8-A
COUNTYTIMES (903) 389-NEWS
FREESTONE
Viewpoints
February 28, 2012 - The “Times”
Publisher/President Scott W. Marsters, Sr.
to the Editor
Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the views of the Freestone County Times
Editor Karen E. Leidy Dear Editor,
Senior Reporter Mary McDonald
I have heard many rumors around town of late that the City Administrator of Teague, Mr. Vince DiMaggio is under investigation for bribery by the FBI. Is this a true story or just another rumor? Question, did our city coun-
Reporter Nicole Schaefer
cil know he was under inves- tigation when they hired him? Did he tell them he was under investigation? I have no idea if he has done anything wrong or not and I firmly believe you are innocent till proven guilty. That being said, was this information disclosed during
the hiring process? If this was not disclosed, its grounds for termination. If it was dis- closed, its grounds to recall our elected officials. None of this was made known to the citizens of Teague. I have seen some of the news articles and they all seem to be dated around April of 2011. According to the story in Cali- fornia, He is accused of brib- ing a City Council member for a favorable ruling on a hous- ing project. According to one of the articles, Mr. DiMaggio left the “partnership” that was bidding on the project so that they could go forward without him. I am not sure if they got the project or not. Mr. DiMaggio was hired by
our city council in July of 2011, just a few short months after his troubles in Califor- nia.
B. Evans Teague Texas
TEA Party Tea Leaves
We had an energetic crowd to meet our local and Ad Sales Tonjia Scarborough
county candidates. The meeting was opened with prayer given by Henry Horton, followed by The Pledge Of Allegiance and The Texas Pledge. Henry Horton gave our closing prayer. We went right into the meeting with introductions from
Ad Composition Christy Jackson
Jan Fielden (Commissioner Precinct 3), Roger S. Brooke (Constable Precinct 4), Ken Sessions (Sheriff), and Kelly Craig (Constable Precinct 4). We then had introductions from previous candidates; Don Anderson (Sheriff), Bodie Emmons (Commissioner Precinct 3), Diana Smart Willis ( Constable Precinct 3), Marcus Pfeifer (commissioner Precinct 3), Michael Daniels (Commissioner Precinct 3), and Keith Brackens (Commissioner Precinct 3), Kelly Craig (Constable, Precinct 4). We welcomed and thanked Stanley Gregory, Commissioner Precinct 3 for his years of service. Randolph J. Williford P. E. who is running for Commissioner Precinct 3 in Limestone County shared vital information on sensitive military projects, involving foreign countries and personnel. Bobby Vickery who is opposing Byron Cook in the Republican Primary for The Texas Legislature, District 8, also shared vital information on issues in Texas and the election. Gary Waldrip gave information on the lawsuit involving redistricting. We briefly talked about the grave importance of
Office Manager Natalia V. Marsters
elections, starting at the grassroots level where decisions are made on local issues, especially spending. Many of us feel this is going to be the most important election year of our lives! We need YOU! We urge everyone to do their homework on candidates and not rely solely on the media. Comments thanking The Freestone County Times for their election coverage were applauded! We will be hosting candidate forums on the State and Federal level when redistricting is decided. Anyone interested in a workshop on survival, please let us know. The last workshop was awesome and had great handouts! Thank yous were given to all who have worked so hard on committees for our Tea Party’s success! We are in need of volunteers to be on phone and
Distribution Mick McDonald
Website:
www.Freestone
CountyTimes.com
Email: news@freestone
countytimes.com
ads@freestone
countytime.com
election committees. If interested, please contact us. Our March meeting will be on Monday, March 19, 6:00 PM, River of Life Church, Hwy 84 E., Fairfield, TX. Our featured speaker, JoAnn Fleming is the Executive Director of Grassroots America-We The People and the Chair-Advisory Committee to the TEA Party Caucus of The Texas Legislature. JoAnn is an awesome speaker with information you don’t want to miss! Please mark your calendars! If you believe in the Constitution, fiscal responsibility, limited Government, and strong Judeo- Christian principles, please join us! Contributions may be sent to Freestone County TEA Party, PO Box 1281, Fairfield, TX 75840. God Bless America!
www.freestonecountyteaparty@
gmail.org freestonecountyteaparty@gmail.com
Letters Stopping
SNAP Fraud In Its Tracks By Kevin Concannon
Americans expect and
deserve a government that ensures their hard-earned tax dollars are managed with accountability and integrity. Without that commitment, we risk undermining public confidence in the value of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – formerly known as food stamps. This critical nutrition program helps millions of people in need put food on the table through tough economic times until they can get back on their feet. In support of this commitment, USDA announced new steps to strengthen anti- fraud efforts in SNAP. First Quarter Results: From Oct. 1 through Dec.
31, 2011, we penalized more than 225 stores found violating program rules, and we permanently disqualified over 350 stores for trafficking SNAP benefits. While fraud is a relatively
limited problem in SNAP, we have a zero tolerance policy for fraud. USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service conducts ongoing surveillance and investigation, to find bad actors and remove them from the program. In fiscal year 2011, FNS reviewed over 15,000 stores, and permanently disqualified over 1,200 for program violations. As Undersecretary of the
Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services, at USDA - the federal agency that oversees the state administration of the program - and having run the program at the state level in Maine, Oregon, and Iowa, I know firsthand the importance of SNAP. I don’t tolerate fraud and abuse in the program, and neither do the American taxpayers. So last December I announced new and expanded anti-fraud activities to strengthen USDA’s commitment to promote and preserve the integrity of SNAP, a critical nutrition assistance program that feeds more than 46 million low-income and working Americans. To adapt state-of-the-
art technology to identify suspicious activity, we awarded a 10-year contract to further develop the next generation of fraud detection systems. We are in the process of developing even stronger sanctions and penalties against retailers that misuse the program, we are increasing documentation requirements to verify identity and assure business integrity as well as researching high-risk stores using tax and business databases, and we recently updated our policies to clarify that advertising the sale of benefits through social media is a violation. We recently launched a
Fighting SNAP Fraud website to help raise awareness of the issues and provide a direct portal to report suspicious activities. Public assistance is vital to wiping out fraud and trafficking. If you see suspicious activity, call our fraud hotline, at (800) 424- 9121.
Taken together, these
steps underscore USDA’s commitment to combat fraud, waste and abuse and inspire the confidence in government Americans deserve. I’m proud to say that USDA takes protecting taxpayer dollars very seriously and we are working hard to make sure others do, too.
Publisher's Desk
This week marks the Tenth Anniversary of the Freestone County Times. We began our venture with a staff of 4 (including a student intern) and signed up 13 paid subscribers when The “Times” first hit the newsstands on February 27, 2002. Today, we have 7 full-time employees and an official circulation of 3,163 readers. Our first issue included 20 advertisers and 4 classified listings. Now, we have over 300 advertising partners and run 2-3 pages of classifieds. The “Times has come a long way. During our exponential growth the past decade, our publication has done well to keep prices competitive. As subscription and advertising rates slowly grew, our newsstand price remained at 50 cents per copy. Due to the increase in operational costs, it is necessary to increase our price per copy. Beginning with next week’s March 6, 2012 edition, The
“Times” will increase our newsstand price to 75 cents. Annual subscriptions will remain the same. I would like to encourage our loyal readers to take advantage of our Tenth Anniversary discount: --10% OFF all new subscriptions --10% OFF all new advertising WHY?
--Because it’s our 10th Anniversary!
The “Times” family looks forward to serving the county folks for decades to come.
Scott W. Marsters, Sr. Publisher/President
Stand We 2011 FREESTONE Corrected
Volume 11 No. 6 Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Page 1-A: “Teague Attorney Unhappy with Commissioners Court” article (paragraph 10) – “Fulcher stated that County Treasurer declared the DCC position was exempt” Treasurer Kay James informed us that she never made such a statement. At this time we are unable to determine who may have told Mr. Fulcher that it was an exempt position. ____________________
401 East Commerce St. Fairfield, Texas 75840 (903) 389-NEWS
COUNTY TIMES, INC.
www.FreestoneCountyTimes.com
Publisher/President: Scott W. Marsters, Sr. Editor: Karen E. Leidy
Ad Composition: Christy Jackson Senior Reporter: Mary McDonald
Reporter: R. Nicole Schaefer Ad Sales: Tonjia Scarborough
Office Manager: Natalia V. Marsters Distribution: Mick McDonald
SUBSCRIPTION RATES PER YEAR
Senior Citizens (65 or older).................$18.00 Freestone & Adjoining Counties..........$22.00 In State of Texas...................................$24.00 Out of State & Overseas.......................$26.00 Single Copy................................................50¢
Freestone County Times (USPS 020302) is published each Tuesday by Freestone County Times, Inc. at 401 East Commerce Street. POSTMASTER send address changes to Freestone County Times, 401 East Commerce Street, Fairfield, Texas 75840
Any error or erroneous reflection upon the character, standing, or reputation of persons, firms, or corporations which may appear in Freestone County Times will be corrected in the next issue once the publisher is notified. The decision to print any photo and/or article is left to the editor’s discretion. Freestone County Times is not liable for, nor does it endorse any content in any advertisement. The views expressed in articles are not necessarily those held by Freestone County
Times or its employees.
Freestone County Times encourages submission of letters to the Editor, articles and/or photographs from our readers. Letters to the Editor must be signed.
Deadline for News and Advertising is Monday at 3:00 pm of each week. TEXAS PRESS ASSOCIATION MEMBER 2012
ACCEPTING ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS.
Celebrating our10thYear Anniversary!
Freestone County Times 903-389-NEWS (6397)
www.freestonecountytimes.com
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