Job fair draws more than 1,000 job seekers

By Laura Elder
The Daily News
Published February 18, 2010

GALVESTON — In April, when Tony Salas lost his job in Pasadena as a pipe designer for the petrochemical industry, he wasn’t too worried.

Salas, who was earning about $93,000 a year, had built up some savings and decided to use the time off for a long vacation. He figured he’d find a job within a week when he began looking in October.

But weeks have turned into months, and the Texas City resident found himself Wednesday among nearly 1,500 people — some who’d lined up hours before the doors opened at 9 a.m. — to meet prospective employers at the Oceans of Opportunities Job Fair.

“I socked some money away, but it’s going away quick,” Salas, 34, said.

Attendance was nearly double that of last year’s job fair, organized by the city and several island organizations and employers, including the Galveston Chamber of Commerce and the University of Texas Medical Branch and held in the city’s seawall convention center.

As job seekers lined up, some as early as 6:45 a.m., to drop off résumés and shake hands with prospective employers, the Federal Reserve announced it expected the pace of the nation’s economic recovery to be restrained by uncertainty and only gradual improvement in labor market conditions and a slow easing of credit restrictions.

The national unemployment rate this year could hover between 9.5 percent and 9.7 percent, the Fed said.

Still, not all is bleak locally. The unemployment rate in Galveston, which surged after Hurricane Ike in September 2008 knocked hundreds of small businesses out of commission, is stabilizing, according to data from Texas Workforce Solutions, which manages employment services and training in the region.

In Galveston, unemployment was at 8.1 percent at the end of December 2009 — the latest data available — compared with 9.6 percent for the same period the year before.

The improvement on the island can be attributed to the reopening of small businesses, Joel Wagher, labor market analyst for Workforce Solutions, said.

Countywide, unemployment was at 8.9 percent in December 2009, compared with 7.6 percent for the same period the year before.

But while the large crowd was a symptom of the lingering recession, it also showed some promise to Gina Spagnola, president of the Galveston Chamber of Commerce.

Many participants Wednesday were seeking to return to the island, which lost 20 percent of its population after Hurricane Ike destroyed hundreds of homes.

Also promising was that the fair featured 75 employers, most of which were filling well-paying positions.

“If you want to work, the jobs are out there,” Spagnola said.

Banks, retailers and hotels had plenty of openings, as did government agencies and large corporations.

Among the participants were American National Insurance Co., the city of Galveston, College of the Mainland, the FBI, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, IBC Bank, the medical branch, ISP Technologies, Randalls and Remington College, to name a few.

Saralyn Harris was among former Galvestonians seeking to return to the island.

Harris, 59, is applying for federal funding through the city to help repair her house in the 3900 block of Sealy, which was badly damaged in the storm.

She has been earning a living as a substitute teacher for the Galveston Independent School District, but most of her pay is getting burned up in fuel costs as she commutes from Webster, where she lives with her daughter as she awaits repairs to her house.

Harris was hoping to get an office job with the city, she said.

Most prospective employers interviewed said they were pleased with the turnout and the quality of candidates.

Bambi Teaff, educational director for The Goddard School for Early Childhood Development, had a thick stack of résumés at her booth.

She was seeking lead teachers and assistants for the Friendswood private school that takes in children ages 6 weeks to 6 years.

An assistant position pays from $8 to $10 an hour, while a lead teacher position pays from $10 to $15 an hour but requires a college degree.

Malin International Ship Repair & Drydock Inc., which operates on the island, was seeking welders and fitters. Before 11 a.m., the company already had lined up several candidates.

Island resident Jim Brennan, 52, recently was laid off by a small island firm that he declined to name. A victim of the recession, the firm was losing revenue.

Brennan works in safety and Occupational Safety and Health Administration compliance.

He was hoping Wednesday to get a job with a larger firm with various departments that allowed lateral transfers.

Brennan had been earning about $40,000 a year when he was laid off. Single and without children, he’s getting by, he said.

“But the days are getting longer,” he said.

Still, the job fair was encouraging, he said.

“Seeing what opportunities are available, I’m excited by the possibilities,” he said.

Man dies in Deer Park jail

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) - Autopsy results are pending after an inmate failed to wake up after being booked in a Houston-area jail.

Deer Park police are investigating the death of 26-year-old Nicholas Moreno of Shoreacres.

Police Chief Gregory Grigg says Moreno had been sleeping alone in his cell for almost five hours when guards noticed he was not breathing early Monday.

Grigg says Moreno was in a wreck over the weekend and Shoreacres police later arrested him Sunday at his home after learning he was wanted on two outstanding traffic warrants.

