"City truck runs over two homeless men"

Here's a hint: If you're homeless and you're going to use trash to keep you warm, you might want to lay down in some out-of-the-way corner.

A city truck injured two homeless men early Thursday morning after running over them in a parking lot near downtown San Antonio, authorities said.

Hector Rivera-Jasso, 51, and Alez Perez, 22, were both taken to University Hospital after the accident, which occurred shortly before 2 a.m. in the 1000 block of West Commerce Street, according to a police report. Hospital officials said both were listed in stable condition late Thursday morning.

The police report stated the men were sleeping under a pile of clothes and debris in the city-owned parking lot when the truck, a white Chevrolet Silverado 3500, ran over Rivera-Jasso's left leg and dragged Perez under its tire before stopping.

(from the Express-News)

Protecting you from yourself

It must be sweeps month, because here is KSAT-12 trying to warn us about something dangerous in our own homes!


The headline is:

"Common Household Product Can Injure, Maim"

And the subhead is:

"Aerosol Cans Pose Threat When Punctured Near Flame"


Gee, thanks for the heads-up. Now excuse me while I go rewire the outdoor light fixture while it's raining.

Arguing semantics at city hall

Do you know -- very clearly know -- the difference between a nightclub, a live entertainment venue, and a sexually-oriented business? Can you articulate that difference?

That's what's at stake in this dispute between the City of San Antonio and Headliner's Show Club.

Headliner's Show Club, located off Northeast Loop 410, opened in October of last year.

Owners said Headliner's does have dancers every night of the week and is being told it can't operate like that anymore unless it applies for a zoning change.

Owners initially were approved as a nightclub, but officials with planning development services said the business did not state that live entertainment would be included.

"When you apply to be a night club, live entertainment is included," Headliner's attorney James Deegear said.

"We believe the club is operating outside the scope of certificate of occupancy and operating as a live entertainment establishment," said San Antonio Planning Development Services' Rudy Nino.

Deegear said the owners are complying with the city ordinance.

"It's included within a definition of a night club specifically by the city," he said. "I'm not sure why we are here today."

Deegear said that the dancers are wearing the proper amount of covering, so it should not be considered a sexually-oriented business.

"It resembles sexually-oriented business, but the city doesn't (define) what a sexually-oriented business is," he said.

(from KSAT-12)

What do you think? Do you agree with the club's attorney that a nightclub, by its very nature, encompasses live entertainment? And, if you have a live entertainment certificate of occupancy from the city, does it seem to be entirely clear what that "live entertainment" is supposed to include or exclude? Live music? Dancers? Strippers? All of the above? Do you think the club is pushing the limit of the regulations? Or do you think the city is being too heavy-handed?

And (you know you're thinking it, too!) what do you think former City Councilwoman Diane Cibrian would do about it?

Mistaking a creature

I don't guess she's ever heard of a miner's cat, either.

A strange sighting in the backyard of a San Antonio woman's home last night. Laurie Gawelko was shocked to see an animal with a small head and a striped, fluffy tail hanging out in her backyard last night. What was it? "It looked right at me," Gawelko said and wondered, "is it a cat?" She got a closer look and decided it was a Lemur [sic].

The ring-tailed lemur is a primate found primarily in Madagascar. It's better known in the United States as the animal in the movie, Madagascar [Apparently there was only one. Animal, that is. --ed.]. Laurie sent the picture to Primarily Primates here and they told her it was actually a Ring-Tailed Cat [sic]. They're indiginous to the area and they are rarely spotted [As in "seen," not covered in spots. Though they are rarely that, too. --ed.]. Gawelko thinks the sighting is pretty cool and hopes it comes back.

(from WOAI-TV)

Really? She thought it was a lemur? She must be from another state.

Someone who should have thought a little more

Is it really worth it? Is the pile of money you might get from selling stolen copper really worth your life?

All you small-time thieves out there think of this:

A witness reported seeing a vehicle leave a power station near Hwy. 97 and Hwy. 37 around 12:30 a.m. Friday morning.

Firefighters found the body of a man lying several feet away from the transmitter. They say it looks as though he was electrocuted while trying to steal copper.

Deputy Chief David Soward said the thief received a jolt of 69,000 volts of electricity, which killed him instantly.

(from KENS-5)

All you small-time thieves, rethink those entry level jobs. A low wage has got to be better than a 69,000-volt death any day.

"Police ask for tips after shot fired at second school bus"

Well, this is very disturbing.

SAN ANTONIO -- For the second time in just two weeks, someone has shot at a school bus carrying children.

NISD officials said a school bus was traveling at the intersection of Messenger Pass and Castle Creek around 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, when someone fired a shot at it. The shot shattered the rear window of the bus. Four students were on the bus. None of them were injured.

Another NISD bus had its rear side window shattered by a pellet gun back on January 12th. That shooting happened at the intersection of Raton Falls and Roswell Canyon, near Potranco and Hunt. NISD officials said no students were hurt in that shooting either.

NISD police are investigating the shootings, but need the public's help to identify the shooter(s). If you have any information, please immediately call the NISD Tip Line at 210-397-SAFE (7233). Callers can remain anonymous.

(from WOAI-TV)

OK dumbasses, if you want to shoot each other up, pellet guns or not, then go ahead. Just don't hit any bystanders. Especially a school bus with children on board.

You're going to make a lot of parents very angry.

Multitasking

It may be hard to see in this photo, but I think it is obvious that this lady thought her work day began before she actually got to work.





I apologize. The quality of the photograph is not the best. Here is a hint to assist you in discerning what she was doing.





Be careful out there.

Wanting to be a creature

Sarah Rodriguez has some issues.

Wolfie Blackheart is not an ordinary 18-year-old.

She believes she is a wolf — technically, a werewolf — and so she wears a tail. She also wears a harness in case someone special wants to drag her around.

And last week, she used a pocketknife in her kitchen to decapitate a dog — already dead, according to Wolfie — that had been missing since Jan. 5

(from the Express-News)

And it goes downhill from there. Amateur taxidermy, bondage, Tourette's syndrome yipping, Internet rage, and an abetting mother -- all involved.

Happy reading.

Poor little car

Alan at Blogonomicon caught sight of the elusive pink Mustang. All I can say is, it's endangered for a reason.

"Sinkhole prompts evacuation on NW Side"

Bummer.

San Antonio fire and police officials evacuated 20 homes in a Northwest Side neighborhood Sunday morning, when a rapidly-growing sinkhole behind three houses pushed earth down a 30-foot hill and into two retaining walls that fissured and threatened to bury residences below.

While authorities were not sure why the ground had shifted behind houses in The Hills at Rivermist, agencies acted quickly to address the endangered homes near West Hausman Road and Loop 1604.

(from the Express-News)

UPDATE: They are calling it a "slope failure." Apparently a huge retaining wall has given way.

UPDATE II: The Associated Press has picked up on the story.

