Thursday, May 3, 2018
B METRO&STATE
+ BUSINESS
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
A happy home
Luci Baines Johnson, granddaughter of the namesake of the Rebekah Baines Johnson Residential Senior
Center and daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, greets residents of the center, Bobbie White
Ball (left), Rebecca Labauve, Ann Smith and Josie Quinonez, after a groundbreaking ceremony for
redevelopment of the center. The groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday for the senior residence
tower redevelopment project on Waller Street near Lady Bird Lake. The senior housing center is slated
for additional rooms and renovation of the existing tower. RALPH BARRERA / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
CENTRAL TEXAS WEATHER
Storm system may bring severe
Austin’s top art prize
weather to region today, Friday doubles to $200,000
By Mary Huber and Katie Hall
mhuber@statesman.com
khall@statesman.com
A storm system from the west
will meet a cold front from the
north over Central Texas on Fri-
day, producing potentially severe
thunderstorms after rounds of
showers on Thursday.
National Weather Service mete-
orologists have put rain chances
on Thursday at 40 percent and say
that light morning showers could
increase in intensity by the after-
noon as the storm system rolls
in from the west. Thunder, high
winds and hail are all possible.
However, that kind of activity is
more likely to happen north and
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
Masculinity
program at
UT retooled
amid flak
School calls masculinity
mental health issue, says
conservative talk radio.
By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
rhaurwitz@statesman.com
A University of Texas program
on masculinity that has veered
from its core purpose of address-
ing sexual assault and interper-
sonal violence into broader dis-
cussions of such matters as gen-
der “fluidity” is being retooled,
officials said Wednesday.
The decision comes after some
conservative websites and talk
radio hosts claimed falsely in
recent days that UT regards mas-
culinity as a mental health issue.
The program, dubbed “Masculi-
nUT,” is an awareness campaign
housed administratively — like
other programs related to sex-
ual and interpersonal violence
— in the university’s Counseling
and Mental Health Center, but
it does not treat masculinity as
a mental health problem, said
Soncia Reagins-Lilly, vice presi-
dent for student affairs and dean
of students.
A campus steering commit-
tee that helped develop the pro-
gram in 2015-16 will be recon-
vened to help ensure that the
program’s mission is clearly
aligned with efforts to reduce
sexual violence, Reagins-Lilly
said in a letter to UT President
Gregory L. Fenves.
She has temporarily suspended
the search for a “healthy mas-
Masculinity continued on B3
Contact: metrodesk@statesman.com; 512-445-3851
Subscribe: statesman.com/subscribe
west of the Austin metro area, fore-
casters said, in places like William-
son, Burnet and Llano counties.
The system will remain in Cen-
tral Texas on Friday as a cold front
moves in from the north, boost-
ing rain chances to about 70 per-
cent, forecasters said. But it won’t
drop Austin temperatures much
— only from the upper 80s to the
lower 80s.
Because the front will be
slow-moving, it could produce
heavy rain, weather service mete-
orologist Eric Platt said. There’s
a chance the Austin metro area
could see total rainfall of between
1 and 3 inches over Thursday and
Friday, with the highest amounts
expected in the Hill Country and
Correspondents dinner a missed opportunity
Ken
Herman
Commentary
In 2006, seated at the head
table at the White House Corre-
spondents’ Association dinner as
an elected member of the associ-
ation’s board, I was uncomfort-
able about Stephen Colbert’s per-
formance as the evening’s guest
comedian.
While much of the nation was
familiar with Colbert’s shtick, I
was not, not having ever watched
his Comedy Central show. FYI,
I’m now a nightly fan of Colbert
and find his humor intelligent, if
pointed, and at this odd juncture
in American history pointed in a
direction I share.
CAPITOL
Shoes tell sad story of road deaths
David and Wendy Mills place their teenage daughter Kailee Mills’
shoes on a display at the Capitol along with those of 929 people
who were not buckled up and died last year on Texas roads. Kailee,
a student at Klein Collins High School, was killed in a wreck 400
yards from her home after removing her seatbelt to take a selfie.
