Free Republic

A former Los Angeles Unified School District employee has been charged in what prosecutors described as a pay-to-play scheme that directed more than $22 million in contracts to a single technology company, making it one of the largest money laundering schemes in the district’s history. Officials with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office allege that between 2018 and 2022, 53-year-old Pasadena resident, Hong “Grace” Peng, who worked as a technical project manager for LAUSD, of illegally awarding Innive, a Texas-based tech company, millions of dollars worth of contracts for work on the district’s My Integrated Student Information System (MiSiS)....

Fast moving tornado on the ground in Flowermound.

FLOWER MOUND, Texas -- Two high school students are facing charges after they ran across the football field during a game Friday night at Flower Mound High School. The two were dressed in costumes -- one was a banana and the other a gorilla. If YouTube is any indication, it's a common prank at schools and colleges and the video often ends up on the Internet. In this case, the kids in the costumes ended up in jail. Sean Kight, 18, and Curtis Patton, 17, both Flower Mound High School students, are charged with trespassing on school grounds, a misdemeanor....

FLOWER MOUND, Texas -- The cemetery next to the Flower Mound Presbyterian Church was a peaceful, well-kept place until Tuesday night. An overflow of voters trying to join the caucus next door ended up leaving muddy tire tracks through the cemetery. One vehicle's tire actually got stuck in a recently filled grave. Many voters parked on the shoulder of a gravel road winding through the cemetery, right next door to the church where the voting was taking place. One witness says motorists either didn't notice -- or didn't care -- they were parking just a few feet from buried bodies....

Advertisement A group of boy scouts attended the Thursday Flower Mound Town Council meeting. The scouts attended the meeting for a merit badge, but what they got was an education in politics. During the heated meeting, Mayor Jody Smith cautioned the audience to maintain decorum. Much of the audience in attendance was there to protest the Shops at Market Street Project. The Council voted 4-1 to deny an amendment to the Master Plan redefining the Master Plan...

Hilliard, county commissioner for 12 years, dies at age 89 04/23/2003 Staff report People thought former Denton County Commissioner Ernest F. Hilliard was crazy when he paved the way for a four-lane Interstate 35 in the 1950s, his son said. Mr. Hilliard, who died Tuesday at his home in Flower Mound at the age of 89, helped bring the interstate, Loop 288, Grapevine Lake, Lewisville Lake and numerous farm roads to the county, said his son, Don Hilliard. "He always said Denton County was the first county in the state of Texas that got its right of way for 35,"...

Former Baptist pastor indicted Minister who left Flower Mound in 2001 faces sex charges 02/08/2003 By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News A former Flower Mound Baptist pastor has been indicted by a Denton County grand jury in connection with sexual misconduct involving a 14-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s. Grand jurors issued two indictments this week against Michael Wayne O'Guin, 34, who left The Church at Wichita Creek in Flower Mound amid allegations of misconduct in August 2001. Mr. O'Guin, who arrived at the church in fall 1999, now lives in Tennessee. Denton County District...

Ex-bailiff's sentence satisfies victim's kin He won't be eligible for parole until he's 73 in murder case deal 12/03/2002 By RACHEL HORTON / The Dallas Morning News FLOWER MOUND - The family and friends of a 30-year-old Flower Mound woman slain by her husband in March said Monday that they were satisfied with a plea bargain in which the husband agreed to serve 40 years in prison in exchange for a guilty plea. The deal came unexpectedly just before the Thanksgiving holiday, when 52-year-old Thomas Lee Collins, a former Denton County bailiff who had refused offers for plea bargains...