Seen at the MLK march

I couldn't be there, but I appreciated the slideshow of pictures that viewers sent in to KSAT-12. A few of the ones that caught my eye were:





A couple of sassy ladies, ...





... "The Spiritual Adventure of a Lifetime" (just call 1-800-Love-GOD), ...





... and drum majors for justice (who may or may not wear shirts bearing Popeye's decapitated likeness).

A body in the cememtery

Remember that body that was found in the cemetery a few days ago? The story just gets weirder as the police find out more.

On the day he was killed, [Samuel] Johnson told his fiancee he was going to [ex-girlfriend Vanessa] Cameron's house to pick up money he was owed, the arrest affidavit states.

After he arrived at the house, Johnson's feet were tied, his hands cuffed and tape was placed over his mouth. At some point, Johnson was hit on the head with a piece of wood, according to the affidavit.

His attackers then put him in the trunk of his Dodge Stratus and drove him to Seguin in Guadalupe County, where [Bernard] Brown allegedly shot him multiple times, the affidavit states. Johnson's body was driven back to San Antonio and abandoned on the East Side along with the car.

The affidavit doesn't state how the body ended up in the cemetery, but that the car was found Tuesday in the 100 block of Cosgrove Street on the Southeast Side.

(from the Express-News)




A life insurance policy may be the motive.

A burglarized street

What if you lived on a street where almost all of the homes had been hit by burglars at least once in the last couple of months? How well would you sleep at night?

A north side neighborhood called News 4 WOAI for help. They say their streets are falling victim to a slew of burglaries and property crime. Waxwood is one street hit particularly hard. More than half a dozen homes on that street have been broken into; while at night, burglars are stealing things out of cars.

News 4 WOAI got hold of a surveillance video that catches these criminals in the act. In the video you see a blue car pull into a driveway. Three men get out of the car, break through the front door of the home, and leave with armfuls of high-dollar property.

Homeowner Chris Cruz describes what they stole from his house, "They ended up taking all my electronics, my computers, everything." That was the second time they burglarized his home.

"The first time they broke in through my back door, they came in ransacked it, took money," Cruz said.

Nearly the entire street of Waxwood has been burglarized in the last few months. As you can imagine, Cruz and his neighbors want this crime spree to stop. Each time these criminals strike, neighbors call police and report the crime, but so far none of these suspects have been caught.

(from WOAI-TV)

I bet the criminals actually live on that same street. And I think, soon, one night will end very badly for someone on Waxwood Lane.

"Tagger busted at police station"

Sometimes the vandals make it sooooooooo easy for the police to catch them. And don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for their thoughtfulness.

SAN ANTONIO - An accused ‘tagger’ was quickly caught and arrested, mainly because of where he chose to commit his crime. San Antonio police say the man was caught spray painting the outside of the bike patrol station at Houston and Navarro late Monday night.

The man didn’t have anything to say, and tried to hide his face as officers put him in a vehicle to transport him to the jail.

(from WOAI-TV)

Stay in school, buddy.

"Three shot at Church's near finish line of MLK march"

Violence happened this MLK day.

Three people, including two teenagers, were shot at a Church's Chicken restaurant just steps from Martin Luther King Drive, where thousands of marchers walked Monday morning.

The shooting happened at near [sic] the intersection of Nevada and South New Braunfels Avenue at around 4:30 p.m. Monday.

Police say the violence is especially uncalled for on a day meant to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

(from KENS-5)

I would say such violence is uncalled for on any day. But that's just me.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

I missed the MLK march, so I also missed this:


Original caption: Osvaldo Delgado carries a mannequin on his shoulders Monday while joining the crowd gathered for the Martin Luther King, Jr. March. Delgado said the mann[e]quin symbolizes how mankind needs to help shoulder each others burdens. (Taken from the Express-News slideshow, which is here.)

Someone who should have eaten a little later

If you're out on a crime spree, it's possible that you might work up a powerful hunger, and you might be tempted to stop for a bite to eat. If you do, you could do worse than Whataburger, but you should also remember that the police might not stop when you do.

Minutes after a string of robberies in which police say he hit four separate convenience stores, 31-year-old Jason Gonzalez was arrested while he stopped to eat at Whataburger.

...

The string lasted a little more than an hour.

The suspect description was broadcast multiple times before an officer followed Gonzalez into the Whataburger on Blanco near Bitters. Gonzalez was eating breakfast and the money was found in his pocket.

(from KENS-5)

I hope those taquitos were worth it.

"Body Found At Cemetery"

Besides the obvious, odd appropriateness of the headline, everything about this story is a bit strange.

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio Police said they are investigating the discovery of a body on the city's east side.

Officers said a person found the body at a cemetery in the 1800 block of East Commerce.

Officers said the body is that of an african-american [sic] man between 30 and 35 years old.

At this point investigators are calling it a suspicious death.

They said the victim was found on his left side and had some dried blood on him.

Investigators also said there were no obvious signs of a stabbing or gunshot wound.

(from KSAT-12)

Another day, another domiciliary assault

This time we can count both a house and a fence in the auto's score column.

Police arrested a man after a stolen car was seen crashing into a house Wednesday afternoon on the North Side, officials said.

A white Oldsmobile crashed through a house in the 1000 block of West Thorain Boulevard around noon, San Antonio police report states. The vehicle slammed through a fence at the rear of the home near Michigan Avenue and West Mariposa Drive. The car hit the east side of the home and crashed through two bedrooms, the report states.

No injuries were reported.

(from the Express-News)

UPDATE: I substituted the adjective form of domicile in the title. Did you even know there was one?

Ring of honor

Hey, I'm a Dallas fan, too. Born and raised. But I didn't know you could buy replica Super Bowl rings.

And I didn't know you might actually wear them in public.




Here's the KSAT slideshow that picture came from.

No non-humans allowed

A reader drew my attention to this headline from the San Antonio Business Journal:

"San Antonio opens new District 9 field office"


No, not this:




This:




We're safe from South African aliens. So far.

Wrong road

I know some of the roadways in San Antonio can be rough, but I don't think I've ever driven on one so bad as to make it indistinguishable from a railroad. Ballast and ties make for poor pavement.

The cold probably didn't have anything to do with this, but police don't have a clue why a woman drove her car down the train tracks, thinking she was on a street.

The women was driving down Broadway near Wetmore when she decided to turn onto the railroad tracks and then got stuck.

Police say she wasn't drunk.

(from KENS-5)

No word on whether she was high.

"Man Arrested In Fight Over Nachos"

Don't hog the ones with all the cheese. Please, for sanity's sake.

When police arrived at a mobile home in the 100 block of Lorita Street at 10 p.m. Tuesday, they found a 44-year-old man with a cut to his neck.

The man told police he was cut with a knife by his 35-year-old brother during a fight over nachos.

The victim is expected to recover.

(from KSAT-12)

Those must've been some gooood nachos.

Building a trashy house

Think it's easy? One family just east of here does.

