I received a very nice e-mail from Ben and Betty Elledge, the parents of slain Clements High School athlete Brandon Elledge, in response to the article we did on their plight to keep Timothy Acklen, the confessed killer, behind bars. It appears the parole board is set to release Acklen in August despite the fact the gunman agreed to a 55-year sentence for capital murder and has served less than a third of that time behind bars.

“Thanks so much for the wonderful article about Brandon and our battle to try and keep his murderer in prison. I even got a little TV time out of it and they said they read the article you wrote and wanted to follow up on it. This is going to be a very long and hot summer, but I am starting to feel some support from “the people” . I have had dozens of calls and many more e-mails. People want this to be stopped but they, like we , feel helpless. I think it takes the Governor to make this stop now.” –Ben and Betty Elledge

If Governor Rick Perry or any of our elected state officials who serve this area want to do something constructive, now is the time to reign in the parole board and counter the decision they have made. The safety and well being of the citizens of Fort Bend County or somewhere else in the state could be at risk if Acklen is set free. Like I said last week, hopefully the man is full of remorse, has changed his way of thinking and could, when the time is right, be a contributing member of society. But since he has been in the company of hardened criminals, it is likely that in addition to learning to make jewelry (how high is the demand for that trade?) he may have had “on the job training” from the wrong people. I personally don’t think it is worth the risk. Maybe two parole officials in San Antonio don’t give a flip about the law abiding citizens in this county, but those we send to office in Austin should. If they have the power to intercede—now is the time.

Commissioners approved spending $37,462 in BFI tipping fees for the Summer Outreach Program in Arcola. I said we would be seeing the expenditure list from those fees now that so many citizens have joined the grassroots group fighting the expansion of the Blue Ridge landfill.

Another local man was among those killed in the war in Iraq. Spc. Dan H. Nguyen, 24, was killed in an attack and the Department of Defense listed him among several soldiers killed in the war last week in that attack.