Let me tell you how. A brother/sister duo, Rodney Vannerson and sis Karen Vannerson Pearson Vannerson got involved with recruiting candidates and raising money to help candidates. Rodney owns a bail bond agency like his father before him and Karen is a political consultant.

Ostensibly Rodney, who lives in Lamar CISD, got involved because he claimed that the district illegally destroyed some emails he asked for (to what end I still don’t know). Karen got involved in my opinion to make money since her patio home in Sugar Creek is being foreclosed on due to non payment of FBISD taxes. I just looked up the court case and the tax bill hasn’t been paid. Of course I would like to know how her good friend and sometimes lawyer Mike Elliott got court appointed to her case. Can’t she take any other writ twit like the rest of us?

Actually, their opponents claimed they (the Vannersons) got involved because they and others wanted to rezone their subdivisions. You see, many of the new subdivisions want to be zoned into either  George Ranch High School or Foster High School. Due to some anomaly which I don’t have room to go into in this space, older high school Lamar is zoned right in the middle of a whole bunch of new subdivisions, which would explain why Perry Homes donated $30,000 to Rodney’s “Whistle PAC.” (Look right here to see the way the district has inserted Lamar High School right in the middle of things:www.lcisd.org/en/Schools/DistrictMap.aspx)

For those new readers, PAC stands for “political action committee” and is formed and operates under a whole bunch of rules and laws.

A little background here: Rodney and Karen grew up right next door to Sugar Creek Country Club. Their father, now deceased, was a long-time bail bondsman in Houston and evidently made quite a lot of money doing it. However, maybe it wasn’t enough as his wife started canoodling with a retired well-known astronaut back when things like that mattered in Houston. He was one of the original ones. The astronaut and Vannerson got into a car bumping fight in their expensive cars on the Southwest Freeway which made the leading gossip column at the time “Maxine Messinger.” When Mrs. Vannerson left Mr. Vannerson for the astronaut, Karen sued him for alienation of her mother’s affection. I promise I am not making this up.

So Karen and Rodney have the mark who has paid them or will pay their PAC, but now they need candidates.

Word has it that they ran up and down the streets of Richmond and Rosenberg looking for candidates, any candidates.

Caught and thrown in jail……Now here’s where it gets downright trashy. During the campaign, signs belonging to the political opponents of the Vannersons kept disappearing. In one incident, Richmond Police caught Rodney and a current school board member, Dar Hakimzedeh, lurking around signs at 10:30 at night. When questioned, they said they were “checking” on signs.

But a night shortly after that Richmond Police caught Rodney with one sign in his hand and his other hand pulling up another sign. Again, Dar was lurking in the background but smartly  didn’t have his hands on a sign. They arrested Rodney and took him to jail. I can only guess that he was bonded out by his own bail bond company.

Several years ago, Rodney came before the Fort Bend Bail Bond Board and wanted to name his new bonding company “Naked Lady Bail Bonding.” Needless to say, he was refused. I tell you this story to illustrate Rodney’s general mind set. He says he named his PAC the “Whistle PAC” to blow the whistle on Lamar CISD. It seems to me that Rodney needs to blow the whistle on himself.

And Bob Perry is dead. Who in his organization is trying to keep his tradition of buying elections alive?

It’s a sad shame because at least Bob had higher aspirations. He financed a governor (Rick Perry, for years) and scuttled a president (John Kerry was “swift boated” by Perry’s money and we got Bush again who continued with his profligate spending ways and getting us into wars all over the Middle East.) So, my how the mighty has fallen. Can’t even get a majority on the school board elected.

I don’t know why Katheryn Kaminiski took their money. (She’s the only one of the Vannerson’s candidates who won.) She has operated a leading day care center in Rosenberg for over 30 years and knows just about every parent in Lamar CISD and half the kids who are voting age now call her “MeMa.” She didn’t need their money and actually by taking it, gave them an air of legitimacy.

Over the years, I’ve often wondered why candidates hired Karen Vannerson Pearson Vannerson. Now I guess I know. They hire her to keep her brother from stealing their signs.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com. 

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Finally someone from her office wrote me a curt note that said to the effect–too bad if you have a Mac. Either get a different computer or drive  over here to use ours. 

About that point Dianne  Wilson happened to call me and I unloaded on her and accused the district clerk (Dianne is the COUNTY clerk) of having a cozy relationship with the vendor. Dianne informed me that the vendor was the same  for her office and all the JP offices in addition to the constables. In other words,  the entire county’s web site–judicial that is–was in the power of this vendor. However, Dianne was sure there must be a solution.

Later in the afternoon  some young man from the county’s IT department called me and said he had a Mac and he had figured out how to use it to view all the county’s stuff on line. It was a simple matter of holding down a certain key. So for five years I hadn’t been holding down the right key.

