Marshall in state final rematch with Aledo - Page 5
Nick Paoletti (right) of Sugar Land will be singing with an elite All State choir this coming February. Read the story inside today's edition on Page 2.
WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 18, 2019
Visit www.FortBendStar.com
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 43 • No. 70
Missouri City investigating death of neighborhood dog
Bring in the
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From Staff Reports
With the band “TNT” 9:30 pm-1:30pm TUES. DEC. 31ST
Missouri City Animal Control is investigating a Dec. 11 incident involving multiple neighborhood dogs that left one of them dead. One of the owners involved is NFL offensive lineman Trent Williams, according to multiple reports. According to an ABC13 report, a Missouri City family says their pet, a 3-year-old Labrador
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mix named Sandy, was mauled and killed in their own backyard by a group of dogs that stay next door in The Manors
subdivision. The owner’s family told the TV station that part of Sandy’s body was pulled underneath their fence by dogs on their neighbor's property, which is owned by Williams, according to ABC13. Williams did not deny his dogs’ involvement, ABC13 reported, but insisted that Sandy initially attacked and seriously injured one of his dogs. Missouri City officials said Tuesday that inves-
tigators have collected statements from all involved parties. The city said multiple citations have been filed, including violations for exceeding the number of pets allowed per city ordinance and pets failing to have required vaccinations. Additionally, none of the pets involved in the incident were registered with the city, which is another violation of city ordinance.
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Houston MSR instructor Tim Probert guides a Clements High School student through the steps of a driving exercise Saturday at the MSR track in Angleton. Students learned from instructors as well as pro racer and Clements alumnus Kory Enders. (Photo by Landan Kuhlmann)
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Venezuela grants house arrest to area Citgo execs From Staff Reports
The Venezuelan government has granted house arrest to six Citgo executives who have been detained since November 2017, according to Dec. 9 reports by the Associated Press and Reuters. Four of the men have ties to Fort Bend County. Houston-based Citgo is a subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), a state-run oil and gas company. Reuters reported that the six men, who were arrested on corruption charges after reporting to Venezuela for a meeting shortly before Thanksgiving two years ago, still cannot leave the country, per the conditions of their release from jail. Five of them are dual citizens. One of the detained executives, Jorge Toledo, has a home in Sugar Land and relatives in Richmond. Three others – Gustavo Cardenas, Jose Pereira and Jose Luis Zambrano – are Katy
SEE CITGO 6 PAGE 7
For some students, driver’s education can evoke thoughts of dry lessons such as “hands at 10 and 2” and to be smooth on the brake pedal. Last weekend, students from a local high school received the early Christmas gift of learning extreme driving techniques complete with hands-on lessons from a homegrown professional racer. A group of about 20 Clements High School students got the chance to learn driving techniques from IndyPro 200 racer
and school alumnus Kory Enders at the MSR Houston road course in Angleton last Saturday morning as part of a special installment of Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land’s Teen Driving Safety School. Enders and MSR instructors guided the class through practical applications of high-speed braking and turning on the facility’s autocross course. “You get to actually do the exercises in person and see what you need to do, so when you get out onto the street and see these situations you know how to correct it,” Clements senior Christophe Bousaada said. “To put them into practice and seeing first-
hand what would happen, I think you’ll be calmer and more ready for the situation.” Each student also had the opportunity to train in Comcast’s Distracted Driving Simulator – which provided a simulation for drivers to experience the dangers of texting and distracted driving in a controlled off-track environment – as well as the chance to practice the art of drifting. “Students are getting to learn about what the car feels like at its absolute limits. They’re experiencing the car at its extreme points of braking, steering and the throttle,” said
Ashlyn Faidley and Christophe Bousaada prepare for a training run at MSR Houston on Saturday. (Photo by Landan Kuhlmann)
the 22-year-old Enders, a Sugar Land native who graduated from Clements in 2014. “We want them
to experience all of those extremes so that the first
SEE CLEMENTS PAGE 6
Sugar Land resident finds long lost family through genetic testing By Landan Kuhlmann LKUHLMANN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
James Michaels found out he was adopted at age 10 but didn’t really delve deeper at the time. Curiosity eventually got the better of the now 31-year-old Sugar Land resident, leading to the discovery of his birth parents as well as siblings he never knew he had. “As a teenager it didn’t matter, because I was comfortable with my adoptive
James Michaels (left) poses for a picture with his half-sister Katie this past Thanksgiving in Houston. (Contributed photo)
family, but over the last few years I became more curious on what I was,” he said. “Other than the fact that my birth mother’s last name was German, I really had no idea about anything.” Michaels, originally from Big Rock, Illinois, said he knew he was mixed race, but became more curious about his identity as time wore on. He finally decided to pull the trigger on genetic testing through a company called 23AndMe in early January. “For most people, (genetic
testing) is more of a curious excitement, but for me it was a must at 30 years old,” he said. “I needed to figure out who I am, where I really came from and who my parents were.” About a month after submitting the DNA testing kit, he received the shock of a lifetime on Feb. 7 – a match with his uncle, who lives and works in Pennsylvania. The two met up just three days later during a conference his uncle’s pipe-
SEE GENETICS PAGE 6
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