Victoria Advocate

SU NDAY

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Shooting suspect identified

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VOL. 173, NO. 104, 40 PAGES, ©2018, VICTORIA ADVOCATE PUBLISHING CO.

SPECIAL REPORT ORT RT

PORT POLITICS

Farenthold FFa arenthold

Farenthold tried too teer federal contract to ssteer federal contract Calhoun alhoun port chai chairman rman C

Boyd Boyd

BY JESSICA PRIEST

INVESTIGATION FINDINGS

JPRIEST@VICAD.COM

Blake Farenthold, while serving in Congress, tried to steer a federal contract to a business owned by the chairman of the Calhoun Port Authority, which later hired the former congressman after he resigned in disgrace.

Legal experts and a political watchdog group described Farenthold’s business favor as ethically questionable.

In March 2015, Farenthold’s office arranged a meeting between the port’s board chairman, Randy Boyd, with two top Army Corps of Engineer Galveston District officials. In that meeting, Boyd told the Corps that his dredging business, RLB Contracting Inc., should work for them on the Houston Ship Channel.

The federal officials declined his offer, citing ethical and environmental rules that they had

■ Calhoun Port Chairman Randy Boyd contributed to Blake Farenthold’s campaign after the congressman arranged a meeting for him with the Army Corps of Engineers. The meeting concerned Boyd’s dredging business.

■ Experts say this meeting was ethically questionable and a dredger should not serve on a port authority board.

■ It was Boyd’s idea to hire Farenthold as the port’s lobbyist after the congressman resigned amid an ethics investigation. to abide by. After receiving a follow-up message from Farenthold’s office, they repeated this to the former congressman.

“The problem is, one, did he (Farenthold) intervene appropriately?” said Meredith McGehee, of Issue One, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that seeks to reduce payfor-play politics. “Two, did he do so

because this entity or the people involved were contributors?

And three, did he get this job as a reward for what he had done for him as a public official? And the fourth question is, obviously, what the heck is the owner of a dredging company doing as chair of the port authority?”

The Victoria Advocate became aware of Pannell the meeting through a Freedom of Information request the newspaper filed with the Corps.

The port’s hiring of Farenthold in May 2018 prompted public outcry. Many asked why a congressman forced out of office only a month before by his own party’s leadership would be an effective lobbyist and why the port had hired him.

SEE PORT, A4

PHOTOS BY ADVOCATE FILE AND ANGELA PIAZZA/APIAZZA@VICAD.COM, GRAPHIC BY KIMIKO FIEG/KFIEG@VICAD.COM

Top: An aerial view of Calhoun Port Authority. Bottom: RLB Contracting Inc. has leased space at the city of Port Lavaca’s Harbor of Refuge since 2002.

PUBLIC SAFETY

Drowned fisherman identified as 22-year-old Victoria man ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

Calhoun County Sheriff Bobbie Vickery confirmed the name of the missing boater in Port O’Connor as Tom Followwill, 22, of Victoria.

Followwill’s body was found at KAYLA RENIE/KRENIE@VICAD.COM 8:30 a.m. Saturday north of Grass IsDozens of community members and friends of Tom Followwill land, he said. The cause of death was gather at King Fisher Beach for a vigil. People lit candles and drowning. sang worship songs Saturday night in the young man’s honor.

The Coast Guard began searching

INSIDE

Why Catholic Church still struggles with sex abuse

WEATHER

GAS PRICES

TODAY

TONIGHT

Mostly sunny; breezy in afternoon

Mainly clear

97

for Followwill on Friday morning.

Sector/Air Station Corpus Christi watchstanders received a call at 7:18 a.m. Friday from a good Samaritan who had spotted a man stranded on Grass Island.

The fisherman was rescued by a Station Port O’Connor boat crew and informed them that he and a friend became stranded after their boat

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drifted away. The fisherman last saw his friend attempting to swim out to retrieve their boat.

Vickery advised people to not depend on mechanical anchors because the machinery can fail. The best bet, he said, is to use an conventional anchor and a rope.

DIESEL

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Agriculture.................D 6 Calendar .................... A2 Classifieds ................. D1 Gushers & Dusters..... D5 Horoscope ................. E5 Obituaries .................. B6 Puzzles ...................... E4 Sports ........................ C1 USA Today ................. B1

Viewpoints ................. D4 Weather ..................... C6 Your Life .................... E1

CITY EDITOR: TONY BALANDRAN, TBALANDRAN@VICAD.COM; DELIVERY DESK CHIEF/PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: J.R. ORTEGA, JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM

A2 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

NEW LOTTERY RESULTS To hear lottery numbers, call 1-800-375-6886. You will hear an automated message prompting you to press Option No. 1. After, you can choose which results you want to hear by pressing the corresponding number, or you can press Option No. 2 for all results.

AROUND THE CROSSROADS PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: J.R. ORTEGA, JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM

DAILY POLL

SUNDAY’S RESULTS

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

CORRECTIONS

Does the owner of a dredging company have a conflict of interest in serving as chairman of a port authority board?

Should the United States have a $92 million parade in Washington, D.C., to honor the military?

Gunfight on Bootlegger Lane ends with 1 dead

No ...........................86.4% Yes ..........................13.6%

4,067

The Advocate wants to correct promptly any error in fact or clarify any misleading information we publish. To report any error or need for clarification, please call 361574-1222.

To vote on this question, go to VictoriaAdvocate.com.

Read more at VictoriaAdvocate.com.

views as of 2:15 p.m. Saturday

CRIME

Man named, charged in Yoakum shooting death Kirkman

YOAKUM – The identity of a man suspected of killing a 36-year-old Friday in Yoakum was released Saturday.

Dakota Wayne Kirkman, 19, of rural Hallettsville, was charged with murder and being held in the DeWitt County Jail on a $500,000 bond. He was

arraigned Saturday.

Kirkman is suspected in the death of Manuel Martinez III, 36, who was shot and killed early Friday at his home at 867 Bootlegger Lane near Yoakum in DeWitt County, Sheriff Carl Bowen said.

Based on preliminary in-

terviews, the sheriff said it appeared Kirkman was upset because his girlfriend was at Martinez’s home.

There also was another woman, possibly Martinez’s girlfriend or wife, at the home.

Both women were inside and didn’t see the shooting out-

INEZ

side, he said.

The two men got in an argument and started shooting at each other, the sheriff said.

After Martinez was shot, Kirkman took his girlfriend and fled the scene, eventually returning to his home at 32 Private Road 4006, south of

Hallettsville in Lavaca County, Bowen said.

Martinez fired a 40-caliber gun but did not hit Kirkman, the sheriff said.

Kirkman fired a .22-caliber gun and struck Martinez in the chest, he said.

COMMUNITY

Mother, son involved in Inez train wreck no longer in critical condition ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

A mother and son who were flown to a San Antonio hospital following a wreck involving a train and a truck are no longer in life-threatening condition, according to Texas Department of Public Safety officials. Amanda Page, 33, of Victoria, and her three sons who range between 9 and 16 years old were injured Aug. 15 when

the pickup they were riding in crashed into a moving freight train in Inez.

Page and her 9-year-old son were both transported to University Hospital in San Antonio with injuriesbut are both now out of serious condition and are stable, said Sgt. Ruben San Miguel, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

LABOR OF LOVE

COMMUNITY

Family’s home damaged after bathroom fire ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

A Victoria family is displaced after a bathroom fire Thursday night made their home unlivable.

The home of Anthony and Cassi Hutson is full of soot, with water soaking multiple rooms, said Anthony Hutson. The fire originated in a middle bathroom.

Though the family has received some aid from the Red Cross, the family is accepting clothes: ■ For a 13-year-old girl, size 3 in juniors pants, size small in shirts and 8 1/2 in shoes; ■ For a 10-year-old boy, size 8 in pants, size 8-10 in shirts and size 3 in

shoes; ■ For a 7-year-old girl, size 6 in pants, size 7-8 in shirts and size 13 in shoes; ■ For a 6-year-old boy, size 6 in pants, size 6 in shirts and size 12 or 13 in shoes; ■ For an adult man, size 48 in pants, size 3X in shirts and size 10 and a half in shoes; ■ and for an adult woman, size 8-10 in pants, size medium-large in shorts and size 6 1/2 in shoes.

A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help the family financially. To contribute, go to GoFundMe. com/22mrsdxb.

PUBLIC SAFETY

2 injured in hit-and-run wreck on Navarro Street ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

Two people were injured after the Ford Mustang they were traveling in was rear-ended by a truck early Saturday morning.

A 1999 Ford Mustang was stopped in the northbound lane at a red light on North Navarro Street at the Zac Lentz Parkway about 2:15 a.m. Saturday when a Ford truck rear-ended the Ford Mustang, said Victoria police officer S. Williams.

The Ford truck left the scene, Williams said. The driver and the passenger in the Mustang were trans-

ported to DeTar Hospital Navarro with injuries.

Williams would not release the names of the driver and passenger of the Ford Mustang as the wreck is still under investigation.

Selina Rodriguez said her sister, Ruby Pineda, and Pineda’s father were involved in the wreck.

Rodriguez said her sister was transported to a San Antonio hospital. An official with San Antonio Military Medical Center confirmed Pineda was in the hospital but would not release information on her condition.

©2018 Victoria Advocate Publishing Co. (USPS 658-920) Established May 8, 1846

Published every morning by Victoria Advocate Publishing Company, 311 E. Constitution St., Victoria, Texas 77901, P.O. Box 1518. Periodicals postage paid at Victoria, Texas. Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to the use for republication of all the local news printed in this newspaper as well as all AP news dispatches.

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POSTMASTER: Change of Address notice should be sent to P.O. Box 2393, Victoria, Texas 77902.

KAYLA RENIE/KRENIE@VICAD.COM

Bailey Cisneros, 17, center, and other volunteers pass out giant bags of school supplies during the Pack the Bus event hosted by Faith Family Church. Pack the Bus is an annual opportunity for the community to work together to provide backpacks and school supplies for children and teens preparing for school. It took dozens of volunteers and many long hours to make this event happen.

“It’s all worth it; it’s a labor of love. We’re creating a community of honor and excellence,” said event coordinator Colonel Mike Petrash, 62.

CALENDAR SUNDAY BLOOD DRIVE ■ First English Lutheran Church parking lot ■ Corner of Main Street and Stayton Avenue ■ 9 a.m.-12 p.m.

■ Free ■ All blood types are desperately needed.

■ For more information, contact Debbie Moncrief at 361-9350290.

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BLESSING OF THE BACKPACKS ■ First Presbyterian Church

■ 2408 N. Navarro St. ■ 10 a.m.

■ Free ■ For more information, call 361-575-2441.

THE SWISS ALP DANCE CLUB PRESENTS THE DUJKA BROTHERS ■ Schulenburg Knights of Columbus Hall ■ 405 S. St., Schulenburg ■ 3-6:30 p.m.

■ $10 ■ The Swiss Alp Dance Club presents the Dujka Brothers.

Guests are welcome.

KC CHICKEN BBQ ■ Knights of Columbus Hall ■ 3610 Ben Wilson St.

■ Selling starts at 8:30 a.m.; no early sales.

■ $8 per chicken or three for $22. Spanish rice and beans available for $1.50 per pint.

■ For more information, call the hall Sunday morning at 361575-9214.

SUNDAY-MONDAY ‘FUNNY LITTLE THING CALLED LOVE’ AUDITIONS ■ Shiner Gaslight Theatre

■ 207 E. 7th St., Shiner ■ 2 p.m.

■ Free ■ Director Vickie Westergren will hold auditions at the theater at 2 p.m. Sunday and at 7 p.m.

Monday. There are parts for 19 women and 9 men (some parts will be doubled). Small parts are available. Age ranges will be 20-60.

■ Visit shinergaslight.org or Facebook.

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VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — A3

VictoriaAdvocate.com

CROSSROADS

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: J.R. ORTEGA, JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM

ELECTION

Cruz makes campaign stop in Victoria

BY AMBER ALDACO AALDACO@VICAD.COM

About 200 people from the Crossroads packed the Power Avenue Warehouse on Saturday afternoon to support U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz as he fights to keep his seat from democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke.

The senator touched on several issues during the rally, including immigration, the border wall, education and Hurricane Harvey.

He also answered questions from the audience.

The rally began with remarks from local Republican elected officials, with Victoria County commissioner Clint Ives calling Cruz a “true definition of a leader.”

“He is a symbol of true conservatism,” Ives said.

Cruz, after arriving to the rally more than an hour late, started his 20-minute speech with an anecdote about how he played basketball one-on-one with talk show host Jimmy Kimmel to raise money for charity.

He then spoke about tax cuts for small businesses, farmers and ranchers in Texas, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, low unemployment rates and health care.

He also spoke about more

Democrats heading to the polls this fall.

Cruz said he is confident Texas will remain a Republican state, though he is expecting a high number of Democratic voters.

Aug. 9, hundreds of Democrats from the Crossroads attended a townhall meeting with O’Rourke, which longtime local Democrats said was the biggest crowd of any Democratic candidate in Victoria in decades.

“We’re going to see record-shattering Democratic turnout in Texas in November,” Cruz said.

Later in the rally, Cruz spoke about the $10.4 million O’Rourke raised in the second quarter of 2018, which was more than double what Cruz raised in the same period.

Cruz took several questions from the audience, which included questions about his stance on sanctuary cities, whether he would run for president again and his stance on immigration.

In response to whether he would consider running for the presidency again, Cruz said the Senate is the battlefield, and he is focused on Texas.

Cruz said his stance on immigration has not changed, adding that his belief could

be reduced to four words: “Legal good. Illegal bad.”

Cruz also said he supports a border wall.

On the topic of Hurricane Harvey, Cruz spoke about the several times he has visited the affected areas in the past year and how he has helped pass three relief packages for Harvey relief and continues to meet with local officials to streamline aide.

When asked about the slow process for local counties to receive federal relief, Cruz said he has several members of his staff devoted solely to Harvey relief.

“We’ve seen billions of dollars in funds that have already been allocated and spent, but many of the counties – in particular some of the smaller, more rural counties – are still waiting in line, and that’s wrong,” he said.

He also spoke for the first time about how his opponent was one of four Democrats who voted against tax relief to victims of Harvey last September.

“I think that was an unfortunate and extreme position he took,” Cruz said.

Vanessa F. Hicks-Callaway, the Victoria GOP secretary and one of the organizers for the event, said at

PHOTOS BY KAYLA RENIE/KRENIE@VICAD.COM

TOP: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz signs autographs for the crowd during a campaign rally. Hundreds of people gathered to show their support. BELOW: Cruz poses for a photo during a campaign rally. Hundreds of people gathered to show their support. least 200 people attended the rally. Callaway said although Cruz was late, he was “worth the wait.”

“The senator hit key points that concern Texas voters ... Everything that we Texas voters care about,” she said. “He reassured us that he has not changed, and we can feel confident putting him back in office.”

INVESTIGATION

Family remains hopeful in search for missing woman

BY GABRIELLA CANALES GCANALES@VICAD.COM

PORT LAVACA – Julian Rodriguez wants his little girl to come home.

“I’m desperate because we’ve had no update,” said Rodriguez, 52, of Seadrift, in Spanish about his daughter, who has been missing for 16 days. “I’m desperate for answers.”

Family and friends of Suzie Escobedo, the missing 25-year-old Seadrift mother, gathered at 9:30 a.m. in the empty parking lot on SH 35 and SH 185 in Calhoun County to plan how they would hand out flyers and put up posters Saturday morning.

Escobedo, 25, went missing Aug. 2 from her Seadrift mobile home on Loop Road, leaving behind her 4-monthold daughter, keys and cellphone. Chief Deputy Johnny Krause, of the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, previously told the Victoria Advocate he suspects foul play and that Escobedo likely did not leave on her own.

About 1,200 flyers and posters were printed, said Escobedo’s sister, Brenda Rodriguez-Vallejo. The family planned to divide throughout the surrounding areas, including Victoria, Port Lavaca, Seadrift, Tivoli and Port O’Connor until there were no flyers left.

“Suzie’s a sweet girl,” said Rodriguez-Vallejo, 23, of Victoria.

Julian Rodriguez recalled Escobedo’s playful personality growing up and how she would pick on him.

“She laughed a lot,” said her brother, Esgar Rodriguez, 20.

“Sometimes you’d have to tell her to shut up because of her laughing.”

Another family member who said Escobedo Escobedo was a caring person was her uncle, Jose Vallejo, of Victoria.

He said the disappearance has been hard on him because Escobedo would come to him for advice and he would tell her to always have faith in God. “If someone has seen her, come forward and tell us,” said Vallejo in Spanish. “Anything helps right now.”

Escobedo was a member of the Hispanic United Pentecostal Church, said Nelia Pedraza, of Bloomington.

“She would always shake everyone’s hand,” said Pedraza, 23. “She’s like family to us.”

By spreading the flyers across the area, she said she wants people to know that they are not giving up.

Rodriguez-Vallejo said the family has gotten negative feedback on social media to give up their search. However, they will not stop.

“We hope and have faith she is still out there,” she said.

“We need her back safe and sound, and her kids are waiting for her to come home.”

Any amount of volunteers is important, said Rodriguez.

“After this, I hope to hear more good news about my daughter,” he said about passing out flyers. “Without closure, we’re grieving

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Esgar Rodriguez said every flyer and handout distributed about his sister will raise the chances of finding her.

“I would tell her that her family is here for her, and we are waiting for her to come back,” he said.

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A4 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

COVER STORY

“

It’s certainly not my job to push one person over another to get a government contract ...

“

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: J.R. ORTEGA, JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM

BLAKE FARENTHOLD Former congressman

ANGELA PIAZZA/APIAZZA@VICAD.COM

Calhoun Port Authority Board Chairman Randy Boyd, middle left, speaks with Port Director Charles Hausmann before a special meeting May 24 in Point Comfort.

PORT CONTINUED FROM A1

When the Advocate learned that neither Farenthold’s name nor his position were on the agenda, it sued the port for violating the Texas Open Meetings Act. Farenthold, Boyd and Calhoun Port Authority Director Charles Hausmann all gave court-ordered depositions as part of the lawsuit.

In their depositions, Boyd and Hausmann said it was Boyd’s idea to hire Farenthold but hiring and firing port employees was within Hausmann’s power.

However, emails the port provided to the Advocate show a different approval process. They show Hausmann wrote to the former congressman that the board needed to approve his contract before he could be hired. Minutes from the board’s May 9 meeting also show Boyd directed Hausmann to hire Farenthold.

Boyd has said Farenthold could help save the port about $25 million, or a quarter of the estimated cost to

repair long-defective jetties in the Matagorda Ship Channel. The port is now obligated to pay a portion of the work, so changing that arrangement would require congressional action. Boyd said Farenthold’s close ties to U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, outgoing chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, could accomplish this.

Neither Shuster nor his spokespeople responded to multiple requests for comment. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has not met with Farenthold and has no plans to do so, said AshLee Strong, Ryan’s national press secretary.

During his deposition Aug. 1, Farenthold said the business favor he did for Boyd was not exceptional.

He said he’s helped many constituents who have had trouble with a federal agency.

“It’s certainly not my job to push one person over another to get a government contract,” Farenthold said, “but it is to bring economic development to the district I represent.”

The Houston Ship Channel project Farenthold dis-

cussed with the Corps was not in his district.

Boyd said during his deposition July 31 that he considered Farenthold a friend, but he didn’t think the former congressman had helped him or any board member in securing a government contract.

“I don’t believe he’s able to by law, but I don’t know,” Boyd said. “Not to my knowledge.”

McGehee said the Farenthold-Boyd deal reminded her of the Keating Five.

That’s when five U.S. senators were accused of improperly intervening on behalf of Charles H. Keating, Jr., chairman of the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association, which was the target of a regulatory investigation by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board.

Since 2011, Boyd has donated $17,800 to Farenthold.

He had never donated to a federal political candidate before. And Boyd donated $5,000 to Farenthold’s campaign a day after the congressman’s office began arranging a meeting for him with the Corps, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Boyd also gave $3,250 to Brighter Future PAC, which lists Farenthold’s wife, Debbie, as the treasurer, on Oct. 13, 2016. Federal Elections Commission records show that the next day, the Brighter Futures PAC gave $2,500 to Bill Shuster for Congress and $2,500 to Issa for Congress. Shuster also announced earlier this year that he is leaving Congress. Issa for Congress is the committee for Congressman Darrell Issa, R-California, who serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

In an interview Thursday with the Victoria Advocate, Boyd said his donation to Farenthold after his office arranged a meeting with the Corps was “coincidental.”

Boyd was first elected to the board of the Calhoun Port Authority in 1997. By then, he had been in the dredging business for many years. First, he worked for his grandfather’s well-respected dredging business, King Fisher Marine Service. Then, he worked for Orion Marine Group, which bought King Fisher Marine

Service and remains in Port Lavaca.

In 2000, Boyd started his own dredging business, RLB Contracting Inc., according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

The next year, when Boyd was port chairman, the board passed a conflict-of-interest policy. According to the policy, the port can do business with a board member’s company if that board member is “not the key decision-maker regarding the goods or services sought to be furnished” and if there is public bidding.

In his interview Thursday, Boyd said he didn’t remember the specifics of the policy but said it was his idea to come up with it and he’s abided by it ever since. He said he does not think he has a conflict of interest after consulting over the years with the port’s attorney, Wanda Roberts.

Robby Burdge, a onetime donor to Farenthold, is chairman of the nearby Port of Victoria. In his 10 years on the Port of Victoria board, he said, no board member has ever owned a dredging business.

The Port of Victoria’s ethics policy states “no commissioner shall directly or indirectly engage in any private business, transaction or employment, or have any significant financial interest therein, which is incompatible or in conflict with the proper or impartial discharge of his/her duties on behalf of the navigation district.”

It defines “significant financial interest” as “any direct or indirect benefit to the decision-maker other than the interest that would accrue to him or her as a taxpayer or resident.”

Port of Victoria Director Skip Kaup said the policy was similar to ones used by other ports.

If a dredger were on a board with a policy like the one adopted by the Port of Victoria, he would be in violation, said Katya Abazajian, who works for the Sunlight Foundation, which works on local government policy issues like this one.

“And I would add that this is especially true of a business operating within the jurisdiction of the port/ navigation district since it

SEE PORT, A5

Documents describe Army Corps rebuffing port chairman

BY JESSICA PRIEST JPRIEST@VICAD.COM

The Army Corps of Engineers said what Calhoun Port Authority Board Chairman Randy Boyd proposed violated several federal laws.

On March 23, 2015, Congressman Blake Farenthold’s staff arranged a meeting between Boyd and Corps officials to discuss Boyd’s company, RLB Contracting Inc., doing a project for the Corps on the Houston Ship Channel.

“The Congressman will be meeting with Mr. Boyd at 5 p.m. (EST) today, and he would like to assure Mr. Boyd that a meeting can be arranged,” Blake Adami, Farenthold’s legislative director, wrote to the Corps.

On March 24, Boyd contributed $5,000 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

On March 26, Boyd met with Col. Richard Pannell and Ed Russo.

Farenthold has since said he was there as well, even though the Houston Ship Channel was not in his district. He said he left before the meeting ended.

At the time, Pannell served as the commander of the Corps’ Galveston District. Russo continues to be the deputy district engineer,

overseeing projects for a district that spans 50,000 square miles of the Texas Coast from Louisiana to Mexico.

At the meeting, Boyd proposed using clay material from dock expansions along containment dikes at the Lost Lake Placement Area in the Houston Ship Channel.

When Adami wrote to the Corps after the meeting that Boyd was disappointed with how it went, Pannell penned a letter to Farenthold.

In the letter, he explained that what Boyd had proposed would violate the Federal Miscellaneous Receipts Act, the Federal Acquisition Regulations and the Competition in Contracting Act and the National Enviromental Policy Act. Basically, Pannell wrote, the Corps couldn’t accept material worth money without first giving it to the U.S. Treasury Department and allowing Congress to allocate it.

Pannell wrote that Boyd’s contract with the Corps had also expired and the Corps was required to competitively bid projects. In fact, Pannell wrote, “the proposal conflicts with planned federal dredging advertising in April 2015 and awarding in July 2015.”

“Having two different contractors working in the same placement areas at the same time creates poten-

tial liability issues,” Pannell added.

In an interview Thursday with the Victoria Advocate, Boyd described how the Corps rebuffed him as “crazy.”

Boyd said he couldn’t recall the specifics of the meeting but said he remembered trying to get a contract to do a project with a private entity.

At the end of that project, Boyd said his company would have had extra material to dispose of. Instead of disposing of it at a sand pit and passing that cost along to the private entity, he said, he proposed to the Corps using it to build levees.

“It was going to be a win-win,” Boyd said.

He said he thought because Farenthold represented him and the 27th district, he would be the “logical person to help facilitate that happening so the government could get the cost savings.”

When the Victoria Advocate learned of the meeting via a Freedom of Information Act request, it asked the Corps if a congressman and a port chairman should be lobbying for that port chairman’s company to get a federal contract.

Lt. Col. Mark Williford, a spokesman for the Corps, said the agency works to allow everyone to access Corps officials.

“Historical documents from

meetings with former Rep. Farenthold and Mr. Boyd show we communicated our concerns regarding the proposed projects with the Houston Port Authority. There is no record of any contractual or financial benefit to the parties in question resulting from that meeting,” he said.

When the Advocate asked whether the Corps had any concern about entering into a contract with a dredger who also sits on a port authority board, Williford said the dredger “must still meet the same strict disclosure requirements when bidding on advertised projects.”

“Any contractual awards are solely based on an open and transparent competitive bidding process that meets federal law,” he said.

Boyd said in his interview that his company, RLB Contracting Inc., “has always been the low bidder on every contract.”

That was true when the Corps went out for bids to dredge the Matagorda Ship Channel and from the Matagorda Peninsula to Point Comfort after Hurricane Harvey.

RLB beat two other bidders.

They were the Orion Marine Group, which he used to work for, and Mike Hooks. RLB was the lowest bidder. RLB’s bid was even 14.37 percent below what the gov-

ernment estimated the project would cost, records show.

Since then, the contract has been modified at least twice, and an additional $315,000 has been tacked onto the about $4.7 million contract.

When working on another multimillion-dollar Corps’ contract to dredge the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and the main channel across San Antonio Bay in Calhoun and Aransas counties, RLB’s dredge caught fire after it hit a natural gas pipeline.

The project is still stalled as repairs are made to RLB’s dredge, the Jonathan King Boyd.

The Advocate reached out to Orion and Mike Hooks, as well as a handful of other dredgers RLB has competed with, to see whether they thought Boyd had an unfair advantage, but they did not return requests for comment.

Meanwhile, Congressman Gene Green, D-Texas, whose district includes the Houston Ship Channel, did not appear to know about Boyd’s and Farenthold’s meeting with the Corps.

Through a spokesman, Green said, “I have represented parts of the Port of Houston for 30 years as state senator and now in Congress. We have worked with local government officials and not local contractors.”

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — A5

VictoriaAdvocate.com

COVER STORY

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: J.R. ORTEGA, JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM

BOYD, FARENTHOLD HISTORY

KING FISHER

■ 1940 – King Fisher, Randy Boyd’s grandfather, starts a dredging business.

■ 1997 – Boyd joins the board of the Calhoun Port Authority.

■ 1998 – King Fisher Marine Service Inc. is sold and becomes Orion Marine Group. Boyd works for both.

■ May 15, 2000 – Boyd files articles of incorporation for RLB Contracting Inc. with the Secretary of State’s Office. He lists himself as president and director.

■ Feb. 14, 2001 – The Calhoun Port Authority board passes a conflict-of-interest policy. Boyd is chairman of the board.

■ 2009 - While seeking a contract with the Army Corps of Engineers, Boyd’s company, RLB Contracting, reports it has 45 employees and an annual revenue of $9 million.

■ Nov. 2, 2010 – Blake Farenthold wins his first term as a congressman by fewer than 800 votes.

■ 2011 - Farenthold is appointed to the House’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and to the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Committee.

■ Oct. 28, 2011 - Boyd contributes $2,500 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee.

■ 2012 - While seeking a government contract, RLB reports it has 75 employees and an annual revenue of $18 million.

■ Sept. 11, 2012 – Boyd contributes $1,000 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee.

■ Nov. 6, 2012 – Farenthold wins a second term in office.

■ April 30, 2013 – Boyd contributes $1,000 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee.

■ Sept. 4, 2013 – Boyd contributes $2,500 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee.

■ Nov. 4, 2014 – Farenthold wins a third term in office.

■ March 23, 2015 – Farenthold’s staff arranges a meeting between Boyd and Army Corps of Engineers officials to discuss a dredging project for the Houston Ship Channel.

■ March 24, 2015 – Boyd contributes $5,000 to the Elect Blake Farenthold campaign.

■ March 26, 2015 – Boyd meets with the Corps.

Farenthold attends, too.

■ March 27, 2015 – Farenthold’s staff asks the Corps for a summary of how it thinks the meeting with Boyd went after Boyd expresses displeasure.

■ Sept. 6, 2016 – Boyd contributes $400 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee.

■ Nov. 8, 2016 – Farenthold wins a fourth term in office.

■ Nov. 17, 2017 – Boyd contributes $5,400 to the Elect Blake Farenthold Committee.

■ Dec. 1, 2017 – Politico reports Farenthold

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Randy and Debbie Boyd, of RLB Contracting Inc., presented a check for $1,000 to Pescado Grande Fishing Tournament. RLB is a Biggest Catch sponsor for the event. Shown with the check, from left, are Randy and Debbie Boyd; The Harbor Executive Director Virginia Hahn; and Christine Mayer, chairperson of the Pescado Grande Fishing Tournament. settled a sexual harassment complaint brought against him by his former communications director, Lauren Greene, for $84,000 in taxpayer money.

■ Dec. 7, 2017 – The House Committee on Ethics launches an investigation into Farenthold.

■ Dec. 14, 2017 – Farenthold announces he will not seek re-election and that he intends to pay the $84,000 back.

■ 2018 - RLB reports it has 95 employees and an annual revenue of $25 million.

■ Jan. 29, 2018 – Boyd contributes $2,700 to Cloud for Congress.

■ April 6, 2018 – Farenthold resigns from

Congress.

■ April 23, 2018 – Gov. Greg Abbott calls a special election to fill the remainder of Farenthold’s term.

■ May 2, 2018 – Farenthold writes to Abbott that he will not pay for the special election.

■ May 9, 2018 – The Calhoun Port Authority meets in closed session for 80 minutes. Afterward in open session, Boyd tells Port Director Charles Hausmann “to hire the person discussed.”

■ May 15, 2018 – Farenthold tells ABC News that he will not repay the $84,000 on the advice of his attorneys. That same day, he calls a Corpus Christi radio station and announces he is working as a lobbyist for the Calhoun Port Authority.

ANGELA PIAZZA/APIAZZA@VICAD.COM

RLB Contracting Inc.’s lease at the city of Port Lavaca’s Harbor of Refuge requires it to build 300 linear feet of bulk head.

PORT CONTINUED FROM A4

means that a wider range of the commission’s activity would be directly relevant to the business’ operation,” she said.

Danny W. Wan, an attorney for the Port of Oakland in California, taught at a recent American Association of Port Authorities seminar that “a public official may not make, participate in making or in any way use or attempt to use his or her official position to influence a governmental decision when that decision will have a reasonably foreseeable material financial effect, distinguishable from the effect on the public generally, directly on the official...”

Wan taught that public officials could open themselves up to criminal or civil liability if they do. The Calhoun Port Authority is a member of the national association.

Victoria City Councilman Tom Halepaska has thought a lot about ethics because he, too, owns his own business. To avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest, he does not sell his Halepaska’s Bakery pastries to the city of Victoria.

He said he considered the Calhoun Port Authority to be similar to the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which he chairs. Both the port and MPO vet projects and give their blessing to the governmental agencies that fund the work. For the MPO, that’s the Texas Department of Transportation. For the port, that’s the Army Corps of Engineers. Because of this conflict, Halepaska said,

Boyd should step down.

“You might be a Democrat, you might be a Republican, but everybody votes their pocketbook,” Halepaska said. “Put yourself in that situation. Something that would affect your income, you’d be hard-put not to be thinking about it.”

The Advocate asked for copies of any contracts the port had with RLB Contracting Inc., and the port said it did not have any.

RLB has had 33 contracts with the Army Corps of Engineers since 2003, and eight of those contracts were in the immediate vicinity of the Calhoun Port Authority.

Some were for dredging the Matagorda Ship Channel and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, which would enable the port to accept more heavily loaded ships.

A look at RLB’s contracts with the Corps shows the company flourished during Farenthold’s tenure.

In 2009, the year before Farenthold was elected, RLB reported having 45 employees and an annual revenue of $9 million. This year, it reported having 95 employees and an annual revenue of $25 million.

RLB also received more Corps contracts and payments from the agency during Farenthold’s tenure: 19 contracts and about $89 million. Before Farenthold was first elected in 2010, RLB received 14 Corps contracts, and its payments from the agency totaled about $52 million.

Former Calhoun Port Authority Board Member Tom Flores said he also didn’t think a dredger should be chairman. Flores said he thought Boyd could use in-

formation he obtained as chairman to give himself an edge in the bidding process.

Flores, who is retired from Alcoa’s environmental department, served on the board from 1989 to 1997 and recalled winning his first election against an incumbent by just a handful of votes.

Flores said he thought it would be easy for Boyd to use his chairmanship to gain financial advantage for himself. Flores said he often worried those with whom he served with were subconsciously doing just that.

When Flores served, the nearby Formosa chemical plant was covering the costs of building the present-day port because the waterway could handle only barge traffic at the time.

“All of the other guys wanted Formosa to come in because it was going to make them money, and I said, ‘Wait a minute. We have to do this right,’” Flores said.

But some Port Lavaca residents said they don’t see how RLB’s success could be a conflict of interest or tied to any favor by Farenthold.

“I know that he has steadily grown the company and, at one time, he didn’t have a dredge,” Calhoun County Judge Michael J. Pfeifer said. “When he got his dredge, that opened up more opportunities, and when you start talking about a dredging contract, when you get a dredging contract, for the Houston Ship Channel or even here with some of this, just a small dredging contract is probably like a million dollars or over, you know?”

Pfeifer and Calhoun County GOP Chairman Russell

Cain said Boyd was charitable, especially to Calhoun County youth who raise livestock to show each year.

“The Boyds have fed a lot of mouths here,” Cain said.

In his interview Thursday, Boyd said he grew his business in 2011 when he got into dredging after another dredging company in Port Lavaca bought out a third.

The two other dredging companies were Orion Marine Group and TW LaQuay Dredging. Orion Marine Group was managed by one of Boyd’s family members while TW LaQuay Dredging was owned by his aunt and uncle.

“What I’d like people to know about RLB is that we’ve given a tremendous amount of money to the community ... that we believe in doing what’s right, and that there is no conflict of interest with us and the port,” he said.

According to the Calhoun Port Authority’s conflict-of-interest policy, those board members whose companies do business with the port must fill out an affidavit and file it with the chairman. Only nine such affidavits have been filed in 17 years. Boyd has filed only one during his 18 years on the board.

In 2003, Boyd filed an affidavit with then-chairman Roger G. Martinez, promising to abstain from discussing or voting on the “Indianola-Magnolia Beach Erosion Control Project” because the General Land Office had selected his company, RLB, as the contractor for the $1.9 million project.

In his interview with the Advocate, Boyd contended that this is his only conflict

of interest while serving on the board and that it was a conflict of interest because the port contributed money to the project. Boyd declined to say why the port contributed to the project or by how much.

The port, meanwhile, continues to deny violating the Texas Open Meetings Act when it hired Farenthold.

The port board agreed to pay either $400 an hour, or up to $80,000 a year, for a lawyer to fight the lawsuit.

John Griffin, an attorney who represents the Advocate in the matter, has said repeatedly that the port could have avoided any legal expense by reposting the May 9 meeting’s agenda with Farenthold’s name and the lobbying position on it. After doing that, the port board could legally hire Farenthold.

Instead, the case is awaiting trial while the port pays Farenthold about $13,333 a month and doesn’t require him to document his work.

When the Advocate asked for any evidence of Farenthold’s work, the port provide only one email exchange between Farenthold and Hausmann.

“I think I qualify as a ‘public official’ being an employee of the port, so my communications are excepted from the definition of ‘lobbying contract’ and shouldn’t require registration,” Farenthold wrote to Hausmann.

In his deposition, Boyd downplayed the public’s outrage about Farenthold’s hiring. He said he had heard from maybe one or two people in his district concerned about the hiring.

As part of a Texas Public

Information Act request, the Advocate received 99 emails and 17 letters from the public to the port and to Farenthold in the two months after Farenthold’s hiring.

Only two were positive, asking Farenthold for his autograph. Some were riddled with expletives.

“Your board has broken the law by hiring him! Fire him immediately as Farenthold has dishonored his oath and took (sic) taxpayer funds for personal use,” wrote Claudia Tarrillion, of Port O’Connor, who signed her email as a “disgusted and sickened taxpayer.”

Joseph Moldenhauer, an 84-year-old who owns a weekend home in Seadrift, tried Aug. 3 for the fourth time to mail a letter to the port. He said each of his letters had been returned to him as undeliverable even though he was mailing them to a post office box listed on the port’s website.

“I’m just protesting the malodorous appointment of Farenthold as the port authority’s lobbyist,” he said in an interview with the Advocate. “You can quote me as saying that I care very much.”

In his deposition, Farenthold said he advised Boyd and Hausmann not to worry about any public backlash.

“I think we had a conversation about the fact that I was a media focus right now,” Farenthold said, “and we both agreed that in a month or so that that would die down, and we’d be able to go on with my job without a lot of media scrutiny. With this litigation, that has not come to pass.”

A6 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

COVER STORIES

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: J.R. ORTEGA, JRORTEGA@VICAD.COM

EDUCATION

IMMIGRATION

School districts weigh duty to youth migrant shelters ASSOCIATED PRESS

When San Benito, Texas, school leaders learned of an influx of children to a migrant shelter in their small town near the U.S.-Mexico border, they felt obliged to help.

The superintendent reached out and agreed to send 19 bilingual teachers, mobile classrooms and hundreds of computers to make the learning environment resemble one of his schools.

While a government contractor bears responsibility for educating children at the highly guarded center, local officials say they stepped up partly because of a law that calls on school systems to educate any child, anywhere within their district.

“This is not a political issue. This is not a racial issue. This is a moral obligation, and actually our legal obligation,” said Michael Vargas, who leads the board of the San Benito Consolidated Independent School District.

San Benito is one of a small number of U.S. school systems that are preparing for the first day of school on both their public campuses and in new classrooms set up at nearby federal youth migrant shelters. In neighboring Brownsville, Texas, the superintendent is working on an agreement to deploy teachers and services to help educate 800 children housed in federal facilities in her district.

The school systems pitched in amid an outcry over the separation of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy for illegal immigration.

Several hundred children remain separated from their parents, but most of the thousands of young people held in federal shelters across the U.S. are unaccompanied minors who arrived in the country without their families.

The Associated Press inquired with public school districts in 61 cities nationwide where shelters are known to exist within their boundaries. Among the 50 that responded, most said they had no contact with the shelter or federal program authorities. Some outside the border states, including Camden, New Jersey, said they only recently discovered the existence of migrant shelters in their community.

Many noted they would educate all children regardless of immigration

FISHERMAN CONTINUED FROM A1

Vickery also urged peo-

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Dignitaries take a tour of Southwest Key Programs Casa Padre, a U.S. immigration facility in Brownsville where children are detained on June 18. status, as required by law, if their families or legal guardians sought enrollment on their campuses.

“Until this becomes a real-time issue for us, we have no official position,” said Superintendent Dennis Blauser of the Oracle, Arizona, school district.

In Texas, some districts already had longstanding agreements to run classrooms with public school teachers at migrant shelters.

By law, the federal contractors that operate the shelters are required to have a “care provider” give children six hours a day of structured learning time.

Southwest Key, the largest contractor operating such facilities, has agreements with two school districts, including San Benito. It is also working to create partnerships with the Brownsville Independent School District and with a charter school network run separately by Southwest Key’s parent organization.

Salvador Cavazos, Southwest Key’s vice president of educational services, said the nonprofit shelter operator has for years offered great basic services but is now welcoming more help from outside school systems as an enhancement as the number of children in its care grows.

He said Southwest Key gets appreciative feedback from families after the average 30- to 45-day stay for each child, and most students leave with some level of academic gain. He said the children do “a lot of good work” studying through a project-based curriculum that is aligned with state standards.

“They do history projects.

They do class presentations. They do read-alouds with the books and novels that they’re reading,” said Cavazos, a former school teacher and administrator.

The districts’ role is largely limited to their regular school year, though the shelters also provide supplemental curriculum during summer months.

Rochelle Garza, a Brownsville, Texas-based attorney who advocates for the children in court noted the students can be detained for a semester or more with repeating instruction as other kids cycle in and out.

Brownsville Superintendent Esperanza Zendejas said she felt a responsibility to honor the spirit of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed all children in the United States are entitled to enroll in their local public school district for a free education.

Zendejas said the district also has an obligation to work around the troubling circumstances of such a vulnerable population of children, just as the law enforces for homeless children.

She said her school district is well-equipped and willing to handle the important task, and ready to provide teachers and special education, bilingual and support services.

“The question of who gets educated in our country is coming up, and my belief is everybody should receive an education if you are in this country,” Zendejas said.

But Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the children should be released from custody and be allowed to learn at public school campuses instead of the schools creating an inadequate experience within the confines of the shelter.

“It’s not a time for amateurs, and some school districts are frankly amateurs in dealing with short-term incarcerated youth after trauma” from family separation, Saenz said.

ple to not swim after drifting boats and instead get to land and call someone to help retrieve the boat.

This is about the fourth time in a year someone has

drowned trying to retrieve a drifting boat, he said.

“Don’t chase the boat. It is so dangerous. You can’t keep up with a drifting boat,” he said. “Let it go.”

Community college was part of my journey

“While attending Texas A&I University, I took summer classes at Victoria College that were affordable, met my degree plan, and helped me graduate on time.”

Ben Galvan, CivilCorp VC Foundation Board

Andy Burge, 68, poses for a photo in the lobby of Liberty Academy. Andy is one of nearly 200 students who gathered to take a photo with the old Victoria High School mascot on the floor of the lobby, the stingaree, as part of the class of 1968’s 50th reunion. “I’ve been coming the last 25 years, like a lot of people. Early on there was a lot of things going on in our lives, and we couldn’t make it,” says Andy. “Someone the other day said that if you look around here, we all graduated in 1968 and most of us are 68 years old. A lot of us don’t live here anymore, so it’s interesting to see how things have changed.”

50

YEARS IN THE MAKING PHOTOS BY MATTHEW WESTMORELAND

Members of the Victoria High School class of 1968 gather in the lobby of the school, now Liberty Academy, after taking a portrait behind the school’s former mascot, the stingaree, which has been embedded in the lobby floor since 1919.

MWESTMORELAND@VICAD.COM

EDUCATION media has been removed.

The Houston Independent School District says the sign that read, “The more you act like a lady, the more he’ll act HOUSTON (AP) — A sign like a gentleman,” was reat a Houston elementa- moved Friday night. The wall ry and middle school that was patched and repainted.

The sign was above a row sparked criticism on social

Houston school removes sign after social media criticism

of lockers in a girls’ locker room at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center, a school covering kindergarten through eighth grade.

The sign drew attention on social media after a Houston resident posted a picture of it on Twitter.

USA TODAY ❚ VICTORIA ADVOCATE

SECTION B

A sneak peek at four new shows to catch this fall

08.19.18

Kathy Bates joins “American Horror Story” for its eighth season, while “This Is Us” inspires an imitation. In Life GETTY IMAGES

IN BRIEF Texas jury awards more than $242M for Lexus seat defects A Texas jury awarded more than $242 million Friday to a Dallas-area family who sued Toyota over what they said were defective front seats in their Lexus sedan.

Benjamin and Kristi Reavis alleged defects caused their front seat backs in a September 2016 rear-end collision to collapse on their two young children in the back, causing the 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son severe head trauma and other injuries.

Why Catholic Church still struggles with sex abuse Pa. grand jury report found progress, but cover-ups and secrecy continue Ed Mahon, Holly Meyer and Xerxes Wilson USA TODAY NETWORK

Minnesota Democrats endorse Ellison amid abuse allegation Minnesota Democrats are standing behind U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison and his bid for state attorney general, with the state party giving him an endorsement Saturday amid an allegation of domestic abuse from an ex-girlfriend.

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Ken Martin said in a statement that Ellison “will be a champion for families and fight to hold powerful interests accountable.”

“I want you to know that I am committed to listening to all of the voices of every victim of abuse,” Ellison told delegates Saturday. “I recognize and hear those voices of so many women who were silenced when they needed to be heard.”

A women prays before leaving St. Patrick Cathedral in Harrisburg, Pa., following a Mass of Forgiveness on Friday. TY LOHR/USA TODAY NETWORK

In an internal diocese memo from Erie, Pennsylvania, a priest admitted to being “aroused” while tutoring a boy, hugging him and sharing sexually suggestive text messages with multiple boys.

The priest’s bishop admonished him to “cease and desist,” but Catholic Church leaders didn’t pass that information along to authorities until six years later — and only then in response

to a grand jury subpoena.

The Rev. David Poulson resigned from the diocese in February, three months before he was charged with sexually abusing two boys.

Poulson’s case is an example of how abuse and cover-up continue to plague the Catholic Church, 16 years after the issue exploded into the national consciousness in Boston. Since then, the church has vowed to make improvements and paid out billions of dollars of parishioners’ tithes to victims.

See ABUSE, Page 2B

Beach where shark bit man closed to swimming indefinitely The Cape Cod beach where a New York man was bitten by a shark has been indefinitely closed to swimming after more sharks were spotted.

The town of Truro said Friday night that Long Nook Beach will be closed until further notice.

The beach near the tip of the Cape Cod peninsula was closed after William Lytton, 61, of Scarsdale, was hospitalized Wednesday with puncture wounds to his torso and legs. Tufts Medical Center in Boston said he remained in fair condition Saturday.

Italy’s leader demands safe roads as bridge death toll hits 42 Italy’s president demanded guarantees Saturday that all the nation’s roads are safe following the Genoa highway bridge collapse. President Sergio Mattarella spoke after comforting mourners at a state funeral for many of the dead in the port city.

The toll from Tuesday’s bridge collapse rose unofficially to 42 with the discovery of four more bodies.

Hundreds of neo-Nazis march in Berlin, protected by police

Steve Dennis was found abandoned in a telephone booth in Lancaster, Ohio, in 1954. CHERYL EVANS/ARIZONA REPUBLIC

Mystery of abandoned phone booth baby solved Phoenix man, now 64, will soon meet biological mother after lifetime apart Spencer Remoquillo Lancaster Eagle Gazette | USA TODAY NETWORK

LANCASTER, Ohio Hundreds of neo-Nazis waving flags with the colors of the German Reich marched through central Berlin Saturday, protected from left-wing protesters by police in riot gear.

The marchers wore white shirts to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the death of high-ranking Nazi official Rudolf Hess and carried banners with slogans such as “I regret nothing.”

From staff and wire reports

W

hen bread delivery men opened the door to a telephone booth one cold January morning in 1954 and discovered a cooing baby, they had no idea

how he got there. ❚ It would take 64 years and a DNA test for the mystery of “Little Boy Blue-eyes” to be solved.

Dennis was adopted by an Arizona couple and grew up there.

His eyes have darkened to brown, but 64-year-old Phoenix resident Steve Dennis knows he was the approximately 2-month-old baby with no birth date, birth place or birth parents to be found.

Instead, his birth certificate lists the place he was found that morning: a telephone booth outside Yielky’s Drive-In on U.S. 22, a former restaurant just outside Lancaster’s See BABY, Page 2B

USA SNAPSHOTS©

Former UN chief Kofi Annan dies at 80 Sean Rossman USA TODAY

25% of pre-retirees expect Social Security to be their primary source of retirement income.

SOURCE Personal Capital survey of 1,630 U.S. pre-retirees MIKE B. SMITH, JANET LOEHRKE/USA TODAY

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan died Saturday after a brief illness, his foundation said. He was 80.

“Kofi Annan was a global statesman and a deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world,” read a statement posted to Annan’s Twitter account. “During his distinguished career and leadership of the United Nations he was an ardent champion of peace, sustainable development, hu-

man rights and the rule of law.” keeping and fighting poverty, Annan, from Ghana, started at setting the framework for the the UN in 1962, rising through the U.N.’s 21st-century response to ranks to secretary-general from mass atrocities and its emphasis 1997 to 2006. He received the on human rights and develop2001 Nobel Prize for Peace, which ment. he shared with the organization. Kofi Annan He was chairman of the Kofi As secretary-general, Annan Annan Foundation and a group presided over some of the worst founded by South Africa’s Nelfailures and scandals at the world body, son Mandela called The Elders – interone of its most turbulent periods since national leaders working for peace and its 1945 founding. He spent much of his human rights. Members include extime struggling to restore its reputation. President Jimmy Carter and former U.N. He left behind an organization far Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. more aggressively engaged in peaceContributing: Associated Press

2B ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY

- VICTORIA ADVOCATE

Baby Continued from Page 1B

city limits. He was wrapped in a blanket and tucked in a cardboard box and had been there at least three or four hours before the bread delivery men saw something moving in the booth.

For years Dennis didn’t think the story was true. It was too far-fetched. He also never expected to learn the identity of his biological mother or the story leading up to being left in an Ohio phone booth. But he did, and he’s meeting his biological mother later this month for the first time.

Adolescence Dennis remembers his adoptive parents, Stanley and Vivian Dennis, telling him he was adopted when he was quite

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“I’ll just take whatever she gives me and leave it at that.”

Steve Dennis Will soon meet his biological mom, now in her 80s

young.

“Luckily, my parents told me early on that I was adopted, probably from the time I was 3,” he said. “Most of that really had no impact on me. You hear it so much, it doesn’t faze you anymore.”

He was 15 or 16 when he heard the outlandish story about being discovered in a phone booth.

At first police weren’t sure whether he was a kidnapping victim or if a passing motorist left him there. Police settled on the latter when there were no subsequent reports of child abductions.

Still, they never found the baby’s parents. The Eagle-Gazette published several articles describing the event, the first one stating “... the baby was lively, but very cold, and a full milk bottle was found beside the infant. The bottle was also cold. The baby’s physical condition appeared to be good.”

After the first story was published, dozens of people expressed interest in fostering or adopting the baby. Dennis was placed in a foster home and adopted by the Dennis family in February 1955. They moved to Arizona, where Dennis has resided ever since.

“When I was 18 or 19 I went to Lancaster to kind of get a look at it,” Dennis said, adding that at the time, there wasn’t much to find.

He had let it go for years until his two daughters, ages 18 and 14, got him a Ancestry.com DNA test that determines ethnicity and can find genetic relatives.

The results came back in January, followed by a message from a man also using Ancestry.com who was a genetic match to Dennis. This man, he learned, was his first cousin.

“He said, ‘I think I know who your mother is. We’ve heard throughout our lives that there’s a baby that we’re related to that was left in a telephone booth,’” Dennis recalled. “It was like this hidden secret.”

Dennis’ cousin connected him to Dennis’ half-sister, who lives in Baltimore. Growing up, his sister had also heard the story, she said.

E1

“This deep, dark secret of my biological mother, the kids had heard about this, but they weren’t sure if it’s true or not,” he said. To check the story, his sister got her own DNA test, confirming the match.

From there, Dennis’ sister contacted their mother, who also lives in Baltimore.

“The mother has finally said she wants to meet with me,” Dennis said.

“Slowly, week by week, she said, ‘I kind of remember.’ ” He was told his mother was 18 and coerced to give him up by his father, saying he’d marry her if they left the baby. The couple was traveling through Ohio from Kentucky, where he was born in a hospital. They were on their way back to Maryland when the father took the baby and left him in a phone booth. After that, the father disappeared.

He has no further history of his father. His mother, now in her 80s, married someone else and has two daughters.

Dennis said he’s had a good life. He was in the Peace Corps, traveled extensively and married Maria, his wife of 22 years. They had two children and Dennis, a chiropractor, recently retired.

Meeting his mother Later this month, Dennis is traveling to Maryland to meet his mother and half-sister for the first time.

“It’s interesting. It’s not like earth shattering or anything like that,” Dennis said. “My true parents, of course, were my adoptive parents. It would be almost impossible for me to think otherwise.”

Dennis isn’t sure what the meeting with his mother or sister will bring, but he hopes to connect with them.

While Dennis would like to know more information about his early life, he said he won’t press his mother for details.

“I’d like to know my actual birth date but, according to my sister, the mother said she doesn’t remember,” he said. “I’m not going to make a real big deal about of this. I’ll just take whatever she gives me and leave it at that. I mean you can’t hassle an 85-year-old woman … So whatever she feels comfortable saying to me, I’ll take. It’s more than I had before.”

Abuse Continued from Page 1B

Poulson was one of the 301 predator priests identified in a sweeping grand jury report released Tuesday that detailed child sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses and religious leaders’ efforts to cover it up. The investigation identified more than 1,000 victims.

“There is an entrenched infrastructure of secrecy in the Catholic Church that continues to reward concealment rather than disclosure,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountablity.org, a group that researches sex abuse in the church.

Much remains hidden still about clergy sex abuse across the USA, she said. That is why the Catholic Church continues to struggle with it.

Most of Tuesday’s grand jury report deals with events before the early 2000s. And it points to promising signs in the past 16 years, saying victims “are no longer quite so invisible.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. It set procedures for addressing allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors and came after The Boston Globe’s investigation into priest abuse.

Still, the scandals and cover-ups have continued. The church has resisted efforts to reform states’ statute-oflimitation laws to allow people abused as children, some decades ago, to seek compensation through civil lawsuits.

“It prevents more victims if we get exposure,” said lawyer Michael Dolce, a child-sex-abuse survivor who advocated for Florida to repeal its statute of limitations for such crimes.

“Only when they’ve been forced again into a corner are they doing the right thing,” state Rep. Mark Rozzi, a Pennsylvania legislator who testified before the grand jury as an abuse victim, said Wednesday in a radio interview. Without the grand juries, “they would still be doing exactly what they have always done.”

Ed Mahon reports for the York (Pa.) Daily Record, Holly Meyer reports for the Nashville Tennessean and Xerxes Wilson reports for the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal.

Jail sentence sought for Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos fice strongly suggests the FBI had contact with Professor Joseph Mifsud while he was in the U.S. during the George Papadopoulos, a former for- early part of the investigation into eign policy adviser for the Donald Russian election interference and posTrump campaign, lied to the FBI during sible coordination with Trump assothe Russian probe and should spend at ciates. least some time in jail, according to a The prosecutors charged that Papacourt filing by prosecutors working for dopoulos, in early 2016, believed that special counsel Robert Mueller. the unidentified female Russian naThose lies, they said, resulted in the tional had connections to high-level FBI missing an opportunity to properly Russian government officials and question a professor Papadopoulos had could help him arrange a potential formet during the campaign who eign policy trip to Russia. had tipped him that the Russians “(H)e informed the camhad “dirt” on Democratic presipaign of his beliefs regarding dential nominee Hillary Clinton her connections; and during the in the form of “thousands of campaign he emailed and spoke emails.” over Skype on numerous occaPapadopoulos was the first sions with her about the potenTrump campaign adviser to George Pa- tial trip to Russia,” the docuplead guilty in Mueller’s investi- padopoulos ment says. “The defendant also gation. did not reveal his extensive inHe had also triggered the initial teractions with the Russia MFA Concounterintelligence probe into Russia nection, including over Skype, even interference in the 2016 election by re- though he was asked if he had met durvealing to an Australian diplomat, dur- ing the campaign with any Russian naing a night of heavy drinking at a Lon- tionals or ‘(a)nyone with a Russian acdon bar in May 2016, that Russia had po- cent.’” litical dirt on Clinton.

According to prosecutors, the FBI The diplomat passed along the infor- “located” the professor in Washington mation to U.S. officials, setting the in- about two weeks after the Papadopouvestigation into motion. The probe was los’ interview and that his lies “sublater taken over by Mueller. stantially hindered investigators’ abilThe document, filed in U.S. District ity to effectively question” him.

Court in Washingto on Friday, revealed “The defendant’s lies undermined several new details about the early days investigators’ ability to challenge the of the probe and charged that Papado- Professor or potentially detain or arpoulos caused irreparable damage to rest him while he was still in the Unitthe investigation by repeatedly giving ed States,” Mueller’s team wrote, notfalse information during a January 2017 ing that the professor left the U.S. in interview.

February 2017 and has not returned The document says Papadopoulos since. had a series of communications over a The filing recommends that Papaperiod of months with the professor, a dopoulos spend at least some time in female Russian national and a Russia jail and pay a nearly $10,000 fine. Unforeign ministry connection “in which der federal guidelines, his recomthey discussed arranging a meeting be- mended sentence is zero to six tween Russian officials and the Trump months, but prosecutors note another campaign.” defendant in the case spent 30 days in The filing by the special counsel’s of- jail for lying to the FBI.

Doug Stanglin USA TODAY

Several platforms have removed shows by Alex Jones. ERIC BARADAT/GETTY IMAGES

Trump tweet: Social media discriminates against GOP Doug Stanglin USA TODAY

President Donald Trump, addressing his 53.8 million Twitter followers, charged Saturday that social media discriminates against Republican and conservative voices and that his administration would not let that happen.

“They are closing down the opinions of many people on the RIGHT, while at the same time doing nothing to others,” he said on Twitter. He did not specify who “they” are.

“Speaking loudly and clearly for the Trump Administration, we won’t let that happen,” he said.

The president did not elaborate on how the government might intervene.

His Saturday morning tweets follow a week in which Apple, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube have removed shows and video posted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Twitter suspended Jones from its platform for a week.

Jones most famously promoted the idea that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school shooting never happened and was staged.

While Trump did not single out Jones, he appeared on Jones’ InfoWars show in 2015 and praised him, saying, “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

In July, Twitter announced it is cracking down on “incivility and intolerance” in Twitter conversations, but

has not singled out any particular political viewpoint.

Among recent cases: ❚ Ahead of a Unite the Right 2 rally last week in Washington, D.C., Twitter suspended the accounts associated with Proud Boys, a right-wing group present at a 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, and its founder, Gavin McInnes.

A Twitter spokesperson said the accounts had been suspended from Twitter and Periscope for violating company policy “prohibiting violent extremist groups.” ❚ In January, former Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., a strong Trump supporter known for his incendiary rhetoric, was briefly banned from Twitter. ❚ In February, Twitter banned Paul Nehlen, a Republican challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan for a congressional seat, for a racist tweet targeting American actress Meghan Markle, the then-fiancée of Prince Harry, NPR reported.

While warning social media against any crackdown, Trump said he was not suggesting putting clamps on liberal views.

“Censorship is a very dangerous thing & absolutely impossible to police.

If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed. I get used to it and watch with a grain of salt, or don’t watch at all.”

VICTORIA ADVOCATE -

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USA TODAY ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 3B

NEWS

Why do police officers often taser people?

Sometimes they seek to prevent something worse Joel Shannon USA TODAY

Tasers are commonly used by police around the nation as a “non-lethal” weapon to stop confrontation. But their use has been marked with controversy, lawsuits and public scrutiny of law enforcement practices.

Here’s a guide to some of the most common questions about police departments’ use of Tasers.

How does a Taser work?

Tasers are designed to incapacitate an attacker at a distance; two pronged darts that conduct electricity are fired at a person. Tasers are also equipped to work in a “drive-stun” mode at close range without the use of darts.

Tasers are a specific brand of “electronic control device” – a category of weapon that includes stun guns.

Taser’s maker, Axon, says its products work by disrupting the brain’s ability to communicate with the rest of the body.

Axon says the darts are designed to work through clothing and do not interfere with a pacemakers.

However, a 2012 article published by the American Hearth Association documented cases where the weapons can stop the heart and lead to death. It advises caution when using the weapon.

A 2017 Reuters report documented more than 1,000 deaths involving Tasers, nearly half of which resulted in a wrongful death lawsuit.

How are police trained to use Tasers?

There is no standardized training for the use of Tasers by police in the United States, but a philosophy determines how police use “less than lethal weapons” like Tasers, said Jim Pasco, the executive director of the National Fraternal Order of Police.

Tasers join other tools like mace and batons – they’re designed to “tilt the advantage” back toward an officer in a confrontation, Pasco said.

That’s in contrast to guns, according to a 2016 report published by NBC News.

Police are trained to “shoot to kill”; a gun’s purpose is to stop a confrontation using deadly force.

There are a “fair number of people who committed criminal acts who are alive today because of the availability of less-than-lethal weapons to police officers,” Pasco said.

Pasco said that training has generally improved over time as police departments gained experience with device.

In what situations are Tasers most often deployed?

In general, “less than lethal” weapons are used when an officer feels like he or she could be overwhelmed, Pasco said.

There’s a number of factors that can contribute to this assessment, among them: The age and size of the person involved in the confrontation; how the person is armed; whether that person may be on drugs.

Officers take into account their surroundings too – Pasco said officers are trained to evaluate who around them

Steve Tuttle fires the Taser X-26 model in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2004. ROY DABNER/AP

Can they use a Taser on anyone?

“So many shootings involve an inefficient Taser first.”

Peter Moskos,

former Baltimore officer

may be in danger.

NBC News reports some police officers choose to use deadly force over a Taser in potentially dangerous situations because Tasers can be unreliable.

“So many shootings involve an inefficient Taser first,” former Baltimore police Officer Peter Moskos told the network.

The over-use of Tasers has also been criticized. A 2011 Justice Department report cited by Reuters said some officers were overusing stun guns, using them in situations that could be handled without a weapon. It labeled the issue “lazy cop syndrome.”

There’s no national guidelines on this issue because “it is such a subjective area,” Pasco said.

Reuters reports that some states have passed laws limiting how police can use Tasers. But stun gun policies around the country vary widely, differing on such issues as who the weapons can be used on and how many times the weapons can be used.

While there are no definitive national rules on police use of Tasers, a 2011 document funded in part by the Justice Department describes best practices.

Among those best practices: The devices “should not generally be used against pregnant women, elderly persons, young children, and visibly frail persons.” In at least one instance, a federal court has used those best practices to rule on a use of force case, according to NPR. Contributing: Ashley May

What free NYU med school tuition means Dean sees necessity in controlling student debt

who do rank debt in looking at their specialty choice,” Fresne said. “So something like the NYU scholarship will really help those students.”

Marina Pitofsky

Is NYU the only medical school to offer free tuition?

USA TODAY

When the new class of medical students at New York University’s school of medicine entered their white coat ceremony – where students receive their first official lab coat on their path to becoming a doctor – they didn’t expect to leave it with the weight of student debt off of their shoulders.

NYU officials announced at Thursday’s ceremony, however, that all current and future students enrolled in the MD degree program will receive full-tuition scholarships.

“This decision recognizes a moral imperative that must be addressed, as institutions place an increasing debt burden on young people who aspire to become physicians,” Doctor Robert Grossman, dean of NYU school of medicine and CEO of NYU Langone Health, said in a Thursday statement.

What will this mean for NYU grads?

Of the 151 medical schools in the United States, is NYU the first in the country to offer full tuition to medical students?

USA TODAY breaks it down:

It currently costs students $55,018 per year at New York University’s school of medicine. ALBA VIGARAY/EPA-EFE

“It will be interesting to watch how other schools respond to NYU’s decision.”

Julie Fresne Association of American Medical Colleges official

How much does medical school cost?

According to U.S. News and World Report, public medical schools charged an average of $34,699 per year for instate tuition during the 2017-2018 school year. The average private medical school charged $54,877 per year during the same time.

The current sticker price at NYU’s school of medicine is $55,018 per year, and students in medical schools typically take four years of classes.

In the top 100 medical schools in the country, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock offered the least expensive medical education at $18,094 per year for Texas residents. Columbia University in New York City offered the most expensive medical education at $66,257 per year.

In total, 75 percent of medical stu-

dents graduated with debt because of their degree, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The average medical student at a public university graduated with $181,179 of debt. The average medical student at a private university graduated with $206,204 of debt.

How will this affect NYU’s medical school?

Grossman said he hopes the shift will make NYU’s medical school more inclusive for dedicated students unsure about medical school because of its cost.

“We believe that with our tuition-free initiative, we have taken a necessary, rational step that addresses a critical need to train the most talented physicians, unencumbered by crushing

debt,” Grossman said in a statement.

“We hope that many other academic medical centers will soon choose to join us on this path.”

Julie Fresne, the AAMC’s senior director of student financial services & debt management, agreed that the scholarship will grant opportunities to low-income students.

“It allows them to attract students from all across the spectrum,” Fresne said. “It importantly encourages students who might be discouraged by the prospect of taking on debt to apply.”

Fresne said multiple factors influence what kind of medicine a student chooses to practice after medical school, like personality fit and role models. However, she said some students feel pressure to to only pursue high-paying medical jobs because of their debt.

“There is a percentage of students

NYU is the only top 10 medical program to offer free tuition, according to the school. However, other medical schools across the country have committed to helping students graduate debt-free.

In April, Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons announced that they would be the first medical school in the nation to replace student loans with scholarships for students who qualify for financial aid. Instead of offering student loans as a part of students’ financial aid packages, the university will replace that funding with scholarships from their endowment.

Columbia also announced that 20 percent of medical school students with the greatest financial need will receive full-tuition scholarships.

At the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, which focuses on training physician scientists, all students have received full-tuition scholarships since 2008 regardless of financial need.

In the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine, a federally funded medical school within the the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, students are actually paid a salary during their time in medical school. As of the 2017-2018 school year, its students earn at least $60,000 per year for each year of medical school in return to committing to seven years of active duty in the armed forces after graduation. The armed forces also offer other paid medical school opportunities through the Health Professions Scholarship Program.

Fresne added that it is too soon to tell if other medical programs will follow in NYU’s footsteps in eliminating tuition, but it could be a trend for medical schools moving forward.

“It will be interesting to watch how other schools respond to NYU’s decision,” Fresne said.

4B ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY

- VICTORIA ADVOCATE

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AI4All alum Ananya Karthik gathered a few dozen girls to show them how to use the Deep Dream Generator program recently in Oakland, Calif.

ASHLEY WONG/USA TODAY

“I want to initiate change using artificial intelligence. I don’t want to be just working on an iPhone or something like that.”

Lili Sun, alumna of an AI4All summer camp

Artificial intelligence has a racial bias problem California nonprofit, students work to change that Ashley Wong USA TODAY

OAKLAND, Calif. – Through connections made at summer camp, high school students Aarzu Gupta and Lili Sun used artificial intelligence to create a drone program that aims to detect wildfires before they spread too far.

Rebekah Agwunobi, a rising high school senior, learned enough to nab an internship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, working on using artificial intelligence to evaluate the court system, including collecting data on how judges set bail.

Both projects stemmed from the Oakland-based nonprofit AI4All, which will expand its outreach to young underrepresented minorities and women with a $1 million grant from Google.org.

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly commonplace in daily life,

found in everything from Facebook’s face detection feature for photos to Apple’s iPhone X facial recognition.

It’s also one of the more disputed parts of technology. The late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have warned that civilization is at risk from the unfettered development of artificial intelligence, which could lead to autonomous weapons of terror. Such fears led staff at Google earlier this year to press the company to halt a drone contract with the Pentagon.

The still-young technology has also been decried for built-in racial bias that can amplify existing stereotypes. That’s particularly worrisome as more companies use it for decisions such as hiring and police leverage artificial intelligence-powered software to identify suspects. MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini, who is black, found facial recognition software could more easily

identify her face when she wore a white mask, a result of algorithms that relied on data sets of mostly white faces.

Three years ago, Google apologized after its photo identification software mislabeled black people as gorillas. Microsoft did the same after users got an artificial intelligence-powered social chatbot to spew racial slurs.

Tess Posner, CEO of the nonprofit organization AI4All, said the problem is made worse by the fact that minority groups such as women and people of color historically have been left out of the tech industry, particularly in AI. “We need to have people included that are going to be impacted by these technologies, and we also need inclusion to ensure that they’re developed responsibly,” Posner said. “(Bias) happens when we don’t have people asking the right questions from the beginning.”

Despite stated efforts to attract more women and more people of color, Google, Facebook and other tech giants have been slow to diversify, and they’ve

Older Americans filing for bankruptcy more than ever Study could be wake-up call for younger workers Frank Witsil Detroit Free Press USA TODAY NETWORK

More than ever before, financial woes are tarnishing the golden years.

Despite an economic boom, Americans ages 65 and older are filing for bankruptcy in record numbers, and the trend is likely to continue, according to research that warns the nation’s senior citizens are facing a financial crisis with “increasing force and urgency.”

It’s a concern, some experts say, that hasn’t significantly hurt economic growth but presents a serious social

USA SNAPSHOTS©

14% of workers say they were bullied at work during the past two years.

SOURCE Jobvite survey of 1,509 workers JAE YANG, ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ/USA TODAY

problem that has been getting worse for more than two decades as debt and medical costs go up and seniors’ savings and pension benefits go down.

For elected officials and candidates campaigning for office, the problem also raises public policy questions about how wide a safety net the government should offer for older people, who are living longer than in past decades, and what the best way is to care for them.

“In prior decades, Americans collectively decided that we have a responsibility to our older citizens to absorb the financial risks they face,” a national study published last week found. “But, it appears that we have since abandoned that commitment.”

In places like Michigan, where the population is aging more quickly than the national average and questions loom about the future of some pensions, the problem may become particularly acute.

“We’re most definitely going to have to address it,” said Paul Bridgewater, president and CEO of the nonprofit Detroit Area Agency on Aging. “We’re compiling the data to come up with solutions. But across the board, as the baby boomers go into retirement, there are going to be a number of situations that we’ve never had to deal with.”

Shifting responsibility In the national study, “Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society,” researchers looked at data on the age of bankruptcy filers going back to 1991.

In nearly three decades, the rate at which seniors file for bankruptcy more

failed to hire many women of color.

Posner’s organization believes the tech industry has to start including women and people of color at a much earlier stage. It’s working to close that gap through summer camps aimed at high school students.

AI4All launched in 2017. In its first year, there were only two summer camps at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. This year, it added four more at Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Boston University and Simon Fraser University.

All are aimed at high school students who are female, people of color or low income.

Part of Google.org’s grant will go toward opening more AI4All camps. The ultimate goal is to use the money to create a free, online AI curriculum course.

“We really need for AI to be made by diverse creators, and that starts with people having access to the learning opportunities to understand at its core what AI is and how it can be applied,” Google.org’s AI4All partnership lead Hannah Peter said.

AI4All also offers three-month fellowships where students can develop their own projects and pitch them to AI experts in the industry, as well as funding for their students to launch independent initiatives.

One initiative was AI4All alumnus Ananya Karthik’s workshop, creAIte, which uses artificial intelligence to create artwork. Karthik showed a few dozen girls at Oakland’s Kapor Center how to use the Deep Dream Generator program to fuse images together for a unique piece of artwork.

“I want to initiate change using artificial intelligence,” said Sun, who attended AI4All’s 2016 class. “I don’t want to be just working on an iPhone or something like that ... (AI4All) gave me real examples of people who’ve succeeded, which is pretty cool. I knew that I could do it.”

Gupta said she’s looking forward to exploring a career in AI, particularly in its uses for health and medicine.

paying lifetime benefits from the company to workers.

“In our data,” the new study said, “older Americans report they are struggling with increased financial risks, namely inadequate income and unmanageable costs of health care, as they try to deal with reductions to their social safety net.”

Too little, too late

Bankruptcy doesn’t help seniors much, a new study says. GETTY IMAGES

than doubled and the percentage of seniors in the bankruptcy system increased by almost five times. Of seniors 75 and older, the increase since 1991 was nearly 10 times.

From 1991 to 2015, the share of people 65 and older rose from 17 percent of the adult population to 19.3 percent.

“The magnitude of growth in older Americans in bankruptcy is so large that the broader trend of an aging U.S. population can explain only a small portion of the effect,” the study said.

The change, the study suggested, is caused by a shift in responsibility for caring for older people. Whereas employers and government once offered more through pensions and benefits, individuals are expected to pay a greater share. It’s a concern that was raised a decade ago as employers phased out pension plans and replaced them with 401(k) plans, transferring the risk for

The study notes that bankruptcy protection may offer relief to younger people who are working, but it doesn’t much help retirees, who have far less time to recover and are living off limited and fixed incomes.

“For older Americans, bankruptcy is too little, too late,” the study said. “By the time they file, their wealth has vanished, and they simply do not have enough years to get back on their feet.”

And while the financial misfortune of older Americans likely won’t have much effect on the overall economy, it could become a significant social problem, said Jonathan Silberman, an economics professor at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

The study found the median senior bankruptcy filer enters bankruptcy $17,390 in the red.

“They may have debt themselves with a mortgage and credit cards,” Silberman said. “They may be trying to help their children, their grandchildren with higher education costs. These are all pressures on the elderly that were not as prevalent in the past.”

Silberman, still working at 72, said he is not concerned about his own retirement years but said the study should be a wake-up call for younger workers.

“In five or 10 years it might be a more serious social problem that people are more concerned about,” he said. “It’s a difficult public policy and social issue that the political process will have to sort out.”

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BARBARA ANN OSTLER RAMSEY

HULIN P. KEMP, JR. HOUSTON - Hulin P. Kemp Jr. "H.P.", native Texan passed away at home on Monday, the 13th of August 2018, at the age of 85. He was born the 28th of August 1932, in Luling, Texas to the late Hulin P. and Florice Gladys Ross Kemp.

Mr. Kemp served his country honorably in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. After the war, he attended St. Edwards University and Victoria College.

Faced with the trials and tribulations of life, "H.P." overcame alcoholism and enjoyed over 30 years of sobriety.

"H.P." oversaw the operation of his family farm near Austwell, Texas.

He was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed the sun and jogging.

He loved his children and grandchildren and had a quick wit.

Survivors include his three daughters, Madeline Kemp Merrill and husband Dave, Molly O’Connor Kemp and Stephanie Ann Loeffler and husband Jim; grandchildren, Martin O’Connor Haenggi, Roger Williams Haenggi, Madeline O’Connor Loeffler, Henry Williams Loeffler, and Violet O’Connor Kemp.

The family would like to extend their sincere appreciation to Mr. Kemp’s care team for all the love and support they provided.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from four o’clock in the afternoon until six o’clock in the evening on Thursday, the 23rd of August 2018, in the library and grand foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

Funeral Service will be conducted at six o’clock in the evening on Thursday, the 23rd of August 2018, in the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, where Fr. Joseph Pilsner, CSB, is to officiate.

Graveside Service will be conducted at twelve o’clock noon on Saturday, the 25th of August 2018, at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery, 2800 Hancock Drive in Austin.

A uniformed Steward from Geo H. Lewis & Sons is to be positioned at the cemetery entrance, so as to direct attendees to the gravesite. Mr. Kemp will be remembered during the five o’clock in the afternoon mass on his birthday, Tuesday, the 28th of August, at the Chapel of St. Basil on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, celebrated by Fr. Joseph Pilsner.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions may be directed to the Wounded Warrior Project or Houston Hospice.

TODAY SERVICE CERVANTEZ, VIRGINIA, 63, of Victoria: Memorial service 10 a.m. at Mission Sinai Church, Angel Lucy’s Funeral Home, 361-5753212.

RATHKAMP, MARGARET, 87, of Tivoli: Visitation 5 – 7 p.m. at Richardson-Colonial Funeral Home, Port Lavaca, 361-552-2988.

DEATH NOTICE VICTORIA COUNTY SPEED, GRADY, 99, of Victoria, passed away Friday, August 17, 2018.

Services are pending with Grace Funeral Home, 361573-4341.

POLICE AND COURTS Arrested DeWitt County ■ CUERO – Robert Lewis Mraz, 30, of Victoria, by a sheriff’s deputy Aug. 7 on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity and two counts of criminal nonsupport.

■ CUERO – Aaron Jacob Rushing, 28, of Yorktown, by a sheriff’s deputy Aug. 8 on a warrant charging motion to revoke probation in a theft of a firearm case.

■ CUERO – Danny Ray Salas, 33, of Cuero, by a sheriff’s deputy Aug. 8 on a warrant charging motion to revoke probation in a credit card abuse case.

■ CUERO – Tyler Jay Reynolds, 22, of Nordheim, by a sheriff’s deputy Aug. 8 on a warrant charging motion to revoke probation in an evading arrest or detention case.

Victoria County ■ VICTORIA – Rudolph Ortiz, 57, of Telferner, by deputies Aug. 14 on warrants charging evading arrest, possession of marijuana between 4 ounces and 5 pounds, manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance between 4 and 200 grams, possession of a controlled substance less than 28 grams, abandoning or endangering or putting a child in imminent danger and unlicensed possession of a firearm by a felon.

■ VICTORIA – Zachary Rhoades, 32, of Cuero, by officers on Aug. 14 on a warrant for a Class C misdemeanor.

■ VICTORIA – Johnathan Blanton, 33, of Cuero, by deputies Aug. 15 on a warrant charging possession of a controlled substance less than 1 gram.

■ VICTORIA – Juan Carlos Estrada, 38, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 15 on two warrants charging assault causing bodily injury to a family member and

DAVID G. ROMERO VICTORIA - On Friday, August 10, 2018 David passed away peacefully with his sister at his bedside. A native of Victoria, TX, he worked as a chef for many years. He enjoyed cooking for family as well as wrestling and watching cowboy movies.

David was the best brother, uncle, and son and will me missed by many nieces and nephews that loved him dearly.

A memorial service will be held at Parkway Church, 1802 Lone Tree Rd in Victoria, Tx on Monday, August 20, 2018 at 2 pm.

Memorials may be made to Hospice of South Texas Center of Dornburg Compassion.

possession of a controlled substance less than 28 grams.

■ VICTORIA – Gloria Ann Fuentes, 41, of Victoria, by deputies on Aug. 15 on warrants charging theft of property between $1,500 and $20,000 and securing execution of document by deception.

■ VICTORIA – Kyle Anthony Hankey, 25, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 15 on a warrant charging a Class C misdemeanor.

■ VICTORIA – Mary Ann McClure, 56, of Victoria, by deputies Aug. 15 on a warrant charging possession of a controlled substance between 1 and 4 grams.

■ VICTORIA – Carlos Anthony Rodriguez, 17, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 15 on a warrant charging assault causing bodily injury.

■ VICTORIA – Jesus Baladez, 31, of Bloomington, by officers Aug. 15 on a warrant charging evading arrest or detention with previous conviction.

■ VICTORIA – Johnathan Blanton, 33, of Cuero, by deputies Aug. 15 on a warrant charging possession of a controlled substance less than 1 gram.

■ VICTORIA – Haley Renae Blocker, 22, of Victoria, by deputies Aug. 15 on warrants charging manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance between 1 and 4 grams and possession of a dangerous drug.

■ VICTORIA – Joshua Roland Canales, 24, of Victoria, by deputies Aug. 15 on a warrant charging assault to a family or household member by impeding normal breathing or circulation.

■ VICTORIA – Shelby S. Dykes, 27, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 15 on three warrants charging Class C misdemeanors.

■ VICTORIA – Juan Carlos Estrada, 38, of Victoria, by officers and deputies Aug. 15 on four warrants charging assault causing bodily injury to a family member, possession of a controlled substance less than 28 grams, deadly conduct and assault causing

MARY A. BUJAN

DAVID LEE SHOOK

FISCHER - Mary A. Bujan passed away peacefully August 4, 2018 with her family by her side. Mary was born in Hattisburg, Mississippi on January 10, 1931 to the late J.T. and Thelma Carter. She grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi and married John in 1950, traveling with him throughout the United States while in the Coast Guard until he retired in 1970. They continued to travel with either a motor home or travel trailer throughout the years. She spent many years in Port O’Connor, Seadrift and Victoria before moving to Fischer (Hill County).

She loved to travel, sew, quilt, craft, gardening and canning.

She was loved in so many ways and will greatly be missed.

She is preceded in death by her brothers, Dan Carter, Billy Joe Carter, J.T. Carter Jr., and Jerry Lynn Carter.

She is survived by her husband, John; sons, Gary of Fischer and Jon Larry of Victoria; daughter, Sue Bujan of Victoria; grandchildren, Aaron Bujan (Jamie) of Pheonix, AZ., Kristy Middaugh of Port Lavaca, and Vanessa Blevins (Darrell) of Seadrift; and six great-grandchildren, Gracie, Emma, Eli, Layten, Logyn, and Peyton.

A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

VICTORIA David Lee Shook, 32, passed away on Thursday, August 16, 2018. He was born on December 20, 1985 to Dennis and Donna Shook in Victoria.

David was a lover of music, video and board games, a disc jockey who was very knowledgeable about sound engineering, communications, and a very talented musician.

David was a friend to everyone, loved to travel and study space exploration and science.

Having grown up in the City of Victoria, he leaves many family and close friends but he will never leave their hearts.

Survivors include his best friend and fiance, Laura Helen Garrison; his parents, Dennis and Donna Shook; brother, Corey Allen Bryant Shook; numerous cousins, aunts and uncles. He will be dearly missed by his fur babies, Cercie, Jaime and Jon Snow.

He is preceded in death by his paternal grandparents, Earl and Margaret Shook and maternal grandparents, Russell and Colleen Bryant.

Memorial services will be held at a later date.

Condolences and memories can be shared at www.gracefuneralhome.net.

Services are under the direction and personal care of Grace Funeral Home.

PORT LAVACA - Barbara Ann Ostler Ramsey, 72, of Port Lavaca passed away August 13, 2018. She was born May 30, 1946 in Coshocton, OH to Charles Ostler Jr. and Andrea Abelina Flores Ostler. She lived in Conesville, OH until she was 10 years old and then moved with her family to Port Lavaca.

Barbara went to work at the age of 13 at the Port Lavaca Drive In Theater. When she was 15, she went to work at Shearer’s Shoe store after school until 5 p.m., then she went back to work at the Theater.

Barbara was a 1964 graduate of Calhoun High School. The same week she graduated she married James David Ramsey on her 18th birthday. They worked side by side farming rice, corn, milo and soybeans for 34 years. They also had a crawfish farm and a 2 acre garden which they shared with friends and relatives.

Barbara went to work as a cake decorator for 20 years with Walmart starting in 1998.

Barbara was an active participant in Calhoun County Fair, winning numerous ribbons. She was also active in many clubs in organizations including: bowling, parents club, young home maker of America, Port Lavaca Art Guild, Calhoun County Fair Association and Port Lavaca Junior League. Barbara was also an accomplished artist.

She is survived by her daughters, Crystal Faye Borchers (Allen), Jamie Joan Ramsey; sister, Theresa Hand (Tom); grandchildren, James Donald Millhouse (Deanna), Pamela Faye Borchers; nieces, Erica June Ostler Nguyen (Joe), Marie Andrea Ostler Martinez (Angel) and nephews, Ronald Leon Ostler (Gwen) and Charles James Ostler (Amy).

She was preceded in death by her husband of 43 years, James David Ramsey; parents; and brother, Ronald Franklin Ostler.

Visitation will be held on Monday, August 20, 2018 from 5-7 p.m. at Richardson-Colonial Funeral Home with a rosary to begin at 7 p.m. Funeral Mass will be Tuesday, August 21, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. at Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church. Burial will follow in Greenlawn Gardens.

Pallbearers are James Millhouse, Deanna Millhouse, Tom Hand, Allen Borchers, Phillip Gonzales and Mark Gonzales.

Honorary Pallbearers are Dwain Nunley, Mark Sauer, Bobby Lee, Jimmie Pustejovsky, Richard Williams and Ishmael Torres.

Words of comfort may be shared with the family at www.richardsoncolonial.com

ISMAEL JOSEPH BRITO GANADO - Ismael, 38, of Ganado passed away on Friday, August 17, 2018.

Ismael was born on February 2, 1980. There will be a Visitation at 2:30 pm followed by the Funeral Service at 3:30 pm on Sunday, August 19, 2018 at Ganado Funeral Home Chapel with Larry Helms officiating. Ganado Funeral Home 361-771-2120.

bodily injury.

■ VICTORIA – Leslie Eugene Hendershot, 49, of Oyster Creek, by deputies Aug. 15 on warrants charging manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance between 1 and 4 grams and possession of a dangerous drug.

■ VICTORIA – Daisey Navid Lopez, 30, of Pasadena, by deputies Aug. 15 on a warrant charging manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance more than 400 grams.

■ VICTORIA – Brian Kilpatrick Mitchell, 44, of Houston, by deputies Aug.15 on warrants charging driving while intoxicated and bail jumping and failure to appear.

■ VICTORIA – Martha Ramos, 45, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 15 on warrants charging theft of property of between $30,000 and $150,000 and possession of a controlled substance less than 1 gram.

■ VICTORIA – Robert Joseph Rivera, 55, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 15 on a warrant charging a Class C misdemeanor.

■ VICTORIA – Tremayne Leshawn Williams, 36, of Lockhart, by deputies Aug. 15 on two warrants charging contempt of civil court.

■ VICTORIA – Matthew Michael Espinoza, 26, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 16 on two warrants charging Class C misdemeanors and on a warrant charging evading arrest or detention with a vehicle.

■ VICTORIA – Xavier Lee Hernandez, 32, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 16 on four warrants of a Class C misdemeanor and on a warrant of failure to identify as a fugitive with intent to give false information.

■ VICTORIA – Marcus Isaiah Jackson, 21, of Victoria, by officers Aug. 16 on a warrant charging bail jumping and failure to appear and on a bond forfeiture in a possession of marijuana less than 2 ounces case.

Angel Lucy’s Funeral Home Where we treat your loved one with dignity and respect, giving them the quality service they deserve at a price you can afford Funerals starting at $4,995 We honor our military families by providing a free casket* or urn** **Metal Urn -Classic pewter w/stripe -Classic gold w/stripe *Baron 20 gauge, Non gasketed, Steel casket Doesn’t include outside charges, must use our Funeral Home Services

2 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU 706 E. Crestwood Dr. Victoria, TX 77901 361.575.3212

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www.AngelLucysFuneralHomeTx.com

SPORTS

Today in Sports, C2 • 3rd & Short, C3 • 4th & Long, C4 VictoriaAdvocate.com • Sunday, August 19, 2018

SECTION

C

MLB

A’s beat Astros to tie for AL West lead OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Oakland Athletics were an average team two months ago, a dozen games behind the Houston Astros and closer to the bottom of the AL West than the top.

Well, look at the A’s now.

Trevor Cahill pitched one-hit ball for seven shutout innings and the Athletics kept up their unlikely turnaround, tying Houston for the division lead by beating the Astros 7-1 on Saturday.

“It’s been a nice run for sure,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said.

Khris Davis, Matt Olson, Josh Phegley and Stephen Piscotty each hit two of Oakland’s team ASSOCIATED PRESS record-tying eight doubles as the Oakland’s Josh Phegley, right, hits an RBI double off Houston Astros pitcher A’s won for the sixth time in seven Dallas Keuchel during the sixth inning of Saturday’s game in Oakland, Calif. games.

The Athletics trailed the defending World Series champion Astros by 12 games following play on June 18, having just reached the .500 mark, and were still 10 out on July 10.

Houston has lost seven of eight and dropped 12 of 19 since owning a six-game lead on July 24. The next day, reigning AL MVP Jose Altuve went on the disabled list with knee trouble, and the star second baseman is still out.

Cahill (5-2) allowed only an infield single by Yuli Gurriel in the second inning. The right-hander struck out seven, walked one and retired 14 straight batters during one stretch.

“I was able to attack the zone a little more and got some quick

outs,” Cahill said. “The offense came through and made it a lot easier.”

Cahill, who was on the disabled list in June because of an Achilles injury, improved to 4-0 over his last six starts, his longest winning streak in five years. He also has won 10 decisions in a row at the Coliseum.

“He dominated us,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “He was clearly doing whatever he wanted with the ball. When they got the lead he pitched pretty aggressively and we chased. He controlled the game.”

Tony Kemp homered in the ninth for Houston’s only other hit.

SEE ASTROS, C3

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

NBA

HARD LESSON

Former Spurs GM Bass dead at 89

PHOTOS BY MATTHEW WESTMORELAND/MWESTMORELAND@VICAD.COM

Cuero’s Marcus Gomez breaks through the Canyon Lake defense for a first down during Saturday’s scrimmage at Gobbler Stadium.

Gobblers hope to learn from scrimmage with Canyon Lake

BY MIKE FORMAN MFORMAN@VICAD.COM

CUERO – Cuero senior Trent Haynes knows where a team finishes is much more important than where it starts.

Haynes also recognizes the Gobblers have a long way to go to reach their goals this season.

“We have to work harder next week, get in shape more, read our keys and make our fits,” he said.

“We’re good, we just need to keep it going.”

The Cuero starters were outscored 2-0 by Canyon Lake in the team’s first scrimmage of the season Saturday night at Gobbler Stadium.

“We’re never as good as we want to be in scrimmages,” said Cuero coach Travis Reeve. “Every scrimmage that we’ve ever had, we’ve had some guys who missed blocks or didn’t execute quite well. That’s why you do this: so you can get better.”

The Gobblers will definitely improve when they get injured players Jordan Whittington, Keiran Grant and Chance Albrecht back on the field.

“I was really proud of our young kids who stepped in,” Reeve said.

“We had a lot of young kids and JV guys who had a chance to play

Cuero Gobblers head coach Travis Reeve talks strategy with his team before

SEE CUERO, C3 Saturday’s scrimmage against Canyon Lake High School.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Bob Bass, the former San Antonio and Charlotte general manager who was an integral part of the front office for most of the Spurs’ first 20 years in South Texas, has died. He was 89.

Bass’ death was confirmed by the club Saturday in a statement from coach Gregg Popovich. The San Antonio Express-News reported that Bass died Friday at home in San Antonio after a series of strokes.

“Over the course of four decades, Bob Bass had a huge impact in both the ABA and NBA,” Popovich said in a statement released by the team. “BB was a true pioneer in the world of professional basketball.

His knowledge, passion and dedication to the game were inspiring. We send our condolences to the entire Bass family.”

After getting hired as coach during the Spurs’ second season in San Antonio in 1974-75, Bass joined the front office as general manager when the club moved from the ABA to the NBA in 1976.

The two-time NBA Executive of the Year spent 20 seasons with the Spurs in various roles — returning three times as coach — before going to Charlotte as the GM in 1994. He spent nine seasons with the Hornets. Bass coached his alma mater of Oklahoma Baptist from 1952-1967, first joined the ABA as coach of the Denver Rockets in 1967-1968.

He went back to college at Texas Tech from 1969-1971, then back to the ABA with the Floridians in 1971-1972 and the Memphis Tams in 1973-1974 before landing with the Spurs.

Bass had a 311-300 career regular-season coaching record in the ABA and NBA.

NFL

Prescott solid, Dalton sluggish as Bengals top Cowboys ARLINGTON (AP) — Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys had another efficient preseason showing.

Andy Dalton bogged down a bit with his Cincinnati Bengals.

Prescott led a pair of scoring drives in three possessions, capped with a scrambling 6-yard scoring pass to Terrance Williams before the Bengals rallied after halftime for a 21-13 exhibition victory Saturday night.

The Bengals had just one first down in four Dalton-led possessions a week after he threw for two touchdowns with an offense that was revamped ASSOCIATED PRESS after finishing last in the NFL. The lone first down was on Dalton’s Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) looks to throw against the Cincinnati

Bengals during the first half of a preseason game Saturday in Arlington.

SEE COWBOYS, C3

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Houston Texans quarterback Brandon Weeden (3) throws a pass against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL preseason football game Saturday in Houston. The Texans led the 49ers 10-7 in the fourth quarter.

SPORTS EDITOR: MIKE FORMAN, MFORMAN@VICAD.COM; ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR: REY CASTILLO, RCASTILLO@VICAD.COM; SPORTS@VICAD.COM; COPY EDITOR/PAGE DESIGNER: DAVID VASQUEZ, DVASQUEZ@VICAD.COM

C2 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

TODAY IN SPORTS

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: DAVID VASQUEZ, DVASQUEZ@VICAD.COM

NFL

H.S. FOOTBALL

Browns’ Gordon ‘humbly’ returns

East, West season tickets go on sale

CLEVELAND (AP) — Josh Gordon kept his word and “humbly” returned to the Cleveland Browns. All they can do is hope he stays clean.

The former Pro Bowl receiver Saturday ended an extended absence from training camp to deal with his health. He has missed most of the past four seasons because of numerous violations of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.

He posted a statement on Twitter addressed to “Cleveland Browns and NFL family,” saying he was ready to be with his teammates.

“I took the time needed to ensure my overall mental and physical health,” said Gordon, who thanked the NFL, the players’ union, the Browns, the University of Florida and his business manager.

“This has by no means been an easy road and I’m extremely grateful to have all of you in my life,” he added.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon warms up at the team’s training facility in Berea, Ohio.

“As I humbly return to being a member of this team with an opportunity to get back to playing this game I love, I realize in order for me to reach my full potential my primary focus must remain on my sobriety and

mental well-being. Let’s get to work! Much love, JG.” The 27-year-old Gordon has battled addictions to drugs and alcohol throughout his life. Last year while he was suspended and in rehab, Gordon said he had

never played in a game while sober.

Gordon, who has missed 54 of Cleveland’s past 64 games, is not facing another suspension but he’s limited during the initial stages of his return.

NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said Gordon can participate in meetings and conditioning.

“He cannot practice but may watch,” he said in an email to The Associated Press. “No timetable on next steps.”

A team spokesman said Gordon was at the team’s facility in Berea, Ohio, and took part in meetings and worked out with his teammates Saturday. He is not expected to join them on the field for several days.

The Browns have remained supportive of Gordon, who has played in just 10 games since 2013 when he led the league with 1,646 yards receiving. General manager John Dorsey commended him for his “commitment” to become the “best version of himself.”

“We are glad Josh has reached a point where he can return to our organization, be in our building and be around his teammates,” Dorsey said.

ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

Victoria East and Victoria West football season tickets will be on sale to the general public from Monday through Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the VISD Athletic Office, located in the District Event Center field house behind Liberty Academy.

Season tickets for East and West will be $35 per book. East general admission tickets for its game against West may be purchased for $6.

A limited number of reserved parking passes will be available for sale with season tickets. The passes are $5 each.

Student tickets for East and West games are available for $4 each.

CALENDAR

LITTLE LEAGUE BASEBALL

VICTORIA BEAST SIDE SELECT BASEBALL TRYOUTS

Great leap forward: from Williamsport to major leagues

WHEN: Aug. 25 TIME: 9 a.m. to noon Tryouts for 10U and 11U teams. Contact Nathan Garcia at 361-652-8488 for location.

FIGHTING FOR RALPH When: Sept. 15 Where: DaCosta Hall A benefit for karate instructor Ralph Jaschke including a barbecue, auction and dance. Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. and dinner will start at 6:30 p.m. Music will be by the Chad Anderson Band. Tickets are $20 and are available at Northside Ranch Pet and Garden Center in Victoria. For information, contact Shane at 361-920-0228, Justin at 361-920-7082, or Gary Moses at 361-550-5466, or go to facebook.com/ FightingForRalph.

CROSS COUNTRY DUAL MEET WHEN: Oct. 6 WHERE: Faith Academy High School Hosted by STJ Flyers and Faith Academy The St. Joseph/Faith Academy Cross Country Dual will be held Saturday, Oct. 6 at the Faith Academy High School campus near the Victoria Regional Airport.

The dual will begin at 8:30 a.m. The top varsity team will receive medals. The top 15 individual medals will be awarded per varsity, junior varsity and middle school divisions.

The Faith Academy booster club will have a concession stand for drinks. The entry fee is $50 per team or $5 for individuals.

No teams can race down, you may race up. For more information, contact Manuel DeLaGarza at mdelagarza@stjvictoria.com or 830-583-4387.

SCORES Coaches may submit game scores and stats by calling 361-580-6514 or emailing sports@vicad.com. Deadline for publication in next day’s edition is 9:15 p.m. (8:45 p.m.

Saturday). Late scores and stats will appear in the following day’s edition.

FEEDBACK Advocate sports department employees can be reached at the following phone numbers and email addresses: Mike Forman, Sports Editor 361-580-6588/mforman@vicad.com Rey Castillo, Assistant Sports Editor 361-574-1240/rcastillo@vicad.com Marcus Gutierrez, Sports Writer 361-574-1206/mgutierrez@vicad.com To report meetings, events and registrations, email the Advocate sports department at sports@vicad.com.

CORRECTIONS The Advocate wants to correct promptly any error in fact or clarify any misleading information we publish. To report any error or need for clarification, please call 361580-6514.

TV SPOTLIGHT SUNDAY (ALL TIMES CENTRAL)

AUTO RACING NOON FS1 — IMSA, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, at Alton, Va.

1 P.M. NBCSN — IndyCar, ABC Supply 500, at Long Pond, Pa.

1 P.M. FS2 — IMSA, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Michelin GT Challenge at VIR, at Alton, Va.

BASEBALL 8 A.M. ESPN — Little League World Series, double-elimination game, Seoul (South Korea) vs.

Matamoros (Mexico), at Williamsport, Pa.

10 A.M. ESPN — Little League World Series, double-elimination game, Staten Island (N.Y.) vs.

Houston, at Williamsport, Pa.

11 A.M. ESPN2 — Junior League World Series, championship game, Taoyuan (Taiwan)-Reynosa (Mexico) winner vs. Lufkin (Texas)-Manhattan Beach (Calif.) winner, at Taylor, Mich.

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — Some talented, young baseball players have competed at the Little League World Series over the last 71 years.

Fifty-four have gone on to realize another dream — making the majors.

Three of those Little League veterans will be on hand when the Mets play the Phillies in Williamsport on Sunday night: Scott Kingery, Todd Frazier and Michael Conforto.

To mark what’s being called the MLB Little League Classic, here are some of the notable players who made the jump from the LLWS to the majors.

KINGERY: Twelve years ago, Kingery played for the Ahwatukee All-Stars from Phoenix. Now the rookie Philadelphia shortstop is the most recent LLWS player to get to the majors.

“It’s going to be cool to go back there and bring back some memories,” he said. “It’s going to be a good chance to talk to the kids there now, because I know what they’re going through, and I know what they feel like. They’re probably a little nervous and excited, too, so it’ll be good to go watch a game, hang out with some Little Leaguers and play a big game.”

What was it like for him in South Williamsport?

“The (memory) that sticks out is the first time we got off the bus and I stood on top of the hill and saw the fields we were going to be playing on,” Kingery said. “When I get there, it’s probably going to hit me that that was me in

NOON ESPN — Little League World Series, double-elimination game, Arraijan (Panama) vs.

Kawaguchi (Japan), at Williamsport, Pa. ESPNU — American Legion World Series, Massachusetts vs.

Delaware, at Shelby, N.C.

1 P.M. ABC — Little League World Series, double-elimination game, Grosse Pointe Woods (Mich.) vs.

Honolulu, at Williamsport, Pa.

3 P.M. ESPNU — American Legion World Series, Michigan vs.

Idaho, at Shelby, N.C.

6:30 P.M. ESPNU — American Legion World Series, Nevada vs. North Carolina, at Shelby, N.C.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL 3:30 P.M. NBC — AVP Pro Tour, Manhattan Beach Open, semifinals & finals, at Manhattan Beach, Calif.

DRAG RACING 11 A.M. FS1 — NHRA, Lucas Oil Nationals, qualifying, at Brainerd, Minn. (taped)

1 P.M. FS1 — NHRA, Lucas Oil Nationals, finals, at Brainerd, Minn.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York Mets center fielder Michael Conforto is one of 54 baseball players who participated in the Little League World Series and went on to play in the major leagues.

2006. It’s pretty crazy.”

FRAZIER: The Mets third baseman has drawn a lot of attention for his Little League connection.

In the 1998 Little League World Series, Frazier led Toms River, N.J., with his bat and his arm — he was a pitcher then — and his team beat Japan for the championship. In the big leagues, Frazier helped bring the New York Yankees to the ALCS in 2017.

CONFORTO: The young outfielder played for the Redmond, Wash., team in 2004. His team did not

make it out of pool play.

Still, Conforto is one of only three players to participate in the Little League World Series, College World Series (with Oregon State) and MLB World Series.

Making the majors in 2015 with the Mets, the year they lost to the Kansas City Royals in the World Series, Conforto was named an AllStar in 2017.

BOOG POWELL: The longtime Orioles star appeared in the 1954 Little League World Series, playing for the Orange Little League team out of Lake-

GOLF

MLB

6 A.M.

NOON

GOLF — European PGA Tour, Nordea Masters, final round, at Gothenburg, Sweden

NOON GOLF — PGA Tour, Wyndham Championship, final round, at Greensboro, N.C.

2 P.M.

TBS — Toronto at N.Y. Yankees

2 P.M. FSSW — L.A. Angels at Texas

3 P.M. DIRECT TV ch. 674 — Houston at Oakland

6 P.M.

ESPN — N.Y. Mets vs. PhiladelCBS — PGA Tour, Wyndham phia, at Williamsport, Pa. Championship, final round, at SOCCER Greensboro, N.C. 7:30 A.M. GOLF — Champions Tour, Dick’s NBCSN — Premier League, Sporting Goods Open, final Manchester City vs. Huddersround, at Endicott, N.Y.

land, Fla. His club lost to eventual champions New York 16-0 in its first game.

Powell spent 16 years in the majors, winning two World Series titles with Baltimore. He was named an All-Star four times and won the 1970 AL MVP. Powell joined the Orioles in 1961, missing out by just 14 days on being the first Little League World Series player to reach the majors.

KEN HUBBS: Hubbs edged out Powell in the race to the majors. He played for the Lions Club Little League team from

field Town

10 A.M. NBCSN — Premier League, Brighton & Hove Albion vs.

Manchester United

10:55 A.M. ESPNEWS — Serie A, Torino vs.

AS Roma

6:30 P.M. FS1 — MLS, New England at D.C. United

SURFING 2 P.M. FOX — Red Bull Signature Series, Volcom Pipe Tour

Colton, Calif., in the 1954 LLWS, just like Powell. His team reached the final before falling 7-5 to New York.

He debuted on Sept. 10, 1961, for the Chicago Cubs and played two full seasons, earning NL Rookie of the Year in 1962. He died in a plane crash before the 1964 season.

JASON VERITEK: The longtime Red Sox catcher, alongside Conforto, is one of three players to appear in the Little League World Series, the College World Series (with Georgia Tech) and the MLB World Series.

Veritek’s Altamone Springs, Fla., team won the U.S. bracket in the 1984 Little League World Series but lost to South Korea in the final. The two-time World Series champion — both with Boston, where he played for 15 seasons — also participated in Olympic baseball and the World Baseball Classic.

GARY SHEFFIELD: The slugger first entered the limelight in the 1980 Little League World Series as a pitcher for Belmont Heights, Fla. He helped lead his team to the title game against Taiwan, but fell 4-3.

RANDAL GRICHUK: He is one of the only players to make the Little League World Series twice — in 2003 and 2004 for Lamar National of Richmond, Texas.

The closest Grichuk made it to the championship was the U.S. bracket title game in 2004, when his team lost to Thousand Oaks, Calif., 4-0.

He’s now an outfielder with the Toronto Blue Jays.

TENNIS 1 P.M. ESPN2 — WTA World Tour & U.S. Open Series, Western & Southern Open, women’s final, at Cincinnati

3 P.M. ESPN2 — ATP World Tour & U.S. Open Series, Western & Southern Open, men’s final, at Cincinnati

WNBA 6 P.M. ESPN2 — Washington at Minnesota

3:30 P.M. FS1 — USGA, U.S. Amateur Championship, championship match, at Pebble Beach, Calif.

4 P.M. GOLF — LPGA Tour, Indy Women in Tech Championship, final round, at Indianapolis

6 P.M. GOLF — Web.com Tour, WinCo Foods Portland Open, final round, at North Plains, Ore.

GYMNASTICS

• Slab Repair • Pier & Beam • No Job Too Small • Lifetime Guarantee

7 P.M. NBC — U.S. Championships, women’s competition, at Boston

HORSE RACING 3 P.M. FS2 — Saratoga Live, Summer Colony Stakes

Financing Available!

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — C3

VictoriaAdvocate.com

3RD & SHORT

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: DAVID VASQUEZ, DVASQUEZ@VICAD.COM

MLB ROUNDUP

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL

Stanton homers as Yankees beat Blue Jays Woodsboro wins NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton hit one of New York’s four homers, and Luis Severino struck out eight while pitching into the sixth inning of the Yankees’ 11-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday.

Didi Gregorius, Miguel Andujar and Greg Bird also connected as New York moved 31 games over .500, matching a season high. Andujar had three hits and three RBIs, and Gregorius also drove in three runs.

Toronto has lost three straight and four of six. Billy McKinney, who came over when the Blue Jays traded J.A. Happ to the Yankees last month, had two hits and two RBIs against his former team, but Sean Reid-Foley (0-2) was hit hard in his second major league start.

Severino (16-6) won for just the secASSOCIATED PRESS ond time in his last seven starts. The All-Star right-hander allowed two The Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton watches his solo home run off Toronto Blue Jays startruns and six hits in five-plus innings. ing pitcher Sean Reid-Foley during the fourth inning of Saturday’s game in New York.

Mets 3, Phillies 1

Rhys Hoskins and Maikel Franco PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mets ace each doubled among their two hits for Jacob deGrom pitched his first com- the Phillies, who began the day a halfplete game of the season and lowered game behind Atlanta in the NL East his major league-leading ERA to 1.71. and leading the NL wild-card race.

DeGrom (8-7) allowed just an unOrioles 4, Indians 2 earned run, the result of his own error.

He struck out nine and walked none.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Alex Cobb It appeared that deGrom’s day pitched a five-hitter for his first commight be cut short due to a 41-minute plete game in five years, and Baltirain delay that began in the middle of more snapped Cleveland’s six-game the fourth. But the right-hander came win streak. back after the stoppage as strong as Cobb (4-15), the major league leadbefore it. er in losses, struck out three and Philadelphia’s Jake Arrieta (9-8) walked one in his fourth career comallowed one run and four hits in six plete game. The right-hander threw strong innings.

100 pitches, 69 for strikes, while going

the distance for the first time since Aug. 31, 2013, for Tampa Bay against Oakland.

Jonathan Villar hit a three-run home run in the third for Baltimore.

Rookie Cedric Mullins hit his first major league home run in the eighth.

Cleveland right-hander Adam Plutko (4-3) allowed three hits in seven innings. He was called up from Triple-A Columbus to step into the rotation for Trevor Bauer, who is out with a stress fracture in his right leg.

The Indians retired Hall of Famer Jim Thome’s No. 25 before the game, drawing a crowd of 35,003 for Cleveland’s eighth sellout of the season.

tournament; East 2nd in Floresville ADVOCATE STAFF REPORT

Woodsboro swept the Lady Eagle Volleyball Classic to improve to 10-1 on the season. Victoria East won five out of six matches to place second at the Floresville Tournament. The Lady Titans (9-6) came up short in the championship match after falling to San Antonio Holmes in three sets. Leilani Wimbish-Gay and Abby Barnett were all-tournament selections.

San Antonio Holmes 2, Victoria East 1 East 25 22 24 Holmes 19 25 26 Highlighs (East) - Zakari Perry 3 aces. 13 digs; Leilani Wimbish-Gay 10 kills; Trinity Haynes 7 assists; Morgan Kimbrough 7 assists.

Lady Eagle Volleyball Classic Silver Bracket Mathis 3, Austwell-Tivoli 0 AT 20 23 3 Mathis 25 25 15

Kingsville 2, San Diego JV Kingsville 25 25 San Diego JV 17 22

Austwell-Tivoli 2, San Diego JV 0 AT 25 25 SDJV 14 19 Mathis 25 25 Kingsville 14 22

Woodsboro 2, Riviera 0 Woodsboro 25 25 Riviera 17 20

CONTINUED FROM C1

Yorktown 2, Falfurrias 1

on varsity, and I thought a lot of those guys really stepped in and didn’t back down.”

Cuero moved to the Canyon Lake 10-yard line, but was unable to score and the pattern continued through much of the scrimmage.

“We came to the 10 and we didn’t finish,” Haynes said. “We need to work on that consistency.”

The Gobblers did well most of the time against the Hawks’ slot-T offense and some formations they hadn’t expected to face.

Canyon Lake scored on a long run and a long pass.

“I thought defensively, with the exception of two plays, we were pretty good,” Reeve said. “Offensively, we moved it at times but we just weren’t consistent. We’ll get better from there.”

Cuero will scrimmage

COWBOYS CONTINUED FROM C1

13-yard scramble after the Bengals (2-0) started with a pair of three-and-outs.

A week after throwing a 30-yard touchdown to rookie Michael Gallup on his only drive of the preseason opener in San Francisco, Prescott was 10 of 15 for 86 yards. The TD drive for a 10-0 lead was kept alive by an 8-yard slant to Gallup, who reached out for a nice catch inside the Cincinnati 10.

The concern for the Cowboys (0-2) was the status of four-time Pro Bowl guard Zack Martin, who left early on what would have been his last drive with a knee injury. There was no immediate update on the severity of the injury, which happened when Martin bent down to block cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick in the open field on a run by Rod Smith.

Dalton’s final possession ended when Dallas defensive end Taco Charlton forced a fumble on a short completion to Tyler Boyd, with cornerback Byron Jones getting the recov-

ASTROS CONTINUED FROM C1

Phegley had three RBIs and Davis drove in two.

Dallas Keuchel (9-10) gave up five runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. It’s the most runs he’s allowed since giving up six against Toronto on June 27, a span of nine starts.

The A’s matched their best record after 123 games since 1992 and are 25 games over .500 for the first time

Faith Academy 2, Agua Dulce 1 Faith 15 25 17 Agua Dulce 25 20 15

Woodsboro 2, Yorktown 0 Woodsboro 25 25 Yorktown 19 17

Faith Academy 2, Alice 1 Faith 11 25 19 Alice 25 15 17

Third-place game Yorktown 2, Alice 0 Yorktown 26 25 Alice 24 17

Championship game Woodsboro 2, Faith Academy 0 Woodsboro 25 25 Faith 9 13 Records: Woodsboro 10-1

Friday’s late scores Randolph 2, Shiner 0 Shiner 25 14 Randolph 27 25 Highlights — (Shiner) Kyondra Miller 3 kills, 2 digs; Faith Kalich 2 kills, 1 block, 1 dig; Courtney Boedeker 4 digs; Cameron Cowan 3 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace; Carley Hewig 6 assists, 2 aces; Kayla McCarthy 1 block, 3 digs, 4 kills; Taylor Wenske 2 digs; Emily Cerny 2 kills; Emma Herman 2 aces, 3 assists; Kiley Michalec 5 digs, 4 aces.

Holmes 2, Shiner 0 Holmes 25 25 Shiner 18 20

Shiner 2, Cornerstone Christian 1

Mathis 2, Kingsville 0 Gold Bracket

CUERO

Yorktown 25 20 15 Falfurrias 16 25 13

Shiner 16 25 25 Cornerstone Christian 25 15 7 Highlights — (Shiner) Kyondra Miller 7 kills, 2 blocks, 5 digs; Faith Kalich 2 kills; Courtney Boedeker 3 digs; Cameron Cowan 1 kill, 1 ace, 1 block, 4 digs; Carley Hewig 13 assists, 4 digs, 4 kills, 3 aces; Kayla McCarthy 6 kills, 3 aces, 2 digs; Taylor Wenske 2 aces, 8 digs; Emily Cerny 1 block, 2 kills; Emma Herman 2 digs, 10 assists; Kiley Michalec 14 digs, 1 kill, 2 aces.

YOUR PHOTOS Whittington distributes school supplies

MATTHEW WESTMORELAND/MWESTMORELAND@VICAD.COM

Defensive tackle Marquis Williams of the Cuero Gobblers brings down the Canyon Lake quarterback during a scrimmage at Cuero High School. at Seguin High on Friday before opening the season Aug. 31 against Bay City at Gobbler Stadium.

“I want to see consisery. Dalton was 5 of 7 for 41 yards.

The Cowboys forced two turnovers after getting three against the 49ers.

The highlight was Chidobe Awuzie’s leaping interception , which he tipped to himself along the sideline late in the first half.

Cincinnati’s first points came on backup kicker Jonathan Brown’s 55-yard field goal in the third quarter.

The Bengals went ahead 11-10 when Tra Carson scored on a 2-yard run and Jeff Driskel threw a 2-point conversion pass to John Ross. Matt Barkley’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Brian Hill wrapped up the scoring midway through the fourth quarter.

LONG TIME COMING Dallas defensive end Randy Gregory played for the first time since the finale of the 2016 regular season. He missed all of last season after getting suspended three times in 2016 for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. Gregory didn’t show up in the defensive stats but pressured Dalton on a third-down misfire to an open A.J. Green on Cincinnati’s opening possession. since Aug. 14, 2014. They’re now 15-1-2 over their previous 18 series dating to June 15.

Houston’s Alex Bregman walked to lead off the seventh, extending his on-base streak to 38 consecutive road games, the longest such active streak in the majors.

Oakland’s Matt Chapman went 0-for-4, ending his 14game hitting streak and 30game on-base streak.

Streak remembered The

Athletics

honored

tency on offense and just working really hard, and I continued growth across know we’ll get to where we the board,” Reeve said. want to be.”

“We’ve got a long way to go.

This group is committed to

TALE OF TWO WORKLOADS With star running back Ezekiel Elliott sitting again for Dallas, Smith had 13 carries in the first 18 minutes, finishing with 49 yards. His workload was helped by a nearly nine-minute drive to Williams’ touchdown. Bengals starter Joe Mixon got just four carries for 8 yards.

LEE SIGHTING

ing for the national anthem in the first preseason home game, “toe on the line” as owner Jerry Jones declared they would be in his opening remarks at training camp last month. The Dallas players, with some coaches sprinkled in, were single file on the sideline, spanning about 50 yards.

As usual, all the Bengals were standing.

Dallas linebacker Sean INJURY REPORT Lee started and played a few snaps after finally goBengals: Rookie CB ing through a full practice Davontae Harris was ruled for the first time this past out with a knee injury in the week at training camp. first half. ... TE C.J. Uzomah sustained a cut to his O-LINE OVERHAUL face early in the game, but The work in progress that came back with a 23-yard is the overhauled offensive catch in the first half. line for the Bengals reCowboys: S Xavier Woods mains that way, this time left with a hamstring injuafter fired line coach Paul ry. ... Rookie RB Bo ScarAlexander was watching brough, a seventh-round from the opposing sideline pick out of Alabama, went after getting hired by Dal- to the locker room with a las. Cedric Ogbuehi was hip injury. ... DE Datone at right tackle to start the Jones and S Jameill Showsecond half when gave up a ers left with knee injuries. sack to Charlton while getUP NEXT ting called for holding. Cincinnati running backs had For “dress rehearsal” just 7 yards on six carries week, the Bengals will be before halftime. at Buffalo and the Cowboys will be home against AriNATIONAL ANTHEM zona. Both games are next The Cowboys were stand- Sunday. members of the 2002 team that set an American League record with a 20game winning streak and was featured in the movie “Moneyball.” Scott Hatteberg, who hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth for the record-setting 20th win on Sept. 4, always felt then-manager Art Howe got a bum deal in the movie.

“The story is seen through Hollywood and they needed a villain. He was not that guy,” Hatteberg said Saturday. “He was never too high or too low. That season was

chock full of memories and he was not one for speeches. He stayed calm and that helped us play better.”

Howe sent a video message acknowledging the team and fans.

Perplexed and puzzled Hinch still isn’t convinced that Ramon Laureano was safe at home in the bottom of the ninth Friday night, despite the play being reversed by reply. “Until I see something with his hand on the plate without the tag I’m not going to like it,” he said

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Former Cuero, SMU and Oakland Raiders running back Arthur Whittington, standing center, joined Jessika Gonzalez, standing right, at the 820 Club in Kenedy to distribute free backpacks and school supplies to students. Whittington signed autographs and the club provided free haircuts to the students.

NFL

Rams spoil Raiders’ return to Coliseum LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sean McVay and Jon Gruden both knew they’ve got to coach against each other in a real game just 23 days after the Rams’ preseason visit from the Raiders.

So while the Raiders’ return to the Coliseum was a thrill for their faithful Southern California fan base, the Rams’ young coach and his veteran role model both made sure the action on the field was as meaningless as possible.

Rookie John Kelly rushed for 56 yards and a touchdown, and the Rams welcomed the Raiders back to L.A. with a 19-15 preseason victory over Oakland on Saturday.

Chris Warren rushed for 110 yards and a touchdown for the Raiders in their return to the venerable sta-

dium that was their home for 13 seasons during their largely successful tenure in Los Angeles. Their passionate local following turned out in force, filling the 95-year-old arena with black jerseys and loud cheers.

before Saturday’s game. “I don’t know fully what they have but we trust they have something because they have to. It feels pretty hollow.” Laureano scored the tying run and the A’s won 4-3 on Olson’s homer in the 10th.

1-for-4 in his first rehab appearance with the Grizzlies on Thursday night as the DH. ... Altuve is scheduled to start a rehab assignment on Sunday in Tacoma and is expected to rejoin the team next week in Seattle.

Trainer’s room

ASTROS: RHP Justin Verlander (11-8, 2.52) goes for Houston in the series finale Sunday.

ATHLETICS: LHP Sean Manea (11-8, 3.44) takes the mound for Oakland in the series finale Sunday.

ASTROS: RHP Chris Devenki struck out three and allowed two hits in a scoreless inning at Triple-A Fresno on Friday night in his second rehab appearance. ... C Brian McCann was

Jaguars 14, Vikings 10 MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Yannick Ngakoue had an 11-yard sack that helped Jacksonville’s defense hold Kirk Cousins and Minnesota’s starting offense to three completions and three points, and the Jaguars reserves rallied for a victory over the Vikings.

The Vikings went threeand-out on two of their four possessions with their new quarterback. Latavius Murray’s second fumble was recovered by Calais Campbell to end another drive.

Up next

C4 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

4TH & LONG

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: REY CASTILLO, RCASTILLO@VICAD.COM

BOWLING

FISHING

Crowe posts only 700 set for the week

Crossroads weekly fishing report

As has been the case for summer league play, Tom Crowe took the weekly high honors by rolling the only 700 series this week.

He opened Rolling Thunder League competition with a split open in the first frame and then followed with eight strikes in a row before a split open in the 10th frame left him with an opening game of 244. He scorched the pins for a 269 second game with spares in the econd and third frames being the only non strike frames. A closing 213 final game produced a 726 total for Crowe.

With one week left before Rolling Thunder summer season ends, his team is in first place by four games.

Other bowlers breaking the 250-650 mark were Gary Hatter Jr. (686), Patrick Visconti (677), Jacob Silgero (671), Glenn Mason (669), Mark Svatek (665) and Tamarcus Bennett (257).

Samantha Wharton posted the high score for the women during Rolling Thunder play with a nice 214 high game contributing toward a 576 set.

Rachel Wortham was not far behind with a 201 high game helping toward a 562 total.

Joanna McNary with 214-545 and Trudy Wortham with 543 rolled the next high scores.

The Monday Mixed League and Thursday’s Captain’s League will meet this week to finalize their team rosters. They open

league competition Aug. 27 and Aug. 30 respectively.

The Over The Hill ABEL League for seniors age 50 and BOWLING over will meet Aug. 27 to finalize team rosters and go over league rules.

It is a good opportunity for seniors to stay active and enjoy a good game of bowling. Contact Cecilia at 361-572-9359 or 361-6487950, if you are interested in participating.

On the pro tour, Liz Johnson and E.J. Tackett teamed up to win the PBA/PWBA Storm Strike Against Breast Cancer Tournament, which was held at Houston’s Copperfield Lanes. They defeated the duo of Diandra Asbaty and Jason Belmonte.

After leading for most of the tournament, Johnson-Tackett found themselves 10 pins down going into the final match. With Johnson defeating Asbaty 212-192. Belmonte needed a big win over Tackett to secure the win, but he was unable to double in the 10th frame and they lost the match 420-406.This was the third consecutive year Asbaty-Belmonte have finished second in the tournament. The win gives Johnson 20 PWBA career titles and Tackett 11 PBA titles.

GARCIA

Rocio Restrepo won the PWBA Twin City Open from the second seed spot. In the step-ladder matches, Jordan Richard defeated Josie Barnes 236-203 in the first match and Shannon O’Keefe 197-192 in a low scoring second match to face Restrepo. Restrepo, who hails from Columbia, moved past Richard 201-170 and then defeated top seed Liz Kuhlkin for the title.

CBS Sports Network will broadcast the Qubica AMF Players Championship Saturday Aug. 25 at 5 p.m.

RESULTS SUMMER SUNDAY STRIKERS 1ST SPLIT HAPPENS Women: S. Tausch 493; L. Diaz 186; Men: P. Visconti 237-677; E. Raaz Jr. 244-593; C. McGarity 563; A. Whitehead 560; J. Shoup 560; C. Doering 555; S. Kenney 552; TROTTERS 1ST (tie) LIKE MOTHERS LIKE DAUGHTERS and LADY BUGS Women: P. Mayer 452; ROLLING THUNDER 1ST TEAMMATES Women: S. Wharton 214-576; R. Wortham 562; J. McNary 214-545; T. Wortham 543; L. Hammack 510; Men: T. Crowe 269-726; G. Hatter Jr. 247-686; J. Silgero 237-671; G. Mason 235-669; M. Svatek 246-665; R. Lyman 243-646; S. Miller 244-644; T. Bennett 257-644; P. Delgado 244-639; T. J. Mooney 234-638; M. Osterson 628; M. Stacy 620; P. Visconti 233-610; K. Stasny 236-593; L. Conner 593; J. Matson 225-593; S. Zeplin 588; G. Brooks 231-581; R. Silgero 570; R. Marques 568; J. Shoup 567; M. Conchola 564; R. Morris 562; H. Tesch 236-555; J. Cass 549.

■ NORTH SABINE: Trout are good under slicks and birds on soft plastics. Redfish are good under rafts of shad on topwaters. Redfish are good in the marsh on small topwaters.

■ SOUTH SABINE: Trout are fair to good under birds and pods of shad. Trout are good at the jetty on live bait and topwaters. Trout are good at the rigs on live mullet.

■ BOLIVAR: Trout are good on the outgoing tide at Rollover Pass on soft plastics and mullet. Redfish are good in the marsh with higher tides.

■ TRINITY BAY: Trout are fair for drifters working pods of shad and mullet on soft plastics.

Redfish are good along the north shoreline on gold spoons and Gulps with high tides. Trout are fair to good on shrimp near the Spillway.

■ EAST GALVESTON BAY: Trout are good on the south shoreline on topwaters and soft plastics. Trout are fair to good on the shell adjacent to the channel on live bait. Sand trout are showing along the channel.

■ WEST GALVESTON BAY: Trout are fair to good along the channel on soft plastics and croakers. Sheepshead, redfish and black drum are good at the jetty on shrimp

and crabs. Offshore is good for kingfish, ling and dolphin.

Tarpon are fair to good along the beachfront.

■ TEXAS CITY: Trout are fair to good on the reefs and in the channel on live shrimp and croakers. Redfish and sand trout are fair to good in Moses Lake and Dickinson Bayou on shrimp.

■ FREEPORT: Trout are good at San Luis Pass on shrimp, topwaters and soft plastics.

Trout, redfish, sand trout and sheepshead are good on live shrimp on the reefs in Christmas Bay. ■ EAST MATAGORDA BAY: Trout and sand trout are good for drifters on live shrimp over mid-bay reefs and shell and mud humps. Trout and redfish are good over mud on the east end and soft plastics and topwaters.

■ WEST MATAGORDA BAY: Trout are fair over sand and grass humps on soft plastics and topwaters. Redfish and black drum are fair to good at Shell Island on live shrimp.

■ PORT O’CONNOR: Trout and redfish are good at the jetty on live bait. Trout and redfish are fair to good on topwaters and live bait over sand, grass and shell in San Antonio Bay. Trout and redfish are fair for drifters working the back lakes with live shrimp and small topwaters.

■ ROCKPORT: Trout are fair over grass while drifting with live shrimp and Gulps. Redfish are good on piggy perch and shrimp around Mud Island

and Estes Flats.

■ PORT ARANSAS: Trout, redfish and sheepshead are fair to good at the jetty on shrimp and croakers. Redfish are good on the East Flats on Gulps. Offshore is good for dolphin, ling, kingfish and tuna.

■ CORPUS CHRISTI: Trout are good in Oso and Nueces bats for waders tossing small Super Spooks and MirrOlures.

Trout are fair to good on the edge of the spoils on piggy perch, Gulps and live shrimp. Redfish are good in the potholes on shrimp and piggies.

■ BAFFIN BAY: Trout are good on topwaters and soft plastics around deep rocks and grass.

Trout are fair to good on soft plastics under a popping cork on the grass in the Land Cut. Redfish have been found on the flats with higher tides.

■ PORT MANSFIELD: Trout are good on topwaters on the edge of the channel and around sand and grass.

Redfish are good on the sand on small topwaters and Gulps.

■ SOUTH PADRE: Trout are good while drifting sand and grass potholes on soft plastics.

Redfish are good on the flats in South Bay on live bait and plastics. Snook are good in the Ship Channel on DOA Shrimp and live shrimp.

■ PORT ISABEL: Trout are good on sand and grass on Gulps, DOA Shrimp and topwaters.

Redfish are good on the Gas Well Flats on shrimp under a cork and small topwaters.

GOLF

BOXING

Fury sets up Wilder fight after winning 2nd comeback bout BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — Tyson Fury says he has signed the contract. Deontay Wilder said the fight is “official.”

All it needs now is a time and a place.

Fury, the former world heavyweight champion, cleared the way for a fight with Wilder, the current WBC titleholder, by winning the second bout of his comeback on Saturday.

Wilder was ringside at Windsor Park in Belfast to see Fury taken the full 10 rounds by Italian journeyman Francesco Pianeta before being awarded the victory on points, 100-90.

Wilder then entered the ring and said: “We are ready now. This fight will happen.

It is on. This fight is official.

It’s on. It’s the best fighting the best.”

Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, who was standing near the two fighters in the ring, said an announcement will be made next week.

“They called, I answered.

I said send me a contract,

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Brandt Snedeker watches his tee shot on the second hole during the third round of the Wyndham Championship on Saturday at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.

Snedeker leads Wyndham ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tyson Fury, right, in action against Francesco Pianeta during their Heavyweight fight at Windsor Park in Belfast, Northern Ireland. they sent me a contract. I said yes and now he gets a chance to fight the lineal champion of the world,” said Fury, who now has a 27-0 record. “One thing I promise in Las Vegas is that I am knocking you out.”

After shocking the boxing world by beating Wladimir Klitschko in November 2015 to become WBA, IBF and WBO champion, Fury was out of the ring for 2 1/2 years because of mental health and drug problems. He regained his boxing license in January after accepting a backdated two-year dop-

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ing ban the previous month for elevated levels of nandrolone in urine samples.

The first fight of his return was an almost comical bout against Albanian cruiserweight Sefer Seferi in June, which ended after the fourth round when Fury’s opponent quit.

Pianeta offered better but still limited opposition and didn’t have the power to worry Fury, who was light on his feet and showed good movement and reflexes.

Fury took this fight more seriously but still showboated at times.

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Brandt Snedeker held a three-stroke lead Saturday in the Wyndham Championship when the third round was suspended because of severe weather.

Snedeker was 16 under for the tournament with 11 holes left in the round at the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season.

Brian Gay was 13 under through 12 holes, and Trey Mullinax, Keith Mitchell, C.T. Pan and D.A. Points were another stroke back at varying stages of their rounds.

Thirty players were still on the course when play was halted during the

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mid-afternoon with thunder booming and a threat of lightning. After a 3-hour, 23-minute delay, organizers chose to hold things up overnight and resume the round at 8 a.m. Sunday.

When things resume, Snedeker — who opened with a 59 to become the first tour player this year and just the 10th ever to break 60 — will look to keep himself in position to contend for his ninth victory on tour and his first since the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open.

The 2012 FedEx Cup champion won the tournament in 2007, the year before it moved across town to par-70 Sedgefield Coun-

try Club.

Snedeker’s final 11 holes of the round could wind up being telling: In seven of the 10 previous years since the tournament’s move to this course, the thirdround leader or co-leader has gone on to win.

And every leader who finished the third round here at 16 under or better has wound up winning, including Henrik Stenson (16 under) last year and Si Woo Kim (18 under) in 2016.

Snedeker started the day off strong, rolling in a 60foot chip for birdie on the par-4 second hole, then pushed his lead to three strokes with a birdie on No. 5.

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — C5

VictoriaAdvocate.com

INSIDE SPORTS

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: DAVID VASQUEZ, DVASQUEZ@VICAD.COM

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

AUTO RACING

Power goes for 3rd straight win at Pocono LONG POND, Pa. (AP) — Will Power flirted with the idea of hurling a baseball much like a cricket bowler would throw the ball toward a batsman.

Power, a former rugby and cricket player, had second thoughts as he took the mound to throw the first pitch before a recent Philadelphia Phillies game.

“I’d probably get booed,” he said, laughing.

Even Aussies know what triggers the official sound of contempt in Philly.

Power might have heard worse had fans tagged him as bad luck when he left in the fifth inning of Philadelphia’s 24-4 loss to the New York Mets.

“I felt bad. I was like, whew, this is a tough gig,” Power said.

Power finds himself behind on the scoreboard as well, when IndyCar returns from a two-week hiatus for Sunday’s race at Pocono Raceway.

The Indianapolis 500 champion is fourth in the standings, 87 points behind leader Scott Dixon. With four races left this season, Alexander Rossi is second in the points race and defending series champion Josef Newgarden is third.

“It’s quite a points deficit to come back from,” Power said. “But it’s not impossible.”

Power’s run toward a second IndyCar championship — to pair with his 2014 title — shifts into another gear at Pocono, where he’s won the last two races and has an average finish of fourth in the five races since the series returned to the mountains in 2013. He got a nice boost Saturday when he won the pole to match A.J. Foyt for second on the career list with 53.

Power was forced to pit early in last season’s race to repair a broken wing and rallied from a lap down to win. He held Mikhail Aleshin at bay after a final restart

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Louisville running back Colin Wilson, left, attempts to outrun Kent State safety Manny Lawrence-Burke during a game last season in Louisville, Ky. Wilson is attempting to return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament that limited him to two games last season.

Redshirt freshmen ready for action after year-long wait lowing the departure of Josh Adams Terry had 129 yards receiving and a and the dismissals of CJ Holmes and touchdown in the Seminoles’ spring Redshirt freshmen are becoming Deon McIntosh . game. less common as more players conPittsburgh CB Paris Ford Louisville RB Colin Wilson tribute straight out of high school.

They still can have an impact, though.

Ford could end up contributing for Louisville’s offense could focus That’s particularly true on the of- the Panthers in a variety of ways. Al- more on the running backs now that fensive and defensive lines, where though Ford figures to make his big- 2016 Heisman Trophy-winning quarplayers regularly need that extra gest contributions in the secondary, terback Lamar Jackson has moved year to gain the physical strength he also could emerge as one of Pitt’s on to the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. necessary for the college game. top return men and may even make That could put more of a spotlight Southern California defensive tack- some cameos on offense. Ford scored on Wilson as he attempts to make a le Jay Tufele has shown this summer 22 touchdowns in five different ways triumphant return from a torn ACL. how much he’s benefited from that — runs from scrimmage, receptions, Wilson rushed for 69 yards on six cartime in the gym. interception returns, punt returns ries in two games last season before Tufele arrived on campus as the na- and fumble returns — while starring getting hurt, enabling him to take a tion’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. for Steel Valley High School in Pitts- medical redshirt.

39 overall prospect in his class, ac- burgh.

Georgia OT Isaiah Wilson cording to composite rankings of reMaryland QB Kasim Hill cruiting sites compiled by 247Sports.

Wilson has been working with GeorOne year later, he’s a likely starter Hill played three games last year gia’s first-team offense at right tackle who should play a vital role on USC’s and went 18 of 21 for 230 yards with no for much of preseason camp as the defense. interceptions before tearing his ante- Bulldogs attempt to replace New USC coach Clay Helton said last rior cruciate ligament and sitting out England Patriots first-round draft weekend Tufele has had “the best the rest of the season. Hill is back and pick Isaiah Wynn, who was the startcamp of anybody.” competing for the starting spot with ing left tackle last season. Andrew Here are some other redshirt fresh- sophomore Tyrell Pigrome, who also Thomas, the starting right tackle last men who could make a major impact tore his ACL last season. Other Big season, has moved over to the left this season.

Ten redshirt freshman quarterbacks side this year. Wilson was rated as competing for starting spots include the nation’s No. 16 overall prospect in Notre Dame WR/RB Jafar Armstrong Minnesota’s Tanner Morgan and Ne- his high school class according to the Notre Dame technically doesn’t braska’s Tristan Gebbia.

247SportsComposite. label any of its players as redshirt Florida State WR Tamorrion Terry Extra points freshmen, but Armstrong fits the profile as a sophomore who didn’t play a Whether Deondre Francois or Six more redshirt freshmen who down last season. Armstrong signed James Blackman wins Florida could make an impact this season: with Notre Dame as a receiver but State’s quarterback competition, the ■ Justin Broiles, S, Oklahoma started working more in the back- Seminoles could use more playmak- ■ Terrell Cooper, DL, TCU field this spring and has impressed. ing receivers. Florida State’s top re- ■ Abraham Lucas, OT, Washington Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly has turning receiver is Nyqwan Murray, State cited Armstrong’s versatility while who has been working his way back ■ Scott Nelson, S, Wisconsin comparing him to Theo Riddick, a from a knee injury that occurred in ■ Randall St. Felix, WR, South former Irish running back now with spring practice. Terry’s impressive Florida the Detroit Lions. Armstrong could performance in preseason camp sug- ■ Austin Williams, WR, Mississippi get a featured role in a Notre Dame gests he could fill a need and emerge State rushing attack that’s unsettled fol- as one of Florida State’s top weapons.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

to win at the track in 2016.

He’s had a few missteps in the No. 12 Chevrolet for Team Penske this season that left him looking up at Dixon in the title picture.

Power’s wins at Indy and Iowa have been offset in the standings a bit by crashes that prevented him from finishing four races.

Dixon, who just signed a contract extension with Chip Ganassi Racing, has been about flawless this season. At 38, he’s leading the series in pursuit of his fifth IndyCar title. Dixon has three wins this season and leads Rossi by 46 points in the standings.

“He’s as perfect as you can be in IndyCar,” Power said.

Dixon has six podium finishes and 11 top-10 starts in 13 races. It will take something wild — a massive wreck, an engine failure — to knock Dixon out of first.

The driver known as “Iceman” isn’t going to screw up his lead on his own.

“Everyone has their bad runs, even if it’s not their fault,” Power said. “At some point in the season, you’re going to get caught out. He hasn’t had that yet. Maybe he has a perfect season.”

Dixon has one win and hasn’t finished worse than ninth in five races at Pocono.

“We’re in a strong position, but it doesn’t guarantee you anything,” Dixon said. “I think with the (contract extension), it gives us a good injection to stay focused and make sure we make the most of these opportunities because they don’t come around too easy or very often.”

Power knows better than any driver how a sure thing can slip into heartbreak once the final checkered flag is dropped. He won five races and led the points standings in 2010 for 15 out of 16 races until he finished 25th in the finale and lost the title to Dario Franchitti.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Will Power adjusts his visor before a practice session Saturday in Long Pond, Pa.

SCOREBOARD MLB American League East Division W 87 77 62 55 37

Boston New York Tampa Bay Toronto Baltimore

L 36 46 60 68 86

Pct .707 .626 .508 .447 .301

GB — 10 24½ 32 50

Central Division W 70 58 50 45 37

Cleveland Minnesota Detroit Chicago Kansas City

L 52 63 73 76 85

Pct .574 .479 .407 .372 .303

GB — 11½ 20½ 24½ 33

West Division Houston Oakland Seattle Los Angeles Texas

W 74 74 70 62 55

L 49 49 53 62 69

Pct .602 .602 .569 .500 .444

GB — — 4 12½ 19½

Friday’s Games N.Y. Yankees 7, Toronto 5, 7 innings Cleveland 2, Baltimore 1 Boston 7, Tampa Bay 3 Texas 6, L.A. Angels 4 Chicago White Sox 9, Kansas City 3 Minnesota 5, Detroit 4 Oakland 4, Houston 3, 10 innings L.A. Dodgers 11, Seattle 1

Saturday’s Games N.Y. Yankees 11, Toronto 6 Baltimore 4, Cleveland 2 Oakland 7, Houston 1 Detroit at Minnesota, 6:10 p.m.

Kansas City at Chicago White Sox, 6:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

L.A. Angels at Texas, late L.A. Dodgers at Seattle, late

Sunday’s Games Tampa Bay (TBD) at Boston (Sale 12-4), 12:05 p.m.

Toronto (Borucki 2-2) at N.Y. Yankees (Happ 13-6), 12:05 p.m.

Baltimore (Cashner 4-10) at Cleveland (Clevinger 8-7), 12:10 p.m.

Detroit (TBD) at Minnesota (Odorizzi 5-7), 1:10 p.m.

Kansas City (Fillmyer 1-1) at Chicago White Sox (Lopez 4-9), 1:10 p.m.

L.A. Angels (Barria 8-7) at Texas (Colon 7-10), 2:05 p.m.

Houston (Verlander 11-8) at Oakland (Manaea 11-8), 3:05 p.m.

L.A. Dodgers (Kershaw 5-5) at Seattle (Elias 2-0), 3:10 p.m.

Monday’s Games

Baltimore at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Minnesota, 6:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Kansas City at Tampa Bay, 6:10 p.m.

Texas at Oakland, 9:05 p.m.

Houston at Seattle, 9:10 p.m.

ATHLETICS 7, ASTROS 1 Houston

Oakland ab r h bi ab r h bi Sprnger cf 3 0 0 0 Semien ss 5 1 1 0 K.Tcker ph 1 0 0 0 Chpmn 3b 4 0 0 0 Bregman 3b 3 0 0 0 Lowrie 2b 4 1 1 0 Correa ss 3 0 0 0 K.Davis dh 4 1 2 2 M.Gnzal 2b 3 0 0 0 M.Olson 1b 4 2 2 1 Gurriel 1b 3 0 1 0 Pscotty rf 4 1 2 1 Gattis dh 300 0 Pinder lf 2 1 0 0 Reddick rf 3 0 0 0 Lureano cf 4 0 1 0 Stassi c 3 0 0 0 Phegley c 4 0 2 3 T.Kemp lf 311 1 Totals 28 1 2 1 Totals 35 7 11 7 Houston 000 000 001 — 1 Oakland 200 003 02x — 7 DP—Oakland 1. LOB—Houston 1, Oakland 6. 2B—K.Davis 2 (24), M.Olson 2 (26), Piscotty 2 (33), Phegley 2 (6). HR—T.Kemp (5). SB—Gurriel (5).

IP H R ER BB SO Houston Keuchel L,9-10 5 2/3 9 5 5 1 4 Harris 1 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 Peacock 1 2 2 2 1 2 Oakland Cahill W,5-2 7 1 0 0 1 7 Familia 1 0 0 0 0 2 Petit 1 1 1 1 0 0 WP—Harris, Peacock.

Umpires—Home, Jim Wolf; First, D.J. Reyburn; Second, Sam Holbrook; Third, Alfonso Marquez. T—2:33. A—32,204 (46,765).

Friday’s Late Boxes

ATHLETICS 4, ASTROS 3, 10 INNINGS Houston

Oakland ab r h bi ab r h bi 501 0 Martini lf 3 0 1 1 3 1 1 1 M.Chpmn 3b 5 0 1 1 5 0 0 0 Lowrie 2b 4 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 K.Davis dh 4 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 M.Olson 1b 5 1 2 1 3 1 1 0 Pscotty rf 3 1 1 0 3 0 0 0 Semien ss 4 1 1 0 401 1 Canha cf 4 0 0 0 401 0 Lucroy c 3 0 0 0 3 1 1 1 Pinder ph 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Lureano pr 0 1 0 0 Phegley c 0 0 0 0 Totals 34 3 6 3 Totals 35 4 8 3 Houston 000 111 000 0 — 3 Oakland 000 020 001 1 — 4 E—Correa (3). DP—Houston 1, Oakland 2.

LOB—Houston 6, Oakland 10. 2B—Martini (6), Lowrie (31), Piscotty (31). HR—Bregman (23), Maldonado (6), M.Olson (23).

SB—Bregman (9). CS—White (1).

Sprnger cf Bregman 3b Gurriel 2b Stassi c Correa ss M.Gnzal lf-2b Gattis dh Reddick rf White 1b Mldnado c T.Kemp ph-lf

IP H R ER BB SO Houston Morton 5 4 2 1 2 4 McHugh H,6 1 1 0 0 1 1 Pressly H,10 1 0 0 0 0 2 Osuna H,1 1 1 0 0 1 1 Rondon BS,5 1 1 1 1 2 0 Sipp L,2-1 0 1 1 1 0 0 Oakland Jackson 5 5 2 2 2 2 Trivino 1 1 1 1 2 1 Kelley 1 0 0 0 0 1 Pagan 1 0 0 0 0 1 Rodney 1 0 0 0 0 0 Treinen W,6-2 1 0 0 0 1 3 Umpires—Home, Alfonso Marquez; First, Jim Wolf; Second, D.J. Reyburn; Third, Sam Holbrook. T—3:33. A—23,535 (46,765).

RANGERS 6, ANGELS 4 Los Angeles Texas ab r h bi ab r h bi K.Clhun rf 4 0 0 0 Choo dh 4 0 2 0 Fltcher 2b 4 0 1 1 Odor 2b 3 0 1 3 Upton lf 2 0 1 0 Andrus ss 3 0 0 0 Ohtani dh 4 0 0 0 Mazara rf 4 1 1 0 Pujols 1b 3 2 1 0 Profar 3b 3 1 0 0 Simmons ss 4 1 1 2 Gallo lf 4 1 1 2 R.Rvera c 4 0 1 0 Knr-Flf c 4 0 1 1 Ward 3b 4 0 1 1 Guzman 1b 3 1 1 0 Yng Jr. cf 411 0 Tocci cf 3 2 3 0 Totals 33 4 7 4 Totals 31 6 10 6 Los Angeles 010 012 000 — 4 Texas 050 000 10x — 6 E—Fletcher (2). DP—Los Angeles 2, Texas 2. LOB—Los Angeles 6, Texas 4.

2B—Pujols (20), Gallo (18). HR—Simmons (8). SB—Upton (7), Young Jr. (4). SF—Odor (4).

IP H R ER BB SO Los Angeles Despaigne L,2-1 4 7 5 5 1 3 McGuire 4 3 1 1 1 3 Texas Hutchison W,2-2 5 5 2 2 1 6 Springs H,1 1 2 2 2 2 0 Gearrin H,8 1 0 0 0 0 0 Martin H,11 1 0 0 0 0 2 Leclerc S,4-8 1 0 0 0 0 3 Springs pitched to 1 batter in the 7th HBP—by Gearrin (Upton). WP—Hutchison.

Umpires—Home, CB Bucknor; First, Fieldin Cubreth; Second, Chris Conroy; Third, Vic Carapazza. T—2:56. A—27,816 (49,115).

National League W 68 68 62 52 48

L 53 54 61 69 76

Pct .562 .557 .504 .430 .387

GB — ½ 7 16 21½

Central Division Chicago

W 71

L 50

Pct .587

68 67 61 53

56 56 62 69

.548 .545 .496 .434

4½ 5 11 18½

West Division Arizona Colorado Los Angeles San Francisco San Diego

W 68 66 66 61 48

L 55 56 57 62 77

Pct .553 .541 .537 .496 .384

GB — 1½ 2 7 21

GB —

W 1 1 1 0

Houston Indianapolis Jacksonville Tennessee

L 0 0 1 1

Saturday’s Games N.Y. Mets at Philadelphia, 3:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

Miami at Washington, 6:05 p.m.

Colorado at Atlanta, 6:10 p.m.

San Francisco at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Milwaukee at St. Louis, 6:15 p.m.

Arizona at San Diego, late L.A. Dodgers at Seattle, late

Sunday’s Games San Francisco (Suarez 4-8) at Cincinnati (Castillo 6-10), 12:10 p.m.

Chicago Cubs (Quintana 10-9) at Pittsburgh (Taillon 9-9), 12:35 p.m.

Colorado (Marquez 10-9) at Atlanta (Sanchez 6-3), 12:35 p.m.

Miami (Lopez 2-3) at Washington (Gonzalez 7-9), 12:35 p.m.

Milwaukee (Chacin 12-4) at St. Louis (Gant 5-4), 1:15 p.m.

Arizona (Greinke 12-8) at San Diego (Kennedy 0-2), 3:10 p.m.

L.A. Dodgers (Kershaw 5-5) at Seattle (TBD), 3:10 p.m.

N.Y. Mets (Vargas 2-8) vs. Philadelphia (Pivetta 7-9) at Williamsport, Pa., 6:10 p.m.

Monday’s Games Atlanta at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

San Francisco at N.Y. Mets, 6:10 p.m.

Cincinnati at Milwaukee, 7:10 p.m.

St. Louis at L.A. Dodgers, 9:10 p.m.

AMERICAN CONFERENCE East W New England 2 Buffalo 1 N.Y. Jets 1 Miami 0

L 0 1 1 2

T Pct PF PA 0 1.000 63 37 0 .500 42 45 0 .500 30 15 0 .000 44 53

South

T Pct PF PA 0 1.000 17 10 0 1.000 19 17 0 .500 34 34 0 .000 17 31

L 0 0 1 1

T 0 0 0 0

Pct 1.000 1.000 .500 .500

PF 50 30 37 65

PA 23 27 29 65

West W 1 1 0 0

Oakland Kansas City L.A. Chargers Denver

L 0 1 1 1

T Pct PF PA 0 1.000 16 10 0 .500 38 31 0 .000 17 24 0 .000 28 42

NATIONAL CONFERENCE East W 1 1 0 0

N.Y. Giants Washington Dallas Philadelphia

L 1 1 1 2

T 0 0 0 0

Pct .500 .500 .000 .000

PF 40 32 21 34

PA 37 39 24 68

South Carolina Tampa Bay New Orleans Atlanta

W 2 1 1 0

L 0 0 1 2

T Pct PF PA 0 1.000 55 43 0 1.000 26 24 0 .500 39 40 0 .000 14 45

North Green Bay Minnesota Detroit Chicago

W 2 1 0 0

L 0 1 2 2

T 0 0 0 0

Pct 1.000 .500 .000 .000

PF 82 52 27 43

PA 51 42 46 47

West W Arizona 2 San Francisco 1 Seattle 0 L.A. Rams 0

L 0 0 1 1

Monday’s Game Baltimore at Indianapolis, 7 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 23 Philadelphia at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

Friday, Aug. 24

North W 2 1 1 1

Baltimore Cincinnati Cleveland Pittsburgh

Friday’s Games Philadelphia 4, N.Y. Mets 2 Chicago Cubs 1, Pittsburgh 0 Washington 8, Miami 2 Cincinnati 2, San Francisco 1, 11 innings Colorado 11, Atlanta 5 St. Louis 5, Milwaukee 2 Arizona 9, San Diego 4 L.A. Dodgers 11, Seattle 1

NFL PRESEASON

East Division Atlanta Philadelphia Washington New York Miami

Milwaukee St. Louis Pittsburgh Cincinnati

T Pct PF PA 0 1.000 44 32 0 1.000 24 21 0 .000 17 19 0 .000 7 33

Thursday’s Games New England 37, Philadelphia 20 Washington 15, N.Y. Jets 13 Green Bay 51, Pittsburgh 34

Friday’s Games N.Y. Giants 30, Detroit 17 Kansas City 28, Atlanta 14 Buffalo 19, Cleveland 17 Carolina 27, Miami 20 Arizona 20, New Orleans 15

Saturday’s Games Jacksonville 14, Minnesota 10 L.A. Rams 19, Oakland 15 Cincinnati 21, Dallas 13 Tampa Bay at Tennessee, late San Francisco at Houston, late Chicago at Denver, late Seattle at L.A. Chargers, late

New England at Carolina, 6:30 p.m.

N.Y. Giants at N.Y. Jets, 6:30 p.m.

Denver at Washington, 6:30 p.m.

Seattle at Minnesota, 7 p.m.

Detroit at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m.

Green Bay at Oakland, 9:30 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 25 Kansas City at Chicago, noon Tennessee at Pittsburgh, 3 p.m.

Houston at L.A. Rams, 3 p.m.

San Francisco at Indianapolis, 3:30 p.m.

Atlanta at Jacksonville, 6 p.m.

Baltimore at Miami, 6 p.m.

New Orleans at L.A. Chargers, 7 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 26 Cincinnati at Buffalo, 3 p.m.

Arizona at Dallas, 7 p.m.

WNBA EASTERN CONFERENCE x-Atlanta x-Washington x-Connecticut Chicago New York Indiana

W 22 22 20 13 7 5

L 11 11 13 20 26 28

Pct .667 .667 .606 .394 .212 .152

GB — — 2 9 15 17

WESTERN CONFERENCE x-Seattle x-Los Angeles x-Phoenix x-Minnesota x-Dallas Las Vegas

W 25 19 19 17 15 14

L 8 14 14 16 18 19

Pct .758 .576 .576 .515 .455 .424

Friday’s Games Connecticut 96, Minnesota 79 Washington 69, Los Angeles 67 Dallas 107, Las Vegas 102 Seattle 85, New York 77 Phoenix 104, Atlanta 95

Saturday’s Game Chicago 115, Indiana 106, 2OT

Sunday’s Games Los Angeles at Connecticut, 2 p.m.

Atlanta at Las Vegas, 5 p.m.

New York at Phoenix, 5 p.m.

Indiana at Chicago, 5 p.m.

Dallas at Seattle, 6 p.m.

Washington at Minnesota, 6 p.m.

Monday’s Games No games scheduled

GB — 6 6 8 10 11

C6 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

5-DAY FORECAST FOR VICTORIA

FINAL MINUTE

TODAY

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: REY CASTILLO, RCASTILLO@VICAD.COM

TENNIS

MONDAY

High

Low

97

76

TUESDAY

ulate Cilic and then raised both arms in triumph.

In the women’s bracket, Kiki Bertens advanced to her first Western & Southern Open final, wearing down No. 8 Petra Kvitova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 for a chance at her second title of the season.

Bertens is an unexpected finalist, winning only one match during three previous appearances in Cincinnati.

Her only title this season was at Charleston.

Known as more of a clay court player, Bertens has reached a hard-court final for the first time, spending more time getting accustomed to the different style of play.

“I think also I’m less stressed,” she said. “So before the match, I’m less nervous than I used to be.

Before I was like, ‘Oh, I play on center court and a lot of people are watching.’ But now I’m just more relaxed.”

Top-ranked Simona Halep played later Saturday against Aryna Sabalenka, trying to reach the finals for the third time.

Halep has never won a Cincinnati title, losing the final match last year to Garbine Muguruza.

A week of rain delays and double-duty days wore on players, many of whom wound up playing twice in a day.

Kvitova faded in her second straight three-set match, ending her best showing in Cincinnati.

She’d made five previous appearances in semifinals this season, winning each tournament.

Mostly sunny; breezy this afternoon Precip chance: 5%

THURSDAY

High

High

High

96 74

98 74

98 74

98 74

Mainly clear

Partly sunny

Precip chance: 5%

Precip chance: 5%

LOCAL ALMANAC

WEDNESDAY

High

Low

Low

Djokovic moves a step closer to 1st Cincinnati title MASON, Ohio (AP) — Novak Djokovic closed in on the one title that has eluded him, reaching the final of the Western & Southern Open on Saturday with a three-set victory over Marin Cilic.

His 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win moved him one victory away from the only ATP Masters 1000 title he’s never claimed.

Djokovic is trying to become the first to win all nine events since the series started in 1990.

One big hurdle: a potential rematch with Roger Federer, who faced David Goffin in the other semifinal. Federer has won an unprecedented seven Cincinnati titles, beating Djokovic three times in championship matches.

“It’s been a roller-coaster week with matches and the interruptions with the rain and all that’s happened,” Djokovic said.

Djokovic completed his long recovery from elbow surgery by winning Wimbledon for the fourth time last month.

He then set out to get his hard-court game in form for the U.S. Open.

Along the way, he dearly wants to get a title in Cincinnati, where he’s 0-5 in the finals.

Frustrated by his ragged play early in his semifinal win over Milos Raonic, Djokovic slammed his racket on the court, sending pieces of the frame into the air.

The racket-busting became a turning point.

When he closed out the victory Saturday, he walked calmly to the net to congrat-

TONIGHT

Low

Low

A shower and thunderstorm around Precip chance: 60%

Very warm with sun and some clouds Precip chance: 15%

NATIONAL WEATHER

Mostly sunny and very warm Precip chance: 10%

MARINE STATISTICS

Statistics for Victoria through 4 p.m. yesterday.

Offshore (Port Arthur to Port O'Connor) Inner Waters Wind south 8-16 knots today. Seas 2-4 feet. Showers around. Water temperature: 88.

Outer Waters Wind south 8-16 knots today. Seas 2-4 feet. Visibility under 2 miles in showers.

Water temperature: 88.

(Port O'Connor to Port Brownsville) Inner Waters Wind south 8-16 knots today. Seas 3-5 feet. Visibility clear. Water temperature: 85.

Outer Waters Wind south 8-16 knots today. Seas 3-5 feet. Visibility clear. Water temperature: 86.

Temperatures High/low .................................................... 100/73 Normal high/low ........................................ 95/74 Record high ........................................ 104 in 2011 Record low ........................................... 65 in 1992

Precipitation Yesterday ending 4 p.m. ........................... 0.00" Month to date .............................................. 0.22" Normal month to date ................................ 1.43" Year to date ................................................. 17.50" Normal year to date ................................. 25.45"

Port O’Connor Tides

SUN & MOON Sunrise today ........................................ 6:59 a.m.

Sunset today ......................................... 8:03 p.m.

Moonrise today ...................................... 3:11 p.m.

Moonset today ...................................... 1:22 a.m.

Sunrise Monday .................................... 6:59 a.m.

Sunset Monday ..................................... 8:02 p.m.

Moonrise Monday ................................ 4:03 p.m.

Moonset Monday ................................. 2:04 a.m.

Full

Last

New

First

Aug 26

Sep 2

Sep 9

Sep 16

2018

2017

Avg.

Rec.

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept.

Oct. Nov. Dec. Year

0.52 1.66 1.95 1.39 0.47 8.40 2.89 0.22 ------------17.50

3.76 4.84 4.98 2.94 3.06 3.51 0.37 16.94 3.12 0.58 0.48 2.04 46.62

2.52 2.17 2.77 2.82 5.19 4.46 4.18 2.85 4.16 4.64 3.24 2.31 41.31

11.87 (1934) 9.08 (1992) 11.61 (1997) 11.70 (1997) 14.66 (1993) 13.50 (2004) 20.34 (2007) 14.50 (2017) 19.05 (1978) 17.25 (1960) 16.14 (2004) 8.67 (1923) 73.70 (2004)

Low 7:30 p.m.

Ht.(ft) 0.0 ft.

Mon.

0.8 ft.

8:22 p.m.

0.0 ft.

8:33 a.m.

TREE............................ Moderate GRASS ................................. Low RAGWEED ............................ Low MOLD .................................. Low SOURCE: ACCUWEATHER.COM

Normal Level

Mon.

Ht.(ft) 0.7 ft.

ALLERGEN COUNT Shown are noon positions of weather and precipitation.

Temperature bands are highs for the day.

LAKE LEVELS (through 7 a.m. Saturday)

VICTORIA RAIN LOG

High Today 8:06 a.m.

RIVER STAGES (through 7 a.m. Saturday)

Actual Level

Release (cfs)

Flood Stage

Canyon ...... 909.0 ......... 902.47 Texana .......... 44.0 ............ 42.73 Coleto ........... 98.5 ............ 94.49 Travis .......... 681.0 .......... 655.59 Medina .... 1064.2 ......... 1036.19 Georgetown 791.0 ......... 776.06 Austin ........ 492.8 .......... 492.01 Marble Falls 737.0 .......... 736.49 LBJ .............. 825.4 .......... 824.69 Somerville . 238.0 .......... 235.94

................. 67 ................... 0 ................... 0 ............ 2627 ............. —— ................... 0 .............. 642 .............. 490 .............. 550 .................... 1

Guadalupe Gonzales ..................... 31.0 Cuero .......................... 24.0 New Braunfels ........... 13.0 Victoria ....................... 21.0 Near Bloomington ... 20.0 San Antonio Falls City ..................... 12.0 Goliad ........................ 25.0 Loop 410 ..................... 12.0

Sat.

24-hr Change

....... 11.41 ....... -0.10 ....... 7.67 ...... -0.05 ..... 9.00 ....... none ....... 5.25 ....... none ...... 8.69 ....... none ........ 1.10 ....... -0.35 ...... 5.02 ........ -1.69 ....... 3.58 ...... -0.09

Flood Stage

Navidad Sublime ....................... 27.0 Speaks ....................... 24.0 Morales ..................... 29.0 Lavaca Edna ............................ 21.0 Colorado Wharton .................... 39.0 Bay City ..................... 44.0 La Grange .................. 26.0

Sat.

24-hr Change

...... 5.09 ...... +0.01 ...... 2.90 ....... -0.01 ...... 6.93 ....... none ....... 5.01 ...... -0.03 ...... 8.58 ...... -0.09 ....... 3.99 ..... +0.96 ....... 3.95 ...... -0.06

TEXAS WEATHER FORECAST YESTERDAY City

TODAY

MONDAY

Hi Lo Prec Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W

Abilene 98 Alice 100 Amarillo 86 Austin 102 Beaumont 95 Brownsville 98 Bryan/C.S. 100 Corpus Christi 96 Dallas/FW 99 Dalhart 86

76 71 66 76 76 78 77 75 81 61 T

95/71/t 91/68/s 101/76/s 99/74/s 88/59/t 86/56/s 101/77/s 98/74/pc 92/78/t 92/76/t 97/80/s 97/80/s 98/78/s 97/76/t 96/78/s 96/76/s 96/77/pc 93/71/pc 86/56/pc 84/53/s

YESTERDAY City

Del Rio El Paso Galveston Houston Kerrville Kingsville Laredo Longview Lubbock Lufkin

TODAY

MONDAY

Hi Lo Prec Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W

100 97 91 96 97 96 105 99 90 94

76 101/78/s 97/77/t 75 101/74/pc 95/73/t 82 92/83/sh 91/81/t 78 95/80/pc 95/78/t 72 97/73/s 93/71/t 74 99/78/s 98/76/s 77 106/79/s 104/78/s 78 97/77/pc 95/72/t 68 0.72 92/67/t 90/64/s 75 96/76/s 92/74/t

YESTERDAY City

TODAY

MONDAY

Hi Lo Prec Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W

Marfa 87 McAllen 103 Midland 97 Orange 91 Port Arthur 95 Presidio 99 San Angelo 100 San Antonio 99 Waco 103 Wichita Falls 94

62 0.42 89/61/t 85/61/pc 78 102/82/s 101/81/s 78 98/72/t 93/73/s 78 90/78/t 90/77/t 76 90/80/t 91/78/t 69 97/73/pc 96/72/pc 75 99/72/pc 95/70/pc 76 100/78/s 97/76/pc 78 101/78/s 98/73/t 74 94/70/t 91/64/s

NATIONAL CITIES YESTERDAY City

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Albuquerque 87 65 90/65/s 88/69/s Anchorage 57 44 60/55/r 62/55/r Atlanta 87 73 0.43 85/72/t 85/72/t Baltimore 88 72 0.05 80/67/t 80/69/pc Baton Rouge 92 76 89/74/pc 87/75/t Birmingham 87 75 0.02 86/73/t 86/74/t Boston 88 75 0.19 72/64/c 72/64/pc Chicago 79 70 85/68/s 83/68/t Cincinnati 84 68 0.01 86/68/pc 84/70/t Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather.com ©2018

YESTERDAY City

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Denver 77 57 0.01 Des Moines 88 66 Detroit 85 69 0.09 Fairbanks 65 45 Honolulu 89 76 0.03 Indianapolis 83 68 Kansas City 89 66 Las Vegas 105 86 Little Rock 87 69 1.67

72/50/pc 86/68/pc 83/67/pc 69/52/c 91/79/pc 85/68/pc 84/66/t 109/86/s 84/72/t

77/54/pc 76/62/r 84/70/pc 70/54/c 91/77/pc 82/70/t 76/63/t 108/85/s 86/68/t

YESTERDAY

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Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Nashville New Orleans New York Oklahoma City Omaha Philadelphia

84 90 87 87 90 84 89 88 88

Phoenix Pittsburgh Raleigh St. Louis San Diego San Francisco Seattle Tampa Wash., D.C.

71 77 0.29 66 72 0.90 76 0.93 73 0.79 72 65 73 0.34

86/68/s 90/79/pc 86/68/pc 89/73/t 88/77/pc 74/65/r 84/66/t 80/66/t 76/66/sh

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105 81 86 85 81 73 77 92 90

87 66 0.01 74 70 74 52 55 77 76

109/88/c 80/64/pc 88/71/t 88/74/pc 81/72/pc 71/55/pc 83/60/pc 92/77/pc 83/70/t

109/87/s 82/67/pc 85/72/t 84/70/t 81/71/pc 68/57/pc 88/62/pc 92/77/pc 82/72/pc

Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, r-rain, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice, prcp-precipitation, T-trace.

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — D1

VictoriaAdvocate.com

JOBS

ENTRY LEVEL SCALE TECHNICIAN TRAINEE for Victoria office, starting pay based on skill, to work on various sorts of weight scales for commercial and industrial use.

Must have mechanical, electrical and electronic abilities. Will frequently lift and carry 100 lbs.

Must have good driving record and pass pre-employment & random drug test(s). CDL-B license would be preferred (not required).

Visit our employment page at www.bastropscale.com for an application. (512)321-3443 for more information.

TELLER

Cal-Com Federal Credit Union is seeking full time Teller for the John Stockbauer branch.

Excellent customer service skills and previous experience a plus. You may apply online or email resume to employment@calcomfcu.org No phone calls, please.

Equal Opportunity Employer

VCS COMPANIES is now hiring AT&T Sales Representative 1 year sales experience Full Time + benefits Hourly + Commission Retail Customer Service preferred Must be able to work Saturdays Cell phones / accessory / technology experience preferred

ICT Experienced Fiber optic technician

Are you looking for a new Career opportunity?

Do you love working with the public? A Career in Banking may be the answer!

IBC Bank is looking for outgoing people to fill Sales Associates, Tellers, and Sales Manager positions.

6411 N. Navarro, Victoria, Tx Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

Early Childhood Intervention Speech Language Pathologist Provide direct speech therapy to disabled children ages birth to three and family support services.

Master’s Degree. Certified as a licensed Speech Pathologist.

One year experience in working with young children.

Full time w/benefits.

Region 3 Education Service Center 1905 Leary Lane, Victoria, Texas 77901-2899 361-573-0731 Please apply online www.esc3.net

TO ADVERTISE, CONTACT 361-574-1234

who is proficient in the use of OTDR, Fusion-splicing, termination and testing... All facets

Rocket Field Services: Seeking CDL drivers and Trencher operators capable of running Vermeer 555-755 machines.

Please send resumes to jobs@vcscompanies.com or apply at http://www.vcscompanies.com/aboutvcs/join-our-team

FULL-TIME POSITIONS • DIRECTOR OF PHYSICAL PLANT • CUSTODIAN - EVENING SHIFT • GROUNDS KEEPER I • TESTING SPECIALIST II • SECURITY OFFICER To apply, go to www.VictoriaCollege.edu>Jobs@VC First UMC, Edna is seeking a MUSIC DIRECTOR to direct and lead the Choir and Harmony Chimes, to provide music for the 11am Sunday Traditional worship service, including playing piano / organ, and other special services throughout the year.This is a parttime position and compensation will commensurate with experience.

University of Houston-Victoria is currently hiring for the following: Academic Advisors Part-time Senior Secretary Assistant Professors Student Recruitment CoordinatorRio Grande Valley For more information and where to apply, visit our website at: www.uhv.edu/jobs.

IMMEDIATE SALESMAN POSITION AVAILABLE Position could be part-time or full time. Looking for a retired fertilizer salesman OR retired farmer or any individual qualified with an Agricultural background .

This position would be to sell AG products in the Wharton & surrounding counties.

Competitive benefit package, salary, & commission.

Email resume to: vjr68@aol.com For further details call 979-657-2893 ext 100

Grand Slam Energy Services is seeking experienced Oilfield Sales Person. Apply in person at 9507 N Navarro St, Victoria Tx or email resume to grandslamenergy@gmail.com Must be able to pass drug screen & have reliable transportation.

Competitive pay, truck allowance, expenses provided.

TLC STAFFING Daily Pay- Flexible Hrs Urgent Needs-Paid OT LVN $26-$28 RN $36-$38 CNA - $14-$15 Call 361-578-8588.

VICTORIA CURRENT JOB OPENINGS • Health Educator

Development Coordinator •• Press Academic Advisers • Assistant Editor, School of Arts and Sciences •• Instructional Part-timeDesigner Senior Secretary • Program Coordinator (Part-time) •• Administrative Assistant Professors Secretary Recruitment/Marketing •• Manager, StudentStudent Recruitment Coordinator• Assistant/Associate Professor – Nursing Program Rio Grande • Adjunct Faculty –Valley Nursing Program

Apply online at www.uhv.edu/jobs Apply online at uhv.simplehire.com

EOE EOE

To send resumes with references or receive a job description, contact: Rev. Kelli Williamson pastorkelliw@gmail.com 361-782-3561.

Part-Time and Adjunct Positions • Carpentry, Drywall, Scaffold Building Instructor • Plumbing Instructor • Fabrication Instructor • Workforce & CE Industrial Instructor • Medical Coding Instructor • ADN Professional Tutor/Retention Specialist

to apply go to www.VictoriaCollege.edu>jobs@vc

Project Engineer (Port Lavaca, TX): Provide Engineering support for piping projects with ability to work independently. Read, interpret, and approve piping drawings and specifications. Requires master’s degree in Mechanical engineering and 2 years of Piping experience.

Requires experience using Caesar II and Autopipe. Mail resume to Testengeer, 3777 Highway 35 S. Port Lavaca,TX 77979 The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority has an immediate opening for a Maintenance Operator II position at the Water Treatment Plant in Port Lavaca.

For more information and to download an application, visit our website at www.gbra.org or stop by the office at 1064 State Highway 316. Applications may be emailed to hr@gbra.org or faxed to 830.379.9923. EOE

NOW HIRING Automotive Technician We offer paid vacation, medical benefits, and employee savings plan.

Please Apply In Person

Are you looking for a new career opportunity?

Do you love working with the public?

A Career in Banking may be the answer!

Maintenance Operator II The Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority has an immediate opening for a Maintenance Operator II position at the Water Treatment Plant in Port Lavaca.

The Maintenance Operator is responsible for assisting in the operation and maintenance of the pumping equipment, storage facilities, tools and equipment, and distribution network of the Rural Water System and the Crestview Wastewater System.

REQUIREMENTS: High school diploma or GED, Class A Commercial Driver’s License with acceptable driving record, possession of either “C� Water Distribution or “C� Wastewater license issued by TCEQ; basic computer skills, operate gas, electric, hydraulic and hand tools; experience in construction, maintenance, service or utilities is desirable. Must reside within 45 minutes travel time of the GBRA Port Lavaca Office. Physical, drug screen and background check required.

For more information and to download an application, visit our website at www.gbra.org or stop by the office at 1064 State Highway 316. Applications may be emailed to hr@gbra.org or faxed to 830.379.9923. EOE

IBC Bank is hiring for Sales Associates, Tellers & Sales Manager At IBC, we have career opportunities for you. We are looking for motivated individuals who want a career and advancement opportunities. We provide paid training, competitive salary, Flexible hours, great benefit package and a fun work environment! High School diploma or GED required.

6411 N. Navarro Victoria, TX 77904 www.ibc.com Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer

Are you Hiring? Need to place an Employment ad?

Call Cynthia • 361.574.1234

D2 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

Tree Farm Personnel needed for Grand Slam Energy is seeking Tootski LLC, 8308 FM 530, Edna, TX Wash Hands and 77957, Jackson County. Trimming Crew Pushers trees, potting trees into containers, experienced in cleaning casing, rig planting trees, fertilizing, maintewashing, and mud tank cleaning. nance of irrigation, operation of 24 hour call. Pay DOE. Must be able tractor and equipment, and misc. to pass drug test. Apply in person farm work and maintenance. Expo9507 N Navarro St. Victoria Tx; CMC 8a-5p & 12p-9p sure to extreme temps, repetitive 361-572-0309 Outpatients 8a-5p movements. Temporary employDeckhands needed, multiple ment from 09/04/2018 to 06/ Lab - MT: FT positions, Regina Treybig dba 04/2019. $11.87/hr; 40hrs/wk, Buddy’s Seafood and Bait, Paramedic: FT Mon-Fri, Some Sat’s req., 7am to 4pm, 6 positions available. Employ- Matagorda, TX. Send resume to: PO Ultrasound On-Call Box 543, Matagorda, TX 77457 er guarantees employment for at Tech: PRN least 3/4 of contract period. Work Hauler supplies, and equipment will Registered Nurses - tools, needed to drop off and haul be provided without cost to the Med/Surg: FT 7p-7a papers. Must have dependable worker, and free housing is provided Van or Truck with a Camper Shell to workers who cannot reasonably Home Health: PRN for the big days. return to their permanent residence Visit our website at Call Pat Murphy at the end of the work day. Expenswww.cuerohospital.org for 361-574-1281 or email es for subsistence and transportamore positions and for an pmurphy@vicad.com tion to the worksite will be provided application. or paid by the employer, with payPH: (361) 275-0522 ment to be made no later than comNEWSPAPER Fax: (361) 275-5829 pletion of 50% of the work contract.

DELIVERY Email: employ@cuerohospital.org Apply for this job at the nearest CARRIER EOE Texas Workforce Commission office Shop Local using job listing number VICTORIA AREA TX7308414. Call (512)-475-2571 for (Wednesday’s a list of local TWC offices.

Only) Arnold’s Seafood Sales, Matagorda, The Victoria TX. Work is performed onsite in SITE MANAGER Advocate is looking Matagorda county. 20 Shellfish Must be proficient in MS Office, for someone to Shuckers. Temp, FT pos: 11/1/18 Verify insurance benefits, obtain deliver SHOP 6/1/19, 6a-1p, 35 hrs/wk. No OT pre-authorizations. Schedule appts, LOCALS in the potential. M-F, Weekly pay: customer service exp. req’d.

Victoria Area.

Medisoft exp. helpful, but not req’d. $11.37/hr. Shuck, wash, sort and pack oysters. Clean production area Send resumes to P.O. Box 3525, Must be reliable and assist as necessary. Random Victoria, Texas, 77903 with a dependable drug testing during employment. No vehicle, valid drivers exp req’d, will train. Employer may license, auto make payroll deductions at insurance. employee’s request. Employer facilitates housing arrangement and corresponding payroll deduction.

CALL PAT Goodwin Personnel Employer provides workers at no is ALWAYS hiring.

361-574-1221 charge all tools, supplies and equip Visit goodwinpersonnel.com to view or req’d to perform job. Initial current job postings transportation (including meals &, pmurphy@vicad.com Call 361-578-3636 to schedule an to extent necessary, lodging) to interview (required to apply) place of employment provided, or its cost to workers reimbursed, if MAKE READY person for a NEWSPAPER worker completes half the multi-family, multi-location DELIVERY employment period.

Return property. Experienced in all phases CARRIER transportation provided if worker of make ready plumbing, tile completes employment period or is drywall, paint, electrical. MUST CUERO AREA dismissed early by employer. Please have dependable vehicle with inquire about job opportunity or insurance and a VALID drivers Must be reliable send applications, indications of license. Apply at 101 with a dependable availability, &/or resumes directly Palmwood Ste 4. vehicle, valid drivers to 121 Ingram St., Matagorda, TX license, auto EXPERIENCED WELDER/FITTER 77457, Phone: 979-863-7563 or the insurance and COMBINATION nearest TX SWA, WF Solutions Bay available 7-days a 5-10 years experience is a must.

City, 3501 Ave. F, Bay City, TX week from 2 AM to Apply in person at 77414-7111, (979) 245-4808.

7 AM. Rigamonti Welding Mon.-Fri. PARTS PERSON NEEDED. Sales exp.

8am-12pm and 1pm-5pm. helpful. Women encouraged to 5180 HANSELMAN RD, Victoria CALL MIKE apply. Full-time with benefits.

361-722-9166 Apply in person @ 5001 N. Navarro.

Help wanted. or YARD MAINTENANCE. Dependable, and must have a valid Arnold’s Seafood Sales, Matagorda, mosterson@vicad.com TX. Daily transportation provided Texas drivers license. from a central location to/from Apply at 2608 N. Laurent St. worksites in Matagorda, Brazoria, General Dentist in Karnes County, Calhoun counties. 23 Deck Hands.

CARPENTER needed.

TX. CVs to Khush Dentistry PLLC An experienced carpenter is needed Temp, FT pos: 11/1/18 - 6/1/19, dba Agave Dental of Kenedy 119 6a-1p, 35 hrs/wk. No OT potential. for a real estate investment Business Park Dr. Ste. 200, Kenedy, M-F. Weekly pay: $9.83/hr. Cull, company. Must have a clean record TX 78119 Attn: Dr. Malhotra sort and get product ready for proand pass a drug test. Apply in cessor. Help dock and undock boat, Goodwin Personnel is HIRING NOW person at 2608 N. Laurent. clean boat, assist captain as refor: Sandblaster/Painter, Certified quired. Random drug testing during Welder, Inventory Clerk, employment. Able to lift 60lbs.

Experienced Grill Cook and Line Working conditions may include exCook, Temp Labor (4PM - 10PM), cessive heat and/or cold, rainy days 4 Man Rig Crew. Visit and cold weather on deck. Lodging & www.goodwinpersonnel.com to meals are paid by employer for work view other available positions and done in Calhoun County (if reto apply. To schedule a consultation quired). No exp req’d, will train. call (361) 578-3636.

Employer may make payroll deductions at employee’s request.

NEWSPAPER Employer facilitates housing DELIVERY arrangement and corresponding CARRIER payroll deduction. Employer provides workers at no charge all PORT LAVACA tools, supplies & equip req’d to AREA perform job. Initial transportation (including meals &, to extent necesMust be reliable sary, lodging) to place of employwith a dependable ment provided, or its cost to workvehicle, valid drivers ers reimbursed, if worker completes license, auto half the employment period. Return insurance and transportation provided if worker available 7-days a completes employment period or is week from 2 AM to dismissed early by employer. Please 7 AM. inquire about job opportunity or send applications, indications of availability, &/or resumes directly CALL KRISTI to 121 Ingram St., Matagorda, TX 361-574-1248 77457, 979-863-7563 or the nearest or TX SWA, WF Solutions Bay City, 3501 Ave. F, Bay City, TX 77414kmendoza@vicad.com 7111, (979) 245-4808.

LVN’s: FT-

ANNUAL FABRIC & MORE SALE Fri., Aug. 24, 12pm-3pm Sat., Aug 25, 8am-12pm Fabric 50 cents a yard. Thread, ribbons, notions, yarn, and more!!!

Victoria Senior Citizens Ctr. 603 E. Murray @ S. Navarro

THE ARMADILLOS HAVE EMERGED IN NASHVILLE The Outlaw phenomenon produced powerful music and everlasting bonds between Nashville and Texas. Willie and Waylon, Bobby Bare, and Kris Kristofferson demanded and got greater creative freedom and the movement was real—not just a marketing term, but a creative flowering, a confluence of art and revelry, whiskey and poetry.

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

GOLIAD AREA

REFUGIO AREA

GONZALES AREA

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

CALL MIKE 361-722-9166 or mosterson@vicad.com

CALL MIKE 361-722-9166 or mosterson@vicad.com

CALL MIKE 361-722-9166 or mosterson@vicad.com

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

VICTORIA COUNTY

WOODSBORO AREA

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

CALL PAT 361-574-1221 or pmurphy@vicad.com

CALL MIKE 361-722-9166 or mosterson@vicad.com

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

WHARTON AREA Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

CALL JENNIFER 361-237-7431 or jliendo@vicad.com

CALL JENNIFER 361-237-7431 or jliendo@vicad.com

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER

PORT LAVACA POINT COMFORT AREA

EL CAMPO AREA

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

CALL KRISTI 361-574-1248 or kmendoza@vicad.com NEWSPAPER DELIVERY CARRIER YOAKUM AREA Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

CALL JENNIFER 361-237-7431 or jliendo@vicad.com

ROCKPORT TOURS 888-937-3488 rockporttours.com

G & K Travel Quest Coushatta Casino Resort 2 night 7/16-7/17, 8/13-8/14, 9/17-9/18 $128 pp/dbl/occ $30 free play.

Coushatta Casino Resort 1 night 8/26 & 9/30 $77 pp/dbl/occ $23 free play.

Delta Downs: 1 night 7/31 & 9/4 $85 pp/dbl/occ $10 free play.

361-765-9725 Coushatta Casino Aug 25th.

Kickapoo Coming in September, call for reservations, Emma or Ray 361-575-0118.

CALL JENNIFER 361-237-7431 or jliendo@vicad.com Miller Seafood 515 Fulton, Port Lavaca TX 77979 needs 29 temp full-time shuckers 11/1/18-8/1/19 $11.37/hr 6am-2pm M-F 35hr/wk 1hr unpaid lunch Remove oyster from shell & place in iced container Place shell in receptacle. Keep work area clean Incoming transportation & subsistence will be reimbursed if 50% work period is completed Same paid when work ends/employer terminates early. Free tools supplies & equip Performance bonus may be paid No ed exp or training req’d Apply at nearest TX/SWA or fax TX/SWA 361-552-7465 JO#TX3608138 IMMEDIATE OPENINGS!!

CAR WASH ATTENDANTS AND DETAILERS Must have valid DL. Apply at 7102 N. Navarro, Victoria, TX.

4 Lines for 7 Days

Competitive pay, quarterly bonuses, 100% of insurance cost covered by employer Please e-mail resume/cover letter to: careers@regionalsteel.net

$1,000 SIGN ON BONUS Be Your Own Boss, Choose Your Own Routes!

Looking for CDL drivers to deliver new trucks all over the country, starting in Laredo, TX. Experience preferred. Must have DOT physical and be willing to keep logs. No DUIs in last 10 years, clean MVR.

Apply Online at www.qualitydriveaway.com or call 574-642-2023 BKG MACHINE & FABRICATION EMPIRE GAS SERVICES

Looking for experienced couple to manage a motel.

Salary plus accommodations.

Call 361-788-3296.

Experienced Dependable BREAKFAST COOK & EVENING SHORT ORDER COOK needed. Apply Mon. - Fri. 2:30pm-5:00pm, RAMSEY’S RESTAURANT, 1403 N. Navarro Papa John’s in Victoria is HIRING EXPERIENCED MANAGERS .

Restaurant Experience is not requried. GM’s earn $45k to $75k with salary and bonus.

Apply Online at www.PJapply.com Do not apply at the store.

Now Hiring Sub Arc • Welders • Welder Helpers • • Structural Welders • Fitters • Assembly Workers • • Also Hiring for Experienced Warehouse Personnel • BENEFITS: Paid Medical Insurance • Paid Holidays • Must Pass Drug Screen • Great starting pay with Experience • •Overtime Availibility • • Room for Advancement • • Local In-Shop • Apply in person at 5509 St. Hwy 185 Victoria, Texas 77905

WEBER MOTOR COMPANY Now Hiring AUTOMOTIVE TECHNICIAN

TRUCK DRIVERS 2 years verifiable OTR tractor/trailer driving experienced tanker. X endorsement, CDL. Local area & long haul avail.

Comm. & Benefits.

Seadrift Area Terminal.

Call 361-785-2223 DRIVERS for restaurant, grease, & septic trap route.

Must have Class B CDL license and pass DOT pre-employment physical. Call Stanford Vacuum 361-572-8070.

Now hiring BELLY DUMP & TANDEM DUMP DRIVERS. Must be at least 21 years old and have a valid Texas Class A CDL. Apply at Rexco, Inc 1104 Mildred Drive Port Lavaca, TX 361-552-5371 | An EEOC employer.

HIRING TODAY! RESIDENTIAL DRIVER (18003008) **$2,000 BONUS** Victoria, Texas REQUIREMENTS 1 year of experience operating a vehicle requiring a CDL. Must be 21 years of age. Must hold a Class A or B CDL with an air-brake endorsement. Competitive Pay, Great Benefits & Opportunities for Growth! Apply at www.wm/careers 1.844.969.6754 Equal Opportunity Employer: Minority/Female/Disability/Veteran

We offer paid vacation, medical benefits, and employee savings plan.

Please Apply In Person

DIESEL MECHANIC for Seal Coat crew. Pay depending on experience. Must be willing to travel during summer season. Call: Brannan Paving Co. Ltd. (361) 5733130 or (800) 626-7064"AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER"

Help Wanted in Port Lavaca CABINET MAKERS & CARPENTERS Call Charlie 361-652-7952 Rexco, INC is hiring Metal Building Erector Foreman, Metal Building Erectors, Interior Carpenters & Helpers. Must be 21 years old or older and have a valid Drivers License. Must apply in person at 1104 Mildred Drive, Pt. Lavaca, TX.| An EEOC employer.

DIMENSION ENERGY SERVICES IS HIRING FOR LONG TERM EMPLOYMENT AND UPCOMING TURN AROUND AT FORMOSA PLASTICS FOR THE FOLLOWING POSITIONS: ***MUST BE ABLE TO PASS PRE-EMPLOYMENT MEDICAL HISTORY*** ***MUST BE ABLE TO PASS PINKERTON BACKGROUND*** ***MUST BE ABLE TO PASS HAIR FOLLICLE*** -PIPEFITTERS (NCCER PREFERRED) -COMBINATION WELDERS -CRAFT HELPERS/BOLT-UP -FIRE WATCH/HOLE WATCH ATTENDANTS APPLY IN PERSON AT 2501 E. RIO GRANDE VICTORIA, TX 77901 BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 9 AM- 4 PM BRING VALID IDENTIFICATION TWIC IS A PLUS

NORTHSIDE Boat and RV Storage.

Convenient & secure.

Protect your investment.

575-4041.

PRESENTED BY:

IT’S VICTORIA’S

$129 PER PERSON ELVIS CHRISTMAS

DEC. 13-17, 2018 1-NT PARAGON CASINO, 2 NTS MEMPHIS, 1-NT EN ROUTE, 3 ELVIS SHOWS, BEALE STREET AND MORE!

$1299 PP/DBL HOLIDAY CARIBBEAN DEC. 1-6, 2018

$699 PER PERSON Prices per person, double occupancy

ALBUM & BOOK AVAILABLE NOW

Found Black Heifers Found on Slickfield Road Call and leave message 361-564-8420!!!

Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphhom

WE BUY

$

1999

RESERVE YOUR BOOTH TODAY st

Call 361-574-1234 or email classifieds @vicad.com

at the Victoria Community Center go to www.BIGFREAKINFLEAMARKET.com for full details or call 361.574.1234

Both non-producing and producing

CALL TODAY: 806.620.1422

5015 EVERGREEN Friday & Saturday 8:30am-12:30pm Daycare Closing!!!! Everything for sale!!!!!! Educational Material, Furniture, Toys, Puzzles, & more!!!

Chaparral Portable Buildings.

Many styles & colors.

On lot to browse thru or can design & custom build to suit your needs. 361-575-0419 WOOD PORTABLE BLDGS 10x16, $1850 12x24, $2600 Call 210-825-0083

Antique Bedroom Set Headboard & Footboard/Full size.

Dresser w/Mirror. Chest of Drawers. Call 361-935-2485

DISCOUNT APPLIANCES. Fridges, Washers/Dryers, Electric/Gas Ranges & Freezers. Buy & Sell. Appliance Repair. 578-7232/550-4459

Old Coins Wanted. US/Foreign, Currency, Silver Dollars, Gold Coins, Jewelry. Collectors Prices Paid Cash.

361-485-0464

WANTED USED GUNS. Check with us before you sell Best selection in town. Don’s Firearms 2302 N. Main 572-9866.

LOBO MINERALS, LLC PO Box 1800 • Lubbock, TX 79408-1800 LoboMineralsLLC@gmail.com

NORTHSIDE Boat & RV Storage.

Protect your investment.

575-4041.

for Sat., Dec. 1

Must begin before 08.31.18, no refunds.

Some restrictions apply.

1260 FM 616 W. BLESSING,TX MOVING SALE: August 24-25th Time: 9 til ? 40 HP Tractor, small tractor implements. Large air compressor, auto parts, shop tools, office furnishings; furniture, truck air ride & more.

2007 NECKOVER, 27+5. Dual tandem gooseneck trailer, 12m lb. axles. Dovetail, ramps, electric brakes. $6,700. 361-550-3030

EARLY BIRD PRICING ENDS SEPT 1ST

Place your ad to sell your merchandise. Includes 1 photo in print and 5 photos online.

Additional lines extra

OIL, GAS, & MINERAL RIGHTS

including Non-Participating Royalty Interest (NPRI) Provide us your desired price for an offer evaluation.

LLP

BIG FREAKIN’

COUSHATTA 2-NT SEPT. 17-19, 2018

Bizzy B Coushatta September 16-17 / Victoria. $65 DBL includes bus, hotel, Grand Inn, bag handling, $23 in coin. 361-571-3256.

EXPERIENCE THE EXHIBIT

PRINCIPAL OFFICE IN CAMERON, TEXAS

Must be reliable with a dependable vehicle, valid drivers license, auto insurance and available 7-days a week from 2 AM to 7 AM.

$79 PER PERSON

COUNTRY’S ROARING ’70S

1-800-460-0606

AREA

At least 3-5 years driving experience. Class A CDL w/ clean driving record. Flatbed experience helpful, M-F schedule - home everyday.

COUSHATTA 1-NT AUG 28-29, 2018

OUTLAWS & ARMADILLOS:

Roundup®, a common weed and grass killer, has been linked to the development of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in farm workers and employees in garden centers, nurseries, and landscapers. If cappolino | dodd | KrEbs you or someone you care about Tough • ExpEriEncEd • TrusTworThy has been diagnosed with NonHodgkin’s Lymphoma, contact us today as time may be limited. www.RespectForYou.com/NHL

HALLETTSVILLE

HOUSTON/LOCAL DRIVER

NEED CASH? WILL PAY TOP DOLLAR for clean working household appliances & furniture. 572-3008

40-ft. shipping/storage containers, good condition guaranteed, wind & weather tight. $2,995 delivered.

20-ft shipping/storage container $2,195 delivered. 979-251-0501.

Exmark Riding Mower, 290 hrs on it. 19 HP Kawa Engine/46" Deck.

New tires, battery, & main belt!

Firm Price $2,800. 361-550-6622!K

Lost lease 28 young crossbred cows w/calves. 20 bred Brangus/Herford 2yr olds. All gentle, no trading cattle. 361-550-5687

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — D3

VictoriaAdvocate.com

ORGANIC FERTILIZER FARMERS & RANCHERS OPPORTUNITY TO PRODUCE MORE YIELD!!!

Now is the time to put out pure chicken manure. This will give it time to breakdown, making the soil rich for all crops!!! Manure will also help retain moisture in the soil. One of the greatest soil enhancements of all time~ ***200 TON MINIMUM *** Also works great on pasture land and hay fields.

Will produce more tons per acre in your hay fields.

CS Nutrients 979-657-2893 ext 100 TESTIMONIALS Improves my yields, helps build the soil up for the future. Very pleased with it. - Mike Henske (Garwood) Putting chicken manure on organic corn works great the corn is dark green, plus the yields are very good. - Mark Supak (El Campo)

Stall rental includes indoor arena horse walker & wash rack.

Call 361-649-2513 45 Choice True F1 Brahman Hereford Cross Heifers exposed to black Bulls, very gentle. 15 same as above with Black calves at side. 100 good young South Texas bred cows some with calves. Calving daily.

361-368-9005/361-442-6132

40 Brangus Heifers exposed 90 days, $1350.

979-332-1014

BowflexMaxTrainerM3 like new only 1 hr. of use $850 obo; Womens Joe Browns floral dress sz 12 & Ax Curve black romper sz 12, never worn $50 each; Various sizes of bikes, like new, $25 each; 1981 chevy c10 truck-$4500 obo Call 361-484-4491 32" Samsung TV $140 Massage Recliner $150 Men’s Ties & Blazers 38 R Call Chris 361-220-6161 Latest Model EP-560 Teeter Inversion Table For Back Pain. Paid $325, selling for $125. Call 361-649-4606!!!!

Garden Fresh Hot Chili Peppers!!! $8 a lb. Please call 832-247-8868 for info.

Big 12 modular builder, Trapeze automatic control $7000. 9600 JD combine for sale, 3800 fan hrs.

Good shape. $12,500. 979-218-2397 Ford 6640 75HP, fire damage, $1750. Ford 7210 Frontin Loader, Good condition $3800. Ford 800 40HP, $2400. 24’. Gooseneck Lowboy, 3 axle $1950. 649-4588

ROUND ROLLS

JIGS & TIFTON MIX HIGHLY FERTILIZED JOHN DEERE NET WRAPPED

AKC YORKSHIRE TERRIERS (Yorkies), beautiful and playful little babies, males and females, call 361-575-5685 or 361-220-4184

2010 CORVETTE LS1, 430 HP engine, auto trans., 26,000 mi., $28,000. 361-935-6337

2015 Dodge Charger SXT 4 door, V6 Stock# H886169A Call for details: 361-220-2020 ’00 Dodge Durango <62,000 miles Runs great, fully loaded w/leather interior! $4,000 call: (361)541-8984

2003 FORD TAURUS 100 Centennial Edition. 58,000 Original Miles. Fully loaded. Nice car. $5500.

Call 361-894-6548.

2009 CHEVY TAHOE LT Stealth Blue, Gray Leather seats, Garage-kept, 20" Wheels, $13,000.

Call 361-920-5541

2016 Harley Davidson Soft Tail Slim S Limited Edition, Vance Hines Muffler Kit, Screaming Eagle 110 in., with passenger seat. Harley Skull foot pegs. 4K miles, Full Face Helmet and Leather Riding Jacket included. $16,500 Call 361-649-1147

1955 CHEVROLET 210 SEDAN PS, PB, AC, LT1 350 Motor, Runs Good, Excellent Condition. $28,500 1-361-275-8858. Cuero.

WE BUY, SELL & TRADE !!!

Since 1964. 361-575-1009 View Our Inventory @ hartmansautosales.com

2003 BMW 325I No key, Good for parts. $400.

361-484-6407/361-935-9037

2018 Chevy Silverado 1500 $8,000+ in accessories! Low miles!!

Stock# Z139192P For details: 361-220-2020

1983 HARLEY DAVIDSON FLHT 35,000 miles. Last year of the shovelhead. Very well kept. $6,500.

Price Negotiable. Call Karen 979-541-7626 in El Campo.

HANDYMAN

LAWNCARE

Home repairs, painting, plumbing, ceiling fans, fixtures, small carpentry jobs, tile. Call David for free estimates. 550-0572.

Repairs, lawn mowers, chain saws, weed whackers, pressure washers, generators, and small engines. 39 yrs experience. 361-212-2253

ZEKE THE HANDY MAN Inside or Outside Work. Painting, Electrical, Plumbing, Carpentry.

And clean up. 361-461-2397

Mow, Edge, Weedeat, Blow, Flower beds & hedges. Residential/ Commercial. Affordable prices.

361-655-0503

2013 Jeep Wrangler 3.6L Complete Motor only, 24K mi., $2,500, Automatic Transmission $1800, Transfer Case $1200. 361-935-6546 JVC aftermarket radio/CD player with aux hookup. $300 OBO 361-433-3624

CAUSE NO., STYLE OF CASE, LEGAL DESCRIPTION, ESTIMATED MINIMUM BID

14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, 0.2077 acre, more or less, being in Farm Lot 2, Block 1, Range 2, Block !, Rage 2, EBT, an addition to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, as described in Vol. 272, Pg. 548, Official Records of Victoria County, Texas. $9,103.96

2015 CROP

Hay will need to be picked up at our location in Wharton, TX. Call 979-657-2893 EXT 100 Please leave a message.

and issued pursuant to judgment decree(s) of the District Court of Victoria County, Texas, by the Clerk of said Court on said date, in the hereinafter numbered and styled suit(s) and to me directed and delivered as Sheriff or Constable of said County, I have on August 9, 2018, seized, levied upon, and will, on the first Tuesday in September, 2018, the same being the 4th day of said month, at the East Door of the Courthouse building, located at 115 North Bridge Street of the Courthouse of the said County, in the City of Victoria, Texas, between the hours of 10 o’clock a.m. and 4 o’clock p.m. on said day, beginning at 10:00 AM, proceed to sell for cash to the highest bidder all the right, title, and interest of the defendants in such suit(s) in and to the following described real estate levied upon as the property of said defendants, the same lying and being situated in the County of Victoria and the State of Texas, to-wit:

14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, 0.12 Acre, more or less, being Farm Lot 1, Block 1, Range 1, East Below Town, an addition to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, ad described in Vol.85, Pg. 935, Official Records of Victoria County, Texas. $1,280.92

***HAY FOR SALE***

This hay is breaking down on bottom. If we can get it on the truck - you will need to push off TRK to feed.

Call if interested.

Jenny Lind baby bed w/mattress, complete boy bedding set, walker, & portable high chair.

361-935-4014

2002 Honda Accord Gas saver, runs good, and has cold A/C. Asking $1,450 361-220-9813

14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, All that certain tract of land out of Lot 3, Block 227, B.C. Murray Subdivision of the Original Townsite of the City of Victoria, Victoria County Texas, described as 0.2732 acre, more or less, in deed dated January 28, 1963 from B.C. Murray, etux., to C.R. Callis, in Vol. 582, Page 670, Deed Records of Victoria County, Texas: SAVE & EXCEPT however, the following: A. that certain 0.112 acre tr. Described in Vol. 226, Page 155, Official Records of Victoria County, Texas; And B. that certain 0.086 acre Tr. Described in Clerk’s File #200316455, Official Records of Victoria County, Texas; leaving herin a redue of 0.0752 acre, more or less. $2,516.65

John Deere Tractor For Sale 2010 Model, 75HP, 2400 hrs, Frontin loader, Kept in Barn, Clean, $20,000. Call 979-332-9293

$10/BALE NEGOTIABLE

Model A 9" South Bend Precision Lathe.

Call John Braden 361-277-6388

1953 M38A1 Willy’s Army Jeep Original and just like new with many extras. Call 361-571-3683!

11-5-15543, Victoria County vs. Santas H. Braeuer, ET AL, Lot 19, Block 1, Red River Heights Section II, an addition to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, according to the map or plat thereof, recorded in Volume 372, Page 9, Deed Records of Victoria County, Texas. $1,762.34

Wanted Brangus Bull, Breeding Age. Call /Text 361-571-0713, Tommy

10 ROLL MINIMUM

We haul off all metal, appliances, anything metal and batteries!! Just call or Text. free quote 3612187096!

NOTICE OF SALE STATE OF TEXAS VICTORIA COUNTY

BY VIRTUE OF AN ORDER OF SALE

20 Brangus Heifers Bred to LBW polled Hereford. Gentle, vaccinated $1500 Bay City. 979-240-8888 CHAROLAIS BULLS, Heifers.

Medium-Large Frame, 16-40 months, Low birth weight, High Weaning Weight Bloodlines, very gentle, Vaccinated, wormed, Heifers-$1200; Bulls $2500-$3500.

361-550-8021. Will text photos.

GymPac- old, some rust $95 Microwave, countertop, 1.9 cu ft $80 361-550-3030

LEGAL NOTICE Application has been made with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission for a Mixed Beverage Permit by Gloria Salazar dba La Carreta Taqueria #2, to be located at 1804 N. Navarro Street, Victoria, Victoria County, Texas. Gloria Salazar, Owner.

SHERIFF’S NOTICE OF SALE REAL PROPERTY The State of Texas, County of Victoria County NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that by virtue of an Order of Sale issued on June 21, 2018, in Cause # 17-1081723-C , by the Clerk of the 267th Judicial District Court of Victoria County, Texas styled Ovation Services, LLC versus Christopher Peterson, Tenale Peterson, Alisha Peterson, and Corey Kocurek , wherein, on the 29th day of May, 2018, Ovation Services , recovered a tax foreclosure judgment against: Christopher Peterson, Tenale Peterson, Alisha Peterson and Corey Kocurek for the sum $21,054.12 plus delinquent taxes due to Intervenor, penalties, accrued interest and all cost of suit, in favor of Ovation Services, LLC. The Clerk of the 267 Judicial District Court of Victoria County placed in my hands for service, I, T Michael O’Connor, as Sheriff of Victoria County, Texas did on the 10th day of July, 2018, seized and levied upon certain Real property, situated in Victoria County, Texas, described as follows, to wit: Commonly known as 605 N. Troy, Victoria, Tx. 77901, and is more particularly described as: Tax Account: R60940 LOTS 10 AND 11, BLOCK 3, STUBBLEFIELD SUBDIVISION VICTORIA COUNTY, TEXAS. AS DESCRIBED IN VOLUME 233, PAGE 555, DEED RECORDS OF VICTORIA COUNTY, TEXAS. I have levied upon said property of Christopher Peterson, ET AL and on the first Tuesday of September, 2018 the same being the 4th day said month, at the East Door of the Courthouse building, located at 115 North Bridge Street, of the Courthouse of the said County, in the City of Victoria, Texas, between the hours of 10:00 o’clock A.M. and 4 o’clock P.M. on said day , by virtue of said levy and said Order of Sale, I will offer for sale and sell at public venue, for cash, to the highest bidder, all the right, title and interest of the said property. And in compliance with the law, I give this notice by publication, in the English Language, once a week for three consecutive weeks immediately proceeding said day of sale, in The Victoria Advocate, a newspaper published in Victoria County.

WITNESS MY HAND, this 6th, day of August 2018 T. Michael O’Connor, Sheriff Victoria County, Victoria, Texas

By Sgt. Kristy Compean (506)

14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, Lot 1, Block 1, B.C. Murray Subdivision, an addition to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, according to the map or plat thereof, recorded in Vol. 508, Pg. 525, Deed Records of Victoria County, Texas. $1,932.06 14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, VICTORIA PT OF LOT 4 BLOCK 210 in the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas $3,578.19 14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, Part Lot 3, Blk 211, Range 15, City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas as described in deed dated July 7, 2009, from Janie L. Scott, Trustee to C.R. Callis, Jr., in Clerk’s File #200907224, Official Records of Victoria County, Texas. $3,842.12 14-10-16178, Victoria County vs. Charlie Robert Callis JR., ET AL, 0.391 acre, more or less, being Lots, 1, 2, 3 and 4, Block 227, Original Townsite to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, as described in deed date October 1, 1962, from Alfred Sodia, Administrator of the Estate of Vera Burroughs, Deceased to C.R. Callis, in Vol. 574, Pg. 562, Deed Records of Victoria County, Texas. $8,972.60 15-09-16405, Victoria County vs. Kevin B Olson, ET AL, Lot 9, Block 6, High School Terrace Addition, an addition to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, according to the map or plat thereof, recorded in Volume 1, Page 72, Plat Records of Victoria County, Texas. $12,397.13

SEPTIC & SEWER

Tub-to-shower conversions Licenced. & Insured.

Veterans program welcome.

361-935-1060

CONCRETE WORK G&G Cement Contractors.

Foundations, Patios, Driveways, Concrete Slabs, & Leveling.

Free estimates. 361-649-3637 M&M Concrete. Sidewalks, Parking Lots, Driveways, Etc. All Types of Concrete Work. Reasonable Rates.

Free Estimates. 361-649-4364 E. R. P Constrution Company Foundations, Driveways, Sidewalks, Concrete paving, Patios.

361-649-3392

Ed’s Handy Man, In & Out Painting, remodeling, metal buildings, welding, & anything you don’t have time to do! Call 361-489-6943

HAULING HD Services We haul trash & junk.

Clean properties, Estate & Farm.

361-655-2984

Call Albert Landscaping LLC Mowing, Edging, Weedeating, Cleaning Flower beds, & Tree Trimming. 361-550-5090

Free estimates. Lawn care, flower beds, hedges, small tree removal.

Give John a call. 361-237-9355

PAINTING

All Seasons Fence. Free Est. Prof. bldg. all types of fencing. Installation concrete driveways /patios /sidewalks. 361-484-7689 RUIZ FENCING. Free estimates.

100% customer satisfaction. We do all types of fencing. More than 10 years exp. Miguel 361-455-3516

Shredding & also Sendera up to 15 acres. Free Estimates!

Call 361-649-2513.

Mowing, Edging, Weedeating, Pressure Wash Houses & Driveways, Flower Beds & Tree Trimming. Tommy @ 361-489-1510.

HOUSE LEVELING

FENCES

SHREDDING

TREE SERVICE

DEMOLITION HD Services We tear down houses, barns & mobile homes. Licensed & insured.

361-655-2984

C&A Services Residential Septic Maintenance Contracts, starting at $200, Septic repairs and installations, call 361-571-1246

Foundation Repair Service Quality Slab & Pier & Beam House Leveling Since 1987. Free Estimates, Warranty. 361-676-5267 House Leveling.

Pier & Beam, Concrete Slab.

Free Estimates!

Call Joe 361-541-3489 LEVELING & REPAIR: Comm./Res. Slab, piers, rotten floor repair & removal, beams. Free Estimates!

361-585-7637 or 361-834-6315.

HOUSECLEANING HAVE openings to clean your home/ apt. Trustworthy dependable. References.

Call Sara at 361-489-1217.

Will Do All Types Of Fencing, Remodeling, House Painting, Carpentry & Decks. 30 yrs. Exp. Call Gene @ 361-652-8808 Shelton Painting & Repairs. Free Estimates. No Job Too Small.

No Substitute Quality Call 361-318-4190

Tree Trimming & Stump Grinding.

Free Estimates. Insured.

Call Carl @ 361-572-4914 or cell 361-550-2119 HONEST TREE SERVICE Tree Trimming, Take Downs & More.

We Are Insured And Here For You. Call Today. 361-741-8474

CrossroadsFINDER.com

Call Albert Landscaping LLC 83’ high bucket lift, goes thru 36" gate, certifed tree trimmers, insured & bonded, free estimates 361-550-5090

ROOFING

VIDEO SERVICES

Roofing, re-decks, comp. & ridge vents. Clean gutters, carpentry work, flashing, yard work. Free Est. Victoria 573-6403/649-4618

Videotapes, Memory Cards & Old Home Movie Film to DVD. Video Data Services of Victoria 361-578-1851

16-03-16497, Victoria County vs. Rebecca G. Graham, ET AL, Lot 9 and the West 1 / 2 of Lot 8, Block 4, Crestwood South Addition, an addition to the City of Victoria, Victoria County, Texas, according to the map or plat thereof, recorded in Volume 298, Page 364, Deed Records of Victoria County, Texas. $10,080.26 (any volume and page references, unless otherwise indicated, being to the Deed Records, Victoria County, Texas, to which instruments reference may be made for a more complete description of each respective tract.) or, upon the written request of said defendants or their attorney, a sufficient portion of the property described above shall be sold to satisfy said judgment(s), interest, penalties, and cost; and any property sold shall be subject to the right of redemption of the defendants or any person having an interest therein, to redeem the said property, or their interest therein, within the time and in the manner provided by law, and shall be subject to any other and further rights to which the defendants or anyone interested therein may be entitled, under the provisions of law. Said sale to be made by me to satisfy the judgment(s) rendered in the above styled and numbered cause(s), together with interest, penalties, and costs of suit, and the proceeds of said sales to be applied to the satisfaction thereof, and the remainder, if any, to be applied as the law directs.

Dated at Victoria, Texas, August 9, 2018 Sheriff T. Michael O’Connor Victoria County, Texas

By Veronica Serenil Deputy Notes: The Minimum Bid is the lesser of the amount awarded in the judgment plus interest and costs or the adjudged value. However, the Minimum Bid for a person owning an interest in the property or for a person who is a party to the suit (other than a taxing unit), is the aggregate amount of the judgments against the property plus all costs of suit and sale. ALL SALES SUBJECT TO CANCELLATION WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. THERE MAY BE ADDITIONAL TAXES DUE ON THE PROPERTY WHICH HAVE BEEN ASSESSED SINCE THE DATE OF THE JUDGMENT. For more information, contact your attorney or LINEBARGER GOGGAN BLAIR & SAMPSON, LLP, attorney for plaintiffs, at (855) 6505848 (520)

TexSCAN Week of August 19, 2018 ACREAGE 20-40 acres, Duval County, north of San Diego. Well, electricity, private locked gate entrance. Heavy south Texas brush cover. Deer, hogs, turkey, quail. 30-year fixed rate owner financing, 5% down. 1-866-286-0199. www.ranchenterprisesltd.com.

AUCTION Huge Public & Real Estate Auction, Sat., Aug. 25, starts at 8:47 a.m., 1610 S. Main St., Sapulpa, OK. Commercial property with 14,300± sq. ft., 4 store fronts + warehouse, currently used as machine shop.

Open houses: Aug. 13 & 20, 4-6 p.m. (real estate only). Milling & lathe machines, mic & specialty tools, machine vises & accessories, tig welders, lifts, shop tools and more. Chupps Auction Co., 918-638-1157, 918-639-8555, www.chuppsauction.com.

CHARITY Donate a boat or car today to Boat Angel. 2-Night Free Vacation. Sponsored by Boat Angel Outreach Centers to stop crimes against children. 800-700-BOAT, www.boatangel.com.

COUNTRY MUSIC Outlaws and Armadillos – Country’s Roaring ‘70s.

Experience the exhibit at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, Nashville, TN. Album and book also available. The exhibit explores the Outlaw phenomenon that produced powerful music and everlasting bonds between Nashville and Texas. 615-416-2001, countrymusichalloffame.org.

OIL AND GAS RIGHTS We buy oil, gas & mineral rights. Both non- producing and producing including non-Participating Royalty Interest (NPRI). Provide us your desired price for an offer evaluation. 806-620-1422, LoboMineralsLLC@ gmail.com. Lobo Minerals, LLC, PO Box 1800, Lubbock, TX 79408-1800.

LEGAL ASSISTANCE Roundup®, a common weed and grass killer, has been linked to the development of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in farm workers and employees in garden centers, nurseries, and landscapers. Call 800-460-0606 for professional insight or visit www.RespectForYou.com/NHL.

SAWMILLS Sawmills from only $4,397.00 – Make & Save Money with your own bandmill – Cut lumber any dimension. In stock, ready to ship! Free info/ DVD: www.NorwoodSawmills.com. 800-567-0404, Ext.300N.

TRUCK DRIVERS $1,000 Sign on Bonus! Be Your Own Boss! Choose Your Own Routes! Quality Drive-Away is looking for CDL Drivers to deliver new trucks all over the country, starting in Laredo, TX. www.qualitydriveaway.com, 574-642-2023.

WANTED FREON R12 WANTED: Certified buyer will PAY CA$H for R12 cylinders or cases of cans. 312-2919169; www.refrigerantfinders.com.

Texas Press Statewide Classified Network 283 Participating Texas Newspapers • Regional Ads Start At $250 • Email ads@texaspress.com NOTICE: While most advertisers are reputable, we cannot guarantee products or services advertised. We urge readers to use caution and when in doubt, contact the Texas Attorney General at 800-621-0508 or the Federal Trade Commission at 877-FTC-HELP. The FTC web site is www.ftc.gov/bizop.

D4 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

EDITORIAL BOARD Opinions published under “From Us” represent the views of the Victoria Advocate editorial board.

Chris Cobler,

Becky Cooper,

Publisher and Editor

Managing Editor

John M. Roberts,

Catherine R. McHaney, Camille Easton,

President, Chairman of the Board Secretary-Treasurer

Sponsorship Coordinator

VIEWPOINTS

Editorial page coordinator: Kathleen Grones, 361-574-1222, kgrones@vicad.com

FROM US

State accountability not true picture of districts n

Topic: TEA accountability ratings n Our View: Standardized testing is not the answer

ast week the Texas Education Agency rolled out its annual dog and pony show, also known as the state accountability ratings for each public school district and each campus in the state.

The new attraction this year was the awarding of a letter grade A-F to the districts based on four criteria – student growth, student achievement, closing the performance gap and overall accountability.

Most districts in the Crossroads received Cs. Only one district – Shiner – received an A. The smaller one campus districts were graded as met standards.

Not to take anything away from Shiner, which has long been a good school district, but to say the others are only average is demoralizing to the dedicated teachers and educators who work daily to educate the students.

The letter grade doesn’t take

L

into account the individualized work the teachers give students to make sure every child learns every day or the successes celebrated by the classrooms and campuses when goals are accomplished.

The report card is based on a snapshot of each district on a given day of the year and not on the entire year.

The rating system is poorly designed and poorly executed and only gets more convoluted each year as the government changes the rules and requirements.

Six districts in the Crossroads did not receive ratings because of the effects Hurricane Harvey had on the districts. The state making this waiver available to hurricane affected district is probably the best move it made in this year’s report.

Waivers were granted to Victoria, Bloomington, Calhoun, Refugio, Woodsboro and Aust-

well-Tivoli districts.

When a school misses 10 instructional days because of a disaster it is almost impossible to make up that loss in a school year.

Coupling that with the damage to the buildings and the loss of students because of the storm made the recovery process that much harder.

The Crossroads’ districts are strong and will recover from the disaster – physically and emotionally – but it will take time.

But in the meantime the state needs to find a better avenue to hold school districts accountable.

The current system becomes more flawed each year.

Standardized testing is not the solution.

Giving districts a letter grade is also not the answer. It is demoralizing to tell a district or a campus that all the hard work they have done is only worth a C or a D.

FROM OTHERS

The best solution is to return control of the districts back to the local level. Let the school boards, who know the district better than the state could ever know them, hold the administration and educators accountable for educating the students. At the same time this also allows the public to hold the local school boards accountable.

As we have said before, replace standardized testing with meaningful student assessments that provide timely and useful feedback to teachers, students and parents. Local school districts who know their students best should handle these assessments.

National tests, such as the ACT and SAT, will remain valuable measurements for high school achievements. At the lower levels, the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and others can remain useful diagnostic tools. But the state

and federal governments need to get completely out of the testing business.

But to make this change happen, residents must insist their legislators change the process.

Getting that message across to legislators will take time, but we have to start working on it now.

In the meantime, with the new school year starting, teachers and students alike need the community’s support. Let them know that you support the work they do and know they are doing the very best to help all students learn and succeed.

Encourage students to make the most of their days in the classrooms and to take advantage of all opportunities to learn.

In the end, we will all benefit from the support.

This opinion reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate’s editorial board.

SYNDICATED COLUMN

Enough is enough already uring the weekend of Aug. 4-5 (and the preceding Friday night), 12 Chicagoans were shot dead, and 62 others were shot and wounded, the Chicago Tribune reported. Before last week’s mayhem, 1,718 Chicagoans had been shot since the beginning of the year, and 306 had been murdered.

Adding to this tragedy is the fact that Chicago’s clearance rate is less than 15 percent. That means that in more than 85 percent of Chicago’s homicides, no suspect is charged.

Chicago is by no means unique in this lawlessness. Detroit, Baltimore, Philadelphia, St. Louis and some other major cities share high rates of homicides.

It’s not just shootings and homicides that negatively impact the overwhelmingly law-abiding black residents of these cities. In addition, there are sky-high rates of burglaries, rapes and property destruction. The schools are notoriously bad. City budgets face shortfalls. Residents deal with deteriorating city services. All of this causes mass exoduses from these cities by their most capable people.

Ordinary decency demands that something be done to address the horrible conditions under which so many black Americans live.

White liberals, black politicians and sports figures focus most of their attention on what the police do, but how relevant is that to the overall tragedy? According to Washington Post data, as of July 9, 626 people had been shot and killed by police this year. Of that number, 114 were black. Last year, 987 people were shot and killed by police, of which 223 were black. To put police shootings in a bit of perspective, in Chicago alone in 2017, there were 674 homicides, almost 80 percent of whose victims were black.

It would appear that if one is truly concerned about black deaths, shootings by police should figure way down on one’s list – which is not to excuse bad behavior by some police officers.

Would getting more blacks and Democrats in political office help?

It turns out that of the Chicago City Council’s 50 aldermen, only one is Republican. One is an independent. Forty-eight aldermen are Democrats, and 19 are black.

In fact, most of the cities where large segments of their black citizenry live under horrible conditions have been controlled by Democrats for nearly a half-century, and there are many blacks on the instruments of control, such as chiefs of police, superintendents of schools and members of city councils.

D

YOUR VOICES Online comments on “Review: Ethan Hawke’s ‘Blaze’ introduces the life of legendary Austin musician Blaze Foley” from Aug. 16 I look forward to seeing this...Blaze Foley was a friend who played many a night at my ex’s club La Bodega in Houston in the ’70s. A soft-spoken musician and side-splitting lyricist gone too soon.

Claudia

Online comments on “Victoria woman injured in hit-and-run wreck”

All too common in Victoria. Sure hope she makes it out alright. Far too many people hit by vehicles and vehicles going through houses/ businesses in Victoria.

Stacey

TALK OF THE TOWN

EVERYDAY HERO

Chloe Morales wins 2018 Teen Miss BRP USA

To nominate your Everyday Hero, submit the person’s full name, address and phone number, along with photo and reason for nomination as an Advocate Everyday Hero, in 150 words or less. Submit the information by email to letters@ vicad.com, mail to P.O. Box 1518, Victoria 77902, or bring it by the Victoria Advocate at 311 E. Constitution St. Include your name, address and phone number so we may contact you to verify your information.

Chloe Morales is an eighth-grade student at Cade Middle School. She competed in a National pageant August 9-11 in San Antonio as 2018 BRP (Bella Rose Pageantry) Teen Miss Texas.

Chloe won at the National competition and is now the 2018 Teen Miss BRP USA, and will be representing Victoria and Texas throughout the next year.

She is the daughter of George and Stephanie Morales, of Victoria.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Chloe Morales

FIRST AMENDMENT

C

ongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

– First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

YOUR POEM Unqualified Yes The old year slips away.

To the new I give an unqualified yes.

To the future good or bad.

To the beautiful and ugly.

To God who grants peace to all.

Sr. Frances Cabrini Janvier, Victoria

WORDS On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour: And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance.

Acts 10:9-10 “The journey is never ending. There’s always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what’s right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment.”

Antonio Brown (b. 1988) American football wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League

If Democratic and black control meant anything, these cities would be paradises.

How helpful to these desperate black communiWALTER ties are the efforts of so many black politicians to focus on allegations about President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia? The leader of the movement to impeach Trump is Rep. Maxine Waters. Her congressional district suffers from high crime rates and failing schools.

She, like most other black politicians, claims that she is helping her constituency by doing all she can to fight to get more taxpayer money to her district.

More money from taxpayers could not fix the problems of these communities. Throughout the past 50 years, more than $16 trillion has been spent on poverty programs. The majority of those programs have simply made poverty more comfortable by giving poor people more food, health care, housing, etc. What’s needed most is to get poor people to change their behavior. Chief among the modifications is reducing female-headed households.

Female-headed households produce most of our prison inmates, the highest crime rates and disproportionate numbers of high school dropouts and suicides.

These devastating factors are far beyond the capacity of Washington to fix.

The only people who can fix these problems are black people themselves.

Black athletes could be far more productive by going to schools and community centers to encourage constructive behavior and shaming self-destructive behavior.

Support should be given to police to stop criminals from preying on communities. Nongovernmental local groups should be encouraged to play greater roles.

It’s a challenge, but keep in mind that black people had the intestinal fortitude to lead the world’s greatest civil rights movement through some very dark days from 1865 to 1965. I believe that we’re up to the challenge.

If we wait for Washington to solve our problems, we’ll be waiting for a long time.

WILLIAMS

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at creators.com.

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VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — D5

VictoriaAdvocate.com

GUSHERS AND DUSTERS

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: SAMANTHA HANKINS, SHANKINS@VICAD.COM

Editor’s Note: Gushers and Dusters is compiled from reports filed by oil and gas operators with the Texas Railroad Commission in Austin. The Advocate does not independently verify the information reported.

Location reports Recent location reports for the Advocate readership area.

BEE COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-025-33983

Well Classification: Field Development Operator: Enco Exploration Lease Name: Richardson Unit Well No.: 1 Field Name: Norbee Total Depth: 6,000 feet Direction and Miles: 2.5 miles N.W. of Beeville Survey Name: M. Carroll, A-11 Acres: 40

DEWITT COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-123-34667

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: Langhoff Unit B Well No.: 2 Field Name: Sugarkane (Austin Chalk) Total Depth: 17,000 feet Direction and Miles: 6.5 miles N. of Yoakum Survey Name: SAandMG RR Co, A-448 Acres: 699.87 API NO.: 42-123-34670

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: Rucka Unit A Well No.: 8 Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Total Depth: 17,000 feet Direction and Miles: 9.7 miles N.E. of Ecleto Survey Name: I.W. Griffin, A-630 Acres: 321.48 API NO.: 42-123-34669

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: Rucka Unit A Well No.: 6 Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Total Depth: 17,000 feet Direction and Miles: 9.7 miles N.E. of Ecleto Survey Name: I.W. Griffin, A-630 Acres: 321.48 API NO.: 42-123-34668

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: Rucka Unit A Well No.: 7 Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Total Depth: 17,000 feet Direction and Miles: 9.7 miles N.E. of Ecleto Survey Name: I.W. Griffin, A-630 Acres: 321.48 API NO.: 42-123-31439

A-142 Acres: 320

JACKSON COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-239-33917

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Frostwood Energy Lease Name: Cravens-Kuretsch Well No.: 1H Field Name: Ganado, West (4,700 Zone) Total Depth: 4,900 feet Direction and Miles: 2 miles S.W. of Ganado Survey Name: Wm. Menefee Acres: 403.20 API NO.: 42-239-02071

Well Classification: Field Development and Recompletion Operator: Trinidad Resources Lease Name: Mitchell Estate Well No.: 4 Field Name: Lolita Total Depth: 5,927 feet Direction and Miles: 1 mile E. of Lolita Survey Name: S.F. Austin, A-5 Acres: 220

GONZALES COUNTY DISTRICT: 1 API NO.: 42-177-34018

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Gabriel D Well No.: 4H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-1) Total Depth: 11,600 feet Direction and Miles: 6.5 miles E. of Smiley Survey Name: I. Milliman, A-356 Acres: 1,116.99 API NO.: 42-177-34017

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Gabriel C Well No.: 3H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-1) Total Depth: 11,600 feet Direction and Miles: 6.5 miles E. of Smiley Survey Name: I. Milliman, A-356 Acres: 1,116.99 API NO.: 42-177-34016

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Gabriel B Well No.: 2H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-1) Total Depth: 11,600 feet Direction and Miles: 6.5 miles E. of Smiley Survey Name: I. Milliman, A-356 Acres: 1,116.99 API NO.: 42-177-34015

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Gabriel A Well No.: 1H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-1) Total Depth: 11,600 feet Direction and Miles: 6.5 miles E. of Smiley Survey Name: I. Milliman, A-356 Acres: 1,941.10

KARNES COUNTY

Well Classification: Field Development and Re-Entry Operator: Messy Oil and Gas Lease Name: Musselman Well No.: 3 Field Name: Balfour Total Depth: 6,000 feet Direction and Miles: 13.4 miles N.E. of Cuero Survey Name: D.H. Balfour, A-74 Acres: 200

DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-255-35970

GOLIAD COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-175-33571

Well Classification: Field Development and Recompletion Operator: Hurd Enterprises Lease Name: Albrecht Well No.: 3 Field Name: Weesatche, N.E. (Wilcox) Total Depth: 10,200 feet Direction and Miles: 2.9 miles N.E. of Weesatche Survey Name: T. Hancock,

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Pioneer Natural Res. USA Lease Name: Haveman Trust-Haveman 01 Well No.: 10H Field Name: Sugarkane (Eagle Ford) Total Depth: 25,000 feet Direction and Miles: 4.13 miles N.E. of Kenedy Survey Name: C. Martinez, A-6 Acres: 1,225.74

VICTORIA COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-469-34402

Well Classification: Field Development and Recompletion Operator: Acock/Anaqua Operating Lease Name: Lentz Well No.: 1

RIG COUNT

PRICE PER BARREL

Week ending Aug. 10

Week ending Aug. 10 ................

............................33 Week ending Aug. 17

............$66.81 Week ending Aug. 17 ................

............................33 The rig count includes the number of active drilling rigs in Victoria, Goliad, Gonzales, Calhoun, Jackson, Bee, Refugio, DeWitt, Lavaca, Wharton, Karnes and Matagorda counties.

............$65.46 Price per barrel figures are provided from New York by the Associated Press and reflect the cash F.O.B. price of West Texas Intermediate, the benchmark grade of U.S. crude oil.

Field Name: Eloise (6,430) Total Depth: 6,859 feet Direction and Miles: 3 miles S.W. of Placedo Survey Name: M.A. Castanon, A-146 Acres: 1,346

Plug Back Depth: 18,496 feet Perforations: 13,510-18,413 feet API NO.: 42-123-34140

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Devon Energy Production Lease Name: Migura A Well No.: 3H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: I RR Co, Section 43, A-259 Direction and Miles: 5.76 miles N.W. of Nordheim Oil: 2,944 barrels per day Gas: 8,155,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 26/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 5,892 psi Total Depth: 19,093 feet Plug Back Depth: 19,022 feet Perforations: 13,493-18,962 feet

Oil and Gas Completion Recent oil and gas completions for the Advocate readership area.

DEWITT COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-123-34439

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: J Respondek Unit A Well No.: 12 Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: W.L. Lytte, A-303 Direction and Miles: 3.4 miles S.E. of Ecleto Oil: 2,006 barrels per day Gas: 2,773,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 16/24 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 5,466 psi Total Depth: 18,536 feet Perforations: 12,963-18,374 feet

API NO.: 42-123-34497

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Marathon Oil EF Lease Name: Leske-Lott Unit Well No.: 6H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: S. Pharrass, A-377 Direction and Miles: 8.7 miles N.W. of Cuero Oil: 1,074.6 barrels per day Gas: 3,236,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 14/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 5,916 psi Total Depth: 18,470 feet Perforations: 13,558-18,336 feet

API NO.: 42-123-34438

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: J Respondek Unit A Well No.: 11 Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: W.L. Lytte, A-303 Direction and Miles: 3.4 miles S.E. of Ecleto Oil: 1,798 barrels per day Gas: 2,598,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 18/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 5,429 psi Total Depth: 18,216 feet Perforations: 12,685-18,083 feet

API NO.: 42-123-34498

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Marathon Oil EF Lease Name: Leske-Lott Unit Well No.: 7H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: S. Pharrass, A-377 Direction and Miles: 8.7 miles N.W. of Cuero Oil: 882 barrels per day Gas: 3,519,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 14/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 5,906 psi Total Depth: 19,028 feet Plug Back Depth: Perforations: 13,434-18,901 feet

API NO.: 42-123-34433

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Burlington Resources O and G Lease Name: Hunsaker Unit B Well No.: 7 Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: W.L. Lytte, A-303 Direction and Miles: 3.4 miles S.E. of Ecleto Oil: 1,040 barrels per day Gas: 1,077,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 12/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 3,856 psi Total Depth: 17,740 feet Perforations: 12,914-17,623 feet

GOLIAD COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-175-34255

API NO.: 42-123-34141

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Devon Energy Production Lease Name: Migura A Well No.: 6H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: I RR Co, Section 43, A-259 Direction and Miles: 5.76 miles N.W. of Nordheim Oil: 1,861 barrels per day Gas: 5,631,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 22/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 6,804 psi Total Depth: 18,542 feet

Well Classification: Field Development Operator: Charro Operating Lease Name: Welder Heirs CJ Well No.: 2 Field Name: Gaffney, SW. (5400) Survey Name: G. Barrera, A-1 Direction and Miles: 14.2 miles S.E. of Goliad Oil: 30 barrels per day Gas: 0 cubic feet per day Choke Size: None Gas Lift: Yes Tubing Pressure: 220 psi Total Depth: 5,600 feet Perforations: 5,109-5,112 feet

JACKSON COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-239-33791

Well Classification: Field Development Operator: Hilcorp Energy Lease Name: West Ranch (41-A/98-A Cons) Unit Well No.: 2046 Field Name: West Ranch (41-A and 98-A Cons.)

Survey Name: R. Musquiz,

A-59 Direction and Miles: 3 miles S.W. of Vanderbilt Oil: 42 barrels per day Gas: 0 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 28/64 of an inch Gas Lift: Yes Tubing Pressure: 300 psi Total Depth: 6,489 feet Plug Back Depth: 6,380 feet Perforations: 6,163-6,167 feet API NO.: 42-239-33748

Well Classification: Field Development Operator: Hilcorp Energy Lease Name: West Ranch (41-A/98-A Cons) Unit Well No.: 2035 Field Name: West Ranch (41-A and 98-A Cons) Survey Name: R. Musquiz, A-59 Direction and Miles: 3.2 miles S.E. of Vanderbilt Oil: 150 barrels per day Gas: 0 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 20/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 1,135 psi Total Depth: 6,485 feet Plug Back Depth: 6,375 feet Perforations: 6,140-6,190 feet

KARNES COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-255-35718

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Ginobili Unit Well No.: 9H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: A.F. Mitchell, A-202 Direction and Miles: 2.2 miles N.E. of Panna Maria Oil: 2,328 barrels per day Gas: 1,576,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 50/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 1,117 psi Total Depth: 16,472 feet Plug Back Depth: 16,417 feet Perforations: 10,997-16,406 feet API NO.: 42-255-35717

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Ginobili Unit Well No.: 8H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: A.F. Mitchell, A-202 Direction and Miles: 2.2 miles N.E. of Panna Maria Oil: 3,055 barrels per day Gas: 1,550,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 54/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 1,095 psi Total Depth: 16,544 feet Plug Back Depth: 16,482 feet Perforations: 11,051-16,477 feet API NO.: 42-255-35716

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: EOG Resources Lease Name: Ginobili Unit Well No.: 7H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: A.F. Mitchell, Section 370, A-202 Direction and Miles: 2.2 miles N.E. of Panna Maria Oil: 2,057 barrels per day Gas: 1,532,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 54/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 1,111 psi Total Depth: 16,514 feet Plug Back Depth: 16,455 feet Perforations: 11,066-16,450 feet API NO.: 42-255-35630

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Marathon Oil EF Lease Name: May Unit 1 AC Well No.: 4H Field Name: Sugarkane (Austin Chalk) Survey Name: J. Eberly, A-102 Direction and Miles: 6.7 miles N.W. of Kenedy Oil: 739 barrels per day Gas: 3,062,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 24/64 of an inch

Tubing Pressure: 3,137 psi Shut In Well Pressure: 5,130 psi Total Depth: 17,945 feet Perforations: 12,421-17,809 feet

LAVACA COUNTY DISTRICT: 2 API NO.: 42-285-34041

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Penn Virginia Oil and Gas Lease Name: Lott Unit Well No.: 7H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: W. Chase, A-9 Direction and Miles: 1.02 miles N.W. of Moulton Oil: 1,373 barrels per day Gas: 1,076,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 20/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 3,063 psi Total Depth: 17,594 feet Perforations: 11,355-17,429 feet API NO.: 42-285-34040

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Penn Virginia Oil and Gas Lease Name: Lott Unit Well No.: 6H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: W. Chase, A-9 Direction and Miles: 1.02 miles NW. of Moulton Oil: 1,208 barrels per day Gas: 1,018,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 20/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 3,050 psi Total Depth: 18,508 feet Perforations: 11,351-18,392 feet API NO.: 42-285-34039

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Penn Virginia Oil and Gas Lease Name: Lott Unit Well No.: 5H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: W. Chase, A-9 Direction and Miles: 1.02 miles N.W. of Moulton Oil: 1,155 barrels per day Gas: 1,208,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 20/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 3,031 psi Total Depth: 19,186 feet Perforations: 11,402-19,012 feet API NO.: 42-285-34027

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Penn Virginia Oil and Gas Lease Name: Schacherl-Effenberger (SA) Unit 4 Well No.: 4H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: A. Ponton, A-35 Direction and Miles: 4.35 miles S.W. of Moulton Oil: 1,504 barrels per day Gas: 1,299,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 20/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 2,736 psi Total Depth: 17,624 feet Perforations: 11,850-17,409 feet API NO.: 42-285-34019

Well Classification: Field Development and Horizontal Operator: Penn Virginia Oil and Gas Lease Name: Schacherl-Effenberger (SA) Unit Well No.: 3H Field Name: Eagleville (Eagle Ford-2) Survey Name: A. Ponton, A-35 Direction and Miles: 4.35 miles S.W. of Moulton Oil: 1,188 barrels per day Gas: 993,000 cubic feet per day Choke Size: 20/64 of an inch Flowing: Yes Tubing Pressure: 2,628 psi Total Depth: 18,868 feet Perforations: 11,703-18,240 feet

PUBLIC SAFETY

Massive fire destroys large portion of Western Pulp Products

BY JAY NEAL JACKSONVILLE DAILY PROGRESS (TNS)

A monstrous fire that started about 10 p.m. Friday evening lit up the north Jacksonville sky and eventually consumed a large portion of Western Pulp Products-

Central Division, 1577 N. Bolton St. Jacksonville fire chief Keith Fortner said at its peak, around 40 firefighters were battling the blaze.

“Of course we had all our people out here. We brought off-duty personnel

in,” a drained Fortner said while still on the scene at mid-morning Saturday. “We also had help from fire departments in Rusk, Bullard, North Cherokee, Earle’s Chapel and Dixie. There were Smith County ESD units here as well as (ambu-

lance) crews from ETMC.” Fortner said the fire was one of the largest in recent memory.

“I estimate that the fire destroyed about 20,000 square feet of an approximately 70,000-square-foot building,” he said.

Not only was the blaze large, it also proved to be difficult to put out.

“The fire was in the eastern portion of the building and in an area that was full of cardboard packing materials, much of which was highly compacted,” he said.

D6 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

AG IN THE CROSSROADS

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: NICOLE CRAPPS, NCRAPPS@VICAD.COM

CROPS

Farmers keep busy with 2018 harvest being harvested or baled Many of you have probain these hot dry conditions. bly noticed the assortment You can’t drive anyof farm equipment where in the county moving up and down without seeing the highways. Some fields full of round may have even or square bales as become irritated at ranchers are baling having to wait as a a fair cutting of farmer tries to get hay from scattered his gigantic harvestrains. ing machine across MATT Crop yields thus far a major highway in have been below avVictoria County.

Texas A&M I usually smile and Agrilife Extension erage to average for our county because wave to the farmer the scattered areas that and try to allow them the time and room to maneuver did or didn’t receive timely rains. their equipment.

■ Corn yields have averI know how difficult it is aged 30-120 bushels/acre to be a farmer in today’s and most of the corn has modern world where only been harvested.

2 percent of Americans are ■ Grain sorghum harvestfarmers and most don’t ing is in full swing now understand how basic with reports of yields production agriculture conaveraging 4,000-5,000 tributes to a local economy. pounds/acre.

As long as there is plenty ■ The cotton harvest is just of food available at the getting started. Harvest local grocery store, no one reports for cotton are seems to care. anywhere from one-half In case you ever wona bale to two bales per dered about agriculture in acre.

Victoria County, most of the cropland in Victoria County ■ Soybeans yields are average at about 30 is located south of U.S. 59 to bushels/acre. the Calhoun County border.

■ Hay yields have been Victoria County currently below average. I have has about 70,000 acres in heard reports of ranchcrop production. These ers cutting 1-2 tons of acres are broken down as; forage/acre/cutting. An rice, 2,000; corn, 22,000; soraverage round hay bale ghum, 16,000; cotton, 21,000; that is 5-feet by 5-feet in and soybeans, 5,000. size will weigh between When you factor in hay 800-1,000 pounds dependproduction as a forage ing on a variety of factors crop, you must add another including moisture 10,000 acres that are also

BOCHAT

LIVESTOCK BEEVILLE Aug. 10 Cattle on hand: 377 Horses: 1 Trends: Steers and heifers, steady.

Steers: (200-300) $140$195; (300-400) $133-$179; (400-500) $116-$159; (500600) $114-$145; (600-700) $108-$139; and (700-800) $102-$128.

Heifers: (200-300) $107$146; (300-400) $110-$159; (400-500) $112-$144 (500600) $108-$136; (600-700) $104-$130; and (700-800) $97-$121.

Slaughter cows: $35-$52; slaughter bulls, $65-$82; stocker cows, $50-$65; bred cows, $500-$820; pairs, $850$1,092.50; horses, $125-$250.

CUERO Aug.17 Cattle on hand: 1,498 Had 204 cows and 20 bulls Friday. The packer market continued to be strong. Demand is remaining strong as a result the prices have remained at the same level for several weeks. Lack of rain is causing an increase in the number of packer animals coming to market.

The calf market was stronger particularly on the light calves being up as much as $6 to $8.

All other classes were fully steady with most of the steer front ends up $1 to $3. Market continues to penalize bull calves compared to steers in same class. Overall today was a surprisingly strong up market.

Packer bulls: All weights, $62-$80 Packer cows: Canners and cutters, $38-$58; light and weak, $29-$41.

Palpated: 19 bred cows: $85$120; pairs (two): $1,350.

Steer calves: (average-high) (under 200) $217.50-$222.50; (200-249) $128-$144; (250299) $185-$202.50; (300-350) $117-$173; (350-400) $155$176; (400-450) $152-$165; (450-500) $141-$165; (500550) $139-$145; (550-600) $138-$144; (600-700) $136$141; (700-800) $133-$139.

Bull Calves: (average-high) (under 250) $184-$228; (250300) $163-$180; (300-350) $165-$186; (350-400) $174$186; (400-450) $153-$169; (450-500) $142-$156; (500550) $135-$151; (550-600) $132-$139; (600-700) $130$130; (over 700) $122-$133.

Heifer Calves: (average-high) (under 200) $146-$227.50; (200-250) $146-$166; (250300) $133-$200; (300-350) $146-$154; (350-400) $138$151; (400-450) $146-$166; (450-500) $149-$214; (500550) $136-$139; (550-600) $131-$138; (600-700) $124$140; (over 700) $125-$128.

EDNA Aug. 13 Receipts: 499 Steers: (200-300) $137-

$212; (300-400) $151-$168; (400-500) $139-$168; (500600) $129-$148; (600-700) $127-$144; and (700 and up) $97-$124 Heifers: (200-300) $154$186; (300-400) $136-$154; (400-500) $138-$157; (500600) $1317$139; (600-700) $119-$125; (700 and up) $763-$113.

Stocker cows $650-$900 Packer cows: (600-800) $32$45; and (800 and up) $46-$55.

Packer bulls: (800 and up) $60-$78.

EL CAMPO Aug. 14 Receipts: 616 Trend: Feeder steers and heifers were steady to $1 lower.

Cows and bulls were steady.

Steers: (under 200) $188$220; (200-300) $165-$198; (300-400) $155-$220; (400500) $146-$171; (500-600) $141-$154; (over 600) $137$145.

Heifers: (under 200) $170$210; (200-300) $146-$157; (300-400) $144-$175; (400500) $139-$189; (500-600) $132-$150; (over 600) $126$139.

Slaughter cows: High dressing, $50-$58; lower dressing, $36$41; thin, $25-$35.

Slaughter bulls: High dressing, $70-$80; low dressing, $60$70.

GONZALES Aug. 11 Receipts: 1,281 cattle Compared to our last sale: Calves and yearlings sold $1 to $2 cheaper on better quality calves and $2 to $3 on lesser quality ones. Packer cows and bulls sold steady.

Stocker-feeder steers: Medium and large frame No. 1 (150-300) $187-$190;(300400) $168-$175; (400-500) $150-$165; (500-600) $130$147; (600-700) $129-$135; (700-800) $124-$126.

Bull yearlings: (700-900) $70-$90.

Stocker-feeder heifers: Medium and large No. 1 (150300) $145-$158; (300-400) $145-$157; (400-500) $138$143; (500-600) $123-$130; and (600-700) $118-$120.

Packer cows: Good lean utility and commercial, $42-$47; cutters, $46-$52; canners, $28-$38; low yielding fat cows, $44-$47.

Packer bulls: Yield grade 1 and 2, good heavy bulls, $76-$79; light weights and medium quality bulls, $68-$74. Stocker cows, $600-$850. Pairs, $750$1,000.

HALLETTSVILLE Aug. 14 Cattle on Hand: 1,688 Week ago: 1,740; Year ago: 1,819 Compared to last week: The market this week was higher especially in the steer classes.

Heavier weight steers sold $3 to $5 higher while lighter weights were $6-$12 higher. Very active sale.

ADVOCATE FILE PHOTO

Benjamin Hahn drives a combine while harvesting corn with his four sons. content, tightness of bale, type of grass, etc.

Therefore, it looks like we will have a deficit of hay in the short term.

Cattle numbers remaining constant and are forecasted to remain stagnant. Demand is high in domestic and

Packer cows and bulls sold $4 higher on about 160 head total.

Packer cows: Canner and cutter cows, $51-$62; utility and fat cows, $48-$64; light weight canner cows, $30-$47.

Packer bulls: Heavyweight bulls, $81-$90; utility and cutter bulls, $75-$82; light weight canner bulls, $71-$76.

Stocker and feeder calves and yearlings: No. 1 steer and bull calves, (under 200) $170-$225;(200-300) $160-$210;(300-400) $155$200;(400-500) $150-$185; (500-600) $138-$158;(600700) $131-$147.50;(700-800) $128-$140.

No. 1 Heifer calves: (under 200) $150-$210; (200300) $140-$174;(300-400) $138-$160;(400-500) $130$150;(500-600) $127-$142; (600-700) $122-$135;(700800) $110-$124.

Replacement heifers (350700) $160-$205.

KARNES CITY Aug. 11 Cattle on hand: 388 Market was steady on all calves. Packers touch stronger.

Steers: (200-300) $155-$185; (300-400) $155-$190; (400500) $146-$170; (500-600) $136-$150; (600-700) $135$148; (700 and up) $125-$136.

Heifers: (200-300) $145$165; (300-400) $145-$170; (400-500) $140-$160; (500600) $135-$150; (600-700) $125-$145; (700 and up) $115-$125.

Long bull yearling $110-$125 Long heifer yearling $95-$108 Stocker cows (per head): Bred cows $775-$1,050, Pairs $1,100-$1,200; Packer cows: No. 1 $53-$58, No. 2 $42-$52, and Bulls $74-$82.

Goats and other (per head): 86 on hand Kid goats: (25-50) $85-$165; (50-100) $140-$225. Nannies: $150-$270. Billies: $180-$365.

Sheep: $65-$165. Lambs: $50$90. Rams: $135-$325.

world markets as anyone can see by the prices per pound we have to pay for beef at retail stores.

Not to stop the harvesting talk, but we are getting very dry again. We have entered the dog days of summer and they are usually very hot and dry.

Farmers and ranchers enjoy dry weather during harvest season so they can get the crops transported to market or into storage. However, at some point, once saturated soils become dry they must see rain again to be productive.

I think we are reaching dry

capacity in most areas of the county. Besides, farmers need a break from the harvest. Bring the rain.

$205; (300-400) $146-$185; (400-500) $130-$174; (500600) $124-$149; (600-700) $121-$140; (700-800) $113$138.

Heifers: (200-300) $116$149; (300-400) $125-$174; (400-500) $121-$164; (500600) $116-$190; (600-700) $114-$138; (700-800) $97$122.

Slaughter cows: $35-$57;

slaughter bulls, $70-$85; stocker cows, $650-$1,000; pairs, $710-$1,450.

Heifers: (200-300) $138$200; (300-400) $144-$173; (400-500) $137-$154; (500600) $130-$170; (600-700) $120-$154; (700 and up) $88-$146.

Stocker cows, pairs: $830$1,125.

Packer cows: (600-800) $31$45; (800 and up) $46-$54; packer bulls, (800 and up) $64-$80.

WHARTON Aug. 15 Receipts: 747 Steers: (200-300) $149-$215; (300-400) $150-$179; (400500) $144-$177; (500-600) $138-$155; (600-700) $126$140; (700 and up) $111-$150.

Matt Bochat is a County Extension Agent – Ag/ Natural Resources Victoria County Texas A&M Agrilife Extension.

South Texas Cattle Marketing “Cattleman’s Opportunity” Replacement Female Sale Saturday, Sept. 1, 2018 12:00 noon Nixon Livestock Commision Nixon Texas Selling 1250 head of Quality Replacement Females

HIGHLIGHT OF THE SALE - 225 hd. True F1 TigerStripe and Brown White faced heifer pairs, calves will be sired by Angus and Brangus bulls. 175 hd. of these pairs will have calves weighing 350 lbs. plus from three of our ranches. Some of these pairs will be three in ones and some have been held open for a Fall calving program.

KARNES COUNTY Aug. 9 Cattle on hand: 584. Market softer compared to last week.

No. 1 steer and bull calves: (200-300) $155-$187.50; (300400) $151-$177; (400-500) $143-$164; (500-600) $130$148; (600-700) $125-$136; (700-800) $119-$126.

No. 1 heifer calves: (200-300) $139-$136; (300-400) $137$160; (400-500) $129-$145; (500-600) $128-$162.50; (600700) $118-$135; (700-800) $101-$111.

Stocker cows: Good bred cows, $800-$1,050; pairs: stocker pairs: good, $1,135.

Packer cows: High $51-$55; medium $38-$44; low, $29$34.

Packer bulls: High $76-$80; medium $70-$74 .

NIXON Aug. 13 Volume: 820; cows: 101; bulls: 15 Steers: (200-300) $145-

Watch For A New Feature: The Sale Within The Sale We have had much demand for heifers eligible for the various county stock shows and county fairs who give future cattlemen and cattlewomen the opportunity to exhibit and sell their commercial heifers. Females that will be incorporated into productive herds.

We will be offering 300 open heifers.

Reg. Brahman • Brahman • True F-1 Tigerstripe Brangus Brangus Baldy and Crossbred Heifers that will be sorted into small groups of 3 to 5 head.

On Monday, August 27th, we will have a complete listing, with over 300 photos of our consignments, available on our website: www.southtexascattlemarketing.com.

Consignment details are updated daily.

For more information contact:

SOUTH TEXAS CATTLE MARKETING 

Sale Sponsored by:

Lyssy & Eckel Feeds

Lew Thompson, Marketing Director (830) 334-8227 (O) • (830) 965-3058 (M) www.southtexascattlemarketing.com • email: southtexascattle@sbcglobal.net

SECTION E

YOUR LIFE

VictoriaAdvocate.com Sunday, August 19, 2018

Dina Krenek, 53, left, and her husband, David Krenek, 53, excavate a beehive from a client’s property. Dina, daughter of Dennis and Grace Renken, the founders of Renken’s Nursery & Landscaping, is committed to doing whatever it takes to keep her client’s property functional and beautiful.

Loving ROOTS Family nursery cultivates deep community ties

Grace Renken, 72, one of the founders of Renken‘s Nursery & Landscaping, prunes an ivy plant. Renken takes great pride in a strong work ethic and enjoys tending to the plants herself.

STORY AND PHOTOS

BY KAYLA RENIE KRENIE@VICAD.COM

hildren hop from flowerbed to flowerbed, plucking petals and waving them in the air like little colorful flags as their parents browse for the perfect addition to their backyard paradise. Vegetable plants glisten in the sun after being doused by the hose, and birds chirp cheerfully to each other from the softly swaying tree branches.

C

And it all began with an acorn.

Renken’s Nursery & Landscaping, 2701 Salem Road, was founded in 1985 by Dennis and Grace Renken. Dennis, 74, came from a farming family, and Grace, 72, was raised on a dairy farm, so growing things was simply second nature.

The fact that Dennis could pick up an acorn off the ground, plant it and in a few years it would sprout into a magnificent tree fascinated him so much that he took an early retirement and committed to running the nursery full-time.

The Renkens’ only child, Dina Krenek, 53, was not always so interested in the family business.

After she graduated from Sam Houston State University in 1989 with a degree in marketing and a minor in art, Krenek wanted to work for a big financial company and live in a bigger city.

Yet with the growing success of the nursery, her parents offered to let her run the business side of things and put her creativity to good use by coming up with landscape designs for clients.

SEE NURSERY, E6

RENKEN’S NURSERY & LANDSCAPING ■ WHERE: 2701 Salem Road ■ HOURS: 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday; hours may vary ■ CONTACT: 361-576-5657 or visit renkensnursery.com

From left, Dennis Renken, 74; Grace Renken, 72; Sam Poland, 23; Mia Grace Poland, 6 months; and Dina Krenek, 53, take a family portrait outside Renken’s Nursery & Landscaping.

Dina Krenek, 53, owner and operator of Renken’s Nursery & Landscaping, looks over her landscape designs for a client.

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: NICOLE CRAPPS, NCRAPPS@VICAD.COM

Renken’s Nursery & Landscaping is a family-owned and -operated business since 1985. They offer nursery and landscaping services throughout South Texas.

E2 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

HIGHER EDUCATION

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: NICOLE CRAPPS, NCRAPPS@VICAD.COM

MYSTERY HISTORY

CREATIVE

UHV offers art courses Saturday classes feature beginning intruction about drawing, painting FROM UHV MEDIA OFFICE

The University of Houston-Victoria is offering art classes on Saturdays this fall, and members of the community are encouraged to sign up.

“The Victoria community shows a clear appreciation of the arts, and UHV wants to encourage that,” said Jeffrey Di Leo, dean of the UHV School of Arts and Sciences. “These Saturday courses will allow our students more time to focus on their art studies while also offering them a chance to interact with community members who share their love of art.”

The art courses will be “Intro to Drawing” from 9-11:45 a.m. and “Intro to Painting” from 1-3:45 p.m.

They will be taught by UHV art instructor Sylvia Benitez.

Both courses will be held in the UHV Totah Building, 3402 N. Ben Wilson St. Community members who wish to sign up for the courses should contact the UHV Student Billing Office and pay the regular course cost.

Residents 65 and older have the option to fill out a waiver to take the course for free.

Benitez is the founder and executive director of the Gentileschi Aegis Gallery Association, a nonprofit organization that serves women artists of South Texas. She also has curated projects in galleries, including 11.11.11, Lake Erie to Now, Hand Matters and Repair Workbook. In addition, she has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work including two National Endowment for the Arts awards, two Pollack-Krasner awards and an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb mature artist support grant.

“Saturday can be a great option for art classes,” Benitez said. “They allow for longer sessions instead of being restricted to a normal class schedule.

Students will have more time during their sessions to really get into the art mindset and focus on developing their style.”

During her classes, Beni-

tez hopes to inspire students to learn more about what they are capable of as they draw and paint.

“I love hearing a student say, ‘I never knew I could do that before,’” she said.

“I want them to find that lightbulb moment and realize they can succeed at bringing their visions to life – give them a strong foundation they can build on by pursuing their own natural curiosity.”

The decision to encourage community members to take the courses also is exciting for Benitez. Community outreach is an important part of developing art appreciation in a region, she said.

“I’m delighted to come to UHV, and I am looking forward to working with the students and the Victoria community,” she said. “I’ve taught for 10 years at Southwest School of Art, and I look forward to bringing that energy to the area and fulfilling the art students’ needs as artists.”

For more information about how to sign up for the art courses, contact the UHV Student Billing Office at 877-970-4848, ext.

4833 or billing@uhv.edu.

HEALTH

VC to host blood drive FROM VC MEDIA OFFICE

Victoria College’s Student Life Department will host a blood drive by the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 27 and 28 at the VC Student Center.

Donations will be accepted from Victoria College students, faculty and employPHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY VICTORIA COLLEGE ees as well as the public.

Victoria College is located The South Texas Blood & Tissue Center will host a blood drive at 2200 E. Red River Street. at Victoria College’s Student Center on Aug. 27 and 28.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY VC/UHV LIBRARY

We now have a partial identification from the attached photo taken inside the VC Student Union building that was published in the Advocate on July 8, 2018. Observing in the center of the 1976 photo is Curtis Connally. Our thanks to Curtis for this information. If you have any information or can identify any of the other people in this photo, call Marie Adcock of the VC/UHV Library at 361-5704175, write to Adcock at 2602 N. Ben Jordan St., Victoria TX 77901, or email adcockm@uhv.edu.

WORKFORCE

Part-Time Job Fair to help students, companies meet FROM UHV MEDIA OFFICE

University of Houston-Victoria students and community members will have the opportunity to search for employment while Victoria area companies can recruit employees at the university’s annual Part-Time Job Fair.

The Part-Time Job Fair will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Aug. 29 in the UHV University North Multi-Purpose Room. The event is free for students and community members to attend, and employers can register at no cost until the end of the day Aug. 20. A $10 late fee will be charged after that. Companies including Whataburger, Chartwells Dining, the Victoria Television Group and the U.S. Army Reserves already have registered for the event.

“The Part-Time Job Fair is intended to help students from out of town find em-

ployment opportunities in Victoria while they study at UHV,” said Amy Hatmaker, UHV Career Services manager. “Students might not know the best places to go to apply for part-time jobs that will help them pay their bills while in school. Here, they will be able to interact with potential employers and learn about their options.”

Because the fair is focused on part-time employment opportunities, students don’t need to come dressed in a suit, but they should wear nice clothes, Hatmaker said.

They also should bring copies of their resumes to hand out. If students have a particular employer in mind, it also helps to do some research about the company so they will have an edge when speaking with employers at the fair.

“This is the opportunity for them to make a positive

first impression,” Hatmaker said. “It’s best to wear clean, nicer clothes instead of torn jeans or casual attire.

Showing that they take the interview process seriously is a good way to help company hiring representatives remember their name and recommend them for a position.”

Employers who want to attend the fair will have access to free Wi-Fi, tables and chairs for their displays.

Access to electrical outlets is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Refreshments will be available.

Company representatives can register for the job fair online through their Jobs for Jags accounts. If a company does not have an account, a representative can contact Hatmaker at 361-570-4378 or hatmakera@uhv.edu to set one up. UHV students and other attendees do not need to register to attend the fair.

FINANCES

VC was sound investment for Prosperity Bank executive FROM VC MEDIA OFFICE

John Zacek is an Aggie through and through. But the South Texas area chairman for Prosperity Bank also has a special place in his heart for another shade of maroon.

“Victoria College got me out of the starting blocks and pointed me in the right direction,” said Zacek, who graduated from Industrial High School in 1978 and took some prerequisite courses at VC before transferring to Texas A&M University in College Station.

“When I took my basics here at Victoria College, it allowed me to graduate on time. I am the youngest of seven children, with several of my siblings also attending Victoria College. Also, my wife and my daughter both attended Victoria College.”

Zacek serves on Victoria College’s board of trustees and is a member of the board of directors for the VC Foundation. He said his appreciation for Victoria

College has grown as he has seen the impact VC has made on the Crossroads region.

“The community college concept is something that is really near and dear to me,” Zacek said. “It’s not necessarily just about the student who needs the four-year degree. It’s also about educating our area’s workforce.”

Zacek said community colleges are a sound investment and offer outstanding returns to their communities.

“The taxpayer support is going right back into educating our workforce,” Zacek said. “The investment stays here and helps bring businesses to our area.”

Zacek helped create scholarships at Victoria College that annually offer $3,500 to four VC students transferring to Texas A&M University in College Station or The University of Texas at Austin.

“I know Victoria College has always been on Texas A&M’s radar,” said Zacek,

who has also served on the Texas A&M University Association of Former Students board of directors and as president of the Texas A&M University College of Agriculture Development Council. “VC is seen as one of the top community colleges as far as sending qualified students to fouryear universities.”

Zacek said the VC Foundation, which has provided more than $775,000 in scholarships during the 2017-18 school year, doesn’t want finances to be a roadblock for any student.

“There is not an opportunity out there that Victoria College cannot provide for students,” Zacek said.

“We can find ways to assist students in their efforts to gain workforce training or eventually attend a four-year university. The VC Foundation was created with that purpose in mind. We are all about not letting anything stand in the way of getting students an education that they can put to good use.”

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY VICTORIA COLLEGE

John Zacek is a Victoria College alumnus and the founder of a scholarship for transfer students.

ARTS

ASSISTANCE

VC offering creativity courses this fall

VC Foundation presents grant to Gonzales Center

FROM VC MEDIA OFFICE

Victoria College’s Workforce and Continuing Education Department will offer courses this fall to enhance creativity in three art forms.

A collage course will be offered Sept. 10 through Oct. 3 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays in Room 302 of the Conference and Education Center at VC’s Emerging Technology Complex.

The course will introduce collage and decoupage techniques, using a variety of materials and surfaces.

The cost for the course is $145 and includes all materials.

From Sept. 11 to Nov. 1 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, a ceramics course will be offered at the Fine Arts Studio on Victoria College’s Main Campus.

The course is designed for beginning and advanced students. Students must be at least 18 years of age and provide their own clay and tools. The cost for the course is $175.

Photoshop Basics will be offered Sept. 17-26 from 6 to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays in Room 103 of the Betsy Wright Building at VC’s Main Campus.

Students will learn the ba-

sics of Photoshop, including color correction, image retouching, photo manipulation, working with layers and other techniques. The cost for the course is $75.

Victoria College’s Emerging Technology Complex is at 7403 Lone Tree Road in Victoria.

VC’s Main Campus is at 2200 E. Red River St. in Victoria.

For more information on these courses and other offerings from Victoria College’s Workforce and Continuing Education Department, call 361-582-2528 or email Mary.Hardy@VictoriaCollege.edu.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY VICTORIA COLLEGE

The Victoria College Foundation recently awarded $12,350.77 in faculty and staff grants to 10 Victoria College programs and departments. VC’s Gonzales Center received $800 to purchase a Surface Pro laptop to assist with students requesting special accommodations for testing.

Pictured are, from left, Vince Ortiz, Gonzales Center assistant manager; Kris McLain, VC Foundation board member; Jackie Mikesh, Gonzales Center manager; and Cindy Finch, Gonzales Center administrative assistant.

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — E3

VictoriaAdvocate.com

CELEBRATIONS

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: NICOLE CRAPPS, NCRAPPS@VICAD.COM

361 MOM

Bring math lessons outdoors It is so hot outside. I know the kids are always wanting to go out, and I feel bad for keeping them inside all the time, but it is so humid, which makes it hard to breathe sometimes, and the sun is so warm that I’m always afraid of ASHLEY sunburns.

This year, since my youngest is almost 361 MOM two, I figure it’s time to “suck it up,” as it were, and find a time to let the boys run around and enjoy the outdoors. We have been in and out of town, exploring things here and there, so I decided to make this trip a little more focused.

As I was looking around my tub of activities for the kids to play with outside, I came across a bag of counting bears and a worksheet.

The student is supposed to put a counting bear on each tree, then on each honey hive, then on each bee, each in increasing intervals to help teach counting from one to 20.

I remember trying this activity with my oldest with disastrous results. He had absolutely no interest in sitting still and putting bears on a piece of paper.

At first, I was a little discouraged because I wanted to assess his counting skills, but it was to no avail.

It was as if he had learned nothing, and he refused even to count to 10!

Rather than beat myself up for not teaching math, I thought maybe it was time to revisit this little activity with a big twist. We headed to the Nature Trail at Riverside Park.

It was early enough in the morning that it wasn’t too hot, but you could already feel the muggy atmosphere and the heat starting to reflect off the pavement. It would be a hot afternoon, but not yet with this breezy, pleasant morning.

I felt myself sweating from the moment I got out of the car, but again, I’m toughing it out for the kids, and I was glad I did. They were so happy to get out in the fresh air, and because the Nature Trail is so well shaded by trees, the sun didn’t

HUNTER

WIED-REID Franklin and Patti Wied of Victoria, are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Meghan Wied of Victoria, to Eric Reid of Mercedes, the son of Tim and Beckie Reid of Mercedes.

The couple will marry at 5:30 p.m. on October 6, 2018 in Spring Branch.

The bride-to-be is a 2011 graduate of St. Joseph High School and a 2015 graduate of Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness, with a minor in Agricultural Economics.

The groom-to-be was homeschooled and was a 2018 graduate of Texas A&M University-Kingsville with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science. He works on and assists in operating his family’s farm in the Rio Grande Valley, Reid Farms.

PETS OF THE WEEK Dorothy H. O’Connor Pet Adoption Center ■ 135 Progress Drive, Victoria ■ Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays; noon-5 p.m.

Saturdays ■ To learn more, visit docpac.net or call 361-575-8573.

Adopt-A-Pet of Victoria ■ 8215 Houston Highway, Victoria ■ Call 361-575-7387 or visit adoptapetvictoria.com for hours and more information.

Victoria City-County Animal Shelter ■ 122 Perimeter ■ Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Monday-Thursday; Friday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

■ To learn more, call 361-5783564 or visit victoriacountytx. org and click pet adoption.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

BY SARAH MARSHALL

Fergi is a 1-year-old female Snowshoe mix with blue eyes.

She is very affectionate and has a calm personality. Fergi is looking for a loving home with a relaxed environment where she will have time to adjust.

Pet Adoptions of Cuero

Joseph is a 5-year-old male Cardigan Welsh Corgi mix.

He is very well mannered and loves going on walks.

BIRTHS Editor’s Note: Announcements of births in Victoria County are published as a free public service based on information from local hospitals.

For more information, call 361-580-6524. Those outside Victoria County, or more detailed or specially worded, are available for a fee through the classified advertising department. Call 361-574-1226. Paid birth announcements appear on this page in a box.

DeTar Hospital ■ No births reported.

Citizens Medical Center ■ Travis and Amy George, a daughter, 7 pounds, 7 ounces, at 11:33 a.m. July 18, 2018 ■ Brandon and Brandi Richter, a son, 5 pounds, 15 ounces, at 3:41 p.m. July 19, 2018 ■ Hugo and Lili Luna, a daughter, 9 pounds, 4 ounces, at 10:32 a.m. July 21, 2018

he wanted to go around collecting leaves, so I found a way to involve baby brother. I told my oldest to drop the big leaves he found on the walkway and told baby brother to put a bear on top of a leaf, which he happily did.

Somehow, we did some more counting, but we put that away in favor of stories of bears finding honey, chasing people away and growling their scary growls. At least I know he can count to 13.

Ashley Hunter is a mom, teacher, and community supporter who loves who she is and where she lives. If you have ideas that you would like to share with Hunter, you may email suggestions to hunter.ashleyk@gmail.com.

Balance risks of anesthesia with benefits

■ 201 Stringham Drive, Port Lavaca ■ To learn more, visit calhouncountyhumanesociety.org or call 361-553-8916.

Find all pictured pets at Dorothy O’Connor Pet Adoption Center.

bother us at all. No need for sunscreen, but the bug repellent was more than welcome.

We discovered all sorts of neat things that you can find in the summer morning: herds of deer running around the golf course getting their fix of grass before it gets too hot, “floating leaves” hanging in cobwebs unbroken by walkers and bikers and the quiet breeze.

I took out the counting bears and said, “These bears need trees to climb on! Can you put them on a climbing tree?” and off went my oldest, finding trees to set the bears on.

On the way back, I asked him to count the number of climbing trees he found, and he counted up to 13.

That quickly became boring since

FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR PET

Calhoun County Humane Society

■ 407 U.S. Highway 183 South, Cuero ■ Available by appointment ■ For more information, call 361-243-8550 or visit petadoptionsofcuero.org.

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY ASHLEY HUNTER

Counting the bears in the trees was a fun activity.

Sanders is an adorable 4-monthold male Rat Terrier mix. He loves being with you all the time and he’s always ready to play.

Lucy Liu is a 7-year-old female Domestic Shorthair mix. She has been at the shelter for seven months. Lucy Liu is a wonderful pet companion. Can you make her dream of a loving forever home come true?

■ Bo and Valerie Matson, a daughter, 8 pounds, 9 ounces, at 12:51 p.m. July 22, 2018 ■ Maria Celeste Reyes, a daughter, 6 pounds, 5 ounces, at 5:46 a.m. July 21, 2018 ■ Cristhian and Teresa Perez, a daughter, 8 pounds, 1 ounce, at 6:45 a.m. July 23, 2018 ■ Jessica Boop, a daughter, 5 pounds, 10 ounces, at 4:43 p.m. July 23, 2018 ■ James Mitchell and Ashlee Hughston, a son, 6 pounds, 4 ounces, at 7:41 p.m. July 24, 2018 ■ Rachel Flores, a daughter, 6 pounds, 8 ounces, at 11:42 a.m. July 25, 2018 ■ Klint and Joleen Weinheimer, a daughter, 8 pounds, at 7:47 a.m. July 26, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Kevin Cornish, a daughter, 6 pounds, 3 ounces, at 12 p.m. July 26, 2018 ■ Jared and Ashley Coburn, a daughter, 6 pounds, 12 ounces, at 8:32 a.m. July 27, 2018 ■ Jason and Kate Hybner, a son, 6 pounds, 11 ounces, at 6:30 p.m. July 27, 2018

There are three different forms of anesthesia: general, sedation and local.

General anesthesia allows a patient to be fully unconscious for a period of time to allow for relaxation and loss of memory, pain and awareness.

Sedation reduces anxiety but does not result in unconsciousness.

Regional or local anesthesia blocks the nerve impulses from a specific location on the body to the brain. There is no loss of consciousness.

Anesthesia is generally considered safe, however, old and very young patients, as well as those with pre-existing conditions, are at higher risk for complications.

No matter how minor or short the sedation, anesthetic risks are always there.

There are specific things that can be done to help reduce the risk of an anesthetic-related incident such as pre-surgical ■ Jimmy Ramirez and Nadia Trevino, a son, 6 pounds, at 7:43 p.m. July 27, 2018 ■ Natalie Calixtro, a daughter, 5 pounds, 14 ounces, at 8:17 p.m. July 28, 2018 ■ Caleb Stehling and Candace Wright, a daughter, 5 pounds, 13 ounces, at 5:15 p.m. July 30, 2018 ■ Kaylen Perez, a daughter, 7 pounds, 7 ounces, at 5:45 p.m. July 30, 2018 ■ Rolando Hinojosa and Jahnissi Pineda, a son, 7 pounds, 3 ounces, at 6:34 p.m. July 30, 2018 ■ Stacy Perez, a daughter, 4 pounds, 7 ounces, at 4:50 a.m. July 31, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Michael Andrew Schroen, a son, 8 pounds, 11 ounces, at 10:36 a.m. Aug. 1, 2018 ■ Glenn and Amanda Crisp, a son, 7 pounds, 1 ounce, at 12:20 p.m. Aug. 1, 2018 ■ Rhyan and Ashley Staten, a son, 8 pounds, at 12:51 p.m.

Aug. 1, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Hasdorff, a daughter, 8 pounds, 2 ounces, at 3:09 p.m. Aug. 2, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Kyle Wagner, a daughter, 7 pounds, 14

exams, pre-anesthetic bloodwork, radiographs of the chest, EKG (electrocardioSHANA gram), urinalysis and FOR THE LOVE intravenous OF YOUR PET fluids during and after the procedure.

Pre-surgical examinations are one of the most important tools veterinarians use prior to anesthesia.

A nose-to-tail physical exam should be performed prior to any surgical procedure. Patients are weighed, and their general condition is assessed.

The mucous membranes are evaluated for color and moisture to look at hydration status. The lungs and heart are ausculted to check for any fluid, crackles, wheezes, murmurs or arrhythmias. Lymph nodes are evaluated for enlargement, and the abdomen is palpated to check for any

BOHAC

ounces, at 3:24 p.m. Aug. 2, 2018 ■ Morgan Simmons and Juan Pena, a daughter, 6 pounds, 12 ounces, at 6:27 p.m. Aug. 2, 2018 ■ Courtney Boone and Sterling Cash, a son, 7 pounds, 9 ounces, at 8:01 a.m. Aug. 3, 2018 ■ Jason and Whitney Hankins, a daughter, 7 pounds, 4 ounces, at 9:10 a.m. Aug. 3, 2018 ■ Kate Guilbeaux and Ryan Alford, a son, 7 pounds, 7 ounces, at 11:17 p.m. Aug. 3, 2018 ■ Karlos and Janiah Maseda, a son, 6 pounds, 15 ounces, at 10:43 a.m. Aug. 6, 2018 ■ Michael and Brittany Alvarado, a daughter, 6 pounds, 12 ounces, at 12:26 a.m. Aug. 07, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Guerra, a daughter, 6 pounds, 4 ounces, at 11:04 p.m. Aug. 7, 2018 ■ Jack and Marissa Billups, a son, 7 pounds, 9 ounces, at 10:25 a.m. Aug. 8, 2018 ■ Brooke Rentz, a son, 7 pounds, 13 ounces, at 4:17 p.m. Aug. 08, 2018

masses or abnormalities.

A temperature is taken to ensure the animal is not running a fever.

Pre-anesthetic blood work is a great way to reduce anesthetic risk.

These tests will check for liver and kidney function, blood sugar levels, red and white blood cell counts and platelet levels, which are important for clotting.

Hidden or underlying problems can be detected prior to the procedure, and changes can be made in the anesthetic protocol.

Chest x-rays can be used to detect underlying conditions with the heart and lungs.

Pre-existing heart or lung disease can increase the risk of adverse events during anesthesia. EKGs can be performed prior to sedation or anesthesia to also detect underlying heart conditions. Urinalysis can be useful in detecting underlying disease processes such as diabetes, urinary tract infections, etc.

■ Isaac Rojas Jr. and Sabrina Martinez, a son, 8 pounds, 6 ounces, at 4:53 p.m. Aug. 8, 2018 ■ Huber and Mayra Sanchez, a daughter, 8 pounds, 3 ounces, at 9:47 a.m. Aug. 9, 2018 ■ Roman Cruz and Jessica Ortiz, twins: a daughter, 6 pounds, 5 ounces at 11:02 a.m.; a daughter, 6 pounds, 2 ounces, at 11:03 a.m. Aug. 9, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Manuel Longoria IV, a son, 6 pounds, 14 ounces, at 11:34 a.m. Aug. 9, 2018 ■ Steven and Maci Hermes, a daughter, 7 pounds, 13 ounces, at 7:21 p.m. Aug. 9, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Irvin, twins: a daughter, 6 pounds, 11 ounces, at 8:09 a.m.; a daughter, 7 pounds, 7 ounces, at 8:10 a.m. Aug. 10, 2018 ■ Mr. and Mrs. Adriano Garcia, a daughter, 6 pounds, 2 ounces, at 12:12 p.m. Aug. 10, 2018 ■ J.J. and Mari Garcia, a son, 8 pounds, 1 ounce, at 12:41 p.m. Aug. 10, 2018

Intravenous fluid administration is very important in any patients with kidney or liver compromise as well as older or debilitated animals.

Fluids help to maintain proper blood pressure, replace fluids lost during the procedure and help to eliminate the drugs used during anesthesia. This will make recovery quicker and smoother.

Remember that as veterinarians, we have your pet’s best interest at heart.

The tests that are run before anesthesia are to help protect your pet.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions and become better educated about the tests, why they are being run and how they are going to help your pet.

Dr. Shana Bohac is a veterinarian at Lakeway Veterinary Clinic in Edna. She works on both small animals and equine patients. Submit questions to drshanabohac@hotmail.com

MARRIAGES Victoria County ■ Matthew Ryan Muguerza to Crystal Rose Jemison ■ Alexander Deleon to Denise Elaine Torres ■ Joseph Lawrence Krohn to Pamela Rae Bartos ■ Jeffery Cody Hroch to Maria Ann Huerta ■ Minh Cong Nguyen to Thu N Nguyen ■ Jeffrey William Jendrzey to Brittany Nicole Schnicker ■ Marcelo Eduardo Cardozo to Brigid Ann Vickers ■ Abel Ray Conchola to Elizabeth Marie Kindle ■ Sandro Lee Rodriguez to Jennifer Molina ■ Garrett Michael Easley to Nicole Elizabeth Tinkey ■ Travis Owen Warner to Lauren Linzy Sparkman ■ Jeffrey Eric Svetlik to Violeta Stafanova Kukenska ■ Marc Ashton Maurer to Kristin Lee O’Brien ■ Tekoy Karim Seydou to Sylvia Rabo

E4 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

PUZZLES & GAMES

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: MEREDITH CASH, MCASH@VICAD.COM

RELEASE DATE - Sunday, August 19, 2018

TODAY’S SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

ANSWERS

BECKER BRIDGE

SUDOKU

TODAY’S

SUDOKU Fill in the blank cells using numbers 1 to 9. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and 3x3 block. Use logic and process of elimination to solve the puzzle.

PREMIER

WORD SLEUTH RELEASE DATE - Sunday, August 19, 2018

PREMIER SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE “LEAVING L.A.” BY FRANK A. LONGO

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — E5

VictoriaAdvocate.com

YOUR LIFE

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: NICOLE CRAPPS, NCRAPPS@VICAD.COM

HOROSCOPE

DEAR ABBY

Toxic family casts doubt on couple’s future plans time with them, but I’m Dear Abby: I am in worried about our future. my late 20s and dating a He would make an man in his midamazing husband, 30s whom I am but I am unsure crazy about. We how – or if – I can have been dating get past his toxic for a year and family. Any words are starting to of wisdom would discuss marriage be appreciated. and children.

DEAR He’s kind, Happily Ever After? hard-working, gives back to the JEANNE PHILLIPS Dear Happily: community, and I can see why you would does everything he can question a future with a to make me happy. man from a family that My problem is his fami- guilts, manipulates and ly. His mother curses and lies to the degree that his yells at him every few does. Whether you can months, usually around overcome the baggage the holidays when he he will carry after you tells her he’s splitting his leave the altar is debattime between his family able. It might help if the and mine. She breaks two of you discuss this him down any way she not only with each other, can, such as finding fault but also with a clergywith me or bringing up person who can give mistakes he made 10 or you unbiased premarital 15 years ago. counseling. If you do get His sister tells him ofmarried, consider movten that she doesn’t like ing farther away from me because of things she his family to secure your claims I said or did. She independence. He may has also attacked me on also have to find another social media. The rest of job if he’s under their the family gets involved thumb financially. in the drama and even blackmailed him (insinuDear Abby: My ating they would get him teenage son came to us fired) when he tried to because he feels lonely ignore them. A week or and like no one cares. He so after these outbursts says he knows his family occur, his family preis there for him and loves tends nothing happened. him, but he’s looking for that special girl. I talked He admits his family to him and tried to let has “issues,” but he still wants a relationship with him know that right now he needs to focus on them. I try to limit my

ABBY

himself and where he wants to go with his life, and eventually he will meet someone.

He has now told me that he has had thoughts of hurting himself and wants to talk with a counselor. We have made an appointment for him.

My question is, is it a good sign that he is seeking help now before he has done anything? He hasn’t harmed himself in any way, doesn’t use drugs, doesn’t drink or engage in risky behavior.

I want to believe that since he is asking early, all will be OK.

Very Concerned Mom, in Arizona Dear Mom: It’s appropriate to believe that.

Kudos to your son. The people you have to worry about are the ones who hide their sadness and pretend everything is OK when it really isn’t.

I assume that you made an appointment for your son with a licensed mental health professional. When your son goes, encourage him to be as open with his therapist about his feelings as he can, so he can get the help he is asking for.

YEARS AGO and they’ve got a directive from the superintendent’s office to back them up with AUG. 21– Joseph Conti, a proposed code of dress. As formerly employed at Paul set out by the administration, Bianchi’s blacksmith shop, students won’t be permitted who entered the army three in class wearing dresses that months ago, has graduated are more than three inches with honors as a blacksmith above the knee and boys after a course of training at will have to keep their locks Camp Joseph E. Johnston, Florida. He mailed his father, clipped and must wear shoes.

No hippie thong sandals and Louis Conti, his diploma this the like. week.

AUG. 22 – One hundred AUG. 24 – After Fritz Grifno, and 10 years of service in the only man at the place, their religious profession was called away for a few was observed the past minutes by a fake telephone week by three Sisters of the message, someone broke in the Overland-Victoria Garage Nazareth Academy amid an appropriate ceremony held through the back door and stole six or seven dollars from at the academy. Among the celebrants were Sister M. the cash drawer. A man who Rosalie, who first put on the claimed he was discharged black veil 60 years ago, and from the army because he Sister M. Alexis and Sister was a drug fiend was in Bohumila, both of whom Victoria a few days ago and placed in the calaboose when commenced their duties 25 years ago. he was unable to get hold of any cocaine and threatened 1993 to do something desperate.

AUG. 23 – If you cook it, 1943 they will come. At least that’s what the International AUG. 19 – Several youths Food Fair workers found out have been charged with when they prepared for the vagrancy and arraigned in first-ever event 25 years Justice Court here as the result of an effort being made ago. Dr. John Starkey, who by officers to rid the streets of then was the chairman of the Hear Foundation of Texas Inc. loafers and “vags” now that farm labor is in great demand board of directors in Victoria, remembers “not having the in the county. Those capable of working are warned either guts to ask anybody to make a humongous amount of food. to go to the cotton fields, Because we didn’t know if find other employment or be charged with vagrancy. Every anybody was going to come,” Starkey said. “As much effort will be made to direct work as we put into it, we them to farms needing labor were anxious about whether at this time. anybody would come. We had AUG. 20 – “Names Day” celebration was held Sunday done all of our homework and we had done lots of when friends and relatives advertising. But then it rained. gathered at the home of Mr. It rained cats and dogs, and and Mrs. Pete Stoilis, 1005 we all thought ‘Oh no. After all N. Cameron. This occasion we’ve done, nobody’s going is an old Greek custom, and to come.’ “But people started has been followed from buzzing in between showers,” one generation to another. he added. “We ran out of food The name honored at the after an hour or an hour and “Names Day” celebration is a half.” The first food fair was always the given name. It is deemed a surprising success. customary for the first son AUG. 25 – Karen Greer and to have his father’s name, and the daughter to have the Debbie Thompson attended a creative sewing school name of her mother. Each name has a certain day of the in San Antonio where they year for celebration, Sunday, were taught fine stitchery Aug. 15, being the day for the techniques by nationally known instructors. Their work name “Pete.” also was in a juried show of 1968 student work. Both artists AUG. 23 – There’ll be no teach at Sewing Machines hippies or minis in the VISD

by B&B in Victoria. Greer was school during the coming awarded a $400 scholarship year if administrators have for the school next year. anything to say about it,

1918

Contact Dear Abby at DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR SUNDAY, AUG. 19, 2018 This year you will become concerned with communication.

You want others JACQUELINE to clearly receive your thoughts.

BIGAR’S STARS Your skills could be improved by taking a workshop.

You understand the importance of attitude, too. If you are single, you could be swept off your feet by someone you meet this year.

Make sure you are ready to commit to your desired level. If you are attached, the two of you could fall madly back in love with each other.

Sagittarius always has a remedy to help you loosen up.

The Stars Show the Kind of Day You’ll Have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult

BIGAR

ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19) HHHHH Reach out to a loved one at a distance. In general, it might be hard to connect with others. Leave a message, if need be. Someone cares about you; note this person’s behavior. Clear up a misunderstanding quickly. Tonight: You need to make an effort toward a loved one. This Week: You might be concerned with work or a group issue.

TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20) HHHH Focus on your immediate family. Many are making changes around their homes. A key person wants to be part of the process.

This individual might not have your taste, but he or she certainly expresses a sense of adventure, especially with colors. Tonight: Make it cozy. This Week: You opt for a last-minute trip.

GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20) HHHHH You need to respond to others, as your popularity soars.

A neighbor or a close relative will reach out to you. You provoke

others to daydream about what they want. Mercury, your ruling planet, moves into a more favorable position. Tonight: Celebrate the night with friends. This Week: The next few days could be intense.

CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22) HH You love bringing your family and/or friends together. Sometimes, you might be busy helping someone make his or her life work. Whatever you do, be gracious and willing to pitch in. Others understand that you give of yourself to demonstrate your caring. Tonight: Take a walk. This Week: Others demand to be first, so let them.

LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22) HHHHH You could not be in better shape to enjoy your life and loved ones. Romance for those who are available soars to new heights.

Attached Leos express their caring for their partners. Children feel your affection. Tonight: Do not allow a little tension to interfere with the moment. This Week: Dive into your work.

VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22) HH You might be difficult to find.

You could be thinking about a loved one or be involved in some expression of caring. Know that you do not need to explain your behavior. Examine what you want from a relationship without making any declarations yet. Tonight: Dinner for two. This Week: Your imagination fuels your creativity.

LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22) HHHHH You can be lively, especially when dealing with a friend or loved one. The opportunity could arrive to introduce this person to new people whom you also enjoy. You see the bright side of relating right now, as you rarely do. Tonight: Any excuse to keep the party going on and on! This Week: Someone decides to rain on your parade.

SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21) HHH You will be in the limelight, regardless of whether you want

to be. Others seek you out for feedback or a friendly chat. Use care when indulging in the moment, as you easily could go overboard.

You love the good life! Tonight: Others want to join you for some good times. This Week: Watch the revolving door, as people seek you out.

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21) HHHH You are all smiles, and others notice how upbeat and magnetic you are. Understand that several people are likely to engage you in conversation in order to catch up. You carry your feelings in your expression, at least for now.

Tonight: Consider trying a new type of cuisine. This Week: You are determined not to let anyone or anything trip you up.

CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19) HHH A loved one feels tightly knit to you. You might not be totally at ease with this person’s self-expression when demonstrating this caring. If you feel uncomfortable, you might consider opening up a conversation.

Make it OK to distance yourself.

Tonight: Off on a fun adventure. This Week: Expect to dominate most of the week.

AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18) HHHHH You leap into the forefront when out with friends and/ or a loved one. If you are available, you might find that there is more to a friendship than you originally had thought. What you do with this information is up to you. Tonight: Partake in some good times with a special friend. This Week: Make it OK to extend your summer fun.

PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20) HHHHH You could be more in tune with a quiet Sunday.

Join a loved one for a picnic at a favorite spot. Do not forget to take that catnap, too. Some extra R and R will do wonders for your temperament and energy levels.

Tonight: Consider how to get a head start on tomorrow. This Week: Zero in on what you want.

E6 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

YOUR LIFE

PAGE DESIGNER/COPY EDITOR: NICOLE CRAPPS, NCRAPPS@VICAD.COM

NURSERY: Family says dealing with plants means always learning CONTINUED FROM E1

PHOTOS BY KAYLA RENIE/KRENIE@VICAD.COM

Renken‘s Nursery & Landscaping is a family owned and operated business since 1985. They offer nursery and landscaping services throughout South Texas.

“

We just want to serve the community. We give them more than just plants; we give them knowledge.

And they trust us. That’s why they keep coming back.

“

In 2012, Krenek took over the business, but her parents are still actively involved, each with their own specialty.

Her dad takes care of the grounds and makes deliveries, and her mom, who used to work at a bank, does the paperwork and payroll. Together, they keep everything running smoothly and efficiently.

Krenek likes not having to wear a suit to work and having lunch with her family every day. Although they may get on each other’s nerves, in the end they’re all family and can always count on each other, she said.

“My parents taught me that in this industry, humility is everything,” Krenek said. “You’re never going to know everything because you’re dealing with live plants, and every year there’s something new: a new bug, a new fungus, a new chemical,” she continued. “At 53, I’m still learning, and so is my dad at the age of 74.”

The landscaping and gardening business has evolved as people continue to have less free time.

Instead of working on their yards themselves, that’s where Renken’s Nursery comes in.

They have a variety of clientele.

From big businesses to the 85-year-old lady down the street, Krenek wants to be able to meet her client’s needs, no matter how challenging.

“Growing up and learning the business from my dad, I was taught how important it is that we don’t need to carry every product out there,” Krenek said. “We need to carry what helps our customers because that’s what we’re here for.”

And running a nursery isn’t always sunshine and flowers.

GRACE RENKEN, 72, FOUNDER OF RENKEN‘S NURSERY & LANDSCAPING Because Krenek deals with living things, it’s a 24/7 job, she explains.

“If I’m not at the nursery, I’m in someone’s yard,” Krenek said. “I go out to the yards and properties myself, checking on the progress, checking on my crew. I’m involved, and that makes a difference.”

Because the nursery has always been family-owned and -operated, they take a lot of pride in giving the client a quality product and educating them on how to take care of that product for their own success.

“We just want to serve the community,” Grace Renken said. “We give them

more than just plants; we give them knowledge. And they trust us. That’s why they keep coming back.”

Krenek would love for the nursery to stay in the family, but she doesn’t want to force it on either of her two sons.

She wants them to know the opportunity is here, but it’s ultimately their choice.

Krenek is confident that as Victoria continues to grow, so will their business and their ability to make an impact on the community.

“We’ve got great clients – some I’ve worked with for 25 years,” she said. “Every spring, every summer, every party, whatever plant

they need, we’ve got it for them. It’s a great industry; there will always be a need for a family nursery that you can trust. It’s that’s personal interaction that’s important.”

Beyond helping her clients make their landscape dreams come true, Krenek values the legacy her family has made.

“Running the nursery with my family is very rewarding, not just for the financial aspect, but you can actually say you grew something with your family,” Krenek said. “This place has taken care of us, and we’re going to take care of it.”

Dina Krenek, 53, daughter of Dennis and Grace Renken, the founders of Renken‘s Nursery & Landscaping, takes a portrait in one of the nursery’s greenhouses. Krenek now owns and operates the business, although her parents are still heavily involved.

RELIGION

Beaumont’s oldest black church celebrating 150 years BEAUMONT (AP) — From its beginnings in the years after the Civil War, Beaumont’s oldest black church has witnessed the establishment of the area’s first black public school, weathered desegregation and this year will celebrate 150 years as a “beacon of light in the community.”

“Born and raised” in St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, Walter McCloney said he strives to keep his “commitment (to the church) palatable.”

The Beaumont Enterprise reports the 79-yearold church trustee said St. Paul A.M.E Church is a part of the legacy and vision of the “spiritual builders” who founded the church in 1868.

“We’re the beneficiaries of what they did,” said McCloney, pointing to the vaulted ceiling and colorful glass windows that adorn the Waverly Street sanctuary.

McCloney, the third generation in his family to attend the church, said St. Paul was “very special” to him as one of the oldest black churches in Beaumont.

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church grew out of a Methodist church organized for blacks three years after the end of the Civil War, according to historical church documents.

Members of the young church met on alternative Sundays in the basement of the Jefferson County Courthouse.

A Beaumonter since “the close of the War between the States,” church founder and former slave Woodson Pipkin was known for his “quaint old timey ways and self-respecting habits,”

according to church documents.

Pipkin formally became the group’s first pastor in 1872 and moved the church to the second story of his residence once located in the 900 block of Market Street.

The church soon outgrew the upper story of Pipkin’s home and moved to a larger location on Beaumont’s north side at the site of what is now Alice Keith Park.

On Sundays, the church doubled as a school where many church members learned to read and write, according to an account by local historian Judith Linsley.

Pipkin later donated a lot on Wall Street that was the “center of activities for blacks,” witnessing countless births, deaths, weddings and civic ceremonies. St. Paul remained at the downtown location until the early 1960s, when the old building began to give way to “age and decay,” according to church records.

When the upper story of the church’s structure caved in, church members made do and held services in the basement. But when a fire destroyed the two-story building, the congregation raised funds to purchase the Waverly Street property.

St. Paul “stands on the shoulders” of longtime church members who have “kept the faith,” McCloney said.

In the 1940s and 1950s, St. Paul’s was one of the largest black churches in Beaumont, McCloney said, recalling the days at the downtown location when he and his friends would run to Fowler’s Drug Store after Sunday school to get ice cream before the

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Walter McCloney is one of the oldest members of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church in Beaumont. Generations of his family have been part of the church history since coming here at the turn of the century. The congregation celebrated the church’s 150th anniversary Aug. 12. St. Paul’s started in 1868 and met at the home of Rev. Woodson Pipkin, a former slave. It has been at its current location on Waverly Street since 1964, where it also served as a hub for local meetings and activities during the Civil Rights Movement. sermon.

While McCloney said he believed all churches that preached a “positive message” during the civil rights era were a part of the movement, St. Paul’s played an active role in the community in the 1960s as a meeting spot for activists and NAACP members.

Alice Jefferson Tiller, whose family were longtime members of St. Paul, was one of the first African-Amer-

icans to enroll at Lamar University in 1956, according to McCloney.

While its membership has slowly dwindled, McCloney said he looks forward to reaching out to families and communities to become a part of the church’s legacy.

“This is our family,” said Bobbie Williams, who joined the church in the 1980s after moving here from Louisiana.

Williams said she joined

St. Paul after feeling “so at ease” in the church.

Years ago, women weren’t seen in church without hats or gloves, Williams recalled, adding that St. Paul’s “down-to-earth” and no-frills atmosphere made her feel welcome.

Williams used to sit in the same pew as the late Fayetta Donovan, one of Pipkin’s descendants, who Williams said was “a lot of fun.”

Whenever the preacher

would “preach too long,” Donovan would begin to shake her keys to signal the end of the hour.

“Ms. Donovan always said: If they preach too long, the people will lose their spirit,” Williams said.

Church founders and organizers “kept the faith for so long,” McCloney said.

He is proud to be a part of the tight-knit congregation and “a lifelong member of that legacy.”

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — F1

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How to save enough for a down payment on a house Courtesy of Metro Creative Connection A home is the most costly thing many people will ever buy. The process of buying a home can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. One way to make the process of buying a home go more smoothly is to save enough money to put down a substantial down payment.

Saving for a down payment on a home is similar to saving for other items, only on a far grander scale. Many financial planners and real estate professionals recommend prospective home buyers put down no less than 20 percent of the total cost of the home they’re buying. Down payments short of 20 percent will require private mortgage insurance, or PMI. The cost of PMI depends on a host of variables, but is generally between 0.3 and 1.5 percent of the original loan amount. While plenty of homeowners pay PMI, buyers who can afford to put down 20 percent can save themselves a considerable amount of money by doing so.

Down payments on a home tend to be substantial, but the following are a few strategies prospective home buyers can employ to grow their savings with an eye toward making a down payment on their next home.

DECIDE WHEN YOU WANT TO BUY The first step to buying a home begins when buyers save their first dollar for a down payment. Deciding when to buy can help buyers develop a saving strategy. If buyers decide they want to buy in five years away, they will have more time to build their savings. If buyers want to buy within a year, they will need to save more each month, and those whose existing savings fall far short of the 20 percent threshold may have to accept paying PMI. PREQUALIFY FOR A MORTGAGE Before buyers even look for their new homes, they should first sit down with a mortgage lender to determine how much a mortgage they will qualify for.

Prequalifying for a mortgage can make the home buying process a lot easier, and it also can give first-time buyers an idea of how much they can spend. Once lenders prequalify prospective buyers, the buyers can then do the simple math to determine how much they will need to put down. For example, preapproval for a $300,000 loan means buyers will have to put down $60,000 to meet the 20 percent down payment threshold. In that example, buyers can put down less than $60,000, but they will then have to pay PMI. It’s important for buyers to understand that a down

payment is not the only costs they will have to come up with when buying a home. Closing costs and other fees will also need to be paid by the buyers.

EXAMINE MONTHLY EXPENSES Once buyers learn how much mortgage they will qualify for, they will then see how close they are to buying a home. But prospective buyers of all means can save more each month by examining their monthly expenses and looking for ways to save. Buyers can begin by looking over their recent spending habits and then seeing where they can spend less. Cutting back on luxuries and other unnecessary spending can help buyers get closer to buying their next home.

AVOID RISKY INVESTMENTS Some times it’s great to take risks when investing, but risk should be avoided when saving for a down payment on a home. Traditional vehicles like certificates of deposit, or CDs, and savings accounts can ensure the money buyers are saving for their homes is protected and not subject to market fluctuations.

Saving enough to make a down payment on a home can be accomplished if buyers stay disciplined with regard to saving and make sound financial decisions.

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3 secrets to hosting a great party on your deck or patio Courtesy of Brandpoint

gas-free machine will ensure that 3. PAMPER YOUR YARD you have an easy time making your While the barbecue may Cookouts, barbecues, family deck or patio look brand-new, not leave the deck, your guests reunions and more are upon us, impressing your guests. Talk about a and as the coolest neighbor on the should be impressed with the win-win situation. cul-de-sac, hosting is a no-brainer. high-quality mowing lines and 2. GIVE YOUR DECK We’ve compiled three simple ways perfectly trimmed hedges in A MAKEOVER to get your deck and yard ready your backyard. To make the job to go, so you can play host to the A great cookout on the deck easier and save you time, Greencookout of the year. is never a reason to complain, but works Tools has you covered once more. A complete lineup 1. MAKE YOUR DECK AND taking your deck to the next level visually will enhance the experience PATIO SHINE of lithium-ion battery-powered a hundredfold. Consider outdoor After you remove the leaves string lights to hang across the deck, outdoor equipment eliminates the mess, hassle and noise of gasfrom the surface of your deck or instead of relying on porch lights, powered tools without having to patio, dirt and stains remain. Luck- to set the party mood. This is also sacrifice any of the power to get ily, Greenworks Tools has released a wonderful time to invest in new the easy-to-use 2000psi Pressure lawn and deck furniture if your cur- the job done, ensuring that your Washer. This light, powerful and rent set is beginning to show its age. yard will be the talk of the party.

Open Houses & Featured Homes Experience TODAY’S Advocate Advantage.

608 SANTA FE OPEN HOUSE - SUN. 2-4 PM A delightful home in Bell Tower with an open concept living with a split bedroom arrangement with 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2836 sq. ft., 3 living and 2 dining.

Located on a corner lot with mature trees, RV/boat parking, enclosed patio w/AC and heat, great for entertaining, playroom, workout room etc. Updated kitchen with Silestone counters, cooktop w/4 burners and griddle, microwave. 3 bedrooms have wood flooring. Main living area has vaulted ceiling and wood burning fireplace. All doors inside and out updated w/ new hardware. Security system. Great family home! $249,900

Hosted by Denise McGough REALTOR® 361-655-4490

OPEN HOUSE SUNDAY 3-5 PM

open house

Luz Lobo 361.407.9178 REALTOR®

122 Waterford || Sunday August 19th 1-3PM

2 Bed 2 Bath || Tangerine Neighborhood Open Concept || Remodeled & Move In Ready Private Covered Patio || Privacy Fenced Yard || Attached Garage Central Location

361-573-0444 Each office independently owned and operated

610 Mason Circle Stop by to see this beautiful 3BR/2BA home in Highland Hills. Just under 1,700 sq. feet, this home has a nice open concept floorplan with a great kitchen. Enjoy the private master suite with garden tub and tons of closet space. Large indoor utility with built-in folding station. Privacy fenced backyard features covered patio and plenty of space for entertaining. $219,000.

226 CHARLESTON

BUYING OR SELLING? I’m the Realtor For You!

505 JACKSON ST

VictoriaAdvocate.com/homes

This immaculately kept home is set on the picturesque 16th signature hole of The Colony Creek Golf course. 3 Bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 half Bathrooms gives this house the ability to have the office turned into a 4th bedroom. Upstairs Living room with uncovered porch gives the most relaxing view with plenty of natural light. Two walk-in attic accesses. Golf cart side garage access, an in-garage workshop, and in-house large utility room. Split floor with large kitchen, dining, and living area. The 1/2 bath off the kitchen helps when entertaining guests.

TONS of storage in this home. $295,000

OPEN HOUSE 2-4:30pm Edna, TX. Outstanding brick 3287 sq. ft. 3 bedroom, 3-1/2 bath home on large lot in great neighborhood. Also has a large office room which could be used for a playroom or studio. All-electric, AC/Heat 3 years old, roof has recently been replaced. Many custom built-ins and storage areas. Large patio with fireplace.

Sprinkler system and outside storage building. Attached 2-car garage. $295,000.

JAMIE POWELLL ®

JOYCE JARRATT, GRI BROKER/OWNER |361.781.2808 |WWW.JARRATTREALTY.COM

REALTOR 361.703.7777

204 Michael Inez, TX 77968

This COMPLETELY renovated home has a lay out that is suitable for every family and is located on a beautiful 0.99 acre lot. Two bedrooms on each side of the home separated by an office, a large open concept living room, dining and kitchen. Large closets, double vanities, Jacuzzi tub, large shower and an over-sized room are just a few of the bonuses in the master suite. Some cosmetic features of this renovation include quartz counter tops, custom cabinetry, new appliances, new floors throughout, new roof and water heaters, plumbing and electric and so much more! This property is a must see! $286,000

Kate Hawes LAND & HOMES Each Office Independently Owned & Operated 361.573.0444

REALTOR® 361-550-9332

361-573-0444 Each office independently owned and operated

To Advertise Your Open & Featured AD

Call Gabriela 361-574-1251

Shelley Srp, Broker • shelley@twinriversre.com • 361-782-5949

10980 San Antonio River Rd.

000 San Antonio River Rd.

1608 N. Liberty

LAND AND HOMES San Antonio River Rd. A Rare find! 57 (+ or -) acres with a 1536 sq.

Kim Garrett

ft 3BR/2BA Ranch style home. Metal roof and new HVAC (2017).

REALTOR, GRI 361-550-4033

for hunting, fishing, or cattle. Great opportunity to enjoy country

This property goes down to the river bottom and is a prime location living. $573,000

Looking for land? Take a look at this 69.4 acre tract on San Antonio River Rd. Great opportunity to build your dream home, barndominium, or enjoy the abundance of wildlife and outdoor recreational activities. Call L/A Kim Garrett to get more information on this great tract of land $420,000

Impeccable craftsman style 2/1 home situated on a spacious corner lot. Rocking chair front porch.

Gorgeous hardwood and tile flooring. Roof replaced in 2017. Move in ready! $154,900

5215 N. Navarro Victoria, TX (361) 573-0444 Each office is independently owned and operated

When you need a focused approach for your Real Estate Advertising needs,

Let me help you find your Buyers & Sellers today.

CALL Henry! 361.580.6552 Your New Real Estate Specialist hemiliano@vicad.com

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — F3

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real estate

Experience TODAY’S Advocate Advantage 361.574.1234 • VictoriaAdvocate.com/homes Real Estate is Produced by the Victoria Advocate Advertising Department

Bathroom customization: Stylish options for styling needs Courtesy of Brandpoint The kitchen may be the heart of your home, but don’t underestimate the importance of your bathrooms. If you think about it, bathrooms are one of the most frequented spaces in the home. It’s where you go to rejuvenate and get ready for the day. It’s the place where you take the time to make yourself look and feel your best. A thoughtfully designed bathroom can start your day on a positive note and end it in a calm, relaxing and stress-free manner.

With this in mind, good design becomes essential. A well-designed bathroom has many elements that come together in a cohesive fashion.

The space should not only reflect your personal aesthetic, but also adapt to your needs by streamlining your day-to-

day routine. Finding a balance between fashion and function might seem challenging, but when you look to customization that incorporates technology, you’ll quickly see that creating a bathroom of your dreams is easily within reach.

MODULAR CONFIGURATIONS Whether you have a standard bathroom layout or a tricky design with boxed-in constraints, modular configurations are a simple solution. When you choose configurable products from companies like Robern, you’ll be able to select from a wide array of sizes, shapes and options to fit your construction needs. That means you can design an amazing bathroom experience in the tiny powder room outside the den as well as the large master bathroom

suite. Thoughtful design and complete customization can help you maximize any potentially awkward space.

STORAGE AND ORGANIZATION Even the most exquisite bathroom can become a source of frustration if the counters are cluttered or styling tools are hard to reach. Configurable solutions - like modular vanities and multiple medicine cabinets creatively ganged - let you design a storage solution that fits your lifestyle. Robern engineers put cutting-edge technology into each product to simplify the bathroom styling process. For example, vanities feature electronic outlets for modern styling tools, strategic lighting for easy all-day use and magnetic strips for simplified storage.

The bathroom floor is often overlooked as an opportunity to inject your own personal style with custom elements.

Chris Vega REALTOR® 361-649-5239

Mary Otto REALTOR® 361-648-1475

James Wearden REALTOR®, GRI 361-649-9157

Dan Murphy REALTOR® 361-652-4355

Sheryl Murphy REALTOR®, GRI 361-652-3979

FIXTURES AND FAUCETS There are a multitude of choices that allow you to create a personalized and custom bathroom experience. For the shower, consider a variety of showerheads, raindomes, wands and ceiling shower tiles that elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary. Wall-hung toilets can be a subtle interior design statement that not only adds a cosmopolitan flair but also makes cleaning a breeze. For faucets, gooseneck or low-spout faucet designs are currently trending. To instantly boost the faucet luxury factor, plumbing brands such as KALLISTA offer an array of handles that can be selected with decorative elements including semi-precious stones and marble or onyx inserts.

CUSTOM FLOORING The bathroom floor is often overlooked as an opportunity to inject your own personal style with custom elements. Prefer warm and cozy? Minimalist and modern?

Whatever vision you have in mind for your bathroom design, tile is always on trend due to its high performing functionality and variety of colors, patterns and textures.

ANN SACKS offers an abundance of choices, from custom colors that can be created on demand to faux finishes that look nearly identical to the real deal (think porcelain tile that looks like wood). Add heated elements during installation to further enhance your bathroom experience.

Consider lighted mirrors designed to strike the face from at least two directions, providing even illumination and minimal shadows.

Nancy Garner Broker/Owner/REALTOR® 361-571-0161

Allison Shepard REALTOR® 361-676-2502

Jennifer Hill REALTOR®/Broker, GRI 361-218-0660

Dianne Jernigan REALTOR®/Broker,GRI,ABR,SRES 361-676-6228

Elaine McDaniel REALTOR®/Broker 361-935-1154

Kevin Epley REALTOR® 361-649-6666

Bruce Wooley REALTOR® 361-319-5971

L I NE ST W IN G

Jeanette Hernandez REALTOR®/Broker, GRI 361-648-0325

STRATEGIC LIGHTING Lighting is a fundamental part of bathroom design and highly influential to enhance your routine. While lighting can perfectly illuminate the bathroom, it doesn’t necessarily mean it does a good job of illuminating the face. Top lighting - common in bathroom design - casts shadows on the face, which is bad for makeup application, shaving and other personal hygiene tasks. Consider lighted mirrors from Robern, designed to strike the face from at least two directions, providing even illumination and minimal shadows. No matter what illumination you choose, keep in mind that lighting from all sides with adjustable features will increase functionality.

NEW LISTING

2 SOMERSET

1816 Bon Aire - 3 Bedroom, 2 bath home with beautiful floors, updated baths, very new A/C. Large covered patio, close to the college. $132,000. This one will not last long! Call Sheryl & Dan Murphy at 361-652-3979.

Great home at a great price in Victoria Country Club area! This home has tons of space in a beautiful setting. With a few updates, it can be your dream home. Call Dianne at 676-6228 to take a look and make it yours!

RE

DU

CE

D

117 COPPER ROCK Immaculate 4BR/3BA custom home w/ gorgeous interior features. Spacious, well maintained, & located on a cul-de-sac in Terra Vista subdivision. Built in 2015 it features granite tops, custom cabinets, custom plantation shutters, recessed lighting, high ceilings, gas log fireplace, & lots of natural light. Call Chris Vega at 361-649-5239 to schedule a private showing today to see this beautiful home!

324 CR 319

622 FM 446

3103 S. LAURENT ST.

2303 E WALNUT

A private retreat to call home! This 4 BR, 4 Full/ 2 Half BA, custom home includes spectacular features such as, a steam shower, 3 fireplaces, 3 laundry rooms, 5 over-sized attached carports, detached garage, pool and hot tub. Providing 9,979 sq. ft. of generous space with over 4.5 acres of beautiful landscape. Call Allison Shepard at 361-676-2502.

Country Living – Nice 3BR/2BA home on 1.01 ac. 3 Living Areas & over 1600 sf. Open concept and a Fireplace. Kitchen comes w/ a stove and refrigerator. Beautifully refinished wood floors and freshly painted interior. New Master Bath w/ walk-in closet. New Roof in 2017. New privacy fence on 3 sides! $139,000. Call Elaine McDaniel 361-935-1154.

Viewing of Interior needed to appreciate this 5BR/2.5 BA home on almost 1/2 acre inside Victoria city limits. Large Kitchen w/ plenty of counter space & Breakfast Area. Plus, an oversized Dining Room, additional Study/Office, and an extra room! Call Mary Otto at 361-648-1475

$174,900 – Spacious 3BR/2BA home. High ceilings, carpet/stained and scored concrete floors, split bedrooms floor plan, gorgeous eat-in kitchen/dining, nice counter tops & lots of custom built kitchen cabinets.

Covered patio has been extended & is great for entertaining. Call Chris Vega at 361-649-5239 for a private showing. Try our new 3D Virtual Tour feature & walk through the home using your device.

2005 SAM HOUSTON

12887 US 59N

LOTS ON MAIN ST.

HWY 185

Spacious Home with over 2000 square feet on Sam Houston.

3 Bedrooms, 2 Baths and 2 Living Areas plus Office, 2 Car Garage with cabinets and storage space. Fenced back yard with mature trees Nice covered patio. House needs TLC. $89,900. Call Elaine McDaniel at 361-935-1154.

Starting a business and need a location? Looking for acreage to build your new home? For only $275,000 you get 6ac. w/ 325 Ft. of Hwy 59 frontage and 260 ft. 260 ft. of frontage from Evelyn.

Property is surrounded with an 8’ Security Fence. A 40’ x 200’ covered storage/parking w/ 14’ eave ht. sits on the property. Water/ Sewer/Elec. Call Nancy Garner 361-571-0161.

3 Lots to Choose From!! Located on Main near the Airline intersection. All 3 lots have frontage on Main St. Approx. acreage starts at 3.94 ac. - 4.39 ac. Utilities available but not onsite. Call Nancy J. Garner for more details, 361-571-0161.

$895,000 Approx. 226.92 ac w/ 1198.23 ft. of State Hwy 185 frontage & approx. 952.15 ft. of Victoria Barge Canal Frontage.

A great site to develop as commercial or residential. There is a small beach area on the canal, a water well, a windmill, and semi-improved pasture land with rich soil, allowing for healthy grazing. Call Nancy at 361-571-0161.

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361-578-3623 • FAX 361-578-0879 • www.woolson.com

CELEBRATING OVER 50 YRS OF SERVICE

F4 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

VictoriaAdvocate.com

VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018 — F5

VictoriaAdvocate.com

real estate

VictoriaAdvocate.com/homes

www.victoriapremierhomes.com 105 Brenna, 3/2, $1,495 Victoria Property Management (361) 570-8934

4 Lines for 30 Days

$

49

1, 2 & 3 BR Houses. No Pets. No Section 8. Weekly monthly Rates.

361-571-9290

95

www.victoriapremierhomes.com For the best selection in newer 3 BR/2 BA Victoria home rentals call Victoria Property Management.

Rents starting at $1,295. 570-8934.

Place your ad to sell, rent or lease your apartment,business/ commercial property, condo,townhouse, duplexes,houses, RV’s & lots.

Includes 1 photo.

Additional lines extra

realestate@vicad.com

Must begin before 8.31.18, no refunds.

Some restrictions apply.

1 & 2 BR Apts.

607 Fillmore Ave. 361-573-1666 139 Sherwood 3/1, $900 139 Sherwood 2/1, $800 RBC Property Management 361-580-9240

3311 Mulberry Apt A, 2 BR & 1 BA, Stove, Ref, window ac. No pets, No smokers. Rent $595.00 Deposit $595.00 Call Woolson Real Estate Co., Inc., Jeanette 361-648-0325.

1BR/1.5BA, $650 + dep., CAH, water pd, W/D Conn., No Pets/ Smokers. 2 BR $800 Ready in 2 wks. 361-579-0615/541-2031 1BR/1BA, 3103 Coffey St. Stove, refrigerator, upstairs, no pets, no smokers. $525mo/$525dep.

361-648-8388

1BR/1.5BA/ CAH, W/D Conn., Fenced & patio. $650/$400dep. No Pets. Call 361-655-0404

To Advertise: 361.574.1234

NO ONE ABOVE U 2BD 2.5 BA, quiet units & so much more.

Call now for your Move-In Special 361-573-1300 www.vistaaltavictoriatx.com

Port Lavaca, TX. All bills pd., small efficency/studio, tile floors, plant employees welcomed, $595 mo./ $300 dep. 210-494-8776

2BR/1BA/1 Car Garage, CAH, Laundry facilities, $850/$475dep.

No Pets. Call 361-655-0404

7200-FT. Showroom/huge warehouse. Security fence. 405 1/2 Water $1625. 578-1258.

1040-FT. New building. Great location. Very secure. O/H door.

2404-H Rio Grande. $500. 578-1258.

19,248-FT. Multi-office building.

Professional building by YMCA. 1910 Commerce. $.55 per sq. ft.

578-1258

4215 SW Moody. BEAUTIFUL! 4BR/2BA Completely Remodeled, W/D conn., AC, No smoking/pets. $1750mo. w/ & $1595 w/o kit. appl. 2390-FT. Professional office suite. /$1000dep. Call JR 361-220-0398 Extensive built-ins. Bills paid. 1501 B-1 Red River. $1800. 578-1258.

2711 PLEASANT GREEN: 2 bdrm/ 2 bath, fenced yard, has stove and 3095-FT. Multiple office space.

Nicely decorated. Formerly a refrigerator. Laminate flooring.

No pets/no smokers. $995 rent/ trucking company. 9405 US Hwy. 59 $900 deposit. Call SUMMIT RENTAL $1700. 578-1258 576-6517 4000 to 8271-FT. Will divide.

423 Ivanhoe, 3/2/2, lg. living area, Outstanding building. Nicely CA/H, ceiling fans, fenced. About decorated. 2002-A Commerce.

1400 sq. ft. No pets. No smokers. $.55 per sq. ft. 578-1258 $1,245/mo. 361-489-8938 6360-FT. Multi office building with fenced in yard and kitchen. Formerly 2BR/1BA $750 /$650dep. CAH, Head Start school. Great location Kitchen appliances, 802 Smith. for a day care. 402 Guadalupe.

361-578-9126/361-489-9877 578-1258 BACK ON THE MARKET! 605 W. San Antonio St. Old Victoria charming 8500-FT. Multi offices. Great visibility. Nice decorated. 2403 N. 2BR/1BA cottage, near trinity Laurent. $3490. 578-1258 Episcopal school, all appliances. $1300 mo. Recently bathroom Remodeled. Call 210-275-2996 or your agent.

Call 361-574-1234 or email

Experience TODAY’S Advocate Advantage

1200-FT. Shop. 2 large O/H door.

Fenced in yard. Ideal for a mechanic shop. 2902 Callis. $750. 578-1258 1250-FT. New building. Private office with private R/R. O/H door.

2402-C E. Rio Grande. $425.

578-1258.

1275-FT. New building. O/H door.

Very secure. Private R/R. 2402-I Rio Grande. $435. 578-1258.

1600-FT. Industrial Park. Two large O/H doors. Very secure. 2802-AB Wildwood. $550. 578-1258 1800 s.f. warehouse w/bathroom, 2 entry doors, 2 dock doors and 3 entrance gates on fenced in 1/2 acre. 2502 Juan Linn $800/month.

361-649-0021 2500-FT. New building. 2 office 2 O/H doors. Private R/R. 2402-AB E. Rio Grande. $850. 578-1258.

CUERO-7672 FM 1447, 4BR/2.5BA, custom brick on 7 acres, grand daddy oaks, 2 FP, formal dining, vast open concept, workshop.

Beautiful Property! $525,000, Listed with Eling Corporation, 361-277-3424, www.elingcorp.com 1268 Royal Oaks #1, Yorktown— Spacious 3BR/2.5BA brick, open concept, fireplace, formal dining, office, all on 9.39+/- oak covered park like acres with large outbuildings, and cabin REDUCED $369,000 Listed with Eling Corp.

361-277-3424 www.elingcorp.com

312 KINGWOOD FOREST DR. 1.36AC Updated, open concept. 4BR/2BA, Living, dining, granite tops, Reduced $259.9K. 578-1854/550-8570 Duplex For Sale 101 Brandiwine.

Fleetwood edition 2/1 104 Windwood Ct. Tangerine 3/2 607 Hathaway behind Target 3/1 Call for Appt. 361-579-9060 HOUSE on 6 lots with almost 2 acres. Kitchen, Lg. dining room, Lg. living room 1BA /3BR. Completely Remodeled. 110K OBO. 300 Line St., Nordheim. Call Sarah 832-462-4888

67 ac. Calhoun County, farm land, road frontage.

Call 361-920-1723 FOR SALE BY OWNER 3/2/2, 1/2 ac lot, 1993 sq.ft.

Mission Valley Sch. District.

361-935-3730, $169,000

FOR SALE 13 Improved Acres 2725 Hahn Rd - Stratton (30 minutes to Victoria) Electricity & water well $130,000 FIRM 361-293-8168

FOR SALE BY ESTATE 106 Woodcreek - 2 story, approx.

4200 sq. ft. living space on 1.44 ac. lot, 4BR/4.5 BA, study, 3 car garage, water damaged interior TO BE SOLD AS IS. $300,000.

361-573-2475 Dale Hunt, Executor

Ranch For Sale 900 AC. +/- 7 mi. N. of Victoria. Electricity, water well, 2200 ft. Grass air strip, pond, some brush, 1500 ft. HWY 77 frontage.

3800 an AC. Nelda Chambers, All Star Properties 361-571-7154

Bay House on Carancahua Bay 402 Trout St. 77465 in Jackson County.

2BR/1BA w/attached garage on the water w/ pier. Boat shed & dog run. $179,900. Call Vic @ 713-962-3802 for info. & private showing.

SELLING property? Do not pay any fees until it is sold. For free information about avoiding time shares and real estate scams, write the Federal Trade Commission at Washington, D.C., 20580 or call the National Fraud Information Center 1-800876-7060.

HOT, HOT HOT AUGUST SPECIAL NURSERY-Serenity Estates, all lots Purchase a “DRAGON” or a REDUCED, 3+ acre tracts, restric“HOUSTON” 3/2 singlewide and get tions apply, Eling Corporation up to $3,000 discount OR use it 361.277.3424 elingcorp.com towards a carport, porch, septic, etc.

SETTLE ESTATE CHEAP HOUSES 34,000-FT. Deluxe office space plus Come by for more information.

1403 PARK AVE. NICE 3/1/2, 11-20 Acres tracts betweeen Cuero 1201 BRUNHILD 2 BR $22,500 sales area and showroom. Large Open 7 days a week. no smokers/pets, CA, Background 1015-FT. 5 offices. Prime location.

1203 BRUNHILD 3 BR $28,500 whse with OH doors. Fenced in yard.

Fayette Country Homes, 751 Huser and Yoakum on FM 1447 26 miles to check. $975 mo./ $975 dep. Call or Nicely decorated. 3708-B Navarro Walmart.

Lg. live oaks, deer, turkey, 1505 FRICKA 2 BR $27,500 1008 N. Laurent. $7980. 578-1258 Blvd. Schulenburg, 800-369-6888 text 361-649-1958. Serious only! $850 578-1258 paved rd., Electricty, $89,900need repairs, trees, for more info. www.fayettecountryhomes.com $157,500. Call John 361-564-3853 810-FT. New building. Great Call Pro Rty 361-550-3012 RBI32896 2206 Poplar 4/2/1, Approx. home/361-550-4208 cell or Andy location. Very secure. 3206-F 2200 s.f., CAH, Lg. fenced yd., 10,600-FT. Superb location.

361-945-0783 Texas Vets Sam Houston. $315. 578-1258.

Used Mobile Home 4BR/2BA, CAH, storage bldg., pets neg. $1500/mo. Open floor plan. Great for retail.

OPEN HOUSE Welcomed.

2525 Laurent. $2000. 578-1258 Refrigerator, stove, W/D, great $1500 dep. 361-676-9533 SAT. & SUN. 2-4PM condition. $14,500. Porch & Siding 115 WILLOWICK SERENITY ESTATES, Restricted 2200-FT. Perfect for retail.

Open CLEAN 3BR/2BA House, included. 361-491-1052 Great House Move-In Ready!

3+ acres home-sites, minutes from floor plan. 1501-D Red River. $1290.

W/D, No pet/smoking.

Victoria & Cuero Eling Corp, $1000mo/$800dep. 361-570-6316 578-1258 2BR,2BA Central Air, washer, dryer, 361.277.3424 www.elingcorp.com Please leave message. stove, new carpet throughout, very clean, Needs to be moved. $5500.

Edna, TX-926 W. Main, Mobile CUERO-7672 FM 1447, 4BR/2.5BA, No Texting 361-649-4588 home, 3 BR, 2 BA, stove, ref, custom brick on 7 acres, grand washer & dryer conn. No Pets/ daddy oaks, 2 FP, formal dining, No smokers. Rent $795.00 Deposit vast open concept, workshop.

Totally remodeled 3/2 townhome in $700.00 Call Woolson Real Estate Beautiful Property! $525,000, tanglewood w/ pool, split floor plan Co., Inc., Jeanette 361-648-0325.

HOG HUNTING SPECIAL $125 Listed with Eling Corporation, 101 Maplewood Drive #1 pics on 361-277-3424, Hunt 3,000 acres of river bottom & brush in www.zillow.com Owner finance 1BR/1BA, 7216 State Hwy 185 Kit. www.elingcorp.com Victoria County for $125 per day. Bow and/or Rifle.

Avail. Call now 361-218-9212 appli. & W/D incl. CAH, water, trash Ranch has feeders going year round. Lodging included. & lawncare incl. No pets/smokers.

1268 Royal Oaks #1, Yorktown— 2 Day/4 Person Minimum $975 mo./$975 dep. 361-655-6233 Spacious 3BR/2.5BA brick, open NOW BOOKING FOR 2018 concept, fireplace, formal dining, 311 NUECES ST More information & pictures at: www.dcwildlife.com office, all on 9.39+/- oak covered 2 Big Bedroom house. No pets. No 361-550-0282 park like acres with large smokers. $700 deposit | $900/mo. outbuildings, and cabin REDUCED Call 361-897-1973 or 361-652-0213.

Newly updated home in quiet Lago $369,000 Listed with Eling Corp.

Two mature hunters are seeking a 312 Teakwood, nice 3BR/2BA, open Vista neighborhood. This 3BR/2BA 361-277-3424 www.elingcorp.com year-round deer lease in central/ floor plan, newer flooring, no pets south central Texas. Ref. available. home has a lg kitchen w/backsplash or smokers. $1,450 mo., A Must & granite counters. The kitchen has Contact Steve Miller at SEE! Call Robert 361-218-8601 a lg island w/ many custom white 512-412-6089 or 713-818-1704. cabinets & built in China cabinet.

3BR/1BA, CAH, Fenced in yd., Tile in BA updated 2018. Fresh paint $1300/mo. + Deposit & updated fixtures throughout Call 361-655-0404 house. Living, dining, & kitchen I Buy Mobile Homes, areas have 10ft ceilings. New 30yr RVs, Trailer houses, Cuero-808 E. Heaton, 3BR/ 2BA architectural shingle roof installed Owner Finance Home in & 5th Wheel. Any Area! Clean brick on huge corner lot, oodles of 2018 w/ new fence.

Lg landscaped Let’s Make a Deal!

FSBO 2002 E. Tanglewood 3/2, 1688 sq.ft., or Dirty! Old or New! I Pay Top living area. $175,000 Listed with front & backyard w/ complete zone Red River St. 2200 s.f., Lg. reception Newly Remodeled, w/pool, & Eling Corporation, 361-277-3424, sprinkler coverage. Contact owner area, showroom, 2 offices & storage Cash! Anytime 956-459-5741 Garage. 361-218-9212 www.elingcorp.com direct at 361-652-0567. rooms. $195,000. 361-550-7546 2750-FT. 2 office/warehouse. Dock high. Industrial park area. Perfect for commercial sales. 2802-AB Delmar. $900. 578-1258.

F6 — VICTORIA ADVOCATE, Sunday, August 19, 2018

6009 Country Club

4005 N Navarro

This home is in a quiet neighborhood of fine homes and manicured lawns! This home is impressive in size and design featuring 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, 3 living and 2 dining open spacious cathedral ceiling kitchen with Jenn Aire grill w/4 burners, trash compactor, brick accent wall and desk.

Unique in design and character with magnificent detailing, large master suite and bathroom, large bedrooms, Anderson windows. Living room w/FP and wet bar and walk in safe.

2 story ceilings, sun filled rooms throughout this home. A lovely patio sized lot with pretty curb appeal, sprinkler system and security system. You won’t want to miss out on this unique home in the Country Club area. $399,000

Prime Business Location – Expand your business or start fresh on one of Victoria’s busiest streets. The possibilities are endless from retail conversion, automotive repair/body shop, to open air gym. Ample parking, move-in ready with ultimate exposure.

Only $549,900. Call John Quitta at 361571-7934 to schedule an appointment to view this great commercial location.

T O PR I SE C E LL

$2

2 AC 86 RE +/S

D CE 90 DU ,6 RE 86

608 Santa Fe

486 Hwy 183

405 Woodway

A delightful home in Bell Tower with an open concept living with a split bedroom arrangement with 5 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2836 sq. ft., 3 living and 2 dining. Located on a corner lot with mature trees, RV/boat parking, enclosed patio w/AC and heat, great for entertaining, playroom, workout room etc.

Updated kitchen with Silestone counters, cooktop w/4burners and griddle, microwave. 3 bedrooms have wood flooring. Main living area has vaulted ceiling and wood burning fireplace. All doors inside and out updated w/new hardware. Security system.

Great family home! $249,900

Beautiful ranch between Refugio and Goliad with 286.69+/- acres. Partial brush and cleared as well as highway frontage. Plenty of wildlife with deer blinds and feeders, 5 water wells.

Cottage on the property is 2 Bedroom, 1 Bath, central AC, pine floors and double carport with laundry room. Newer $36,000 fence on one side.

Huge 40x60 barn with large sliding doors. Horse property with stalls. Backs up to a 10,000 acre ranch and 1000 acre ranch on the other side.

You’ll be glad you looked at this one. $1,290,105.

A family sized home in a great neighborhood with a 3 car rear entry garage, beautiful hardwood floors with updated features such as the kitchen with garden window, stainless island, gas range, stone backsplash and paperstone counters. 2 On-demand water heaters, 2 HVAC systems, Security system, Wet Bar with wine storage, roof 2017 (30yr shingle w/6 nails per shingle) outside exterior updated with Hardi board and painted 2017. Master Bath counters, sink, mirrors, added insulation and double pane windows. The yard is a Native yard with Hardi deck! Many more amenities so call today for more information! $389,900

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6115 Country Club Gorgeous home on a spacious lot on The Victoria Country Club golf course! Plenty of space in this lovely 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, with a home office, 2 living with fireplace and 2 dining. Large island kitchen with an eating bar, granite counters, double ovens, dishwasher. An glamorous master bedroom suite, claw foot tub, furniture style cabinet, large walk in closet. A sparkling pool and hot tub, sprinkler system. A fabulous home waiting for you to call today for a private showing! $464,900

REALTOR®

361-571-7934 johnquitta@remax.net D CE 0 0 U D ,0 RE $10

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VictoriaAdvocate.com

312 Kelly Drive

262 Park Ln

203 King Arthur

43 Church Lane

Immaculate home in the desirable neighborhood of Country Club Village! This home is move-in ready with a beautiful lay-out. It features 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, with 2 dining areas and large living area with fireplace - perfect for entertaining family and friends, plus spacious glassed-in sunroom. The kitchen features granite counter tops with a tile back splash, double ovens, pantry, electric cook top and more. The master suite is well defined with 2 walk-in closets, large jetted tub, separate shower and double sinks. Call today! $265,000

Great home in a great neighborhood! Just on the outside of the city in Northpark Estates where they have concrete streets and large lots. This home has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with an office. Nice floor plan. Very large covered patio, workshop, electrical plugs on the eaves for Christmas lights, Roof 2017, extra wide driveway for easy access. $259,900

Lovely home in Castle Hills West with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 living and 2 dining.

Updated home with granite counters in the kitchen with stone backsplash, corning cooktop. Laminate flooring throughout with exception of bedrooms have carpet. Wine cooler in Dining area. Foundation leveled with Lifetime transferable warranty. Nice covered patio with rear entry garage. Very nice and move in ready! $199,900

Green acres in a GREAT location near Mission Valley! Located on 3.25+/- acres with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. Roof 7 yrs. old, water heater and water softener 1 yr old. Kitchen appliances approx 2 yrs. old, granite countertops, tile backsplash. Open floor plan with beautiful wood floors. 10 x 20 metal storage building. This is a home that is move in ready! No city taxes! Plus this home comes with an additional 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with approx. 2,000 sq. ft. Call today for your private showing! $214,900

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318 Paco Adorable home with plenty of room to roam on approximately 2 acres just on the edge of town with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and a 2 car garage and carport. Updated kitchen with silestone counters, stone backsplash, newer cabinet fronts, pull outs in the pantry and convection oven. Floors carpet, tile and wood. Security system. Privacy fenced yard, large deck with beautiful mature tree shaded acreage! Great home ready for a new family! $159,900

911 Coke St Recently remodeled 3 bed 2 bath home with 1583 sq. ft. in Yoakum. Price includes most furnishings. Built in 2006 with a large open concept living room and kitchen with lots of counter space and island, eating bar. Large patio deck for relaxing, Live Oak tree shaded front and rear patios. Meticulously keep home on 1/4 acre. Call for appointment. $196,000 Mark Manning (361) 550-8021

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9371 FM 1102 ACREAGE in one of the hottest areas of Texas 39.69 +/- acres. With a wraparound front porch and a rear patio this property is secluded but VERY close to all of the action of the big cities and some of the areas best shopping and wineries. A well cared for ranch style brick bungalow features 2 large bedrooms and 2 baths with a detached 2 car metal garage or workshop. The possibilities are limitless for this property. The ranch is fenced, has pens, and native grazing grasses. Majestic oaks, red oak, ash and many other native trees surround this homestead and it even has a creek running through it. There are two septics, and an additional electric meter loop for future expansion. Easy access to IH 35, Texas Ski Ranch, New Braunfels, Gruene, San Marcos, San Antonio and Austin. FM 1102 frontage for possible commercial location or subdividing. $950,000

17215 County Road 1

200 Greenwood

Barndominium Style. 1600 Sq. ft. living space, 1600 Sq. ft. 3 car garage/ shop with 3 bay doors. 3200 total Sq. ft. Lots of storage room. Large open living room and kitchen with big range cooktop and big pantry. 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom with A/C unit already available to add on more living space. Lots of amenities outside; 16x24 Storage garage, 24x24 storage shed, 18x26 RV shed with hookups. Outdoor entertainment area with fire pit and kids playground. Excellent Horse property with lots of oak trees and Spanish hanging moss. Also, good for hunting deer, turkey, and other game. Call for Appointment today. $399,900

Fishing-Fishing and more Fishing is what you will be doing if you make this Beautiful Home Yours! Private single level 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on over 9 lots for a total of just over an Acre. Situated less than one mile from the Tres Palacios River and located very centrally to Palacios city center and the South Texas Nuclear Plant. Tres Palacios Oaks (TPO) is a restricted private street subdivision located on the Tres Palacios River approximately 13 miles North of Palacios and just 5 miles from Matagorda Bay. With over 390 acres this gated resort community has a beautiful pool, a boat ramp with two lighted fishing piers and 10 acre fresh water lake. Pack your bags and bring the fishing poles because you will want to make this your home today! $248,000

Michelle Krogsgaard (361) 676-5552

Kimberley Hawes (361) 676-6264

Julie Thomas (361) 777-5583

TRACY GRAVES

2262 Fannin Road GOLIAD COUNTY

REALTOR®, GRI, ABR, CRS, SRES, CDPE, TAHS

Refuge from the City where the air is free and clear, you’ll find this two bedroom, two bath Ranch Style Home set on 35 of the most beautiful acres this side of heaven. It is a home that will make your commute worthwhile. Located in a very private world that’s only 30 minutes from town, this happy residence offers a sense of spaciousness with its high ceilings and open concept. Highly insulated with double paned windows, energy efficient, two workshops/storage rooms, outdoor room with fire pit perfect for entertaining or to just enjoy yourself, 50 X 67’ pole barn with storage area, nice pond, trees everywhere and too much more to list.

RE/MAX 5215 N. Navarro Victoria, TX 361-573-0444

LAND & HOMES Each office independently owned & operated

RE/MAX Land & Homes II 310 E. Morris, Yoakum 361-293-6448

Shannon Rampley (361) 550-1430

RE/MAX Land & Homes III 349 W. Pearl St., Goliad 361-551-0723

361.655.4457 tracy@tracygraves.com www.tracygraves.com

RE/MAX Land & Homes On The Bay 602 N. Virginia, Port Lavaca 361-552-5200

www.HomesinVictoriaTX.com

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4B ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY

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NEWS

Some Pennsylvania priests were sent here Md. treatment center used for evaluations Anthony J. Machcinski York Daily Record USA TODAY Network

Though Pennsylvania enacted the first U.S. law 55 years ago that required mandatory reporting of child abuse to law enforcement, its Catholic dioceses didn’t take it to heart.

Those first laws in the state placed the duty to report abuse on doctors and other medical staff. At least three states — Nebraska, Tennessee and Utah — required all people to report evidence of child abuse, according to a September 2014 Villanova Law Review article.

But much of the damage that Pennsylvania’s abusive priests inflicted didn’t leave bruises. And when those priests were discovered, bishops and other priests who were called on to in-

vestigate the allegations didn’t treat them as crimes and rarely told law enforcement.

Instead, St. Luke Institute in the Washington suburb of Adelphi, Maryland, keeps appearing in the 900-page grand jury report released Tuesday. In total, at least 30 priests were sent there.

The report, which lists 301 priests in six Catholic dioceses accused of child abuse, names psychiatric treatment centers as part of the church’s plan in dealing with problem priests.

Other treatment centers were mentioned. “(The dioceses) for an appearance of integrity, send priests for ‘evaluation’ at church-run psychiatric treatment centers,” the grand jury report states. “They allow these experts to ‘diagnose’ whether the priest was a pedophile, based largely on the priest’s ‘self-reports’ and regardless of whether the priest had actually engaged in sexual contact with a child.”

St. Luke Institute, a Catholic Church-owned psychiatric treatment center, is in the District of Columbia suburb of Adelphi, Md. PHOTO COURTESY ST. LUKE'S INSTITUTE

St. Luke Institute’s website calls itself an “international Catholic education and treatment center dedicated to healthy life and ministry for priests, deacons and men and women religious.”

Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for St. Luke, said her treatment center is part

of the solution. “(St. Luke) provided external information to the diocese so they could make the right steps,” she said. “By sending people to treatment, you’re giving them treatment that will hopefully end the abuse.”

Sandy Hook families strike at Jones Court document says evidence in defamation suits has been deleted Michael James USA TODAY

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones intentionally destroyed evidence as pressure steadily mounted from pending defamation lawsuits and “growing public indignation,” according to a court motion filed Friday by families of Sandy Hook murder victims.

Jones and his Infowars media group face lawsuits for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school mass killings in Connecticut were staged by the government and that the 26 people slain were fictitious creations in an elaborate hoax.

The latest court action against him, filed in Travis County, Texas, and first reported by The New York Times, alleges that Infowars “intentionally deleted a variety of social media pages and video content relating to the Sandy Hook shooting.” Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families discovered the intentional destruction of evidence this month, according to the court motion.

The pages and the videos were being sought as evidence against Jones in the ongoing defamation cases. Jones had been informed by lawyers for the plaintiffs that he was required by law to preserve the information as part of standard evidence rules in court cases, the motion said.

“Relevant evidence has been lost,” lawyers for the families said in the court filing. “As pressure mounted ... Mr. Jones chose to destroy the evidence of

Alex Jones has come increasingly under fire for his conspiracy theories, including one that says survivors of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting were actors. TAMIR KALIFA/AP

his actual malice and defamatory conduct.”

Infowars did not respond to an email from USA TODAY seeking comment on the allegations.

In the court filing, lawyers representing families of two Sandy Hook victims asked a judge to impose punitive sanctions, possibly a fine, against Infowars.

Leonard Pozner, who lost his 6-yearold son in the shooting and joined a law-

“As pressure mounted ...

Mr. Jones chose to destroy the evidence of his actual malice and defamatory conduct.”

Court document

suit against Jones, said his family has suffered threats and harassment after Jones’ claims. The threats have come from other conspiracy theorists who told Pozner his son never existed.

Meanwhile, Facebook said Monday that four pages belonging to Jones were removed for violating the network’s policy against hate speech. Music streaming service Spotify and Apple also have removed Jones-related content.

Researchers disagree on danger of weed killer in cereals Marc Daalder and Keith Matheny Detroit Free Press USA TODAY NETWORK

A scientific debate over the danger of Roundup herbicide has been reignited after a report identified potentially dangerous trace amounts of the chemical in oat-based breakfast foods.

Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has been used to kill weeds for 40 years, according to manufacturer Monsanto. For most of that time, it hasn’t been considered dangerous.

But that consensus might be changing. In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancers determined that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans,” meaning it has the potential to cause cancer.

That doesn’t settle the debate. The agency’s parent organization, the World Health Organization, found in May 2016 that glyphosate is “unlikely to pose a carcinogenic risk to humans from exposure through the diet.”

Wednesday’s report from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group comes days after Monsanto was ordered to pay nearly $300 million to a groundskeeper who alleged his use of the weed

Thousands of people are suing Monsanto for cancer and cancerrelated illnesses. REED SAXON/AP

killer on the job had given him cancer.

The Environmental Working Group found glyphosate in all but five of 29 tested breakfast foods, prompting an outcry from those concerned with the overuse of pesticides on food.

Glyphosate is applied to leaves to kill grasses and weeds. It is the most used agricultural chemical in the world and experienced a boom in use beginning in the 1990s, Newsweek reported.

Glyphosate use previously was limited because the product often killed not only weeds but the crops it was intend-

ed to protect. But in the 1990s, Monsanto began producing genetically modified crop strains resistant to glyphosate, so the herbicide could be applied without damaging the crop.

Oats, a common grain in breakfast foods, are not modified for glyphosate resistance. Farmers often use the product on oats to kill the crops and dry them out to hasten harvesting.

At a conference two years ago, a federal Food and Drug Administration official mentioned the development of methods to determine glyphosate levels in food products and that it was being found in oat products, said Alexis Temkin, an Environmental Working Group toxicologist and author of the glyphosate in breakfast foods study. That prompted her group’s research.

Environmental Working Group sampling found glyphosate levels varying from 1,300 parts per billion in Quaker Old Fashioned Oats to undetectable in Nature’s Path Organic Honey Almond granola. Glyphosate was found at up to 780 parts per billion in Quaker Dinosaur Eggs Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal and up to 530 parts per billion in General Mills’ Cheerios cereal.

The International Agency for Re-

search on Cancers and the World Health Organization stand by their conflicting positions on the herbicide. Other independent reviews have found similarly conflicting results. California officials issued guidelines in mid-2017, based on the cancer agency’s research, to restrict the use of glyphosate because they worried that the chemical was carcinogenic.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, as recently as December, said glyphosate “is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans” and doesn’t pose any other sort of health threat either.

Beyond the debate over whether glyphosate can cause cancer is a difference of opinion over at what levels it becomes potentially unsafe.

Monsanto noted that even the highest detections of glyphosate in oat products in the Environmental Working Group study are at least 100 times below EPA recommended safety limits.

But whether that EPA limit is set where it should be to protect public health is disputed. The EPA finds that people should be able to safely consume 2 milligrams of glyphosate for every kilogram, about 2.2 pounds, of body weight every day. The European Union’s standard is about seven times as strict.

USA TODAY ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 5B

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NEWS

Annan greets President Bush before the start of the 58th U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 23, 2003. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AP

Annan and President Clinton appear at a joint news conference at the White House on Jan. 23, 1997. GREG GIBSON/AP

U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan looks on before a meeting at the United Nations offices in Geneva on July 20, 2012. FABRICE COFFRIN/GETTY IMAGES

Annan: A leader among leaders

Annan and Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on April 11, 2000. . ADALBERTO ROQUE/GETTY IMAGES

Former South African President Nelson Mandela and Annan come together after a brief meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, on March 15, 2006. KIM LUDBROOK/EPA-EFE

Annan and President of the U.N. General Assembly Han Seung-soo show their Nobel Peace Prize Awards during the ceremony at Oslo City Hall in Norway on Dec. 10, 2001. HEIKO JUNGE/EPA-EFE

USA TODAY ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 7B

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PERSONAL FINANCE

Is peer pressure making you overspend?

Standing annual appointments for family vacations can be life-affirming but financially draining. GETTY IMAGES

If family vacations are critical, save responsibly Pete the Planner Peter Dunn USA TODAY

The first time I remember peer pressure affecting my life, I capitulated and began wearing a small bottle filled with bubble solution as a token on a necklace. The late eighties weren’t a great time to be a middle school boy. From that moment on, peer pressure (and my wavering resistance of it) has been a ubiquitous part of my life.

Peer pressure has affected my relationships, my health, my faith and my finances. And to this day, peer pressure still strikes me as one of the most powerful secret assassins of financial stability and behavior.

You already know the obvious application of peer pressure: keeping up with the Joneses. But let’s set that aside

and instead consider a sneakier version of peer pressure: family vacations.

“My entire extended family goes on vacation together every year,” a good buddy told me recently. Thinking about that situation, I’m curious how many people involved in it are making significant financial decisions based on attending it. How many feel there’s only one option: to go on the group vacation?

From what I know about American families, it’s a good bet that there is at least one family within the larger extended family that cannot afford to participate in this group vacation. Yet they go anyway.

You might think the financially stressed family comes from the younger members. But, from what I’ve seen, it’s more often the matriarch and patriarch of the family who are doing damage to their financial stability by footing the bill for offspring who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend.

When objectively poor decisions are masked with “this is a tradition,” your traditions need to change. Are they

fun? Sure. Will they eventually come back to bite you? Yes, they will.

My proposed solution isn’t to tell your family to send you a postcard or to end your tradition because some angry newspaper columnist said so. I want you to do what you’ve always done, but let the peer pressure influence you to take the leap responsibly.

Our budgets (or spending habits) have a way of robbing us from affording the moments we truly value. If you love your family vacation more than you love random meals out and other impulse purchases, pre-fund your vacation throughout the year. This will let you avoid the regret of realizing you valued casual dining more than your annual family pilgrimage.

Peer pressure can be used for good.

Think about the pressure you feel to make poor financial decisions out of a sense of obligation or emotional manipulation, then use that pressure to motivate you to clear out the less valuable expenditures in your life. Periodically re-evaluate your spending, and

I’m guessing you’ll find you are paying for things you no longer value but never took the time to remove from your life.

We’re not a culture that naturally rebalances spending to fit new priorities.

In fact, we tend to add the spending on new priorities to our current spending.

This practice reduces savings and creates debt. And when emotions and family ties get involved, we can be further blinded from financial reality and unwilling to make tough, pragmatic choices.

Stop letting peer pressure influence you to ignore financial realities. Instead, harness it to help you reprioritize spending and wholly enjoy that family vacation experience.

Peter Dunn is an author, speaker and radio host, and he has a free podcast: “Million Dollar Plan.” Have a question for Pete the Planner? Email him at AskPete@petetheplanner.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY.

Leaving a job with 401(k)? Here’s what to do with it Russ WIles Columnist USA TODAY

Individual retirement accounts have been attracting record amounts of assets, even though relatively few people actually contribute money to them.

An oxymoron? Not really. The growth of IRAs results from their widespread use as tax-sheltered repositories for funds that have been building up in 401(k)-style plans.

When leaving a job, workers and retirees must decide what to do with their 401(k) assets. Moving them to an IRA often is the best choice.

“Making these types of decisions sometimes comes at an unexpected time due to a layoff, career change, personal emergency or an unexpected retirement,” said Alan Norris, a certified financial planner at Norris Wealth Management in Phoenix. “Knowing your options ahead of time can save you time, money and a lot of stress.”

Only about 1 in 8 households contributes money to an IRA, yet IRAs held $8.4 trillion as of a 2017 tally by the Investment Company Institute. “Rollovers from employer-sponsored retirement plans have fueled the growth in IRAs,” said the institute, the national mutualfund trade organization.

Here are some of the issues involved.

Cashing out usually is the worst choice, as the tax bite could be severe.

GETTY IMAGES

Unless you kept your assets in a Roth 401(k), ordinary income taxes would apply on the amount withdrawn. You also could face a 10 percent penalty if you’re under age 591⁄2, and the distribution could be subject to 20 percent federal withholding. Plus, a permanent withdrawal would remove a big chunk of your retirement assets.

“Cash-outs really work against a retirement savings discipline,” Norris said.

You can establish a rollover IRA by taking possession of the cash yourself,

then reinvesting it with a new financial custodian. Or you can have the money sent from your old employer to the custodian. Both are designed as tax-free moves, but there are some differences.

With the former, you take the distribution, then reinvest the money into a new IRA within 60 days, so this can become a short-term loan if needed. Failing to complete the process in time can trigger ordinary taxes and possibly that 10 percent penalty. Regardless, 20 percent withholding applies. With a transfer, the money is sent directly from your

old employer to the financial institution.

Tax pitfalls are avoided.

One advantage of moving the money into an IRA is that you would have wider choices in terms of investments.

“In an IRA, you can choose low-cost index funds; you also can choose options like CDs or individual bonds,” said Dana Anspach, a certified financial planner at Sensible Money in Scottsdale, Arizona. “In an employer plan, you are limited to the choices they have preselected for you.”

Also, fund expenses and other investor-borne costs could be considerably lower in a rollover IRA compared to a 401(k) plan, especially smaller and lessefficient plans. Some small 401(k) programs might have reasonable costs in the range of 0.7 to 1.5 percent or so annually, but other plans charge much more, Norris cautioned.

Another factor affecting whether and where to move an account involves your own financial clutter and oversight abilities. In a survey, respondents told the Investment Company Institute that preserving the tax-deferred status of their assets obviously was important, but so, too, were desires to consolidate assets and not leave assets with a former employer.

If you choose the IRA route, lean toward a large, well-established financial company that offers competitive fees and wide investment choices. Anspach cites Fidelity, Charles Schwab, Vanguard and TD Ameritrade as examples.

8B ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY

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TECH

Parents use new gadgets – and old – to cut school costs Jennifer Jolly Special to USA TODAY

Back-to-school season can be just as stressful for parents as it is for some students.

While new technology might be to blame for some of the stress – like kids playing “Fortnite“ when they should be doing homework – it can also provide fantastic fixes for some of our biggest daily quandaries.

Case in point: I asked more than 1,000 parents on Facebook for their best back to school tech-life hacks. Here’s what they said. ❚ Buy new tech for less: Many of the most desirable tech gadgets on the market come with a $1,000 (or more) price tag. But there are a handful of sites that deliver the biggest and best discounts right to your eyeballs, with very little work on your part. One mom said she used DealNews to find the $124 8-inch Huawei MediaPad T3 tablet on sale at Amazon, a purchase made because her son needed a basic device to read and do research. ❚ Go old-school on kids’ phones: There’s also no need to fork out several hundred dollars on a smartphone for most preteens and teens when a $60 feature phone will do. A handful of parents said they’re opting for basic handsets such as the colorful 3G Nokia 3310 to let kids call, text, take photos and use a few basic apps. Parents also gave it high marks for a nearly unbreakable body, all-day battery life, quick charging time and 27 days of standby time. ❚ Don’t buy when you can borrow: A father on Facebook wrote that one of his go-to hacks is an app called Epic that gives you instant access to more than 25,000 books, audiobooks and DIY videos for ages 12 and under. The cost for full digital access is less than $8 a

The Amazon Echo can be used in your child’s bedroom as an intercom system to talk to them, or Alexa can read to your son or daughter before bed. AMAZON

The old-school 3G Nokia 3310 gets high marks for battery life and durability. NOKIA

month, and you can try it for free for 30 days. ❚ Student loan life-saver: Another point several parents made is that money stress doesn’t stop when your kids get out of school. This is the time of year many students and parents are worrying about student loans. For that, free online tech tool Credible.com is a go-to hack.

“I graduated with $106,000 of student loan debt,” 28-year old Jared Davis told me over the phone. “Right out of school, my monthly payments were more than $1,000 per month.”

Davis says it is similar to Expedia but for private student loans. “It was great to compare multiple lenders side by side without sharing my personal data or impacting my credit score. I’ve saved

Twitter curbs Alex Jones, but InfoWars users sent to Tumblr

about $16,000 by refinancing so far.” ❚ Earn college credits at home: The ever-rising cost of college came up several times in parents’ top hacks. A typical college course can set you back more than $2,000 at a public college and well over $4,000 at a private institution. “One way to save is to take as many college courses as you can online and then transfer them,” 49-year old David Mountain wrote via Facebook direct message.

Mountain uses a site called Study.com. According to the site’s College Accelerator page, it offers around 150 popular college courses that most students have to take anyway, but at roughly onetenth of the normal cost. The credit is transferable to more than 1,500 top colleges and universities. ❚ Alexa to the rescue: Several parents also mention smart home gadgets.

“I hate to say it,” Tim Kicmol wrote on Facebook, “but, we have 3 (Amazon Echo) Alexas and 2 Amazon cameras.

We use the (Echo) Alexa as an intercom system to talk to the three boys from our bedroom. When we are really tired we instruct Alexa to read a story to them.

The cameras are used to confirm the boys are staying in their rooms at night.”

Also on Facebook, Matt Hemmert added: “Alexa. She (yes we call her she)

is fully integrated into our thermostat, yard sprinklers, room lights, comic relief, timers, shopping lists, schedules, etc. At this level of stickiness, I don’t know if we’d be able to “unsmart” our home. Also, something we’ve started using as well are grocery store apps to place and pay for orders and then just go pick up. My wife loves it because it means she doesn’t have to venture in with our two littlest monsters in tow and it eliminates impulse buying.” ❚ Join (or start) a social media parenting group: Since I picked up all these hacks thanks to social media, the last hack here is to remember that information and empathy are often as close as your computer.

“My parent-network in real life is about 12 people,” mom of three and parenting author Lisa Heffernan said by phone. But with her Facebook group, Grown and Flown Parents, “I have about 88,000 people to run things by.” There are thousands of well-established social media parenting groups to choose from, or it’s easy to start your own. Heffernan says just remember the rules of engagement, such as keeping comments respectful, no politics, selling stuff or bullying. Kind of like real life – the stuff you’re supposed to learn in kindergarten and all that.

Uber boosts investments in scooters, bikes, flying taxis Ride-hailing firm has Amazon-like ambitions

Ryan Suppe and Charles Ventura USA TODAY

Mike Snider USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO – Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones won’t get to tweet for a week. But even before the mild sanction from the social media service, his Infowars account had been directing users to another social media platform – Verizon-owned Tumblr.

Last Tuesday, Twitter suspended the personal account of the “Infowars” host for violating the social media company’s rules against inciting violence after Jones tweeted a link to a video on Twitter’s Periscope service calling for supporters to get their “battle rifles” ready against media and “antifa” activists.

Twitter said Jones’ account “currently has limited functionality.” Jones was told the account would regain full functionality seven days after the removal of a tweet with “a broadcast in violation of our rules.”

The one-week suspension will prevent Jones from tweeting or retweeting, though he will be able to browse Twitter.

The Twitter account for his “Infowars” show remains active.

In an interview Wednesday with NBC News, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called the suspension a “timeout.”

“I feel any suspension, whether it be a permanent or a temporary one, makes someone think about their actions and their behaviors,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey also said that Twitter has been consistent in its enforcement of rules in Jones’ case, while other companies have been “a little bit inconsistent.”

The enforcement applies to both Jones’ Twitter and Periscope accounts.

Jones, a far-right pundit and provocateur, has promoted widely debunked theories. Among other things, he has said the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders were staged and that survivors of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting were actors.

He has a large following on social media, including 889,000 followers on

Alex Jones and Infowars have run afoul of the policies of many major social media sites. TAMIR KALIFA/AP

Twitter. And he has been praised by President Donald Trump, who appeared on “InfoWars” during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Infowars had already been directing followers to yet another site – Tumblr.

“They can take our Facebook, Apple, Spotify, Tunein, Youtube, Stitcher, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Flickr, Vimeo, Sprout, Mailchimp & Disqus but they’ll never take our Tumblr!” Infowars tweeted Tuesday. The tweet includes a link to the Infowars Tumblr page.

Even as they vow to halt the spread of fake news, the major tech platforms that host social media services have been loath to eliminate users for promoting debunked theories. Instead, they have leaned on other policies to curtail these activities.

Google-owned YouTube terminated his account for violating community guidelines. Facebook removed pages for violating the social network’s policy against hate speech. Apple took down his podcasts because the company “does not tolerate hate speech.”

The Infowars app is still available on Google Play and Apple’s App Store.

Until Tuesday, despite mounting complaints that it had been ignoring Jones’ violations of policies, Twitter had maintained he had done nothing wrong.

The halting moves to stem Jones’ social media distribution have intensified a discussion about how these powerful platforms, which haven taken the place of traditional media for many Americans, decide what content users see.

Contributing: Mike Snider

Uber wants to be more than your first choice for a ride-sharing service: It wants to infiltrate your life, just as Amazon does.

The ride-hailing company, now 9 years old, is generating revenue growth and reinvesting that into a variety of expansive ventures – from scooters and bikes to flying taxis.

Uber generated $2.8 billion in revenue last quarter, up 63 percent from the same period a year ago when revenue was about $1.7 billion. The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $891 million, down about 16 percent from its $1.06 billion secondquarter loss a year ago.

Spending is a sign of growth and ambition for expanding tech companies – think Netflix and Amazon. Last year, Netflix generated $11.7 billion in revenue, with net income of $558.9 million, as it spent billions on movie and TV content and marketing in its global expansion.

Similarly, Amazon had $178 billion in revenue in 2017 with profit of $2.4 billion, and the online retailing giant fueled its expansive ventures – $13.7 billion alone on its acquisition of Whole Foods – and is now expanding into health care.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has similar ambitions. Last month, Uber invested in electric-scooter company Lime and in April acquired bike-sharing service Jump, which has more than 12,000 bicycles in 40 cities across six countries in 2017.

The company had also been experimenting with self-driving delivery trucks before shutting it down last month to focus on self-driving vehicles. Uber has restarted its autonomous vehicle trials in Pittsburgh. They were halted in the wake of an accident in March in which one of its Volvo

“We had another great quarter,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement. UBER TECHNOLOGIES

SUVs equipped with autonomous sensors failed to detect a pedestrian – and the Volvo’s safety driver failed to react in time – and hit and killed the person.

With an IPO planned for 2019, the company will continue to expand, Khosrowshahi said. “We had another great quarter, continuing to grow at an impressive rate for a business of our scale,” he said in a statement. “Going forward, we’re deliberately investing in the future of our platform: big bets like Uber Eats; congestion and environmentally friendly modes of transport like Express Pool, e-bikes and scooters; emerging businesses like Freight; and high-potential markets in the Middle East and India where we are cementing our leadership position.”

In May, the company announced it secured deals with government, aviation and hotel operators for a futuristic UberAir service it hopes to demonstrate in 2020.

In preparation for the IPO, Uber has also been in reparation mode to salve damages from revelations about sexual harassment at the company, a data breach of information involving nearly 60 million customers and drivers and its use of software to thwart city regulators.

And last week, New York City’s mayor signed a bill imposing a one-year freeze on new licenses for ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft, and another bill would require the setting of a minimum wage for drivers.

USA TODAY ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 9B

E1

USA TODAY NETWORK SPOTLIGHT Basketball offers potential for better things, but athletes contend with pressure off the court RISING ABOVE THE RESERVATION

Brian Haenchen Sioux Falls Argus Leader USA TODAY NETWORK

It should have been a highlight of her life, a fitting conclusion to a stellar high school career.

Instead, she almost missed it.

Santana White Dress, a senior, had been named a finalist for South Dakota Miss Basketball, a rare honor for a player from the reservation. But the milestone arrived at a difficult time in her life.

The death of her grandmother a year earlier and the absence of her mother exacerbated White Dress’ battle with depression and compounded the pressures of her life.

To cope, she turned to alcohol.

The night of the Miss Basketball banquet, the 18-year-old got so drunk she almost missed the ceremony. It was a lapse in judgment she regrets to this day.

Supported by her teammates and coach, she overcame the grips of alcohol and depression and earned an opportunity to play basketball at a tribal college in North Dakota. But concerns for her siblings drew her back to her hometown of Oglala, about 15 miles northwest of downtown Pine Ridge.

White Dress’ journey reflects some of the obstacles Native American athletes from reservations must overcome.

Though Native American participation at NCAA institutions increased from 2007 to 2017, only 17,345 studentathletes of the 4.6 million total studentathletes during that stretch identified as American Indian/Alaskan native. That comes to .004 percent.

Coach Laura Big Crow recognized White Dress’ potential when the 5-foot-7 guard joined her team in 2010, and Big Crow pushed her to fulfill it.

The “tough as nails” freshman bridged natural ability with a love for basketball, helping her overcome a volatile relationship with her mother.

“Basketball was a big part of my life,” said White Dress, who graduated with more than 1,000 career points and three consecutive state tournament appearances. “It made me want to keep pushing forward.”

That attitude helps underscore the importance of basketball on the Pine Ridge reservation.

For many, the game is a form of therapy, offering an escape from the struggles of their daily lives and a shelter from the vices that grip their communities. At the high school level, rabid fan support provides positive reinforcement in life and motivation in the classroom.

“I really wanted her to get out of here.

I wanted her to leave,” Big Crow said of White Dress, who committed to United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck, North Dakota. “I wanted her to take her ability and really showcase it, because I really thought she could be successful.”

Fresh off a runner-up finish at a state tournament in 2013, White Dress planned to give her medals to her ailing grandmother, Sylvia White Dress. But unknown to her, Sylvia had been hospitalized while she was away. “People just said, ‘You have to worry about basketball,’ ” White Dress recalled.

Her grandmother died before she had a chance to say goodbye.

“It made me not like basketball there for a while,” she said. “I was playing basketball when I could have been with my grandma for her last moments.”

Sylvia’s death left White Dress responsible for her youngest sister, Onyx.

During her senior year, her routine consisted of going to school, then to practice, then immediately back home to watch her baby sister. On days she couldn’t find a babysitter, she would bring Onyx with her to practice.

It was a tremendous amount of pressure for White Dress, and she began caving to the pressures of alcohol.

“I just wanted my mom, basically, and my grandma wasn’t around,” she said.

“It was just hard.”

After moving from family to family, never with her mother, while growing up, it wasn’t until high school that White Dress found a stable environment with Big Crow’s family. But the kindness of relative strangers led her to question why her own mother was unable to fill that role.

“I always ask myself: ‘Why wasn’t I good enough?’ ” White Dress said.

Some Native American students must contend with a steady pull back to the reservation when they head to college, a temptation to give up and return

HARD LESSONS SPARK SIGNS OF HOPE Santana White Dress wants “my own house, my own job, my own car and my family.” LOREN TOWNSLEY/USA TODAY NETWORK

Total minority athletes participating in NCAA sports 80 thousand

60

40

20

0

Male athletes

White Dress spends time with her cousin, Jeremy Weston, on a basketball court near her childhood home in Oglala, South Dakota. She plans to start taking classes this fall at Oglala Lakota College.

LOREN TOWNSLEY/USA TODAY NETWORK

Coach Laura Big Crow, left, welcomed White Dress to live with her family during high school. FAMILY PHOTO

“Seeing Laura’s family and how close their family is makes me want to start that off with my family. I can start with me and my siblings, and eventually my whole family would be closer.”

Santana White Dress

home where they have family and a support system. Based on the most recent NCAA statistics, Native American student-athletes had a graduation rate of

Female athletes

American Indian/ Alaskan Native

Hispanic/ Latino

Asian

Black

SOURCE NCAA USA TODAY

Dale Pine Jr. graduated from Chadron State but put aside his “big city dreams” to return to Pine Ridge and coach basketball. LOREN TOWNSLEY/USA TODAY NETWORK

25 percent, well below the overall average of 68 percent.

For White Dress, it was concern for her younger siblings that caused her to change course.

Interning at the University of Colorado the summer after high school, she left Onyx with her mother, who got drunk and was picked up by police walking around with her 3-year-old daughter.

Onyx was taken away, and White Dress’ mother lost her parental rights.

The loss of her sister created another dilemma for White Dress: She would have to choose between family and basketball.

About a month after enrolling at United Tribes College in the fall of 2014, she dropped out and returned to Pine Ridge, hoping to reunite her family. The escape basketball provided could not outweigh

her concern for her family.

“Education should probably come first, but it just came down to me wanting to come back (for my siblings), so I did,” White Dress said. “I made that decision for myself.”

Today, she lives on a ranch near Buffalo Gap National Grassland, helping her boyfriend’s family tend to horses and livestock. The 22-year-old is still trying to reunite with her younger siblings and map out her future, one she hopes involves completing her education and moving away from the reservation with her brother and three sisters.

“Seeing Laura’s family and how close their family is makes me want to start that off with my family,” White Dress said. “I can start with me and my siblings, and eventually my whole family would be closer.”

10B ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY

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USA TODAY LIFE

Visit the Tuscany where few visit and fewer live Known for romantic, sun-drenched films, this corner of Italy also has medieval towns with spectacular views. In Travel

SUNDAY TELEVISION

Friends from Boston (from left, David Giuntoli, James Roday and Romany Malco Jr.) grow closer after a suicide in “A Million Little Things.” JACK ROWAND/ABC

Moving on, moving in inspire 2 new fall series There are a million little things TV viewers could be excited about in the next few months. But what will be our next favorite new show? And what’s going on happen on some returning series? The networks faced TV journalists last month at the Television Critics Association’s summer press tour. Highlights from this summer’s panels to get fans ready for the fall: ABC’s emotional little things There’s a million reasons to wonder about “A Million Little Things.”

“Million,” due Sept. 26, is ABC’s take on an emotional “This Is Us”-style drama. It exchanges same-age siblings for a quartet of Boston friends and hockey fans – they meet while stuck in an elevator – that is rocked when one, John (Ron Livingston), commits suicide early in the premiere.

Like “Us,” the show revisits him in flashbacks, while unraveling the surviving buddies’ own baggage: Cancer, substance abuse, depression, suicidal tendencies. Sound like a lot of laughs? Well, there are some.

“All of us, for different reasons, are

Kathy Bates, joins returnee Sarah Paulson in “American Horror Story: Apocalypse,” set for a Sept.

12 debut. FREDERICK M. BROWN/ GETTY IMAGES

not living the version of life we thought we’d be living,” creator DJ Nash said. “I want to do a show about people who are stuck in life. A friend’s unexpected death causes them to re-examine their lives. Whether there are sad topics on our show, we believe it’s unbelievably optimistic. Friendship might be the one thing that can save you from yourself.”

Nash lost a friend to suicide, and said moving on is a key component of the drama, as is laughter, an easy coping mechanism. But at its heart is the notion that for male friends, emotion is a dirty word.

“Men like to talk about work, not feelings,” said Romany Malco (”Weeds”), See FALL, Page 2U

USA SNAPSHOTS©

CALENDAR Plan your week in entertainment with these highlights and pop-culture milestones: When a loved one dies,

54% of millennials don’t feel it’s necessary to see the body but want to attend a service of some sort.

SOURCE MedCure survey of 1,274 global adults ages 18-37 MIKE B. SMITH, ALEJANDRO GONZALEZ/USA TODAY

FILM William Du Vall

TV

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Tune in: The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards air Monday at 9 EDT/PDT. The awards will air from Radio City Music Hall in New York, home of the inaugural VMAs in 1984.

Cardi B leads with 10 nominations. Find out who will win song, artist and video of the year.

NETFLIX

STREAMING MUSIC Watch: “The Innocents” follows Harry and June, two runaway teenagers whose plans take an unexpected turn. Friday on Netflix.

Listen: Alice in Chains’ latest album, “Rainier Fog,” drops on Friday with singles “The One You Know” and “So Far Under.”

Go to: Melissa McCarthy stars in “The Happy Time Murders,” opening Friday. McCarthy plays Connie Edwards, a disgraced LAPD officer turned private detective who investigates when the puppet cast of a children’s show from the 1980s start turning up dead.

Compiled by Mary Cadden

2 ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY LIFE BINGEING

Hey, that book would make a great movie Hannah Yasharoff | USA TODAY

’Tis the season of beach reads, but as the summer weather heats up, you might want to stay cool by moving the party inside to watch the movie versions of your favorite books instead. ❚ “Crazy Rich Asians” hit theaters Wednesday and, as with other novel adaptations, the big question was how closely this movie would mirror the plot of its source material: Kevin Kwan’s best-selling 2013 novel. In honor of another beloved book

From left, Bert Lahr, Ray Bolger, Judy Garland and Jack Haley create movie immortality in “The Wizard of Oz.” MGM/UA HOME VIDEO

getting the big-screen treatment, we rounded up a few of our favorite book-to-movie adaptations: some from our childhood, some newer favorites and others timeless classics. ❚ Below are five of our favorite movies based on books that you can stream this weekend, whether you’ve read the book or not.

If you’re feeling nostalgic: ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ The story of the boy wizard that turned into an international phenomenon started here, in which Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) first set foot in Hogwarts. Over the course of the eight films, we fell in love with J.K. Rowling’s fantasy world – so much so that the books live on, not just as movies, but as a theme park, website, yearly convention and a Tony Award-winning play. Want to feel super old? Earlier this month, the book version of “Sorcerer’s Stone” celebrated the 20th anniversary of its U.S. release. After all this time, we’re still totally ready for Hogwarts to welcome us home. ❚ Rent or buy it on Amazon.

If you don’t need to sleep tonight: ‘Coraline’ Neil Gaiman’s terrifying fantasy children’s novel “Coraline” became an

equally chilling stop-motion film. The author has often commented that the story, though written with kids in mind, scares adults even more – especially scary is Coraline’s “other mother,” a woman who looks and sounds exactly like her mom, but has buttons sewn over her eyes. Through the fright, there’s an incredible coming-of-age story at hand: Young Coraline finds herself in an alternative universe better and more fun than she could have hoped for – until it becomes so much worse. ❚ Stream it on Netflix.

If you only had a brain/a heart/ courage: ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) travels through a portal between worlds in the animated 3-D motion picture “Coraline.” FOCUS FEATURES

The movie was released almost 80 years ago, but this is one classic you can come back to again and again. It’s a great choice if you’re in the mood for a singalong or just looking to re-live the fantasy story about a young farm girl trapped in a strange land who enlists the help of new friends to get her home.

Adapted from L. Frank Baum’s 1900 book, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” it was one of the first major films to be made in Technicolor, and boy, did they take advantage. (See: Dorothy’s ruby slippers, the yellow-brick road, the Wicked Witch of the West’s green skin, etc.)

Fall

Roommate inspires CBS comedy New CBS comedy “Happy Together” is loosely based on executive producer Ben Winston’s experience lending the attic of his suburban London home to singer Harry Styles.

But the former One Direction star stayed with his family – as a fictional rock star (Felix Mallard) does with a suburban couple (Damon Wayans Jr. and Amber Stevens West) in the comedy — for 18 months without it ever becoming a big deal.

“I don’t think anyone knew he was living with us” besides a couple of neighbors, Winston said. “He would have to lose the paparazzi on a night out.

Sometimes, he’d say he’d be home in 30 minutes and (he would arrive) three hours later. He didn’t want to drag any photographers back home.”

Winston, who also produces “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” was making a film with One Direction and said Styles asked to shack up for a couple of weeks. But a delay in a house closing and renovations extended his stay.

Styles, who revealed the secret living arrangement in a later interview, liked the stability of the suburban home and “wanted to live in a family unit (rather)

If you’re looking for an offer you can’t refuse: ‘The Godfather’ The Marlon Brando/Al Pacino crime classic follows a New York mafia family as the father passes down his mantle to his reluctant son. Based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel, the 10-time Oscar nominee is considered one of the most influential films of all time. “The Godfather: Part II” and “Part III” are also available on Netflix if you’re looking for a full-on bingewatch party. (In which case, you’ll need some snacks. We recommend revenge, “a dish best served cold.”) ❚ Stream it on Netflix.

If you have way too much time on your hands: ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’ The first film in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, this movie brings to life the epic fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel. It also clocks in at a whopping three hours and 55 minutes (the next two films follow suit with three hours and 55 minutes and three hours and 21 minutes, respectively), so we recommend pressing play on the earlier side of your day. ❚ Stream it on Netflix.

airing in 2019, network chief Mark Pedowitz said.

Ruby Rose (“Orange is the New Black,” “The Meg”) was cast in the role.

Will Batman show up, too? “Batman already exists in the Arrow-verse,” Pedowitz said; he was mentioned by Oliver Queen last season on “Arrow.” “Batwoman, if the series goes forward, lives in Gotham. But there’s no plans at this point for the character to appear.” (A younger version is already center stage on Fox’s “Gotham,” which is readying a final season).– Gary Levin

Continued from Page 1U

who plays Rome.

“Guys often bond around doing things with each other; it’s also not the best thing to show weakness,” said David Giuntoli (“Grimm”), who plays buddy Eddie.

NBC’s “Us,” one of TV’s biggest recent hits, “paved the way” for Nash, a veteran comedy producer, to delve into the bleak, demonstrating there’s an audience for the types of shows (“Thirtysomething,” “Once and Again,” “Brothers and Sisters”) that were once a hallmark of ABC. Even James Roday, the jokey “Psych” star who plays Gary, takes a dramatic turn.

Will it ever explain why John took his own life? Maybe. “You can never find a reason that makes sense,” Livingston said. “There’s something missing and broken. It’s probably not one thing.”

“It’s a million little things,” Nash said.

– Gary Levin

❚ Stream it on Amazon Prime.

Claire and Jake (Amber Stevens West and Damon Wayans Jr., right) find their lives upended by long-term guest Cooper (Felix Mallard). CLIFF LIPSON/CBS

than alone in a mansion,” Winston said.

That element is preserved in “Happy Together” (due Oct. 1) as singer Cooper James (Mallard) enjoys the calmer lifestyle of his accountant, Jake (Wayans), and his restaurant-designer wife, Claire (West).

A call from Styles helped persuade Mallard to take the role, but Cooper isn’t really based on the singer, the Australian actor said.

There’s a good reason why the series is only “loosely inspired” by Styles’ stay.

“Our lives were really very boring,” Winston said. – Bill Keveney

Jessica Lange back for FX ‘Horror’ The “Apocalypse” is coming, but we don’t know too much about it.

The eighth season of FX’s “American Horror Story,” subtitled “Apocalypse” (Sept. 12, 10 EDT/PDT) brings together characters and plots from the “Murder House” and “Coven” installments of the horror anthology season. But the cast, including returning stars Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates and Emma Roberts, couldn’t say much about it.

“There is a specific mystery to the show that is better unfolded,” said producer Alexis Martin Woodall. “It’s an experience. This season is a different experience, as always.”

And although the actors couldn’t reveal much about the new season, they confirmed that fan favorite Jessica Lange would return, playing Constance, her character from the series’ first sea-

son, “Murder House.”

The cast revealed whom they’ll play, including new characters and returning favorites from other seasons.

Leslie Grossman, Billie Lourd and Adina Porter will play new characters Coco St. Pierre Vanderbilt, Mallory and Dina Stevens, respectively. Emma Roberts will reprise her role as Madison Montgomery from “Coven.” Kathy Bates rocks a short, dark haircut as new character Ms. Meade. Paulson plays Venable, Cordelia (from “Coven”) and Billie Dean (from “Murder House”).

And how about that apocalypse? The group wouldn’t say what kind of event would bring about the end of the world, only that it is “the apocalypse in the truest sense of the word,” Paulson said.

“The story begins with the end of the world and then our world begins,” Woodall said. “It starts in the real world. It’s very tangible.”

A ninth season of the anthology series is already in the works, and FX promised a 10th to follow. – Kelly Lawler

CW goes to bat for new superhero CW’s next potential superhero: “Batwoman.”

The network has five superhero series on its fall schedule and is eyeing a sixth in DC Comics’ “Batwoman,” who will first appear in its annual DC Comics crossover event this fall.

But CW is also developing a potential series built around the character, from executive producer Greg Berlanti, for

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USA TODAY LIFE ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 3 FASHION

Asian designs shine on ‘Crazy Rich’ carpet Carly Mallenbaum USA TODAY

If you know two things about the new movie “Crazy Rich Asians,” you probably know these: It’s the first Hollywood studio film about an Asian-American character’s story in over 25 years, and it features luxurious fashion.

Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, Celine – all those designers are name-checked in the film adapted from the book of the same name. After all, the “Crazy Rich Asians” novel was written by Kevin Kwan, a man who described his relationship with fashion this way: “As my mom always says, I wasn’t born to shop; I was conceived to shop,” Kwan said at the “Crazy Rich” Hollywood premiere recently. “I was basically (my mom’s) bag carrier all around the boutiques of Europe and Asia” before going to Parsons School of Design and later producing magazine shoots, he said.

So it makes sense that the cast of the “Crazy Rich” movie, which hit U.S. theaters Wednesday, would be dressed to impress at their premiere. But several cast members took it a step further on the carpet for their landmark film: They wore ensembles by Asian designers as they posed for photos and gave interviews outside the TCL Chinese Theatre.

Two of the movie’s stuffy “aunties,” Janice Koh and Selena Tan, used their outfits to pay homage to Singapore, their hometown and the setting of the movie. Koh wore a mandarin-collared black gown with flared sleeves by Singapore-based label Ong Shunmugam, and Tan rocked a navy and black frock

by Singaporean designer Frederick Lee Couture.

Tan Kheng Hua, who stars as the mother of Constance Wu’s fish-out-of-

water protagonist Rachel Chu, showed off a kimono dress from Singaporean designer Thomas Wee. Constance Lau, who is a Radio1 Asia personality in the film, wore – as she described it – “a take on the Chinese dress, what we call a cheongsam in Singapore.” Her version was made

by Singaporean designers of brand Time Taken to Make a Dress.

Jimmy O. Yang, the wild Bernard in “Crazy Rich,” walked the carpet in a custom-made suit by Ge Wang of ESQ in Chicago. “I wanted to support the local Asian designers,” he said about the opulent jacket.

Gemma Chan, fashionista Astrid in the movie, said she’s been making a point to spotlight several different Asian designers on the “Crazy Rich” press tour. For the Hollywood premiere, she was in Oscar de la Renta.

One of his proteges, Laura Kim, is Asian. “I am representing!” she said.

Nicos Santos, who’s a style expert onscreen, is not that dissimilar from his character in real life.

“I used to work in retail,” he said at the premiere. “Neiman’s, Dior, Jimmy Choo ... after my shift, I would go do (comedy) open mics.”

Though Santos didn’t wear an Asian designer – he wore Paul Smith – he did find a different way to spotlight a designer important to him.

“Because I used to work for Bottega Veneta, I did suggest that we drop that name (in my character’s dialogue) because it is one of the most luxe labels out there. And I wanted to give a shoutout to my old employers.”

PHOTOS BY AFP/ GETTY IMAGES, INVISION/AP; EPA-EFE

ENTERTAINMENT

How you buy movie tickets evolving MoviePass is struggling, but other subscription services are jumping in Patrick Ryan USA TODAY

Your MoviePass deal just got a lot less sweet.

Earlier this month, the harried movie ticket subscription service announced that it’s scaling back its plan to three movies a month, after nearly a year of allowing users to see one film a day for just $9.95.

The news came after a particularly frustrating couple of weeks for subscribers, marked by a $5 price hike (later reversed), restrictions on seeing major new movies and multiple outages when the app wouldn’t work – the result of the company running out of cash.

Fortunately for thrifty moviegoers, theater chains have smelled blood in the water and devised their own moneysaving subscription plans. Cinemark Movie Club, for instance, gives you one movie ticket (3D showings excluded) at Cinemark theaters for $8.99 per month; unused tickets roll over and the fee includes 20% off concessions. Alamo Drafthouse is also starting to test subscription models for its boutique dinein cinemas, which would offer unlimited movies and reserved seating.

USA TODAY tested out some highprofile subscription plans to see how they stack up against MoviePass.

MoviePass If you’re already a MoviePass subscriber, you’re probably familiar with the increasing restrictions on using the service: In addition to seeing only one movie a day and having to buy your ticket at the theater, you can’t see films more than once and may need to snap a photo of your ticket stub to verify your purchase.

There are also some major releases, such as summer blockbuster “Mission: Impossible – Fallout,” that may charge additional fees or not be available on the

MoviePass has announced a rate increase and restrictions, but rivals offer alternatives to the leading movie-ticket subscription service. DARRON CUMMINGS/AP

app at all.

Despite the inconveniences and impending price increase, MoviePass’ greatest advantage over its competitors is that most every theater accepts it, which gives cinephiles the option to see films they might not normally cough up $15 for. We happily chose Kelly Macdonald’s drama “Puzzle” at New York’s cozy Angelika Film Center, which we purchased with MoviePass with no issues.

AMC Stubs A-List A little more than a month ago, MoviePass’ most vocal detractor, AMC, announced its own rival subscription plan, which gives you three movies a week at AMC theaters (3D and IMAX included) for $19.95 a month.

So far, the service has drawn in 175,000 subscribers, and plenty more are likely to follow if their experiences

are as positive as ours.

Of the three major subscriptions, Stubs A-List is easily the most convenient. At any given time, you can buy up to three tickets for movies now playing or opening that week. All you have to do is select the theater, date and showtime for the movie of your choice, pick your seat, and click a box to reserve your ticket. And unlike MoviePass – which requires you to use a company-issued debit card to buy your ticket – Stubs A-List is all digital, so you can simply pull up the ticket on your app once you get to the theater.

Plus, there are no restrictions on how many times you see a film. (We opted for “Mission: Impossible” twice in one day and have zero regrets.)

Sinemia The fledgling subscription service has

been around for a few years but has only recently ramped up its offerings to rival MoviePass.

Sinemia features a variety of membership plans, such as $3.99 for one 2D movie a month or $14.99 for three movies a month, which also includes 3D and IMAX-4DX showings. It also introduced four tiers of “family plans,” beginning at $7.99 for two people to see one 2D movie a month.

However you do the math, it’s still not as great a deal as either MoviePass or Stubs A-List.

It’s also a huge headache to use if you don’t opt for a physical Sinemia card. To purchase a ticket using their cardless service, you find your desired theater in the “planning” tab of the app. Once you enter the approximate date, time and number of people for the movie you’d like to see, Sinemia generates a temporary credit card number for you to use on Fandango, MovieTickets.com or another ticket-selling website to go through the process of actually ordering the ticket.

It’s an unnecessarily confusing process bringing two apps into the mix.

Not only did we have to check into the Sinemia app for our afternoon showing of “Skyscraper” – which you can do only a half-hour before or after the movie starts – but we also had to use Fandango to pull up the ticket on our phone once we got there.

So which is the best deal?

It all comes down to a matter of taste.

For those who don’t mind waiting a couple of weeks to see the hot new releases, MoviePass is still the most affordable option and offers the widest variety of choices.

If you’re unlikely to branch out into lesser-known films and wished MoviePass had let you see “Avengers: Infinity War” more than once, you can’t beat AMC Stubs A-List for its user-friendly service, reserved seats and ability to rewatch recent flicks.

Sinemia simply has too many kinks to work out before we can wholeheartedly recommend.

4 ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY LIFE

TRAVEL DISPATCHES

A uritrottoir on the Ile Saint-Louis in Paris. THOMAS SAMSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Paris tries to solve its No. 1 problem Tourists visiting Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral and River Seine might see more than they came for as public, exposed urinals are now available for use across the city.

The bright red “uritrottoirs” are meant as an eco-friendly solution to public peeing. The receptacles look like a planter at first glance, with greenery filling the top. But a sign directs eyes down to the side of the structure, revealing a urinal. Aside from a slight U-shaped catcher, there are no privacy shields for any man using it.

And not all of the urinals are tucked away in private places – one actually faces a waterway frequented by tourist boats.

The uritrottoir on the Ile Saint-Louis, near the Notre Dame cathedral and about 22 yards away from a school, has been widely criticized by locals, Reuters reports.

“There’s no need to put something so immodest and ugly in such an historic spot,” local art store owner Paola Pellizzari told Reuters.

Paris has struggled to prevent public or “wild peeing” for years, even implementing an “incivility brigade” to enforce fines for uncouth behavior in 2016.

The company behind uritrottoir says the receptacles are filled with straw, where the urine flows, and can be used for compost within a year.

The uritrottoir, marketed as odorfree, also comes in a variety of shapes and sizes.

– Ashley May

Southwest is issuing new rules for service animals. SPECIAL TO USA TODAY

Southwest: New rules for animals Southwest Airlines has become the latest big airline to tighten policies on service and emotional support animals.

The carrier said its “update” would take effect Sept. 17 and would “provide clearer guidelines” to customers.

Southwest says emotional support animals will be: only dogs and cats; one per customer; required to “remain in a carrier or be on a leash at all times.”

The airline says passengers traveling with emotional support animals must still present a letter from a medical doctor or licensed mental health professional on the day of departure.

For service animals, Southwest says it will accept “only the most common service animals – dogs, cats, and miniature horses.” The Americans with Disabilities Act includes a provision about the use of miniature horses as service animals, though it’s unclear how an airline might accommodate a passenger requesting to bring one on a flight.

Southwest also said it would do more to recognize fully trained psychiatric support animals.

Southwest notes that PSAs “are individually trained to perform a task or work for a person with a mental health-related disability. A credible verbal assurance will be sufficient to travel with a PSA,” though Southwest adds “all emotional support and service animals must be trained to behave in a public setting and must be under the control of the handler at all times.”

– Ben Mutzabaugh

Lupinaia, population 67, features a soaring, turreted bell tower and hosts an annual chestnut harvest that draws thousands of culinary pilgrims each November. ELIOT STEIN FOR USA TODAY

Ghost towns of Tuscany: Splendor frozen in time Eliot Stein Special to USA TODAY

I

t’s easy to miss the ancient Tuscan town of Sommocolonia, Italy. Perched on the spine of a high ridge amid a wild expanse of canyons, ravines and chestnut forests 38 miles north of Pisa, there are no restaurants, inns or cafes there. Nor are there any banks, grocery stores, pharmacies or things that really make a town a town. The stone settlement isn’t included on most local maps, and from a dis-

tance, it looks as if it might tumble down the mountainside and vanish into the misty Serchio Valley below.

Wandering through the pint-size village is a surreal experience. On a recent Saturday afternoon, Sommocolonia’s three cobblestone streets were deserted, but flowering bougainvillea burst out of clay pots and freshly lit candles flickered in its empty Gothic church. Evidence of modern life is hard to find, yet traces of Sommocolonia’s proud past are everywhere. A crumbling castle crowns the hill, medieval walls top earlier Roman fortifications, and a 12th-century bell tower faces the snowcapped peaks of the Apennine Mountains.

For the last thousand years, this picture-perfect place has seemingly defied time and gravity. Nearly 400 people lived within its 16th-century walls in the 1930s, but as villagers left in search of work, Sommocolonia’s school and shops left with them. Today, only 22 residents remain, and Sommocolonia, like so many medieval villages in this enchanting corner of northwest Tuscany, quietly clings to life on the mountainside.

For every Siena or San Gimignano that lures busloads of tourists up its crests, there are scores of Sommocolonias. Tucked between the folds of the Apennines and the Apuan Alps in an area known as the Garfagnana, these tiny medieval jewels are nestled in spectacular hilltop settings, surrounded by award-winning organic wineries, and brimming with seasonal specialties like handmade chestnut-flour pasta and porcini mushrooms.

And while they may not boast the Renaissance paintings or cosmopolitan finesse of their more famous neighbors, they’re also free from the suffocating crowds and selfie sticks that come with them. This is a pocket of Italy’s most popular region where very few people live and even fewer visit – a remote idyll of sun-drenched slopes unsullied by Frances Mayes’ Tuscan sun.

“These forgotten villages represent the rustic soul of Tuscany,” said chef Alessandro Manfredini as we hiked past the clanging of free-range goats to his home in Sommocolonia from the town of Barga – one of Italy’s Slow Food capitals. “But we Italians are losing our rural roots, our identity. When

If you go ❚ Sleep: Set in the heart of a 1,500acre park, the Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco offers sweeping views of the Serchio Valley and medieval town of Barga from its 180 rooms and suites. Zen-like spa treatments, an indoor and outdoor pool, excellent restaurant serving locally sourced meals, and hiking trails connecting nearby villages make it an ideal base for exploring the area. ❚ Eat: Hunt for porcini mushrooms, DOP chestnut flour and more at Barga’s weekly Saturday market, or Castelnuovo di Garfagnana’s Thursday market. Then, book at table at Trattoria L’Altana in Barga, where the homemade tagliatelle pasta with pumpkin, pecorino and pancetta is delightful. ❚ Drink: Of the Garfagnana’s many biodynamic wineries, Podere Concori is our favorite. Owner Gabriele de Prato uses an astrological calendar to dictate his harvest, and his small-batch Melograno was recently named Italy’s top biodynamic wine. ❚ Do: Well-marked hiking trails criss-cross the Garfagnana and connect to dozens of small villages.

You can also descend into an underground labyrinth of lakes and caverns at the Grotta del Vento.

The 11th-century Ponte del Diavolo (Devil’s Bridge) spans the Serchio Valley at the town of Borgo a Mozzano and shouldn’t be missed.

these small towns disappear, so do the traditions that make Italy special.”

According to a 2016 study by Italy’s Ministry of Environment, 5,627 towns now have fewer than 5,000 residents.

Of those, a staggering 2,430 are unlikely to survive the next 25 years, as young people move away and old people pass away. In an effort to cheat death, many Italian towns have scrambled to come up with solutions that keep their communities from falling into oblivion.

In 2015, the mayor of a town in Ca-

labria signed a cheeky decree forbidding its 537 residents from getting sick and dying. Another, Riace, has welcomed about 450 migrants from more than 20 countries to revive the town and raise its dwindling population of 800. And in the past decade, dozens of rural towns from Patrica, Lazio, (population: 3,176) to Salemi, Sicily, (population: 11,250) have been giving away abandoned homes for 1 euro to anyone willing to make the structures inhabitable again.

Yet these endangered enclaves dwarf the gorgeous ghost towns of the Garfagnana, where dozens of dying hilltop towns now have fewer than 100 people.

The day after I visited Sommocolonia, I crossed mountain streams and thickly forested acacia woods to the medieval town of Treppignana (population: 28). Its terracotta roofs gaze out over two slopes, one whose castle walls protect Perpoli’s 23 residents, the other whose studded lookout towers guard Palleroso’s 74 inhabitants.

“Before roads and phones came in the 1950s, we used to communicate with other villages in the area by smoke signal,” a lone shepherd told me as I crunched back through the forest.

Today, a footpath still connects the region’s two main towns, Barga and Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, with trails branching off to link many of the region’s teeny treasures, like Volcascio (population: 27), where a 14th-century sandstone bridge arches across a gorge; Lupinaia (population: 67), whose soaring, turreted bell tower and annual chestnut harvest draw thousands of culinary pilgrims each November; and Riana (population: 64), which swells each October during its annual wine festival and Race of the Barrels.

But come any other time, and it feels like you’re discovering a secret slice of Tuscany very few know about.

“It’s beautiful, it’s tranquil, and I’m optimistic for our future,” said thirdgeneration Sommocolonian Massimo Nardini, who runs a nonprofit and small museum promoting the town.

“Ten years ago, there weren’t visitors,” he said. “Now, we have hikers, English and American families have bought old houses, and the world is starting to find us. I think we can still be here in 25 years.”

USA TODAY LIFE ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 5

10Best: Finding ‘hair of the dog’ is easy Larry Bleiberg Special to USA TODAY

A growing number of beer lovers are picking up a leash before they raise a glass. Across the country, craft breweries are increasingly welcoming canines and their owners, says Bethany Vinton, who runs DogsonTap.com, a directory of dog-friendly breweries. ❚ “Beer and dogs go hand in hand; they’re both social things,” she says. ❚ Vinton, who makes regular brewery visits with Carter, her border-collie mix, shares some favorite spots to sip suds with a tail-wagger.

The ABGB, Austin, Texas The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. is on the 11th version of its Austin Pets Alive! American Pale Ale (APA! APA), which has raised more than $45,000 for local animal charities. “If you have a beer that’s constantly on tap that $1 goes back to help pups, that’s incredibly awesome,” Vinton says. It’s also not a bad place for humans, having twice been named Brewpub of the Year by the Great American Beer Festival. theabgb.com

The Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. raises money for animal charities.

County Line Brewing, Garden City, Idaho This Boise-area taproom has a resident dog, Barley the Brew Pup, who also welcomes visitors to the pub’s Facebook page. The brewery offers dog treats made from spent-grains that had been used to brew beer. “It’s super local. Everyone knows everyone, and they’re incredibly dog friendly. Plus, their beer’s excellent,” Vinton says. countylinebrewing.com

Dark City Brewing, Asbury Park, New Jersey When Vinton lived in New Jersey, she would often make the trip to this canine-friendly brewery. It recently sponsored a fitness class called “Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses,” where owners were encouraged to stretch with their pets.

“This is a place that I frequented often.

They have a brewery dog that hangs out there,” she says. darkcitybrewing.com

Beer’d Brewing, Stonington, Connecticut Vinton says this may be the most dog-friendly brewery in the country. Although animals must stay in the out-

Dark City Brewing in Asbury Park, N.J., sponsors special canine-themed events, such as a “Doggy Noses and Yoga Poses” fitness class.

BETHANY VINTON

door areas, it hosts fundraisers for rescues and supports local animal charities. It also has a full array of dog merch, including collars, leashes and trail bowls, but she’s particularly fond of the stuffed toys shaped like the brewery’s canned beers. Plus, one of their top-sellers is an IPA called Dogs & Boats. “They really go above and beyond for dogs there.” beerdbrewing.com

Snowbank Brewing, Fort Collins, Colorado During Vinton’s cross-country move to Oregon, she made sure she and Carter stopped by this taproom, home to several resident rescue dogs. Her dog ended up having an impromptu party with other canines, with all the animals hanging out in Adirondack chairs. “The owners came out and had a beer with them,” she says. “They encourage you to bring your dog.” snowbank.beer

EXPERIENCE

TRAVEL CRUISES

Grist House Brewing, Millvale, Pennsylvania When Vinton visited this Pittsburgharea pub, she was surprised to see that every patron was accompanied by a dog. “Literally everyone,” she says. The brewery is dog-friendly throughout, from the all-season patio to the beer garden. “You can bring your dog right up to the bar and order your beer.” gristhouse.com

Buoy Brewing, Astoria, Oregon Even though it’s 90 minutes from Vinton’s home in Portland, she often makes the drive to this waterfront watering hole. “We do have dog-friendly breweries in Portland, but this is by and large my favorite. I’ll make a special trip to go there.” The owners work with a boxer rescue group, and she loves the setting on a Columbia River dock, where humans and dogs can watch sea lions through a window in the floor. buoybeer.com

Fifth Hammer Brewing, Long Island City, New York

industrial brewery encourages visitors to take photos with their dogs at sunset with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop. “It’s a really hip brewery,” Vinton says. “The owner goes out of his way to meet all the dogs who visit.” fifthhammerbrewing.com

New Realm, Atlanta A recently opened brewery and restaurant, New Realm has already made its name with the city’s animal lovers, sponsoring “Find Your Drinking Buddy” dog adoption events on its first floor patio overlooking the city’s Beltline trail. It’s also poised to open a tasting room in Virginia Beach, Virginia. newrealmbrewing.com

Moksa Brewing, Rocklin, California This recently opened dog-loving brewery near Sacramento is clearly dedicated to pugs. It just released a pugthemed beer, Take Me Home, which promoted a pug rescue charity event.

Plus, it has two resident pugs, who star in their own Instagram page, @beerpugs. “They’re adorable,” Vinton says. moksabrewing.com

Located in a warehouse district, the

FOR MORE INFORMATION USATODAY.COM/EXPERIENCE/

Regent, Crystal Cruises plan epic journeys Jordan, Serenity will pass through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean for final calls at Cyprus, Greece and Italy.

Fares start at $30,447 per person, not including taxes, fees and port charges of $5,720.

Gene Sloan USA TODAY

Cruise lines are constantly tweaking their schedules. Sometimes it’s just the addition of a single port to a long-established itinerary. Other times it’s the rollout of an all-new route. Here are some of the more notable new itinerary announcements from recent weeks.

Azamara eyes French Polynesia

Carnival to return to San Diego Cruises out of San Diego will be back on the schedule at Carnival starting in 2019. The Miami-based line’s 2,124-passenger Carnival Miracle will move to the city late in the year for a three-month season of Mexico and Hawaii cruises.

The ship currently is based in Tampa, Florida.

Carnival first offered voyages out of San Diego on a seasonal basis in 2005 and eventually began operating there year-round. But Carnival pulled out of San Diego in 2012 as it pursued a strategy of expanding in Australia.

Miracle will kick off its new deployment Dec. 1, 2019, with a seven-day cruise to the Mexican Riviera. The San Diego-based program will include two five-day voyages to Mexico that feature two days in Cabo San Lucas (departing on Dec. 22, 2019, and Jan. 12, 2020) and two three-day Mexico getaways that bring a day visit to Ensenada (departing on Dec. 27, 2019, and Jan. 3, 2020).

Additional sailings include two longer-length voyages of 14 and 15 days to Hawaii that begin on Dec. 8, 2019, and Jan. 17, 2020, respectively.

Regent schedules epic cruise ...

Luxury line Regent Seven Seas plans another epic cruise that includes stops on every continent except Antarctica.

The 117-night voyage on Seven Seas Mariner will begin Jan. 5, 2021, in Miami

The Azamara Journey accommodates about 700 passengers. It will head to Hawaii and Polynesia in 2020. AZAMARA CLUB CRUISES

and include calls at 61 ports in 30 countries.

Mariner will nearly circle the globe during the sailing, which starts with visits to the Caribbean islands of Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Bonaire and Aruba. From the Caribbean, Mariner will cross the Panama Canal to Ecuador and Peru before heading west across the Pacific Ocean to Easter Island, the Pitcairn Islands, Tahiti, Bora Bora and Samoa. The ship then will spend more than three weeks in New Zealand and Australia before multiple stops in Asia.

The trip concludes with a transit of the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean.

Fares start at $61,999, including firstclass flights to Miami, business-class flights back from Barcelona, Spain, shore-side events and other perks.

… and so does Crystal Cruises Crystal Cruises also is touting an epic

world cruise to take place in 2020. The 105-day voyage from Miami to Civitavecchia, Italy (the port for Rome), will start Jan. 6, 2020, and include a wide range of calls in Central America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe.

Taking place on the 980-passenger Crystal Serenity, the sailing will include a passage through the Panama Canal and stops at nearly a dozen island destinations in the Pacific Ocean, including Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands, Rangiroa, Bora Bora, Moorea, Tahiti and Raiatea. Stops in Tonga and Fiji also are on the schedule.

As part of the trip, Serenity will spend 11 days on an extensive exploration of New Zealand’s coastline before visiting Australia for 12 days. In Asia, calls are planned across Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India as the ship works its way west to Oman and the Gulf of Aden. After stops at the Red Sea ports of Israel and

Azamara Club Cruises in 2020 will offer a voyage to Hawaii and French Polynesia – a first for the line. The 18-night sailing on the Azamara Journey will begin Jan. 5, 2020, in Los Angeles.

Journey initially will spend five days at sea as it sails southwest from Los Angeles to the Hawaiian Islands. Four calls at the island chain are planned, at Hilo on the Big Island; Lahaina, Maui; Honolulu, Oahu; and Nawiliwili, Kauai.

After departing Hawaii, Journey will spend six more days at sea on the long trip south to French Polynesia. Once there, it’ll make day stops at Bora Bora and Moorea before ending the voyage with an overnight call at Papeete, Tahiti.

Azamara is adding a third vessel this year, expanding its capacity by 50 percent.

Cunard adds Papua New Guinea Cunard Line is out with a new, oneoff cruise itinerary for 2020 that focuses on Papua New Guinea – a destination that gets relatively few ship visits.

The 14-night sailing on the 2,092passenger Queen Elizabeth will start Feb. 17, 2020, in Sydney and include four calls at the Oceanian country, which is north of Australia.

Queen Elizabeth also will stop at Brisbane, Australia, on the way north to Papua New Guinea and Cairns, Australia, on the way back. The trip will end where it began, in Sydney.

Fares start at $2,589 per person for a windowless “inside” cabin. Cabins with an ocean view start at $3,399.

6 ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ USA TODAY LIFE

BOOKS BOOK REVIEW

BOOK REVIEW

Peter Mayle’s last chapter from Provence

‘The Summer Wives’ sizzles with passion

Ashley Day USA TODAY

Every traveler can admit to loving a destination enough to daydream about living there. Few actually move based on a vacation.

English author Peter Mayle first shared the story of how he and his wife, Jennie, fell for the storybook scenery and exquisite food of the Provencal region in his 1990 best-seller “A Year in Provence,” which became a TV series in 1993.

Fans of Mayle, who died in his beloved Provence in January at age 78, can find solace in “My Twenty-Five Years in Provence” (Knopf, 192 pp., eeeg), a posthumous collection of previously unpublished essays.

(The book was planned before his death.)

In the new pieces, Mayle recounts the logistics of the couple’s transition as they moved to a 200-year-old farmhouse in France, from real estate to learning the language, and the process of picking up on an altogether different culture. Of course, food and wine are instrumental in acclimating to life in France, as are social norms such as the local cafe and market traditions.

Mayle finds the humor in his stumbles to blend in, isn’t shy about the downsides to living in this particular paradise – aggressive drivers, summer visitors and fall hunters, to name a few – and exposes even the most subtle idiosyncrasies that he observed among locals over time (such as detailed medical conversations for even minor aches and pains).

The annoyances pale in comparison to Provence’s desirable trademarks: Its friendly atmosphere, 300 days of sunshine a year, imaginative food, abundance of wine, simplicity and relaxed pace are among what Mayle calls a “catalog of blessings.”

Individual chapters are devoted to Provence’s many festivals, the cadence

Patty Rhule Special to USA TODAY

Whether you are headed to the beaches of Malibu or Martha’s Vineyard, “The Summer Wives” (William Morrow, 367 pp., eeeg) is a satisfying simmer of a read about stepsisters, passion and murder on swanky Winthrop Island, a fictional version of the real-life Fishers Island off Long Island Sound.

Beatriz Williams, the best-selling author of “A Certain Age,” captures the gin- and champagne-soaked hedonism of summers among the privileged set who ship in musicians from Hawaii to play for a luau-themed party.

Winthrop Island is ruled by the wealthy 1 percenters; it runs by the hard work of the year-round residents, mostly Portuguese Americans who catch the lobsters, stock the stores and keep the lighthouse glowing.

Author Beatriz Williams The late author Peter Mayle has a few more stories left. JENNIE MAYLE

of the cafe each day, the local sport (boules), the concept of truffle hunting and the iconic wine, Provencal rose.

Even more endearing than sharing his wife’s candid photographs of quintessential scenes in their adopted home are Mayle’s final pages detailing four trademark aspects of Provencal life,

which he hoped would never change.

Short and sweet, these stories paint an idyllic picture of a charming, slowpaced place, the sort that might beckon for the next season of life. And with Mayle’s memories, tips and powerful storytelling, you’ll realize it’s possible, whichever destination you pick.

BOOK REVIEW

‘Little Panic’ offers little takeaway Zlati Meyer USA TODAY

Our increasingly complicated world makes childhood more stressful and worry-filled. Gaining insight into how youngsters feel as their cocoons are invaded by anxiety and fear – and what can be done to help them – is tremendously valuable.

“Little Panic: Dispatches from an Anxious Life” (Grand Central, 385 pp., eeEE) tries to do that. The book offers a glimpse into the maelstrom churning in the mind of Amanda Stern, who shares in-depth recollections of her childhood.

The memoirist grew up in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the 1970s and ’80s, presumably with all the makings of a smooth-sailing life. But starting from early childhood, she was wracked with an all-consuming sense of worry and dread.

It took years to diagnose Stern, who also suffered from having a checked-out father and a clueless mother. Many chapters begin with excerpts from the author’s psychological and school evaluations over the years.

Stern tries to convey how consumed she was with nervousness, uncertainty and fear: For example, she was convinced her mother would die or move away. To prevent that from happening, the then-elementary-school-age Stern believed she had to keep a watchful eye on her mom.

Her worry reached a fever pitch after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished in 1979.

He was a neighborhood boy whom Stern (then 9) didn’t know but whose disappearance brought national awareness to the plight of missing children.

She became so obsessed with the case that once she called a police officer over, thinking she had found Etan – un-

The case of missing child Etan Patz haunted the author as a kid. AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Author Amanda Stern

til the cop pointed out that the child she had found was Chinese.

Interspersed among these more-bitter-than-sweet chapters are snapshots of Stern’s life as an adult, including tales of a failed relationship with a long-term loser boyfriend and the grief that comes from the sale of one’s childhood home.

The problem is that unlike many other autobiographies, there are no universal lessons in “Little Panic.” It reads like an incessant whine. And the whole

time, the reader thinks, “Wow, these parents are lousy.”

Also detracting from the kvetchy autobiography is Stern’s voice as a writer. In memories from her childhood, Stern writes with a erudite elegance that a kid simply wouldn’t have – even one who grew up in a sophisticated household and attended private school.

“One day I’ll have to live on the street side of life. On the garden side we look after one another ... If only this were the entire world. If only the garden could hold us all”? No young child thinks like that. “The night is fast-forwarding its heaviness and I feel it coming for me”? Please.

While sporadic bursts of beauty in Stern’s writing – “a growing constellation of errors,” for example – prevent “Little Panic” from being unbearable, the uneven tone and crass piggybacking on the Patz family’s tragedy make this a collection of dispatches to skip.

Miranda Schuyler is a newcomer to the island in 1951 when she arrives for the wedding of her widowed mother to patrician Hugh Fisher. There, she meets her new stepsister, the confident and cavalier Isobel, who is engaged to Clay Monk but has a special bond with Joseph Vargas, a handsome young lobsterman who lives with his parents in the lighthouse.

Joseph and Isobel exchange signals across the harbor, evoking the green harbor light in “The Great Gatsby,” but the nature of their longing is not what you – or Miranda – might think.

The summer ends with a tragedy that shatters Miranda’s newfound family. In chapters that alternate among 1969 – when Miranda returns home after 18 years away – 1951 and 1930, Williams tantalizingly unspools the saga of why Joseph has escaped prison and why he was there in the first place.

Miranda is a beautifully crafted character, a worldly wise actress when she returns to the island after a dismal marriage to an older man, but just as compelling as a teenager smitten with Joseph.

Some of Williams’ lovemaking scenes veer into “Bridges of Madison County” territory of impassioned prose – which is a plus or minus, depending on how you felt crossing that bridge. And a few plot points raise some big questions.

But this rich and romantic tale has twists and turns that will keep you on the edge of your cabana chair. Just don’t forget the sunscreen.

USA TODAY LIFE ❚ SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 ❚ 7 BOOKS

New and noteworthy

5

‘Arthur Ashe: A Life’

by Raymond Arsenault (Simon & Schuster, nonfiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: A biogra-

USA TODAY’s Jocelyn McClurg scopes out the hottest books on sale each week.

phy of the tennis star (the only black male player to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open) and civil rights activist who died at age 49 in 1993, after contracting AIDS through blood transfusions.

THE BUZZ: Arrives just before the U.S. Open in New York (home of Arthur Ashe Stadium).

Arthur Ashe runs for the ball during a match at Wimbledon in 1975.

TONY DUFFY/GETTY IMAGES

1

‘The Great American Read: The Book of Books’

by PBS, with a foreword by Meredith Vieira (Black Dog & Leventhal, nonfiction, on sale Tuesday) WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Companion

PBS recently brought “Little Women” to a new generation. PBS

book to PBS show “The Great American Read,” which invites America to vote on a ballot of 100 nominees to choose “America’s best-loved book.”

THE BUZZ: The series hosted by Vieira returns for new episodes Sept. 11, leading up to big reveal of America’s favorite novel.

2

‘Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters’

3

by Anne Boyd Rioux (Norton, nonfiction, on sale Tuesday)

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: After a seem-

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Dystopian

ingly mild-mannered woman stops a killer during a mall shooting and then disappears, her daughter discovers that her mother has a secret past identity.

THE BUZZ: Slaughter’s thriller “The Good Daughter” hit No. 3 on USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list a year ago.

novel in which women are permitted to speak no more than 100 words a day.

THE BUZZ: “Provocative … carries an undeniably powerful message,” says Publishers Weekly.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Assesses

the enduring appeal of Louisa May Alcott’s classic as the 150th anniversary approaches.

THE BUZZ: Making the case for Rioux’s subtitle, PBS aired a new adaptation in May.

‘Pieces of Her’

by Karin Slaughter (William Morrow, fiction, on sale Tuesday)

4

‘Vox’

by Christina Dalcher (Berkley, fiction, on sale Tuesday)

Meredith Vieira

USA TODAY BEST-SELLING BOOKS BOOKLIST.USATODAY.COM n Rank this week

THE TOP 10

n Rank last week (F) Fiction (NF) Nonfiction (P) Paperback (H)Hardcover (E) E-book

Publisher in italics

1

3

Girl, Wash Your Face Rachel Hollis

Subtitle: “Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are So You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be” (NF) (H) Thomas Nelson

6

6

Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn

Journalist Camille Preaker’s troubled past haunts her when she covers the murders of two preteen girls in her hometown (F) (E) Broadway Books

2

—

Tailspin Sandra Brown

Pilot Rye Mallett is tasked with delivering a box to a doctor (F) (E) Grand Central Publishing

7

8

The President Is Missing/J. Patterson, B. Clinton

The U.S. president disappears as a cyberterrorist threat grips the nation (F) (H) Little, Brown

3

4

Crazy Rich Asians Kevin Kwan

Rachel Chu discovers her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, comes from a rich family in Singapore; first in trilogy (F) (P) Anchor

8

—

The Money Shot Stuart Woods

Teddy Fay steps in when a movie actress is blackmailed; second in series (F) (E) G.P. Putnam’s Sons

4

—

Serpentine Laurell K. Hamilton

Anita Blake investigates the disappearance of women from a Florida hotel; 26th in series (F) (E) Berkley

9

—

Everything Trump Touches Dies Rick Wilson

Subtitle: “A Republican Strategist Gets Real About the Worst President Ever” (NF) (E) Free Press

5

1

Origin Dan Brown

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is on the hunt (and run) again as he searches for a cryptic password in Spain (F) (P) Anchor

10 12

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a (Expletive) Mark Manson

Subtitle: “A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life” (NF) (H) HarperOne

WHAT AMERICA’S READING® The book list appears every Sunday.

For each title, the format and publisher listed are for the best-selling version of that title this week.

Reporting outlets include Amazon.com, Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble.com, Barnes & Noble Inc., Barnes & Noble e-books, BooksAMillion.com, Books-A-Million, Costco, Hudson Booksellers, iBooks (Apple, Inc.) Joseph-Beth Booksellers (Lexington, Ky.; Cincinnati, Charlotte, Cleveland, Pittsburgh), Kobo, Inc., Powell's Books (Portland, Ore.), Powells.com, R.J. Julia Booksellers, Schuler Books & Music (Grand Rapids, Okemos, Eastwood, Alpine, Mich.), Target, Tattered Cover Book Store (Denver).

THE REST 11 12 13 14 15 16

9 5 10 29 — 15

The Other Woman/Daniel Silva The Russia Hoax/Gregg Jarrett Liars, Leakers, and Liberals/Jeanine Pirro China Rich Girlfriend/Kevin Kwan The Chase/Elle Kennedy Educated/Tara Westover

17 68 1984/George Orwell 18 39 To Kill a Mockingbird/Harper Lee 19 13 The Rooster Bar/John Grisham 20

2 Paradox/Catherine Coulter

21 24 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos/Jordan B. Peterson 22 18 Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine/Gail Honeyman 23 14 The Outsider/Stephen King 24 46 Rich People Problems/Kevin Kwan 25 26 The Complete Ketogenic Diet for Beginners/Amy Ramos 26 — Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding/Rhys Bowen 27 19 Magnolia Table/Joanna Gaines, Marah Stets 28 31 The Hate U Give/Angie Thomas 29 72 The Night Before Kindergarten/

Gabriel Allon has to find a traitor after his Russian asset is murdered (F) (E) Harper Subtitle: “The Illicit Scheme to Clear Hillary Clinton and Frame Donald Trump” (NF) (H) Broadside Books Subtitle: “The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy” (NF) (H) Center Street Rachel Chu, engaged to marry Asia’s most eligible bachelor, discovers her biological father; second in trilogy (F) (P) Anchor Summer Di Laurentis moves in with her brother’s friend Colin Fitzgerald; first in series (F) (E) Elle Kennedy Memoir by a Cambridge Ph.D. who was raised by Idaho survivalists and did not enter a classroom until she was 17 (NF) (E) Random House Classic: A future world where Big Brother is watching (F) (P) Signet Classic 1960 coming-of-age classic about racism; Pulitzer winner; 1962 movie (F) (P) HarperPerennial Three law school students, drowning in debt, decide to expose the hedge-fund operator behind a chain of shady, third-tier law schools – including their own (F) (P) Dell Savich and Sherlock investigate a murder after bones are found in a lake (F) (E) Gallery Books Psychologist proposes 12 practical rules to live by based on science, faith and human nature (NF) (E) Random House Canada Eleanor Oliphant’s isolated lifestyle changes when she befriends Raymond and Sammy (F) (P) Penguin The arrest of a Little League coach for the murder of a local boy leads investigators to an unexpected villain (F) (H) Scribner Members of an Asian clan converge to stake their claims on grandma’s massive fortune; third in trilogy (F) (P) Anchor Subtitle: “Your Essential Guide to Living the Keto Lifestyle” (NF) (P) Rockridge Press Lady Georgiana Rannoch moves into her godfather’s estate before her wedding; 12th in series (F) (E) Berkley Subtitle: “A Collection of Recipes for Gathering” (NF) (H) Morrow Cookbooks Youth: Starr Carter witnesses a fatal shooting that becomes national news (F) (H) Balzer + Bray Children: Reassuring poem for children going to kindergarten (F) (P) Grosset & Dunlap

Natasha Wing, art by Julie Durrell 30 16 The Perfect Couple/Elin Hilderbrand 31 — Bellewether/Susanna Kearsley 32 28 All We Ever Wanted/Emily Giffin 33 32 You Will Pay/Lisa Jackson 34 — Good Luck With That/Kristan Higgins 35 43 You Are a Badass/Jen Sincero 36 54 The Great Gatsby/F. Scott Fitzgerald 37 40 Fahrenheit 451/Ray Bradbury 38 34 Less/Andrew Sean Greer 39 — Home/Harlan Coben 40 23 Cottage by the Sea/Debbie Macomber 41 61 First Day Jitters/Julie Danneberg, art by Judy Love 42 — An Unwanted Guest/Shari Lapena 43 — The Red Ledger: 3/Meredith Wild 44 — The Husband’s Secret/Liane Moriarty 45 38 The Handmaid’s Tale/Margaret Atwood 46 35 Death of a Nation/Dinesh D’Souza 47 45 Before We Were Yours/Lisa Wingate 48 53 The Darkest Minds/Alexandra Bracken 49 49 The 5 Love Languages/Gary Chapman 50 56 Wonder/R.J. Palacio

A summer wedding on Nantucket is disrupted when the intended maid of honor is found dead in the harbor (F) (E) Little, Brown Jean-Philippe de Sabran falls in love with Lydia Wilde after being forced to live with her family (F) (E) Sourcebooks Landmark A high school boy’s photo of a girl passed out at a party goes viral in Nashville (F) (E) Ballantine An investigation of human remains leads detective Lucas Dalton back 20 years to his youth and his time at summer camp (F) (H) Zebra Marley and Georgia must face their fears after their friend Emerson dies (F) (E) Berkley Subtitle: “How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” (NF) (P) Running Press Classic: Ambition, love and betrayal in the 1920s (F) (P) Scribner Classic: In the future, books are burned because ideas are dangerous (F) (P) Simon & Schuster Novelist Arthur Less travels to literary events to avoid his ex’s wedding; winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (F) (P) Back Bay Books Ten years after two young boys from wealthy families are kidnapped, one returns home; what does he know about his missing friend? (F) (E) Dutton Annie Marlow goes to Oceanside, where she vacationed as a child, to escape a recent tragedy (F) (H) Ballantine Children: Sarah Jane, a new teacher, is terrified to go to school on her first day (F) (P) Charlesbridge Publishing A murderer is among the guests who get snowed in at Mitchell’s Inn in the Catskills (F) (H) Pamela Dorman Books Tristan is determined to find Isabel and protect her; third in series (F) (E) Waterhouse Press While her husband is away, Cecilia Fitzpatrick stumbles upon a letter meant to be opened upon his death (F) (E) Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam The story of a handmaid named Offred who lives in the repressive Republic of Gilead (F) (P) Anchor Subtitle: “Plantation Politics and the Making of the Democratic Party” (NF) (H) All Points Books Rill Foss fights to keep her siblings together after they’re forced into an orphanage (F) (E) Ballantine Youth: Ruby escapes from a rehab camp for kids who have gained special powers; movie tie-in (F) (H) Disney-Hyperion Subtitle: “The Secret to Love That Lasts” (NF) (P) Northfield Publishing Youth: August Pullman, who was born with a facial irregularity, wants nothing more than to be normal (F) (H) Knopf Books for Young Readers

8 â?&#x161; SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018 â?&#x161; USA TODAY LIFE

Food tours offer local flavor Roxana A. Soto USA TODAY

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great time to be a foodie. Not only is the culinary scene exploding in unexpected regional U.S. destinations, but the food tour industry is also burgeoning, fueled by travelersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; desire to explore a city through its cuisine. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You get more of an insiderâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experience to the food scene because you have a local foodie on the ground that can introduce you to all their spots,â&#x20AC;? said Jessica Baumgart, owner and founder of Savor Denver Food Tours. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a great historical walking tour, but (you) get to eat the whole time.â&#x20AC;?

After going on several food tours in her home state of New Mexico, self-described foodie Jill Jurkens was curious to see what Denver had to offer, so on a recent visit, she booked one of Baumgartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tours.

Although she originally felt a bit uneasy about one of the food options, she had a change of heart after she tasted it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was thinking, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;OMG, a hot dog? I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really eat hot dogs,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; but I enjoyed that. I really did,â&#x20AC;? she said, referring to the Alaskan reindeer dog served at Biker Jimâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gourmet Dogs, one of the stops on Savor Denverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Downtown Food Tour.

At Butcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bistro, Jurkens was pleasantly surprised when the executive chef shared the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s noseto-tail philosophy with tour participants. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I thought that was fascinating that he came and spoke to us. Listening to him was great,â&#x20AC;? she said.

These popular food tours in major U.S. cities will have you booking your next flight: We begin our culinary adventure in the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s capital with a foodie tour that will introduce you to a signature dish not to be missed. The half-smoke chili dog has drawn countless celebrities, including the Obamas, to the famed Benâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chili Bowl, operating in Washington, D.C., since 1958 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and you get to try it during a three-hour walking tour of the U Street district, formerly known as Black Broadway. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Almost every (U.S.) president has eaten there, and it holds such an important location for that neighborhood and for D.C. as a whole,â&#x20AC;? said Mary Collins, who co-founded Carpe DC Food Tours in 2014 with husband Stefan Woehlke. The other three stops on this tour include an

Seattle Bites Food Tours showcases the variety of foods inside Pike Place Market, one of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recognizable landmarks. SEATTLE BITES FOOD TOURS

Ethiopian restaurant, a traditional Italian deli and a teahouse run by a fifthgeneration herbalist.

The tour costs $73 per person for food only and $89 with drinks included. An added perk: A portion of every sale helps feed someone in need through a partnership with a local nonprofit.

From D.C., we travel south to a city that can be considered culturally closer to Latin America than to the United States: Miami.

Tired of people assuming that Latin cuisine only means Mexican food, Argentinian Grace Della came up with Miami Culinary Tours in Floridaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Miami Beach in 2010. She offers four walking food tours, each exploring a different Miami neighborhood and its cuisine.

She recommends her signature South Beach tour to those visiting for the first time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;That tour really gives a great perspective of Miami. It features more traditional Latin cuisine,â&#x20AC;? Della said.

And by that, she means dishes like the beef picadillo (ground beef hash), malanga (root vegetable) chips and mojo sauce youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll taste at Larios on the

Tater tots are stars of gluten-free dish

Ingredients Soup: 6 tablespoons butter â &#x201E;2 cup chopped white button mushrooms

1

Instructions Melt butter in medium-sized skillet over medium heat.

Add mushrooms and sautĂŠ until soft.

Sprinkle rice flour over mushrooms and whisk until flour turns slightly brown. Add broth and milk while whisking and bring to boil.

Add thyme and parsley. Continue to boil until thickened.

6 tablespoons rice flour

Season with salt and pepper. Set soup aside.

11â &#x201E;2 cups chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400F.

1 cup whole milk

In large skillet over medium-high heat, brown turkey and onions.

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme 1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley Salt and pepper, to taste

Casserole: 1 pound ground turkey â &#x201E;2 cup chopped onion

1

1 bag frozen green beans (10 ounces) 4 cups frozen gluten-free tater tots

PUZZLES

Answers placed on page 2 Play more puzzles at puzzles.usatoday.com Puzzle problems? Contact us at feedback@usatoday.com

CROSSWORD EDITED Fred Piscop

BY Fred Piscop

DUGOUT FOLKS

Thanksgiving.com

Craving a yummy, filling casserole that wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t wreck your gluten-free eating plan? Of course, you are! And this scrumptious gluten-free tater tot casserole â&#x20AC;&#x201D; inspired by Food Fanatic â&#x20AC;&#x201D; with gluten-free mushroom soup is the delish dish for you.

Featuring a creamy mushroom and turkey filling covered with a generous layer of tasty tater tots, this gluten-free casserole will quickly become one of your favorite family meals.

The rich base for the filling is a homemade gluten-free cream of mushroom soup that you whip up before making the rest of the casserole. Never made a gluten-free cream-based soup before?

Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to love this quick and easy recipe, which you can use in other recipes calling for canned cream of mushroom soup.

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how to make the whole delicious casserole!

Beach, the Cuban restaurant owned by legendary singer Gloria Estefan and her husband, Emilio. Ceviche, empanadas and Spanish tapas are also on the tasting menu in this 21â &#x201E;2-hour walking tour, which includes six stops and a trip through Miami Beachâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s art deco district, at $56 for adults and $39 for children ages 7-13.

After getting our fill of Latin flavors, we move to the heart of the country. In Kansas City, barbecue is king. And although itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the only meat youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll taste on KC Barbecue Tours, owner Bethanie Schemel promises not to disappoint. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We have over 100 barbecue restaurants. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re an outsider, it can be a little overwhelming,â&#x20AC;? she said.

So she and husband Karl have done the legwork for you. On their four-hour, scenic Original Barbecue Tour aboard a bus, foodies visit four restaurants for $70 per person and try multiple mouthwatering meats, including ribs, pulled pork, brisket and smoked turkey, and side-dish staples like coleslaw, potato salad and baked beans.

At nationally renowned Arthur Bryantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Barbeque, birthplace of the iconic

burnt ends that Kansas City is known for, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll learn they werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always a menu option but rather a way to keep customers happy while they waited for their orders. â&#x20AC;&#x153;(Arthur Bryant) would cut the ends off of a brisket that were burnt, that nobody would want, and set them out for people to chew on,â&#x20AC;? Schemel said. And now theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a staple at any respectable barbecue joint.

Next, we travel west to the Mile High City. Rated the fourth-most-exciting food city in America by Zagat in 2017, Denverâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rapid growth has resulted in an explosion of flavors in cuisine. The six restaurants youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll visit on Savor Denver Food Toursâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; three-hour Downtown Food Tour highlight the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thriving food scene, including the aforementioned Butcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bistro, where foodies can sample an appetizer made of pigâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We used to be a meat-and-potatoes town, but the food scene has evolved, and there are cool, interesting new concepts opening up all the time,â&#x20AC;? Baumgart said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;You can learn a lot about a place through its food scene.â&#x20AC;? Prices start at $59 per person (an upgraded drink package is available).

Finally, our journey takes us to the Pacific Northwest, where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find Seattle Bites Food Tours. Unlike other tours, Seattle Bites showcases only whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s inside Pike Place Market â&#x20AC;&#x201C; one of the Emerald Cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most recognizable landmarks and popular tourist attractions. The public farmers market, the oldest continuously operating market in the U.S., has a rich history that dates back to 1907, and for $43.99 per person, foodies will learn all about it. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The meaning behind Pike Place Market is so much more than throwing fish and pretty flowers,â&#x20AC;? said Mark Breitfuss, who started his company with wife Jan Marie Johnson in 2008. On the 21â &#x201E;2-hour excursion, participants get a taste of cuisines from around the world: chicken tikka masala, barbecue, Mexican street tacos, smoked Alaskan king salmon and more. A popular favorite is the award-winning New England clam chowder served at Pike Place Chowder.

Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s truly something to satiate all appetites in towns across the country, so even if you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t consider yourself a foodie, you should give a culinary tour a try. You never know what you could learn about a city with your taste buds.

Add soup and green beans, stirring to combine.

Spray shallow 11-by-7-inch casserole dish with cooking spray. Pour turkey mixture into casserole dish.

Top with tater tots.

Bake for 30 minutes or until tater tots are lightly browned and filling is bubbly.

Serve immediately.

ACROSS 1 Dagwoodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s nap spot 5 In a big way 9 Swahiliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s language group 14 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Topazâ&#x20AC;? novelist Leon 15 Ride-seekerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cry 16 Jesse of 1936 Olympics fame 17 Do in, as a vampire 18 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get mad, get ___â&#x20AC;?

19 Drink with foam art, perhaps 20 Conciergeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s boss 23 Marching to the beat 24 Sales repsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; goals 28 Drink that may be ladled 30 Eerie sighting, for short 31 Brown with the country hit â&#x20AC;&#x153;Toesâ&#x20AC;?

32 Type in all caps, in texts 36 Word after prime or fixed 38 Capital near Callao 39 One-on-one gym instructor 42 Many a Shankar tune 43 Pay for a hand 44 Really small 45 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Queen Sugarâ&#x20AC;? creator DuVernay 46 Quite a bit, to bards 47 Languish in prison, slangily 49 Studio dweller, e.g.

51 Ugli or kumquat 56 Teacher of accents to actors 60 Many a city dwelling, for short 63 Psychicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s vision, supposedly

Š Andrews McMeel

64 Landfill emanation 65 30-Across passenger 66 Branding tool 67 Point on a spork 68 Take another shot at 69 Part of a ring perimeter 70 Hartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mate DOWN 1 Seaweedwrapped fare 2 DuPont acrylic fiber 3 Via Veneto autos 4 To this point 5 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Resume speed,â&#x20AC;? on a score 6 Stromboli outflow 7 Rice paddy beasts 8 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bossypantsâ&#x20AC;? author Fey 9 Maurice Ravel classic 10 Plaque or ribbon

8/19

11 Figure less than gross, usually 12 Explosive in Road Runner cartoons 13 Play for a patsy 21 Slowly, on a score 22 Office errand runner 25 Periodical with a URL 26 Budget-friendly noodles 27 Like a haunted house 29 Victor at Vicksburg 30 Out-and-out 32 Fat eschewer of rhyme 33 Emit, as a sigh 34 Eye or ear 35 A 40-Down signatory 37 ___-right (fringe hate groups) 38 Club-selection factor 40 Treaty called a â&#x20AC;&#x153;disasterâ&#x20AC;? by Trump

Answers: Call 1-900-988-8300, 99 cents a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-320-4280.

41 Unfinished room, often 46 Like a bialyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taste 48 Gas pump figure 50 Abacus user 52 Incisor or cuspid 53 Bicycle spokes, essentially 54 Huskiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; school, briefly 55 Turn to confetti 57 Place to hibernate 58 100 cents, abroad 59 Photoshop command 60 Street hockey interrupter 61 Grand ___ Opry 62 Annual hoops event, for short

CROSSWORDS ON YOUR PHONE puzzles.usatoday.com

NFL running backs hitting pay dirt Gurley deal bodes well for Bell, Elliott Jarrett Bell Columnist USA TODAY

When Todd Gurley II struck his huge, four-year, $57 million extension with the Rams this summer, you can imagine the buzz among brethren running backs across the NFL. “It’s great for the running back position, which has been kind of devalued,” Ezekiel Elliott said at the Cowboys’ camp in Oxnard, California. “But we’ve seen a good trend of running backs picked high and after they are picked high, their teams are doing better. So I think the league is finally noticing the value of the running back.”

Somewhere, absent Steelers star Le’Veon Bell, yet to report to training camp while franchise-tagged for the second year in a row, might beg to differ while wondering what more he could have done to land the type of secured haul that Gurley commanded.

Gurley’s pact included a $21 million signing bonus as part of $45 million in practical guarantees, according to Sportac.com. Sure, the Rams still have a tugof-war headache in trying to come to terms with holdout D-tackle Aaron Donald, the league’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year. But at least they won’t have the type of stress the Steelers and Bell have had, compounded by the strings that have long been attached to running back money.

You know the theme: Running backs are not valued like other skilled positions. There’s no need to invest high picks in running backs, who can be drafted later. A committee approach is the ticket, with cheaper backs.

Yet take Bell out of the Steelers’ prolific offense and what do you have?

What are Rams coach Sean McVay’s deft schemes without Gurley?

What happened to the Cowboys last season without a full campaign from Elliott?

Gurley’s deal raised the bar and trumpets the position that some run-

Rams running back Todd Gurley, who has had two 1,000-yard seasons in three years, signed a four-year, $57 million extension this summer. KIRBY LEE/USA TODAY

ning backs are indeed worth the type of big bucks paid to elite receivers, cover cornerbacks and versatile linebackers.

It’s striking that Gurley’s deal, averaging $14.375 million, dwarfs the $8.25 million average that Devonta Freeman signed for last year with the Falcons (five years, $41.25 million) that was the highest average for a multiyear deal for running backs.

Bell, 26 and heading into Year 6 in Pittsburgh, will earn $14.544 million on the tag this season, raising his two-year tag money to $26.6 million. Not exactly chump change, but risky business, from the view of both sides, for a player at the line-of-fire position with the shortest life span in football.

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert reiterated last week that he wants to sign Bell to a long-term contract, though franchise tag stipulations prevent that from happening until next offseason, when Bell could be poised to hit the open market, with leverage undoubtedly hinging on his health and productivity this season.

“So much can change between now and 2019, for either party,” Colbert said.

“Now the thinking is, ‘Let’s make the most of it.’ ” The Steelers might have had a glimpse of a future without Bell during Thursday’s game at Green Bay, when second-year back James Conner rushed

for 57 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown. Although Conner, a third-round pick from Pitt in 2017, has drawn positive reviews during camp and appears sleeker, he is hardly campaigning for a bigger role. “When Le’Veon gets back, he’s RB-1,” Conner said.

Still, it will be interesting to watch how the workload evolves. Last year, Bell missed camp and still led the NFL with a career-high 321 carries, caught 88 passes and ranked second to Gurley in the league with 1,946 yards from scrimmage. Conner had just 32 carries (2.3 average) and didn’t catch a pass as a rookie. Knowing Bell, who during the middle of last season beamed about a workload that included 35, 32 and 35 carries in the three victories over a fourgame span, the Steelers would be hardpressed to lessen his load.

But striking a deal has been problematic, with Ben Roethlisberger averaging $21.85 million (below scale for quarterbacks) and Antonio Brown topping the receiver charts at $17 million a year.

Pittsburgh ranks fourth in the league for cap dollars allocated to offense, which highlights how challenging it might be to sign Bell to a long-term deal.

“That’s my job,” Colbert insisted, “to make sure we can.”

And if not, develop a Plan B. One reason the Rams would sign

Gurley, and so early, is they don’t have an exceptionally big quarterback contract on the books as Jared Goff enters Year 3 of his rookie contract.

Rams GM Les Snead told USA TODAY, “Our big-picture philosophy was, ‘As soon as we can lock in our core players while we’re in this window, it will help us plan better for the future.’ ” The Cowboys will likely have a similar bridge to cross with Elliott, eligible like quarterback Dak Prescott for a new contract in 2019.

After Elliott, drafted fourth overall in 2016, Jacksonville running back Leonard Fournette (fourth overall, 2017) will be in the queue. The high draft status, if it leads to the production to go with high expectations, looms as a serious X factor in how the running back market will shake down in coming years. When the Giants took Saquon Barkley second overall in April, he was the highestdrafted running back since Reggie Bush was picked by New Orleans in that slot in 2006.

“When we picked Todd 10th overall it was, ‘Whoa, wait a minute, you can get running backs later,’ ” Snead reflected.

“Then we see Ezekiel go fourth and all the way up to Saquon this year. I don’t think people are all of a sudden saying running backs are more important. RB is just two letters in the alphabet. I just think these guys happen to be born within a five-year span of each other, that God gave them some really good genetics and they made the most of them.”

Exactly how much those genetics are worth, compared with, say, quarterback genes and pass rusher genes, is a debate with legs.

Sure, the NFL is a passing league. But dominant runners are in vogue, too, especially in January. And Gurley’s deal, Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones allowed, obviously moved the market for running backs.

“Certainly, everybody’s understanding their value,” Jones said. “It will affect Zeke. I’m sure Zeke smiled when he saw (Gurley’s contract). I certainly wouldn’t take anybody over Zeke. I think we’ve got the best one in the league. ... And just like I said with Dak, I hope we’re looking at big numbers on both of them, because that would mean they had great years.”

Yet what it would be worth remains to be seen.

Biles still way better than everyone else Nancy Armour Columnist USA TODAY

BOSTON — It’s not fair to compare Simone Biles to anyone else.

At this rate, it’s not even fair to compare Biles to what she did in the run-up to the Rio Games.

After missing last year’s national championships seeing what life was like outside the gym, the 2016 Olympic champion reminded everyone Friday night that they’re playing for second when she’s around. Her score of 60.1 points was the highest in the world the last two years, and she was more than three points ahead of Morgan Hurd, who just happens to be the reigning world champion, mind you.

USA SNAPSHOTS© The average starting age for sports officials has climbed

233%

from age 18 in 1972 to age 42 in 2016.

SOURCE National Association of Sports Officials ELLEN J. HORROW, JANET LOEHRKE/USA TODAY

In a sport where medals are often decided by tenths of a point, that’s bordering on the ridiculous.

But that’s Biles.

“It doesn’t matter the gap,” said Biles’ coach, Laurent Landi. “She doesn’t compete against everybody, she competes against herself. So she needs to just keep pushing herself.”

There’s still another round of competition Sunday night, but it’s basically a formality. If Biles walks into the arena, she’s walking out with her fifth national title.

And everybody knows it.

“It would take near perfection and an (immense) increase of difficulty,” Hurd said.

There was little question coming into nationals that Biles would dominate.

She is the greatest gymnast the sport has ever seen, winning every meet she entered from the 2013 national championships through Rio. She was the first woman to win three consecutive allaround titles in the world championships, and she left the Rio Olympics with five medals, four of them gold.

But Biles took about 15 months off after Rio to do everything she’d missed during all those years of training.

She took vacations and hung out with her friends.

She enjoyed the benefits of being an Olympic champion, walking the red carpet at awards shows and hobnobbing with celebrities.

Other gymnasts who have returned after long breaks have started slowly, needing time to regain their old form.

That the code of points, the numerical value of each skill, was changed after Rio, making it harder to put up big scores, only added to the challenge.

Simone Biles competes in the floor exercise during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Friday in Boston.

WINSLOW TOWNSON/USA TODAY SPORTS

Biles made some uncharacteristic mistakes in winning last month’s U.S. Classic, her first competition since the Summer Olympics. But the jitters and the rust were a distant memory Friday.

It was as if Biles had never been away.

And then some.

“At Classics, I was still easing back into everything and kind of feeling the surroundings and getting used to competing again,” Biles said. “I feel like today I really embraced it.”

She posted the highest score on all

four events.

Her first vault, the Cheng, is the most difficult one any woman is doing right now, and she landed it so solidly it was as if her feet were stuck in cement.

She did have a slight wobble on her wolf turn on balance beam, but the rest of her skills were doing as confidently as if she was on flat ground.

Her best event, Landi said, was on uneven bars. It’s been her “weakest” event, and she fell off them during last month’s competition. But she floated smoothly from one skill to the next Friday, and she was already smiling when she landed her dismount.

“I’m very happy because she showed to herself that she can do it, and she’s much more comfortable with it,” Landi said. “This is what she does in the gym.

She does it the same way she competed it today. She ... doesn’t believe that she belongs at this level on bars, but she does.”

Biles’ only blemish was on floor, where she lost six-tenths of a point for going out of bounds twice. With two months until the world championships, Landi said he wasn’t overly concerned.

“We’re just getting there with her routines,” he said.

“Every single meet she does, she learns about herself again and it takes time,” Landi added.

“It took her so many years (before) to get really comfortable with what she was doing, and the reward was all the gold medals. ... Right now we had the Classic and now we have the next two meets to adjust the little things.

“But overall, with technical aspect, mental aspect, she’s back.”

Yes she is. And even better than before.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Scandals shake up coach hot seat watch Paul Myerberg

Big 12

Pac-12

Most secure: Gary Patterson, TCU Least secure: David Beaty, Kansas The Big 12 is brimming with head coaches holding enviable job security.

Patterson is one, joined by Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Kansas State’s Bill Snyder.

(Though the delicate transition looming in Kansas State’s future creates a strange dynamic.) Beaty’s job security is even weaker after the university’s recent change at athletics director.

Most secure: Chris Petersen, Washington Least secure: Mike MacIntyre, Colorado Petersen’s a good choice here, though his high level of job security is evenly matched by Stanford’s David Shaw and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, to name two.

(This doesn’t count the obvious security found among the new hires, such as UCLA’s Chip Kelly and Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin.) It’s extremely difficult to envision an opening that would draw Petersen’s interest, let alone pull him away from the Huskies.

In the South Division, MacIntyre’s inability to build upon Colorado’s breakout 2016 season has left his future in doubt. In addition, it’s still difficult to overlook his part in the university’s response to allegations of domestic abuse involving a former assistant coach in December 2016, especially when considering the situation in play at Ohio State.

USA TODAY

The investigations unfolding at Ohio State and Maryland have changed the dynamics of this coming offseason’s coaching market.

It was just last month that the most likely Power Five opening was at Kansas, where David Beaty has struggled to reverse the Jayhawks’ run as the worst program in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Now, with Urban Meyer and DJ Durkin on paid leave, the potential is there for a domino effect across the Power Five ranks.

But tenuous job security isn’t reserved for the Power Five. Several coaches on the Group of Five level are likewise entering make-or-break seasons, meaning the total number of offseason coaching changes should be similar to the recent past.

On the other hand, each conference has at least one “untouchable” head coach: a coach whose job security is strong enough to survive nearly any onfield result, within reason.

Let’s take stock of the current market by evaluating the most and least secure head coach in each league.

American Athletic Conference Most secure: Ken Niumatalolo, Navy Least secure: Scottie Montgomery, East Carolina While the idea that Niumatalolo will end his career at Navy isn’t set in stone — he had a notable dalliance with Brigham Young and was considered at Syracuse, Arizona and elsewhere — few coaches can match the goodwill he’s built at the academy.

Montgomery has overseen two nineloss finishes in his two seasons at ECU, which fired his predecessor, Ruffin McNeill, after he “slipped” to five wins in 2015. The pressure is on to get the Pirates into bowl contention.

Atlantic Coast Conference Most secure: Dabo Swinney, Clemson Least secure: Larry Fedora, North Carolina

Lovie Smith is 5-19 in his first two seasons on the Illinois sideline.

CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP

Conference USA Swinney’s case is obvious: Clemson has been transformed into one of the nation’s elite programs since he took over midway through the 2010 season.

The situation with Fedora is a little more complex.

While he might prove that last year’s 3-9 finish was an aberration, it hasn’t been a great month: Fedora’s comments minimizing the dangers of CTE at ACC media days were an embarrassment for the program and the university, and the recent scandal involving the sale of team-issued gear left 13 student-athletes facing suspensions for as long as four games. It’s one thing to have a bad season; it’s another to add a bad offseason on top.

Big Ten Most secure: Scott Frost, Nebraska Least secure: Lovie Smith, Illinois Listing Frost might be a cop out, since he’s yet to coach a game with the Cornhuskers, but few coaches anywhere can match the patience he’ll be offered at his alma mater. Smith has been preaching a similar degree of patience as Illinois builds from the bottom up, but the team’s putrid performance can’t be ignored.

Obviously, it’s fair to line up both Meyer and Durkin in Smith’s camp. For now, at least, until the two universities conclude their investigations and decide whether both are worthy of returning to their positions. If OSU does fire Meyer — and we’ll know soon — all bets are off in terms of how this winter’s cycle will play out.

Most secure: Bill Clark, AlabamaBirmingham Least secure: Brad Lambert, Charlotte The work Clark has done amid Alabama at Birmingham’s resurfacing has been nothing short of outstanding.

In a slightly similar situation, Lambert has failed to put Charlotte on the map since taking over a new program in 2013.

Southeastern Conference Mid-American Conference Most secure: Frank Solich, Ohio Least secure: Mike Jinks, Bowling Green Solich’s long and successful tenure at Ohio is proof that there are second acts in coaching. He should pull down his 100th win with the Bobcats by early October. Jinks took over at Bowling Green with sizable expectations but has turned in just six wins across two seasons.

Most secure: Nick Saban, Alabama Least secure: Ed Orgeron, LSU Yeah, Saban. Obviously. Orgeron’s enormous buyout — it was $12 million during the 2017 season — will play an obvious role in his immediate future even if the Tigers plummet out of SEC contention, as could be the case this fall.

But what’s another couple million for LSU? While Barry Odom merits watching at Missouri, the league as a whole seems stable in terms of potential openings.

Mountain West Sun Belt Most secure: Craig Bohl, Wyoming Least secure: Bob Davie, New Mexico Bohl would love to end his career at Wyoming, and the university seems only too happy to make that a reality.

Back-to-back bowl berths and another first-round quarterback prove that he has things going with the Cowboys. Davie’s off-field issues loom largest of all, and when joined by the Lobos’ step back in 2017 place him firmly on the hot seat heading into September.

Most secure: Neal Brown, Troy Least secure: Everett Withers, Texas State After back-to-back seasons with 10 or more wins, Brown’s next stop is in the Power Five. Withers won seven games as the interim coach at UNC in 2011 and helped lay the framework for a national title at James Madison during his 201415 stint. But the Bobcats have been one of the worst teams in the country in each of his two seasons at Texas State.

NASCAR

Bill Elliott just wants to have fun in return at Road America race Dave Kallmann Milwaukee Journal Sentinel USA TODAY Network

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – Bill Elliott still insists it isn’t his choice to run one more NASCAR event.

Was never his plan. Wasn’t his desire.

If it were up to him, GMS Racing would give a young kid a shot in its No. 23 Xfinity Series Chevrolet next weekend at Road America, rather than an aging Hall of Famer six years removed from his most recent serious stock car race.

Elliott blames all of this on his son, Chase, and his longtime friend Mike Beam, first for recruiting him and then for announcing his return before the elder Elliott could back out. Yet all of this complaining is done with a twinkle in his eyes and a smile on his face.

“I’m no road course shoo-in, ace, whatever you want to call it, and hell, I’m 62 years old on top of that,” Elliott said Thursday. “I’ve got a lot to learn.

“For me to be able to just get in and hang around with (the promising young Xfinity drivers) is going to be a lot of fun and we’ll see how it goes.

“I mean, I’m a competitive guy and I want to run good, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot of factors why guys don’t go on and race until their 60s or 70s.”

Elliott won 44 times in NASCAR’s top division in a career that started in 1976, covered 828 starts, included the 1988 Cup series title and culminated with his induction into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015.

His first Cup victory came on a road

course in the 1983 season finale at the long-since-closed Riverside (California) International Raceway. He last raced in NASCAR in 2012.

Elliott has driven in a handful of vintage races in recent years, but it wasn’t like that created an itch that could only be scratched by one more NASCAR race.

He told Beam, who did several stints as Elliott’s crew chief and is now GMS Racing president, he would like to drive a Cup car in a test once to compare it to previous generations.

“I’ve been very fortunate to see the cars from the ’70s all the way to now,” Elliott said.

Getting from that request to a fullfledged, one-race comeback in next Saturday’s Johnsonville 180 — for sure, no backing out, complete with a throwback paint scheme from his 1994 Southern 500 victory — is where the story spins a little out of control, according to Elliott.

“I was at Watkins Glen after the Xfinity race, and I was fixin’ to spot the Cup qualifying,” he said. “I’m over there in the Bus Stop, and I text Mike Beam and I said, ‘I really think you need to put A.J. (Allmendinger) in the car for Road America.’ About 10 minutes passed. I got a text back. He said, ‘Too late, Bud, we done announced it.’ ” Allmendinger won at Road America in 2013. Until last month, Elliott had never driven it.

Someone of Chase’s generation might learn the hilly 4 miles and 14 turns by watching videos or driving it on the popular sim game “iRacing.” But that’s not Elliott’s thing. Having learned to race by the seat of his pants, that’s the way he expects to learn Road America.

Hall of Famer Bill Elliott prepares for a run in a vintage Dodge stock car during a test-and-tune Thursday at Road America. DAVE KALLMANN/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

Unfortunately, a blown engine kept him out of the track’s recent vintage races and then an axle came out of his old, red No. 9 Dodge on Thursday during one of the track’s test-and-tune sessions. By lunch he had, at most, 25 laps, or about half a race’s worth.

“I hadn’t been in a car for a long time until I went to the SVRA event at Indy three years ago,” Elliott said. “You get back in the car, and you’re really rusty at the things you do and how you feel.

“I’m still learning every lap I make out here — well, I should have done this or should have done that … need to be easier on power or something. You’ve got some of the basics, but being able to brush it up, put it all together and then not make mistakes, that’s the biggest goal.”

Preparing to come to Road America put an interesting twist on the relationship between father and son as Bill went to Chase for advice for a change. The younger Elliott raced here in 2014 and ’15 with two fourth-place finishes and 23 laps led.

“Very helpful,” Bill said of the tapping into Chase’s memory. “But still, he’s not in the car.

“To tell somebody how to do something and then put it in perspective but just giving you the basics is a lot of learning curve as well. Brake points, shift points, stuff like that, the basics.

But still, I’ve got to figure it out.”

Elliott likes to joke about this experience: His goal is to finish first in his age group. He’s only struggling on one part of the track, the part from the pit exit to the start/finish line. And so on.

But, seriously, what’s the best-case scenario for the race? Can Elliott be competitive? Can he contend? Can he win?

“Y’know guys, I don’t expect anything,” he said. “I’m just going to do my best and have the best time I can and just enjoy it.

“There’s a lot of fans I’ve met that want to come out here and watch this race and want to just see me run, win, lose, draw or whatever happens. That’s why I’m here.”

COLLEGE FOOTBALL LINEBACKERS

SEC, Big Ten home to best in position Pac-12, ACC stars also land in Top 10 Paul Myerberg USA TODAY

College football is almost here. USA TODAY is getting you ready for the season by breaking down the best players at each position in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Next up: the linebackers. There are more than a few names battling for the top spot on this list from across multiple Power Five conferences. While an LSU star gets the nod, don’t overlook the contenders from Southern California, Michigan, Alabama and elsewhere.

With representatives from four of the Power Five leagues in the top 10, here are the best linebackers for 2018.

1. Devin White, LSU: White’s vision and awareness matched up with his athleticism during a breakout 2017 season, which saw the junior earn firstteam all-conference and second-team All-American honors. Despite those accolades, you can make the case that White was under-recognized, possibly because of former Georgia star Roquan Smith’s excellence within the same conference. But this is obvious: White looks like the Tigers’ next great linebacker.

2. Cameron Smith, Southern California: Smith is the heart of a defense capable of carrying the Trojans to a Pac-12 title and the doorstep of the College Football Playoff. Few linebackers in the FBS are as experienced as the former five-star recruit, who slid into the starting lineup early in his career and has been a rock against the run. The AllAmerican favorite has led USC in tackles in each of the past two seasons.

3. Devin Bush, Michigan: The reigning Butkus Award finalist was one of the great surprises from last year’s Big Ten. After dabbling in limited duty and focusing primarily on special teams as a freshman, Bush took on a starting role heading into last season and helped Michigan rank sixth nationally in yards allowed per play despite breaking in a nearly brand-new cast. Credit the Wolverines star with remaking his physique since arriving on campus and transforming himself into one of the top defenders in the Big Ten. 4. Mack Wilson, Alabama: Wilson needs to show he can remain healthy, but his toughness isn’t in question: He played on an injured foot for nearly the entirety of the 2017 regular season and led the Crimson Tide with four interceptions. His athleticism isn’t in question either. He’ll take on the role as the Tide’s “alpha dog,” as Wilson said after a recent practice, following in the footsteps of a long line of All-American defenders in the middle of Nick Saban’s defense.

LSU’s Devin White had 41⁄2 sacks and an interception in 13 games during his sophomore year. DALE ZANINE/USA TODAY SPORTS

Wisconsin’s T.J. Edwards, closing on Michigan running back Chris Evans (12), had 53 solo tackles and four interceptions last season. RICK OSENTOSKI/USA TODAY SPORTS

5. T.J. Edwards, Wisconsin: Already a vital cog in Wisconsin’s quest for the Playoff, Edwards will become even more irreplaceable as the Badgers defense undergoes a bit of a rebuild heading into September. There’s no doubting his AllAmerican credentials: Edwards stops the run and defends the pass as well as any inside linebacker in the country.

Barring injury, he’s almost a lock for postseason accolades.

6. Troy Dye, Oregon: At his current rate, Dye might leave Oregon as one of the top defenders in program history. He led the Ducks in tackles in each of his

first two seasons. He has produced at an all-conference clip since moving into the starting lineup midway into his true freshman season in 2016. Dye does it all for Oregon’s defense and does it with little fanfare, though that might change come September.

7. Shaq Quarterman, Miami (Fla.): Quarterman seems ready to take off.

One of the team’s leading tacklers in each of his first two seasons, Quarterman enters his junior year as one of the top overall players in the Atlantic Coast Conference and one national defender poised to take his game to a higher level.

8. Joe Giles-Harris, Duke: A starter since the first snaps of his redshirt freshman season in 2015, Giles-Harris enters the coming season as one of eight linebackers in the FBS with at least 200 career tackles, 25 tackles for loss and eight sacks. Giles-Harris posted at least 10 tackles in five games last fall and saved some of his best performances for November and bowl play, helping the Blue Devils close the 2017 season with wins against Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Northern Illinois.

9. Te’von Coney, Notre Dame: Coney grabbed a starting role a month into Notre Dame’s 2017 season and quickly blossomed into one of the top tacklers in the FBS —a surprise given Coney’s uneven offseason and backup status heading into September. But he showed next-level ability down the stretch and during the Irish’s bowl win against LSU in particular, when Coney played like the best linebacker on the field.

10. Joe Bachie, Michigan State: That Bachie was named team MVP for 2017 — the first sophomore to win the honor since 2004 — gives you an idea of just how integral he is to the Spartans’ quest for a Big Ten title. Bachie led the team in tackles and forced fumbles and finished second in tackles for loss and interceptions while chipping in 31⁄2 sacks. The junior sets the tone for what should again be one of the nation’s best defenses from his spot in the middle.

Five just off the list: Khalil Hodge, Buffalo; Joe Dineen, Kansas; Jahlani Tavai, Hawaii; Dakota Allen, Texas Tech; Josh Allen, Kentucky

DEFENSIVE BACKS

LSU defense formidable with Williams, White Paul Myerberg USA TODAY

As college football’s kickoff is almost here, USA TODAY is getting you ready for the season by breaking down the best players at each position in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

Up next: the defensive backs. An LSU cornerback tops the list but safeties abound, including one overlooked standout from the Group of Five ranks.

Here are 2018’s best defensive backs.

1. Greedy Williams, LSU: He joins teammate Devin White in giving the Tigers our top-ranked player in both the secondary and at linebacker. It makes you think LSU’s defense should be pretty good. Williams is a stopper, pure and simple, with a nose for the football and a ceiling that seems impossible to measure. Remember last season, when Williams started every game, pulled down six interceptions and broke up 11 passes? He did that as a redshirt freshman. His potential is off the charts.

2. Andrew Wingard, Wyoming: He is one of the top defensive players in the country, one of the best defenders in Wyoming’s history and very likely the most overlooked player regardless of position in the FBS. A multiple-time allconference pick, Wingard is a tackling

machine in the box with the speed and smarts to protect the middle of the field, shown in five interceptions as a junior.

3. Byron Murphy, Washington: This is a pick based in no small part on potential, since he missed a significant part of last season because of an injury suffered in practice. But when healthy, Murphy flashed the sort of ability that’s rare across the FBS. That the Huskies can let him run solo on one half of the field is a significant aspect of one of the nation’s most dominant defenses. He’s going to have a fantastic 2018 season.

4. Jaquan Johnson, Miami (Fla.): Johnson led Miami in tackles and tied for the team lead in interceptions a season ago as the leader of a rejuvenated defense that nearly lifted the Hurricanes to a conference title and College Football Playoff berth. Like the other top safeties on this list, Johnson has a level of versatility that makes him an invaluable piece of Miami’s defensive puzzle.

5. Lukas Denis, Boston College: Last year’s move from cornerback to free safety paid off for Denis and the Eagles defense. Denis finished tied for second nationally with seven interceptions and finished third on the team in tackles in his first year at the new position, essentially giving Boston College a star on the back end to join its strong group up

front. Why is B.C. a trendy pick in the Atlantic Coast Conference? Because between Denis, lineman Zach Allen and running back A.J. Dillon, the Eagles have no shortage of preseason AllAmerican contenders.

6. Deandre Baker, Georgia: The most telling number from Baker’s junior season: zero. As in the number of touchdowns Baker allowed in starting 14 games during Georgia’s run to the championship game. That’s pretty telling. As the Bulldogs move forward without star linebacker Roquan Smith, look for Baker to take on the mantle as the team’s top playmaker on defense.

7. Taylor Rapp, Washington: Rapp’s career is proceeding on schedule. A great surprise — to those outside of Seattle, at least — as a freshman safety during Washington’s road to the College Football Playoff in 2016, Rapp earned first-team all-conference honors as a sophomore. Now, as a junior, Rapp stands as one of the top players at his position with the potential to eventually fall into the first round of the NFL draft.

Perhaps as early as 2019.

8. D’Cota Dixon, Wisconsin: Dixon has spent the past two seasons as a stalwart for one of the top defensive units in college football. The two-time allleague pick was at his best a year ago, a

key cog in the nation’s top-ranked pass defense, and will take on a more important role as the Badgers secondary breaks in a number of new contributors.

9. Jordan Fuller, Ohio State: His status as one of the Buckeyes’ unquestioned leaders extends his value beyond the depth chart. In terms of his on-field performance, Fuller is developing into the program’s next All-American defensive back. A sure tackler who excels in space, Fuller led last year’s Ohio State team in solo stops by a significant margin and might have been the most consistent performer on a defense loaded with NFL talent.

10. Mark Gilbert, Duke: Gilbert joins teammate Joe Giles-Harris to give Duke two national contenders on the back seven of its defense — Gilbert at cornerback and Giles-Harris at linebacker.

Both rank among the best players at their positions. Gilbert flashed closing speed and ball skills in pulling down six interceptions in 2017, though that total might be hard to match as a junior as quarterbacks shy away from challenging the All-American contender.

Five just off the list: Lavert Hill, Michigan; Julian Love, Notre Dame; Brian Peavy, Iowa State; Levonta Taylor, Florida State; Marvell Tell, Southern California