I didn’t get the young man’s name or if I did and wrote it down, now I can’t find it.

Anyway, I wanted to inform you that I take back a lot of what I said that week.

Arrogance, thy name is Sugar Land…….I think it’s a bit arrogant for Sugar Land to install a whole bunch of red light cameras the very week a group of its tax-paying citizens presented the city with a valid petition to remove what they already had.

Over the months, we’ve had letters from people who think the red light cameras are a good thing and decrease accidents. We’ve also heard from people who think they are wrong.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m for certain cameras. If not for cameras, we would not have caught the Boston Marathon bombers so quickly, and they were planning on doing much more harm.

England uses a lot of cameras, and their crime rate is lower for it.

So I guess I believe in cameras in the first place. After all, if you are not doing anything bad, why worry about cameras?

Now that I think about it, one can extrapolate cameras everywhere and red light cameras also. If you believe in one, you almost have to believe in the other.

However  I can’t help but believe that the city does it to make money.

But according to Assistant City Manager Steve Griffin, Sugar Land makes about $250,000 per year on all its red light cameras. For the city of Sugar Land, that’s chicken feed. Hardly worth the money if that is what they are doing it for. The company that provides the cameras and also the expenses associated with sending out the notices and collecting the money  gets 50% of the money and the city gets the other 50%. Of the city’s 50%,  the state of Texas gets half of that. So the city gets to keep about 1/4th of the revenue. The city now has 7 red light cameras.

Sometimes I don’t remember….I forget just how far right a lot of people in Fort  Bend really are. Someone told me just the other day that an acquaintance of theirs still called President Obama the “N” word. And a school board member told me that I would be surprised at how  many people in Fort Bend thought we should arm teachers.

Are they crazy? More guns just means more chances for an accident. Why our own sheriff shot himself in the foot demonstrating gun safety as did the gun safety expert in Stafford who did it during a demonstration.

I love it that some people think the government (read Obama) is secretly buying up all the bullets. I hope they are. Last I heard, one had to travel to Wharton to buy bullets as there were none within a 25 mile radius of Houston  and that includes Fort Bend.

I remember Chris Rock suggested during his comedy act that if we made bullets $100 each, we might be able to curtail some gun violence. I’m beginning to think something Chris Rock said in jest might be just the thing. It’s getting pretty bad when Chris Rock makes more sense than anyone else.

Yes, I know. I’m an unrepentant liberal.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com. 

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I particularly wrote about them in relation to county clerk Dianne Wilson trying to make commissioners court understand that she needed to start running her office with computers rather than storing records in shoe boxes.

Since the Technology guy at the time allegedly spent most of the day with the blinds drawn and his door locked (we all swore that he was a federally protected witness) Dianne didn’t get much local help.

So she and other Texas county clerks banded together and persuaded the legislature to let them add money to each paper filed with the clerk, that money to  go into each clerk’s own technology fund.

Before long there was some real money in the fund and Dianne started buying computers. In fact, you can thank Dianne Wilson for her foresight 30 years ago that Fort Bend is one of the most technologically advanced counties in Texas.

But anyway, some of the commissioners were absolutely livid! Imagine! A county clerk who had a “slush fund” to buy her own computers. They were so mad they scuttled her election as the state president of the clerk’s association and accused her of campaigning on county time. Yeah, like none of them had ever done that. Or even hired an aide to campaign exclusively for them.

They knew better than complain to me as they would be driving their geese to a poor market. My industry profited greatly from computers and laser printers even if the advancements offered will supposedly be our burial shroud.

But some of the commissioners even groused in commissioners court (Andy Meyers).

And so today……I thought commissioners love affair with wheels under the butt was over even though they never turned Sheriff Wright down when he bought cars for every member of his department who covered up for him. Soon every one had a car.

But evidently commissioners are still hankering to provide wheels as they have now decided to provide every  JP a county ride. See, every once in a while a JP has to make a death scene. We have a guy that does it on weekends and when JPs are on the bench during the day but sometimes two people die at the same time.

Imagine that!

The JP lobbying so for the county car in order to make death scenes was Judge Jim Richard. I heard he about warted Commissioner James Patterson to death.

Finally Patterson gave in and proposed pool cars for all the JPs. A pool car is a much-used county car that has seen better days as a patrol car or a detective’s car or one used by road and bridge (although I hear road and bridge pretty much wears theirs out). One county watcher said Fort Bend didn’t have any old cars because they got rid of them in two years.

The first rattle out of the box, JP Richard was caught by a county taxpayer loading stuff from his storage facility, the one he and Richard McCarter are squabbling over, into his county car.

Patterson said he had a talk with JP Richard and explained the rules to him. Bosh, Jim Richard might act like a dumb puppy dog, but he is smart as a whip. He’s a good man. Even being treated for cancer, he missed few work days. But like most politicians, he sometimes gets to thinking the taxpayers owe him something besides the paycheck he is already getting.

Let the sheriff be the sheriff……Commissioners now have a sheriff, Troy Nehls, who doesn’t cheat on his wife, doesn’t let his chief deputy run the department with impunity, who shows up for work most days, and who takes cars away from employees who don’t need them. I guess this makes commissioners just dying to buy some more cars.

If I could draw a cartoon, I’d draw one of Sheriff Nehls running cars into the front doors of the courthouse, and commissioners shooing them out the back door.

And speaking of Sheriff Nehls, the bane of his existence is the civil service commission. Based on the rules set in place by the former sheriff as he was leaving office allows  employees transferred to a different job assignment the ability to complain to the civil service commission which is led by former Sugar Land police chief Ernie Taylor (remember how smart he was) and advised by County Attorney Roy Cordes (so smart he was a one-term county judge).

Recently the new Sheriff proposed some changes to existing civil service rules to the commission in an effort to pull policy and practice together; thus paving the way for new departmental guidelines and directives.  However, when the issue of employment changes was broached, the civil service commission elected to allow a litany of employee grievances to be heard by them so they could render a decision on the Sheriff’s decision.  I thought we elected a sheriff to run the county law enforcement department–not a 3-person appointed commission. How in the hell is he supposed to run the sheriff’s department if he is second guessed for each employment decision he makes?

Get out of the way and let that man be sheriff. Let him succeed or fail on his own and if one of you guys wants to be sheriff, pay your fee and run. The next election is three years and seven months away.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com. 

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So to do research on the county’s web site, I would have to buy a Microsoft product. How’s that for openness.

I talked to District Clerk Annie Elliott about it several years ago and she promised me then something would be done. Well, her pants must be on fire because the same situation still exists.

I wanted to look up the bitch fight between Judge Jim Richard and big Republican donor Richard McCarter when I discovered that the same situation exists today that existed several years ago. One clerk in the office told me it was a problem with the vendor. I suggested the county change vendors unless there was a real special relationship with the vendor and district clerk’s office. I know when I bid for things I have to meet certain requirements.

Many county taxpayers have MACs. Look at the number of IPads. It is time our county met the 21st century, dump the vendor who is unsatisfactory and make the research MAC compatible.

What’s wrong with newspapers…. Newspapers have come under such criticism lately with the internet supposedly the best source of information. I will admit that the internet does have a lot of information, but it also has a lot of misinformation. And I know there are people who accuse newspapers of the same thing, but all newspapers try to be accurate. That is our mandate.

However  one needs to think abbot this. No one has figured out how to make a profit on the internet information. They may make a profit on selling things  but they haven’t figured out how to sell information on the internet.

And the internet started out being a youngsters game. We old people have come by it recently at the urging of our young people.

I feel that we shouldn’t give up on newspapers yet. Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, who knows a bargain when he sees it,  has recently started making newspaper acquisitions, mainly small chains. And the Koch brothers  are reportedly trying to buy the Los Angles Times and Chicago Tribune.

So if these money men are in the market, what is happening? Maybe it’s because they are old and still have confidence in the power of newsprint. Maybe the Koch brothers believe their money is better spent on buying newspapers and influencing editorial content, than investing in Karl Rove.

But we still haven’t answered the question of why young people don’t read newspapers. I believe it is because parents do not read to their children anymore. And the screen of a computer greatly resembles the screen that raised them .. television.

My love of newspapers started before I ever went to school. Living 15 miles from the nearest town on a ranch in West Texas, there was very little reading material. I had about three books that my Mother had read to me until she was sick of them.

The Saturday Evening Post came monthly and I learned to read (look at pictures) myself on its pages. But the highlight of my life was Sunday when miraculously we received the Fort Worth Star Telegram. I don’t know if Daddy went to the mailbox and got it Saturday, and they hid it until Sunday, but Sunday after breakfast was Star Telegram day.

We didn’t go to church much as there weren’t many around. My mother worshiped the Lord by cooking a roast every Sunday. Monday was stew day. My mother could strip a roast of all usable meat far better than any butcher I have known.

Besides, the churches that were around were Baptist. We were Methodist.

So after breakfast came the highlight of the week. Mother would read us the “funny papers.”

She would read Dagwood and Blondie, Prince Valiant, and many other strips that have gone out of favor now.

Her reading the comics to  my brother and I imbued a love of reading in both of us. I tried to do the same with my own children, but I’m not sure how successful I was. After all, when they came along television had been invented.

So my thesis is that young people don’t read newspapers (or much of anything else) because their parents never read to them. They parked them in front of a TV and went about their own business.

And I must admit  the cartoons on TV were much more exciting than a story read by Mom. Unless you wanted to experience the closeness of Mom. In my day, both the closeness of Mom and reading newspapers were connected.

My brother was so connected to newspapers that he was one of the few who subscribed to USA Today for years and read it like the Bible, although I accused him of only wanting the crossword and sudoku.

Hope they are having fun……A committee of themselves has been appointed by the Fort Bend judges to find a replacement  for juvenile director Mike Meade. From most accounts, Meade was an excellent director,  although some employees have expressed their dislike of him and accuse him of doing them like the judges did him. You know, turn about fair play.

But now this committee has to meet and sort through resumes. I hope getting rid of Meade was worth it

About every 10 years the judges fire the juvenile head  so I guess it was Meade’s time. I wish we could get rid of some of the judges about every 10 years as they usually run without opponents. About the only way to do it is to run as a Republican, and in the primary dig up every dirty case the judges have adjudicated. The cases are there and the lawyers know it. They are afraid to run because if they lose after throwing the true dirt, they are finished in Fort Bend County.

Now this IS fun…….This weekend is the Fort Bend Chamber’s Wine and Food celebration.

What an affair! On Friday there is THE GRAND TASTING at 7 p.m. at the Sugar Land Marriott.

Saturday is the SIP & STROLL at Imperial in Sugar Land. It starts at 1 p.m. and lasts till 4 p.m.

Then on Sunday  there is the BISTRO BRUNCH at Sugar Land Town Square. It is 11 am to 2 pm.

Call the chamber at 281-491-0800 if you still need tickets. You can attend one event or all of them.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

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I think it is funny that most of the people that former FBISD board member Lisa Rickert and her team fired at FBISD have now been rehired by FBISD if they want to be rehired. The latest is Charles Dupree about whom I have received anonymous critical emails about.

But let’s recap: When Lisa Rickert finally got a majority on the school board and an attack dog in the guise of Liz Mitton, at her first school board meeting, she arranged her election as president of the FBISD school board, and immediately at the meeting, in a show of trailer park manners, she relegated school superintendent Betty Baitland to the end of the table. When Baitland asked if she could wait until the break to move her things, Rickert said “No.”

With that one move, Rickert solidified the coterie against her and made up the minds of those straddling the fence. In that one move, she lost the rest of her term and the next election.

Although Dr. Baitland, who had come up through the ranks of FBISD and truly loved the district, offered to stay until a new superintendent as hired, her offer was refused and the little-experienced human resource assistant superintendent was appointed. The poor lady wasn’t even a very good HR person.

Her appointment accomplished one thing: it allowed Lisa Rickert to slowly dismantle FBISD as it was then.

A disgraced attorney was hired–an attorney who had his office at a Mail Box Etc. When I busted him on that, he rented an office from a Chinese lady attorney which I took a picture of and nobody really believed it was his office decorated in ornate faux Chinese style.

As a city council member or an employee of the city of Houston, he was caught several times absent without leave from his job–washing his car, taking his children to the Zoo, etc.

He immediately was charged with finding some legal dirt on Dr. Baitland and Dr. Dupree, the CFO she had promoted.

He found nothing, no matter how bad Liz Mitton  tried to make it sound in various blogs. In fact,  a famous line from the time was board member Stan Magee shouting, “Do you mean to tell me that’s all you can find!?!”

Baitland happily retired,  spending a lot of time with her grandchildren at the beach and Lisa and Liz both lost their next elections amid large vote margins and many tears and much gnashing of tears.

So that’s how we got Tim Jenney. I suspect there weren’t many qualified applicants after word got out about FBISD.

I notice that Lisa Rickert may be trying to make a  comeback as I’ve seen her out and about a various events.

School daze again……Then another story that is about one to two years old but has surfaced in another local weekly paper that, I guess, has nothing else to print.

The story is all about former FBISD Superintendent Raj Chopra who eventually left here, but not after the board had given him a sweet contract and four years later a sweet deal to leave.

Among other things, Dr. Chopra was given a contract that called for FBISD to pay for his house back in Kansas until it sold. Of course, it wasn’t going to sell very soon as his older children were still living in it to go to college. He eventually sold it for much more than he told the board it would sell for. He never told the school board any different.

He was given a huge car allowance, a large “entertainment” budget, a membership in the local country club with  monthly dues paid, an expense account, and a payment of his house in Fort Bend among other things. When we criticized this, we were told that most executives were given these perks in private companies and the school district had to compete.

Then besides all this, he was fired before his programs really had a chance to work, although he greatly reduced administrative jobs and brought up test scores. He was sent off with  a nice severance package.

Interestingly, these same criticisms were lodged at him some 10 years later in his new school district,  proving once again that a tiger doesn’t change his spots. (Yes, I know it’s stripes. I’m trying to be funny, but I don’t want you to think I’m simply stupid.)

At Southwestern  College, where Dr. Chopra was superintendent,  his contract called for him to receive a salary of $204,000. In addition to his salary, he had an automobile allowance of $1,000 a month, an entertainment allowance of $14,000 a year, and a housing allowance of $28,000 a year.

