Tag: Waxahachie Daily Light

ACM buys 19 more newspapers

The parent company of the Waxahachie Daily Light has purchased 19 more publications in the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan areas.
From the WDL blog:
From STAFF REPORTS

DALLAS — American Consolidated Media LLC (“ACM”) of Dallas announced Friday that it has purchased Superior Publishing Corporation (“SPC”), publisher of 19 publications in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
The announcement was made by Jeremy L. Halbreich, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO of ACM along with Charles R. Johnson, President and CEO of SPC. The agreement signed Friday is expected to close by the end of June.
“In the past month my associates and I have traveled northern Minnesota and Wisconsin on several occasions and we could not be more impressed by these communities and the people,” Halbreich commented. “ACM has a broad strategy to build a newspaper company in the United States comprised of superior, high quality, local community newspapers with traditions of strong service to their local communities. The quality publications of SPC along with their management and employees fit this pattern perfectly.”
American Consolidated Media was founded by Halbreich in 1998 and became part of Macquarie Media Group in February of this year. With the addition of SPC, the company will grow to 65 publications, including nine daily newspapers, in Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.
“This is a great fit and future for our employees, our newspapers and our communities. ACM has an aggressive strategy of growth and investment in the communities served by their publications. I look forward to working with and being part of the ACM team,” Johnson said. He will remain as President and CEO of the SPC group of newspapers for ACM.
American Consolidated Media is acquiring SPC from MCG Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: MCGC), a Business Development Company.
MCG Capital Corporation was advised in this transaction by Owen Van Essen of Dirks, Van Essen & Murray of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
ACM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Macquarie Media Group (“MMG”), a publicly-traded investment vehicle listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. MMG is based in Sydney, Australia and holds a portfolio of media businesses globally including 100 percent interest in Macquarie Regional Radioworks, owner and operator of 87 rural and regional radio stations located throughout Australia; 60 percent interest in Taiwan Broadband Communications, one of three leading cable television broadcasters in Taiwan; and, 13.8 percent interest in Southern Cross Broadcasting, a publicly-traded company with holdings in radio and television broadcasting located in the larger cities of Australia.
ACM currently owns and operates six daily newspapers in Alice, Brownwood, Stephenville and Waxahachie, Texas and in Miami and Grove Oklahoma; 35 weekly publications in McAllen, Brownsville, Harlingen, San Benito-Los Fresnos, Laredo, Edinburg, Rio Grande City, Bonham, Fannin County, Midlothian, Ennis, Red Oak, Italy, Alvarado, Ellis County, Erath County, Brown County, Ballinger, Winters, Hearne, Franklin, Calvert, Robertson County, Orange Grove, Premont, Jim Wells County, Kingsville, Freer, Robstown and Nueces County, Texas and in Ottawa County, Picher, Delaware County, Langley and Jay, Oklahoma; and five specialty publications in Texas and Oklahoma.

Debunking Global Warming

In Thursday’s Daily Light:

It is amazing that so many people believe global warming is real and is caused by humans. This myth has been largely promoted by the major media that gives much attention to those who support it and very little to those who debunk it.
For example, in December, U.S. Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma chaired a “Climate Change and the Media” meeting. He said that global warming is a hoax. The meeting received almost no major media attention.
At this meeting, Dr. David Deming, a geophysicist at the University of Oklahoma, stated, “I was contacted by a reporter for National Public Radio. He offered to interview me, but only if I would state that the warming was due to human activity. When I refused to do so, he hung up on me.”

World Class Championship Wrestling: Heroes of World Class review

Who were your heroes?

Originally published in the Waxahachie Daily Light

Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer

Mention professional wrestling to anyone in the Dallas area and one name will always come to mind — the Von Erichs.

People all over the Metroplex tell tales of tuning in every Saturday night on KVTT Channel 11 to watch three dashing young brothers take on the world, from their home in the squared-circle.

Stories of drama, action and excitement played out weekly on television sets around the world, as people tuned in to the weekly syndicated show featuring Fritz Von Erich (Jack Adkisson) and his sons, Kevin, Kerry and David.

It was the mid-80s and Fritz’s World Class Championship Wrestling was king.

Stories have been told of families across the world gathering on hillsides just so they could get a good reception and tune in to watch championship wrestling from downtown Dallas.

Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Triple H, and even Hulk Hogan were still years from becoming household names, but wrestlers like “The Gentleman” Chris Adams, Bruiser Brody, Kabala, The Fabulous Freebirds and even NWA World Heavyweight Ric Flair entertained the world from Dallas’ own Sportatorium.

