ESTIMATES!
within 25 miles of Mobility City of Sugar Land
COMFORTABLE
LIGHTWEIGHT
LIFT CHAIR RECLINERS
200
$
TRAVEL SCOOTERS
FREE ESTIMATES!
250
150
$
OFF
STAIRLIFT & WHEELCHAIR RAMPS
3 or 4-WHEEL
ROLLATOR WALKERS
$
OFF
OFF
TM
7746 Highway 6, Ste H, Missouri City, TX 77459 MON-FRI: 9am-5pm | SAT: 10am-2pm | SUN: Closed
832-558-8059
within 25 miles of Mobility City of Sugar Land
mobilitycity.com/stx
Local football squads headed to 7-on-7 state tourney - Page 4 Extend Fence Life
WEDNESDAY • JUNE 22, 2022
Various Color Options
BEFORE
713-397-4477 • SOS-ASAP.com
AFTER
Visit www.FortBendStar.com
Fort Bend / Southwest • Volume 47 • No. 40 • $1.00
Missouri City man helps Houston land World Cup games Armors Your Glass From Burglars, Storms & Heat
713-213-5080 info@ArmorGlass.com ArmorGlass.com
Two Moms ESTATE SALES Fri/Sat June 24/25 9a-3p 6035 Turkey Creek Missouri City, TX. 77459
TwoMomsEstateSales.com
By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Houston last week was selected as one of just 16 host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and a Fort Bend County man helped to make it happen. Chris Canetti, of Missouri City, is the president of Houston’s 2026 World Cup bid committee and has been working on the bid for four years, he said. “This is going to be exciting,” Canetti told the Fort Bend Star. “This will
be the biggest event to come through Houston.” The World Cup is held once every four years to determine the best national soccer team, each time in a different host country. This edition of the competition will be somewhat unusual in that it will feature 48 teams- expanded from 32 in previous tournaments – across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Houston and Dallas were the only two Texas cities selected as hosts
Celebrations abound at county’s Juneteenth events
Canetti
for the tournament. Houston’s history hosting major events combined with its infrastructure
and international reputation helped push it above several other cities, Canetti explained. “I wouldn’t say it was just one selling point, so much as that Houston checked all the boxes,” he said. “It’s the fourthlargest city in the U.S. It’s the largest in Texas. It’s a transportation hub and easily accessible with two international airports. And it’s centrally located.” Houston has also hosted more major sporting events than any other
U.S. city since 2004, Canetti said. “We have vast experience hosting events like this,” he said. Canetti was selected to help run the city’s host bid because of his previous role as president of the Houston Dynamo and his connections to the soccer world. Bidding for the 2026 World Cup took slightly longer than expected as the process was delayed
SEE CANETTI PAGE 7
Season to smile
By Landan Kuhlmann LKUHLMANN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
2022
READERS’ CHOICE PLACE YOUR VOTES FORTBENDSTAR.COM
Fort Bend County family sues Texas Children’s Hospital By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
A Fort Bend County family is suing one of the region’s hospitals, asserting doctors accidentally performed a vasectomy on their 4-year-old son. Attorneys for Sugar Land couple Josh and Krystal Brod filed a lawsuit in Harris County district court against Texas Children’s Hospital and a doctor there, seeking between $250,000 and $1 million in damages on behalf of a minor child, according to court filings. The Fort Bend Star is withholding the name of the doctor, because attorneys for the Brods told the Star that they aren’t sure the doctor named in the lawsuit is the one who performed the surgery. Rather, Texas law stipulates attending physicians are ultimately responsible in civil malpractice cases, asserted Randy Sorrels, one of two attorneys for the family. “We don’t take meritless claims,” Sorrels said of his decision to represent the Brods against Texas Children’s Hospital. Representatives for the hospital declined to comment about the lawsuit. Essentially, the Brods’ child developed a hernia problem and underwent surgery to fix it in August 2021, the lawsuit asserts. During that operation, attorneys allege that a surgeon performed an accidental vasectomy.
When Missouri City councilmember Don Smith and others founded the Missouri City Juneteenth Celebration Foundation (MCJCF) in 2002, they likely could not have imagined how Juneteenth would change. But they knew they wanted more of the city and its residents to have a more complete understanding of the history as well as the specific importance of the holiday that its annual series of events is now meant to commemorate. At the time of MCJCF’s inception, the African American population was around 27 percent of the city’s residents, according to Smith, and that figure has now risen to represent about 37 percent. “As I was looking around (back then), there were little - if any events that were pertinent to (Black people) in Missouri City,” he said Monday. And since the MCJFC’s inception, recognition of the holiday has grown exponentially along with it in Fort Bend County and beyond. By 2011, a report from the Houston Chronicle said the MCJCF’s event series was starting to draw at least 300 people every year. Smith said it has continued to grow over the years, though he was unable to provide an exact figure for the total 2022 attendance as of Monday. Juneteenth became officially recognized as a federal holiday just last year, and is considered the longest-running Black holiday. Employees in Missouri City, Kendleton and other municipalities around the county, state and country got Monday off in observance of the holiday. Also known as Emancipation Day, Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865,
Kendleton resident Johnie Palmer (left), Debra Greenwood-Sharp with the Fort Bend History Association and former Kendleton mayor Carolyn Taylor Jones pose for a photo during the city's Juneteenth celebration. (Photo by Landan Kuhlmann)
when Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and announced that Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which was signed two years earlier, had freed enslaved people. The MCJCF’s 20th annual series of events, which included a family night out at Hunter’s Glen Park, 1340 Independence Blvd., on June 17, was part of a host of
See related column on .................. PAGE 3 events around the county. There was also a concert in the park as well as the “One Mile of Smiles” parade on June 18, along with other events.
“The celebration is symbolic,” Smith said. “It’s meant to come together and enjoy yourself and recognize what the celebration is about.” Ever growing However, while Texas may get the bulk of the coverage for the holiday given its origins in the state, celebration extends well
SEE JUNETEENTH PAGE 7
Remains from 1980s identified with new DNA technology By Matt deGrood MDEGROOD@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
For decades, the family of Peggy Anne Dodd had been searching for closure. Where had their loved one gone when she disappeared in the early 1980s, they wondered? Well, 38 years after
her disappearance, the family finally has answers, thanks in large part to new DNA technology, according to detective Scott Minyard of the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators used advanced DNA sequencing and genealogy technology to identify remains found on Fort Bend
Peggy Anne Dodd
County property back in December 1984 as Dodd, a Houston-area resident, Minyard said. “You’re always trying to leverage modern forensics to solve cold cases,” Minyard said. The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office is one of several law enforcement agencies across the country that have used
advanced technology to help solve cases that are decades old. Deputies with Montana’s Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, for instance, recently used DNA technology and genealogy databases to solve a double homicide
SEE DNA PAGE 7
JERRY FLOWERS
Real Estate Agent, MBA, CNE, ABE Army Veteran (RET) • 832-702-5241 Jerry@dreamhomesbyjerry.com
4500 Highway 6, Sugar Land, TX 77478