He resigned in November  2010, and  received the equivalent of six months’ base salary.

Since he was indicted with many other school officials from other districts at the same time in 2012, I have searched the web for additional news only to come up dry. I have a feeling the charges have been quietly dismissed. At the time he was reported to be in Texas suffering from depression. Wanna bet it’s in Fort Bend?

More school daze…..In other school news,  State Rep. Rick (Dana) Miller was the only member of the Fort Bend delegation to vote for the school vouchers which are reportedly dead in the water.

I called Commissioner James Patterson to chide him for supporting Miller and he told me he didn’t support any candidate because as a County commissioner, he has to work with whoever wins. That’s not what jacquie Baly and her friends think.

I believe Patterson but I know for a fact that Miller told former school board president Sonal Buchar that he did not support vouchers. Since State Senator Dan Patrick  was his big buddy you would have to be pretty stupid to believe that he would actually vote against vouchers.

Next…..It seems I am an international star after all. The following is an email I received from Ireland:

“Hi Bev, Just watched you on Irish TV. Charlene Hill murder trial. Just wanted  to say well done. You came across a strong, fine women. If you’re ever in Ireland, you can stay with me.  Not a big house, but house that has loads of fun and love.

Well done again,
Ellie”

I’m a little nervous that Ellie might be like that French model on the TV ad.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

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But you notice if you re-read the column (it’s available on our web site), I said nothing about quitting completely. NOTHING!!

I heard that after my last column about the Good Ol’ Boys (GOB), there was some consternation about the fact that I was supposed to have retired. In that same column, I even promised to write when I felt like it.

Well, I feel like it. Bullying always makes me feel like it.

And the bullying I’m talking about involved the forced resignation of the head of juvenile probation, Mike Meade, by judges Jim Shoemake, Bud Childers, and Sandy Bielstein.

Here are the circumstances of Mr. Meade’s resignation in his own words after Boss Hawg Judge Bielstein asked him to meet with him:

“I arrived promptly at 2 p.m. and was greeted by his bailiff, Officer Dale Kelley. Officer Kelley blocked my entrance to Chairman Bielstein’s office and escorted me to the Chair’s jury assembly room. Upon entering the room, seated were Judges/Juvenile Board Member Bud Childers, Sandy Bielstein, Jim Shoemake. Surrounding all three judges in the room were their three bailiffs.

“Chairman Bielstein immediately told me, that “my services are no longer needed” and that I was going to be “terminated” that day unless I “resigned voluntarily.” I asked on what grounds would I be terminated, and I was denied an answer by all three Judges. After brief thought, my response was “I work at the pleasure of the Board, therefore I will resign.” A pen and a pre-typed resignation letter were placed in front of me and I signed it. Board Member Childers told me that my employment effectively ends at 5 p.m. the following day. At that point, I was stripped of my badge and ID card and what department keys I had with me.

“I was instructed that I couldn’t return to my office to retrieve my personal belongings and would be driven home by an officer. The bailiffs escorted me from the courthouse to my county car and assisted me in transferring my personal belongings from my assigned car to the vehicle of the County Attorney’s Investigator. The Investigator then drove me home. Clearly the aforementioned was premeditated and all the details of my “resignation” had been worked out preemptively.

“(It was) Hardly a dignified manner in which to be treated, for a dedicated county employee and someone who has done so much for the youth and their families of this community for nearly 13 year as the Chief/Executive Director. My record and pro-active achievements speak for themselves, as do the department’s data, successful audit scores, low turnover, and very good morale, not to mention a detention officer safety record that is rated as one of the highest in the state. I don’t think anyone on this Board would dispute that I have left the Fort Bend County Juvenile Probation Department in far better shape then when I inherited the same in 2000.

“Additionally, and according to the president of Juvenile Justice Association of Texas (JJAT), with a membership of over 500 juvenile justice practitioners, Fort Bend Juvenile Probation Department is rated as one of the top 3 departments in the state.

“As a result of my hard work in the field of juvenile corrections, I recently received the following awards and appointments:

“1. Winner of the “Bell Ringer Award” by the Fort Bend County Mental Health Association for 2011 for my work in bringing an awareness to delinquents with mental health issues.
2. Winner of the Amador Rodriguez Life Time Achievement Award for 2012 as presented by JJAT.
3. Former President of the Southeast Chief’s Association
4. Former Chair of the Fort Bend County Judicial Steering Team
5. Appointed by Governor Rick Perry in 2011 to sit on the Texas Juvenile Justice Department Board representing large counties.”

Actually I was already investigating Boss Hawg Bielstein due to some very strange and unusual things he had done as a judge.

One thing I found unusual was his insistence that Mr. Meade hire an old HPD crony of his named Billy Lang. When Mr. Meade acquiesced, that’s when the trouble started.

