Continued ....
The Hodgepodge Page
Texas Lottery News ... Read all about it here ...
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A Special Message To All
TLC Employees - Past & Present
Click here.
- Don't Be Misled - A Legend Has NOT Returned -
Read all about the new Lotto Texas game that we will be playing
effective 4/23/06. Lower prizes, less money in the prize pool and
there's no guarantee that we'll receive our share of sales. Click here.
Sad but True & Educational Winning Stories
18 new stories posted 3/15/06 - I'm catching up!
Click here
Whistleblower Lawsuit Filed by
Former TLC Employee - Shelton Charles
Feb 2, 2006 - Press Release - This is the 2nd lawsuit filed!
Feb 3, 2006 - Added Houston Chronicle Story
Revised: Feb 8, 2006 - Added Austin American Statesman Story
Read Newspaper Stories, Click here
Read The Petition That Was Filed With the Court, Click here (pdf)
Ex-Employee Sues TLC - Jan 31, 2006
They are calling for trial by jury ... this will be interesting.
One has to wonder, are more lawsuits in the works? Click here.
Told Ya So
About me, Judicial Watch & the cheated winners
Dallas Observer, posted 8/11/05 - Click here
A Dallas Observer Feature Story
My hats off to the Dallas Observer and reporter, Rick Kennedy,
for a fantastic feature story about my life since I decided to keep
an eye
on the Texas Lottery. I finally posted his story, added links and comments.
Click here to read. (June 11, 2005)
What would your life be like if you won hundreds
of millions of dollars?
Click here.
Texas Lottery Denies Cheating Lotto Texas Winners
But excerpts from Commission Meetings refutes the TLC claims
of innocence. The complete story including a winners complaint letter
to the DA, excerpts and a spreadsheet showing the wins. Click here.
IF You Win Lotto Texas ... See What You Really Won.
Click here.
Read about the TLC employees ... Click here and read Oct 9th entry. Nov 22, 2005 - OK - let me try to bring ya'll up to date - I'm sorry that I haven't been able to answer your questions sooner but I'll do so now. It's hard to spend 4 days in Austin then try to keep my web site and my Lotto Report current at all times! Last Tuesday two legislative staffers and a couple of folks from the State Auditors office and DIR took a tour only of the Texas Lottery's disaster recovery site. They did NOT test to see if it was operational - there is NO proof that it would function if something happened to headquarters. If headquarters burned or was hit by a tornado, I firmly believe the TLC could NOT resume business as usual but they claim they could. It would take them time to obtain the necessary equipment (servers, bandwidth, internet connections - an expense of roughly $300K to $500K). The latest RUMOR is that Mike Fernandez is trying to find another job. He was not at the Commission meeting last Friday and normally he is present. He is the one who employees, including Shelton Charles, claim has constantly threatened to "fire the SOB's." Again, I must stress - this is only a RUMOR but it does come from pretty good sources. Last Thursday (Nov 17th), I did an interview with Texas Public Radio. I just heard it and I'm surprised that they aired as much as they did. Ya'll should go listen to it - click on Nov 18, 2005 #273 in the program archive. We discussed several topics - the disaster recovery site, Mr. Heflin, the inflated open records charges and the purchase of the Megaplier drawing computer. Regarding the megaplier drawing computer - the TLC spent $400K instead of the necessary $30K to buy what they really needed to conduct JUST the Megaplier drawings. Gary Grief denied spending any money to convert other draws over to computerized draws during the Commission meeting in May 2005 (start bottom page 066 - line 8 - and top page 067). He said that "only research" had been done as of that date, no decisions had been made, etc. However, that was not true as they bought the equipment needed to convert all draws over to computerized draws and they did that when they bought the Megaplier machine back in 2003. All they need to spend now is about $15K per game to make the change as the equipment contains 5 slots to upgrade. Needless to say, more taxpayer money has been wasted and more lies were told to the Commissioners. I have also learned that Shelton Charles (the fired TLC engineer who designed the recovery site) has completed his list of equipment needed to make the site functional and is providing both a test plan and the list so they can test the system. He's ready to turn it over to the legislature who will then provide it to the state auditors office. The TLC continues with their deceptive advertising on the scratch tickets. Here's one example but there are others: If you go to their web site and click on "scratch offs" then scroll down and click on "25,000 Money Machine." This shows you the "promotional piece" that is sent to the stores. Notice that the 3rd bullet (right column) says, "More than 1.8 million winning tickets!" This is deceptive because there are only 929K "winning tickets." These sheets are sent to retailers and some retailers have them on display. The TLC is counting the "break-even" tickets as "winning tickets" and this is DECEPTIVE. If you spend $2 and you scatch it and it says you have $2 coming, tell me - how much did you WIN? The definition of "winning" is to receive more than you paid to "win." The TLC promised us back in late 2000 that they would NOT be deceiving us anymore but this kind of advertising has continued. I've been meaning to file a complaint with the AG but just haven't gotten to it yet. I did a TV interview last July and supplied the reporter with copies of all the promotional pieces that were deceiving but I don't know what actually aired. I simply don't understand why the TLC refuses to give us truth in advertising, fair games, a guarantee that we will receive our share of sales and open government. I don't think this is asking for too much. Do you? I've run out of time - I have more to tell you but it will have to wait til later. But just in case I don't post in the next couple of days, I hope you all have a Safe and Happy Thanksgiving. Nov 15, 2005 - Revised - Ever wonder what it's like to sit on a jury and have to decide who is telling the truth? Well, pretend you are on a jury and watch this hearing to see what you think. Those of you who are networking and computer guru's will find the testimony from both sides of great interest. I'd love to hear your comments - in fact - I'll even post them! Watch the first 2 hours and 41 minutes of the hearing (Nov 14, 2005 Licensing and Administration). Also, watch Lee McGuire's (political reporter) newscast that aired last night. Click here.
What I'd like to know is why Joe Goebler did not testify? Mr. Goebler was Shelton's direct boss and the ONE person who should have been able to say IF the site was funtional. So WHY wasn't he on the agenda and WHY didn't they ask the "TLC expert?" Read news accounts of the hearing, Click here. Much more coming ... Nov 8 ,2005 - Yesterday I erred in reporting which agency many of the newer executive staff was coming from though I corrected it last night. For that I apologize. You can scroll down and re-read the paragraph. Anyway, just thought I'd report too that the TLC has been busy moving equipment into the disaster recovery site. They started this past week-end. This reminds me of the time that I reported there were no camera's in the drawing studio and Ms. Cloud told me that they were on order. After ONE year of waiting and getting the run-around, I finally reported it to the People. Immediately following that report, the TLC made emergency purchases for the equipment. That's when we got the camera's. Also, the House Administrative & Licensing Committee has scheduled a hearing for Monday, Nov 14 - 11 AM - at the capitol regarding Shelton's allegations against the Commission. This should be interesting to say the least. All of you should be able to watch it live if you want. A perfect opportunity to meet the TLC executive staff! Just click here on Monday, Nov 14, 2005- 11 AM and then click on the scheduled hearing. Nov 7, 2005 - (Revised/Corrected 8:40 PM - Shown in red) As many of you know, last week another TLC employee, Shelton Charles, was fired "at will." Why did they fire him? The reason given was insubordination - he couldn't answer questions and asked for time to research.Of course, there was no mention that he had come forward about the recovery site not being functional nor did they mention the fact that he had also reported that information was being deleted from the computers. (It has since been reported by numerous other employees that this has been at the instruction of both Mike Fernandez and Gary Grief.) "Insubordination, not answering questions" ... Hmmm Very interesting ... If one were to take the time to read commission meeting transcripts, they'd see how often staff can't answer questions posed to them by the Commissioners. They always say, "We don't have that information but we'll be happy to get it for you later." Yet they weren't fired ... but Shelton Charles was. Hmm ... The Legislature told Gary Grief that there were to be NO more firings at will. Hmmm ... What I wonder is why they didn't just put Shelton on a leave of absence while they investigated his allegations? That would have kept the press down. I suppose they weren't thinking straight ... Hmm, imagine that ... Maybe they're planning to try to cover this up now ... Maybe that's why today they removed everybody's access to the recovery site - As of right now, only Vince Devine, Gary Grief and Mike Fernandez have access to the partially running site. Normally, computer operations and IT have access ... Hmm ... Well, it's too late to cover up and deny what you did or didn't know ... so why don't ya'll just move on ... IF I were YOU, I'd resign NOW so you can save yourself and the Texas Lottery from some very nasty, ugly, unwanted, embarrassing FREE press. I am not going to post details until YOU'VE had the opportunity to just resign quietly. But let me give you some examples of what I plan to post IF you don't resign ...
"Fire all you Son's of Bitches" (who says it - hardly professional behavior) Employees who say they were told by Kim Kiplin to inflate open records costs. The promotions without a competitive process Employees are angry ... they are determined that Shelton Charles will become a legacy ... And I'll just bet he will, in fact, become a legacy. Oct 18, 2005 - (Revised a sentence 10-19-05 - 3rd paragraph - 8 am) I know it's been a long time since I posted here and I'm sorry. I've just been so busy that I haven't had time. I have however continued to post the Sad but True stories for you. I have a stack of news and I will get it posted in the near future. OK. Let me start by saying Thank You to all of you who have written about my applying for the job as Executive Director for the TLC. Your support is and was appreciated very much. I was really surprised to have seen all of the comments that ya'll sent to your legislators in support of me. So ... Thank You from the bottom of my heart. I did go for the interview last Friday and I felt that I did extremely well but I was not selected by the committee to move forward with an interview with the Commissioners. This does not necessarily mean that I will not get to interview with them - the Commissioners will make the decision on who they want to interview. I knew going in that the cards were stacked against me but I still threw my name in the hat. I knew that I was qualified, I felt that I was the best candidate and I owed it to ya'll to at least try. Because the process is not over and the TLC has not "officially" released the names of those they plan to interview, I will refrain from posting everything I know about the applicants at this time. If they post the names that a reporter told me about yesterday, then we'll have some problems as two of them will be a PR nightmare for the TLC. I will at this time share with you the questions they asked me during the interview - at least as best as I can remember. I will come back later and post my answers - I've already written it all down so that I wouldn't forget. I'm sure you can understand why I'm not posting my answers. The questions were easy but I can't help but wonder if any other applicant could answer them. The questions were .... Q. What was the last big mistake you made and how did you handle it? Q. What would I do in the first 100 days? Q. Could I handle testifying at legislative hearings? Q. Why do I think I'm qualified for this job? Q. You seem to be doing quite well now, why do you want this job? Q. Why do you think we have a sales problem and what would you do to fix it? Q. What would you do to boost employee morale? Q. Did I hear you say that current employees call you now? Q. Do they call you? Q. I want to hear more about what you think the retailers problems are - what issues would you address? Q. Do you really think current staff would accept you as the next director? Q. Dawn, we all know that you are the favorite - we know that you are well regarded by the players, the media and the retailers. We know you have a good name. But what if we don't hire you, what do you think will happen to the agency? More later .... |
Continued....click here to read more
The Lotto Report
Dawn Nettles
P. O. Box 495033
Garland, Texas 75049-5033
(972) 686-0660
(972) 681-1048 Fax