Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

The Tribune will be partnering with Spring Fitness and Urban Cowgirl Dance Hall & Saloon, to hold a spring food drive benefitting the Magnolia Society of Samaritans (SOS) and Tomball Emergency Assist-ance Ministries (TEAM).

The food drive will run the entire month of April and items can be dropped off at the Tribune office, 517 W. Main St., in Tomball, all three Spring Fitness locations, 32350 SH 249 in Pinehurst, 9311 FM 1488 in Magnolia or 2400 FM 2920 in Spring, or at Urban Cowgirl, 10310 FM 1488 in Magnolia.

Mildred Ashworth, SOS director, said with summer approaching, food banks are in dire need.

"With summer coming, the kids will be at home more and families will need more food," she said. "We will need different kinds of canned goods, other than green beans, because we have a good stock of those."

Ashworth said they also need diapers, paper towels and toiletries, peanut butter, jelly, rice and beans.

TEAM director Loma Holmes said that jelly is a hard item to get at the moment.

"Jelly is so hard to get at the moment because it is so expensive," she said. "We also need macaroni and cheese and pretty much anything that someone would want to get, we will use."

Tribune publisher Nancy Nygaard is challenging all local businesses to get involved, by donating at least 10 cases of non perishable items.

"We want to get the entire community involved in helping others," she said.

Businesses that participate will get their name or their business name published in a future Tribune thank you advertisement. If you can't pick up and deliver the items yourself, you may make a credit card payment of $150 for 10 cases, by calling the Tribune at 281-255-6397, or write a check payable to Food Basket for $150.

The Tribune will pick up all cases purchased in that manner, while also delivering the items to TEAM and SOS.

For more information call the Tribune at 281-255-6397, Spring Fitness at 281-259-4620, 281-356-7875 or 281-353-1268, or Urban Cowgirl at 281-259-6900.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to pack the streets of Tomball this weekend, for the 13th annual Tomball German Heritage Festival, March 22-24.

"I keep saying this every year, but we are expecting to get bigger and we are adding more quality events," said Grady Martin, president of the Tomball Sister City Organization.

The three day festival will consist of four stages, with more than 400 performers, including bands, musicians, singers and dancers.

"We also will have a bluegrass stage all weekend at the Depot, over by the gazebo," Martin said.

The Alex Meixner Band will be performing all three days, at the Ziegenbock stage. Meixner is a Grammy nominated accordion performer, known worldwide.

"This will be the only performance he has where the public can see him for free," said Martin.

There will also be booths filled with more than 100 vendors, peddling everything from cigars to candy and beer to homemade bratwursts.

"Of course the carnival will be there like always," Martin added.

There will also be a petting zoo, street performers, arts and crafts, a heritage center and a special church service Sunday morning at 10 a.m., near the gazebo.

Martin also said that Saturday morning, at 10:45 a.m., the head of the German Consulate in Houston, Klaus Gluecke and Tomball Mayor Gretchen Fagan will lead a short walking parade from City Hall to the Depot Plaza, where a ceremonial keg will be tapped in honor of German heritage.

Martin said that the event last year drew close to 40,000 visitors and he expects more this year.

"The city took pictures from Michael 1 (the police department's air unit) last year," he said. "They studied them and then used a state formula and came up with an estimate of 40,000 people last year."

"If we have good weather, then we expect an even bigger crowd this year," Martin added.

The event schedule includes Friday from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with events all over the downtown Tomball area. Admission is free.

"Each year we keep getting bigger and I think it's all because we have shown how great of a place Tomball is to visit," Martin said.

For more information visit www.tomballgermanfest.org.

Montgomery County Sheriff's and Pct. 5 deputies found the gruesome scene of a body near the railroad tracks, the morning of March 12, along FM 1774, just north of High Meadow Ranch Road.

Lt. Dan Norris, of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office said that they received a call at about 10:30 that morning from the conductor of a train, who said he had seen a body near the tracks.

Upon arrival the deputies found a deceased male lying near the tracks, with no identification. Officials estimated him to be between 20-30 years old.

A Union Pacific railroad worker at the scene said that he was told the man's legs were severed.

"Due to the victims injuries, it appears that a train did strike the individual," a press release from the sheriff's office stated.

Norris stated that detectives are still investigating, trying to determine exactly what happened to the man.

The body was transported to the Montgomery County Forensic Center for autopsy and detectives have tentatively identified the man.

