Raining on your parade

Parades ain't what they used to be.

Reports of several floats being kicked out of Friday's Battle of Flowers parade have been confirmed by KSAT 12.

SAPD booted the floats at the request of parade organizers-- including that of El Rey Feo's -- for throwing beads, medals and other souvenir items from the float to the people lining the Broadway parade route.

SAPD said parade organizers gave repeated warnings for those on the floats against throwing items off the floats.

(from KSAT-12)

When I was a kid, I remember almost every float in a parade threw candy to the kids. Of course, that was in a small town, and maybe they do/did things differently in a smaller scale parade than in a big city parade. In any case, it makes for an interesting notion to consider the possiblity of El Rey Feo being led away in handcuffs by the police.

Seeking out HIV

If you see this van cruising your neighborhood ----

---- then you know you're in an at-risk area.

Oh, wait. Never mind. They're just calling out the neighborhoods anyway.

"Now we can reach out into the deep east side, south side and the west side, where there's a lot of barriers to getting to health clinics or to getting testing," explained SAAF Director David Ewell.

(from KENS-5)

What, do they have music playing, like ice cream trucks, to let the neighbors know they're in the area? Do they park and just hawk their services, like food trucks? Seriously, how do they get the people who need testing over to the truck to take the test? I would think most people passing by would have a reaction similar to this guy in the video at the news story link:

I probably would not use it, but I think it's an excellent social resource.

And I think most people who are thinking about getting a test to see if they are HIV positive would rather do so in a more discreet location, so they are probably likely to shun this resource as well, as excellent as it may be. Perhaps it will be useful and helpful in the long run, but I kind of doubt it.

I do like the way they Hispanicized the whole thing by throwing in a gratuitous "¡Ay!" in the thought balloon. Maybe the California outfit that donated it thought us San Antonians would appreciate that little bit.

Thanks, Cali.

"Man proposed marriage to girlfriend after Family Dollar robbery"

Because nothing says love quite like an equal stake in aggravated robbery.

Police say a man identified as Sean Foxx, 27, proposed to his girlfriend, Treila Woods, 24, after the pair had just been arrested in connection with an aggravated robbery at a Family Dollar Store.

Investigators said Foxx was in a getaway car outside the store Monday morning waiting for Woods to come out.

Store managers claim Woods was shoplifting and attempted to stop her as she was leaving through a broken door. Foxx saw what happened and then went inside, police said.

...

Foxx and Woods were arrested a short time later and charged with aggravated robbery.

Police said after the arrest Foxx popped the question and Woods accepted.

(from KSAT-12)

And what's next? Marriage, of course.


Does the Family Dollar take wedding registries? Perhaps all could be forgiven, then.

Always think a little more

In certain situations, at least. Like when some stranger stops his car and offers you a ride.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, the victim told police a man in a blue Oldsmobile SUV approached him early Saturday while the victim waited for a friend downtown.

The victim, 20, said the man offered him a ride, and he accepted.

The man then allegedly drove him to an unknown location and sexually assaulted him, overpowering him with his weight.

Using a description of the vehicle and its license plate number, detectives found [Carl] Pelayo at his house and questioned him about the incident. He denied any involvement in the crime.

He told detectives he is a “bootleg taxi driver” and likes to pick people up and transport them to their destination for a fee, though he is not a licensed cab driver.

(from the Express-News)

Strange hobby.

"Man arrested in beating of woman who refused threesome"

Well, this seems like an odd way to convince someone.

Police have charged a San Antonio man in the beating of a woman who refused to partake in a sexual threesome.

Jack Lee Buck, 50, was charged late Saturday with enhanced family violence assault, a third-degree felony. Bail was set at $15,000.

Police responded to a domestic disturbance at a house in the 4000 block of Lord Road in December.

A woman there said Buck had struck her in the knees and back using a wooden baton outside the home after she declined the threesome.

