johnson told the Brazoria police chief he was studying to be a herpetologist.   

The gator was released to a wildlife refuge.  Johnson is still in jail, charged with burglary.  Now here's where I become the crazy one.  I gave Johnson my cell phone number to try to get an interview with him. 

Sally Mac

The motto is, "See.  Touch.  Hear.  Taste.  Explore."

Well, four years and $122 million later the rough pavement has transformed into gorgeous lawns. 

Logan, the German Shepherd, and I took advantage of the B-E-A-UTIFUL weather this weekend to discover the park.  I loved everything from the lake to the fountains and live music.  There is even a dog run for your four legged friends, though it's fairly small so there's acutally a sign that reads "45 minutes per dog!"  Here are a few pictures I snapped.  Do you plan on making the trip to downtown? 

In one week we've heard of at least two 14 year old girls dealing with  apparently unwanted or unknown pregnancies.  The most recent one was brought to our attention Wednesday when an 8th grader at Cedar Bayou Junior School in Baytown gave birth in a school bathroom.  The newborn died.  Police are investigating it as a homicide.  They initially said the girl tried to flush it down the toilet. 

These two incidents have renewed the powerful debate surrounding sex education.  Goose Creek I.S.D. has an abstinence only based curriculum that starts in junior high.  Recent studies, such as one done by the Texas Department of Health, have shown abstinence only programs simply don't work and go completely against what we already know about teens and sex: they're having it!  Do you support only learning  "just say no?"  What WOULD you like your kids to be taught?  Some states don't have any guidelines.   

Also, I'm curious, does the student's age, 14, change or define your opinion of what happened? 

Families across the country are struggling to afford the high cost of college.  Students are doing whatever it takes to pay their way...one, two, sometimes three jobs, loans, pell grants, you name it!  

So, understandably, they're a little peeved to learn convicted sex offenders are legally dipping into the pool of financial aid.  This, at a time when the country doesn't have enough money (in the form of pell grants) to give to the students most deserving of it. 

Under a 1994 law, prisoners aren't eligible for Pell Grants.  BUT, there's a loophole.  Once sexual predators are transferred from prison to a treatment center, they qualify!  A Florida congressman has been working for five years to try and close the loophole.  His bill has passed the House, but a similar education bill has also passed the Senate.  The Senate version doesn't affect pell grants for sex offenders.  The two chambers will meet next month to try and come up with a solution. 

What do you think?  Should sex offenders, even though they're still under round the clock supervision in treatment centers, be able to get Pell Grants?  According to some treatment centers, once a few offenders get the money they drop the courses and buy things like DVD players, TVs, etc.. 

It's hard to believe we've been in Iraq for five years now.  According to polls most Americans don't think the war has been worth the time, money and thousands of lost lives.  On this anniversary, what stands out in your mind? 

Hussein captured?  No weapons of mass destruction found?  Troop surge ordered last year?