KINGSBURY, Texas -- The economy has led a lot of people to take innovative measures, but Sunny and Connie Gonzalez, of Kingsbury, have gotten especially creative: they decided to move out to the country and build a home out of trash.

The Gonzales family said their home is a dream in the making.

The family moved to the property, owned by their father, a year ago, after they lost their million-dollar Stone Oak home when Sunny lost his job as a contractor.

The family used beer bottles for walls, tires for fences, bricks were made from scratch and all the wood is recycled.

They said eventually the plan is to use only recycled materials for a 3,000-square-foot home, complete with a pool and a hot tub.

They said they would like to prove that they can live at the same standard of quality as everyone else "without being caught up into the system."

Most of their food is grown on the land, which allows the couple to survive on about $100 a week.

"We have nothing but free time, no stress," Sunny said. "In these very challenging economic downturns, we're always happy."

(from KSAT-12)

I wish them well, though I don't think they'll win any design awards.

FEMA feeding the homeless

I realize they may be hungry, but do homeless people by their very presence require intervention from the Federal Emergency Management Agency? If so, then aren't all cities in this nation in a state of emergency right now?

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency is furnishing $718,385 to help local organizations meet the needs of people without food or shelter.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, made the announcement.

“Hunger and poverty do not discriminate between young and old, male and female, veteran and non-veteran or different ethnicities,” Rodriguez says.

“Everyone suffers, and sometimes people just need a helping hand. During the harsh winter months, filling these needs becomes even more critical,” he adds.

(from the Business Journal)

Just as long as that helping hand doesn't come out for panhandlers at intersections.

"Ordinance Targets Handouts To Panhandlers"

Feeling generous? Be careful. City Council wants to clamp down on that giving spirit.

City Code Sect. 19-8 makes it illegal to solicit anyone in a vehicle without a specific permit, but the panhandlers haven't gone away.

"What's working now is not working," said District 10 City Council member John Clamp.

Instead, Clamp is proposing targeting the motorists who hand over their loose change or a dollar or two.

"I don’t want to penalize motorists, but we’ve got to create a system where they stop giving money," said Clamp, who is seeking input from San Antonio police, magistrate judges, neighborhood leaders and others as to how the proposed ordinance would work.

...

Under the ordinance, San Antonio police would have to witness the donation in order to issue a citation.

(from KSAT-12)

Me? I don't give money away to panhandlers in the roadway, so I'm not at risk under this ordinance. But this seems pretty heavy-handed. It's along the same lines as penalizing someone because some thug sprayed graffiti on his business.

Car crashes into house

Another new year, another new assault on a house.

A man loses control of his truck and crashes into a south Bexar County home Saturday morning. Investigators say the driver may have experienced a medical condition when he drove straight into the house on Savannah Heights. The truck crashed into the front of the home and stopped inside a bathroom. Authorities tell us the homeowner had just left the room.

(from KABB-29)

Twelve strangest of 2009

Just for fun, let's take a moment on this, the first day of 2010, to recap the twelve strangest stories in San Antonio over the last year. I'm going to pick one from each month that I found to be especially weird.


January
Seventy dead Siamese cats are found in trash bags.

February
Dumb criminal helps the cops catch him.

March
I learn a little more about H.R. Pufnstuf.

April
San Antonio's city manager dresses in drag (and she's a woman!).

May
A lawyer is busted for bringing pot to the courthouse.

June
Lame "Thriller" is put on display at the Alamo.

July
Meth lab workers do a little hanky-panky on the job.

August
A chicken on every table.

September
A school district puts history on display.

October
Huggers show up at the Alamo again.

November
A king acts as if he really was a king.

December
A chicken in every police station.


Let's hope your New Year is safe and prosperous, and let's hope it's just strange enough to be interesting.

"Exotic dancers arrested during raid at strip clubs"

Really?

SAN ANTONIO – Eight exotic dancers and four managers are under arrest after a raid at a couple of local strip clubs. Investigators say workers at those businesses were breaking the law by performing without any clothing.

One woman tried hiding her face from News 4 WOAI’s camera as police led her to a patrol car. Detectives say that dancer is under arrest now for what she wasn’t hiding from her customers.

“We came in to do our inspection and found some girls dancing in an all-nude state,” said San Antonio Police VICE squad Lieutenant Andy Rodriguez.

Full- and semi-nudity is illegal at strip clubs in San Antonio.

(from WOAI-TV)

It is?

Semi-nudity is illegal in our great town? Don't we all -- all of us -- walk around in a state of semi-nudity at all times every day? I mean, unless you dress yourself in a burqa, some part of your body is not covered by clothing, so you are in a state of semi-nudity. It's just a matter as to what extent. And what about Splashtown? Swimming pools? Halloween? Do we really want our police to be arresting all women in skimpy clothing across the Alamo City?

Of course, you know what the solution to this problem would be. Have all the strip clubs change their designations to art houses, and then the ladies can dance naked all they want, call it performance art, and have the protection of the First Amendment.

Bringing grenades to the police

Apparently the police don't want you to do that. They'd rather you called the bomb squad rather than bringing a live grenade to their substation, even if you do want to just turn it in.

The bomb squad was called to a San Antonio police substation Wednesday morning, and officials say the Good Samaritan who carried them thought he was doing the right thing by handing over some explosives to the police department.

But police say that was exactly the wrong thing to do.

Police say the man came to the Prue police substation with two training grenades and one active grenade. The man allegedly found the three grenades at home and did not want his kids to mess with them. The man told police the grenades belonged to his grandfather and that they were in his home for about ten years before he found them.

He did not know what to do with them, he told officers, so he brought them to police and told them they were in his truck. But police say the man should have left the grenades where he found them and called for help instead.

(from KENS-5)

BUT! The really strange part is that the police officers at the Prue substation seem to feel like they need that connection to the farm, to the regular people, to the times when life was simpler.

Look at this still shot from the video of the story.




Do you see what's back there, behind the officer, behind the box, behind the fence erected to keep them in?

That's right.

Chickens! At the police station.



¡Puro San Antonio!

Silhouetting your interests

Some people like to put silhouettes of naked ladies on their trucks. You know, to show their interests, I guess.

And then some people like to add to those silhouettes.




Who knows? Maybe she's a cowgirl, and she rides a horse.




Or maybe she's a cow-- uh, horsegirl. And she rides a cow. I guess.



Giddy up.

Oh, Sheriff's Department, you are SO gonna get it!

(from KSAT-12)

"Rug ‘rip off’ rankles restaurant"

If you want to steal something, apparently it sometimes works when you just walk right up to it in front of everybody and calmly take it.

Really.

SAN ANTONIO – A thief walks into a restaurant and takes a rug worth $5,000 right off the wall.

It happened at the Cool Cafe downtown. The thief was caught on surveillance tape walking in and pulling the Persian rug off the wall. On his way out, the suspect could be seen stuffing the pilfered rug into a plastic bag.

The theft took place at around 8:20 Sunday night while the restaurant was open. Initially, the staff didn't notice the rug's disappearance. It wasn't until later, while viewing the video, they realized what had occurred.

Crystal Galvan, manager, says, “Our employees were actually here rolling silverware when it happened and he just came in through the back entrance and took off with it.”

(from WOAI-TV)

The back entrance? Really? You have a restaurant downtown and you leave the back entrance wide open so any old schmo can wander in, and nobody notices? Well, you know what happens when you do that. Your decor gets ripped right off the walls.

By the way, nice alliteration in the headline. Those writers live for stuff like that.

Car crashes into house

It's actually a truck, and this time the vehicle was running away from another accident that it had caused when it decided to take out a house as well.

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio police said one man could face charges of driving under the influence of prescription drugs following a hit and run accident that ended with the man hitting a house Saturday morning.

Police said it happened about 10:30 a.m. in the 1900 block of Wrangler Street on the city's west side.

Police said the man rear-ended a woman at a stop sign, then went around her.

Officers said the woman started to follow the man.

Investigators said that's when he ran a stop sign, lost control and hit the house.

(from KSAT-12)

You know, it's funny, from the story you would think it was the man himself that hit the woman and then the house. But we all know it was really that thoughtless vehicle. KSAT even has a picture to prove it:

Merry Christmas, San Antonio

Here's hoping you and yours have a wonderful holiday.

Stealing the baby Jesus

Somebody really wants coal in their stocking this year.

Three baby Jesus figures have disappeared from nativity scenes in Floresville. Floresville police believe the same person, or group of people, are behind all the crimes.

Homeowner Roy Madero told KENS 5 he's had his nativity scene for the past 15 years and there had never been any problems until now. He also says replacing the stolen piece will be difficult.

"They're hard to find and it's very frustrating because we go through all the efforts to decorate our homes, and then somebody comes by and walks off with it," Madero said.

(from KENS-5)

Watch out. Scrooges are on the loose southeast of here.


UPDATE: The Jesus thief returned them, after stealing a bunch more.

The missing baby Jesus mystery in Floresville came to a holy end on Christmas Day.

On Wednesday, 11 baby Jesus dolls were stolen from residents' front yards. Seems as though the crook had a sudden change of heart, because Friday afternoon, the dolls were found on the front lawn of the First United Lutheran Church.

Crazy.

Daring the police

When committing a string of smash-and-grab robberies, how often do the criminals operate in a recognizable pattern?

SAN ANTONIO -- The ATM Trio hit again overnight. This time, the three men smashed a white SUV into a Walgreens on the North side; [sic] taking the money machine in minutes.

This is the third time the group of thieves has used a [sic] SUV to ram into a business and take the ATM. In fact, News 4 WOAI has discovered they steal the same type of vehicle, same color, just minutes before they commit their crimes.

...

It's believed the bad guys prefer using Jeeps as their get away vehicle because they have enough force to break through a security wall, door or window. Also, thieves can easily load things into the back and take off quickly. Police say it's the same trick they've used in at least two other burglaries.

(from WOAI-TV)

It's almost as if they're daring the police to catch on.

If you drive a white Jeep, be careful. It looks like a prime vehicle to steal these days.

Don't be sorry

Dave at Silver Creek 78250 found a rather meek restaurateur on Old Highway 90.

Seymour Perkins's house -- demolished

Remember Seymour Perkins, who died in February 2009 while still fighting to keep what was left of his house?

That house has now been destroyed.

SAN ANTONIO -- It took two years to bring down one house on South Hackberry. It was known hangout for prostitutes and drug addicts as well as a worry for parents of children who go to school just steps away.

The homeowner, a man who called himself Reverend Seymour Perkins, served time for drug possession. He was a folk artist who passed away earlier this year.

On Monday, his son and the family moved forward after a judge's decision to demolish the building.

Roland Perkins "I’m glad it's done, but I don't like the way [the city] did it."

(from WOAI-TV)

Is Perkins's story finally over? Is this the conclusion of the final chapter, and now we have nothing but the memory of a good read?

Or will it never really end?

You decide.

... and party every day!

I see one small thing wrong with this.

Celebrating the winter solstice South Texas Style, some San Antonio musicians were rocking out with a "Solar Jam."

"We just need some sunshine, some instruments and some inspiration," said Matthew Ahern with Echotown, a group made of people and businesses trying to go green.

A little bit of sunshine goes long way for Ahern and his musical instruments that use the sun's rays to harness energy using solar panels.

"It’s the shortest day of the year, so it's proof that even on the shortest days we’ve got the power we need," Ahern said.

(from KSAT-12)

Most gigs are at night.

Stealing from the least of these

White collar crime? No, this is a bit more heinous than that.

Thursday, Keith Allen Roberts was sentenced to probation after he was forced to pay back all of the money. He pleaded no contest last month, after the Trouble Shooters discovered he used almost $50,000 from the special education fund at the San Antonio Independent School District to buy himself flat-screen televisions, DVDs, and computer equipment.

Roberts was the accountant in charge of buying things for special education classrooms at S.A.I.S.D.

(from WOAI-TV)

He probably stole candy from babies, too. Even when he was a baby.

"Mission Flea Market Worker Killed"

Apparently the flea market business is pretty competitive. And dangerous. Especially if the vendors need to be going home rather than to work.

SAN ANTONIO -- A flea market worker was killed in a suspected drunken driving incident Wednesday morning at Mission Open Air Flea Market.

Police said the worker was crossing a pathway near the parking lot of the flea market in the 700 block of Moursund Road at 6 a.m. when a 44-year-old man speeding in an F-150 pickup hit the victim. The incident happened at a time when vendors rush in to pick prime locations.

The victim, believed to be in his 60s, was pinned underneath the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The driver, who is a vendor at the flea market, told officers that he had been drinking alcohol prior to the incident, police said.

(from KSAT-12)

It's a whole other world at the flea market.

Stealing from the taxman

Are you tired of paying all those taxes to the government? I suppose you could take it back with a Jeep and some careful driving. Of course, that would be illegal. And you'd probably be taking some of your fellow citizens' money, too.

SAN ANTONIO -- A smash-and-grab burglary forced the Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector's satellite office on the city's Northeast Side to close Tuesday.

According to Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Sylvia Romo, surveillance video showed three men drive a white Jeep pickup into the office in the 3300 block of Nacogdoches Road at 12:45 a.m.

Once inside, the men drove to the other end of the office, unhooked an ATM and loaded it into the back of the truck and drove away.

Romo said the crime seemed to be well-planned, with the burglars employing the same strategy used during a burglary at the satellite office on Southwest Military Drive on Nov. 11.

(from KSAT-12)

The only problem with that strategy is that there are only so many tax offices in the county that you can hit before exhausting the supply.

OK, there's a lot more problems than that.

Gettin' western on the West Side

Want some tamales? Be careful where you go. Sometimes fights break out.