(from the Express-News)

A wooden baton? Do they mean a police baton? If not, why not just say "stick"?

Standing against ...

This was the scene at the 22nd annual International Women's Day march, as reported on by the San Antonio Express-News:



'Cause, you know, nothin' says "woman" quite like the color of your skin.

Climbing the courthouse

Really? Again?

Two people were arrested early Tuesday morning after police caught them on the roof of the Bexar County Courthouse.

Police said someone noticed the couple on the roof around 4:15 a.m. and called authorities.

Police arrived and found a 23-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman on a landing of the roof.

Investigators believe they were planning to break into the building and said they used a fire escape to get on the roof.

Police said they would not be charged with trespassing but face charges of public intoxication.

(from KSAT-12)

What is so fascinating about the top of the Bexar County Courthouse that makes people want to climb up there? Why that pile and not the surrounding structures? Does it have something to do with defiance of authority specifically, or is it just a building that looks so interesting it must be climbed?

And why charge the two in this story with public intoxication but not trespassing? Do they actually need to break into the building (as the other dorks did back in October) before they can get charged with trespassing? They are on the roof, and they are obviously up to no good, so hit them with the trespass charge along with PI, or let them go free. The PI charge makes less sense as they are not so much in public and very much so on property where they are not supposed to be.

In any case, they should be more careful. And they should give more thought to where they seek to share moments alone, at least when they are a bit sloshed in the downtown area.

Someone who should think a lot before doing drugs

This is a whole lot of WTF from just one man.

A wild string of events on the Southeast Side led to a man's arrest Wednesday evening.

Police said the incidents started just before sunset when a couple of kids riding their bikes were approached by the 20-year-old suspect.

"He told us if we wanted to go smoke with him in his clubhouse and we took off," Julian Salazar said.

Police said the suspect chased the kids and also asked them to "have sex," but then headed back to the road and started to throw punches at moving cars.

"Apparently our suspect was acting aggressively and irrationally towards vehicles driving by, swinging at them, trying to hit cars," Sgt. Trey Roussel with the San Antonio Police Department.

Police said the man even jumped into someone's vehicle. "As I was getting out he jumped in and asked me to take him somewhere and I was not going to. In self-defense, I punched him and he jumped out," said Raymond Gleason.

(from KSAT-12)

The police eventually caught him. And guess what? He had been doing drugs.

Surprised?

Getting fired

Isn't this a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't kind of situation?

Natalie Johnson is a 27-year-old student and, until last week, worked at the River Center Macy's.

On Nov. 30, a teenager shopping caught her attention.

"I made sure to keep an eye on him because he was shopping for women's clothing," remembered Johnson.

She said she was convinced the shopper was a man. So when she saw him in the women's dressing room, she told him he couldn't change there.

...

But the group of people he was with supported the shopper, arguing Macy's policy allows transgender people to change in the fitting room of the gender they associate with.

...

Johnson said she was let go.

...

A response from the retail giant said, "Macy's does not comment on personnel matters. At Macy's, we recognize and appreciate the diversity of our customers and associates."

(from KSAT-12)

All my life I grew up with the notion that if a man tried to enter a restroom, locker room, or any other space set aside exclusively for women, that man would be soundly mocked, ridiculed, and possibly arrested. But now, apparently, all a man needs do is identify himself as transgender and he can go anywhere. At least in Macy's.

I feel a bit sorry for the employee. If she had adhered to company policy (which she was well aware of) and allowed a man into a women-only area and something bad had happened, then she would have been vilified for that. And the company as well. Instead, she ignored the policy and acted according to her beliefs and convictions.

And she got fired for it.

But at the same time I'm not sure how sorry I feel for Ms. Johnson. Her actions were carried out with full knowledge of the possible consequences, and that's a choice she made. But one thing this incident does show is that Macy's doesn't seem to want her kind of diversity.

Occupying San Antonio

It came to occupy Travis Park!



¡Puro San Antonio!