Another strange thing I found about Judge Boss Hawg was a man named Curtis Obrien (age 47) who owns a small engine repair company that was the late night headquarters for sheriff candidate Craig Brady’s “ team.”

Obrien’s record includes, according to county documents, a nolo plea in 1986 for driving while license suspended in County Court at Law # 1 Judge Culver presiding with no attorney listed.

In 1990 a warrant was issued and in 1992 it was all dismissed for lack of prosecution in County Court at Law # 2 Judge Walter McMeans. Attorney was Donald Bankston.

In 1995 Obrien was arrested by Sheriff’s office for Interfering with Public Servant – County Court at Law #1 Judge Wagenbach dismissed those charges because Obrien only interfered verbally, according to paperwork, and no attorney was listed.

In 1997 Assault with bodily injury case dismissed in 1999 in County Court at Law# 3, Judge Susan Lowery. Attorney was Sandy Bielstein who was not a judge yet.

In 2013, Obrien was arrested by Rosenberg PD for possession in a Drug Free Zone and DWI. He was PR bonded out by Bielstein on the same day he was arrested. According to the bond on the most recent charges, Obrien lives with Bielstein on Baker Road in Rosenberg. (DWI and Possession)

This seems hardly the type of person a judge would want as a roommate nor the type of person a sheriff’s candidate would use for meetings.

The next court date is set before assistant Judge Pedro Ruiz. High-powered attorney (Texas Cheerleader Mom) Troy McKinney is the attorney for the charge of Possession of Marijuana in a drug free zone. The charge of DWI is scheduled for County Court at Law # 2 Judge McMeans set for June 2013 with no attorney listed.

Other charges in late 2012 seem to have mysteriously disappeared from official records.

It seems strange to me for Bielstein to keep PR bonding this man who at one point lists Bielstein as next of kin “friend” and appears to live with Judge Boss Hawg.

My investigation continues and will no doubt look at the other judges who appear to have fired the head of Juvenile Probation for no reason whatsoever. Guess they thought I was dead.

Shame on Sugar Land……for bragging about stealing Texas Instruments from Stafford. Mayor Leonard Scarcella’s hair is on fire and I expect his Sicilian background will force him to get retribution. It’ll be fun to watch.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

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The boys at the newspaper on the other side of the river, the Herald Coaster, or whatever they are calling it nowadays, have always looked down their collective noses at us. It’s as if since we are delivered free and they charge, they are better than we are.

So imagine our surprise when several friends from the Richmond/Rosenberg area called to express their condolences that they had hired “Star” reporter and “Star Video” head producer Elsa Malakoff-Maxey away from us. They thought this because a front -page lead story had appeared just that day with Elsa’s byline. The story was about the toll road authority and we had first run it back in January.

I was lying in my sick bed when I received the first call and I thought “That didn’t happen! I know Elsa would have called me.”

Sick or not, I immediately called Clyde King who runs the Herald Coaster. Clyde said he remembered reading the story but  he didn’t notice the byline. He even asked me if I always read bylines. I responded that I sure do.

After looking up the story, Mr. King said he would have to find out what happened and get back to me.

He never did.

Somebody over there, maybe Lee Hartman, finally told Elsa  some cockamamie tale about how the Katy editor sent it in and they thought he got it from one of his reporters/freelancers.

I have to admit we sent the Coaster a bill for use of intellectual property. They paid immediately without a quibble. I haven’t cashed it yet so I can still talk about it.

So the next time the boys from across the river even think about looking down their noses at us or calling us names, I’ll remind them that we’ve never lifted a story from them and ran it in toto on the front page above the fold.

Saturday morning, coming down…….I understand why the Postal Service union is running ads trying to protect Saturday delivery of mail.  They want to protect their employees who might be laid off as a result of reduction in work force.

But seriously folks, couldn’t we all live without Saturday delivery. I know I could. Let me hear from you if you disagree. I don’t want to hear from you if you work for the Post Office.

Whew! GOB system  still alive in Fort Bend…..I know you’ve been worried that the Good Old Boy system was no longer operative in Fort Bend since we had grown so sophisticated. That is not true. It’s just the GOBs haven’t done anything egregious enough to set my hair on fire lately.

That has all changed. And it involves Boss Hog Judge  R.H. “Sandy” Bielstein, who wields far more influence than serving as County Court at Law #4.

The most recent action was the asking for the resignation of Mike Meade, head of Juvenile Probation for the past 10 years.

According to most reports, Meade was doing a crackerjack job until he was forced to resign under threat of being fired and losing his benefits.

The other judges who participated in this cabal were Bud Childers and Jim

Shoemake. I refer to them, including Bielstein, as the unholy trinity.