Her parents and Texas authorities urge everyone to use seatbelts.
RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
11 CANDIDATES
areas northwest of Austin.
“We do need to watch this pretty
closely to see where the cold front
lines up,” Platt said. “It is possi-
ble we will see some localized
flooding.”
If the rains fall over the High-
land Lakes and their tributaries
in the Hill Country, the weather
could alleviate some of the drought
in Central Texas. Most of Travis
and Williamson counties, as well
as Burnet and Blanco counties to
the west, are in moderate drought,
according to the U.S. Drought Mon-
itor, a consortium of government
and academic researchers. Signs
Weather continued on B8
Our current president often is
not very presidential.
Anyway, a year later the asso-
ciation opted for something safer
for the 2007 dinner, at which I
again sat at the head table. (Per-
haps it was sympathetic to the
VYING FOR 3 LAKE
TRAVIS SCHOOL
BOARD SEATS B2
CONTINUING COVERAGE AUSTIN FIRE DEPARTMENT
Warrant: 300
child porn
images found
Affidavit: Hundreds of
files believed to belong
to former firefighter.
By Katie Hall
and Mary Huber
khall@statesman.com
mhuber@statesman.com
Police found more than 300
digital files of child pornogra-
phy believed to belong to a for-
mer Austin firefighter, some of
which appear to show him oper-
ating the camera, according to a
search warrant affidavit filed in
Blanco County.
Erik Spalteholz, who worked
for the Austin Fire Department
for more than two decades until
retiring last week, was booked
into the Blanco County Jail on
Monday night on one count of
possession of child pornography.
District Attorney Sonny McAfee
NEW DETAILS SUZANNE DEAL BOOTH ART PRIZE
Suzanne Deal Booth,
FLAG foundation join
to boost cash payout.
By Michael Barnes
mbarnes@statesman.com
Austin’s richest art prize just
doubled its cash payout from
$100,000 to $200,000. Add in
the costs of newly commissioned
work, two exhibitions and a schol-
arly catalog, and the value for
the biennial prize could rise to
$800,000.
Meanwhile, the official name for
the honor handed out by the Con-
temporary Austin has lengthened
Comedian
Michelle Wolf
attends the
White House
Correspon-
dents’ Dinner
after-party
Saturday in
Washington,
D.C. TASOS
KATOPODIS /
GETTY IMAGES
FOR NETFLIX
feelings of people like me that
Colbert had over-targeted his
comedic genius at then-Presi-
dent George W. Bush — who sat
a few feet away during the per-
formance.)
Washington Post columnist and
ELECTIONS IN-DEPTH SMITHVILLE SCHOOL BOARD
Multiple reports, but no
assault charges for Morris
By Brandon Mulder
bmulder@acnnewspapers.com
SMITHVILLE — Police have inves-
tigated multiple allegations of
assault by a Smithville school
board member over the past sev-
eral years, an investigation by
The Smithville Times has found.
On April 19, the Times reported
that school board President
Dareld Morris III had been
arrested in August 2017 in Flor-
ida, accused of domestic bat-
tery against his wife. She told
sheriff ’s investigators that Mor-
ris “had thrown her against the
wall and she believes she may
have blacked out.”
Morris, who is running for
re-election to the Place 3 seat
in Saturday’s elections, pleaded
no-contest to disorderly conduct
SMARTPHONE
SLUMP HITS
CIRRUS LOGIC’S
EARNINGS B5
Erik Spalteholz
is charged with
possession
of child
pornograhy.
said Wednesday he also charged
Spalteholz with evidence-tamper-
ing after Blanco County authori-
ties executed the search warrant
Monday at Spalteholz’s home in
Johnson City.
That warrant granted police
authority to seize things such as
computers, cameras, cellphones,
physical documents and digi-
tal files.