We're #1!

In pole dancing!

Athletes competed for the crown of Miss Texas Pole Dance over the weekend in Dallas, demonstrating strength, flexibility and balance.

San Antonio's own Jennifer Huff, a married mother of two children, was the winner of the 2011 competition.

(from KENS-5)

Ah, yes ---- simply one more thing to stoke S.A. pride.

"Suspected rapist accused of using pit bull to threaten woman"

There's all kinds of weird going on here.

The woman told investigators she met 30-year-old Alex Martinez at a night club a few weeks ago. She said she picked up Martinez at his home on Wednesday, and they went to a club to have a couple of drinks and to get something to eat afterward. After returning to Martinez's apartment, the woman said he refused to let her leave and then sexually assaulted her. She said when she tried to put her clothing back on, he told her to take her pants back off and then opened the back door and threatened to let his pit bull dog inside. She said he attempted to have sex with her a second time but could not.

The woman told officers she stayed with Martinez out of fear but was able to leave in the morning after telling him she was going to get something to eat.

(from WOAI-TV)

This is just an allegation, of course, and the man says the sex was consensual. But the pit bull part really puts a strange spin on the case. It makes one wonder ---- Can a dog be seized as evidence?

Glad I could help, too, I guess

Nice. Alan at Blogonomicon gets referrals to his blog that come from search strings about the freshness of cheese. What do I get? Hookers.



Let's hope this knowledge seeker from Carlsbad actually reads the link he got referred to, and let's hope he remembers it when he comes to visit San Antonio. Hunting for hookers can be dangerous.

"Decapitated birds found in south side neighborhood"

Don't worry. It's not as bad as WOAI wants you to believe.

Just down the street, James Wright tells News 4 WOAI he's found several decapitated birds in his yard for the past few days.

The mystery behind the deaths is ruffling some feathers for nearby neighbors.

"It's strange, but maybe somebody... somebody's doing it," says homeowner Melissa Garza [Breathlessly, I'm sure. --ed.].

The San Antonio Audubon Society says the weather may be to blame.

"Right now with the drought so bad, there's a great competition for food and water and bugs," replies Georgina Schwartz of the Audubon Society. "There aren’t as many bugs, there aren’t as many flowers, so right now its not a good time for birds."

In fact, Schwartz adds that birds can get aggressive if other feathered fowls get in the way of their food.

"Grackles are great for drowning baby birds," Schwartz says. "Screech owls are in the habit of decapitating...you have a lot of competition out there. Sex and violence, you got lots of that in the bird world."

(from WOAI-TV)

Relax, it's only sex and violence in the bird world. Nothing to worry about. It's just nature. Circle of life, and all that.

Someone who should have thought a little more ...

... before hitting that SEND button. A whole freakin' heckuva lot more.

An administrator at St. Philip's College is under investigation based on a professor's complaint that she sent hundreds of sexually explicit and racially offensive emails to a handful of employees over the past six years.

Warren Parker, a radiography instructor, claims his boss, program director Donna Laird, sent at least 400 emails from her work account featuring semi-nude women, animals having sex or masturbating, foul language and jokes stereotyping men, women, rednecks and people of all races.

Parker is speaking out now because he believes his bid for tenure is in jeopardy.

He provided the San Antonio Express-News with a sample of about 100 emails he had saved.

When asked about Parker's complaint regarding the emails, Retha Karnes, a lawyer for the Alamo Colleges, said an investigation into the matter is ongoing. She declined to comment further. Laird did not return a phone call and an email sent to her work account seeking comment.

(from the Express-News)

Warren Parker, the offended one, is a black man.

Donna Laird, the offending one, is a white woman. And she's his boss.

Alamo Colleges is the local taxpayer-funded community college district.

St. Philip's College, one of the Alamo Colleges, is a historically black college. It is on the East Side. The East Side is traditionally black.

This is an example of the things Laird was sending: "The emails include a musical slide show featuring scantily clad vaginas, pictures mocking young blacks dressed up for prom as “ghetto,” a woman simulating oral sex on the stick shift of a car, a young man lighting a bottle rocket stuck in his rectum and a satirical exercise program to hire black men to pose as muggers and chase white women."



Wow.


Just, wow.



Who in their right mind would ever think such things are OK to send via e-mail on a work computer? Especially one that is owned by a taxpayer-funded district?

Folks, be careful what you forward. And remember, government records are open records, at least in Texas. And what you send today can appear in the news tomorrow.

Calling BS on a statistic

No, I'm not buying the notion that San Antonio women are sexually assaulted more often during Fiesta than at other times of the year.

SAN ANTONIO -- A sexual assault examiner said a rise in sexual assaults usually corresponds to the 11-day, citywide party, Fiesta.

Already this month, 20 sexual assault victims have been treated by Shelley Botello and her Sexual Assault Response team at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital.

In April of last year, she said, the hospital treated 80 victims. She said her team typically handles 50 to 60 cases monthly.

Now that Fiesta has begun, Botello said it's a sign of what's to come, because 67 percent of the hospital's cases involve alcohol and drug consumption prior to the assaults.

"It makes them easy prey for predators," Botello said.

Before isolating a victim from others prior to the attack, "the predator will often sit back, (and) kind of observe the behavior of that person," Botello said.

She said the victims range in age from 17 to 25.

(from KSAT-12)

This is akin to the bogus claim that women are victims of domestic violence more during the Super Bowl than on any other day, no matter what day it is. The statistic of a rise in sexual assaults sounds shocking, and -- on the surface -- it is such a no-brainer to believe (more drunk people = more sex) that it must be true. But I really don't see any evidence of it in this news story.

There's no link to any data on the KSAT news story or on Botello's Facebook page, which KSAT links to. Without the ability to quickly and easily examine the raw data she's referencing, I remain suspicious. What about the Aprils of previous years? How do they compare? Maybe 2010 was an anomaly, maybe it wasn't. It's impossible to tell with what we're given. The tips Botello gives on avoiding being a victim is good advice, but that goes for any time of year. I get that she is using San Antonio's big party as a chance to get media attention for her cause, but I'm not so quick to believe there's a causal relationship between Fiesta and sexual assault. Not enough to account for a significant rise every April, at least.

Hey, sexual assault is serious. I'm not claiming otherwise. But it's dangerous to imply causality where there is none.

Not waiting until they got home

This story ended tragically, but it is a good illustration of why things that sound so cool to do often are not when they are actually done.

Police say the driver lost control and slammed into a telephone pole near Wetmore and Thousand Oaks. Police say they believe the couple was having sex while driving. The man was naked and the woman was only partially clothed. The man died at the scene, and the woman is in critical condition.

(from WOAI-TV)

Waiting fifteen minutes until you get home -- or at least to the driveway -- is never a bad idea.

Miss San Antonio got her crown back

And she gave it to God's mother.

Ousted beauty queen Domonique Ramirez retrieved her title and crown Thursday under a national media spotlight after a lawsuit jury unanimously decided the pageant organization that fired her had breached their contract.

“I don't have any choice but to reinstate Miss Ramirez as Miss San Antonio 2011,” state District Judge Barbara Hanson Nellermoe told the parties after shaking each departing juror's hand.

Family and friends of Ramirez, 17, broke into applause, and her attorney, Luis Vera Jr., appeared to wipe away a tear. [Blech! --ed.] Within minutes, Ramirez, her mother and Vera were at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church on the West Side, where she left her crown as a gift to its patroness.

“She's the queen of all queens, the keeper of all crowns,” explained Ramirez, who said she could buy a replacement crown for the Fiesta and Miss Texas appearances that go with the renewed title. “I wanted to give my crown to her. I just wanted to send a message I'm very grateful and she has answered my prayers.”