Next week I’ll tell you more about this and also about papers that have disappeared from the courthouse. I won’t fail to mention the arrested man that was PRed by Bielstein and who now lives with the judge, or at least says he does.

Now why would a bunch of judges fire a well-regarded juvenile probation head and have to go to the trouble of hiring a new one. Does a friend need a job? A friend like Craig Brady who ran for sheriff and got his butt handed to him. A friend like Craig Brady who somehow raised 1/2 million dollars to run. A friend like Craig Brady who lived next door to the judge for years.

Oh, I’ve got a lot more to talk about. I’m baaaaack?

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

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Be that as it may, I have had the best time. I have taught English and drama to hundreds of students while teaching them how to laugh along the way.

I have built a newspaper that has helped hundreds of non-profits raise tens of thousands of dollars for their charities.

I have kept my eye on many elected officials to make sure they walked the straight and narrow and if they didn’t……well, katy bar the door.

I guess you could say for the first 15 years of this newspaper’s existence, I worked very hard to build it. Then for the past 20 years, my son Michael Fredrickson has worked very hard to  continue to build it. Heck, who am I kidding? It’s been his efforts for the past 20 years to build the newspaper. It’s been his.

So as I approach my 72nd birthday, I think it’s about time I acknowledge that Michael is the real publisher, I’m just holding the pen. From now on, please describe me as the publisher emeritus (has a nice ring, doesn’t it?) and Michael Fredrickson as the publisher.

This does not mean I won’t take pen in hand and write a column occasionally. Or even a news story (some columns and stories just need writing. For example when office seekers vote twice in the same election. Or when local politicians spend a half million dollars seeking a job that on paper doesn’t pay that  much, well, like sheriff for instance. So don’t think you get off that easily!)

I’m having some health issues again. My doctor warned me about taking a bone scan for cancer. He said, “Are you sure you can lie on a very hard table without moving for 30 minutes?”

“Hell, doc,” I said, “I grew up sleeping on a corn cob mattress. We had a headboard until my Daddy ripped it off to use as a gate.”

“You know those fancy entrances to all those ranches between Houston and Austin? Well, those fancy entrances came from my Daddy using fancy iron head boards as gates to his property.”

I don’t think my highly educated doctor wanted to hear my version of Texas history as he shooed me out of his office soon after that. Bet he’s sorry he ever drew me as a patient because patient I’m not, and I’m already telling him how to treat me. Of course, if I die, he can blame me!

Well, I’m not going to die and  I’m certainly not going to quit writing if I’m well enough, mad enough, and my hands are working (typing).

I hate this as much….Several weeks ago I wrote about how half-bearded faces on guys were not a turn-on for me, and I had no idea how it started. A reader informed me that it came from those baby-faced Hollywood boys trying to look like real men!

I hate “going forward” just as much. Have you noticed how everyone now says “going forward” instead of “in the future.” I’m almost afraid to turn on a political talk show. I guess they think “going forward” sounds cooler.  A word–it’s not!

Seven million between 37 states……A press release from Greg Abbott who I despise just a little less that Rick Perry, takes credit for getting Google to pay $7 million for the invasion of privacy that Google street view did when it was supposedly mapping your street. (I actually saw them on my street and thought it was pretty cool). Come to find  out, they were stealing my private stuff unless I had my router locked or something like that. Silly people. They can “steal” all they want, I’m fixing to publish it anyway.

My question is how are they going to divide $7 million between 37 states or is Greg Abbott going to use it to run against Rick Perry going forward.

Two bushes in the hand…..Jeb Bush was going around to six, count ‘em, six, talking shows to promote his book/run for president this past weekend. Do the Bushes or the Republican Party honestly think we have forgotten how George W. almost completely ruined this country and it will take YEARS to pull out of his mire?

Do they really think we will readily elect another Bush in this millennium? I just dare him to run against Hillary. She will beat him like a rented mule,  a redheaded step-child, a run-away sister, wife, like….going forward!

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

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What’s going on here? This week the Missouri City council voted unanimously to approve an consent agenda item which included a “crash charge” for the Missouri City police to attend a wreck in the city. The minimum charge is $500 and the at fault driver will have his/her insurance company billed. If the insurance does not pay and you are a resident of Missouri City, the matter will be dropped. But if you don’t live in Missouri City, you will be billed directly.

Of course a billing and collection company has already been hired to facilitate this option.

The reason there has been no outcry? The “consent agenda” has many items on it and council members simply vote on it pro forma. No discussions, no pesky reporters wondering what the hell is going on.

What seems to be going on in Missouri City is a budget shortfall in a city that bought a failing country club and had a expensive ligation of it for many months. This is the same city with a really bad gang problem it can’t control, that just built a $9.5 million community facility, and lost $83,000 on its golf club last year. The $50,000 this “crash charge” scheme is projected to bring in doesn’t seem worth the trouble.