It’s unclear what Blanco County
officials found during the search.
The Blanco County sheriff’s office
refused to release Spalteholz’s
arrest affidavit, citing an ongo-
Firefighter continued on B3
from the Suzanne Deal Booth Art
Prize, founded in 2016 and origi-
nally $100,000, into the Suzanne
Deal Booth/FLAG Art Founda-
tion Prize.
New York-based patrons Glenn
and Amanda Fuhrman and their
FLAG foundation, created in 2008
to support contemporary art,
have joined Booth, among Aus-
tin’s best-known collectors and
patrons, to give the expanded
and unrestricted award to an
artist picked by an independent
expert committee.
“I am incredibly grateful to
Suzanne Deal Booth, who had the
Art prize continued on B3
Texan Karen Tumulty remem-
bered it this way in a tweet as
the controversy about comedian
Michelle Wolf ’s performance at
this year’s White House Corre-
spondents’ Association dinner
roiled the nation: “A year after
(Colbert) did an edgy routine to
a near-silent room at the 2006
(dinner), they overcompensated
with the very safe choice of Rich
Little. Canadian jokes and Johnny
Carson impersonations, anyone?”
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan
of impressionists (Dana Carvey,
Frank Caliendo, Edgar Degas),
but by 2007 Little was a bit dated.
Safe, but dated.
Fast forward to this year’s White
House Correspondents Associa-
Herman continued on B3
in that case. He told the Times
that he had not abused his wife
and that he pleaded no-contest to
take the blame for someone else
and to avoid spending time and
money fighting the allegation.
The Times, one of the Amer-
ican-Statesman’s community
newspapers, then filed requests
under the Texas Public Informa-
tion Act for local police reports
involving Morris. Authorities
released documents relating to
four additional investigations
of Morris, dating back to 2008.
According to the documents,
police looked into allegations of
violence made by his wife, two
other women and a man. None
of those investigations resulted
in charges or convictions.
Smithville continued on B3

Smithville
continued from B1
“Those allegations are
categorically false. And if
(school district parents)
want to get to know me as
a person, they will know that
that’s all not true,” Morris
told the Times. “I do stand
up for people. I do stand
up for my friends. I do put
myself in harm’s way so that
they don’t get in trouble.”
A Smithville Police Depart-
ment incident report dated
Jan. 10, 2016, said officers
came to the Morrises’ home
about 3 a.m. Officers found
Morris’ wife with a bloody
nose. She told officers that,
after returning from the
Front Room Wine Bar,
she was looking for a pac-
ifier to put her daughter
to bed. According to the
police report, she told offi-
cers that “Dareld got mad
and punched (her) in the
face, specifically the nose.”
The officer reported see-
ing blood coming out of
the wife’s nose and dried
blood on her lips. “But I
was unsure if the blood was
from her nose or if she had
received an injury on her
lip,” he wrote.
She told the officer that
Morris had assaulted her in
the past and that she had
sustained bruises from those
alleged assaults, according
to the report. She declined
to press charges for several
reasons, the report said,
“including the fact that filing
charges may ruin her career
and that she was afraid to
lose their house.”
After she signed a non-
prosecution affidavit, the
officers stopped their inves-
tigation and the case was
closed later that month,
the report shows.
About the incident, Mor-
ris told the Times: “We had
a disagreement. And when
I was trying to leave the res-
idence, there was contact
between the two of us. It
Art prize
continued from B1
initial vision for an art prize
of this significance and mag-
nitude,” said Louis Grachos,
executive director and CEO
of the Contemporary Aus-
tin. “We pride ourselves in
being an artist-centric insti-
tution, giving artists import-
ant opportunities through
commissions and organizing
major exhibitions at both our
downtown museum and at
our lakeside sculpture park.
Like Suzanne, Amanda and
Glenn Fuhrman recognize
the singular power of new
and innovative contempo-
rary art to cultivate ideas
and deepen our connection
with the global community.”
