Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 220, Ed. 1 Monday, August 2, 2010 Page: 3 of 10
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Sweetwater Reporter
Monday, August 2, 2010 ■ Page 3
Obituaries
GRACE LUVERA BECKWITH
Grace Luvera Beckwith, 71, of Sweetwater, passed
away on Saturday, July 31, 2010, at Nolan Nursing and
Rehab.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday,
Aug. 3, 2010, at Full Gospel Church in Junction, Texas.
Arrangements are under the direction of Cate-Spencer
& Trent Funeral Home.
TXU
Continued from pagel
ers who are designated as low-income, ill or disabled,
or who are at least 62 years of age, even if they do not
qualify for a payment plan under the PUC customer
protection rules. Customers who enroll will continue
to receive electric service by paying 50 percent of the
total outstanding balance of electric charges, with the
remaining balance to be paid in equal installments over
the next five billing cycles.
• An additional payment program for other customer
groups
Customers designated as either (1) both low-income
and who are at least 62 years of age, or (2) ill or disabled
can avoid disconnection of service due to non-payment
through a special TXU Energy program, even if they do
not qualify for a payment plan under the PUC customer
protection rules. Qualifying customers who contact
TXU Energy before the due date of their current bill and
agree to this program can continue to receive electric
service by paying 50 percent of their electric bill that
becomes "due in each of the months of July, August and
September. Beginning with the first electric bill due
after September 30, 2010, customers subscribing to
this plan will be required to pay the deferred balance in
equal installments over the next five bills in addition to
their actual charges for that month.
• Average Monthly Billing is also an option for these
customer groups
Customers who call will have the option to sign up
for TXU Energy's Average Monthly Billing (AMB) pro-
gram instead of establishing a payment plan. For many
customers, summer consists of several months of high
usage bills which can be difficult to pay. AMB spreads
electricity costs over 12 months, making a customer's
monthly electric bill more predictable. During the high-
er usage bills of summer, the amount in excess of a cus-
tomer's annual average monthly bill amount is placed
on their account, but it is generally not due until their
usage drops below the average and "the deferred amount
is gradually repaid.
• Waiver of Deposits
TXU Energy waives deposits for residential customers
who are at least 62 years of age and for any residential
customer with an electric bill payment history of no
more than one late payment during the prior 12-month
period. TXU Energy provides additional deposit waivers
as well, including all PUC required waivers.
• $250 Million Commitment to Customer Assistance
and Energy Efficiency Initiatives
These customer protections are in addition to a com-
prehensive set of commitments totaling $250 million
through 2012, including:
• $125 Million Commitment to Low-Income Customer
Discount Program
TXU Energy is investing $125 million through 2012
in a special year-round low-income discount program.
TXU Energy is the only retail electric company in Texas
that voluntarily provides an approximate 10 percent
discount for participating low-income customers. This
discount is in addition to the one provided by the State
of Texas' System Benefit Fund - the state directed
program for low-income assistance on energy bills. As
of April 2010, almost 135,000 TXU Energy customers
have been enrolled to receive the discount. The program
is available to TXU Energy low-income customers in all
the competitive areas across Texas.
• $25 Million Commitment to TXU Energy AidSM
Program
Working with social service agencies statewide, TXU
Energy administers and helps fund the TXU Energy
AidSM program, which benefits any customer who has
an emergency need for bill payment assistance. TXU
Energy is providing $25 million through 2012 for TXU
Energy AidSM, in addition to any funds received from
customers and employees for this important program.
TXU Energy's program is the largest bill payment
assistance program among electricity companies in the
nation.
• $100 Million Commitment to Energy Efficiency and
Conservation Investments
Additionally, TXU Energy plans to spend $100 million
through 2012 to help customers reduce the amount of
electricity they use through energy efficiency and con-
servation initiatives. A portion of this commitment has
been dedicated to the company's Low-Income Energy
Assistance Program, which targets single- and multi-
family homes by providing access to technologies that
help customers use less electricity so they reduce their
overall bills and save money.
TXU Energy has recently launched a website at txu.
com/billhelp designed to give consumers the ability to
identify common causes of high electricity costs and
provides a number of easy-to-use tools to help consum-
ers learn about and manage their energy consumption.
This website also provides information and resources
for customers on how to get help with their electricity
bill.
About TXU Energy
TXU Energy is a market-leading competitive retailer
that provides electricity and related services to more
than 2 million electricity customers in Texas. TXU
Energy offers a variety of innovative products and
solutions, allowing both its residential and business
customers to choose options that best meet their needs,
including exceptional customer service, competitively
priced electricity sendee plans, innovative energy effi-
ciency options, renewable energy programs and other
electricity-related products and services. Visit txu.com
for more information about TXU Energy.
Texas Marine ki lied
in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON (AP) — A 23-year-old suburban
Houston Marine has died in combat operations in
southern Afghanistan.
A Pentagon statement says Marine Lance Cpl. Shane
R. Martin of Spring died Thursday in the Helmand
province of Afghanistan. The Marine Corps released no
other details about the incident. However, NATO says
that of the six Americans in uniform killed in southern
Afghanistan Thursday and Friday, five were a result of
hidden bombs and the sixth to an armed attack.
Martin was assigned to the 1st Light Armored
Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine
Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
La. fishermen
wrinkle their
noses at
smell tests
JASON DEAREN,
Associated Press Writer
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO (AP) - Even the people
who make their living off the seafood-rich waters of
Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish have a hard time swal-
lowing the government's assurances that fish harv ested
in the shallow, muddy waters just offshore must be safe
to eat because they don't smell too bad.
Fresh splotches of chocolate-colored crude, probably
globules broken apart by toxic chemical dispersants
sprayed by BP with government approval, still wash
up almost daily on protective boom and in marshes in
reopened fishing grounds east of the Mississippi River.
When shrimp season opens in a couple of weeks
and fisherman Rusty Graybill drags his nets across the
mucky bottom, he worries that he'll also collect traces of
oil and dispersants — and that even if his catch doesn't
smell, buyers and consumers will turn up their noses.
"If I put fish in a barrel of water and poured oil and
Dove detergent over that, and mixed it up, would you
eat that fish?" asked Graybill, a 28-year-old commercial
oyster, blue crab and shrimp angler who grew up fishing
the marshes of St. Bernard. "I wouldn't feed it to you or
my family. I'm afraid someone's going to get sick."
Louisiana wildlife regulators on Friday reopened
state-controlled waters east of the Mississippi to har-
vesting of shrimp and "fin fish" such as redfish, mullet
and trout. Smell tests on dozens of specimens from the
area revealed barely traceable amounts of toxins, the
federal Food and Drug Administration said.
The tests were done not by chemical analysis, but by
scientists trained to detect the smell of oil and disper-
sant.
Chemical tests on fish for oil-related compounds are
routine, but no such test exists for detecting levels of dis-
persant, said Meghan Scott, FDA spokeswoman. Federal
scientists are developing one, she said. It wasn't clear
when one would be ready, though.
The dispersants can kill incubating sea life, experts say,
though its long-term effects are unknown. In humans,
long-term exposure can cause central nervous system
problems or damage blood, kidneys or livers, according
to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.
Congressional investigators said over the weekend
that the Coast Guard routinely approved BP requests to
use thousands of gallons of dispersant a day despite a
federal directive to cut its use.
Retired Coast Guard Ad 111. Thad Allen said Sunday
that federal regulators did not ignore environmental
guidelines, but that some field commanders were given
the authority to allow more dispersants on a case-by-
case basis.
BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles took reporters
on a boat tour of beaches and marshes on Sunday and
said "they wouldn't open these waters ... if it wasn't safe
to eat the fish." He said he would eat Gulf seafood and
"would serve it to my family."
Like most fishermen in St. Bernard, the bulk of
Graybill's income comes from oysters, blue crab
and shrimp. The first two are still off limits, and the
shrimp season doesn't start for two weeks. Graybill
had been earning money from BP under the "Vessels of
Opportunity" program allowing idled fishing vessels to
help with cleanup work, but that program was scaled
back Thursday.
