skeen state complaint
TRANSCRIPT
7/29/2019 Skeen State Complaint
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BIDDING FOR HISTORY Wacoan’s cache of early Texas documents worth millions
RR AuctionvicepresidentBobbyLivingston
shows off a bookof SantaAnna’sfieldorders thatwill go upfor auctionnextmonth.
Staff photo —Rod Aydelotte
A
cache of rareearly Texas doc-
uments belong-ing to late Waco print-er Bob Davis couldbring millions of dol-lars at a nationwideauction next month,auction companyofficials said.
But family members
said the collection,including correspon-dence from Alamoleaders and battle
plans of Mexican Gen.Antonio Lopez de San-ta Anna, was not aninvestment for Davisbut a labor of love.
Before his death in2003 at age 70, Davis
By J.B. SmithTribune-Herald staff writer
119 years serving
In God we trust
Waco Tribune-HeraldSunday, Oct. 23, 2011Sunday, Oct. 23, 2011
the Heart of Texas
Single copy $1.60Single copy $1.60
been a roughnth or Gov.k Perry, butsat down tok w th Paradeagazine abouts presdent aampa gn.
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD
QuarterbackRobert Griffin’sstats have kepthis name in theHeisman Trophyconversation, buthe’ll need helpkeeping it there.
SPORTS, 1C
Associated Press — Eric Gay
Cards lead Game 3Nelson Cruz hit another hom-
er for the Texas Rangers, butthe St. Louis Cardinals led late,with the score 15-7 in the topof the ninth. See Sports, 1C
WORLD SERIES
Skeen faces real estate complaint
A state licensing agency isinvestigating a complaint filedagainst McLennan CountyTax Assessor-Collector BuddySkeen for not publicly disclos-
ing real estate interests.Susan Stanford, a spokes-
woman for the Texas Depart-ment of Licensing and Regula-tion, confirmed that “we didreceive a complaint, and wepresently have an open investi-gation into that complaint.”
The complaint was filed by
Mark Wood-ward, a Wood-way architect,in late Julyafter the Tri-b u n e - H e r a l dreported thatSkeen bought
three Wood-way properties
— two homes and a lot — sincethe start of 2010.
A TDLR rule that took effectJan. 18, 2010, requires propertytax professionals — a categorythat includes tax assessor-collec-tors — to publicly disclose “any
financial interest in any privatebusiness or real property.”
Skeen indicated in a July in-terview that he was unaware of the reporting requirement. But,on Aug. 5 he submitted to coun-ty officials a spreadsheet list-ing the addresses of the three
Woodway properties.Skeen said Friday he was
under the impression that theTDLR investigation had beencompleted and that he was notgoing to be sanctioned in anyway.
By Michael W. ShapiroTribune-Herald staff writer
See SKEEN, Page 4A
Skeen
OF HORRORS
BRAZOS LIVING
See CACHE, Page 2A
(17) Texas A&M 33Iowa State 17
(19) Auburn 10(1) LSU 45
USC 31Notre Dame 17
(12) Kansas St. 59Kansas 21
(4) Wisconsin 31(15) Mich. St. 37
(6) Okla. St. 45Missouri 24
Stats showa peaceful
world
WASHINGTON — It seems as if violence is everywhere, but it’s re-ally on the run.
Yes, thousands of people havedied in bloody unrest from Africato Pakistan, while terrorists plotbombings and kidnappings. Warsdrag on in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In peaceful Norway, a man mas-sacred 69 youths in July. In Mex-ico, headless bodies turn up, vic-tims of drug cartels. This montheight people died in a shooting in aCalifornia hair salon.
Yet, historically, we’ve neverhad it thispeaceful.
That’s thethesis of threenew books,including oneby prominentHarvard psy-chologist Ste-ven Pinker.
Statistics re-veal dramaticreductions inwar deaths,family vio-lence, racism,rape, murderand all sorts of mayhem.
In his book,Pinker writes:“The decline of violence may bethe most significant and least ap-
preciated development in the his-tory of our species.”
And it runs counter to what themass media is reporting and es-sentially what we feel in our guts.
Pinker and other experts saidthe reality is not painted in bloodyanecdotes, but demonstrated
By Seth BorensteinAssociated Press
Dramatic reductions inwar killings, violencepoint to calmer globe
With Gadhafi death, an era passes
CAIRO — He often looked like acomical buffoon, standing beforeaudiences, bedecked in colorfulrobes, spouting words that most of the world considered nonsense.
Yet the death of Moammar Gad-hafi was a milestone in modern Ar-ab history, in some ways more sig-nificant than the overthrow of lesserautocrats in Tunisia and Egypt.
Gadhafi was thelast of the old-styleArab strongmen
— the charismatic,nationalist revolu-tionaries who roseto power in the1950s and 1960s,promising to lib-erate the massesfrom the shackles of European co-lonialism and the stultifying ruleof the Arab elite that the foreigners
left behind after World War II.He was swept aside by a new
brand of revolutionary — the lead-erless crowds organized by socialmedia, fed up with the oppressivepast, keenly aware that the restof the world has left them behindand convinced that they can build
a better society even if at the mo-ment, they aren’t sure how.
Gadhafi was the last of a genera-tion of Arab leaders such as Ga-mal Abdel-Nasser of Egypt, HafezAssad of Syria and Saddam Husse-in of Iraq who emerged from pov-erty, rising to the pinnacle of pow-er either through the ranks of themilitary or the disciplined, con-spiratorial world of underground
By Robert H. ReidAssociated Press
See GADHAFI, Page 3A
See PEACE, Page 4A
Gadhafi
n Libya’s new leaders to declareliberation today/ 9A
“The declineof violence
may bethe most
significantand least
appreciateddevelopment
in thehistory of
our species.”
Steven Pinker,
Harvardpsychologist
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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 20114A WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD
The investigator in the case“made contact with me, andeverything is fine,” he said.“They just put it in their filelike they do everything else, soit’s cleared up. They’ve com-
pleted their (investigation),from what they told me.”Asked about the status Fri-
day, Stanford said, “It’s stillan open investigation.”
Stanford said the agencydoes not, as a rule, discuss de-tails of ongoing investigations.
TDLR has the power to fineprofessionals in regulated in-dustries and, in some cases,revoke their licenses.
Skeen also is being investi-gated by the Texas Rangers.
That probe was triggeredin June when the countyforwarded documents to theRangers suggesting Skeenused his position to avoidpaying $1,375 in sales taxwhile buying a truck.
Re-election campaign
In the face of the Rangersinvestigation and intensepublic criticism, Skeen hassaid he plans to run for anoth-er term in 2012.
In a re-election statement,Skeen said he’s running, inpart, to clear his name.
Jeff Nickell, a real estateagent and former Waco Po-lice Department detective,announced his plans to chal-lenge Skeen in the Republi-can primary.
Waco City Councilman Ran-dy Riggs said Friday he’s con-
sidering a run, as well.Riggs, a certified public ac-
countant and a member of theMcLennan County AppraisalDistrict Board, said, “I’muniquely qualified for that po-sition, but I need to see what’sin the best interest of myself and my family.”
SKEENFrom Page 1A
in the black and white of spreadsheets and historicaldocuments. They tell a storyof a world moving away fromviolence.
In his new book, “The Bet-
ter Angels of Our Nature:Why Violence Has Declined,”Pinker makes the case thata smarter, more educatedworld is becoming morepeaceful in several statisti-cally significant ways.
His findings are based onpeer-reviewed studies pub-lished by other academicsusing examinations of grave-yards, surveys and historicalrecords:n The number of people
killed in battle — calculatedper 100,000 population — hasdropped by 1,000-fold throughthe centuries as civilizationsevolved. Before there wereorganized countries, battleskilled on average more than500 out of every 100,000 peo-ple.
In 19th-century France, it
was 70. In the 20th centurywith two world wars and afew genocides, it was 60.
Now battlefield deaths aredown to three-tenths of a per-son per 100,000.n The rate of genocide
deaths per world populationwas 1,400 times higher in1942 than in 2008.
Pinker said one of the mainreasons for the drop in vio-
lence is that we are smarter.
IQ tests show that the aver-
age teenager is smarter with
each generation.
The tests are constantlyadjusted to keep average at
100, and a teenager who now
would score a 100 would have
scored a 118 in 1950 and a 130
in 1910.So this year’s average kid
would have been a near-
genius a century ago. Andthat increase in intelligence
translates into a kinder, gen-
tler world, Pinker said.“As we get smarter, we
try to think up better waysof getting everyone to turntheir swords into plowshares
at the same time,” Pinkersaid. “Human life has be-come more precious than itused to be.”
Pinker argued his case in acommentary this past weekin the scientific journal Na-ture.
He has plenty of charts andgraphs to back up his claims,including evidence beyondwartime deaths — evidencethat our everyday lives alsoare less violent:n Murder within families.
The U.S. rate of husbands be-ing killed by their wives hasdropped from 1.2 per 100,000in 1976 to just 0.2. For wiveskilled by their husbands,
the rate has slipped from1.4 to 0.8 during the sametime period.n Rape in the United States
is down 80 percent since 1973.Lynchings, which used tooccur at a rate of 150 a year,have disappeared.
PEACEFrom Page 1A
Violence decreasingThree new books – including one by prominent psychologistSteven Pinker – point to statistics that show dramatic reduc-tion in war deaths, domestic violence, racism, rape, murder and all sorts of indicators of mayhem.
SOURCE: Steven Pinker, Harvard University AP
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Rate of battle deaths in state-based conflicts, 1900-2005
Homicides of intimate partners in the U.S., 1976-2005
deaths per 100,000
deaths per 100,000
0
0.3
0.6
0.9
1.2
1.5
Female victims
Male victims
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