The cash prize also comes
with a fresh art commis-
sion, scholarly catalog and
solo show at the Contem-
porary Austin and FLAG in
New York. To make the prize
sustainable through at least
through 2026, the costs for
the creation of new work,
Firefighter
continued from B1
ing investigation. The Amer-
ican-Statesman has filed a
request under the Texas Pub-
lic Information Act for the
document.
Authorities began inves-
tigating Spalteholz after a
video surfaced on Facebook
last week that appears to
show him admitting to paying
for photos of a naked child.
Spalteholz’s ex-girlfriend
told Austin police she took
Lake Travis
continued from B2
and has helped to make all
playgrounds accessible to all
students. She has also advo-
cated at the state level. As a
trustee, she said her decade
of experience in budgeting
and analysis of large con-
struction projects, as well
as work assessing financial
risk for lending institutions,
would help her analyze the
budget.
Lauren White, a for-
mer elementary and spe-
cial education teacher, said
the district can do a better
job with early intervention
for students with learning
and behavioral issues. As a
trustee, she says she would
seek to expand high-qual-
After being sworn into office in 2015, newly elected school
board member Dareld Morris moves a fellow trustee’s
nameplate out of the way to replace it with his own.
Morris is currently president of the school board and up
for re-election. FRAN HUNTER / FOR SMITHVILLE TIMES
was an unfortunate situa-
tion, but since then, both
of us have attended coun-
seling together and have
continued to work on our
relationship.”
In a December 2008
Smithville police report, a
woman reported to police
that Morris, after repeat-
edly asking her to take him
to her house, had grabbed
her breast and face as she
was driving him home from
a Smithville bar. The woman
“slammed on the brakes and
told him to leave her alone”
before proceeding to “take
him to his mother’s house,”
the police report said.
The woman reported the
incident to police that night
and asked to file charges.
The next month, Morris pro-
vided a written statement to
police in which he said that
the woman became “upset
and defensive” when he
asked about her son and that
“at no point during the ride”
did he touch her, according
to the police report.
The case was later referred
to the Bastrop County dis-
trict attorney’s office, which
declined to prosecute for
FLAG foundation’s Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman join Suzanne
Deal Booth and LeMel Humes at the Contemporary Austin,
which will present the prize. CONTRIBUTED BY WHITNEY AROSTEGUI
exhibition, travel to New
York, catalog and program-
ming will now not exceed
$600,000. That means the
total value of each prize
could reach $800,000, mak-
ing it one of the richest in
the country.
“Amanda and I have been
interested in supporting art-
ists through a major prize
that would allow them the
freedom to live and focus
the video, the warrant said.
It’s unclear when the video
was taken, the document
said.
On the video, Spalteholz
said he wired “probably over
$700” to a woman for naked
pictures of her daughter who
was “probably 3 or 4, maybe
5” years old.
The woman gave investi-
gators three SD cards, mem-
ory disks such as those used
in digital cameras, that she
said she took from Spalte-
holz’s house. Officers in Aus-
tin then filed for a warrant
ity prekindergarten and add
counselors at every cam-
pus, particularly in the mid-
dle schools to address stu-
dent mental health and
wellness. She said there
must be more open dia-
logue between the admin-
istrators and school board
and the district’s teachers
since teachers have first-
hand knowledge about the
best ways to spend money
to help students learn.
Place 3
Five c andidates have
entered the race to fill an
unexpired one-year term for
Place 3, which was vacated
by Alex Alexander after he
received a pastoral job out
of state.
Tritia Land, a longtime
school volunteer, said the
lack of evidence, accord-
ing to the Smithville police
report.
During an interview Mon-
day with the Times, the
woman, who asked that her
name not be used for fear of
retaliation, said that investi-
gators never contacted her
regarding her report.
Morris initially told the
Times on Monday that he
was unfamiliar with the inci-
dent and did not know the
woman making the accusa-
tions. When presented with
police documents, Morris
said he believes the woman
made the report in retal-
iation.
