Our friend and co-worker Carolyn Reed, who straw bosses the Fort Bend Business Journal, experienced a family tragedy this past weekend. Her grandson Preston, daughter Leslie, and son-in-law Vernon were all critically injured in an accident Saturday in Austin. The family was taking Preston to camp in Burnet when they were involved in an auto accident on Highway 71 near Bee Cave during a rainstorm.

According to published reports, the incident occurred within feet of another recent bad accident in which three teachers were killed.

Seven-year-old Preston was the worst injured and was life-flighted to the children’s hospital in Austin.

Carolyn is in Austin with the family. She asked me to remind you that your life can change in seconds and you should hold your dear ones daily.

Please pray for Carolyn and her family.

Those fiscally conservative Republicans!.....When the Fort Bend County Elections Administrator wanted to consolidate some voting precincts in order to keep from having to buy some new voting machines for the next election, he was vilified by some Republican precinct chairs who accused him of being a tool of Gary Gillen and only consolidating the precincts where Gary’s detractor held sway.

Now, mind you, these aren’t exclusively Republican precincts. Democrats vote there also.

But it was the few Repubican precinct chairs who are still mad that Linda Howell didn’t get elected Republian county chairman who want Fort Bend to spend approximately $300,000 more so they can have a bunch of precinct chairs.

At the time this first surfaced, I reviewed the designated precinct and their chairs and reached the conclusion that the list included just as many people that agreed with Gillen as disagreed with him.

The supposed architect of this whole complaint, which Pct. 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers has taken to heart, is Dean Hrbacek. Hrbacek is said to be considering a run for Congressional District 22, currently held by Nick Lampson. The current chaos in the Fort Bend Republican Party can be laid at Dean Hrbacek’s feet.

The reason the precinct chairs who support Gillen aren’t complaining is because they are slowly withdrawing from party activities due to the constant acrimony present at every meeting. I’ve talked to several and they say they don’t care if they lose their precincts.

Here is the affected precincts and the REPUBLICAN chair for each:

1012 Patti Everett

1016 Fred Felcman

1037 Billie Benton

1039 Vacant

1048 Lloyd Cryer

1067 George Holmes

1072 Vacant

1085 Vacant

1120 Paul Davis

1128 Donna Coleman

2017 Vacant

2023 Vacant

2031 Vacant

2036 Vacant

2051 Wendy Reece

2052 Jo Ann Clack

2055 Vacant

2056 Vacant

2060 Vacant

2071 Vacant

2075 Vacant

2077 Vacant

2115 Linda Howell

2116 Vacant

2123 Lewis Parker

3020 Will Blakemore

3035 Mickey Mixon

3095 Vacant

3097 Vacant

4011 Joan Cain

4029 Tina Gibson

4045 Phyllis Worsham

4046 Yousef Zakaria

4047 Tom Meinecke

4049 Veniece Griffin

4064 Paul Ware

4084 Andre McDonald

4102 Jacqui Chaumette

4105 Jim Hammack

4108 Vacant

4109 Annete Olsen

4110 Dean Hrbacek

4111 Dave Stone

4119 Rick Miller

4125 Vacant

4127 Jerry Gabino

4129 Paula Stanell