SAN ANTONIO – A Sunday morning stop for some tamales went horribly wrong when a woman was assaulted in a parking lot. It happened during the Sunday morning rush at Barbacoa and Tamales To Go, in the 1400 block of West Southcross on the city’s south side.

Police tell News 4 WOAI Theresa Pena’s car was blocked in by another driver. They say she asked the driver of the vehicle to move, at which point a female got out of the car, walked up to her window and began punching her in the face. A police report says Pena tried to get out of her car to defend herself when a man who was with that woman threw a bottle at her head.

(from WOAI-TV)

And the really weird part? The story says the aggressive couple was in their fifties. Somewhere, a kid in college is reading this story and thinking, Mom? Dad?

Taggin' your own place

If you are having trouble making ends meet, does it really make sense to tag your own home?

Really?

SAN ANTONIO -- A struggling homeowner got creative when she was faced with foreclosure.

"It says, Help! Foreclosure!," reads Mary Ann Herrera. "I painted it with three cans of spray paint."

Herrera got desperate after losing her administrative assistant job in March. When bills piled up, she fell into mortgage problems, and was a step away from losing her home.

"I didn't know if we were going to be homeless," she says.

Despite her painted plea, it took nearly eight months to get her loans modified.

(from WOAI-TV)




It's a sad situation, but people still need to remember that their actions affect others as well. Besides making her own house unattractive, this woman is also affecting her neighbors' home values, whatever they may be. And her efforts didn't seem to pay off.

I wish her the best, but I still can't abide graffiti.

Gettin' Tombstone on the Northeast side

See what happens when you steal a car at the O.K. Corral?

It happened at an apartment complex in the 6700 block of Montgomery Drive in northeast Bexar County.

Deputies said the shooting and fight started over a stolen vehicle. Deputies said there was an exchange of gunfire between two groups of people.

When paramedics got to the location, they found two people with non life-threatening gunshot wounds. Paramedics also found a woman who had been run over by her own car after someone stole it and drove away.

Investigators said three others may have also been shot and then driven to the hospital before deputies got there.

(from KSAT-12)

Christmas lasers

Pink Floyd I understand. But Christmas? Is it right to celebrate the holiday with a laser-light show?

SAN ANTONIO -- Students are getting into the holiday spirit with a Christmas laser light show.

The show is put on by the Urban-15 group.

The group is holding several more student concerts. But if you and your family would like to see a show, Urban-15 is holding several performances through Saturday, December 11th [sic].

To find out more about the show or how to get tickets, CLICK HERE.

(from WOAI-TV)

That's this weekend. Hurry!

"Dozens of dogs seized from woman's home"

Here's another case of animal hoarding.

According to police, 33 dogs were found at the home in the 100 block of Elgin Avenue on the East Side. Many of them were caged or tied down, living in a foot of animal waste and newspaper.

Neighbors say the 43-year-old homeowner was known for feeding and housing homeless dogs she found on the streets.

(from WOAI-TV)

Wow. Thirty-three dogs. Living in waste twelve inches deep. That's a problem.

Car crashes into house

This time in happened in the 800 block of Westwood Street.

The driver lost control and plowed through the kitchen area of a house after hitting another house and taking out a fence. It is believed the driver was intoxicated.

Thankfully, nobody was injured.

(from WOAI-TV)

Two houses. And a fence. That dude must have been flying.

Simians in S.A.

First it's Bigfoot, now it's something else.

Following news reports about a woman who told police she had seen the elusive Sasquatch near Loop 1604 and Texas 151 Monday night, workers at JD's Paint and Body Shop on Wednesday released a murky video that shows what appears to be a hairy animal the workers say has been foraging around their trash bin for several weeks now.

Fidel Amaton, who is a technician at the body shop, was the first to see the animal early last month as he was throwing trash into the bin behind the shop. Amaton said it was early in the morning and he still was rubbing the sleep from his eyes when he was startled by what appeared to be a monkey that jumped out of the bin.

He said that unlike the 6-foot-tall “Bigfoot” sighted near Loop 1604, this animal was about 3 feet tall. It bared its teeth and let out a high-pitched hiss before it scaled the fence to the neighboring business.

(from the Express-News) (Yes, there's video, but it's not very good.)

Looks like the Alamo City is getting a bit more ape-friendly.

And for those of you who might suspect the animal is a baboon from Southwest Research, they swear they're not missing any.

But he did wonder if the animal could have escaped from the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, which keeps baboons on hand and is located just north of the shop at Loop 410 and Texas 151.

The two immediately called the foundation. Adrian Duarte, the shop's manager, said that a few hours later, two individuals showed up to inspect the prints. He said the men told them they resembled a baboon's print.

Foundation officials said Wednesday they don't know what it is but they do know it's not theirs.

I bet it's somebody's pet monkey that escaped or was turned loose because they couldn't care for the animal any more. Or I guess it could be a baby Bigfoot.

What do you think?

Being Van Gogh

Not your usual piece of evidence.

SAN ANTONIO -- When a 32-year-old woman was sexually assaulted near Our Lady of the Lake University on March 29 2008, she managed to bite off her attacker’s right earlobe.

Through DNA technology using the earlobe, authorities were able to link 31-year-old Daniel Martinez to the rape.

During his trial Tuesday, prosecutors played Martinez’ police department interview for the jury. It was recorded on January 13 when Martinez was arrested after the DNA match was made. Throughout the interview Martinez repeatedly insisted he could not remember the attack.

(from KSAT-12)

Good presence of mind to hang on to that earlobe. I'm glad the victim was able to keep her wits about her even while being assaulted.

Bigfoot?

Or chupacabra?

You decide.

SAN ANTONIO -- Experts are now investigating reported sightings of a large, hairy, 'Bigfoot-type' creature on the West Side.

Police said the 'Bigfoot-type' creature was spotted in the area around Highway 151 and Loop 1604. A caller told police a large, tall, hairy creature dragged a deer carcass into the woods. Officers searched the area, but said they did not find anything.

"If one sighting is real, then that means something is out there," said Rick Tullos, who is a member of the Gulf Coast Bigfoot Research Organization.

(from WOAI-TV)

Oh, sorry. It's not a "Bigfoot." It's just a "Bigfoot-type" creature. Move along, now.

How exackly will it be enforced?

Found on South St. Mary's Street.

Oddest place for a PSA

If you are the police department, and you want to get a public service announcement out that's seasonal and topical, you might want to rethink just repeating it mindlessly in every news story involving the police.

SAN ANTONIO -- Glass littered the residential streets of the Cherry Hills and Eastwood Village neighborhoods near Martin Luther King Jr. Park Sunday.

"Kids just don't have anything to do when they're off, I don't know," said Earl Gibson, a victim of the vandalism.

Police said the vandals are believed to be young people, possibly teenagers. Officers said they shot out the windows of a couple dozen cars and trucks on several different streets.

...

Police said the vandals did not steal anything but rather shot out the windows just to be destructive. Officers also reminded people never to leave valuables in sight to prevent vehicle burglaries, especially during this time of your [sic] when you're shopping. [emphasis added]

(from KSAT-12)

Oh yeah, and don't do drugs.

Seriously, the effectiveness of PSAs just goes out the window if you spout them at inapt times. Moderation, please, even in messages to the public.

Stealing from the Church

Well, this is an odd thing to steal: plants from a historic mission.

It was a shocking end to the Thanksgiving holiday at Mission Espada, where police say sometime Thursday night, thieves made off with more than $1,000 worth of stolen property, all which consisted of different kinds of pots and plants.

"It just put a damper on our Christmas... to think that someone would come and steal from the church or from anyone but especially the church," said neighbor Ollie Christman. [ellipsis in original]

(from KENS-5)

Bonus strangeness: A Catholic mission's neighbor named "Christman."

Car crashes into garage

For your Friday after Thanksgiving, let's hope you spent it putting up Christmas decorations instead of caution tape.

Fire and police personnel were called out to the address in the 2600 block of Crow Valley around 6 p.m. for a report of a vehicle hitting a house.

Rescuers say the woman driving apparently had a medical issue just before she hit the home’s garage. Reportedly she did not live at the address.

A bystander was also hit by the vehicle.

(from WOAI-TV)

They didn't say if the bystander also reportedly did not live at the address.

"Trashy yard"

Bad day to be a neighbor on the Northwest Side of town.

Keith Menefee would like to sell his northwest side home but he says his neighbor is making that impossible. For the past 18 months Menefee's neighbor, Robert Blankenship has turned his own yard into a salvage yard. Blankenship has been "scraping." Not the kind you put in a book. The kind where you gather scrap metals, sort them then take the valuable scrap to a recycler. Blankenship's yard is littered with old bar-b-que pits, swing sets, shelving almost anything of any scrap value.

Menefee began complaining to Code Compliance in April of 2008. Since then the city has gone to municipal court and district court , and won cases ordering Blankenship to clean up. Despite the court orders, the mess continues. So this past Monday Blankenship's attorneys and San Antonio attorneys met and reached a settlement.

(from KENS-5)

Bonus strangeness: KENS-5 without Chris Marrou.

More than one way ...

Bad day to be a cat on the North Side of town.

The cat's body was found in a yard near San Pedro and McCarty on the North Side. Witnesses said the cat had been skinned and its head was cut off.

Neighbors told News 4 WOAI it is not the first time something like this has happened. It's actually the 4th time this year, and police are investigating.

(from WOAI-TV)

Perhaps they should be looking for "El cazador trofeo de los gatos."

"Teacher Charged With Indecent Exposure"

A special education teacher, at that.

SAN ANTONIO -- A 54-year-old Southwest Independent School District special education teacher was arrested after he exposed himself to an undercover police officer, San Antonio police said.

After an officer spotted Lewin Bramwell acting suspiciously at Olmos Park on Tuesday afternoon, an undercover officer was dispatched to the park, said Officer Matthew Porter, a spokesman with the San Antonio Police Department.

Moments after the undercover officer initiated a conversation with Bramwell, the suspect exposed himself to the officer, Porter said.

(from KSAT-12)

What compels these guys to do this, even though they know it is a "mistake," as the suspect admitted in the article? Is it the thrill of possibly getting caught? Because, if it is, that just doesn't square with the actual penalties that will be paid if they do get caught. Jail and a lifetime of registering as a sex offender don't seem like acceptable risks to me.

Fessing up to the cops

When you're crazy enough to shoot at a cop, I don't think it will make things better to just say you're sorry. But, then again, I could be wrong.

Police were called to the 3000 block of Woodsage shortly after 12:00 a.m. for a shooting which allegedly involved a drug debt between gang members. Around 5:00 a.m., police received information that the 25-year-old suspect was at a home in the 200 block of McNarney. After knocking on the door of the home, the officers walked towards the back yard and spotted the man running out the back door of the home. Police said the man opened fire on Officer Gregory Severns, hitting him once in the back.

Although Officer Severns was wearing a body armor vest, the bullet missed the vest and struck him in the upper back. Severns was able to return fire but did not hit the suspect, who then took off on foot. Police captured the suspect a short time later in the 200 block of Doolittle and found a gun nearby.

Officer Severns, who is a 24-year veteran at the San Antonio Police Department, was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The suspect was arrested and will be charged with Attempted Capital Murder [I have no idea why this is capitalized. --ed.]. He spoke to News 4 WOAI's Kristina De Leon as officers placed him into a patrol car and apologized on camera.

(from WOAI-TV)

I bet that makes any defense lawyer cringe.

Posing as the cops

You might think twice about opening the door for anybody in the middle of the night.

SAN ANTONIO -- Two armed men dressed as police officers forced their way into a home and robbed a family of their belongings.

The police impersonators knocked on the door of a home in the 5100 block of Bluff Street at 12:30 a.m. and asked the homeowner if he would come outside to identify a woman they had in custody, police said.

When the homeowner opened the door, the men forced their way inside the home and forced the homeowner, his wife and their 13-year-old son to lie face-down on the floor.

The men ransacked the home for about 40 minutes and got away with electronics. No arrests have been made.

(from KSAT-12)

This is why Rey Feo was arrested -- and rightly so -- for impersonating an officer when someone flipped him the bird on the highway. People who pose as cops when they are not are usually criminals, and they are a danger to everyone who depends on the police to keep the peace.

Stealing near the cops

Brave thief.

SAN ANTONIO -- A crook was caught on camera committing a crime just feet away from police headquarters.

The man broke into the Cadillac Bar on South Flores and stole 3 plasma televisions and some liquor.

Security cameras did capture images of the man in the act but didn't get a clear shot of his face.

(from WOAI-TV)

"Family Returns Home With Wrong Cat"

Oops.

SAN ANTONIO -- When Jaison Shae arrived home with his two cats after having them spayed and neutered at the Animal Defense League he noticed the cat he brought home wasn't his.

“She was running all over the house knocking pictures over she broke my toaster oven she knocked it off the counter," said Shae.

The female feline was accidentally switched at the Defense League. Don Specht, the Director of Operations, admits the mistake. "It was a mistake on our part," Specht said. "One of the attendants accidentally grabbed the wrong one and put it in the wrong cage."

(from KSAT-12)

Bonus strangeness: the name Jason spelled as "Jaison."

Wear your chaps ...

... love your "eveines."

Dave at Silver Creek 78250 has the pictures.

Pantsless home invader

This guy must have been on drugs. Because the thought of broken glass anywhere near my lower half would convince me to keep my pants on.

SAN ANTONIO – A man accused of stripping off his pants and breaking into a family’s Northeast Side home is under police watch at a local hospital.

A family at Covina Plaza Apartments says the man broke through their glass window and tried snatching a 7-month-old baby who was resting in an area a few steps away from the window.

“He was saying that the baby was somebody else’s baby,” the child’s aunt Babi Loredo told News 4 WOAI.

Loredo’s brother quickly tackled the man and tried restraining him until police showed up, but said it was tough. Family members said the intruder reacted in a wild manner, breaking everything in sight.

It took more than a dozen police officers to hold the man down and take him into custody.

(from WOAI-TV)

Hooker stabs driving man

Picking up hookers can be dangerous. Because sometimes they get mad if you don't pay them first. And they don't care if you're driving.

SAN ANTONIO -- A prostitute stabbed a man who refused to pay for her services up front, police said.

The woman stabbed the man three times in the upper chest, police said. He was taken to University Hospital in an undetermined condition.

During the stabbing, the man in his 50s lost control of his pickup truck and crashed into a fence and a parked vehicle at the intersection of Santiago and South Hamilton on the city's West Side.

(from KSAT-12)

OK, if a woman threatens to hurt you if you don't pay for her hooker services up front, isn't that just plain robbery? Or would the sex be a reward for making the right decision?

I'm genuinely curious.

Ugly king acting ugly

Remember, an honorary anything is not actually the real thing. That's an especially good thing to keep in mind if you position yourself as an upstanding citizen in the community.

LIVE OAK, Texas -- Charlie Garza, who represented Fiesta royalty in 2009 as El Rey Feo, has been charged with impersonating a police officer, Live Oak Police Chief Ron Echols said Tuesday.

The charges stem from a traffic altercation with a woman Friday.

The woman, who didn't want to be identified, said that she flashed her lights at a Cadillac Escalade that was traveling slow in the fast lane on Loop 1604. When the driver refused to move to the slower lane, the woman said that she passed the SUV in the other lane and flipped the driver the finger.

"I probably shouldn't have done it, but it's not against the law," the woman said in an interview with KSAT 12 News.

The woman said the driver then pulled up alongside her, showed a badge and motioned for her to pull over.

...

Echols said that Garza showed the woman an honorary Bexar County deputy constable certificate, which "holds no authority and it is explained to the people they have no police powers," said W.R. Tomlin, an assistant chief with the constable's office.

(from KSAT-12)

For those readers unfamiliar with the program, El Rey Feo means "The Ugly King" in Spanish. The Rey Feo Scholarship program is a non-profit that raises money for kids going to college, and the fundraiser that gathers the most dough gets to be crowned El Rey Feo, which is a position of royalty at San Antonio's annual Fiesta celebrations.

El Rey Feo is an honorary kingship. It, also, is not real.

"More Than 5,000 Rape Kits Untested By SAPD"

This doesn't sound right.

SAN ANTONIO -- Sitting in the San Antonio police department's evidence storage room are nearly 11,000 rape kits. Almost half have never been tested.

While a number of those cases involve known assailants, an alarmingly high number involve unknown suspects.

"We were not aware that there were stranger cases that hadn't been tested," said Rape Crisis Center CEO Lynn Blanco.

Following a recent meeting with police chief William McManus, that policy is changing.

(from KSAT-12)

I'll bet that policy is changing. I know media outlets can distort the picture and show you what they want you to see, but 5,191 rape kits sounds like a lot to be sitting around without ever having been analyzed. And I'm sure the police chief will scramble to get them done just to save face.

The bad news? Each analysis costs about $450 to get done, so we're looking at over $2.3 million of taxpayer money to get those rape kits tested. That's a big unexpected expense at a time when the City of San Antonio is facing budget difficulties.

Fake racially-motivated crime

Remember the supposed hate crime where a woman's mobile home was torched after she found paper crosses burning on her front lawn? I thought it sounded suspicious. And apparently it is, but it's not on the part of a disgruntled neighbor, as I had suspected; it's hanky-panky on the part of the one reporting the crime.

According to Lindel Faulkner, someone set crosses in the shape of a swastika on fire in the yard of her southeast Bexar County home.

On Monday, Bexar County officials said Faulkner was arrested for arson in connection with the fire. Faulkner was charged after the fire extensively damaged her trailer on Hildebrandt.

Shortly after the fire, Faulkner told News 4 WOAI her bi-racial family was threatened when she moved into the 9000 block of Hildebrandt Road this May.

Arson investigators say her story was "inconsistent" with the evidence they gathered at the scene. Additionally, witnesses told officials that just before Faulkner's mobile home burned, she left the friends she was staying with. When she returned, she reportedly told them not to go to her trailer home.

Also, fire officials say Faulkner had another trailer home which burned in February of this year.

(from WOAI-TV)

If this woman is pretending to be victimized by imaginary racists, then she's the real threat to race relations, not anyone who happens to disagree with our president.

No ID, despite an ID

I'm sure there's a reason for this explanation, but only the investigators know right now.

SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio police are investigating the discovery of some human remains in a field on the northwest side.

Police said the remains were found around 6 p.m. Friday in Welles Park by some kids who were walking nearby.

Police said a skull, leg bone and some vertebrae were found along with some clothing and an Iowa driver's license.

Investigators said no identification has been made on the remains and they don't know how long they had been there. [emphases added]

(from KSAT-12)

Am I off base? Are the investigators just being cautious and not jumping to conclusions, in case the Iowa license actually belongs to a different person? Or are they being obtuse? I'm willing to give them the benefit of a doubt and assume they are just being careful, even if they strongly suspect that the remains indeed are the person on the license, and I'm thinking they don't want to share too much information or make too many definitive statements with the media reporting their every word. What do you think?

Oh, and if this was the fantasy world of CSI: San Antonio, do you think they would have solved the case by now?

UPDATE: The police have released an identification: Richard Ashbacher.

"Staircase collapses at apartment complex"

Yikes.

SAN ANTONIO – Behind some plywood barriers and caution tape, Churchill Park tenants will point you to a big problem at Building 13. They’ll show you a few dangling railings and the mangled mess left behind after a 3-level staircase collapsed.

Neighbors say two tenants were walking on the staircase this week when they heard a loud band. They say the impact threw one man against the wall. Now he’s having back problems.

(from WOAI-TV)

Wow. At the very least, you would expect a staircase to hold you up. Wouldn't you?

Racially-motivated crime?

Or lame harassment? You decide.

The Bexar County fire marshal's office is investigating a suspicious fire that destroyed a South Bexar County mobile home early Thursday morning, hours after three paper crosses were set on fire in the front yard.

So far, officials are investigating the mobile home fire and the cross-burning incidents separately, according to Ino Badillo, spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Badillo wouldn't say whether the incident is being considered a hate crime, or religiously or racially motivated.

...

Neighbors reacted skeptically to the claim that the fire was racially motivated. Local residents said the area was typically calm.

“We don't have a problem with racial stuff around here,” said Vickie Shultz, a neighbor. “Everybody out here gets along. This is a quiet place.”

(from the Express-News)

Paper crosses? That's what leads me to believe that someone has it in for the owner of the burned mobile home (personally, not racially) and is trying to make people think it's racially-motivated. After all, if you live in a quiet neighborhood and can get your neighbors to think it was some bad, if inept, Klansman that did the deed, then they're not going to suspect you. Are they?

A Strange one passes away

Don Strange, that is.

He was known for innovations in the culinary industry, for catering one-of-a-kind parties for the rich and famous, for his love of South Texas and Northern Mexico cuisine and for old-fashioned barbecue — for 10 or maybe 10,000.

But Don Strange, the trailblazing Texas caterer whose family business began in a small store on the city's Northwest Side, was most known as a nice guy with a generous spirit as well as an architect of imaginative events, from black-tie to down-home.

He died suddenly Wednesday of a heart attack. He was 69.

Strange, who had recently launched a new online venture, was most associated with his Don Strange Ranch outside Boerne. Don Strange of Texas Inc., with more than 50 full-time employees, many of whom had worked for the company for decades, catered events for presidents and princes; corporate America and couples newly married; even Hollywood types and leaders of the sports world.

And he fed them everything from caviar to cabrito.

(from the Express-News)

R.I.P., Strange.

Playing for the homeless

Have you ever heard of the band Junes Not Faking? They're a local group, and they're doing something pretty cool downtown.

Every other month, the band Junes Not Faking (JNF) has been playing a free concert to homeless people under the Commerce Street Bridge in downtown San Antonio.

The idea is to give something back to the community, said Jeff Lopez, lead guitarist, singer and manager for the group.

“We started to play the free concerts after the start of the New Year,” Lopez said. “I got the idea after watching an interview with one of the band members from one of my favorite bands, Blink 182.”

Lopez also credits Blink 182 as one of the musical inspirations for the band. JNF does more than just provide an afternoon of free entertainment to who ever shows up at the concert.

“Before we go to do the gig, we put whatever cash we have together and make a bunch of sandwiches and get as much soda and bottled water as we can,” said Lopez. “All we're trying to do is give a little something back.”

(from the Southside Reporter)

Rock the Bridge.

Absolutely nothing going on today

What's the attraction of local news casts? Local news, right? Surely something is going on in this town to warrant some kind of news story, even on a Sunday. Isn't there?

Not according to WOAI-TV. Here's a screen cap taken at about 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, November 8, 2009:



And here are the datelines for the stories listed above (I've skipped the sports scores and movie reviews):

"Complete Doppler radar coverage" -- San Antonio (This is the only local story)

"Doctors look for better ways to uncover heart attacks" -- Philadelphia

"5-foot snake missing after wreck" -- Troup, Texas

"Cockroaches wanted for good cause" -- West Palm Beach, Florida

"Jack Ruby's hat sells for $53,775 at Texas auction" -- Dallas

"Dad busts teen daughter for growing pot in her bedroom" -- Troy, Michigan

"Officer accused of spanking hanky-panky" -- Ocoee, Florida

"Microchipping pets only works if owner's info is accurate" -- San Jose, California


Yep, nothing newsworthy going on in this town on a Sunday. Check back tomorrow. Maybe something will be happening then.

Everywhere a sign

Dave at Silver Creek 78250 has some examples of signs that are puro San Antonio. One is refreshing in what you hope is its honesty, and the other is disappointing on its surface because the maker seems to think there are just so many people out there that would believe him. Sadly, some would believe that sign, but I hope not at many as the signmaker thinks.

Caring for a killer

That psycho jihadist is in town, and he's receiving the best care the Army can provide.

SAN ANTONIO – Army officials say the accused shooter from Fort Hood is now at Brooke Army Medical Center.

He was transferred from the Scott and White Hospital in Temple on Friday. He arrived in San Antonio around 3:30 p.m.

A Brooke Army hospital spokesperson says Maj. Nidal Hasan is in stable condition. Hasan was taken to BAMC because it's the only Level 1 trauma center in the Army, according to officials.

(from WOAI-TV)

All on the taxpayer dime.

Nice shot

Is shopping in heels strange? Maybe so, maybe not. Whatever the case, I sure like this shot that Shorty over at San Antonio Daily Photo took in her local grocery store.

Gettin' Hatfields and McCoys on the Northeast Side

This sounds interesting.

"We believe that some violent confrontation is going to happen," said Rick Thomas, one of the neighbors involved in the feud.

"I don't know why he attacks me," added Jim Rudd, another neighbor involved in the feud.

Thomas and Rudd said that their neighbor, who KSAT 12 News is not identifying, flashes them with his truck headlights and a high-powered spotlight at night.

The unidentified neighbor has also carved the words "bite me" with his lawn mower onto his lawn, placed nails in the greenbelt and scattered beer and soda cans on his yard, Thomas and Rudd said.

"He has told me on several occasions that he was going to kill my service dogs," said Rudd, who claims to be a fully disabled veteran.

"The worst thing is he's been seen with the beer cans in his underwear, exposing himself," Thomas said.

(from KSAT-12)

Of course, we're not getting all sides in this story. If I remember to turn the TV on later, I might just watch this segment.

Unfortunate juxtaposition

When WOAI includes a "Watch" tag next to the headlines for its online news stories, that's a link that takes you to the video of that particular story.

I know that.

But still, when that tag is put next to a headline that contains language like that highlighted below, I can't help feeling a little creeped out.



I gave you a screen capture because I'm sure someone will notice that and correct it.

"Would-Be Craigslist Buyer Shot"

Be careful when meeting people to finalize a deal on Craigslist. Or at least be licensed.

Maymi Russell posted a listing to sell a camera on Craigslist, but he decided to do some research on Facebook on the potential buyer, Sammy Villa, before meeting him, said Sgt. Chris Benavides, a San Antonio Police Department spokesman.

When Russell arrived at behind an IHOP Monday afternoon to make the transaction, he saw a man who motioned Russell to finish the transaction, Benavides said.

Russell noticed something was wrong when two other men approached him. Moments later, they demanded the camera from him, Benavides said.

But Russell, who is licensed to carry a weapon, pulled out a gun and shot Villa, Benavides said. The two other men, John McFarland and Cameron McFarland, took off but were later arrested.

(from KSAT-12)

Bonus strangeness: the name "Maymi." But good on him for being aware of his surroundings. He kept himself from being a victim.

"Manu Undergoes Rabies Shots"

That's not something you hear said about one of your star basketball players just every day!

SAN ANTONIO -- Two days after swatting a bat that was flying around the AT&T Center during Saturday night's game against the Sacramento Kings, Spurs shooting guard Manu Ginobili confirmed that he is undergoing rabies shots as a precaution.

Ginobili showed up at the team's practice facility Monday afternoon with a bandage on his arm and acknowledged that he had started a round of rabies vaccinations. He underwent a series of five shots, and will have to undergo seven to 10 more shots over the next month.

"It was pretty funny at the time, but now it's not," Ginobili told reporters Monday.

(from KSAT-12)

Well, that's what you get for playing with bats.