In October 2008, an arrest
warrant was issued in Aus-
tin for Morris after he was
accused of assaulting a for-
mer girlfriend, the mother
of his one of his children,
after she had been drinking
downtown. The case was
later dismissed, according
to Travis County records.
According to Morris, the
woman was “insanely ine-
briated that night” and later
signed an affidavit stating
that she had lied to Austin
police about the assault.
on creating their most ambi-
tious work,” Glenn Fuhrman
said. “We were inspired by
what Suzanne, Louis and
the team at the Contempo-
rary Austin accomplished
with the inaugural prize, so
rather than initiating a new
award, we realized that by
collaborating we could col-
lectively create an unparal-
leled opportunity for the art-
ists and institutions involved
to search them.
A judge in Blanco County
approved a second search
warrant after officers found
the cache of images on those
cards.
“Many of these videos
depict the phone/camera
being placed by a white
male,” the warrant said.
An Austin police detective
compared the man in the
videos with a Texas driver’s
license photo of Spalteholz
and believes the man in the
videos and Spalteholz are
the same person, the war-
district needs more counsel-
ors, and should expand stu-
dent-led support programs
to provide emotional sup-
port for students. She said
her background managing
multi million-dollar restau-
rants and country clubs,
numerous volunteer lead-
ership roles and fundrais-
ing duties have given her
the business knowledge and
skills to oversee and prior-
itize district spending on
staff, safety and academics.
Melissa Lovelace, a for-
mer nurse and school vol-
unteer, said she wants more
transparency with district
spending and board deci-
sions. She said she hasn’t
liked decisions the school
board has made in the past
— she believes the district
spends too much on admin-
AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN
A September 2017 Smith-
ville police report describes
allegations of a man who
accused Morris of grabbing
him by his throat at a Smith-
ville bar after he refused to
keep playing pool and bet-
ting on the game. The offi-
cer said the man had blood
and red marks around his
neck, according to the police
report.
The man told the officer
he was thrown out of the
bar, according to the report.
The officer said in the
report that she spoke with
a bartender at the bar and
was told the bartender did
not see Morris grab or touch
the man. “She stated there
were several people that
grabbed (the man) to try
and get him out of the bar,”
and didn’t know which one
might have caused his inju-
ries, according to the report.
U l t i m a t e l y, t h e m a n
decided not to press charges
or provide a statement, the
officer said in her report.
Morris has served on the
Smithville school board since
his election in 2015, and he
was appointed board presi-
dent after Kamron Saunders
stepped down in 2016. He
is running against Nancy
Towry.
“What I end up doing,
i n s e e m i n g l y mu l t i p l e
instances, I end up taking
care of people. And I end
up being the one that gets in
trouble sometimes, because
I’m the one that always puts
myself in harm’s way so that
other folks don’t get in trou-
ble,” Morris told the Times
on Monday. “It’s a pattern.”
Smithville school dis-
trict Superintendent Cheryl
Burns, who was appointed
as the district’s top admin-
istrator in April, declined
to comment on the matter,
except to say that Morris “is
an elected official, and the
community has a decision
to make.”
Contact Brandon Mulder at
512-321-2557.
going forward.”
Glenn Fuhrman is
co-founder and co-manag-
ing partner of MSD Capital,
formed in 1998 to manage the
investments for Michael Dell,
his family and a few other
investors. Amanda Fuhrman
is a nonpracticing attorney
who previously worked for
the Simpson, Thacher & Bart-
lett law firm. The Fuhrmans
are involved with multiple
causes and serve in lead-
ership positions for several
nonprofits.
Through Aug. 26, a solo
show by the current art prize
winner, Rodney McMillian,
can be seen at the Contem-
porary’s Jones Center on
Congress Avenue. A catalog,
including a history of McMil-
lian’s performance-based
work, is expected out in
the fall.
The 2020 prize winner
will be announced in July.
Contact Michael Barnes at
512-445-3970 or mbarnes@
statesman.com.
Twitter: @outandabout
rant says.
Spalteholz remained
Wednesday in the Blanco
Count y Jail in lieu of a
$100,000 bail, records
showed.
Possession of child por-
nography is a third-degree
felony. If convicted, Spalte-
holz could serve two to 10
years in prison and be fined
up to $10,000.
Contact Katie Hall at 512-
445-3707. Contact Mary
Huber at 512-321-2557.
Twitter: @marymhuber
istrative salaries, for exam-
ple — and rather than com-
plain, she is volunteering to
be a part of the solution. She
said there needs to be more
public discussion by board
members before decisions
at meetings, and questions
why nearly all board actions
are approved with no dis-
sent. As a trustee, she said
she will not just approve the
decisions that the superin-
tendent or other trustees
support. Like her husband,
she questioned Lancaster’s
salary.
Jessica Putonti, an attor-
ney, said the district is man-
aging its growth with a $253
million bond approved by
voters in 2017, but another
likely will be needed soon.
She said she wants the dis-
trict to examine ways to
| THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2018
Masculinity
continued from B1
culinities coordinator.” The
position, funded by the UT
System Board of Regents
along with broader efforts
to reduce misconduct, will
be based at the Austin cam-
pus, but the person selected
for the job will work with
the system’s seven other
academic campuses as well.
Reagins-Lilly said her
office is updating some of
the program’s web content
and messaging, with addi-
tional changes possible after
the committee submits rec-
ommendations by Aug. 1.
The website’s wide-rang-
ing topics include a discus-
sion of gender and sexual
fluidity. “We limit ourselves
when we restrict our under-
standing of gender iden-
tity and ‘performance’ to
the gender binary (only 2
options),” it says.
Although the website
stops short of calling mas-
Herman
continued from B1
tion dinner, which I watched
on TV. Wolf’s performance
was out of bounds. It was
in keeping with past din-
ners and past roastings of
presidents (and others), but
unproductive for the times
in which we all live and in
which journalists work.
Because I try to be a man
of our times, I took to Twit-
ter to express my concerns,
doing so by piggybacking
on a tweet from The New
York Times’ Peter Baker, a
journalist whose talent and
objectivity I respect.
“Unfortunately,” Baker
tweeted, “I don’t think we
advanced the cause of jour-
nalism tonight.”
Thinking he had nailed it
with his outrage-free under-
stated comment, I retweeted
his comment, adding, “As a
former WHCA board mem-
ber, I have to agree.”
By Monday morning, my
comment had about 3,000
Twitterverse likes and the
kind of comments I antici-
pated from President Donald
Trump supporters who had
been given what they saw
as evidence of mainstream
media animus to him. This
despite the fact that Wolf also
lobbed her vicious barbs at
journalists and Democrats.
I opted to engage in a Twit-
ter back-and-forth with one
commenter to see how it
would go. I selected Richard,
who, as I feared, has no idea
how White House coverage
works. The way he thinks it
should work is frightening:
beneficial when there’s a
president he likes, harmful
when there’s a president he
doesn’t like. And incredibly
dangerous and un-Ameri-
can to us all regardless of
our feelings about any par-
ticular president.
Richard self-identifies on
Twitter as a Floridian who’s
“a proud conservative” sup-
porting congressional term
limits.
He re sp o n d e d to my
endorsement of Baker’s
tweet by tweeting, “The WH
Press was beyond rude and
insulting. I hope (Press Sec-
retary Sarah) Sanders pulls
all of their credentials and
gets reporters from middle
America.”
This is the dangerous
ground on which Richard
trod. I informed him that
“The White House press sec-
retary does not select who
covers the White House.”
I assumed he’d understand
why that would be a bad
idea. I was wrong.
He wants Sanders to yank
the credentials of correspon-
improve students’ health
by expanding programs that
address drugs and mental
well-being issues and by
hiring more health and
well-being counselors. She
said the district also must
improve safety by determin-
ing areas of vulnerability in
its security, and by consid-
ering options for repairs.
She also said more certifi-
cations should be offered
in high school for students
who choose not to attend
college.
K r i s Ro b i n s o n , i s a
licensed psychologist who
conducts neuropsycholog-
ical evaluations for autism
and learning and medical
issues. Robinson, whose par-
ents were elementary teach-
ers, said she offers a unique
voice to the school board
B3
culinity a mental issue, it
describes so-called restric-
tive notions of masculinity
as unhealthy.
Many young men on cam-
pus face pressure to “act
like a man,” as if there is
only one way, it says. “For
example, restrictive notions
of masculinity imagine a
single, rigid identity that
emphasizes aggression,
competition with men,
devaluation of women, and
few tools to develop com-
munication skills or emo-
tional maturity.”
The website goes on to
say that “traditional char-
acteristics of masculinity
— traits such as indepen-
dence, strength, resilience
and more — are wonderful
assets for people of all gen-
ders. By encouraging an
expanded view of masculin-
ity, there is room for these
traits and more.”
Contact Ralph K.M. Haurwitz
at 512-445-3604.
Twitter: @ralphhaurwitz
dents whose reporting he
does not like.
I told him she does not
have that authority.
“I’m so furious I don’t
really want to get in a debate
with you or any of your ilk
right now,” he told me. “I
will be pushing for Sarah to
get rid of the WH press as it
is presently constituted. We
need to get some conserva-
tives or at least fair people
in there.”
I s u g ge s t e d R i c h a rd
needed to do some home-
work on how White House
correspondents get to be
White House correspon-
dents. He said he didn’t
care “how they get the cre-
dentials. I just want them to
have them yanked and yes,
the press secretary can walk
up to (CNN’s Jim) Acosta and
give him 30 seconds to get
out before the Secret Ser-
vice throws him out.”
Yes, I responded, “Only if
he is deemed a security risk.
Not for what he reports.”
We back-and-forthed a lit-
tle more. I let Richard have
the last tweet: “The WH
press nailed the last nail in
the coffin tonight and I am
just happy to have watched
Trump’s rally in Washington,
Michigan than the self-indul-
gent, back-slapping snow-
flakes.”
I understood, and regret-
ted, that the dinner had pro-
vided fodder for press-hat-
ing Americans. (I also under-
stood that Richard was com-
menting on a dinner he says
he hadn’t watched and was
basing his outrage on the
journalism he had seen
about it.)
I was pleased that asso-
ciation President Margaret
Talev of Bloomberg News
told members Wolf ’s per-
formance “was not in the
spirit” of the association’s
intent “to offer a unifying
message about our common
commitment to a vigorous
and free press while honor-
ing civility, great reporting
and scholarship winners,
not to divide people.”
Mission unaccomplished.
Opportunity missed.
Like Talev, I’m sorry an
entertainer’s comic turn
ove r sh a d owe d Ta l e v ’s
important remarks at the
dinner: “We reject efforts
by anyone, especially our
elected leaders, to paint jour-
nalism as un-American, to
undermine trust between
reporter and reader, or to
cast doubt on the relevance
of facts and truth in the mod-
ern age. An attack on any
journalist is an attack on
us all.”
kherman@statesman.com;
512-445-3907
with her experience with
budgeting and finances as a
small business owner, and
her understanding of the
neuropsychological needs
of students.
Donald Scott II, infor-
mation management con-
sultant in marketing data
integration and campaign
performance analytics,
said the biggest improve-
ment needed is increasing
the number of counselors
at the schools, not just for
students, but also offering
it for their parents. He also
said parents and educators
must be given opportunity
to share their wishes directly
with the school board.
Contact Melissa Taboada at
512-445-3620.
Twitter: @melissataboada