(from the Express-News)

Eh, she wasn't busy, so why not?

Bexar County politics

They can be quite strange. Witness Dan Ramos and the things he's willing to say to the media. (In case you don't know, the Stonewall Democrats are a gay-rights group.)

In a wide-ranging interview with the Current last Friday, Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Dan Ramos likened homosexuals to children stricken with polio and the Stonewall Democrats, an organization working to advance the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals, to the Nazi Party.

In immediate response, State Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie called on Ramos to resign his post. Texas Stonewall Democrats called on him to apologize or resign. And Bexar County Young Democrats urged him to apologize and resign “for his profane display of bigotry.”

Among his more incendiary comments to the Current last week, Ramos said, “I liken [Stonewall Democrats] to the Tea Party — the Tea Party and the fucking Nazi Party — because they’re 90 percent white, blue-eyed, and Anglo, and I don’t give a shit who knows that. That’s the truth. Just like the blacks, they’re strong. And there’s nothing wrong — they’re Americans — but you can’t get your way just because you’re black.”

...

Ramos frequently suggests that anti-Hispanic racism is to blame for the division that has been on display at past party meetings. When asked if race or sexual orientation were more a cause of concern for him, Ramos responded: “I go back to an old very well-used slogan: blacks wanted to get their way because they were black. What it is, is we have a very, very sinister movement in which you don’t know, at the end of the day, you didn’t even know that your next door buddy, your bosom fishing buddy was gay. That, I guess, goes to my belief in the religious thing. Look: this is not natural. This is like a kid who was born with a polio leg, you can’t kill him and you can’t sweep him under the rug. … I’m glad that Texas has not yet come to where gays can adopt children … because the poor kids have already come from a troubled family and then to be ‘hey, how come my momma is my daddy type of deal.’ It’s not natural.”

When challenged about his comments, Ramos insisted that he has been fighting for civil rights for 40 years. “I feel equal opportunity is meant for everyone that is being violated, regardless of who they are,” he said. “All I said was that equal opportunity should not be used as a umbrella to gain any kind of advantage over other people. It is pretty obvious that the advantage they [Stonewall Democrats] take is way beyond the pale. Certainly, all the people with handicaps, I represent them all the time.”

(from the San Antonio Current)

Our political future is in the very best of hands.

For the record, my uncle has a polio leg. He is a university-educated man and he works in social services because he cares about his community. I like him very much, and I'm proud of him. And I doubt his mother ever thought about killing him or sweeping him under the rug.

UPDATE: Ramos held a press conference Thursday, March 17 concerning this controversy. KENS-5 reports what he said:

Thursday, Dan Ramos called a new conference to set the record straight about an interview published in the Current in which Ramos is accused of making “bigoted” remarks.

However, while Ramos said the Current took his comments out of context, many local Democrats said the chairman only added fuel to the fire at his conference as he again likened the Bexar County Stonewall Democrats, a group that advocates for gay-rights, to the Nazi Party.

"I think Hitler made a pretty good example of when an individual perceives that he has power beyond control, and this is what these people (Stonewall Democrats) are doing in the Democratic Party," said Ramos.

Ramos also called members of the group “termites”.

"They have infiltrated the Bexar County party much like termites infiltrate your house, and they are trying to destroy what's been around for a long time."

When asked about Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie's remarks that he should resign, Ramos said Richie is an “idiot”.

Do you think Ramos has read any Carnegie?

"Cowgirls recruit for all-women football league"

Finally! San Antonio gets a professional football team the whole town can get behind!

There is a new all-women pro football team in San Antonio, and they are in search of players.

The Texas Cowgirls will be part of the Leather and Lace football League. They will play their first game iin [sic] late April or early May.

Leather and Lace is an all female league with noticeably different uniforms than the ones you see on Sunday in the NFL.

(from KENS-5)

I'll say!



(photo found on the Texas Cowgirls website)