VOL 6 No. 25
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19 , 2013
P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County, Missouri City & Sugar Land
Birds of Fort Bend: Tufted Titmouse Yolanda Ford wins Missouri City council seat By BARBARA FULENWIDER Yolanda Ford, Missouri City District A city council contender, handily won the run-off election on Saturday against incumbent, Bobby Marshall. Ford, a city planner and land development professional, won the race with 475 total votes or 59.45 percent of total. Marshall, who served on city council for two terms, received 324 total Ford votes or 40.55 percent. Early voting tallies foretold worked for the city of Houston the tale as Ford received and Missouri City as a planner 293 votes to Marshall’s 186. until she decided to run for Marshall got 138 votes on office. During her campaign Saturday compared to Ford’s for office she promised to 182. work with the citizens “to Ford has lived in Missouri improve their quality of life, City for the past 35 years and
increase property values, repair infrastructure and provide a safe place to live.” She also said she will “ensure transparency in government spending” and ensure that their “tax dollars are properly invested.” Ford said she believes her experience in city government, quality economic development and leadership will make her the city council member her constituents need. Ford, who has a master’s degree in architecture, said earlier in her campaign that she would follow the dictates of her constituents concerning her support or opposition to next year’s proposed bond referendum.
FBISD postpones Elementary School in Aliana June is a bountiful month for nesting birds, and the Tufted Titmouse is a common year round and nesting bird found around homes and gardens in Fort Bend. Not flocking birds, the adult males and females are identical. Single birds frequent similar places as woodpeckers, chickadees, and wrens year round as well as kinglets and nuthatches during the winter. This small bird (a little smaller than a sparrow) is quite distinctive with its pointed head crest and small, but rounded, stout beak. Tufted Titmouse frequent backyard bird feeders. They love sunflower seeds, but will eat suet, peanuts, as well as other seeds. Abundant insects during the warmer months may divert them from feeders. They build their nests in tree cavities, so putting up nest boxes is a good way to attract breeding titmice to your garden. A garden with understory trees, water sources, a variety of bushes and foliage attracts them. Mine use some hanging bromeliads as drinking fountains. See more pictures by Margaret Sloan and learn more. http://traction.typepad.com/birds
Unfathomed depth and unknown undercurrents of ‘SwiftRiver’ By SESHADRI KUMAR The fear of the known and unknown has contributed to the cloud of suspicion over the botched social media monitoring software, SwiftRiver. The Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management sought to buy this software on behalf of the Urban Area Security Initiative, funded by the Department of Homeland Security. The development of this platform was being sought by the Houston UASI because “increasingly publicly shared information from citizens provided the best situational awareness in the initial hours of a major incident.” The application for the grant was made in 2011 after a committee comprising the City of Houston, Harris County, Montgomery County, and Fort Bend County recommended it. The project known as Regional Whiteboard Information Display was funded at the level of $120,000. At this time, Fort Bend County is no longer attempting to develop the needed software, after County judge Bob Hebert terminated the project. However,there is a distinct possibility that another local government entity in the region may spend the $120,000 to acquire the system. The fear about this project is compounded by the people and organizations behind the data mining industry, though by mere association of the names, the project cannot be condemned. The recent revelations
about the National Security Administration’s data gathering projects exacerbated the fear among people concerned about privacy. But, long before the new concerns arose, Commissioner Andy Meyers, was skeptical by the mere definition of the project, aimed at data collection. Whatever information he gleaned, did not convince him of the project’s safety or desirability. Meanwhile, just a cursory glance of the entities associated with the project may help in forming public opinion, one way or the other, depending on one’s own perception of privacy and security. SwiftRiver is a free and open source platform that helps people make sense of a lot of information in a short amount of time. The SwiftRiver platform was born out of the need to understand and act upon a wave of massive amounts of crisis data that tends to overwhelm in the first 24 hours of a disaster. The SwiftRiver platform empowers non-profits, NGOs, governments, who wish to speed up the processing of data during emergency events. However, it has many other potential applications within News media organizations, political analysis companies and enterprises. In practice, SwiftRiver enables the filtering and verification of real-time data from channels like Twitter, SMS, Email and RSS feeds. SwiftRiver branched out of its mother project called Ushahidi. “Ushahidi is a non-profit
tech company that specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. It builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories,” according to the company website. “ We ’ r e a d i s r u p t i v e organization that is willing to take risks in the pursuit of changing the traditional way that information flows.” ”“Ushahidi”, which means “testimony” in Swahili, was a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the postelection fallout at the beginning of 2008. The original website was used to map incidents of violence and peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phones. This website had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be used by others around the world. The core platform is built on the premise that gathering crisis information from the general public provides new insights into events happening in near real-time. It is also expected to help organizations marshal efforts to assist areas that are not well covered in the mainstream media. The Ushahidi platform has been used to monitor elections in India, Mexico, Lebanon and
At its June 10 regular board meeting, the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees decided to postpone the construction of Elementary School #46 in the Aliana subdivision along the Grand Parkway corridor pending the outcome of a comprehensive study of all FBISD elementary school boundaries. Following the Board’s decision, the District will immediately develop and publicly share a timeline for work to include: •Issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a district demographer for Board approval in a timely manner. •Preparing scenarios, based on existing demographic data, to demonstrate how the District may be rezoned to more effectively utilize existing elementary schools. These scenarios will be vetted once a contract for a district demographer is approved by the Board. •Creating and convening a District-wide Elementary School Boundary Study Team to advise the administration on redrawing all elementary boundaries to best utilize existing schools. The work of this group will be shared publicly online and at community forums to gather feedback from stakeholders throughout the District before any recommendations are brought to the Board for consideration. The
DULLES VIKING BASEBALL TEAM. The Dulles High School Vikings baseball team continued to advance in the playoffs, eventually earning a spot at the 5A State Championship game on Saturday, June 8, in Round Rock at Dell Stadium. While they ultimately lost the championship game to The Woodlands High School in a hard-fought battle, the DHS Vikings ended their season with an impressive record of 32 wins and only 8 losses. Varsity team members include: Dallas Johnson, Preston Clarke, Josh Austin, Caden Williams, Matt McGee, Cameron Calhoun, Jesse Ramirez, Darryn Sheppard, Zack Belski, Eric Johnson, Brian Harvey, Nick Hernandez, Alex Merchant, Kishan Patel, Coleman Butler, Jaylen Hubbard, Dakota Mills, John Alvarez and Dillon Dinges. The coaching staff includes head coach Clinton Welch, Larry Cernoch See PAGE 3, SWIFTRIVER and Mike Dutka, as well as trainer Thomas Phillips.
administration will be providing regular updates to the Board throughout the process. The work of the Facility Assessment Study that evaluated educational adequacy and building utilization will be used as part of the comprehensive study. •Working with the principals of all schools currently over capacity to develop interim plans to support the effective and efficient operations during this process and the implementation of the resulting decisions. •Performing a review and update of FBISD Board Policy and Administrative Procedures that govern the creation and maintenance of school attendance boundaries. Charles Dupre, Superintendent of Schools, has made it known that he is a collaborative decision maker who believes in transparency. Since joining Fort Bend ISD, I have heard a clear message from the community that we want all of our 70,000 students to receive the best educational opportunities possible. I have also heard we must ensure and demonstrate more effective utilization of existing facilities before constructing new ones.” “I believe we must work diligently to demonstrate that we are listening to the parents of our students and taxpayers who
fund our District operations and upon whom we are dependent for funding the District’s future growth,” said Dupre. While balancing enrollments and making sure its schools are used efficiently is an important challenge, Fort Bend ISD’s highest priority will always be doing what is best for students. “The Board supports the administration’s recommendation to postpone construction on Elementary #46 and will work together to ensure that all community members have a voice in developing the comprehensive study of all FBISD elementary school boundaries, which will be used to make the best decisions for the affected Fort Bend ISD students,” said Jim Rice, Board President. As part of a current independent Facility Needs Assessment being conducted for the Fort Bend ISD to evaluate educational adequacy and building utilization, the community will be invited to participate in the school facility planning process. The findings of this study will make it easier for Fort Bend ISD to talk about real issues to build consensus and make future decisions based on the analysis of District data and community participation results in a more open and collaborative process.
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Fort Bend Independent, (USPS 025-572) is published every Wednesday (for a subscription rate of $20 per year) by Fort Bend Independent, LLC., 10701 Corporate Dr., #282, Stafford, Texas 77477. Periodicals Postage Paid at Stafford, Texas. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Fort Bend Independent, P.O. Box 623, Sugar Land, Tx 77487.