Signs that anglers weren't jumping back into the
waters abounded Saturday, especially at the annual
Blessing of the Boats in Shell Beach, Hopedale and
Delacroix, where the Rev. John Arnone of St. Bernard
Catholic Church blessed far fewer than usual.
As Graybill maneuvered his light blue shrimp trawler
Saturday near Comfort Island, which borders the open
fishing grounds in Chandeleur Sound, fresh globs of oil
glistened in the midday sun, staining the orange and
yellow boom protecting the island. A dozen or so brown
pelicans lazed on the oily boom.
Just the perception that he'll be pulling in oily shrimp,
let alone that it might really happen, can greatly reduce
the price he can get, he said.
"They capped the well, they stopped the oil, so now
they're trying to hurry up and get us back working to
where they can say everything's fine when it's not," he
said. "It's not fine."
Giving the OK to reopen one closed fishery does
not mean it couldn't be closed again if more oil shows
up, FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said
Friday.
"At the moment this is good news," she said after
the reopening announcement. "But we have to remain
vigilant."
Across the street from where Graybill usually delivers
his catch, Dawn Nunez's family has for 30 years operat-
ed a wholesale business that sells shrimp to restaurants
and seafood processors. She worries no one will want to
the local catch.
It's absurd that the government is reopening the fish-
ery when so many doubts linger, she said.
"It's nothing but a PR move," she said. "It's going to
take years to know what damage they've done. It's just
killed us all."
And relying only on a smell tests stinks, said Ryan
Lambert, 52, a charter fishing captain who sometimes
takes his clients out in the waters that just reopened.
Fishing shouldn't resume, he said, until more data exist
and better dispersant testing is devised.
"I have no confidence in their testing methods,"
Lambert said.
"But BP has just wanted to push, push, push to get us
back fishing. You can't hurry it and then find something
bad later," he said. "You can only cry wolf so many times
before (customers) decide they aren't coming back."
Associated Press Writer Harry R. Weber contributed
to this report.
Texas head-on crash kills
five, including family of four
CHILDRESS, Texas (AP) — A wrong-way driver is
being blamed for a head-on crash that left the driver and
a family of 4 in the other vehicle dead.
The Texas Department of Public Safety in Childress
says the crash happened around daybreak Sunday
on U.S. 287 about 13 miles east of Vernon, near the
Oklahoma border about 160 miles northwest of Dallas.
A DPS report says a Wichita Falls man was driving his
sport utility vehicle east in the westbound lane of the
divided highway when his SUV slammed into another
SUV bearing Colorado plates with a family of four
inside.
Both vehicles exploded in flames, killing all inside.
Wilbarger County Justice of the Peace Lewis T empleton
said the identities of the dead were being withheld until
their relatives can be notified.
Texas woman offers photo
shoot to cancer patients
DAVID CASSTEVENS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP)
— Early in their life together,
Hank and Jan Wyatt had their
portrait taken by a profes-
sional studio photographer.
The proofs, they recalled,
were awful.
"We tore 'em up," Hank
Wyatt said, "and laughed
about it."
Their 38-year marriage is a
memory book, its pages filled
with laughter and blessings.
Life has been an adventure,
a joy ride, with Hank on Ms
motorcycle and Jan seated
behind him, the wind in her
hail-, amis wrapped around a
man whose strength of char-
acter and bearish size made
him seem, to her, indestruc-
tible.
Six months ago, however,
Hank Wyatt, 61, seemingly in
good health, learned that he
has stage 4 lung cancer.
Without treatment, he was
told, he might not survive
until summer.
"When you get a diagno-
sis like that, you really don't
know what to do with it," his
wife said as they sat in their
Arlington home.
"No one gives you a check-
list of what to do."
The Wyatts broke the news
to their children. They met
with their attorney. And at
Jan's urging, Hank agreed to
have some photos taken of
the two of them together.
They contacted Tiffany
Chartier, a professional pho-
tographer and fellow member
of the Community of Hope
United Methodist Church in
Mansfield.
Chartier checked her cal-
endar and suggested a date.
Jan asked whether they
could do it sooner, before
her husband began his first
round of strength-sapping
chemotherapy.
The voice on the phone gave
a bright, one-word reply.
"Absolutely."
On her business website,
Chartier, 37, a Mansfield wife
and mother, says she doesn't
just take pictures, which any-
one can do.
"I capture hope, perse-
verance, love, strength, joy,
courage and dreams."
As part of her professional
services, she recently began
booking photo sessions with
those who are undergoing
cancer treatment.
She feels a connection with
those facing the fear and
uncertainty of serious illness.
Her father had prostate
cancer; her aunt, breast can-
cer. Chartier always knew
that her dad is a strong man,
but he redefined for her what
true strength and courage
mean as she watched him
deal day by day with adver-
sity. His cancer is in remis-
sion.
At 15, Chartier was also
shaken by a medical diag-
nosis. She learned that she
has retinitis pigmentosa, an
inherited degenerative eye
disease that her dad also has
and that affects about 1 in
4,000 people in the United
States.
The disease is a thief, slowly
narrowing her field of vision.
"If I go like this," Chartier
said, hands cupped like
parentheses around her eyes,
"that's what I'm seeing."
So, in a sense, the clock is
ticking for her, too.
Already severely visually
impaired, Chartier said her
eye disease may force her
to give up photography in a
couple of years. Until then
she is using her talents — and
the time she still has — doing
what she loves, what she sees
as a kind of ministry. Her
eyes, she said, are her "offer-
ing."
Chartier met with the
Wyatts about two months
ago.
After the photo session,
which the couple enjoyed,
Jan asked how much they
owed.
"Nothing," Chartier repl ied.
"That's what I do."
The couple had been
unaware of her free service
for cancer patients.
Chartier will tell you she
is paid, handsomely, for her
time spent with people like
the Wyatts.
But her compensation isn't
cash.
"For me it was an honor,"
she said, and in her mind's
eye she still can see them,
through her camera lens,
Jan, in one photo, gently rest-
ing her head on Hank's broad
shoulder and, in another, the
two outdoors sharing a kiss.
Jan Wyatt wondered how
she would react when she
first looked at the images.
"I knew how much our life
was changing," she said. "I
didn't know if they would
make me sad."
The photos delighted her
and her husband.
They had prints made
and sent them to family and
friends.
"Tiffany knows what to look
for," Jan Wyatt said. "Her
field of vision may be nar-
rowing. but when she looks
at people she has the gift for
seeing to the heart of who
they are."
Jan beamed when asked
what she sees in the photos, a
priceless gift.
"I see two people who have
been married a long time,"
she said. "I see Hank and Jan,
having a good time, enjoying
life. I hope when other people
see them, they see two people
who are good friends. Two
people in love."
Hank Wyatt started to
speak. As his voice broke, he
lowered his welling eyes in
silent thanks for a rich life,
well lived, with Jan, a good
woman — Ms greatest bless-
ing — at Ms side.
MIDDAY ON WALL STREET
Today's Trading
Change
DOW
10,526.00
+28.12
NASDAQ
2,265.02
+0.46
S&P
1,108.41
+2.28
General Motors
0.41
-0.00
Ford Motor Co.
13.05
+0.14
AT&T
26.35
+0.15
Pepsico, Inc.
65.31
+0.11
USG Corp.
12.33
+0.04
Archer-Daniels
26.87
-0.79
GE
16.15
+0.10
Deere & Co.
64.57
+0.39
McDonalds Corp.
69.99
+0.22
Chevron Texaco
75.89
+0.33
Exxon Mobil
61.47
+0.56
Fst. Fin. Bnkshs.
50.40
+0.45
Coca-Cola
55.25
+0.37
Dell
13.57
+0.07
SW Airlines
12.15
+0.14
Microsoft
26.03
+0.08
Sears Holdings Co.
69.85
+0.87
Cisco
23.53
+0.14
Wal-Mart
51.47
+0.33
Johnson & Johnson
58.11
+0.28
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Sweetwater Reporter (Sweetwater, Tex.), Vol. 112, No. 220, Ed. 1 Monday, August 2, 2010, newspaper, August 2, 2010; Sweetwater, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth229231/m1/3/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Sweetwater/Nolan County City-County Library.