Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 112, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 22, 2015 Page: 4 of 42
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LOCAL/STATE
4A
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Denton Record-Chronicle
Feds open door to more
robocalls on cellphones
From Page 1A
■'■S
Waddle
their front door as he can.
But nothing has contributed
to his local popularity more than
the annual Thanksgiving Day
Wishbone Waddle — a neigh-
borhoodwide 5K run/walk he
has hosted for more than a de-
cade.
obocalls to your cell-
phone. Don’t you hate
them? With certain ex-
ceptions, these pre-recorded
calls and spam texts are illegal,
but you wouldn’t know it by
looking at a list of your recent
calls. Ugh.
For most of us, they come
several times a day and night.
They are scammers who wan-
tonly violate the failed experi-
ment known as Do Not Call lists,
both state and national. It’s an
epidemic.
But guess what?
Starting next year, you may
get a lot more.
Congress sneaked a little pro-
vision into the recent “Biparti-
san Budget Act” passed by both
houses and signed by President
Obama.
The add-on repeals the part
of federal law that prevented ro-
bocalls to cellphones. It will al-
low calls to go to anyone who
owes money to the federal gov-
ernment or has a loan backed by
the government.
Who is that?
Anyone who owes back taxes,
a student loan, a mortgage
backed by the feds or any other
kind of federal-related loan.
Just as the robocalling infes-
tation of our cellphones has got-
ten worse than ever, the feds are
giving the green light for mil-
lions more calls. It’s a cruel, nas-
ty trick played on Americans.
If you didn’t hear about this,
that’s the point. That’s why they
insert unpopular items into the
federal budget at the last mo-
ment.
R
HOW TO HELP
Write to your lawmaker.
Want to stop the repeal of the
no-robocalls-to-cellphones rule?
Write to your U.S. Senate and
House members. Say you
support the HANGUP bill.
Consumers Union suggests
language such as this: “I already
get robocalls to my cellphone,
even though it is currently illegal
under most circumstances. Once
you open the door to legal
robocalls, it will just be nonstop.
“This may be the one thing
every American can agree on:
You should not have allowed
this to happen, so now you have
to fix it.”
Johnson said the race, which
starts and ends in front of his
house, usually attracts anywhere
from 150 to 300 people. He was
never motivated by popularity,
he said, only a desire to spend
more time with his family.
As former participants of the
Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot,
Johnson’s family grew tired of
the time spent battling crowds
and looking for parking on
Thanksgiving Day in downtown
Dallas. He said by the time his
family got home, cooked
Thanksgiving dinner and sat
down to eat, everyone was ex-
hausted.
“So I said, ‘Instead of going
down to Dallas, let’s just do it
ourselves,”’ he said.
Johnson’s unofficial race has
i
s
FOR
s
Dave Lieber
Tovrvel
THE WATCHDOG
fj
peal of the robocalling ban?
Start with President Obama,
who wanted this for several
years as a way to increase reve-
nue. The president’s Office of
Management and Budget
worked to insert the language
into the budget bill in the final
days.
The feds estimate that robo-
calls will bring in $12 million a
year in debt payments. That’s a
speck in the giant federal bud-
get. Is that worth all those phone
calls?
ABOUT THIS
COLUMN
<
The Watchdog Desk works for
you to shine light on
questionable practices in
business and government. We
welcome your story ideas and
i
i
-E_
Nicholas Friedman/For the DRC
Gay land Johnson holds up one of the handmade signs that will
appear along the route of his 5K race, the Thanksgiving Day
Wishbone Waddle. He has hosted the race in his south Denton
neighborhood, Forrestridge, for 12 years now.
Blame Congress for using
budget tricks to insert last-min-
ute unpopular provisions with
no time for public feedback.
New House Speaker Paul
Ryan recently criticized the bud-
get writing under his predeces-
sor, Speaker John Boehner.
“I think this process stinks,”
Ryan said. “This is not how we
do the people’s business, and un-
der new management we are
not going to do the people’s busi-
ness this way.”
Blame congressional Demo-
crats who, trying to repeal the
change, now offer a bill with a
cute name — HANGUP, for
“Help Americans Never Get Un-
wanted Phone calls.” But the
grown to the point where people
from other areas regularly at-
tend. He recalls a family of 18
who showed up one year to race.
They’ve participated ever since.
“The oldest was an 82-year-
old grandma who walked the
race, and the youngest was a 6-
month-old baby that she pushed
in a carriage,” Johnson said.
The race is free; there are no
awards, and no clock to track
runners’ times. The relaxed at-
mosphere is a far cry from the
marathons Johnson used to run
in his prime.
In the mid-1990s, when
Johnson worked as director of
Canadian operations for Peter-
bilt, he twice ran a 180-mile, 18-
person relay race through Cana-
dian national parks. His team
missed their 24-hour goal by 15
minutes the first time, but came
back and finished in just under
24 hours the second time.
“It was so beautiful,” he re-
tips.
Contact The Watchdog
Email:
watchdog@dallasnews.com
Call: 214-977-2952
Write: Dave Lieber, P.0. Box
655237, Dallas, TX 75265
walk, you run,”’ Johnson said.
“Then it just got to the point
where I started running.”
For Johnson, running has
become as much about commu-
nity involvement as it has per-
sonal satisfaction. Even a knee
replacement surgery in 2007
couldn’t keep him away from the
road, and Johnson was back
running in six months. And after
his wife, Kathie, passed away in
September 2014, he still hosted
the Wishbone Waddle at the re-
quest of his kids.
Today, his two children and
four grandchildren continue to
share in his passion.
“It’s like our family history,”
said Kris DeCourtenay, his
daughter. “I mean, you don’t
make any plans on Thanksgiv-
ing. Everybody will be at Poppa’s
turkey trot. It’s just a given.”
Her 6-year-old daughter has
been the official “ready, set, go”
girl for the event since she could
talk. DeCourtenay said they
have accumulated hundreds of
family pictures and videos from
the event, and she loves the way
it brings everyone together.
“It just kind of became a big
thing, and everyone talks about
it now,” she said.
DeCourtenay used to run the
race with her dad, but nowhelps
him post encouraging signs on
neighborhood
Through the streets of Forres-
tridge, racers will see the posters
reading “You can do this!!” or
“When the turkey is done.”
After the race, everyone gath-
ers in Johnson’s garage for
doughnuts, hot chocolate and
conversation. It gives him a
chance to meet the neighbors
who don’t wake up at the crack
of dawn to see him.
But the early-risers in the
community know Johnson will
be back on the road the next
morning.
7 mean, you don’t
make any plans on
Thanksgiving.
Everybody will be at
Poppa’s turkey trot.
It’s just a given.”
— Kris DeCourtenay,
daughter of Wishbone Waddle
organizer Gayland Johnson
government.
Imagine if you co-signed
your child’s college loan and a
payment was missed. The bom-
bardment of calls would begin.
Same goes for a late mortgage
payment or a missed IRS tax
payment.
What happens to the FCC’s
anti-robocalling crusade? Does
it go on in spite of this? The FCC
has nine months to decide how
this change will work.
Most robocalls to cellphones
are illegal and have been since
1991. Now, for the first time,
some are about to become legal.
This is good for the callers. Bad
for you and me.
This comes at a terrible time
for the Federal Communica-
tions Commission, which this
year launched a crusade to stop
the illegal robocalling epidemic.
Under the new rules, the FCC is
assigned the chore of writing
regulations that permit the ex-
pected onslaught of calls. Awk-
ward.
“Hes the unofficial mayor of
Forrestridge,” said George Mor-
rison, a neighborhood resident
who has been a part of the race
for all 13 years. “People look to
him for guidance and for direc-
tion in matters of community af-
fairs.”
Dems lack the juice to move it
along.
Blame the debt-collection in-
dustry, which pushed for the
change for obvious reasons.
They’ve tried to get this done for
years. Actually, who can blame
them? This is their big victory.
And blame consumer rights
groups that lobby Congress but
were caught off guard by this
rare alliance between the presi-
dent and Republican congres-
sional leaders.
Consumer groups argue that
many of these unwanted calls go
to the wrong people. That makes
this a level of harassment actu-
ally sanctioned by the federal
called.
As director of operations,
Johnson went to every Canadi-
an province and ever major city.
He was running 6 miles daily,
and up to 23 miles on the week-
ends before a big race. After fin-
ishing well in his age group at
the Toronto Marathon in 1995,
he qualified for the 100th annual
Boston Marathon, where about
70,000 runners turned out for
the event.
Johnson has used his run-
ning as a means for travel, par-
ticularly with the person who in-
spired him to start running in
the first place: his son, Rocky
Johnson.
Gayland Johnson said
watching Rocky race for his high
school cross country team made
him want to get back in shape —
like the days when he ran up and
down the basketball court play-
ing center for the University of
Utah.
Morrison, a child develop-
ment professor at the University
of North Texas, said he loves see-
ing Johnson during his morning
runs. Before Morrison drives to
work every morning, he will
sometimes drive slowly next to
the runner just to talk. And, he
said, Johnson always listens.
“He’s an iconic figure in the
neighborhood,” Morrison said.
“If you want to look around the
community and ask who are
people serving and leading,
there’s one of them.”
JULIAN GILL can be
reached at 940-566-6845 and
via Twitter at @juliangill
music.
Each week, the FCC releases
a list of suspected robocallers’
numbers to developers of call-
blocking software, who create
their own lists of bad guys. The
FCC this year gave phone com-
panies permission to install
stricter call-blocking services.
But companies have hesitated.
Who’s to blame for this re-
Dallas Morning News staff
writer Marina Trahan Marti-
nez contributed to this report.
Follow Dave Lieber on Twit-
ter at @DaveLieber.
Check out The Watchdog at
11:20 a.m. Mondays on NBC5
talking about matters impor-
tant to you.
Local news online at
DentonRC.com
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Soon after Johnson started
walking in his neighborhood lis-
tening to books on tape, he start-
ed going to races with his son.
“My son would say, ‘Hey, let’s
go do this 5K,’ and I said, ‘OK. I’ll
It may be time for you
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 112, Ed. 1 Sunday, November 22, 2015, newspaper, November 22, 2015; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1124842/m1/4/: accessed July 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .