FBISD names campus teachers of year - Page 7
Whiskey Cake in Stafford favored the adventurous eater during a recent visit. Read our review inside today's edition on Page 10. (Photo by Stefan Modrich)
WEDNESDAY • JANUARY 13, 2021
Visit www.FortBendStar.com
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 45 • No. 21
Stafford leaders at odds over necktie By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
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A rift between longtime political adversaries in Stafford continues to deepen. City council member Don Jones and Cecil Willis, who succeeded the late Leonard Scarcella as mayor on Dec. 12 after a runoff election victory over AJ Honore, are at odds over an Oct. 12 photo the Willis campaign
Stafford Mayor Cecil Willis, right, has received criticism from city council member Don Jones over the necktie he wore during an Oct. 12 interview with internet radio host Amber Neal. (Photo from Facebook)
posted to its Facebook page following an interview with Amber Neal, a host on Houston internet radio station 95.3 Jamz. The photo shows Willis wearing a necktie that is red with diagonal blue stripes that are filled with white stars. Jones and Stafford resident Christopher Forte have called out the tie for what they say is a resemblance to a necktie associated with the Anglo-Confederate Soci-
ety, a group in England that sympathized with the Confederacy during the Civil War. Jones and Forte said they found Willis' tie problematic as African-Americans. "As a former educator who has always had to enforce a code of conduct and set a standard of expectation, I don't see why us as public servants in the political
SEE NECKTIE PAGE 8
Green scene
By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
The rising COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the Houston region has forced bars in Fort Bend County to close, elective surgeries to be suspended and businesses that were previously open at 75 percent capacity to scale back to 50 percent, per the guidelines outlined in an October executive order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. In a letter to residents Jan. 6, Fort Bend County Judge KP George wrote that the increased social distancing restrictions were triggered “due to crossing the state’s COVID-19 hospitalization threshold for our region.” Per Abbott’s executive order and the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS), the restrictions apply to any Trauma Service Area (TSA) that has had seven consecutive days in which the number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients as a percentage of total hospital capacity exceeds 15 percent. Fort Bend County is in TSA Q, along with eight other counties that make up Greater Houston. According to TDSHS data, the region crossed the threshold on Jan. 5, when its COVID-19 hospitalization rate was 19.9 percent. In order to loosen the newly increased restrictions for restaurants and other businesses, a TSA must have seven consecutive days in which
SEE ROLLBACK PAGE 8
Shown is a Texas Master Naturalist Coastal Prairie Training Class in September 2019 studying rangeland ecology with Barron Rector, right, of Texas A&M University at the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge. (Contributed photo)
Naturalists foster appreciation of environment By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Jan Kolk and her husband, Kevin Kolk, were at a crossroads when he retired from Fort Bend ISD in March of last year. She was still teaching at Alief ISD, but wanted to find a way for her and her husband to spend more of their free time together doing things they both enjoyed. So she spoke with
Jan Kolk, who lives in the northeast part of Fort Bend County. "We've seen some naturalist things, and thought he'd really enjoy taking the classes and learning more and seeing what he could do since he had some free time." Kolk attended evening and weekend classes until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when her
SEE NATURALISTS PAGE 8
Congressman Nehls calls Capitol riot ‘un-American’ By Stefan Modrich SMODRICH@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Abbott
A Texas Master Naturalist Coastal Prairie Training Class studies mammology and herpetology during a Nov. 7, 2020 field trip at Brazos Bend State Park. It was rescheduled due to COVID-19. (Contributed photo)
Shannon Westveer, vice president of the Texas Master Naturalists (TMN) Coastal Prairie Chapter, a volunteer organization that partners with Texas A&M Agrilife Extension and Texas Parks and Wildlife and which provides a host of virtual and in-person classes on a variety of topics, including botany, ecology, bird-watching and geology. "We've been outside people all our lives," said
Troy Nehls surrendered his badge and gun upon his election to the U.S. House of Representatives, but the new Republican representative for Texas’ 22nd Congressional District and former Fort Bend County Sheriff put his law enforcement training on display to the world Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol following a break-in by
rioters who were protesting the Nov. 3 general election loss of President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, disrupting and delaying the legislative certification process that ratified the ballots cast in the Electoral College by each state. “It was very, very wrong. It was criminal,” Nehls said of the violence at the Capitol. “I wasn’t happy with anything that I saw that afternoon in our nation’s Capitol building.” After a rally hosted by the
outgoing president in Washington, a group of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, breaking into the House chambers and the offices of elected officials, according to multiple reports. “This really never should have happened,” Nehls said. “It should have been avoided.” Images of Nehls, wearing a
SEE NEHLS PAGE 8
Nehls
JERRY FLOWERS
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