According to the city’s press release, this is being used in other cities although no examples are being cited, even though I specifically asked the Mayor Allen Owen for examples.

And do all those Council members who voted unanimously for this honestly believe that the insurance companies aren’t going to raise their rates for this?

Say, you are driving through Missouri City and some cretin runs into you. His insurance company refuses to pay or he has none so since you are the out-of-towner even if it wasn’t your fault, your insurance company will be billed. Don’t you think they are going to increase your rate in a Missouri City minute?

I read of a family in Indiana who had their house burn down. The fire department sent them a bill for $28,000 even through they didn’t save the house. The insurance company was billed and when the family’s insurance paid the family, the company  deducted the $28,000 dollars.

Also, the companies hired to do the billing in many places are accused of jacking up the prices and adding that to the bill. Some state have even outlawed this whole practice.

If they are going to charge for this, how long before they decide to charge for cops to come to your house to arrest a burglar. Is there a 911 fee or is it covered by the garbage-sold waste disposal fee that we currently pay each month?

And will we eventually have to pay the DA to indict the burglar who broke into our home? Will the attorneys have to pay for space in the courtroom to represent their clients? Where will this end?

I think the Missouri City police and fire department should have to return any government grants they have received. After all, they get our tax money, then they get it again in the form of government grants, now they want us to pay again. The primary job of the government is to protect its people, not gouge them to buy unsuccessful country clubs! Am I the only one outraged by this?

Can you get used to Sugar Daddy?……With Missouri City trying to rack in money on the backs of its citizens, is it any surprise that Sugar Land has been offered $4.5 million to change its name to SugarDaddy.com, a dating website that links rich older men with younger women.

Mayor Jimmy Thompson has politely declined. I heard either he or City Manager Alan Bogard said they would have to add several zeros to get them interested.

Before you get all high behind about someone having the nerve to make that offer, I must remind you that before I moved to Sugar Land and started the Star here, when someone mentioned “Sugar Land,” I thought it was a theme park. I now love Sugar Land, but indeed there are some days when I think my first assessment was right. It is a theme park.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

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Several of the constables have contracts to patrol in some of the wealthier subdivisions. The money does not go to the constable but goes to the county’s general fund, as it should.

Along with the patrol contract, the subdivisions have to provide a car for the patrolling deputy. Again this is usually in the form of money which goes to the county general fund. That means the county has to provide the cars and what a sorry lot it has been for many years. Every year Sheriff Wright reminded Commissioners that the money was to buy cars, which he did. (I don’t know for sure that he reminded Commissioners of this or maybe his water-boy Commissioner Andy Meyers did the reminding. But surely someone did or why else did the Sheriff always get a pass from the Commissioners and all the money he wanted.) Then the Sheriff gave the sorriest piece of vehicle on four wheels and passed it on to the constables, particularly if his office didn’t have the contract and the constable did.

Troy Nehls has been a constable. He had put up with that unfair situation for years. So when he got in office I suspect he decided to level the playing field somewhat. He took good cars away from some of his employees who had no reason to have one except as a “perk” of the job and gave the good car to the constables.

I’ve heard that some in the sheriff’s department blame me and crime reporter LeaAnne Klentzman. We’ve both been complaining about the unfair distribution and unnecessary purchase of cars for years which have fallen on deaf ears. It’s not necessiary our fault. We just helped elect someone who thought the same way we did. Kudos to Sheriff Nehls.

We buy our own cars, pay for gas, insurance, and all repairs. We don’t see why people who don’t need a free ride should get one.

And now for something entirely different…..I can’t understand why Sugar Land just doesn’t give Capt. Van what he wants about the red light cameras. He’s complaining this week because Sugar Land will not admit that payment for red light fines captured by camera are strictly voluntary.

As far as I understand there are only two traffic lights with cameras still located in Sugar Land. It’s probably a good thing I am not a city official. I think I would simply either admit that paying the fines are volunteer or jerk the last two out to get him off my back. He says he has collected 1,183 signatures or 46% of the needed total to put it on the ballot. Maybe he should put a petition on-line.

Added note……..Maybe you remember last week when I wrote about the passing of long time advertiser and friend Ray Wilson. I have something to add to that story.

I was thinking about Ray all during Christmas. He had done some work for me in October and I kept meaning to call him and tell him how much I enjoyed it and what a great job he did. Then I kept thinking that I would send him a Christmas card with that message but I kept putting it off. When I thought of it, I was driving down the road or doing something else.

Then Christmas passed and I thought I would call him. I never got around to it, then last week he passed away. The moral to the story is that when you think of people or want to compliment on a job well done, you should DO IT NOW. I greatly regret I didn’t do it then.

B.K. Carter is the owner/publisher of the Fort Bend/Southwest Star. She can be reached at beverly@fortbendstar.com.

Follow Bev on Twitter. Search for BevsBurner.