The Lady Deer softball team began the defense of its 5A state crown with a resounding 13-3 victory over former rival Dobie Friday night in front of a standing room only crowd at San Jacinto College South. The matchup was a one-game playoff in the opening bi-district round.

Next up for the Lady Deer is Ft. Bend Bush at Doll Forrest Field Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $4.

Deer Park staked itself to a 1-0 lead when Alana Tinker hit a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the first. Her homer was the first drop of what became a deluge of runs for the Lady Deer. Deer Park scored another run in the second when Haley Harrison hit her first of two triples, driving in Kennedi Dillow. Dillow was running for DP Pitcher Payton McBride, who got on base all four trips to the plate.

McBride struck out six of the first seven batters she faced before running into trouble in the third inning. After surrendering a run, second baseman Lexi Fryar made a spectacular play at second base to hold off the Lady Longhorn rally and keep the score 2-1. Fryar followed up her run-saving play by leading off the Deer Park half of the inning with a solo home run to left to put the Deer up 3-1. A few batters later, Devann Hebert followed up with a home run of her own, a two-run shot, to put the Deer up 5-1.

The following is a list of arrests filed by the Deer Park Police Department from April 22-29, along with 20 warrant arrests. The information was retrieved from P2C. All locations are posted as blocks. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Court decisions are not reflected in this report.

April 22
7:35 p.m. Possession of marijuana, 1200 Underwood Rd.
8:37 p.m. Possession of marijuana, 2000 East Blvd.
10:22 p.m. Driving while license invalid, 6600 State Hwy. 225

April 23
12:25 a.m. Failure to identify, 2000 Estate Dr.
1:10 a.m. Possession of marijuana, 4900 Railroad St.
8:38 a.m. Driving while license invalid, 1700 Center St.
12:34 p.m. Forgery, 5600 State Hwy. 225
1:42 p.m. Theft, 8500 Spencer Hwy.
2 p.m. Possession of marijuana, 300 Center St.
3:31 p.m. Possession of marijuana, 2800 Texas Ave.

Relationship between Economic Alliance, Port Authority targeted as Senate sets to vote

Sweeping changes threatened against the Port of Houston Authority commissioners have been weakened after the passage of a recent state house bill.

House Bill 1642 will allow local governments, including the city of Deer Park to retain appointment power for its representatives to the port commissioners' board. The amended bill calls for 12-year term limits for commissioners and also allows those who have served past that time frame to fill out the remainder of their terms before being replaced.

The amended bill is a far cry from the original version of HB1642, which would have fired the seven commissioners effective this fall and authorized the governor's office to appoint new board members and a chairman. That new board would have consisted of five persons from the 13-county Houston region and two from outside the region.

The original bill, authored by Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, came on the heels of findings by the Sunset Advisory Commission, a review board created to identify and eliminate government waste. Bonnen is the chairman of the commission.

Candidates for next month's municipal elections had the opportunity to speak to an overflow crowd of voters Wednesday evening at a forum hosted by the Clear Lake Area Republicans.

Council Pos. 1 candidates Bennie Boles and Sherry Garrison along with mayoral Candidates Larry Cernosek and Jeff Pound addressed those gathered at the Deer Park La Quinta Inn meeting room. Mayoral candidate Jerry Mouton was unable to attend.

The forum was conducted in a job interview format where each candidate was given the opportunity to introduce themselves and answer a series of canned questions. All candidates were asked the same questions and were given a two-minute response time to answer each question. While a candidate was addressing the audience, the other candidates were placed in an adjacent room where they could not hear each other's responses.

Pound, a former Deer Park City Councilman was the first to speak, via random drawing.

Deer Park Lady Deer softball honored their seniors Friday night before defeating Northshore 15-0. Click the image for a photo gallery from the evening courtesy of Deer Park Photos.

Seniors on the Lady Deer softball team finished their regular season with a bang, run-ruling visiting Northshore 15-0 Friday night at Doll Forrest Field.

Freshman pitcher Peyton McBride started the game striking out the side in the first beforing finishing it with a walk-off two-run homerun. She ended the short game surrendering five hits and no walks.

Right fielder Alana Tinker and first baseman Caitlin Plocheck both had three-hit games while Haley Harrison, Lexi Fryar, and McBride accounted for two hits each. Every hitter in the lineup reached base safely and all of them individually scored at least one run.