Grigg says Moreno asked if he could take a soft drink and what he called his "sleep medication" into jail. The police chief says Moreno was not allowed to take any of the antidepressant and the medicine was turned over to a jailer.

An internal investigation will be done.

LA Times: Capybara puts Alvin on map

LA TIMES:

It's one thing to get a goldfish because your daughter begs for one. It's quite another to end up with a 100-pound rodent who has more than 2,700 Twitter followers.

Caplin Rous is a capybara. Related to the guinea pig, the capybara is the largest species of rodent. Though they're native to South America, Caplin was born in Texas and lives in the town of Buda with Melanie Typaldos, who never expected this animal to take over her life quite the way he has.

Typaldos says it all started on a trip to Venezuela, when her daughter Coral got to hold a young capybara and "fell in love."

"After we got back, she pretty relentlessly pestered me about getting one for a pet," Typaldos says. "Since Coral lived in an apartment and was planning on spending a year in Asia, she couldn't have a pet capybara herself so, she felt, it was up to me to fulfill her capybara vision."

Even capybaras that are bred in captivity like Caplin are not domesticated animals, so early handling and contact is critical for them to be comfortable living with people. Typaldos got Caplin when he was only 11 days old, and took him to work every day for the first three months. Then, "someone complained there was a furry, pig-like animal in the building," and she took a month of vacation and stayed home with him.

Caplin Rous is now 2 1/2. The second part of his name, which Typaldos pronounces like "rose," stands for "Rodent of Unusual Size" (a reference to the movie "The Princess Bride"). He's also a rodent of unusual abilities. He can walk on a leash and even do some tricks, but Typaldos says it's important not to exaggerate any similarity to a dog doing tricks.

"Dogs have thousands of years of being trained to be subservient to people," she says. "A capybara will not do a trick just to make me happy. The quality of the trick is very dependent on the quality of the treat."

Most people who keep capybaras keep them as farm animals, like a sheep or goat, but Caplin basically lives indoors with Typaldos (he eliminates in a pan of water in her bathroom). Outdoor space is necessary as well for grazing and swimming in his pool; in the wild, capybaras are semi-aquatic, diving into rivers to escape predators. Somewhat ponderous on land, capybaras are surprisingly graceful in the water.

"On land he's not very active," she says. "When he's in the water he's like another animal. That's where he's really the happiest."



There's no way of knowing how many private individuals own capybaras, but Justin Damesta, a breeder in Alvin, Texas, says that he sells five to 10 of them a year as pets.

Damesta recommends that a pet capybara be raised indoors for the first few months and then kept outdoors with sturdy fencing, a heated shelter and a pool. Potential buyers who contact him are usually fairly well informed, but, he says, "I have and will turn down people I don't consider qualified or capable."

Some other pet capybaras also can be followed on the Internet, such as Dobby in Seattle. But Typaldos is probably unique in the way she has made the capybara her mission: She spends a couple of hours a day updating Caplin's Internet presence on a blog and social networking sites.

When asked how much time it takes to care for a capybara, she says, "I spend all my time with him, but that's a matter of choice."



Caplin's Web activities are partly fun -- such as interactive games of "Rodent Jeopardy" -- with a serious educational purpose, too. "When I was thinking of getting him, there was nothing on the Web about getting a pet capybara," says Typaldos. "That was a large impetus for the blog. They're not the right pet for most people."

Typaldos has a background in biology, and also keeps horses and reptiles. Her property is big enough that Caplin can graze and swim, and she lives in a climate appropriate for a tropical animal.

On her blog, she's honest about the problems in caring for a capybara. When people ask her about getting one, she tells them first to read her whole blog, including the entries about when he has bitten her.

But Typaldos also sees Caplin as an ambassador of sorts.

"People don't like rodents," she says, but many rodents make good pets. Her kids had pet rats when they were young. "If someone says something bad about rats, on the blog or Facebook, he'll always step in and say something."

LINK TO ORIGINAL STORY WITH MORE PHOTOS

Deer Park car burglaries under investigation

DEER PARK – The Town of Deerpark Police Department is investigating several larcenies and burglaries that have occurred throughout the town. The larcenies are happening mostly during the overnight hours.

Many of the vehicles being broken into were unlocked.

Atascocita growing by leaps and bounds!

Business Week:

Tired of reading about how rotten the real estate market is? Here's some good news that shows that even during the worst of the recession plenty of American cities, towns, and suburbs continue to grow.

One such place is Atascocita, Tex. A mostly residential community 20 miles from Houston, it gained more than 1,800 households in 2009, an 8% year-over-year increase, according to new data from Little Rock-based data firm Gadberry Group. Over the decade, amenities that have helped attract residents to this wooded locale include Lake Houston, just east of the city; the school district; and proximity to the city of Houston. With new roads in the area under construction, "we're starting to see major industry start to take a look at the area," says Mike Byers, president of the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce.

Migration levels nationwide stayed low last year as homeowners saddled with pricey mortgages stayed put—but there are some positive trends. Research by the Gadberry Group shows that some areas, resisting the effects of the recession, continue to attract both domestic and foreign migrants and, as an effect, bring in new businesses to provide services. While other cities across the U.S. have contracted, these have continued to grow.

Some states are better off than others, though. As thousands of people left places such as New Orleans and Flint, Mich. (the country's two fastest-shrinking cities), in the last decade, communities with the best mix of economic activity, proximity to job centers, and a good environment for families continued to grow. While not entirely spared by the economic downturn (some homes in these areas are now in foreclosure), people continued to move in during 2009.
Texas Grew the Most

Texas came out on top of Gadberry's survey, with four high-growth cities: Atascocita, Katy, Mansfield, and Wylie. The report only included areas larger than 10,000 occupied households that met requirements for growth rate, household income, length of residence, and other factors.

Larry Martin, principal of the Gadberry Group, says many of the places with the biggest housing growth at the beginning of the last decade, such as Nevada, Florida, and Arizona, also saw the biggest drop-off since the economy sank. Texas, however, enjoyed relatively strong housing and job markets over the last 10 years, thanks in large part to the presence of major employers in the robust energy business. As of December, the state unemployment rate was 8.3% (lower than the national rate of 10%), according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also had the largest state population growth between July 2008 and July 2009, according to a December release by the Census Bureau. "New homes are still being built and people are still moving into these homes" in Texas, says Martin.

Part of the state's strength, says Mark Mather, a demographer at the Population Reference Bureau in Washington, D.C., is its diversified economy. Main industries include petroleum refining, chemical production, aerospace, and information technology.

Meanwhile, areas that depended on the housing boom are now dealing with high foreclosure rates. Places such as Summerlin South, Nev., which appear in Bloomberg BusinessWeek's slide show of fast-growing cities, gained population but, like the rest of the state, may be dealing with high mortgage default rates.

"If you live by migration, you also die by migration," says Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "It doesn't guarantee continued growth."
New Business Opportunities

Migration is typically highest among people in their 20s seeking jobs near large urban cores, but employment opportunities are not the only draw. "Amenities are also important in migrational decisions," says Johnson. Many families consider factors such as schools and recreational amenities like scenic areas and parks.

This is a consideration now in Spring Hill, Tenn., which gained 7,645 households since 2000 as many young families moved to the town for affordable housing and work at the General Motors plant, which is now idle. Dustin Dunbar, chairman of the Spring Hill Economic Development Commission, says this has created demand and opportunity for businesses that provide youth activities and entertainment. "We hope to recruit some businesses to cater to our largest demographics," he says.

While migration in 2010 may remain sluggish, "we'll see a continuation of urban sprawl once the economy bounces back," says Mather.

Dr. Conrad Murray to surrender today.

Dr. Conrad Murray is expected to surrender to authorities in Los Angeles this week on charges related to Michael Jackson's death, according to The Associated Press and CNN. Murray arrived in Los Angeles recently from Houston in anticipation of a decision from the district attorney's office, spokeswoman Miranda Sevcik told the AP..

"Dr. Murray is in Los Angeles for a dual purpose — on family business and to be available for law enforcement," Sevcik told the AP. "We're trying to be as cooperative as we can."

"Dr. Murray is more than ready to surrender and answer to any charges," Ed Chernoff, one of Murray's lawers, told CNN, adding that prosecutors have not announced any charges, and Murray has not been told how or where he should surrender.

No official comment has been made about when charges might, come; David Walgren, the deputy district attorney handling the case, declined to comment to the AP on Tuesday (February 2).

Law enforcement officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the AP that Murray is likely to be charged with involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 25 death from an anesthetic overdose. Murray has denied criminal wrongdoing.

"We continue to maintain that Dr. Murray neither prescribed nor administered anything that should have killed Michael Jackson," Sevcik said.

Earlier this year, TMZ reported that the Los Angeles Police Department had completed its investigation into Jackson's death and was preparing to send the case to the DA's office within weeks.

Murray has told investigators that he administered the surgical anesthetic propofol, as well as other tranquilizers, to Jackson several times in the hours leading up to his death, and the coroner has ruled the singer died of lethal levels of the drug. Involuntary manslaughter charges would require prosecutors to show that Murray engaged in gross negligence in his actions but did not intend to cause harm or death to Jackson.