Old Harwell and them playing Bill's shop at beer-30

Bosqueville – Carl is a master glazier with a shop, a payroll and a title – President of Waco Glass & Mirror.

Fridays find him often at Bill Doss' woodworking shop off Flat Rock Road, picking with the rest of the crew directly under the glide path from the friendly skies of the Waco Airport.

I wanted to take his picture, but he said, calmly, “I'd rather not.”

Doesn't have to be any reason for something like that, so I took pictures of the unusual fretted instruments he builds from plans he finds on the internet – some with 3, others with 4, 6 and 8 strings, the bodies made of pop-riveted sheet metal, necks and tuning boards often made of scrap wood from pallets and other shipping dunnage, if not salvaged from other instruments of dissimilar design.

“These days, I don't often do anything unless I want to,” Mr. Genarlsky said with a smile.

He also builds violins, fiddles, violas, cellos, dulcimers and some very racy ancient and archaic numbers from Spain, Central and South America.

In the background, the rowdy talk of working men and women gathered to talk over the hassles of the work week, eat peanuts, pick guitars, and laugh it up. Happens on Fridays, on cue, with precision.

Bill Doss swung into a number and his friends picked along with him, then the talk turned to outlaws and the evening turned cool in the gloaming as the commuter planes toiled to their landings at diminished throttle levels, the guitars twanged and the working men crooned.

There were a couple of outlaw ballads from Jeff Ward.

Then, Mr. Harwell played some Texas blues, and it was time for the trip home and a sack out sack in the rack, just waiting on a leisurely Saturday morning. 

Prithee, attend: Lamp the goods, dig the scene...

Six Shooter eight-liner biz back in style

Waco – As a tax free business, it's not bad. A decent location can gross a cool 1 to 1.2 million per year with ease.

Masquerading as a smoke shop, a convenience store, a place to buy a beer or a jug, these places have bars on the windows, placards obsuring the view from outside, but allowing an attendant ample opportunity to see who is coming, the store fronts are spotted in strip malls throughout the city.

Let's take a look at 2516 W. Waco Drive, “Hookah City 1.”

The room where players operate the gambling machines has its windows masked by venetian blinds, the other, a merchandising room offering tobacco products, beverages and snacks, is a storefront with windows partially obscured by placards and signs.

You have to be buzzed inside the front door. Once inside, you may play to your heart's content. Credit may be arranged through jewelry pawn, car title loan, pay check loan, or other creative means of digging up some cash.

Free sodas, candy, snacks are part of the ambient appeal as patrons sit on swivel stools and dial up such games as keno, poker, black jack, and the like.

The machines blink, buzz, beep, and ring-a-ding-ding their robotic signals to the world – win, lose, or draw. Plenty of action, as low as 25 cents a pop.

It's a two-bit world that adds up to big cash – as much as $20,000 a machine each week. One may easily see there are in excess of 20 machines inside the room.

In the count room, observers watch carefully from behind one-way mirrors, surveil the scene on video screens, and load up couriers with bags of cash for deposit.

These places are routinely robbed – an event which is rarely reported to police.

Why bother? Is it a matter of record? Is the eight-liner business legal, or illegal? 

As they say in the big city, the information is classified. Unaccredited media need not apply. 

Then there is “Smoke City,” located near the corner of Sanger at Lake Air in a strip mall shared with a tattoo parlor and lots of vacant, dusty storefronts.

Both Locations are listed by the McLennan Appraisal District under the names of shell corporations. The Waco Drive location is owned by an organization named ArkPro, appraised at $66,439. Located between 25th and 26th Streets, it is staffed by an attractive brunette with an athletic build on a slender frame who carefully peruses players before she buzzes them inside the security door. In 2011, the location was listed as owned by Five Star Funding, appraised at $67,093.

The matter is very political. A former principal for local global mortgage packager First City Financial Corporation, J.R. Hawkins is the campaign treasurer for the Randy Plemons for Sheriff Committee. He was for many years the treasurer for Buddy Skeen, McLennan County Tax Assessor-Collector, who is facing multiple indictments for fraudulent activities in his office accounts.

His son-in-law Tony Martin was convicted of gambling with the 8-liner machines in a Waco district court in the recent past. When state officials confiscated the illegal gambling machines, Mr. Hawkins obtained his title to them as a lender with an instrument secured by a lien on the commercial properties. Mr. Martin received a probated of 10 years, and has since been released by a court on the convictions obtained from a 16-count felony indictment.

You have no rights - George Carlin...

Laissez le bon temps roulet - Pata Pata, y'all...

House rejects ending Afghanistan war 2 to 1

Washington – The U.S. House of Representatives voiced overwhelming rejection to ending the war in Afghanistan, though a poll shows only one fourth of those surveyed are in favor of continuing after more than 10 years of conflict.

The amendment thus rejected would have put a swift end to the fighting by limiting funding to “safe and orderly withdrawal of U.S. Troops and military contractors from Afghanistan.” Lawmakers voted 303-113 to reject the measure, though an Associated Press-GfK poll indicted only 27 percent of Americans quizzed favor continuing the conflict, while 66 percent oppose it.


Government analysts estimate the war in Afghanistan costs taxpayers about $300 million each day.

Jail Standards did not demand $1.1M jail revamp

Renovation 'voluntary'- state honcho

Austin – McLennan County officials have been under the false impression that extensive renovations to the Courthouse Annex Jail were ordered by a state agency.

Texas Commission on Jail Standards Director Adan Munoz told The Legendary that though McLennan County Commissioners seem to believe they were ordered to spend $1.1 million on jail renovations, the closure of the 324-bed lockup was done “voluntarily and not ordered by TCJS.”

In a meeting earlier this week, the Court voted 4 to 1 to spend $41,000 to buy new kitchen equipment to be used when CEC, Inc., the private contractor that operates the facility, finishes certain renovations.

Commissioner Kelly Snell opposed the measure, saying he wants to defer until he finds out when the Sheriff's Office will be ready to move prisoners back in to the newly refurbished facility, which has been renovated with new smoke alarms and locks.

In response to an open records act information request, Mr. Munoz wrote, “In discussing the McLennan County downtown jail with the current inspector, Fred St. Amant, he remembers that this facility failed in 2008 and 2009. The facility was depopulated for renovation in 2010 and is still going through renovation. This was done voluntarily by McLennan County and not ordered by TCJS.

“Once the facilty is deemed ready, then it will require that TCJS conduct a walk through for compliance. this is mandatory prior to bringing any inmates back to facility. reminder that both facilities are operated by CEC.”

His assessment jibed with one given by Assistant Director Shannon Herklotz earlier this week. According to both officials, all three lockups in McLennan County are now in compliance, but state law requires a renovated facility to be inspected in a “walk-through” following remodeling.

Mr. Snell and Commissioners Joe Mashek and Lester Gibson suggested that they want assurance that CEC will complete a punch list of repairs prior to the end of the company's contract to operate the downtown jail in June. 


CEC agreed to depopulate the downtown facility of prisoners in 2010 when the county opened its new Jack Harwell Detention Center and transfer the prisoners to the new lockup on Highway 6.

McNamara moves to get in line with election law

Billboards, videos hit for disclosure

“We need to have a Sheriff who knows the difference between enforcing stupid laws and upholding and defending the Constitution.” - Richard Mack, former Sheriff of Graham County, Arizona

Waco – Parnell keeps an old, framed snapshot on his desk. It is a picture of himself, photographed as a young kid astride a pony, wearing a cowboy hat and a leather vest, a badge pinned to his chest and two holstered snap cap pistols swinging from his belt.

For a fifth-generation Texan and a fourth-generation lawman, it's a fond memory, his youthful dreams of riding out to oppose bad men and dealing them justice. Those dreams were realized in a career that spanned 32 years as a Deputy U.S. Marshal who brought dozens of criminals to justice in the U.S. Court system and saw a number of serial murderers and rapists locked away for life – some like Ken McDuff, executed.

All that fond view down his back trail exploded in horror when an attack ad aired recently, a vignette that mocks him for his oldest and most cherished goals.

Former Waco Mayor B.H. Davis, Sr., a member of the Plemons election committee, complained to the Texas Ethics Commission May 3 that billboards and videos produced by the Parnell McNamara for Sheriff committee don't comply with election laws.

As of today, Marshal McNamara has prepared videos to counter the charges and corrected the discrepancies by adding information to videos that states the presentations were produced by his election committee, under his approval.

Yeah, it's really that big a deal. Welcome to the NFL, as they say in the haze of August.

The videos, which were produced by RedC Television, are aimed at setting the record straight in response to a negative attack ad run on area television outlets by the Randy Plemons for Sheriff Campaign Committee.

In the video, a child wearing a cowboy hat much too large for him wears an oversized leather vest with a phony badge pinned to it, twirling a set of handcuffs around his finger.

He then rides a stick horse off screen and the segment fades to Chief Deputy Plemons standing in front of a patrol car with its lights flashing. A voice over accuses his opponent, Marshal McNamara, of being dragged into court to pay delinquent taxes, and of not being a certified Texas lawman.

“Any time someone says something false about you, it bothers you,” said Marshal McNamara.

The truth is, he explained, that the constabulary never served him with court papers seeking payment of delinquent taxes. He has a letter in hand from Constable Larry Eschenberg asserting that, by the time he received the summons for service, the tax records indicated that the brothers Parnell and Mike McNamra had paid the back taxes on their mother's residence. The constable marked his return of service that way, and dropped the matter.

As to certification as a Texas Peace Officer, the law allows him a couple of years to comply with the requirement. He hopes to take a written test and pass it before he is sworn in as Sheriff.

“Did I overlook the taxes? You bet I did. I take full responsibility,” said Marshal McNamara. “Did I pay them? The answer is yes.”

As to the complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission, a staffer in Austin named Mary Young said the commission is “absolutely not” investigating a complaint against the McNamara campaign committee. They are in the midst of processing Mr. Davis' ethics complaint. The alleged violation carries the penalty of a Class C Misdemeanor offense, upon conviction.

As of now, no one has been charged.

Any regrets?

“It's a sad day when you exploit a young child for your own benefit,” he said of the star of the video spot attacking his status as a lawman. “I think it really is a low down situation.” The kid is reportedly the grandson of a lawman from the opposing camp.

How did the tax delinquency occur?

His wife took sick with cancer and died, he was forced to retire as the Deputy U.S. Marshal in Charge of the Waco office at the age of 57, and his mother, Mrs. T.P. McNamara, suffered a stroke – all in the same year.

“It took me three years to even function properly.”