But along with the rise to success, came the fall of defeat.

Some say it was a Von Erich curse, others say it was Fritz’s stubbornness to change.

Whatever the cause may have been, fans of WCCW began to watch their heroes crumble and fall as tragedy struck the Von Erich family and WCCW over and over again.

Once the brother to five and now the brother to none, Fritz’s eldest son Kevin is all that’s left of the wrestling dynasty.

Former WCCW wrestler and manager Scandor Ackbar said he knows of 18 young men involved with WCCW who have died since the promotion’s prime in 1982.

“At first I thought it was coincidence,” Ackbar said. “But then after a while — what’s going on?”

And as the city of Dallas condemned and began to tear down the famed Sportatorium in 2003, filmmaker Brian Harrison spent three years made it his mission to tell the story of his childhood heroes in “Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and the Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling.”

The film released June 15 to DVD details the stories of WCCW, starting with the early 1980s when Fritz Von Erich purchased the Dallas-based Big Time Wrestling and transformed it into one of the premiere wrestling promotions in the world.

Footage and photographs from WCCW and the Von Erich family are well used throughout the documentary as Kevin and a number of the remaining WCCW players tell the rise and fall of Texas’ great wrestling promotion.

“What took us eight years to build, took two years to take down,” former WCCW wrestler and manager Gary “Playboy” Hart said.

The stories told on the DVD encompass all sides of the WCCW rise and fall.

Kevin talks greatly about his family’s history, including his grandfather, a Texas sheriff.

According to Kevin, his grandfather would take Fritz to town as a young teen, just to make him fight other boys his age.

Kevin’s grandfather would then take bets on the fights for extra money.

Kevin shares the grief of losing each of his brothers, including three to suicide.

“The thing about grief is that it never gets better, it only gets worse,” Kevin said on losing his brothers and friends.

He also shared his father’s grief and rapid transformation when he was diagnosed with brain cancer in the late 1990’s.

“Dad told me I didn’t have the courage to kill myself like my other brothers,” Kevin said. “I know dad loved me but he wasn’t in his right mind. I think he just looked at me and saw all his other sons.”

This two and a half hour documentary does a great job of telling the Von Erich story and the story of WCCW.

And while the Von Erich’s were often the driving force behind the promotion, Harrison makes it a point to tell the entire WCCW story, not just the Von Erich’s.

The video montage in tribute to David Von Erich, who died while on a wrestling tour of Japan in 1984, was well edited and set to the song “Life by the Drop” by another Texas legend, Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The entire documentary, with its vintage video and honest interviews, is a great to watch for the avid fan who watched every week on Channel 11, or just the casual observer wanting to know more about Texas’ first family of wrestling.

After watching the documentary, my only wish was that there were complete matches added to the DVD, especially the famous championship battle between Kerry Von Erich and NWA Champion Ric Flair at Texas Stadium after David Von Erich’s death.

We’ll now have to wait now for Vince McMahon Jr. and WWE to release the old footage after McMahon’s company purchased the WCCW video library from Kevin in early June.

“Heroes of World Class: The Story of the Von Erichs and the Rise and Fall of World Class Championship Wrestling” can be purchased online directly from the documentary’s producers, Right Here Pictures, at www.rightherepictures.com or from Amazon.com.

This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Church

This ain’t your father’s church

By JONATHAN BLUNDELL Daily Light staff writer
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 3:16 PM CDT