If it turns out that the man was struck by the train it will be the second week in a row for a train accident in the Magnolia area. Last week a trailer hauling oilfield equipment was struck in downtown Magnolia, while attempting to cross the tracks.

A local Boy Scout is looking to earn the rank of Eagle Scout by helping restore some historical symbols of Tomball.

Dawson Duerer, a 13-year-old member of Boy Scout Troop 471 at St. Anne's Catholic Church, was searching for an idea to help him earn the Eagle Scout rank. He sought the assistance of Tomball Mayor Gretchen Fagan, who guided him to Tomball's Public Works Director David Kauffman. After speaking with public works officials, Duerer decided to come up with a plan to restore the concrete street markers found in various locations within the city.

"These are a part of history and I think they need to be preserved," Duerer said.

These markers are a unique feature to Tomball, as the boy’s father said he knew of no other city in the area with them. Many of them are located in the downtown Tomball area.

"There used to be a lot more, like around 50 of them," Duerer said. "Now there are just 14 of them."

Dawson then presented his idea to the city council last month and received high praise for the project. Several people went up to Duerer following the meeting and donated to the project.

"I appreciate you doing this," Councilman Mark Stoll said to Duerer as he donated money towards the project.

Duerer said his first step will be to hold fundraisers to raise the estimated $1,000 he will need to complete the project. Once that is finished, he said he will purchase all the tools and materials needed to strip the old paint from the markers, level the surface of the markers with new mortar and straighten the leaning markers back to a level position. The final step will be repainting the markers white and then stenciling the street name back onto the marker.

With several man hours required to complete the project, Duerer will be seeking help from his family, friends and community members, in order to complete his goal of finishing the project by August.

Once the project is completed, he will begin work on a map and history of the markers.

Duerer said that he wants to keep advancing in scouts, because it has helped to mold him into a young man that cares about his family, friends and community.

"It's helped me grow up," he said. "The things I've learned to do are great."

"It's taught me a lot of responsibility and how to help others."

Much has been made in the mainstream media the past few days, of an exchange between Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Texas' new U.S. Senator Ted Cruz.
The exchange was during a committee hearing regarding Feinstein's proposal to ban certain firearms and high capacity magazines.

To those who haven't seen the exchange, here it is in a nutshell: Cruz asked Feinstein if she would make exceptions to other amendments in the Bill of Rights, like limiting which books we can read under free speech regulations. Feinstein replied that she was "not a sixth grader" and that, while not a lawyer, she understood the Constitution and didn't need a lecture from Cruz. She feigned being offended to the max, all while never addressing Cruz's legitimate question.

Feinstein's hissy fit made for good television and thus, predictably, the media focused solely on that exchange. There was another moment however, while quieter and gentler, screamed much louder and speaks many more volumes.

Towards the end of the exchange, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) pipes up and says "none of these rights are absolute."

Wow.

Thomas Jefferson, the man who wrote our nation's Declaration of Indepen-dence, thought otherwise. He declared in that document that there are certain inalienable rights, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that are only endowed by our Creator. In other words, those rights are natural and absolute – not given by man or governments, but rather we are born with them.

He also stated that: "And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated, but with his wrath?"

Other's have said that there are no absolute rights and they even point to a Jefferson quote as proof, when he said: "All natural rights may be abridged or modified in their exercise by law." They use this quote to justify laws that trample individual freedoms, or limit those freedoms. They are wrong.

I believe what Jefferson meant was that when one's exercise of their natural rights tramples basic human morals, or the natural and absolute rights of others (i.e. murder, rape, pillage, etc.) then the people as a whole (government) has a right to step in and take that offenders rights away via prison, death sentence and other means. What it does not mean is that government has a right to limit other citizens rights, merely because someone may or may not do something in the future.

To say something as Durbin did either shows a complete lack of judgment, or a lack of common sense – neither of which is needed in the upper chamber of our legislative body.

The belief that no rights are absolute, is a belief that leads to tyranny.

Many folks will pass that statement off as paranoia, or as hysteria. However, while it is my belief that many who come down on the side of Feinstein's bill, or that discounted Rand Paul's fillibuster are wrong, I do not doubt their sincerity, their passion or their belief that these measures will keep others safe. I do, however, doubt those that will come later and still have these powers and I am not willing to sacrifice this nation's ideals or principles in the name of a little safety and security now.

It's too big of a slippery slope. After all, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin