Five stories that have North Texas talking: A blind steer sold at Fort Worth Stock Show gets a second chance; construction workers in Fort Worth might have discovered remains from a Native American burial ground; a Dallas ISD janitor could clean up in a national contest, with your help; and more.
A 13-year-old girl was devastated when she sold her cataract-stricken steer named Oatmeal at the annual Fort Worth Stock Show last month. Kendyll Williams of Huntsville raises steer to build her college fund, but with Oatmeal, it was an unusually difficult goodbye.
As it turns out, it wasn’t goodbye. Williams’ story inspired animal lovers on social media to create a campaign, including this Facebook page, to rally the community against Oatmeal’s eventual slaughter. And it worked. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported Saturday that the steer was recently moved to an undisclosed ranch after spending a month at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in College Station.
The Associated Press reported: “Renee King-Sonnen, with the Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in Angleton, says volunteers collected about $12,000 for Oatmeal's care. The money now goes to scholarships for youths having second thoughts about selling livestock for slaughter.”
Read more. [The Associated Press, Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
- Construction workers in Fort Worth found human remains at their work site recently. Investigators don’t believe the skull and bones found near downtown Fort Worth are from a recent homicide, according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Instead, they think the remains are a part of a Native American burial ground that was first discovered in 1901 a few miles away. A 1949 Star-Telegram article reported: “Excavators in 1901 found three skeletons, arrow points, a package of vermilion, a stone pipe, a 16-inch knife, small white beads and a mirror set in an iron frame.” The bones were found about four feet below the surface on March 15, and investigators are awaiting a medical examiner’s report. Read more. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
- Enrique Mendez, a janitor at J.L. Long Middle School in Dallas, could be named Janitor of The Year. Mendez, 43, has been serving the school for four years, and according to his bio:
“A year ago Dallas experienced an ice storm that shut the city down for several days. During that time, Enrique spent several nights away from his family to maintain the heat in the building to keep pipes from breaking. He also took care of the science department’s numerous live animals including two guinea pigs, a turtle, four aquariums, and even watered the staff’s personal plants.”
Mendez is in the running with nine other candidates from around the country. The winner, who secures the most votes online, will receive $5,000 cash and another $5,000 to help makeover the school. Click hereto vote through April 15 – one vote can be cast per day. Read more about Mendez. [The Dallas Morning News]
- A chain Mexican restaurant that originated in Texas was just named the best in the country. Before you make any reasonable guesses — it’s Taco Bueno. Like a diamond in the rough, or more like several large beige diamonds you could see clearly on every other main road, Taco Bueno shines, according to a quick survey by Market Force Information. It beat other popular fast food Mexican restaurants like Chipotle and Qdoba. The first Taco Bueno opened in Abilene, Texas in 1967, according to Yahoo! “With 175 locations in seven states, the Farmers Branch, Texas-based chain is significantly smaller than much of the competition. For comparison, Chipotle has more than 1,500 locations.” Way to go, Bueno. [Yahoo!]
- The damaged home of a Rowlett woman recovering from the Dec. 26 tornado was accidentally demolished. Lindsay Diaz owns a duplex in Rowlett. KERA has been following her in the series- One Crisis Away: Rebuilding A Life. Diaz had just applied for a building permit to repair her home. As KERA’s Courtney Collins explains, later that day, it was demolished — by mistake. Diaz now must start over again, but this time, from a concrete slab. Read more about her story. [KERA News]
“We would have been in the house by the end of the summer. And then all of the sudden it’s like the tornado came through again, took everything,” Diaz said.