You walk into a large dimly-lit ballroom at the Waxahachie Civic Center and notice a hard rock music video playing on a large screen in the center of the room.
People are milling around the room, drinking coffee and meeting new friends.
Images of crosses, Jesus and candles flash on the screen as the video continues.
Once the video fades to black a group of musicians walk on stage wearing shorts, t-shirts and flip flops.
They begin to rock out to “Jesus music” and as the lead guitarist breaks into a guitar solo, you realize this is something different.
This is Encounter – and this ain’t your father’s church.
Utilizing a live band, a different setting and relevant messages during their Sunday gatherings, Encounter has more than doubled in size since it began meeting at the Civic Center last September.
“We try and show people that Christ is relevant in their lives today,” Pastor Brian Treadway said. “The setting’s a little different – we turn the lights down and let you bring coffee in during the service. The format’s a little different than a traditional church but we’re not compromising the message.
“In the traditional church setting, I think people have been turned off by a feeling that they have to somehow measure up. People feel like they have to act a certain way or else they’ll be judged and condemned. People are also turned off by the language the church uses, the technical terms or Christianese. There’s a sense that the people in churches are plastic or phony and no one wants to be part of a group where they have to pretend about who they are.”
Encounter began nearly two years ago as a Saturday night outreach service at Ovilla Road Baptist Church.
“There was a group within the church who recognized that many in today’s generation have tried traditional church and it’s not meeting their needs,” Treadway said. “It doesn’t match their style or meet their needs. Many have been hurt, burned in or bored by church, so they just sit at home and turn their backs on church and on God.”
The leaders of ORBC saw a need and decided to create a service for those the traditional churches were not reaching out to.
“Our goal was to create a place for the people turned off by traditional church to find a place they would be accepted and where they could find Christ – and fall back in love with him or fall in love with him for the first time,” Treadway said.
After nearly a year of Saturday night services in Ovilla, the church leaders made the decision for Encounter to venture out on its own, with a Sunday gathering.
“We made the transition to Sunday after I felt an inward calling and the other leaders in the church recognized we would be more effective as a separate church,” Treadway said. “Our goal is to simplify the church and to remove the bureaucracy you see in many of today’s churches. When you come to church it shouldn’t be about what clothes you’re wearing, who’s sitting by who or who’s on what committee. It’s about a relationship with God.”
And Encounter is built around strengthening relationships, both with God and with mankind.
“People today have a longing for developing relationships,” Treadway explained. “That’s why Starbucks, Barnes and Nobles and other places have developed places where people can come and sit, talk and enjoy community. We live in a hi-tech world but there’s a longing for hi-touch. We want to encourage an environment where people are sharing their lives. We don’t have it nailed yet but I think it’s encouraging to see people meeting in homes instead of in an education building. There’s something about a home that’s warm and comforting and conclusive to sharing life.”
To improve those relationships, Encounter has worked to focus on community groups, a change from the traditional Sunday school hour. Groups meet in homes during the week and focus on a variety of topics, including overcoming addiction, creating community and a group specifically geared toward new believers.
“We were looking for a change in the traditional Sunday school format,” Treadway said. “We were looking for a more fluid format. People have a desire to live in community and in transparency with others. We want to provide a level and environment for relationships rather than sitting and listening to someone teach every week.”
Treadway admits that his passion for Encounter comes not only from a higher calling, but from his own spiritual struggles.
“My own experiences following Christ had become very rule based and routine and a man made standard,” Treadway said. “Once I discovered that I’m accepted by grace, it changed my perspective. As a church we want to break the bondage of legalism. Many people approach their walk that way. Our drive is to set people free from the bondage of rule-based relationships. We want people excited about church and God and want them to serve out of passion and not duty.”
When the church began, 80 people from ORBC joined Treadway to start Encounter. Today, more than 200 people meet weekly at the Waxahachie Civic Center.
“The cowboy churches are similar in approach – just a different flavor,” Treadway said. “Other pastors in the area have been very supportive. I’ve heard some concerns, but upon their own investigation they see we’ve changed the method, but in doctrine we’ve remained the same. When we focus on Christ, that’s where we’ve seen the greatest growth.”
And like the Cowboy Churches, affiliation with a particular denomination is limited.
“You won’t see the word Baptist on our signs or in our advertising,” Treadway said. “You won’t hear the phrase on Sunday morning because it’s one of the stumbling blocks people have with the church today. Our only affiliation with Southern Baptists is our basic doctrinal belief and the fact that until September of this year, we receive financial support from the Baptist General Convention of Texas. They understand that we won’t advertise our Baptist connection and they don’t have a problem with that.”
And while building relationships with others at Encounter, Treadway also encourages members to build their relationship in the community as well.
He tells the story of walking into a mega-mart and getting help from none of the employees.
“If the employees ignore the customers then I think they’re missing the point,” he explains. “In the same way I have to ask myself, ‘Has the church of the living God been guilty of the same thing? Are we too busy with staying in fellowship with one another and avoiding the evils of the world that we absolutely miss the point?’ Being a follower of God means getting out of your comfort zone. Scripture tells us to love the Lord your God with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself. We get so caught up in our own problems that we miss the point.
“We want our church to be involved in every aspect of life,” Treadway said. “How can we make an impact on the community? The essence of the Gospel is loving God and loving others more than yourselves. We should be rubbing shoulders with those in need and looking for ways we can serve outside our walls.”
The church has recently worked with Cowboy’s House in Oak Cliff and is looking to do future projects with Waxahachie CARE and other groups helping the needy in Ellis County.
Treadway said Encounter is simply a new approach to tell the Gospel story.
“We haven’t taken any church and copied it,” Treadway said. “Encounter is more of a conglomerate or melting pot of different ideas. I feel like we’re on the front edge of what God wants us to do.”
In the future, the leadership of Encounter hopes to be able to meet in its own building. Due to scheduling conflicts at the civic center, the church is occasionally forced to meet in other facilities.
“We’d love to have our own facility,” Treadway said. “Something that is non-traditional looking and something that allows for a flexible worship environment and an interactive experience with Christ. We also want a place where young people can come and meet during the week and our children’s ministry can continue as a vibrant part of our church. Our children’s ministry is a great draw to the church and Brad Hayes has done an amazing job incorporating his different characters to help tell the stories of the Bible in a way the children can understand. Kids are excited about coming to church. And it’s set up like a junior-Encounter. There’s lots of movement and activities they learn with.”
The rapid growth of the church has been a struggle for Treadway and the church leadership, but you won’t hear him complain.
“Our growth has occurred much faster than we originally thought,” Treadway said. “So we struggle with training and finding leaders. That’s been a challenge. The facilities we’re meeting in now have been a blessing. The civic center has been a great place to meet. But we’ve put together a team and dedicated so many of our resources to finding our future facility that my workload has greatly increased. But even with the extra work, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Treadway finds reward in his work while watching lives change.
“The reward is in seeing lives changed,” Treadway said. “That’s the biggest joy. Getting to see marriages brought back together, hearing people say ‘Now I love coming to church,’ people finding their ‘passion groove’ – those are the things you think about as you lay your head down at night and say ‘Thank you God.’ ”
Encounter meets each Sunday at the Waxahachie Civic Center at 10:30 a.m.
For more information, visit www.encounterthis.com.

