Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 48, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Page: 5 of 14
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5A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Maria batters Dominica as a Category 5 storm
God,” Skerrit wrote at the start of
a series of increasingly harrow-
ing posts.
A few minutes later, he mes-
saged he could hear the sound of
galvanized steel roofs tearing olf
houses on the small rugged is-
land.
In August 2015, Tropical
Storm Erika unleashed flooding
and landslides that killed 31 peo-
ple and destroyed more than
370 homes on the small, moun-
tainous island.
Officials on nearby Guade-
loupe said the French island
would experience extremely
heavy flooding and warned that
many communities could be
submerged overnight.
In Martinique, authorities
ordered people to remain in-
doors and said they should pre-
pare for cuts to power and water.
Schools and non-essential pub-
lic services were closed.
With Puerto Rico appearing
destined for a hit, officials in the
U.S. territory warned residents
of wooden or otherwise flimsy
homes to find safe shelter.
‘You have to evacuate. Oth-
erwise you’re going to die,” said
Hector Pesquera, Puerto Rico’s
public safety commissioner. “I
don’t know how to make this
any clearer.”
The U.S. territory imposed
rationing of basic supplies in-
cluding water, milk, baby for-
mula, canned food, batteries and
flashlights.
The U.S. National Hurricane
Center said Maria had maxi-
mum sustained winds of 160
By Danica Coto
Associated Press
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -
Hurricane Maria intensified in-
to a dangerous Category 5 storm
and pounded the small island of
Dominica as it surged into the
eastern Caribbean on Monday
night, and forecasters warned it
might become even stronger.
The storm was following a
path that could take it on Tues-
day near many of the islands re-
cently devastated by Hurricane
Irma and then head toward a
possible direct strike on Puerto
Rico on Wednesday.
A series of Facebook posts by
Dominica Prime Minister Roo-
sevelt Skerrit captured the fury
of the storm as it made landfall
on the mountainous island.
“The winds are merciless!
We shall survive by the grace of
Wi
w
1
%
He then wrote that he
thought his home had been
damaged. And three words:
“Rough! Rough! Rough!”
A half hour later, he said: “My
roof is gone. I am at the com-
plete mercy of the hurricane.
House is flooding.” Seven min-
utes later he posted that he had
been rescued.
It was the first official word
from Dominica after the eye
wall moved ashore.
Dominica authorities had
closed schools and government
offices and urged people to move
r
- <-
mph Monday evening. It was
heading west-northwest at 9
mph.
LJb
.
Dominique Chomereau-Lamotte/AP
A man pulls in a boat ahead of Hurricane Maria in the Galbas
area of Sainte-Anne on the French Caribbean island of Guade-
loupe early Monday.
“Maria is developing the
dreaded pinhole eye,” the center
warned.
That’s a sign of an extremely
strong hurricane likely to get
even mightier, said University of
Miami hurricane researcher
Brian McNoldy.
from dangerous areas to shel-
ters.
seriously,” the prime minister
warned as the storm ap-
proached. “This much water in
Dominica is dangerous.”
‘We should treat the ap-
proaching hurricane very, very
arrested 18-year-old robbery
suspect Logan Hall after he led
officers on a car chase from Den-
ton to Corinth, authorities said.
Officers were initially called to
the robbery about 6:30 a.m. at
the Chevron in the 2400 block
of South Interstate 35E.
Police said Hall, who was
covering his face with an orange
shirt, walked into the store, pull-
ed out a handgun and demand-
ed money from the clerk. He al-
so asked for the clerk’s cellphone
and stole a customer’s wallet on
his way out of the store, accord-
ing to a Denton police arrest affi-
davit.
States ask health
insurers to prioritize
non-opioid treatment
From Page 1A
ON THE MAP
Denton police responded to two more aggravated robberies
late last week, bringing the number of armed robberies to six
since Sept. 5. Denton police believe at least five could be
connected to a suspect who is still at large. Police arrested
an 18-year-old suspect, Logan Hall, in the first robbery at
about 6:30 a.m. Friday at the Chevron convenience store in
the 2400 block of South Interstate 35E. Later that day, they
responded to another armed robbery at the Dollar General in
the 3000 block of North Elm Street.
Robberies
robbery on Sept. 6 and another
hotel robbery on Sept. 10.
But, with the man still at
large, local clerks are worried
their business will be next.
“I really hope they catch this
guy,” said one employee at the
Studio 6 hotel on Fort Worth
Drive. “It’s been bad. And he’s
pretty much figured it out —
how to get away with these rob-
beries.”
light the pressure on the health
insurance industry.
“If we can get the best prac-
tices changed with insurance
companies and the payment in-
centives are just a bit different
than what they are today, I think
that’s going to continue to see
the number of pills prescribed
and dispensed drop dramatical-
ly,” said West Virginia Attorney
General Patrick Morrisey, a Re-
publican. “This is an important
new front to open up.”
Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, a
Democrat, said the number of
overdoses might not fall quickly
if companies follow the requests,
but said it could help prevent
more people from becoming ad-
dicted in the future.
The nation is in the thick of
an opioid epidemic. In 2015,
more than 52,000 people across
the country died from drug
overdoses — more than from car
crashes or shootings.
Nearly two-thirds of those
overdoses were from opioids, in-
cluding prescription drugs such
as OxyContin and Vicodin and
illicit drugs including heroin
and fentanyl. Often, abusers
switch between prescription
and illegal drugs.
A few years ago, govern-
ments were reacting mostly
through measures such as creat-
ing databases of prescriptions to
identify abusers or by increasing
the availability of a drug that
counteracts overdoses.
Lately, they’ve been getting
more aggressive.
By Geoff Mulvihill
and John Raby
Associated Press
CHERRY HILL, N.J. - At-
torneys general representing the
majority of states asked health
insurers Monday to encourage
pain treatment through means
other than prescriptions for
opioid painkillers, which are re-
sponsible for tens of thousands
of deaths a year in the U.S.
The top government lawyers
in 35 states signed a letter to the
trade group America’s Health
Insurance Plans.
The group, which also in-
cludes attorneys general for
Puerto Rico and the District of
288
L
N
77'
a
Corner Stop
Dollar General
The employee asked not to
be identified because they’re not
authorized to speak on the mat-
ter. The employee said they’ve
been advising night clerks to
stay extra vigilant after hearing
about the two hotel robberies.
“I tell them to open up the
door and let [the robbers] have
[the cash],” the employee said.
“That’s fine, not a problem, as
long as they don’t touch you.”
All of the robberies have tak-
en place in the late-night and
early morning hours, between
10:30 p.m. and 1:16 a.m.
The first robbery occurred at
1:16 a.m. Sept. 5 at a 7-Eleven
convenience store in the 1200
block of South Loop 288. The
suspect, wearing a white cloth
over his face, wielded a handgun
and ordered the clerk to empty
the cash register. He got away
with about $300, police said.
Later that night, police re-
sponded to an aggravated rob-
bery at the Comer Stop conve-
nience store, about 6 miles away
in the 3200 block of North Elm
Street. Police said a masked man
came into the store with a hand-
gun and got away with about
$200.
,1-35
380
377
After Hall left, a nearby Den-
ton police officer tried to pull the
man over, but he fled in the di-
rection of Corinth. Corinth po-
lice officers eventually caught up
to him after he crashed into a
tree, according to Kizer.
Later that night, the Dollar
General was robbed as two em-
ployees tried to close for the day.
The masked suspect waited
around the comer of the build-
ing about 10:30 p.m. as the two
male employees walked out-
side.
Denton
77'
377;
'288
7-Eleven
.35EJ
_
Super 8 motel
Columbia, asked insurers to
make coverage of non-opioid
treatments such as physical
therapy and massage a high pri-
ority.
35W
'll'
ice
377
(♦It:]
Jason Lee/DRC
Displaying a black pistol, the
man ordered the clerks back in-
side, police said. He then direct-
ed them to shut off the alarm
and open the safe before getting
away with more than $4,000,
police said.
“It’s a scary thing,” said one
Dollar General employee who
asked not to be identified. “I
“The status quo, in which
there may be financial incen-
tives to prescribe opioids for
pain which they are ill-suited to
treat, is unacceptable,” the attor-
neys general wrote.
The letter targets prescribing
powerful drugs for chronic pain,
a practice several studies have
found is not effective.
The insurers group did not
immediately respond to re-
quests for comment.
Opioid-related
have hit especially hard in the
Appalachian states.
On Monday, the attorney
generals from two of them, Ken-
tucky and West Virginia, held a
joint news conference to high-
He was wearing a piece of
clothing over his face while
holding the clerk at gunpoint,
police said. He left with about
$225.
The manager at the Comer
Stop, who only identified him-
self as “Ahmad,” said that was the
first robbery at the store in 27
years. He said he now has two
clerks working at night for safe-
On Sept. 10, a man wearing
a black cloth over his face
walked into the Quality Inn
and Suites in the 1500 block of
Dallas Drive about 11:50 p.m.
He held the clerk at gunpoint
and got away with $248, ac-
cording to police.
The entire encounter lasted
about 45 seconds, a manager
said at the time.
Early Friday morning, police
ty
“These [robbery suspects]
are way too confident to go
around town and hit store after
store,” the manager said Mon-
day afternoon.
Hours after the Corner Stop
robbery, in the early morning
hours of Sept. 6, a man robbed
the Super 8 hotel in the 600
block of South Interstate 35E.
worry about my [employees.]
I’m not here so much at night,
but I worry about my people at
night.”
overdoses
JULIAN GILL can be
reached at 940-566-6882 and
via Twitter at @juliangill
music.
al Assault. “But the Legislature
deserves a lot of credit” for ad-
dressing the problem when it
came to light.
A fiscal note on Neave’s bill
estimates crowdfunding would
bring in about $1 million each
year for testing, based upon
what other programs featured
on driver’s license applications
take in.
“Any money is a help,” said
Peter Stout, president and CEO
of the Houston Forensic Science
Center. “But the resourcing to do
this stuff right and to get this
stuff done in a time that makes a
difference is substantial. And as
a whole — across the country —
we’re still short ofwhere we need
to be.”
the time.
Officials at the Houston Fo-
rensic Science Center, which
typically receives 80 to 100 new
kits each month, said it took a
multimillion-dollar commit-
ment from the city — on top of
any help from the state — to
tackle the problem.
The city recently fell slightly
behind in its 30-day goal of
turning around tests, partly due
to new FBI requirements for
chemistry analysis, but it ex-
pects to soon be back on track.
“In terms of investigating, it’s
huge that all these kits be tested,”
said Amy Castillo, chief opera-
tions officer at the center. Rape
survivors, she added, “deserve
that their kit be processed.”
The Texas Tribune is a
nonpartisan, nonprofit media
organization that informs
Texans — and engages with
them — about public policy,
politics, government and state-
wide issues.
From Page 1A
BY THE NUMBERS
Rape kits
OBITUARIES
■ Sexual assaults reported in
Texas in 2015:18,636
■ Untested rape kits at least six
years old: 3,067
■ Fundraising from driver’s
license applications in 2016:
— Texas Veterans: $1,452,937
— Glenda Dawson Donate Life
Texas donor registry: $501,516
— Blindness Education Screen-
ing and Treatment Program:
$362,461
Source: Texas Department of Public
Safety
The crowdfunding law, cou-
pled with a new two-year budget
appropriation of $4.2 million, is
the state’s latest effort to reduce a
backlog of untested kits that
swelled for years.
In 2011, the Legislature en-
acted requirements that law en-
forcement agencies submit new-
ly gathered kits for testing with-
in 30 days — an ambitious tar-
get that’s not always met. Public
safety officials reported a
20,000-kit backlog in August of
that year, and lawmakers in 2013
injected $11 million into ad-
dressing it.
Through May of this year, the
pre-2011 backlog still sat above
3,000 , while thousands of new
sexual assaults occur each year
in Texas. In Austin this June,
mold was found growing on the
Irene C. Bosh
Irene C. Bosh passed away Wednesday, September 13,
2017 in Denton, TX. A wake will be held today (Tuesday,
Sept. 19, 2017) 7-8PM at Peoples Funeral Home & Chapel. A
funeral service is scheduled for 11AM, Wednesday
September 20, 2017 at City Temple Seven Day Adventist
Church, 1530 Bonnie View Rd. Dallas, TX 75224. Interment
will be at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery.
tUeo/)/e .V r/'u/wtHi/.c/(ome
__1122 E. Mulberry
Denton, TX 76201
(940) 383-1932
dp
outside of hundreds of kits that
had sat in police storage since
the 1990s, according to doe Aus-
tin American-Statesman.
“Seriously, this has been a
problem emblematic of the de-
valuing of survivors of gender-
based violence, really system-
wide,” said Chris Kaiser, director
of public policy for the nonprofit
Texas Association Against Sexu-
Jessie Wallace "Smokey" Krueger
Jessie Wallace "Smokey" Krueger, 91, of
Krugerville, TX passed away Friday,
September 15, 2017 in Denton, TX. He was
fc born April 5, 1926 in Green Valley, TX to
Henry Krueger and Eva Lela (Sauls) Krueger,
jj Jessie married Mary Lois Jameson on
November 13, 1948 in Denton, TX. Jessie
>
Houston drew praise in 2015
for overcoming a backlog of
more than 6,600 untested kits
— a two-year effort that regis-
tered 850 hits in the FBI’s na-
tionwide DNA database and led
to charges against 29 people at
A
served in the Navy.
Jessie is survived by five daughters, Rebecca Sessions
and husband Mike of Aubrey, TX, Vickie Chandler and
husband Buster of Pilot Point, TX, Carla Blevins and husband
Donnie of Alto, NM, Jo Helen McFarling and husband Lee of
Aubrey, TX and Judy Davis Bitler and husband David of
Aubrey, TX; 13 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and
two great-great-grandchildren; two brothers, L.H. Kruger of
Krugerville, TX and George Kruger of Wichita Falls, TX.
He was preceded in death by his parents Henry and Eva
Lela; wife, Mary Lois; three grandchildren, Jason Sessions,
Leeann Bostick, and Jody McFarling; great-grandson, Cohen
Chandler; three brothers and four sisters.
Visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 at
1:00PM at Faith Assembly Church in Aubrey followed by a
funeral service at 2:00PM with Rev. Gene King officiating.
Pallbearers will be Jared Sessions, Tony McFarling, Jackson
Davis, Josh Chandler, Coby Chandler and Jeremy Nortman.
Burial will be at Belew Cemetery in Aubrey, TX. Online
condolences may be shared at
www.slaymemorialfuneralhome.com.
Services are under the direction of Terri Slay and Slay
Memorial Funeral Center.
property values rise significantly
in the past five years.
The average homeowner is
still expected to pay slightly
more in city property taxes in
2017 than they did last year, or
even five years ago. (City taxes
are not quite one-third of the
average annual property tax bill
in Denton. Homeowners also
pay property taxes to the county
and the school district for their
services.) Rents have been rising
for homes and businesses
around the city, partly in re-
sponse to increasing property
taxes.
only fast-growing city to adopt a
budget with an effective tax rate.
“Great cities are ambitious,”
he tweeted Sept. 13. “No great
city got there by putting all their
efforts into achieving the ‘effec-
tive tax rate.’ They think big.”
But on her blog, council
member Keely Briggs defended
the strategy, saying it was “just
good government.”
“It’s making sure these bene-
ficial programs are accountable
and have the positive impact
they were intended to have so
that we can confidently and sus-
tainably keep these programs
going over time,” Briggs wrote.
From Page 1A
IF YOU GO
What: City Council votes on
2017-18 budget
When: 6:30 p.m. today
Where: City Hall, 215 E. McKin-
ney St.
What else: The meeting is
live-streamed at cityofden-
ton.com. For more information
on the budget, visit the city’s
finance webpage.
Budget
same amount of money on the
same property year to year.
After Hileman’s announce-
ment, the city’s department
heads made short presentations
to council members explaining
their current priorities and their
cost-containment
over the course of several
months.
By the time Hileman and the
department heads were ready
with a final budget proposal,
they found sufficient savings to
increase the city government’s
daily operating budget less than
3 percent next year.
Construction costs are expec-
ted to be less, making the total
spending package about $52
million less next year than last
year.
strategies
Whether the tighter budget
brings real relief to taxpayers re-
mains to be seen.
Former council member
Kevin Roden has been publicly
critical of the new budget strate-
gy. He took to Twitter to voice his
views several times in the past
month, claiming Denton is the
A tax cut is certainly possible
for some.
However, most Denton
homeowners have seen their
PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE
can be reached at 940-566-
6881 and via Twitter at
@phwolfeDRC.
A
SE Memorlal Funeral Centers
y www.SlayMemorialFuneralHome.com
!;
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 48, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 19, 2017, newspaper, September 19, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131384/m1/5/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .