VOLUME 27, NO. 162 MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 2012

****************************************************

Fatality Accident: A one-vehicle accident late Saturday night on C.R. 2068 in the Moss Hill area has claimed the life of a local woman and sent her sister to an area hospital by air ambulance. Ashlyn Treadway, 23, of Moss Hill died when her vehicle left the roadway, struck a culvert and flipped end-over-end. Her sister, Whitley Treadway, 19, was taken to Memorial Hermann for what were thought to be non life-threatening injuries.

****************************************************

School Zone/Bus Safety: Today marks the start of school across the area. With that in mind, motorists are urged to take extra caution. As a reminder, Texas law prohibits vehicles passing any school bus that is stopped with its lights flashing. Motorists are also reminded there is a ban against the use of handheld communication devices by those operating a motor vehicle in a designated school zone. There are two affirmative defenses to prosecution - #1 using a handheld phone to call for help from an emergency response service or #2 if the school zone does not have posted signage. In Liberty County, those signs are posted in at least some school zones in the cities of Liberty, Cleveland, Devers, Hardin, Tarkington and Hull-Daisetta, By decision of Dayton City Council, that city does not have those signs.   

****************************************************

Rape Trial: One of the 14 adults charged in the alleged gang rape of a then 11-year-old Cleveland girl is set for trial today. Court records indicate jury selection will begin this morning in the trial of Eric Bernard McGowen for aggravated sexual assault of a child – a first-degree felony. The trial is scheduled for Judge Mark Morefield’s 75^th District Court.

****************************************************

Democrat Party Chair: During a meeting of the Liberty County Democrat Party Executive Committee this past Thursday, party officials reelected Nancy Archer as local party chair for another two-year term. We had reported that as of last Monday, the Liberty County Democrat Party was officially without a chair. That’s because Mrs. Archer did not seek another term in the primary election and nobody else filed to run for that office. That meant the party was briefly without a chair until Nancy Archer was reappointed to that position last week.

****************************************************

Obituaries: Ruth E. Vann, 69, of Cleveland. Service is 10 a.m. today at Pace-Stancil Funeral Home in Cleveland.

****************************************************

*Lake Release: 1,250 CFS – Liberty Bridge: 6.48 ASL*