Features

Free trees for Southeast Texas

Are you ready for this year’s Annual Tree Giveaway? Save some plastic bags or little cardboard boxes and plan on heading out to the Jack Brooks Regional Airport on Feb. 20 from 9-11 a.m. Volunteers from Jefferson County Master Gardener group will be on hand ready to give you your trees.

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Amazon Prime streaming media takes on Netflix

As I type this, the extremely popular streaming media company has in excess of 50 million paid subscribers. Originally known for its mail based DVD rental service, Netflix is currently the world leader in streaming media subscriptions. Once thought of in monopoly terms, Netflix is now facing serious competition from a multitude of sources, including the online retailer Overstock.com, retailing megalith Walmart, and the marketing powerhouse of Amazon.

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Putting in the hard yards

Texans love their football. In fact, some here consider it a religion of sorts. The book “Friday Night Lights” was based on the passion for football in Odessa, Texas. My late husband Ted has a cousin, and her family who live there and I have verified that the only way residents can buy season passes is for someone holding one or more to die and not will the right to purchase their tickets to their children or grandchildren. Business owners, schools, churches and civic organizations pull down the shades and turn out the lights any time there is a football game.

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Oscar winners should include familiar face with unfamiliar name

There were some astonishing absences from the Oscar nominations last week, but one of the biggest has to be overlooking the star and director of “Selma.” David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay deserve to be among the nominees.

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Are your Android apps spying on you?

In recent months, I have written several columns about Internet and smart device privacy issues. Apparently, a large number of popular apps for both Android and Apple iOS devices utilize access to personal information of various types for other than the legitimate functioning of those apps.

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