Finding the perfect produce

Just thought I’d share the quick draft of the feature I wrote to go along with the pictures below:

Finding the perfect produce
Jonathan Blundell
Staff writer
Ask any vender or buyer at the Downtown Waxahachie Farmer’s Market on how to pick the perfect produce and you’re sure to get any number of answers.
Nancy Edwards, who traveled to the Saturday morning market from southern Ellis County, said her decisions are based primarily on feel.
“I feel all my fruits and vegetables to find the best one,” Edwards said. “The only thing I’ve ever found to shake is a honeydew melon. A produce man told me that once. He said you should shake it and if you hear the seeds rattle, you’ve found a good melon.”
“There’s probably five different ways people will say you should use to pick out the perfect cantaloupe or other produce,” Richard Davis, a vender from Venus said.
Davis has been selling his home grown produce at the weekly market for the past two years.
He started selling his produce from his home and at a similar market in Mansfield three years ago.
“My garden has grown from three-quarters of an acre, to one acre, to two acres,” Davis said. “And I plan on adding more and expanding it sometime in the future.”
Davis brings his bell peppers, banana peppers, greens, onions, cucumbers and other produce from his home and has a second vender selling at other farmer markets in the area.
Davis also buys some of his produce from other local farmers.
“Growing fruits and vegetables is just in my blood,” Davis said. “I just love growing stuff. We’ve had enough produce that we’ve even sold some of our produce to wholesalers in Dallas as well.”
For Tommy Jones of Waxahachie, the Farmers’ Market has been something he and his wife have enjoyed doing for fun.
The couple owns 22 acres on Youngblood, a well as a small garden in Palmer.
By noon on Saturday, the couple had already sold nearly two truckloads of fruits and vegetables.
“We’re plum of plums,” Jones said as he took inventory of the few baskets of fruits and vegetables remaining.
Jones and his wife Shirley have been growing their own produce for a number of years and started selling their goods at the Farmers’ Market three years ago.
“It’s just something fun to do,” Jones said. “We grow so much that our family can’t eat it all and this is a great place to sell the leftovers.”
Jones brings zucchini, squash, peaches, greens, plums and more to keep a variety of fresh goods available for buyers.
And as for that perfect peach, Jones said it’s all about the smell.
“I look for a certain smell when I’m picking a perfect peach,” Jones said. “It’s got to have that perfect smell and no blemishes.”
The Downtown Waxahachie Farmers’ Market is open to the public every Saturday, now through October 29 on the downtown square.
Venders begin arriving at 7 a.m. for check-in and the sale is open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., rain or shine.
More information and a venders’ application is available on the city’s website at www.waxahachie.com.