Caller-Times coverage of Texas gun laws

Aransas Pass police chief: Teachers should carry LOCAL, 3A

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018 ❚ CALLER.COM

PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

Abbott: End loopholes in gun background checks John C Moritz Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday government leaders must do more to make sure federal gun background checks are conducted properly and to do a better job identifying people who might have mental illnesses that might lead to violence.

“It’s clear that the status quo is unacceptable,” Abbott told reporters in response to a question on the need for gun safety measures. “That said, there is a lot more that can be done and must be done.”

Among them is to address weaknesses in the system for conducting background checks at the national level, Abbott added during a campaign appearance after he voted early in the March 6

Republican Primary.

He said the flaws in the system were tragically highlighted in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in November and after this week’s massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

“There are proposals in Congress to fix (the background-check system) and some of those proposals should be strongly considered and meaningfully

passed,”the governor said.

Gun violence and how to prevent it will be part of the discussion at this week’s National Governors Association’s meeting in Washington,.

D.C., this week and Abbott said he expects to address the issues with President Donald Trump and congressional leaders.

See ABBOTT, Page 7A

Cheniere may use Sherwin Alumina site

Fuqua, Gomez loved ones make plea for information Steven Gomez (left) and his brother Anthony Gomez, 37, lived together. Police have worked more than six months to solve Steven’s murder.

Tim Acosta Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/ANTHONY GOMEZ

VICTIMS’ FAMILIES HOPE FOR ANSWERS Alexandria Rodriguez Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

E

very day since July 16 has been a struggle for Anthony Gomez.

On that summer night, Gomez’s little brother, Steven Gomez, was shot and killed outside the Corban Townhomes.

Corpus Christi police officers found Steven Gomez, 33, in a black Nissan pickup with multiple gunshot wounds.

“My brother was cherished and loved by many in the community,” Anthony, 37, said. “He stood up for the LGBT community. He stood for children that weren’t able to afford their lunch, and because of that he was well-known.”

The brothers were raised by their grandmother, and were roommates before Steven Gomez’s murder. Anthony Gomez was forced to spend this holiday season without his brother, whom he felt a need to protect, for the first time.

Sheila Fuqua understands that feeling. She’s the mother of 25-year-old Andre Fuqua, the only

Four states let courts remove firearms from the mentally ill. 3A

other person whose murder in 2017 remains unsolved.

Behind the scenes, Corpus Christi police detectives are trying to piece together evidence of both crimes. They’re trying to give the families closure and put the person or people responsible for each crime behind bars.

“You start looking at everything and start getting (detectives) together and seeing if other detectives have ideas or different directions to go,” said Lt. Mark Tuley, of the Corpus Christi police’s robbery and homicide section. “... Sometimes it may appear like we’re not doing anything, but we don’t want to give out things we do know and potentially mess up the case down the line.”

Most of the time, detectives are waiting for the smallest of tips that could potentially connect all the dots in the case.

Such is the case in Andre Fuqua’s murder. Detective Charla Hemerly, the lead detective on the case, and Tuley said along with waiting for lab evi-

Cheniere Energy has a contract to purchase the old Sherwin Alumina site in Gregory, but it will be at least two years before that sale will close as the company looks toward future expansion.

Keith Little, vice president of project development for Cheniere, mentioned the sales contract during a presentation to Port of Corpus Christi commissioners Tuesday. The company, which does business locally as Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC, is in the process of constructing a multi-billion dollar plant in Gregory that will produce liquefied natural gas.

But there are some major issues that must first be resolved before the sale can be finalized, Little said.

“We won’t close on that transaction for a couple of years because CCA has to demolish the ... refinery and do some significant environmental remediation,” he said. “You can imagine that demolition doesn’t happen overnight — in fact, it’s been going on for about half-a-year, and it will take about another year-and-a-half.”

Sherwin Alumina filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2016, and the plant’s assets went up for auction that April. The Port of Corpus Christi expressed interest in the property at the time, but it wound up in the hands of Corpus Christi Alumina. That company is owned by Sherwin Alumina’s Swiss-based parent company, GlenSee ENERGY, Page 6A

OLYMPIC MEDAL LEADERS

See COLD CASES, Page 9A

Country

j

j

j

Total

Norway

11

10

8

29

Germany

11

7

5

23

Canada

8

5

6

19

Netherlands

6

5

3

14

France

5

4

4

13

United States

5

3

4

12

MEDAL COUNT THROUGH TUESDAY

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Leading Acid Reux Pill Becomes an Anti-Aging Phenomenon Clinical studies show breakthrough acid reux treatment also helps maintain vital health and helps protect users from the serious conditions that accompany aging such as fatigue and poor cardiovascular health Texas Gov. Greg Abbott JOHN C. MORITZ/USA TODAY NETWORK AUSTIN BUREAU

Abbott Continued from Page 1A

Texas’ senior senator, Republican John Cornyn, is coauthoring legislation that would address the background issue. Cornyn and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut introduced the measure after the Sutherland Springs shooting but the Senate has not yet acted on the measure.

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump spoke with both lawmakers about the legislation after the Florida shootings. “While discussions are ongoing and revisions are being considered, the President is supportive of efforts to improve the Federal background check system,� Sanders said.

Abbott, who is seeking his second term, also said gun violence “is a genuine mental health issue.�

“We as a society, and we as government leaders, have to find a way to evaluate these mental health issues and find a way to address them as they concern potential gun violence,� Abbott said. “There were red flags that were raised before Sutherland Springs, before the shooting in Florida, and yet those were not responded to.�

Since taking office in 2015, Abbott has signed legislation allowing the open-carrying of handguns by licenseholding Texans and allowing handguns on certain parts of public university campuses. Last month, he accepted the endorsement of the Texas State Rifle Association and has been backed by the National Rifle Association during the course of his political career.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

Stewart Blum Health Correspondence Seattle, WA – A clinical study on a leading acid reux pill shows that its key ingredient relieves digestive symptoms while suppressing the inammation that contributes to premature aging in men and women.

And, if consumer sales are any indication of a product’s effectiveness, this ‘acid reux pill turned anti-aging phenomenon’ is nothing short of a miracle.

Sold under the brand name AloeCure, it was already backed by clinical data documenting its ability to provide all day and night relief from heartburn, acid reux, constipation, irritable bowel, gas, bloating, and more.

But soon doctors started reporting some incredible results‌

OBITUARIES The news department publishes obituaries free of charge on a spaceavailable basis as a service to Caller-Times readers.

Joe Casas Joe Casas died Feb. 15, 2018. He was 64.

Services will be private.

Corpus Christi Funeral Home

Jessica Estrada Jessica Estrada died Feb. 18, 2018. She was 28.

A prayer service will be at 7 p.m. Feb. 20 at Charlie Marshall Funeral Home, Aransas Pass.

Paul Guajardo SAN DIEGO — Paul Guajardo died Feb. 18, 2018.

He was 83.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Feb. 21 at Garza Funeral Home, Freer.

Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Feb. 22 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Freer. Burial will follow with full military honors in San Diego Cemetery.

Victoria T. Molina Victoria Trujillo Molina died Feb. 15, 2018. She was 53.

Memorial services will be private. Burial will be private at a later date.

Saxet Funeral Home

Larry L. Smallwood ALICE — Larry L. Smallwood died Feb. 14, 2018.

He was 78.

Memorial services will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 24 at Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Alice.

Holmgreen Mortuary

Vernon L. Stone KINGSVILLE — Vernon Lee Stone died Feb. 17, 2018. He was 73.

Memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 23 at Ramirez-Salinas Funeral Home. Graveside services will follow at a later date in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, San Diego, California.

R.E. Whitlock ROCKPORT — R.E. “Ted�

Whitlock died Feb. 18, 2018. He was 89.

Services will be at 10 a.m.

Feb. 22 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. Burial will follow in Rockport Cemetery.

Charlie Marshall Funeral Homes

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;With AloeCure, my patients started reporting less joint pain, more energy, better sleep, stronger immune systemsâ&#x20AC;Ś even less stress and better skin, hair, and nailsâ&#x20AC;? explains Dr. Liza Leal; a leading integrative health specialist and company spokesperson.

Doctors are calling AloeCure the greatest accidental health discovery in decades!

AloeCure contains an active ingredient that helps improve digestion by acting as a natural acid-buffer that improves the pH balance of your stomach.

Scientists now believe that this acid imbalance is what contributes to painful inďŹ&#x201A;ammation throughout the rest of the body.

The daily allowance of AloeCure has shown to calm this inďŹ&#x201A;ammation which is why AloeCure is so effective.

Relieving other stressful symptoms related to GI health like pain, bloating, fatigue, cramping, constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, and nausea.

Now, backed with new clinical studies, AloeCure is being recommended by doctors everywhere to help improve digestion, calm painful inďŹ&#x201A;ammation, soothe joint pain, and even reduce the appearance of wrinkles â&#x20AC;&#x201C; helping patients to look and feel decades younger.

FIX YOUR GUT & FIGHT INFLAMMATION Since hitting the market, sales for AloeCure have taken off and there are some very good reasons why.

To start, the clinical studies have been impressive.

Participants taking the active ingredient in AloeCure saw a stunning 100% improvement in digestive symptoms, which includes fast and lasting relief from reďŹ&#x201A;ux.

Users also experienced higher energy levels and endurance, relief from chronic discomfort and better sleep.

Some even reported healthier looking skin, hair, and nails.

A healthy gut is the key to a reducing swelling and inďŹ&#x201A;ammation that can wreak havoc on the human body.

Doctors say this is why AloeCure works on so many aspects of your health.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;ACCIDENTALâ&#x20AC;? ANTI-AGING BREAKTHROUGH: Originally developed for digestive issues, AloeCure not only ends digestion nightmares... it revitalizes the entire body. Some are calling it the greatest accidental discovery in decades.

AloeCureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s active ingredient is made from the healing compound found in Aloe vera. It is both safe and healthy. There are also no known side effects.

Scientists believe that it helps improve digestive and immune health by acting as a natural acid-buffer that improves the pH balance of your stomach.

Research has shown that this acid imbalance contributes to painful inďŹ&#x201A;ammation throughout your entire body and is why AloeCure seems to be so effective.

EXCITING RESULTS FROM PATIENTS To date over 5 million bottles of AloeCure have been sold, and the community seeking non-pharma therapy for their GI health continues to grow.

According to Dr. Leal, her patients are absolutely thrilled with their results and are often shocked by how fast it works. â&#x20AC;&#x153;For the ďŹ rst time in years, they are free from concerns about their digestion and almost every other aspect of their health,â&#x20AC;? says Dr. Leal, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and I recommend it to everyone who wants to improve GI health without resorting to drugs, surgery, or OTC medications.â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was always in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;indigestion hell.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Doctors put me on all sorts of antacid remedies. Nothing worked.

Dr. Leal recommended I try AloeCure. And something remarkable happenedâ&#x20AC;Ś Not only were all the issues I had with my stomach gone - completely gone â&#x20AC;&#x201C; but I felt less joint pain and I was able to actually sleep through the night.â&#x20AC;?

With so much positive feedback, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to see why the community of believers is growing and sales for the new pill are soaring.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND ALOECURE AloeCure is a pill thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taken just once daily. The pill is small. Easy to swallow. There are no harmful side effects and it does not require a prescription.

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When your digestive system isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t healthy, it causes unwanted stress on your

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The recommended daily allowance of acemannan in AloeCure has been proven to support digestive health, and calm painful inďŹ&#x201A;ammation without side effects or drugs.

This would explain why so many users are experiencing impressive results so quickly.

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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. All doctors mentioned are remunerated for their services. All clinical studies on AloeCureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s active ingredient were independently conducted and were not sponsored by the American Global Health Group.

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Dominik Lopez hooked on pitching and fishing HARDBALL, INSIDE

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Gonzalez brothers’ bonds run deep Pair return to coach at Robstown High Len Hayward Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

ROBSTOWN – Eric and Lee Roy Gonzalez smile when they talk about their childhood in Robstown.

Lee Roy fondly recalls when the two brothers, part of a family of eight brothers and sisters, would chase grasshoppers or shoot birds, and play baseball together.

Now as men, the two brothers have returned to the high school where they had so much success on the baseball

field coaching the program they helped to build.

Eric, 47, is the Cotton Pickers’ cohead coach along with Elias Vasquez.

He ventured away from his hometown after he signed to play in college first at Texas Southmost, a junior college that eventually became the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and then at Texas A&M. Eric played professionally and went on to coach in the minor leagues and in college, including a short stint at Texas See BROTHERS, Page 5A

Robstown coach Eric Gonzalez watches his team’s game against John Paul II Thursday at Calallen High School.

PHOTOS BY CASEY JACKSON/CALLER-TIMES

Here’s what to know for Election Day in Texas

Training shows Texas church members how to protect themselves against shooters

Eleanor Dearman Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Didn’t cast your ballot during early voting? No need to fret. Election Day for the 2018 primary is March 6 and there’s still time to make your vote count.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday for the Democratic and Republican Primaries.

There are several contested races in the Coastal Bend, including the race for the 27th Congressional District, where six Republicans and four Democrats are vying to fill the seat of Rep. Blake Farenthold, who is not seeking re-election.

There’s also the race for the 148th District Court in Nueces County, where four local attorneys have been campaigning to fill the seat of Judge Guy Williams, who is under indictment and not seeking another term.

Here’s what you need to know ahead of Election Day:

Faith, firearms & fighting back John C Moritz Corpus Christi Caller Times | USA TODAY NETWORK-TEXAS

GRAPEVINE – When Doug Page entered the ministry nearly 30 years ago, his mission was to save souls. Now, as pastor to about 1,000 regular churchgoers in North Texas, he realizes it’s also about saving lives.

“With the culture we are living in today, we’ve got to be so, so careful,” said Page, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Grapevine. “We’ve got to protect our people.

That is what we are called by Jesus to do.”

With the horror and sorrow over mass killings at houses of worship like the one in Sutherland Springs and the too-many-to-

Robstown assistant coach Lee Roy Gonzalez talks to his players. He says of coaching with his brother: “It’s unbelievable, I love it.”

The overarching message of training exercises nationwide is survival. count others across the nation still fresh in his memory, Page and other pastors are realizing they have to fight back.

Page opened his church to play host to a grim and sometimes graphic seminar to show faith leaders from across Texas strategies to protect themselves and their worshipers from an attack by a gunman bent on

Voting Locations Nueces County Vote centers are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. ❚ Baker Middle School- 3445 Pecan St. ❚ Banquete ISD- 4339 Fourth St., Banquette, Texas ❚ Bishop CISD High School-100 Badger Ln., Bishop, Texas ❚ Blanche Moore Elementary-6121 Durant Dr. ❚ Brooks A.M.E. Worship Center-2101 N Port Ave. ❚ Calallen East Elementary-3709 Lott Ave. ❚ Calallen Middle School- 4602 Cornett Rd. ❚ Cimarron Senior Apartments- 2802 Cimarron Blvd. ❚ City Hall Council Chambers- 710 W. Avenue A., Port Aransas, Texas ❚ Club Estates Elementary- 5222 Merganser Dr. ❚ Crockett Elementary- 2625 Belton St. ❚ Cullen Middle School- 5225 Greely Dr. ❚ Cunningham Middle School- 4321 Prescott St. ❚ David Berlanga Community Center-1513 Second St., Agua Dulce, Texas ❚ Deaf and Hard of Hearing Center- 5151 McArdle Rd. ❚ Del Mar College- 101 Baldwin Blvd.

See FAITH, Page 8A

Pamela Dykehouse, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi, says her task is to find the “delicate balance” between being welcoming and safe. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

See ELECTION, Page 9A

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Faith Continued from Page 1A

killing everyone they encounter.

Similar exercises taught by law enforcement professionals are playing out with increasing frequency nationwide, and the overarching message is survival.

“We have got to do better than to tell people to go hide in a corner and wait for their hero to come,” Brandon Rhone, a nationally recognized trainer told some 350 church leaders at a training session inside the majestic sanctuary of Page’s church a few miles from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.

Rhone works for the ALICE Training Institute, which was formed after the April 1999 shooting at Colorado’s Columbine High School that left 13 dead and 20 wounded.

Similar seminars, put on by the Wisconsin-based insurance carrier Church Mutual, have been presented all over the country over the past 18 years. But interest and participation has skyrocketed in the weeks since the Sutherland Springs mass shooting, organizers say.

Many of ALICE’s methods are controversial, and perhaps even counter intuitive. Rhone said that’s because conventional responses were developed during the “duck and cover” days of the Cold War when students were taught to hide under desks in case of nuclear attack or to simply lock classroom doors and hide in closets if drive-by shooters attacked their schools.

Churches and businesses have adopted the same responses, said Rhone, who spent 17 years in law enforcement.

But the rising death tolls – 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, 25 at Sutherland Springs, 32 at Virgina Tech, 58 in Las Vegas – prove the response is inadequate, he said. And the long-held mindset that “it can’t happen here” is just as dangerous.

Raleigh Campbell, pastor of the small multicultural Mosaic Baptist Church in the Dallas suburb of Flower Mound, had already adopted that view before Rhone took the stage.

“It absolutely can happen here. From what we see on the news far too often, it can happen anywhere,” Campbell said.

“That’s why I am here.”

What Campbell and the other participants heard was that they and their church members must react to any threat – the faster the better. If the attacker is outside, Rhone said, church members must find an escape route. It’s better to be aware of alternative exits ahead of time.

If escape is not possible, they must fortify the path to the attacker’s entry, Rhone said. That means using chairs, tables, bookshelves, the cords from window blinds to tie bundles of lightweight objects together or any available that might keep an attacker out or slow his entry.

And if an attacker storms in without warning and opens fire, Rhone said, the intended victims are not helpless.

Throwing prayer books, Bibles and even cellphones will confuse and break the concentration of even the most determined shooter, he said.

And those who are able should follow that by swarming the gunman, even though they are unarmed, Rhone said.

To demonstrate the point, he showed a video clip of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

It showed that even though John W. Hinckley Jr. was still firing, Secret Service agents did not shoot back. They moved swiftly from multiple angles to disorient Hinckley before taking him down.

Rhone was asked if running away or taking action would make them an easier target for an attacker.

“You are already a target,” he replied.

“Are you prepared to die, or are you prepared to live?”

Swift response is essential, Rhone said, because mass shootings typically end in a few minutes, but the police response is far slower. He said 911 calls, on average, are placed about two minutes after the gunfire starts. Seven minutes or more pass before officers arrive. More minutes tick by as they assess the situation and develop countermeasures.

“Sixty percent of the time, the event is over before the cops show up,” Rhone said.

Rhone repeatedly steered clear of what he called the “political debate” over gun legislation. But he strongly cautioned against even licensed civilian gun holders to attempt to exchange fire with a gunman because they are not trained and because when police do respond, they’d be unlikely to distinguish the good guy with the gun from the armed bad guy.

“What’s gonna happen to the first person I see with a gun?” said, Rhone assuming his role as a former police officer in the Philadelphia area. “He’s gonna get shot. What’s gonna happen to the second guy I see with a gun? He’s gonna get shot.”

Rhone’s training took place inside the comfortable theater-like sanctuary of the church that operates under the

A procession marks the start of a service at the First United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi on Feb. 25.

COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

motto: “You Are Welcome Here.”

Meanwhile, 250 miles to the south, a far less comfortable and welcoming collection of military-like metal buildings rise from a muddy pasture near San Marcos Regional Airport. There, at an FBI-approved training center outside, officers from around the country participate in live-action classes designed to produce faster response times to stop the killing.

They also learn the fundamental techniques to stop victims from dying after the shooter has either been killed or taken into custody.

One day before the deadly attack on the Parkland high school, Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response program was conducting mock scenarios for officers from police and medical response agencies.

Teams of officers were sent in to a building outfitted to look like a school or a small church sanctuary to confront a shooter.

Officers were outfitted with blank-firing 9mm pistols and the radios they use in the real world. The scenarios called for gunfire to be exchanged, victims to fall dead or wounded and for officers who before had never worked together, or perhaps even met, to secure the scene and tend to casualties.

The drills reflected the confusion and split-second decision-making that plays out in real time when lives are on the line. Afterward, the officers’ responses and tactics are critiqued. Participants are expected to take what they learned in San Marcos and replicate the training in their communities and also to share survival techniques with local churches, schools and businesses.

“Here is the real delicate conversation we are having with them,” said ALERRT co-founder and assistant director John Curnutt, referring to civilians. “It’s easy to tell them what they need to do but it’s hard for them to think of those things that they need to do when it’s game time.

“When your adrenaline is going through the roof, your heart is racing, it’s really hard to think clearly. You’re basically going to fall back on anything that you’ve practiced, rehearse or scripted up to that point.”

At the ALICE event in Grapevine, Matthew Headley of Good Shepard Lutheran Church of the Austin suburb of Cedar Park, said not everyone is cut out to take on an armed attacker. His mission, he said, is to bring what he learned in the training and develop a plan that would work best in his 1,200-member church.

“We will get a group together that will be ready to respond,” said Headley, the church’s operations manager, who said some security measures have already been put in place because of recent events. “We want to provide a safe and secure environment for our people.”

According to Church Mutual, which was founded in 1897 and is the nation’s largest insurer of houses of worship, more than two dozen mass shootings have occurred in the United States since 1999.

The number of dead is more than 80, including the 26 who died in Sutherland Springs on Nov. 5.

Cheryl Kryshak, vice president of risk control for Church Mutual, said traffic to the security-related information and training guides on the company’s website has increased 100-fold in the weeks after Sutherland Springs.

“Most of them were already aware that this is a scary thing,” she said. “But you can’t be safe if you don’t know how to do it.”

That’s why Pamela Dykehouse, senior pastor at Corpus Christi’s First United Methodist Church, said her facility will host two training sessions like the one in Grapevine.

“The reality is, it’s a violent world,”

Law enforcement veteran Brandon Rhone explains how churchgoers can defend themselves against an armed attacker. JOHN C. MORITZ/USA TODAY NETWORK

Pamela Dykehouse, left, pastor of the First United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi, puts on her robes before a service. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

Police officers take part in active shooter training conducted by Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response in Maxwell on Feb. 14.

COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

Dykehouse said. “There is evil in the world and it’s not going to go away.”

She said her task is to find the “delicate balance” between being welcoming and safe. That balance lies somewhere between leaving the doors wide open and unattended to “hunkering down” when armed security officers patrol the church grounds.

Peter Aguilar, pastor of United Methodist Church in the South Texas town of Floresville, is striving for a similar balance.

His church is only 14 miles from Sutherland Springs and as the first out-oftown minister to arrive after the gunman attacked the Sunday morning service, Aguilar saw the effects of the violence and bloodshed firsthand.

That’s when he decided to work with

local law enforcement to better secure his church.

When he began his ministry 35 years ago, Aguilar said, he could not have imagined that one day he would need special training to keep his congregation safe. Soon after Sutherland Springs he reached out to law enforcement officials for help making sure he and the 335 members know what to do to minimize their risk and how to react in the face of a threat.

But he still has mixed emotions.

“We don’t want to turn our church into Fort God,” Aguilar said.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

4A â?&#x161; SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2018 â?&#x161; CALLER-TIMES

Flour Bluff students disciplined for walkout At least 11 high school students got in-school suspensions for protest Beatriz Alvarado Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

About 20 Flour Bluff High School students walked out of class last Friday to protest gun violence, as did students at more than 2,700 schools from coast-tocoast.

At least 11 of those local students received in-school suspension for walking out, said Amyah Stomer, one of the student organizers. The 16-year-old got one day of in school-suspension on Monday, she said.

Flour Bluff High School principal James Crenshaw declined to provide the Caller-Times with the full count of students who were disciplined citing privacy concerns.

The Flour Bluff students were disciplined for defying the student code of conduct by walking out of class without permission, officials have said. The school was notified of the walkout by the group who led it, which is made up of six Flour Bluff teenage girls.

The teens scheduled a voter registrar for last weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gathering, during which they led a moment of silence for those lost to gun violence, recited speeches that touched on the politics around gun laws, and led chants â&#x20AC;&#x201D; some of which were explicitly against the National Rifle Association.

Unlike other walkouts in Corpus Christi, Flour Bluff students did not deter from tailoring the event to evoke a strong stance against current gun laws in the U.S., access to military grade weapons for civilians and a larger context of violence against people of color. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are protesting not only the shooting that happens in schools just like ours across the country but also the violence against people of color that occurs in

neighborhoods everywhere,â&#x20AC;? an event flyer reads.

The National School Walkout on April 20 was one of three acts of civil disobedience spearheaded by youths after the mass shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Hundreds of students from Corpus Christi ISD high schools participated in the in some form or fashion.

The varying adaptations shared two goals: honoring the lives of those who have been lost to gun violence and a plea to adults to help make schools safe.

Corpus Christ ISD student organizers who led the school walkouts communicated their plans to district officials and assembled during designated times sanctioned by school officials.

Students who participated in the walkouts were counted absent only if they left the campus or did not return to class after the designated time, said Corpus Christi ISD spokeswoman Leanne Winkler Libby.

Flour Bluff students communicated their plans to walk out via a letter to Crenshaw, who encouraged students to take a different approach to calling for change, such as contacting local legislators through letters, social media or other communication avenues, according to an email to Flour Bluff High School parents.

Instead of walking out last Friday, three Flour Bluff High School students erected the American, Texas and â&#x20AC;&#x153;come and take itâ&#x20AC;? flags on their pickup trucks parked outside the high school.

One of the teen boysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mother posted photos of the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; own version of the walkout, citing they did it in support of the second amendment. They Flour Bluff students are seen mounted on the beds of their pickup trucks posing proudly by the flags. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So proud of our son, Trey Skrobarczyk, & his best friends, John Pedrotti & James Bagnell!!â&#x20AC;? Tricia Walshe Skrobarczyk states in the Facebook post. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They staged their own version of todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s FBHS Gun Control Walkout!â&#x20AC;?

Man tore womanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pants in January assault Alexandria Rodriguez Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Corpus Christi police detectives are continuing to investigate an alleged assault on the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Southside in January.

A police report of the Jan. 5 incident reveals a 29year-old woman was jogging about 1 a.m. in the 6000 block of Dunbarton Oak Drive, behind Walmart on Saratoga Boulevard, when a man attacked her.

The woman told police a man grabbed her from behind while she was jogging and threw her on the ground, the report states.

She told police â&#x20AC;&#x153;while the man was on top of her, he punched her once on the right side of the face and did not say a word.â&#x20AC;? She also said the man used his hand to push her face down to the ground, and two continued to struggle. â&#x20AC;&#x153;(The woman) went on and stated that while the (man) was on top of her, he stuck his hand between her

legs, grabbed her leggings to include her underwear, and yanked it in an attempt to tear them off,â&#x20AC;? the report states.

She told police the man tore her leggings and underwear.

She said she continued to struggle Suspect with the man and closed her legs to presketch vent the man from â&#x20AC;&#x153;going further.â&#x20AC;?

Moments later, the woman told police she saw lights from a vehicle approaching. She told police the man saw the headlights, got off her and took off, the report states.

Police talked to the woman about the incident at Christus Spohn Hospital South just after 3 a.m., the report states.

Days later, police released a sketch of the man suspected of the assault.

No arrests have been made in the case. Anyone with information about the incident should call Crime Stoppers at 361-888-8477.

OBITUARIES The news department publishes Corpus Christi-area obituaries free of charge on a space-available basis as a service to Caller-Times readers.

Maudie L. Bohac

He was 97.

Services will be at 10 a.m. April 28 at River Hills Baptist Church. Burial will follow at 11:45 a.m. April 28 at Restland Memory Park Cemetery, Bishop.

Sawyer-George Funeral Home

SKIDMORE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Maudie Lee Bohac died April 25, 2018. She was 90.

Kiley R.T. Lane

Services will be at 10 a.m. May 2 at Galloway & Sons Funeral Home, Beeville. Burial will follow in Beeville Memorial Park.

AZTEC, NEW MEXICO â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Kiley Rianna Terrell Lane died April 18, 2018.

She was 27.

Humberto Chapa

Memorial services will be at 3 p.m.

April 28 at Mountain Christian Church, Cedar Crest, New Mexico.

Humberto Chapa died April 26, 2018. He was 81.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

April 29 at Guardian Funeral Home.

Mass will be celebrated at 11:30 a.m. April 30 at Christ the King Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.

Luzoria Duzich ARANSAS PASS â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Luzoria Duzich died April 25, 2018. She was 84.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

April 30 at Charlie Marshall Funeral Home. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. May 1 at St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Prairie View Cemetery.

Jose A. Gandaria MATHIS â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jose A. Gandaria died April 25, 2018. He was 75.

A prayer service will be at 7 p.m.

April 27 at Dobie Funeral Home chapel. Services will be at 10 a.m.

April 28 at Calvary Mennonite Church. Burial will follow in Cenizo Hill Cemetery.

Edgar V. Kunkel Edgar V. Kunkel died April 23, 2018.

New Mexico Cremation Society

Andres G. Mungia ROBSTOWN â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Andres Garcia Mungia died April 26, 2018. He was 79.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

April 29 at Ramon Funeral Home Chapel. Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. April 30 at St. Anthonyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Memorial Park Cemetery.

Maria F. Pinon

Joseph D. Rokohl ROBSTOWN â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Joseph Dale Rokohl died April 26, 2018. He was 69.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

April 30 at Holmgreen Mortuary, Alice. Mass will be celebrated at 3 p.m. May 1 at St. John of the Cross Catholic Church, Orange Grove.

Burial will follow in St. John of the Cross Cemetery, Orange Grove.

Monica B. Vasquez Monica Benavides Vasquez died April 26, 2018. She was 55.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

April 29 at Seaside Funeral Home Chapel. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. April 30 at St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Seaside Memorial Funeral Home Chapel.

Thousands of students throughout Corpus Christi participated the National School Walkout April 20, including Branch Academy High School. SUBMITTED

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Jacob L. Villesca ALICE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jacob Lee Villesca died April 23, 2018. He was 21.

Services will be at 1 p.m. April 30 at First Baptist Church, Sandia. Burial will follow in Sandia Cemetery.

Rosas Funeral Home ROBSTOWN â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Maria F. Pinon died April 24, 2018. She was 96.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m.

April 29 at Ramon Funeral Home Chapel. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. April 30 at St. Anthonyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Robstown Cemetery.

Daryl W. Weiss ROUND ROCK â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Daryl Wayne Weiss died April 23, 2018. He was 56.

A Celebration of Life service will be at 2 p.m. May 5 at Beck Funeral Home, Pflugerville.

Raul Zamorano

Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m.

April 30 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Memory Gardens Cemetery.

Maxwell P. Dunne Funeral Home

Luis W. Rojas Luis W. Rojas died April 26, 2018.

He was 62.

Raul Zamorano died April 25, 2018.

He was 43.

Services will be private.

TreviĂąo Funeral Home

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Today’s the day for Beach to Bay relay marathon LOCAL, 3A

SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2018 ❚ CALLER.COM

PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

‘I thought it could happen’

Armed student kills 10 at Santa Fe High School

In response, Abbott calls for more than just prayer

Julie Garcia

Eleanor Dearman and Madlin Mekelburg

Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

SANTA FE — The shots that left 10 people dead at Santa Fe High School started in the art hallway, said junior Branden Auzston.

The teen heard a fire alarm, which made him think there was an actual fire because the school had just had a fire drill two weeks ago.

“We go outside and we were told to get in the grass,” Auzston said. “Then I see my teacher and he screamed ‘Just run!’ ” He said it felt like a movie, and that nothing seemed real.

See SHOOTING, Page 10A

Top: People wait for the start of a vigil in Santa Fe on Friday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Above: A woman prays outside the Santa Fe ISD Alamo Gym. JENNIFER REYNOLDS/THE GALVESTON COUNTY DAILY NEWS VIA AP

Inside: Texas gun laws; Parkland students offer sympathy, call for action; a look at some of the victims and more. Pages 4A and 5A

Gov. Greg Abbott, with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz at his side, took his place behind a fan of microphones to brief Texans on a horrific mass shooting at Santa Fe High School.

This somber gubernatorial duty Friday was far too familiar.

About six months ago, Abbott did the same thing following the worst mass shooting in state history. A gunman entered the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, opening fire on parishioners.

See RESPONSE, Page 10A

Coastal Bend’s hurricane recovery is the focus of symposium Tim Acosta Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

The devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey last year was immense.

How big?

The debris collected from areas impacted by Harvey in Texas was enough to fill Texas A&M-College Station’s Kyle Field all the way to the top of the stadium

lights 77 times. That was according to John Sharpe, who chairs the governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas, during a symposium held in Corpus Christi on Friday by the Texas Tribune.

The event was co-sponsored by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

“It’s as huge an amount of debris as you can imagine,” Sharp said. “Different kinds of debris around Aransas County, where the (hurricane) eye hit — there’s a

lot of vegetative debris, which is very different from the eastern counties and southeastern counties, which is where homes that were flooded and that kind of debris being put out on the streets.”

Harvey made landfall in Aransas County Aug. 24 as a Category 4 hurricane with winds recorded faster than 130 mph.

The highest storm surge was recorded at 12.5 feet in Aransas County.

It left Aransas County, Port Aransas,

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10A ❚ SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2018 ❚ CALLER-TIMES

Response Continued from Page 1A

Like then, Abbott called for Texans to unite and sought to comfort those who mourned the 10 victims gunned down as school started at Santa Fe High on Friday morning.

The governor looked to God for guidance, but acknowledged that faith might not be enough to curb the mass shootings in Texas.

“We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” said Abbott. “It’s time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again.”

The Republican governor, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, inched towards exploring a new approach to gun safety.

Next week, Abbott will host roundtable discussions with parents, school leaders and lawmakers to explore possible remedies in Texas. He also wants to hear from gun rights advocates.

Abbott said he would support adopting regulations that would speed up the background check process for people buying guns and those that would ensure people “who pose immediate danger” can’t purchase weapons.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who also joined Abbott in Santa Fe, argued the state can do more to harden targets like churches and schools — both sacred places in the Lone Star State.

Patrick did not call for specific gun regulations but said the state should reevaluate the number of entrances and

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shares information about the Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas with media at a press conference on Friday.

COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

exits at schools. He also urged parents to keep their guns properly stored and away from their children.

Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, the suspect in the Santa Fe school shooting, used two guns, a shotgun and a revolver, that belonged to his father.

“If you’re a parent and you own guns, lock your guns safely away,” Patrick said. “Your children should not be able, or anyone else, get your legally owned guns. It’s a serious issue and one big step we can take.”

Cruz, R-Texas, bemoaned the fre-

quency of the mass killings in Texas.

“There have been too damn many of these,” said Cruz. “Texas has seen too many of these.”

Republican leaders have long advocated for more lax gun laws in Texas. In 2015, state lawmakers passed an “open carry” law, which allows Texans with gun licenses to openly carry handguns.

They also enacted “campus carry,” permitting licensed Texans to carry concealed weapons on college campuses.

Gyl Switzer, executive director of Texas Gun Sense, said in a statement

that the state needs to a better job of protecting children.

“We Texans love our children,” she said. “We must do a better job of protecting them. There are proven strategies to reduce senseless gun violence.”

State Rep. Chris Turner, chairman of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said Friday he welcomes more legislative discussion about reducing mass shootings with Republican leaders.

“We’ve been ready to have it for a long time,” he said.

House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican from San Antonio who is not running for re-election, said he hopes lawmakers will keep the shootings front of mind when they convene in January 2019.

“Elected leaders should take significant, concrete action to prevent school shootings,” he said in a statement. “Just talking about school safety is not enough.”

The Santa Feschool shooting, which also left 10 others injured, dominated Abbott’s schedule Friday.

After describing the horror of an attack on “innocent children in a school,” Abbott spent his evening participating in another grim gubernatorial task — attending another vigil in the memory of Texas’ latest mass shooting victims.

Eleanor Dearman is a reporter with the Corpus Christi Caller Times; she may be reached at eleanor.dearman@ caller.com.

Madlin Mekelburg is a reporter with the USA Today Network Austin Bureau; she may be reached at 512-479-6606; mmekelburg@elpasotimes.com; @madlinbmek on Twitter.

Shooting Continued from Page 1A

Law enforcement officials said 17year-old student Dimitrious Pagourtzis walked into the school with a shotgun and a .38-caliber pistol. The guns belonged to his father.

It’s unclear whether a student, teacher or the gunman pulled the fire alarm during the shooting.

Nine students and one adult were killed in the shooting that happened just before 8 a.m. at the start of classes Friday.

The school had two police officers on duty, and one was critically wounded in the shoot-out, according to Steven McGraw, director of the state Department of Public Safety. A state trooper also engaged the gunman, McGraw said.

“We know that because they were willing to run into that a building and engage them right now, other lives were saved,” McGraw said.

At least one other person was in custody, but the official believed the person was not believed to be a suspect.

Explosives were found in and around the school soon after Pagourtzis was arrested on suspicion of capital murder and aggravated assault of a peace officer. A second person has been taken into custody for questioning.

Ten other people were wounded, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during Dimitrios an afternoon news conPagourtzis ference near the school.

“We come together today as we deal with one of the most heinous attacks that we’ve ever seen in the history of Texas schools,” Abbott said. “It’s impossible to describe the magnitude of the evil of someone who would attack innocent children in a school.”

Pagourtzis, the suspected school shooter, was described as quiet and someone who “stuck to himself.”

He kept a journal on his computer and a cellphone that detailed the plans for his attack, Abbott said.

The plans also included his taking his own life after the shooting, but he instead gave himself up to law enforcement.

Daisy Sullivan, a Santa Fe senior and Auzston’s girlfriend, said Pagourtzis seemed “like a normal kid.”

But she wasn’t completely shocked about what happened Friday, only two weeks before her high school graduation.

“I thought it could happen. I was surprised but not shocked about it because of the way some of the kids are treated at the high school,” Sullivan said.

“Other kids just don’t care. They’re like ‘Oh, I’m older than you. Oh, I’m taller or bigger than you. They still pick on people, and sometimes it pushes people off the edge.”

It is the state’s second mass shooting in less than a year.

Last November, a gunman walked into a church in Sutherland Springs, a town near San Antonio, and opened fire.

The shooter, who was later killed after a bystander wounded him, left 25 people, including a pregnant woman, dead.

At the time, that was called one of the worst mass shootings in modern Texas history.

A vigil is held at Texas First Bank in Santa Fe for the victims of the shooting at Santa Fe High School that left 10 dead on Friday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

“I don’t want to believe that he’s gone.”

Santa Fe junior Branden Auzston On friend Chris Stone, who was missing following the shooting

A man hugs a woman outside the Alamo Gym, where parents wait to reunite with their children following the Santa Fe High School shooting on Friday.

MICHAEL CIAGLO/AP

Law enforcement officers respond to the high school near Houston after an active shooter was reported on campus. KTRK-TV ABC13 VIA AP

The school shooting follows one on Feb. 14, when a former student killed 17 people at a Florida high school.

Several of the injured students in Friday’s shooting are being treated at area hospitals and a number were listed in critical condition.

President Trump called it a “very sad day” at the White House. He spoke with Abbott and pledged to work with the governor to provide appropriate federal assistance.

“My administration is determined to do everything in our power to protect

our students, secure our schools and to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others,” Trump said. “May God heal the injured and may God comfort the wounded.”

The president ordered flags be flown at half-staff across the nation.

The shooting comes after a false report of a shooter at the school in February prompted some students to run out of the school. The high school has about 1,400 students. The school district is based in Santa Fe, Texas about 45 miles south of Houston.

Santa Fe students were in the midst of preparing for final exams next week.

The school’s seniors are set to graduate on June 1. Prom was held this past weekend.

Hours after the shooting, Auzston and Sullivan were still trying to find their friend, Chris Stone, at the Alamo Gym where students were being reunited with their families.

Police also tried to find Stone by pinging his cellphone’s GPS location, Sullivan said.

Neither student wanted to believe their friend was gone. But Stone’s father told ABC 13 in Houston he couldn’t find his son and knew he didn’t make it out alive.

“I know it happened in the art room and that’s where Chris was,” his father said.

Stone was in 11th grade and Auzston had known him since middle school.

“He’s one of my best friends; he’s a great person,” Auzston said.

“I don’t want to believe that he’s gone.”

The Caller-Times’ Mary Ann Cavazos Beckett and Chris Ramirez, and The USA TODAY Network’s Rick Jervis, Bart Jansen and Christal Hayes contributed to this report.

4A â?&#x161; SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2018 â?&#x161; CALLER-TIMES

OBITUARIES The news department publishes Corpus Christiarea obituaries free of charge on a space-available basis as a service to Caller-Times readers.

Charles N. Anderson Charles Nolan Anderson died May 15, 2018. He was 63.

Services will be at 11 a.m. May 25 at Calvary Baptist Church. Burial will follow in Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.

Salvador Cabrera Guerra Salvador Cabrera Guerra died May 14, 2018. He was 91.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. May 20 at Corpus Christi Funeral Home. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. May 21 at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church. Burial will follow in San Pedro Cemetery, Beeville.

Gilberto â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tetoâ&#x20AC;? Garcia Rodriguez Law-enforcement officers respond to a high school near Houston after an active shooter was reported on campus Friday in Santa Fe, Texas. Nine students and a teacher were killed; others were injured. AP

Shooting: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Phi Slama Jamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; alumnus has ties to school Chris Ramirez Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

HOUSTON â&#x20AC;&#x201C; News of the deadly shootings in Santa Fe, Texas, hit Barron â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bearâ&#x20AC;? Honea hard, even miles away in Houston.

The shooting interrupted coverage about the royal wedding as Honea and his wife, Darla, sat in a waiting room at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Doctors recently discovered tumors in Darlaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s neck, and Friday was the day she was to get a consultation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We thought â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Santa Fe, New Mexicoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; at first,â&#x20AC;? Honea told the Caller-Times in an interview. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Then they showed a map and â&#x20AC;Ś (we) saw (Interstate) 45. I thought â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oh, my word.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

Honea, 57, lives in Corpus Christi, but played bas-

ketball for the University of Houston in the 1980s, during the Cougarsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Phi Slama Jamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; era.

His friend David Silva was a trainer for the team then, and is a trainer at Santa Fe High.

Silvaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son, Noah, a sophomore, was among those injured. He was shot in the buttocks during the rampage and was later taken to a hospital. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My wife and I ... were both crying,â&#x20AC;? Honea said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was more than a little emotion. There were tears flowing.â&#x20AC;?

By 10:30 a.m., the elder Silva had told Honea that Noah was out of surgery. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing good,â&#x20AC;? Honea said of Noah Silva, who he last spoke with during spring break in Corpus Christi. â&#x20AC;&#x153;And that was good for us to hear, after the emotional last couple weeks weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had.â&#x20AC;?

KINGSVILLE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Gilberto â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tetoâ&#x20AC;? Garcia Rodriguez died May 17, 2018. He was 66.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. May 22 at TurcottePiper Mortuary Chapel. Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. May 23 at St. Martinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Santa Gertrudis Cemetery.

Margaret L. Garcia Margaret L. Garcia died May 16, 2018. She was 65.

Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. May 19 at St. Patrick Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Memorial Park.

Corpus Christi Funeral Home

Mary R. Nobles GEORGE WEST â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Mary R. Nobles died May 15, 2018.

She was 85.

Services will be at 3 p.m. May 19 at First Baptist Church. Burial will follow in George West Cemetery.

Galloway & Sons Funeral Directors

Pamela A. Istre BEEVILLE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pamela A. Istre died May 16, 2018. She was 51.

A memorial service will be in Louisiana at a later date.

Angelus Funeral Home

Jimmy D. Presler

What you should know about stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s firearm-friendly laws

Jimmy D. Presler died May 14, 2018. He was 80.

Services will be at 6 p.m. May 23 at Messiah Lutheran Church. Burial will be at 2 p.m. May 25 in Allen Cemetery, Allen.

Saxet Funeral Home

Texas has long allowed open carry for rifles, handguns and shotguns

SKIDMORE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Beulah Emily Smith died May 16, 2018.

She was 95.

Services will be at 4 p.m. May 22 at Galloway & Sons Home Chapel, Beeville. Burial will follow in Evergreen Cemetery.

John C Moritz Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Texas has some of the most gun-friendly laws in the nation, including the right to openly carry handguns for law-abiding residents 18 and old who have obtained the necessary permit by taking safety course and acquiring a permit.

The training may be done online or in person through a licensed instructor.

The open carrying of shotguns and rifles has long been legal in Texas, except in places where carrying is expressly forbidden.

School properties in Texas are gun-free zones, under state and federal laws. But the laws also allow for some exceptions.

Guns also may not be legally carried in places where the sale of alcohol makes up the majority of the business activity.

The age to purchase a shotgun or rifle in Texas is 18; handguns may not be purchased by anyone under age 21.

According to the Gifford Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Texas has no law requiring firearms dealers to initiate background checks prior to transferring a firearm.â&#x20AC;?

But, the centers adds, the firearms dealers in Texas must do â&#x20AC;&#x153;the background check required by federal law by contacting the FBI directly.â&#x20AC;?

Under Texas law, anyone who allows a minor to gain â&#x20AC;&#x153;access to a readily dischargeable firearmâ&#x20AC;? can be charged with criminal negligence.

Exceptions are made for hunting and sport shooting, and if the firearm is need for self-defense. There is no requirement in Texas that all firearms be locked up.

Although guns are generally prohibited in Texas schools, lawmakers, in response to the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, enacted legislation allowing school districts to arm school employees and created an additional category of a certified peace officer known as a â&#x20AC;&#x153;school marshalâ&#x20AC;? who can conceal carry a handgun.

Under the measure, districts can choose between two plans â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the Guardian Plan and the School Marshal Plan â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to authorize employees to carry a firearm on school property.

Debate around arming teachers and staff has surged in response to the recent school shootings.

Beulah E. Smith

Jose A. Velasquez BEEVILLE â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Jose Antonio Velasquez died May 15, 2018. He was 39.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. May 19 at Angelus Funeral Home Chapel. Services will be at 2 p.m.

May 20 at Angelus Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow in St. Joseph Cemetery.

Albert R. Wright Jr. Albert Richard Wright Jr. died May 16, 2018. He was 58.

Services are private.

Maxwell P. Dunne Funeral Service Inc.

Esilla C. Wright Lawley BLUNTZER â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Esilla C. Wright Lawley died May 16, 2018. She was 82.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. May 20 at SawyerGeorge Funeral Home Chapel. Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. May 21 at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church. Burial will follow in St. Patrick Cemetery, San Patricio.

CCPD: No explosive materials found in fire Alexandria Rodrigue Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Corpus Christi police Bomb Squad officers said they found no explosive materials in a building fire on Port Avenue on Thursday.

Firefighters arrived to the 2700 block of S. Port Ave., near Baldwin Boulevard, just after 11 a.m. for reports of a small building fire. When they arrived, they found a grenade inside, said Kenneth Erben, an assistant fire chief. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know exactly for sure if that was a live grenade,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;But because of that risk, we want to make sure our firefighters are safe.â&#x20AC;?

Officer Gena Pena, said bomb squad officers were called shortly after to make the scene safe. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nothing explosive in nature was found,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Fire Capt. James Brown said the fire started on the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s porch.

Farenthold Continued from Page 3A

says it was notified it would have to pay half of the roughly $90 million to $100 million needed for the project.

The port later was told it may only have to pay upwards of a fourth of the cost, but in recent years fought to get the corps to cover the entire repair.

Boyd said he stood by the decision to hire Farenthold both because of the urgent need to address the matter and because Congress appropriated more than

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know if it was intentional or accidental,â&#x20AC;? he said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As far as intent, we donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know. There were no witnesses to anything.â&#x20AC;?

Thursday, Erben said he was aware of rumors the building was a meth lab. Pena said nothing was found to confirm that claim.

It took about four hours for firefighters to control the blaze from outside the building. Erben said crews would not go inside the building because of the potential of hazardous materials.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Pena said charges of having a prohibited weapon and drug paraphernalia are possible. No arrests have been made.

Investigators are also looking at the possibility of arson.

Nearby business owners said the building used to be Ramirez Electric. It is unknown if someone was using the building as a business at the time of the fire.

$17 billion for Hurricane Harvey damages. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Because of his experience and knowledge of the situation, Blake can assist us in getting the repairs made,â&#x20AC;? Boyd said in the statement. Blake has the mission to â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;get this doneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; for the taxpayers of Calhoun County. Blake has experience as a former member of the Transportation Committee and can also help us with our widening and deepening project.â&#x20AC;?

Farentholdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s salary at the port will be $160,000.

Two Republicans and two Democrats are in runoffs later this month in a bid to replace him in November.

Nine candidates are on the ballot for a special election June 30 to serve the remaining six months of Farentholdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s term.

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Let’s go bowling: Game was popular in Corpus Christi LOCAL, 3A

THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2018 ❚ CALLER.COM

PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

School safety plan includes marshals Governor outlines series of measures to address shootings John C Moritz Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

DALLAS — Just days after a series of emotional discussions with families touched by mass shootings at Santa Fe High School and at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday outlined a series of mea-

City to get more water pressure, new bills

sures to address the plague of school violence.

“This plan is a starting point, not an ending place,” said Abbott, flanked by several lawmakers from both parties and other public officials at the headquarters of the Dallas Independent School District.

“It provides strategies that can be used before the next school year begins

to keep our students safe when they return to school. This plan will make our schools safer and our communities safer.”

Among the recommendations laid out in Abbott’s 40-page report are beefing up the school marshals programs to arm and train more teachers and school staff, encouraging cooperative relationships between local school districts and

law enforcement agencies to bring more of a police presence to campus, and steps to keep guns out of the hands of children 17 and younger and from those who have been judged to have a mental illness that would disqualify them from buying firearms.

Abbott, an ardent gun rights supporter, said he would block any effort to infringe the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Texans qualified to own See SAFETY, Page 6A

Volunteers step up to advocate for kids

Julie Garcia Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

By the end of next week, Corpus Christi’s water supply will be stored in one massive water tower on Holly Road.

This means both your water pressure and your water bill probably will look different.

When the 3 million-gallon water storage tank is operational, citywide water pressure will increase to 65 pounds per square inch (or psi), which could result in higher water bills for residents, especially if there are leaks.

A month after the Holly Road tank is working, a second new tower on Rand Morgan Road will go online. It will hold See WATER, Page 7A

Eleanor Dearman Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Martha Huerta, associate judge for County Court at Law #5, swears in Court Appointed Special Advocates at the CASA office on Wednesday. The volunteers completed 24 hours of classroom training, in addition to courtroom observation, before being sworn in. RACHEL DENNY CLOW/CALLER-TIMES

Corpus Christi biker: ‘I was one of those abused children’ Want to become a CASA?

Alexandria Rodriguez

Judge Guy Williams found himself behind bars again after he was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest, police said.

Williams, who is accused in an unrelated felony road rage case, was arrested Tuesday night, according to Corpus Christi Police Department officials.

The arrest came after Williams was involved in a one-vehicle crash on Whitecap Boulevard and Park Road 22 on Padre Island in which he was the passenger. The driver of the vehicle See WILLIAMS, Page 6A

Axing ‘Roseanne’ lands ABC in middle of social media culture wars. 6A

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Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

At first glance, Ken Schafer looks a little intimidating.

On Wednesday, Schafer, a 59-yearold motorcycle mechanic, stood out among seven others at the CASA of the Coastal Bend building on Prescott Street.

He was wearing a blue short-sleeve button-up shirt, a black leather vest, jeans and earrings. He also had his hair back in a ponytail.

But he may be the person there who related to CASA’s cause the most.

Information sessions are held at the CASA office, 2602 Prescott St., at noon every Wednesday.

Donations can be made on their website at www.coastalbendcasa.org.

For more information, call 361-8842272

“I used to be one of those kids. I was one of those abused children,” Schafer said through his long beard. “I understand what it’s like. These children need help.”

3 years after Susanna’s death

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Schafer, a member of Bikers Against Child Abuse, went to CASA to support seven people who were being sworn in as court appointed special advocates.

He was not sworn in because he is planning to travel to California to be with his father, who is dying, he said.

And once a special advocate is sworn in, they are given a case as soon as possible, he said.

“I want them to know they can survive it because I did,” Schafer said.

“They don’t have to walk the path I did. I walked a pretty rigid road.”

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Judge arrested ... again

6A ❚ THURSDAY, MAY 31, 2018 ❚ CALLER-TIMES

MONEY

LIFE

Wednesday markets

‘Dead’ man walking?

INDEX

Dow Jones Industrial Avg. Nasdaq composite S&P 500 T-note, 10-year yield Oil, light sweet crude Gold, oz. Comex Euro (dollars per euro) Yen per dollar

CLOSE

24,668 7462.45 2724.01 2.84% $68.21 $1301.50 $1.1654 108.85

CHG

x x x x x x x x

306.33 65.86 34.15 0.06 1.48 2.50 0.0123 0.61

SOURCES USA TODAY RESEARCH, MARKETWATCH.COM

NATION & WORLD WATCH Trump signs ‘right to try’ drug measure for terminal patients WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed legislation Wednesday to give terminally ill patients the ability to access experimental drugs that have not won approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

The “right to try” measure will let patients who have exhausted other options access drugs in early stages of FDA review. Trump has frequently noted his support for the idea.

Judge approves dropping charge against departing Mo. governor JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A St. Louis judge agreed Wednesday to dismiss a felony computer data tampering case against Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens.

Circuit Judge Rex Burlison approved an agreement reached by Greitens’ attorneys and the St. Louis circuit attorney’s office. On Tuesday, Greitens said he would resign effective 5 p.m. Friday.

Greitens also was indicted in February on invasion of privacy stemming from an alleged affair. The charge was dropped earlier this month.

Texas governor unveils school safety plan following shooting DALLAS – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday recommended dozens of strategies to make schools safer after the deadly shooting at a Houstonarea high school, including increasing the presence of law officers.

The Republican and gun-rights supporter released a 43-page report that also included suggesting more mental health screening for students.

Safety Continued from Page 1A

firearms.

How we got here Abbott, who has been in office since January 2015 and who served 12 years as Texas attorney general before that, has carried on the state’s leadership tradition of strongly backing the rights of gun ownership.

That stance has not changed, but the November mass shooting that left 26 dead in Sutherland Springs followed six months later by the killing of 10 in Santa Fe, marked a turning point in both the rhetoric and in the need to act.

The round-table discussions last week brought out emotions from those who witnessed the recent violence firsthand and in the approach taken by the governor and other state leaders.

Once the discussions ended, Abbott promised swift action. Along with calling for more police and more marshals, the plan he announced also calls for deploying “crisis response counselors” to meet immediate mental health needs and for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to provide a “long-term behavioral health response.”

Moving forward Money from state and federal sources would also be made available. Abbott said that through various initiatives passed by the Legislature in 2017, about $70 million is available to help local school districts expand or start up marshal programs and mental health initiatives aimed at identifying troubled students.

In addition, Abbott said, “Texas can reasonably expect to successfully compete for an additional $40 million” in federal funds that could be directed toward

Williams Continued from Page 1A

left the road and hit some palm trees, Corpus Christi police Lt. Chris Hooper said.

The driver, whose name was not released by police, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Wil-

“The Walking Dead” may be about to suffer its biggest loss yet: Rick Grimes.

Andrew Lincoln, who plays the central character in AMC’s zombie apocalypse drama, will leave during Season 9, according to reports that started Tuesday in Collider. AMC would not comment.

Axing ‘Roseanne’ lands ABC in middle of culture wars Companies aim to stem social media firestorms Marco della Cava and Jessica Guynn USA TODAY

Even by the standards of recent quick corporate reactions to scandal, ABC’s fast action to cancel Roseanne Barr’s TV show appears to signal a watershed moment in the culture wars.

Less than 12 hours after Barr’s racist tweet about former Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett, the network shut down “Roseanne,” a popular reboot featuring a pro-Trump star that allowed ABC to deflect criticism that it showcased only liberal fare.

That decision – lauded by Barr’s critics and blasted by her fans – speaks to a fraught new corporate era in which companies have been pushed to the front lines of the nation’s contentious cultural debates. In this battleground, swift responses are often seen as the only way to contain a social media firestorm.

“You’re looking at a very 21st-century challenge,” says Jay Tucker, executive director at the Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.

ABC had consciously courted controversy with a return of a primetime sitcom whose star had a track record of offensive statements and whose subject – the namesake is a white, working-class supporter of the president

school safety initiatives.

The state law that allows arming trained staff limits the number of marshals at campuses to one for every 200 students. The plan calls for lowering the ratio to one marshal per 100 students and directs the Texas Education Agency to encourage school districts to “identify personnel to participate” in the marshal program.

According to TEA, 172 school districts out of more than 1,000 districts statewide participate in the program at present.

Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who was part of the discussions on school safety last week in Austin and who joined the governor Wednesday, said he supports many of the recommendations but added that beefing up the school marshal program would be a bad idea for his district.

“It’s a nonstarter,” Hinojosa told reporters after Abbott departed. “That’s just something we don’t want in our district. We can do other things to make our students safe.”

ABC canceled “Roseanne” less than 12 hours after star Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet about former Obama administration official Valerie Jarrett started a firestorm on social media.

RICHARD SHOTWELL/INVISION/AP

who’s often in conflict with family members over issues such as immigration – was determined to be political from the start.

But ABC’s defense of the show crumbled quickly after Barr’s since-deleted tweet about Jarrett.

ABC’s Channing Dungey, the first African-American to head programming at a major broadcast network, canceled a breakout hit that had boosted the network’s ratings.

In taking action, Dungey may have avoided an ugly backlash against the network by those offended by Barr’s comments. But now many of the come-

behavior, and other basic principles counselors would look for,” he said.

What the critics are saying

Abbott also touted a project called Telemedicine Wellness Intervention Triage and Referral, or TWITR, which leverages services such as remote psychiatric sessions to identify children who are at risk of hurting themselves or others. School staff and mental health professionals are strategically positioned to intervene before acts of violence occur.

The Lubbock-based project is operated by the Texas Tech University Health and Science Center’s Institute for Rural and Community Health.

Once school officials and parents are on board, a team of Licensed Professional Counselors train school staff — from principals to maintenance workers — to identify “warning signs,” said Dr. Tedd Mitchell, president of the UT Health and Science Center.

“That includes isolation, changes in

Advocates for greater measures to curb access to firearms were disappointed, but others saw some rays of hope.

“What are you planning to do about the guns?” asked Kris Brown, co-president Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. One of the causes of mass shootings, she added, “isn’t some deep-seated secret. It’s the fact that it’s frighteningly easy for dangerous people to get access to a gun, and this proposal does little to stop that.”

Noel Candelaria, president of the Texas State Teachers Association “strongly objected” to arming more teachers, but offered some qualified support for other proposed actions.

“The governor’s proposals to strengthen physical security measures at schools, to hire more professionally trained security guards and to expand mental health programs are steps that can save lives,” he said. “But are temporary grants and federal funding, as the governor has proposed, enough to pay for them?”

Abbott’s Democratic opponent in the coming campaign, former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, offered tepid support for more steps to address the mental health side of the equation. But she faulted the governor for not offering more bold proposals.

“It is astounding how few of Governor Abbott’s proposals directly address gun violence and how he ignored some of the most critical steps we must take,” Valdez said.

Her statement did not elaborate on what those steps would be.

The leader of the Texas House Democrats said many lawmakers in his party are on board with many of the proposals outlined by Abbott while at the same time saying Texas schools need far more resources across the board.

liams was arrested at about 11:23 p.m.

Tuesday, Hooper said.

The Caller-Times has requested the police reports.

He was released on $1,000 bail Wednesday morning, Nueces County jail officials said.

In March, Williams was acquitted of one felony count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon related to a April 2017 incident. He was accused of point-

ing a gun at a couple in a vehicle.

The jury deadlocked on a verdict on a second felony count. A new trial hasn’t been set. His lawyers this month filed a motion asking that the case not be retried.

It’s unclear whether prosecutors will seek to have his bail revoked in the felony case in light of the new arrest. A spokeswoman with the Attorney General’s Office declined comment.

A proposed high-tech solution

dian’s fans are threatening a boycott of their own.

While ABC’s nearly instant decision to pull the plug on “Roseanne” stands out for its speed, the network is far from alone in facing fast-paced corporate decisions in the wake of brewing crises.

After two black men were led out of a Philadelphia Starbucks in handcuffs last month because they hadn’t made a purchase, the company’s CEO apologized to them two days later. Calls for a boycott had already started to spread on social media.

Corporations are making quick calls to avoid permanent damage in a social media age in which angry tweets and Facebook posts can quickly go viral, says Columbia Business School professor William Klepper.

Dungey initially had counted on Barr’s show to serve as a cultural counterpoint to a lineup that includes shows pointedly focused on nonwhite families, including “Black-ish” and “Fresh off the Boat.”

One media observer believes the speed with which “Roseanne” was canceled suggests that Dungey perhaps already had a plan in place should the star step too far out of bounds.

“We all have a right to say what we want to say,” says Nsenga Burton, an expert on race and politics at Clark Atlanta University. “But what companies are learning is that you can stand for freedom of expression, but not necessarily consequence-free freedom of expression.”

“In the past, we’ve seen a lack of political will to invest enough funding in our local schools and to take reasonable gun safety measures,” said state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington. “Hopefully, that will change when the Legislature convenes in 2019, or sooner, if the governor opts to call a special session. “

Abbott’s rebuttal The governor did not rule out bringing lawmakers back to Austin, but he added that he’s not looking for “a debating session.” If lawmakers are called back, the governor would expect quick action, which suggests he’d have to have consensus first.

“There’s a lot that can be done over the summer before school begins,” he said.

Straus weighs in Meanwhile, House Speaker Joe Straus called on the House Criminal Jurisprudence committee to study a potential “red flag” law to outline out a legal process to keep firearms out of the hands of those who present a danger to themselves or others.

“It’s critically important that students and parents know when they return to school in August that schools are significantly safer and less vulnerable to a shooting tragedy, and today the state has taken the first steps toward giving them that assurance,” Straus said.

The speaker said additional instructions might come later for other House committees on the gun safety issue.

“This issue is a priority for the Texas House, and it will remain a priority well into the future,” he said.

Caller-Times staffer Beatriz Alvarado contributed to this report.John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

Williams’ attorneys Terry Shamsie and Lisa Greenberg also declined to comment about the new arrest.

Williams, a Republican, remains suspended from the bench and is not seeking another term for 148th District Court. For months, visiting judges have been handling cases in the court, which includes felony and civil matters.

CALLER.COM ❚ MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2018 ❚ 3A

John C. Moritz Columnist, USA TODAY NETWORK – Corpus Christi

Poll: No consensus on gun control AUSTIN — When Gov. Greg Abbott unveiled his package of school safety initiatives heavily focused on greater police presence on campuses and more armed marshals on the lookout for trouble, the response from advocates for stricter gun laws ranged from sorrow to anger.

No one was surprised, and a poll that came out one day later proves no one should have been.

The random survey of 961 registered Texas voters shows that even after high-profile mass shootings across the nation, including two that left a total of 36 Texans dead, there’s no consensus for broad controls on the sale and possession of firearms.

And, it shows that what support there had been for stricter gun measures after the armed Feb. 14 attack that killed 17 at a high school in Parkland, Florida, had eroded in the days immediately after a student opened fire and killed 10 and wounded more than a dozen others at Santa Fe High School near Houston.

The poll by Quinnipiac University was taken May 23-29. That roughly overlaps the three round-table discussions Abbott recently convened to gain insight from elected leaders, advocates on both sides of the gun issue and people who lived through the attacks at Santa Fe High and at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.

In those meetings, at least the portions open to reporters, anyone would have been hard-pressed to find agreement on how gun sales and the types of guns sold should be regulated in Texas.

One participant who was among those directly affected by Sutherland Springs told Abbott, “I love the NRA, and I love guns.”

Then he surprised nearly everyone in the room by adding that the National Rifle Association, in the interest of protecting school kids and church-goers, should quit blocking sensible gun regulations. But that notion was swiftly, and forcibly, rebutted by former state Rep. Susanna Hupp, who watched her own parents be shot to death by the gunman who killed 23 people at a Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen on Oct. 16, 1991.

Hupp, an outspoken defender of gun rights, said the legal restrictions on firearms at the time made it impossible for anyone to return fire at the Luby’s shooter. Kris Brown of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence reacted to Abbott’s avoidance of stricter firearms laws, saying “it’s frighteningly easy for dangerous people to get access to a gun.”

Abbott, who in October 2015 tweeted that he was “embarrassed” when Texas fell behind California in guns sales, did call for more aggressive action to prevent people who have been judged to have a dangerous mental illness or a history of violence from being able to purchase a firearm.

On the question of whether stricter gun laws are needed, 49 percent of the Qunnipiac respondents said yes and 45 percent no. In Quninipiac’s poll in April, 55 percent favored stricter laws and 41 percent opposed them.

There were partisan and malefemale divides on the issue. Eight in 10 Democrats wanted stricter laws; seven in 10 Republicans didn’t. Among women, 56 percent were for stricter laws; 51 percent of men were against them.

Interestingly, there was nearly no divide on the question of whether all gunbuyers should undergo background checks: 93 of all respondents said they should; so did 92 percent of gun owners. That last statistics suggests that, despite its political clout, the NRA not only does not speak for all gun owners, it doesn’t even speak for most of them when it comes to background checks.

That point might not have been clear when Abbott was among such political leaders as President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence who spoke before the group’s annual convention in Dallas a month ago.

“The answer to gun violence is not to take guns away, the answer is to strengthen the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” the governor said a short speech to the association.

But in the weeks since Santa Fe, the governor’s rhetoric on the subject of guns has been less red meat and more nuanced. Just like the results of the recent Quinnipiac poll.

Contact John C. Moritz at John.Mo ritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

GOP moderates feel push on immigration

Rep. Carlos Curbelo, R-Fla., greets graduates while attending the 34th Annual Farmworker Student Recognition Ceremony in Homestead, Florida, last month. LYNNE SLADKY/AP

Many serve districts that back DACA, paths to citizenship Alan Fram and Nicholas Riccardi ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Cipriano Garza says Rep. Carlos Curbelo is “a decent man, a family man.” He lauds the South Florida Republican for defiantly pushing his party to protect young “Dreamer” immigrants from deportation.

Founder of a nonprofit that helps farm workers, Garza happily hosted Curbelo at a reception honoring high school graduates last week at Homestead-Miami Speedway. But his praise came with a warning about this November’s elections.

“He better do what’s right for the community,” said Garza, 70, himself a former migrant laborer. “If not, he can lose.”

Across the country – from California’s lush Central Valley to suburban Denver to Curbelo’s district of strip malls, farms and the laid-back Florida Keys – moderate Republicans like Curbelo are under pressure to buck their party’s hardline stance on immigration.

After years of watching their conservative colleagues in safe districts refuse to budge, the GOP middle is fighting back – mindful that a softer position may be necessary to save their jobs and

GOP control of the House.

“Members who have priorities and feel passionate about issues can’t sit back and expect leaders” to address them, Curbelo said. “Because it doesn’t work.”

Curbelo, 38, is seeking a third term from a district that stretches from upscale Miami suburbs to the Everglades and down to Key West. Seventy percent of his constituents are Hispanic and nearly half are foreign-born. Those are among the highest percentages in the nation, giving many of them a firsthand stake in Congress’ immigration fight.

Curbelo and Rep. Jeff Denham, RCalif., whose Modesto-area district thrives on agriculture powered by migrant workers, have launched a petition drive that would force House votes on four immigration bills, ranging from liberal to conservative versions. Twentythree Republicans have signed on, two shy of the number needed to succeed, assuming all Democrats jump aboard.

Another supporter of the rare rebellion by the usually compliant moderates is Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., a former Marine who learned Spanish when his district was redrawn to include Denver’s diverse eastern suburbs. In an interview, Coffman ex-

pressed frustration over waiting nearly 18 months for House Speaker Paul Ryan to deliver on assurances that Congress would address the issue.

“He was always telling me, ‘It will happen, it will happen.’ I never saw it happen,” Coffman said. “One cannot argue that those of us who signed onto this discharge petition didn’t give leadership time.”

The centrists favor legislation that would protect from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

They back a path to citizenship for these immigrants, who have lived in limbo since President Donald Trump ended the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Federal courts have blocked its termination for now.

Trying to head off the petition, Ryan, R-Wis., and conservatives are negotiating with the centrists in hopes of finding compromise. Roll calls are on track for later this month, but it will be tough to steer legislation through the House that’s both liberal enough to survive in the more moderate Senate and restrictive enough for Trump to sign into law.

See IMMIGRATION, Page 10A

Houston Metro beacons to help visually impaired riders travel Dug Begley HOUSTON CHRONICLE

HOUSTON – Houston, with its narrow sidewalks and wide, car-jammed streets, can be difficult to navigate by bus. Just getting to the right bus stop can be a challenge, as some intersections have stops on every side of the streets and are marked only with a Metropolitan Transit Authority sign and the numbers of approaching routes.

The Houston Chronicle reports now close your eyes and try it.

“It’d be impossible,” frequent bus rider Sheryl Greene said, standing at a stop along Westheimer near Yupon.

“You’d walk right into traffic.”

For less than the cost of a single bus, however, Metro might be the first transit agency in the country to take a significant step across an entire bus system that could open riding options to scores of vision-impaired customers with the use of a smartphone.

The secret is a small beacon about the size of a garage door opener, placed atop every one of those bus-stop poles.

“It is amazing when you see a need you can address it with new technologies,” said Lex Frieden, a member of the transit agency’s board and a nationally acclaimed disability-access advocate.

Users can plot their location using a mapping program, then the beacons are integrated into the directions. Often, the biggest challenge for some users is finding precisely where a bus stop is located at an intersection, or in the middle of a long block.

Metro Chief Technology Officer Randy Frazier, left, and Mike McCulloch, 63, a member of the test group that helps Metro experiment with bluetooth beacons, pose for a photograph at a bus stop. McCulloch is assisting to develop an app for visually-impaired passengers. For around $375,000, Metro officials plan to place beacons at bus stops that will communicate with smartphones, giving vision-impaired passengers precise information. They will be the first in the nation to deploy the devices in a widespread manner. AP

“It is about getting that information and getting it in your hands,” said Randy Frazier, Metro’s chief technology officer.

As someone approaches their intended stop, their phone receives signals from the beacon, which can send an alert to their phone. Alerts can be delivered either as audio instructions, such as how a mapping program gives drivers voice instructions to turn left or

right, or as tactile directions that use pulsing so someone can understand the instructions via sense of touch. As they draw closer to the stop, the pulses increase until the rider knows they are in the correct spot.

“The beacons make a big difference,” said Michael McCulloch, 63, a bus rider who is visually impaired and helping See METRO, Page 10A

Woman exonerated for murder welcomes baby girl

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District 27 early voting guide Special election set to fill Farenthold’s seat in Congress Eleanor Dearman Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

South Texas residents have the chance to vote on who they want to complete Blake Farenthold’s congressional term.

Early voting for the special election

for Texas’ 27th Congressional District t begins Wednesday and runs through June 26. The winner will fill the seat for less than a year.

Farenthold, a Republican, resigned in April after it was revealed $84,000 in taxpayer funds were used to settle a sexual harassment federal lawsuit against him filed by a former aide. The U.S.

House Ethics Committee was investigating events connected with that settlement. He had initially vowed to repay the money but has since declared his lawyers advised him not to pay it back.

There are nine candidates on the ballot, including Michael Cloud and Eric Early voting is Wednesday through June 26. RACHEL DENNY CLOW/CALLER-TIMES

See VOTE, Page 5A

More schools seek to join state marshal program John C Moritz Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

AUSTIN — Since the shooting at Santa Fe High School, 13 additional Texas school districts have applied to take part in the school marshal program and more must be done at the campus level to protect students, law enforcement professionals told a legislative committee Tuesday.

“We can’t fool ourselves into believing that law enforcement is the only

Cathy Seabert holds a bodyboard as she teaches a group to surf at Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi on Tuesday.

See SCHOOLS, Page 4A

A&M System veteran will replace Watts on DMC board Beatriz Alvarado Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

The Del Mar College Board of Regents has spoken: Mary Sherwood will replace former District 4 Regent Guy Watts.

Watts’ letter of intent to resign was received by the college April 12. He intends to run at large.

Sherwood retired in August as Texas A&M University-Corpus Christ’s chief of staff to the president after a 12year career with the university.

See DMC, Page 4A

Summit’s symbolism may outshine actual results. 8A

WOMEN HANG 10 Schlitterbahn offers classes during National Women Learn to Surf Week Meagan Falcon Corpus Christi Caller Times | USA TODAY NETWORK – TEXAS

I

ris Vasquez had never surfed until Tuesday. • With a big smile on her face, Vasquez tensed up. She was nervous and afraid to jump into the waves at Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi’s Boogie-

Elle Garcia, 14, learns to surf Tuesday at Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi as it celebrates National Women Learn to Surf Week.

PHOTOS BY COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

Bahn. • But the female crowd cheered on. • Fighting her

nerves, Vasquez took a leap into the roaring waves and began to surf.

The crowd went wild. • More than 20 women, ages 8 to 70, attended free two-hour surf lessons at the water park to celebrate National Women Learn to Surf Week.

See SURF, Page 6A

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Woman brings a bag of cockroaches to City Council meeting. 5A

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“You can see the excitement on their faces once they conquer their fears.”

Pam Renteria Schlitterbahn Corpus Christi

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OBITUARIES The news department publishes Corpus Christi-area obituaries free of charge on a space-available basis as a service to Caller-Times readers.

Johnmichael D. Aguero TAFT â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Johnmichael David Aguero died June 11, 2018.

He was 21.

Services will be at 7 p.m. June 14 at Resthaven Funeral Home Chapel, Sinton. Burial will be at 10 a.m. June 15 in Taft Memorial Park Cemetery, Taft.

Infant Alejandro Infant Alejandro died June 7, 2018.

Graveside services will be at 10 a.m. June 15 at Seaside Memorial Park.

Seaside Funeral Home

Beverly A. Bloess Beverly Ann Bloess died June 9, 2018. She was 83.

Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. June 15 at St. Andrew by the Sea Catholic Church.

Maxwell P. Dunne Funeral Home

Raytheda Boyd Raytheda Boyd died June 6, 2018. She was 76.

Services will be at 11 a.m. June 15 at Unity Chapel Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Memorial Park.

Martina De La Cruz Martina De La Cruz died June 10, 2018. She was 83.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. June 13 at TreviĂąo Funeral Home. Mass will be celebrated at 11:30 a.m.

June 14 at Holy Family Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.

Minga De Los Santos Minga De Los Santos died June 9, 2018. She was 88.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. June 14 at Seaside Funeral Home Chapel. Services will be at 1 p.m. June 15 at Seaside Funeral Home Chapel. Burial will follow in Seaside Memorial Park.

Tracy L. Medlock KINGSVILLE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Tracy Lamont Medlock died June 9, 2018. He was 45.

Services will be at 11 a.m. June 14 at Coastal Bend Fellowship Center. Burial will follow at 2 p.m. June 14 in Eternal Rest Cemetery, Sinton.

Resthaven Funeral Home, Sinton

Severa R. Reyna Severa Rojas Reyna died June 9, 2018. She was 79.

Services will be at noon June 15 at Ramon Funeral Home Chapel, Robstown. Burial will follow in Robstown Cemetery, Robstown.

Randy L. Salinas Jr. ALICE â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Randy Lee Salinas Jr. died June 10, 2018. He was 17 days old.

Rosary will be recited at noon June 13 at Rosas Funeral Home Chapel. Services will be at 1 p.m. June 14 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. Burial will follow in San Diego Cemetery.

William J. Shaw William John Shaw died June 10, 2018. He was 91.

Services will be private.

Seaside Funeral Home

Mary E. Trevino Mary Elena Trevino died June 10, 2018. She was 66.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. June 14 at TreviĂąo Funeral Home. Services will be at 9:30 a.m. June 15 at TreviĂąo Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Coastal Bend State Veterans Cemetery.

Daniel Valdez died June 7, 2018. He was 64.

Rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. June 14 at Christ the King Catholic Church.

Saxet Funeral Home

Continued from Page 1A

Schools Continued from Page 1A

appropriate response,â&#x20AC;? Sheriff Jim Skinner of the Dallas suburb of Collin County said in testimony to the special Senate committee studying school safety.

The committee was formed in response to the recent gun violence at public schools, including the May 18 shooting that killed 10 and injured more than a dozen others in Santa Fe. It will likely examine many of the school-safety recommendations recently announced

by Gov. Greg Abbott that will require legislative action.

Steve McCraw, who heads the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the presence of both uniformed police officers and plainclothes armed marshals serves as a warning to anyone who might be contemplating violence at a school. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a deterrent aspect of that I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think we can overlook,â&#x20AC;? he said.

Kim Vickers, executive director of the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, said the key is making sure that school marshals â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether they are teachers or other school administrators â&#x20AC;&#x201D; receive the training needed to act under duress.

Asked how many marshals are currently authorized to work in school, Vickers said such information is confidential. The marshals, he said, are not patrol officers but they are empowered to respond to emergencies and to make arrests in such events.

According to the Texas Association of School Boards, at least 217 school districts had policies allowing staff to carry firearms on campus. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This number may continue to grow as districts continue to revise policies,â&#x20AC;? said Dax Gonzalez, the associationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s director of governmental relations.

In addition, Gonzalez said, more than 150 districts have their own police departments.

At the committee hearing, several educators warned that inviting more guns on public school campuses means inviting more unintended, and perhaps, deadly consequences.

Mitzi McEwen, a retired principal from the Houston suburb of Friendswood, drew applause at the hearing when she said â&#x20AC;&#x153;teachers donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to carry a gun.â&#x20AC;? If a student bent on violence knew of a teacher who was armed, that teacher would be the gunmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first tar-

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DMC Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been an employee of the Texas A&M System for 27 years and also has worked at A&M universities in College Station and Kingsville and at the system administrative office in San Marcos.

The board publicly interviewed three candidates Tuesday morning. A total of eight candidates applied.

During her interview, Sherwood said she is a firstgeneration student â&#x20AC;&#x153;whose parents could offer little but moral support.â&#x20AC;?

Earning an undergraduate degree took a long time because she either worked part-time or stopped attending school to work full-time, she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I did everything from rolling barrels, to stacking pallets in a grease plant, to waiting tables,â&#x20AC;? Sherwood said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;So I know from my own experience how hard it is for many Del Mar students who have to work and how dedicated they have to be to succeed. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know the path isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always straight and without support and encouragement, students can get lost along the way.â&#x20AC;?

Sherwood has a doctorate degree in higher education administration and was sworn in shortly after being appointed Tuesday.

Before being appointed, Sherwood touted the quality of education Del Mar has provided to Nueces County residents.

Mary Sherwood was appointed by the Del Mar College Board of Regents to fill the District 4 seat vacated by former Regent Guy Watts.

COURTESY OF DEL MAR COLLEGE

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Del Mar has long been an outstanding provider of educational quality and I would be honored to contribute to continuing that legacy through service as a regent,â&#x20AC;? she said.

Other candidates who were interviewed are former Flour Bluff Navy Junior ROTC instructor Cmdr. Armando Solis and Raymond Rose, president of Rose & Smith Associates and chairwoman of the Public Policy Committee at the Texas Distance Learning Association.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Switching gears from being a teacher to being a law enforcement person takes a lot ... Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too much chance for a mistake and no chance for a do-over.â&#x20AC;?

Nancy Salisbury Austin teacher

get, she said.

Other teachers who testified offered similar assessments. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Switching gears from being a teacher to being a law enforcement person takes a lot,â&#x20AC;? said Nancy Salisbury, a 20-year teaching veteran from Austin. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s too much chance for a mistake and no chance for a doover.â&#x20AC;?

Meanwhile, a group of Santa Fe students and 2018 graduates have launched an online fundraising effort called The Orange Generation to advocate â&#x20AC;&#x153;for moderate and bridge-building gun safety legislation.

The initiative, which by Tuesday afternoon had raised nearly $1,400 toward its goal of $25,000, also wants to help pay medical bills and counseling expenses for people injured by gun violence.

Bree Butler, a 2018 Santa Fe High graduate and one of the Orange Generation founders, told USA Today in the days following the shooting it was too soon to talk about restricting firearms because the rural region needed time to heal. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I know the political climate,â&#x20AC;? she said at the time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to upset anybody.â&#x20AC;?

But when the fundraising effort was launched last week she said in a message on its website it was now time to act. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The tragic shooting at my high school on May 18 has rocked my community to the core.,â&#x20AC;? Butler wrote. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Due to this, I want to do everything that I can to help.â&#x20AC;?

Staff writer Beatriz Alvarado contributed to this report.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

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Abbott reassures GOP on gun rights Post-shooting school plan meets pushback Paul J. Weber ASSOCIATED PRESS

AUSTIN – Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday told his party that gun rights are safe on his watch amid worries by some conservatives over his response to last month’s mass shooting at a high school near Houston that killed

10 people.

Abbott headlined the Texas GOP Convention in San Antonio at the end of a week in which school police chiefs, gun-control activists and an alliance of U.S. education groups pushed back on parts of his wide-ranging safety recommendations after the Santa Fe High School shooting.

The plan calls for arming more teachers, mental health spending and “hardening” campuses with extra police or metal detectors. Also mentioned are po-

tential “red flag” laws that keep guns away from people deemed a danger to themselves or others, which is a nonstarter for some gun-rights groups and firebrand conservatives in the Texas Legislature.

Abbott, who is heavy favorite to win a second term in November, didn’t touch on his plan during his speech to Republican delegates in what is largest state party convention in the U.S. But he relayed what he said was a message from a tiny Texas community where a church

gunman killed more than two dozen people in November.

“The people of Sutherland Springs, they looked me in the eye and they insisted, they said, “Governor, do not let them use this to take away our guns,” Abbott said.

Nearly a month after the May 18 attack that was the deadliest high school shooting in Texas history, Abbott’s plan is treading a familiar path of others like See ABBOTT, Page 5A

217 districts across Texas allow guns in schools Beatriz Alvarado Corpus Christi Caller Times USA TODAY NETWORK - TEXAS

Donna Shaver, chief of the Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery at Padre Island National Seashore, places Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings on the beach during the year’s first turtle release there on Friday.

COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES

91 hatchlings in year’s first sea turtle release Mark Young Corpus Christi Caller-Times

Just a day before World Sea Turtle Day, hundreds of people gathered at the Padre Island National Seashore to see the first sea turtle release of the year.

Held yearly, the Padre Island National Seashore Division of Sea Turtle Science & Recovery holds up to two dozen

Judge orders Paul Manafort to go to jail ahead of trials. 8A

CC-1962855

public releases of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings. It is the smallest and most endangered sea turtle in the world.

Ninety-one hatchlings were released in the first batch of the season on Friday, with onlookers from all over Texas watching.

Having recently moved from Chicago, Emily Ball came to the release on the suggestion of a friend and out of ex-

citement.

“I wanted to see something cool and different, so this sounded really exciting,” said Ball. “I’ve only been here about two months, but this is something you don’t see in Chicago.”

Found primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, the sea turtles were once abunSee TURTLES, Page 4A

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Between February and May, when two of the deadliest school shootings this year took place, close to 50 school districts in the Lone Star state have revised board policies to allow district staff to carry guns.

In February, 172 school districts reported adopting such policies to the Texas Association of School Boards.

As of March, that number was at 217, said Dax González, TASB’s division director for governmental relations.

Those 217 school districts represent about 21 percent of the 1,023 independent school districts in Texas.

The Caller-Times requested data on school board policies related to arming staff in the wake of the school shootings Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida and May 18 in Santa Fe, Texas.

“This number may continue to grow as districts continue to revise policies,” González said.

As of March, 153 districts have their own police departments and 244 districts don’t, but employ school resource officers, according to TASB. After the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, killed 20 students and six educators, Texas enacted the Protection of Texas Children Act. The law allows school districts to arm school employees and created an additional category of a certified peace officer known as a “school marshal.”

Caller.com See a map of Texas school districts that have armed teachers and staff and the policies.

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Vacancy looks likely to hinge on one judge Kavanaugh established a record on DC Circuit

Recent tragedies lead to seek Texas lawmakers l ways to keep people safe

David Jackson and Richard Wolf USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s search for a Supreme Court justice likely to serve for decades hinges on the pluses and minuses of one leading candidate: Brett Kavanaugh.

The 53-year-old judge, who sits on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has the best credentials as well as some big risks, according to conservatives eagerly awaiting Trump’s decision. For that reason, he remains the man to beat.

“He’s the known quantity. His record is there for everyone to inspect,” said Josh Blackman, an associate professor at South Texas College of Law who is active in Washington legal circles. “That’s good and bad. I think it cuts both ways.”

Kavanaugh, who was among five people added late last year to Trump’s eventual list of 25 potential nominees, is the favorite of the conservative legal establishment because of his long record on issues ranging from the separation of powers and executive privilege to abortion, immigration and gun rights.

But his work on Bill Clinton’s impeachment, his close ties to George W. Bush and his ruling on Barack Obama’s health care law, which he opposed on procedural rather than broader legal grounds, have raised concerns among some conservatives.

Trump, who is spending the weekend at his golf resort in New Jersey, is still considering other candidates.

‘RED FLAG’ LAW FACES HURDLES John C. Moritz Corpus Christi Caller Times | USA TODAY T NETWORK - TEXAS

A

USTIN – In a state that has seen a steady expansion of gun Texas lawmakers are actively rights for nearly 25 years, ye considering measures that would make it easier to keep shown to be dangerous and perfirearms away from people peo

haps must be stored in private homes. h hap ps even mandate how weapons m But while any measure aimed at fur further regulating firearms would face treacherous climb in gun-friendly Texas, the steep and politically treacherou twin traumas of one deadly mass shooting at a Sunday d service and another on a high school morning church se the voices demanding action campus has amplified am gun violence. h It also stiffened the to combat gu who see the Second Amendspines of those th See RED FLAG, Page 8A ment as sacroscant. sac

See KAVANAUGH, Page 8A

“We’re not going to stop the school shootings. But we need to figure out what we can do, maybe, to mitigate the frequency or the severity.”

Jerry Patterson Former Texas Land Commissioner

Brett Kavanaugh is the center of attention in the scramble to replace Anthony Kennedy. U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT GETTY IMAGES

N. Korea slams talks with U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo as “regrettable.” 11A

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New wildfires sweep through California, burning homes John Antczak ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES – Firefighters toiled in stifling heat Saturday on the lines of destructive wildfires across the West, making progress against some blazes while struggling to tame others that have forced evacuations of hundreds of homes.

In heat-stricken Southern California, powerful winds that sent an overnight inferno hopscotching through the Santa Barbara County community of Goleta vanished in the morning, allowing firefighters to extinguish smoldering ruins of an estimated 20 structures, including homes.

“It’s really given us a good opportunity to get in there and get some work done,” said county fire Capt. Dave Zaniboni.

The fire’s spread was stopped at about 100 acres or less and teams were working on an accurate tally of damage in the neighborhood, where some houses were in ruins while homes next door were intact.

Officials said many of the 2,500 evacuated residents will be able to return by late afternoon.

Eric Durtschi stood outside his destroyed house, where a burned-out car stood in the driveway and kids’ bicycles were strewn about.

Durtschi, his wife and six children had left Utah and moved in just a few weeks ago. He said he hadn’t yet told his two oldest children their home was gone. He managed to collect his severely burned vintage guns, hoping to salvage them.

A neighbor’s home across the street was spared. The man had stayed through the night spraying down other people’s houses.

Elsewhere in Southern California, firefighters increased containment of a central San Diego County fire that rapidly spread over 400 acres, destroyed 18 structures and damaged eight, and a wildfire in the San Bernardino National Forest was holding at 1.5 square miles and forced evacuation of about 700 homes in the mountain community of Forest Falls.

Flames from the Holiday fire consume a home in Goleta, Calif., on Saturday. The blaze has consumed about 20 buildings. NOAH BERGER/AP

“Temperatures at 8 a.m. were ridiculously over 100 degrees” in foothills near Forest Falls and many inland valleys.

National Weather Service

Fires also burned on the Marine Corps’ sprawling Camp Pendleton base in northern San Diego County.

In Los Angeles County, meanwhile, water-dropping helicopters and ground crews are attacking a small but persistent fire burning on a mountain slope above suburban Burbank.

The Southern California fires erupted Friday as strong high pressure over the West spawned an epic heat wave that saw parts of Los Angeles broil in temperatures up to 117 degrees. There was little relief overnight.

“Temperatures at 8 a.m. were ridiculously over 100 degrees” in foothills near Forest Falls and many inland valleys,

the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters said the region’s siege of heat would gradually ease through the weekend, but the unstable air mass unleashed downpours that triggered flashflood warnings for the mountains northeast of Los Angeles.

Further north and just south of the California-Oregon border, the 34square-mile Klamathon Fire in rural Siskiyou County was just 5 percent contained. The body of a resident was found Friday in the ruins of a home, among 15 destroyed structures tallied so far.

Authorities described “extreme fire behavior with movement in multiple di-

Red flag

idea.

“The tragedies that have brought us here are unthinkable,” Moody said as he opened the hearing. “And they are going to be a sorrowful chapter in the collective consciousness of our communities for a long time to come.”

Moody also included on the hearing’s agenda a discussion on whether lawmakers should enact a “safe-storage” statute requiring firearms be kept locked and out of the hands of children or people judged to have violent tendencies.

Republicans and gun-rights advocates have long pushed back against such measures, saying they were a step toward criminalizing gun ownership.

But state Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat, likened the idea to laws enacted requiring adult drivers to strap young passengers in child safety seats that meet government standards.

“We don’t leave it up to the parents on how to position those car seats,” Howard said. “We tell them. Those kinds of things have been put into place and

have actually saved lives.”

Abbott, meanwhile, muddied the debate even as Moody’s hearing was under way. Responding to a tweet from a gun rights proponent who worried about whether a “red flag” law would lead to the confiscation of firearms without due process, Abbott said he was not pushing for such a law.

“Moreover I don’t advocate red flag laws. Only that it is something the legislature can consider,” Abbott ended his response.

Existing state law allows people under a protective order for family violence and other threatening behavior to lose access to firearms, at least temporarily. A red flag law would expand that to include a “mental health protective order” that could be obtained through similar channels as a traditional protective order.

Patterson said he has reservations about red flags because someone might seek one under false pretenses as a way to exact revenge or to damage someone’s reputation. He also worried about

whether “wholesale runaway judges” would be too quick issue an order without a thorough review of the facts.

“Can we do this in a constitutional manner, because we are depriving them of their freedom – a constitutionally enumerated freedom?” he asked.

Later this month, the Senate Select Committee on Violence in Schools and School Security will hold hearings that will include whether a red flag law or other gun safety measures are needed when lawmakers convene the next 140day legislative session in January 2019.

Patterson said the discussion should also include doing more to bring attention to the underlying causes of violence where firearms play a part.

“Doing that will do far more than passing a law,” he said. “Making people aware of the tragedies that can occur is the most important thing we can do to change public behavior, in my opinion.

“We’re not going to stop the school shootings. But we need to figure out what we can do, maybe, to mitigate the frequency or the severity.”

According to The Trace, a nonprofit news outlet that covers issues related to gun violence, 11 states have enacted red flag laws and at least six others are considering similar legislation. Texas is not on either list.

Bill Miller, a longtime lobbyist and Capitol insider who is not working to influence the outcome of any gun-related Legislature, said the conservative nature of Texas politics and the structural roadblocks to passing far-reaching legislation in a short time span makes the passage of meaningful gun legislation unlikely next year.

“One of the things the Legislature never does is rush through anything,” Miller said. “There will be bills filed, there will be hearings held and there will be a whole lot of pontificating.

“But in the end, nothing is going to happen. It’ll get attention, but it won’t get action.”

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at John.Moritz@caller.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

While aides prepared for a primetime announcement Monday night and the confirmation battle sure to follow, officials said they could not rule out a surprise pick by the president. That list includes federal appeals court judges Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, the runner-up to Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch last year; and Amul Thapar of Kentucky, a favorite of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Activists on both sides were gearing

up for what’s likely to be a titanic confirmation battle over Justice Anthony Kennedy’s replacement.

Carrie Severino, chief counsel at the conservative Judicial Crisis Network, predicted “a much more vigorous fight” over the next few months than the battle to confirm Gorsuch.

Her group spent $10 million on that effort, but “the budget will probably have to be even larger” this time, she said.

Trump’s opponents are gearing up to oppose the nomination, fearing a more conservative court will be willing to rolling back individual rights, from abortion to equal opportunity.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it is making a six-figure television ad buy in the states of two senators who may hold the key to confirmation: Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, both of whom favor abortion rights.

Continued from Page 1A

“The idea that we’re going to stop school shootings by something you do here or something that’s done in Congress is a bogus premise,” former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson recently told a legislative panel in Austin examining potential responses to gun violence.

Patterson is perhaps the best-known advocate for gun rights in Texas. During the 1993 legislative session as a freshman Republican state senator, Patterson guided the passage of legislation to allow law-abiding Texans to obtain permits to carry concealed handguns.

The bill was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Ann Richards, who went on to lose her bid for re-election the following year. In 1995, Patterson again propelled the measure through the Legislature and onto the desk of new Gov. George W. Bush. It was signed into law.

Since then, Republican state leaders have generally embraced more liberalized gun ownership laws to include allowing license holders to openly carry and to expand the number of places where firearms may be carried.

But after the shooting at Santa Fe High School near Galveston that left 10 dead, and which came just six months after the massacre at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Gov. Greg Abbott promised action. Included in his recommendations issued in late May for enhancing school safety was for lawmakers to consider enacting a “red flag law,” which would allow “law enforcement, a family member, school employee, or a district attorney to file a petition seeking the removal of firearms from a potentially dangerous person only after legal due process is provided.”

In late June, state Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat who last year offered “red flag” legislation that was in line with Abbott’s recommendation but went nowhere, convened a hearing of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee to reopen discussions on the

Kavanaugh Continued from Page 1A

That list is headed by federal appeals court judges Raymond Kethledge of Michigan and Amy Coney Barrett of Indiana, said people familiar with the selection process who were not authorized to speak publicly about internal deliberations.

rections,” with threats to the California communities of Hornbrook and Hilt as well as Colestin, Oregon. Ray Haupt, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said losses included homes and livestock.

Elsewhere in California, the 138square-mile County Fire northwest of Sacramento was nearly 50 percent contained. Ten structures were destroyed, but damage assessments were continuing.

With fires occurring statewide, a Colorado-based Boeing 747-400 supertanker was deployed to California.

Scott McLean, deputy chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the supertanker was undergoing checks at an airfield outside Sacramento.

Software issues needed to be resolved before the aircraft owned by Global SuperTanker Services of Colorado Springs could be activated under a call-when-needed contract.

In Utah, authorities allowed the return of some residents who fled a wildfire near a popular fishing lake 80 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. The blaze has burned about 75 square miles and destroyed 90 structures, including homes, cabins, sheds and garages, since starting Sunday in the mountains.

In Colorado, firefighters took advantage of occasional rainstorms to extend their containment lines at several large wildfires.

In the south, crews Saturday contained about 45 percent of a 167-squaremile fire that has destroyed more than 130 homes, while in Rocky Mountain ski country firefighters from 20 states were battling an 8-square-mile wildfire above the Roaring Fork Valley. Commanders said they hoped for one-third containment by late Sunday.

Crews also had 50 percent containment of a southwestern Colorado fire that has blackened 85 square miles north of Durango. Authorities said Saturday that storms could produce flash floods and mudslides in burn scars.

And in Colorado’s Park County, crews encircled a third of a fire that forced the Buffalo Creek Wilderness to close.

Gov. Greg Abbott hears from people directly affected by gun violence during a discussion at the Texas Capitol on May 24. JOHN C. MORITZ/USA TODAY NETWORK