Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 247, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 5, 2016 Page: 5 of 16
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5A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
the forum begins at 7 The club-
house is at 9400 Ed Robson Blvd.
On Thursday, candidates will
meet again at a forum hosted by
the UNT chapter ofthe League of
United Latin American Citizens.
In addition to city candidates,
many local candidates for state
and federal office have confirmed
they will attend, according to
chapter member, Elvis Gonzalez.
The forum will begin at 6:15 p.m.
Thursday in Room 121 of Terrill
Hall, 1611W. Mulberry St.
Also, Thursday is the last day
to register to vote for the May 7
election.
Early voting begins April 25.
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE
can be readied at 940-566-
6881 and via Twitter at
@phwolfeDRC.
From Page 1A
o
TJr
>
Forum
?f
put up “vote no on recall” signs
around the city in the past week.
District 4 petitioners’ set of
grievances against Hawkins —
failure to communicate with
constituents, his vote to repeal
the ban on fracking in city limits,
and his votes for irresponsible
tax incentives — were submitted
in time to force a recall on the
May 7 ballot.
Early in Monday’s forum,
candidates fielded questions
from firefighters and the public
that stayed close to public safety
concerns.
Other topics emerged later in
Gregory
the evening, including the city’s
economic incentive policies for
bringing new business to town.
One question, asking the
candidates for their top three
priorities for the city, elicited a
wide variety of responses.
Johnson called for attracting
the kind of businesses that will
help address growth needs,
making tough budget decisions
and helping the homeless and
young people at risk. Bagheri
Johnson
Cheves
Bagheri
saying the city needs to be con-
cerned with mobility, its aging
infrastructure and providing for
public safety. Armintor called
for an ethics ordinance, better
spending (including scrutiniz-
ing local debt) and smarter
growth that doesn’t depend on
economic incentives.
Wooten didn’t attend the fo-
rum. A computer science major
in his last semester at the Uni-
versity of North Texas, Wooten
Armintor
Hawkins
said he has class on Mondays
and Thursdays and cannot al-
ways miss class for forums.
The next candidate forum is
Wednesday at the Robson
Ranch retirement community
clubhouse in far southwest Den-
ton. Because a quorum of coun-
cil members is expected at the
event, the normally private
event will be open to the public.
A “meet and greet” with the
candidates begins at 6 p.m., and
Wooten
Ortiz
called for scrutiny of the city’s
debt level, more government
transparency and keeping Den-
ton’s character as it grows.
Cheves said he proposes ze-
ro-based budgeting, a renewed
focus on public safety and an
ethics ordinance. Ortiz called for
affordable housing, more reha-
bilitation programs and a focus
on bringing higher-paying jobs
to the city.
Gregory focused on growth,
Scientists bemoan SeaWorld decision on orcas
“If you want to interact with
them and conduct research, the
combination of talent you have
to have is a scientist with a re-
search question, animals that
are healthy so that you’re
looking at normal physiological
rates, and in between that are
the trainers — and I think peo-
ple miss that,” said Terrie Wil-
liams, who runs the Center for
Marine Mammal Research and
Conservation at University of
California, Santa Cruz.
SeaWorld’s decision to end
orca breeding and phase out its
world-famous killer whale per-
formances by 2019 followed
years of protests and a drop in
ticket sales at its parks.
Noren got to observe only
one mother-and-calf pair at a
SeaWorld park before the end of
the breeding program was an-
nounced.
“It’s really difficult to publish
with one. I really was hoping for
a couple more, but that is what it
is,” said Noren, who works at the
National Marine Fisheries Ser-
vice’s Northwest Fisheries Sci-
ence Center in Seattle.
SeaWorld’s 29 captive orcas
in Orlando, San Diego and San
Antonio could remain on dis-
play for decades to come and
will be available in the mean-
time for study by outside scien-
tists, as they generally have been
for many years.
But as SeaWorld’s orca pop-
ulation — with whales 1 to 51
years old — dwindles, research-
ers will lose chances to collect
health data and make other ob-
servations, such as drawing
blood, measuring their heart
rates and lung capacity, and doc-
umenting their diets and their
growth.
As the animals age, scientists
say, research will be limited to
geriatric orcas.
No other marine park or
aquarium in the world has Sea-
World’s experience in maintain-
ing or breeding orcas in captiv-
the U.S., and they have housed
more than half of all captive kill-
er whales in the world tracked
by the National Oceanic and At-
mospheric Administration over
the past 50 years.
Orcas that are held in Cana-
da, Japan and Europe have not
been as accessible to research-
SeaWorld’s critics, including
People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals and WDC/Whale
and Dolphin Conservation, side-
stepped questions of whether
outside researchers will suffer.
But they said SeaWorld’s own
research has been unhelpful to
orcas in the wild.
“SeaWorld has had the larg-
est population of orcas and has
had the opportunity to do useful
research and had done none of
that,” said Jared Goodman, PE-
TAs director of animal law.
Researchers outside Sea-
World argue they need its facil-
ities and 1,500 employees in ani-
mal care to answer questions
about wild orca behavior.
By Jennifer Kay
and Mike Schneider
Associated Press
ORLANDO, Fla. — There’s
one last orca birth to come at
SeaWorld, and it will probably
be the last chance for research
biologist Dawn Noren to study
up close how female killer
whales pass toxins to their calves
through their milk.
While SeaWorld’s decision
last month to end its orca breed-
ing program delighted animal
rights activists, it disappointed
many marine scientists, who say
they will gradually lose vital op-
portunities to learn things that
could help killer whales in the
wild.
ers.
SeaWorld will continue to
support research projects un-
derway on hearing, heart rates
and blood, said Chris Dold, Sea-
World’s chief zoological officer.
“There won’t be an immedi-
ate crunch,” he said. But he ac-
knowledged: “Over time, yeah,
there’s a loss of this resource to
society and science.”
ity.
SeaWorld parks hold all but
one of all the orcas in captivity in
public. Lighting fixtures are ex-
pected to be installed soon. A
mural is also in the works for the
court wall.
The Betzhold family intends
to dedicate the court at the An-
nual Shoot for the Stars Com-
Alex’s friends and those in the
community can come to have
fun and remember loved ones
they’ve lost.
Last October, the Argyle
school board approved a pre-
payment to Hamilton Homes
for $40,000 to construct the
outdoor memorial basketball
court.
From Page 1A
IF YOU GO
What: Annual Shoot for the
Stars Community Event and
Basketball Tournament
When: May 14
Where: Argyle High School, 191
S. U.S. Highway 377
More details:
www.shoot4stars.org
Betzhold
I
band, University Interscholastic
League math competitions and
his church youth group.
The morning of Jan. 17,2012,
Mary Betzhold went to wake Al-
ex for the day. He didn’t get up.
Alex died in his sleep of an undi-
agnosed heart condition. It was
the middle of his seventh-grade
basketball season at Argyle Mid-
dle School.
The week after Alex’s death,
Mary Betzhold said she thought
of her family’s shattered dreams.
“All week, I had been really
lamenting all the earthly goals
that I thought our son was going
to achieve,” she said. “He was
just bright and athletic and had
so much going for him.
“Our son’s death had to be
used for something greater.”
Nearly four years after Alex’s
death, the Betzholds donated a
$40,000 gift to Argyle ISD to
build an outdoor community
basketball court on the Argyle
High School/ Middle School
campus in memory of Alex.
Work on the court got under-
way earlier this year, and it re-
cently opened to the general
ft
J ~
munity Event and Basketball
Tournament on May 14 at Argyle
High.
The event has been hosted
Telena Wright, Argyle ISD
superintendent, said the court is
“an amazing contribution to the
students and the community”
Brian Ratcliff, school board
president, said he’s thankful for
the Betzhold’s donation in
memory of Alex.
“It is our hope that future
generations of Argyle children
who benefit from the Betzhold
Outdoor Memorial Basketball
Court will appreciate their gift to
our school district in celebration
of the joy that Alex brought to so
many people in our small com-
munity,” Ratcliff wrote in a pre-
pared statement.
Shortly after Alex died, the
Argyle community gathered for
a prayer vigil. Steve Betzhold
stood before the crowd to speak,
and as he did, a green and purple
shooting star darted across the
sky Mary Betzhold said.
since 2012 and includes a three-
on-three basketball tourna-
ment, health screenings and
family-friendly activities.
The family also has started
the Alex Betzhold Memorial
Foundation. Donations have
been used to fund scholarships
for Argyle High seniors and now
the community basketball court.
The Betzholds say it’s their way
of giving back and showing ap-
preciation to the community
that stood behind them after Al-
ex’s tragic death.
The court has three basket-
ball hoops. The project has been
in the works about two years,
Steve Betzhold said, and was set
back a bit with some construc-
tion hurdles.
“It’s been quite a while in the
making,” he said. “We’ve just
been so blessed by the commu-
nity in donating funds to us.”
He said he hopes it’s a place
She said that at that moment,
she felt peace and that “God has
so much more planned for Alex.”
The annual tournament is a
nod to the shooting star seen
that night.
The proximity of the court
has a lot of meaning to the Betz-
hold family. It’s built near the
spot where they experienced the
shooting star and where Alex
practiced youth football. A piece
of Alex — his Bible — is buried
in the court’s concrete founda-
tion.
Courrtesy art/Kirkpatrick Architecture Studio
An artist’s rendering shows what Denton Fire Station No. 2
will look like when completed.
From Page 1A
Station
roadway to give employees ac-
cess to the facility off Mocking-
bird, and a retention pond.
With the new station, Hedg-
es said emergency officials will
get a head start on calls thanks
to a computerized alert system.
While dispatchers are still
typing information into the sys-
tem about the call, the computer
will be relaying information to
the station crews.
“These
[themselves] don’t do much for
improved service, but those
structures are 50 years old,”
Hedges said. ‘We’re bringing ev-
erything up to standards [and]
making the buildings last anoth-
er 50 years.”
reconstructions
“It symbolizes that God’s
word is the foundation of our
faith as it was/is for Alex,” Mary
Betzhold said.
No question, Alex made his
mark.
BRITNEY TABOR can be
reached at 940-566-6876 and
via Twitter at @BritneyTabor.
BJ LEWIS can be reached at
940-566-6875 and via Twitter
at @BjLewisDRC.
OBITUARIES
OBITUARIES
From Page 1A
Pauline Ruth Calvert
Pauline Ruth Calvert, 92, of Denton, TX, passed away
Friday, April 1,2016. Arrangements are pending with Terri
Slay and Slay Memorial Funeral Center.
Memorial f3uneral Centers
www, S is V M 6 fiW 131 Fu in er ;l1 H 0 nftfr. co m
Ruling
John Thomas Thompson
John Thomas Thompson, 91, of Denton,
j .j passed away on Saturday, April 2, 2016, in
Denton, Texas.
John was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on
January 22, 1925, to Rufus and Marg arete
(Adair) Thompson,
John graduated from South Side High
School in Memphis, TN, in 1943, and went directly into the
US Navy where he served three years during WWII, and
received a purple heart,
John chose to further his education after the war and went
on to receive his BS. from Miami University (Ohio) in
February 1946 and a M.S. from University of Colorado in
1955 and finally his Ph.D. from the University of Texas in
1960.
Gilberto Hinojosa said in a
statement.
Added American Civil Liber-
ties Union Legal Director Ste-
ven Shapiro: “The argument
that states are forbidden from
treating everyone equally for re-
districting purposes never made
any constitutional sense and was
properly rejected.”
That was a far cry from the
years Texas Democrats and civil
liberties and Hispanic advocacy
groups have spent arguing in
federal court that the Republi-
can-controlled Legislature dis-
criminates against minority vot-
ers in other ways it has drawn
voting maps and in its approval
of one of the nation’s toughest
voter ID laws.
They say that minority voters
are more likely to support Dem-
ocrats, but have been deliberate-
ly dispersed by many lawmaker-
drawn electoral maps or are less
likely to have one of seven forms
of identification Texas now ac-
cepts at the polls.
Texas’ top officials have long
countered that the electoral
maps are fair and that its voter
ID law helps to prevent election
fraud.
They compared that to Tex-
ans casting ballots in urban ar-
eas dominated by people who
were too young to vote, or who
aren’t American citizens.
While arguing the case be-
fore the Supreme Court in De-
cember, both sides defended the
notion of one person, one vote,
but differed on how to apply it.
Paxton’s office defended Tex-
as’ current system, which has
been good to Republicans. A
Democrat hasn’t won statewide
office in Texas since 1994 — the
nation’s longest such losing
streak.
But it also suggested that a
ruling overturning Texas’ system
would simply allow the state to
determine another acceptable
method.
The Supreme Court stopped
short Monday of saying that
states must use total population.
It also didn’t rule on whether
states are free to use a different
measure, as Texas had asked.
m
R I
\ m
Pearl Pierce
Pearl (Bain) Pierce, 93, of Pilot Point, TX, passed away
Sunday, April 3, 2016. Arrangements are pending with Terri
Slay and Slay Memorial Funeral Center.
-■
MemoHal ^ur,era^ Centers
Rub/ Ginnings
Ruby Ginnings, 87, of Denton, passed
away on April, 2, 2016, in Denton, Texas. She
was born in Celina, Texas, on February 10,
1929, the youngest daughter of Elzie Holcomb
and Nannie Mae Ford Holcomb.
She married Charles Girnings on January
26, 1946.
She attended High School in Tioga, Texas, and received a
Bachelor of Education degree from Texas Woman's
University. Ruby taught at Robert E. Lee elementary school in
the Denton Independent School System for 27 years,
Ruby is survived by her husband and sons, Charles
Michael Ginnings, Paul Douglas Ginnings, and Mark Lee
Ginnings, MD, their wives, nine grandchildren and one
great-grandchild,
She is preceded in death by her brothers, Lee, Clel, Fred,
and Ford Holcomb, sisier, Ruth Kemp, and grandson, John
Paul Ginnings.
The family will receive friends on Sunday. April 3. from
3:00 to 5.00 P.M. at DeBerry Funeral Directors in Denton,
Texas.
Services will be held at Highland Baptist Church in Denton,
Texas, on Monday, April 4, at 3:00 P.M. Interment will follow
at Roselawn Memorial Park. The family requests, in lieu of
flowers, that memorial contributions be made to the Highland
Baptist Church Building Fund.
i/yiff
2025 W, University * 303-42OO
www.dcbcrrylijneraidiTrctors.coTn
In June of 1954 John received a LL.B. from the University
of Memphis and was admitted to the Tennessee Bar, After
leaving his law practice in 1956 he concentrated most of his
career to teaching, retiring from North Texas State University
(now UNT) as a Professor of Political Science,
John was very active in the community, serving on the
Public Utility board and planning and zoning with the City of
Denton. He was also a member of the National Detense
Executive Reserves and many others.
He was an author of several books ranging from political
text books to children's stories.
He is survived by his companion of 9-1/2 years, Rose
Pate, and his daughters, Jean Harmon, and husband, James,
of Denton, Jane Williams, and her husband, David, of
Denton, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
He is preceded in death by his mother and father, wife,
Maxine Thompson, sisiers, Louise Ellis and Jean Cox, and
brother, Tommy Thompson.
The family will receive friends at DeBerry Funeral Directors
on Tuesday from 6:00 fo 7.00 P.M.
Services will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church in
Denton, Texas, on Wednesday at 11:0Q A.M, Interment will
be at Oakgrove Cemetery on Thursday at 2:00 P.M, in
Searcy, Arkansas.
(A/// ifiefSezvw Z¥imet'd/ i/iitectons
2025 W. University * 303-4200
:rry luneraidircctciT5.com
i-
I
John Lawhon
Attorney
Wills • Trusts • Probate
At issue in this case were the
complaints of two Texas voters,
Sue Evenwel of Mount Pleasant
and Edward Pfenninger from
north of Houston, who argued
that their voting power was di-
luted because many registered
voters lived in their districts.
Board Certified
Estate Planning
& Probate Law
Texas Board
of Legal
Specialization
\
ci
(940) 387-4401
www. del
Denton
DA
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 247, Ed. 1 Tuesday, April 5, 2016, newspaper, April 5, 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1127459/m1/5/: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .