Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 347, Ed. 1 Sunday, July 15, 2018 Page: 3 of 30
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LOCAL/STATE
Denton Record-Chronicle
Sunday, July 15, 2018
3A
Eight nuggets for your pocketbook and privacy
’ve got some quickies for you de-
signed to keep you in the know and
out of trouble.
Mark your calendar: Sign up for a
free lifetime freeze, starting in the fall.
coming years. Businesses hate it.
If it wanted, the 2019 Texas Legis-
lature could do the same. Contact your
state rep and senator to share your
thoughts.
And let’s watch how the new law
affects the major California-based tech
companies such as Google, Facebook,
Twitter and the rest.
I
ABOUT THIS COLUMN
The Watchdog Desk at The Dallas
Morning News works for you to shine
light on questionable practices in
business and government. We welcome
your story ideas and tips.
Contact The Watchdog
Email: watchdog@dallasnews.com
Call: 214-977-2952
Write: Dave Lieber, RO. Box 655237,
Dallas,TX 75265
7. Plea to stop robocalls
Every month or so, for years, I get a
call from an elderly Colleyville woman
who begs The Watchdog to solve an
unsolvable problem.
Robocalls.
1. Radio investment
expert heads to prison
It seems like only yesterday when The
Watchdog got tossed out of Bobby Eu-
gene Guess’ Frisco investment company.
Probably wasn’t the best day to drop by.
Hours before, on that day two
years ago, the state shuttered his Texas
First Financial. Investigators said they
believed Guess ran an investment
Ponzi scheme for a worthless internet
company. He promised a 9 percent
annual rate of return.
Investors in Plano, Frisco and other
area cities lost more than $6 million,
the state securities board says.
Even if you didn’t invest with him,
you might remember the name. Guess
hosted a radio show on area stations
called Dollars & Sense. Texas First
Financial advertised a lot, too.
Now, after claiming that the
government had no jurisdiction (he
doesn’t recognize its authority over
him), he’s joined the state’s get-away
club — a prison sentence of 12 years.
My heart goes out to the many
victims. One 70-year-old man who lost
$100,000 tells The Watchdog: “The
frustration and bitterness is real and
overwhelming.”
Even though this scam has shut
down, there are many more ongoing
onesjustlikeit.
Learn how to avoid investment
scams with your own free copy of the
Texas Investor Guide, published by
state regulators. Send an email request
with your postal mailing address to
relder@ssb.texas.gov.
‘I want you to stop these calls,” she
5. Get help shopping for insurance
The Texas Department of Insurance
wants me to tell you about upgrades on
its Helplnsure.com website. Might as
well. You pay for it.
Anew subsite — TexasHealthCare-
Costs.org — shows cost information
on more than 200 common medical
procedures, including tests, surgeries
and office visits, TDI says.
When shopping for various kinds
of policies, especially homeowners and
auto, you can do a company-by-com-
pany comparison. It’s a publicly funded
website, so it’s neutral, too.
pleads.
She explains she has a nervous
condition, and the constant spam calls
ruin her day.
Breaks my heart, but there’s no
good solution. Even with nomorobo.
com on my cellphone and call blockers,
I still get several a day.
I’ve been using that fake robot
voice I told you about, Jolly Roger
Telephone Co., to confuse callers
who don’t realize they’re talking to a
computer voice.
That’s fun to trick illegal callers.
But it doesn’t stop the do-not-call-list
violators.
Dave Lieber
THE WATCHDOG
COMMENTARY
$50 worth of StarKist products.
Three years. That’s how long the
case has been delayed. That’s why
none of us has received anything from
StarKist, which is being punished
for giving us less than 5 ounces in a
5-ounce can.
The tunalawsuit.com case page re-
ports the delay stems from appeals that
“can take months or years to resolve.
Please be patient.”
Two million of us tuna lovers
applied — so many that the eventual
payoff dropped all the way down to
an estimated $2 in cash or $4 in tuna
vouchers. If we ever get it.
The settlement is delayed, in part,
because a judge objected to high law-
yer fees. Sorry, Charlie.
4. California passes nation’s
toughest privacy law
Thanks to a new law, by 2020, Cal-
ifornians will have the right to prohibit
the sale of their personal information
to third parties. They’ll also get to opt
out of sharing completely.
Companies also can’t penalize con-
sumers if they don’t share their info.
The new bill was introduced and
passed in about a week. Lobbyists
didn’t have time to throw punches.
But the new law could be revisited in
want to check out advertising claims.
Domingo Urquiza is a retired creative
director in advertising, so he closely
follows the industry. He called foul on
an Arby’s TV ad for its gyro meal.
The ad showed gyro meat turning
on a spit.
Domingo visited Arby’s and saw
that gyros were made with frozen
meat, thawed for the occasion. No
turning spit in evidence at his local
Arby’s, he says.
Double-checking his claim, I
found the ad with the rotating spit on
YouTube.
Arby’s spokesman Luke DeRouen
tells me: “The ad is accurate. Our gyro
meat is flame-broiled on a rotating spit
by our supplier, Kronos Foods. It is
then sliced and shipped to our nearly
3,300 Arby’s restaurants nationwide,
where our traditional Greek gyro is
made to order. It’s an authentic gyro
experience we’re very proud of”
6. Experian, make up your mind
Experian now says 147 million
Americans had some of their personal
information stolen in its infamous data
breach.
That’s a correction from the 145
million previously reported.
And that was a correction from the
original 143 million reported figure.
You see the confusion? Seems like
Experian doesn’t even know.
Don’t forget that starting at the end
of September (when a new federal law
goes into effect), you and your family,
for the first time, will be eligible to
sign up for a FREE security freeze
for life with each of the three main
credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and
TransUnion.
With a freeze, the bureaus can’t re-
lease your credit report without your OK.
Always check with your phone
company to see what blocking services
they provide. Sometimes there are new
offerings.
8. A good idea before deal-making
I like the recent suggestion in Andy
Kessler’s “Inside View” column in The
Wall Street Journal. Headline: “Don’t
be too eager to make a deal.”
When you’re supposed to sign
important papers in a deal, you don’t.
You put the papers on the comer of
your desk.
When people ask about the delay,
you say, “I’m happy to sign, but what
do I get?”
Kessler writes, ‘At that point,
[you] could ask for anything. It works
because it makes the impersonal
personal.”
3. Where’s the tuna?
Three years. That’s how long it’s
been since The Watchdog told you how
to cash in on the Great Tuna Lawsuit.
The original offer to consumers in the
class-action suit was $25 in cash or
2. Questioning ad accuracy
I admire smart consumers who
BRIEFLY
Baylor settles lawsuit
with former student
alleging gang rape
ACROSS THE STATE
Houston
Man must repay $2.4M
in payphone scam
A Houston-area man must
serve 18 months in federal
prison and repay $2.4 million
for what prosecutors call a pay
phone scam since 2005.
David Gmdzinski of Friend-
swood was sentenced Friday
in Houston. The 61-year-old
Gmdzinski in April pleaded
guilty to mail and wire fraud,
plus money laundering.
Investigators say Gmdzinski
owned about 450 pay phones
in the Houston area. Gmdzinski
acknowledged a scheme to un-
lawfully obtain payments from
the owners of toll-free numbers
for calls to his pay phones.
Corpus Christi
Man convicted in attempt
to smuggle immigrants
A South Texas man faces up to
10 years in federal prison after be-
ing caught trying to smuggle 30
immigrants in a refrigerated truck
trailer hauling a load of limes.
Prosecutors say David Ro-
driguez Sr. of Carrizo Springs
was convicted Friday in Corpus
Christi of conspiring to and
transporting illegal immigrants.
The 52-year-old Rodriguez
remains free on bond pending
sentencing in the case involv-
ing a search last December at a
Texas border checkpoint near
Falfurrias.
“Under new leadership,
Baylor has taken significant ac-
tions in response to past reports
of sexual violence within our
campus community and im-
plemented 105 improvements
to our Title IX policy, process-
es and procedures. We remain
steadfast in our commitment to
properly respond to incidents of
sexual assault, interpersonal vi-
olence and harassment.”
In the lawsuit, the former
volleyball player — referred to as
Jane Doe — said she was at a par-
ty in February 2012 at the apart-
ment of several football players.
While she couldn’t recall por-
tions of the night, she said in the
suit that she became intoxicat-
ed and remembered one player
picking her up and putting her
in his vehicle. She was taken
to a second location where she
said at least four football players
raped her and said she recalled
hearing someone yell, “Grab her
phone! Delete my numbers and
texts.”
By Marc Ramirez
The Dallas Morning News
Baylor University has settled a
lawsuit filed by a former volleyball
player who said she was drugged
and gang-raped by as many as
eight football players in 2012.
Terms of Friday’s settlement
were not disclosed, the Waco
Tribune-Herald reported. The
Title IX suit, filed last year in
Waco’s U.S. District Court, ac-
cused school officials of failing
to respond appropriately to the
woman’s claims.
The Title IX settlement is
Baylor’s fifth. Two additional
lawsuits on behalf of 15 former
students are ongoing.
“Baylor University under-
stands that survivors of sexual
and interpersonal violence seek
resolution in many ways,” the
school said in a prepared state-
ment. “In reaching a legal settle-
ment, we acknowledge the chal-
lenges this survivor has endured
and realize it’s a small step in the
healing process.
j
A'
Courtesy photo
Katherine Boo opens the 2017 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference with a keynote address
about her book, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers.” The 2018 conference will take place this Friday
through Sunday at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center in Grapevine.
Mayborn Literary Nonfiction
conference returns for 2018
By Sarah Sarder
Staff Writer
sarah.sarder@dentonrc.com
The University of North Tex-
as will host the annual Mayborn
Literary Nonfiction Conference
this Friday through Sunday in
Grapevine. The conference’s
2018 theme is, ‘Are You Not
Entertained? Real People, Real
Stories, Real Storytelling.”
This will be the 14th year of
the conference, which first took
place in 2005. The three-day
event will be at the Hilton DFW
Lakes Executive Conference
Center at 1800 State Highway
26 in Grapevine.
“The theme really plays off
the notion that we’re at this
crossroads of entertainment
and news,” conference co-direc-
tor Neil Foote said. “We live in a
world where we give great im-
portance to news coverage but
it’s also battling entertainment
news and social media, which
has made it difficult for us to get
real news out above the noise
out there.”
The conference will feature
three keynote speakers: Diana
B. Henriques, a former New
York Times journalist and ac-
claimed author, Iindy West, a
well-known activist and con-
tributing opinion writer for the
New York Times and Christo-
pher Goffard, a Pulitzer finalist
and writer for the Los Angeles
Times. The three will speak on
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
night, respectively.
Foote said the keynote
speakers were chosen based on
the way they use a storytelling
approach in their journalism.
Each of the three have had suc-
cessful media products based on
their work, from shows to books
to podcasts.
Aside from the keynote
speakers, the program boasts
more than 30 speakers, pan-
elists and moderators over its
three-day schedule. Among
them is celebrated sports jour-
nalist Jemele Hill, chief corre-
spondent and senior columnist
for ESPN’s The Undefeated.
Hill will speak from 4:40 to
5:40 p.m. Saturday in a one-
on-one with Undefeated edi-
tor-in-chief Kevin Merida. Hill
will focus on sports, race and
culture in America, a topic she
and Merida are particularly
well-informed on as part of The
Undefeateds unique platform
exploring the intersection of
those subjects.
“[Storytelling in journalism]
is critical, especially now, when
it feels like there’s a momentum
to people feeling as if journalists
can’t be trusted, and I think this
is a really good time for journal-
ists to not just reinvent them-
selves but reassess their prod-
uct,” Hill said about the 2018
theme. “One thing we all got
into journalism for was to tell
stories, connect people, bring
context and give people a bet-
ter understanding of the time
they’re living in. I think we can
still do those things that are core
foundations of the job.”
The conference will focus
primarily on writing workshops
Friday, with guest speakers con-
ducting sessions Saturday and
Sunday. The conference sched-
ule and session topics can be
viewed at www.themaybom.
com/schedule.
“I want people to leave the
conference feeling energized
about journalism,” Foote said. “I
want them to be excited about
storytelling and the various forms
it can take nowadays, and in-
spired to write and report. I want
journalists in the room to feel like
they are part of a grand effort”
INDICTMENTS
The following people were indicted
by a Denton County grand jury on
Thursday at the Denton County Courts
Building. Listed are those indicted,
their age (at date of indictment),
charges and the law enforcement
agency that made the arrest:
• Nancy Alvarado, 30, possession
of controlled substance, Denton
County Sheriff’s Office
• Tyler Baker, 25, possession of
controlled substance, Denton Coun-
ty Sheriff’s Office
• Kevin Canales, 24, possession
of controlled substance, Denton
County Sheriff’s Office
• Brian Canning, 32, two counts of
possession of controlled substance,
Denton County Sheriff’s Office
• Zachary Isakson, 24, possession
of controlled substance with intent
to deliver, Denton County Sheriff’s
Office
• Staton Deshazo, 24, possession
of controlled substance with intent to
deliver, Denton County Sheriffs Office
• Robert Read, 26, possession
of controlled substance, Denton
County Sheriff’s Office
• Coleman Welch, 25, possession
of controlled substance, Denton
County Sheriff’s Office
Houston
Mayor asks city to unite
behind 1MLK parade
Houston’s mayor is hoping
the city’s ongoing feud between
dueling parades honoring Martin
Luther King Jr. soon will be over.
The Houston Chronicle re-
ports Mayor Sylvester Turner
has backed a 40-year-old parade
by the Black Heritage Society as
the city’s official event honoring
the slain civil rights leader.
A dueling event by the MLK
parade foundation was first held
in 1995. Since then, organizers
for both parades have accused
each other of profiteering on pa-
rade proceeds.
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McCrory, Sean. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 347, Ed. 1 Sunday, July 15, 2018, newspaper, July 15, 2018; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1138178/m1/3/: accessed June 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .