Keep up with the award-winning Watchdog column, appearing twice a week at www.DallasNews.com/watchdog.
Read the story about The Watchdog’s 20th birthday here.
Consumer Protection against Scams and Fraud
Keep up with the award-winning Watchdog column, appearing twice a week at www.DallasNews.com/watchdog.
Read the story about The Watchdog’s 20th birthday here.
COPPELL, Texas – Ross Perot Sr. is coming back to life! Sort of.
The world premiere of Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber’s newest play – PEROT! American Patriot – Is set for nine shows in February at the Coppell Arts Center. Opening night is Feb. 11, 2022.
Theatre Coppell is producing the play in the city’s new $22 million arts center. Founder Wheelice Wilson Jr. is directing in the theater at the center named after him.
Lieber’s previous play – AMON! The Ultimate Texan – about Amon “Mr. Fort Worth” Carter was a hit and played 36 shows in six Texas cities before shutting down because of the pandemic.
In the new play, the Perot actor tells his remarkable story of how he started from scratch to build a family fortune estimated at $7.4 billion. But the emphasis is not on money, but on the family’s values and how love, business smarts and philanthropy were passed down from one generation to the next.
Nine shows are scheduled: Feb. 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27.
TICKETS ARE ON SALE at www.CoppellArtsCenter.org.
The play also has a companion book authored by Lieber – SEARCHING FOR PEROT: My Journey to Discover Texas Top Family. It’s the first Perot biography in 25 years.
The play/book website is PerotBook.com
Watch our brief trailer video here.
The Dallas Morning News Watchdog column by Dave Lieber won top prize in the nation’s largest column-writing contest.
The contest judge noted: “Through a lively combination of consumer advocacy and investigative reporting, Lieber’s columns were models of suspenseful storytelling and public service.”
You can read his winning columns: 1) helping the widow of Officer J.D. Tippit, the Dallas police officer killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, get buried beside her late husband, and 2) helping a waitress who was harmed by an unscrupulous used car dealer.
The 2019 contest was sponsored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
Dave Lieber, a certified professional speaker, is the author of eight books.
His newest book is AMON! The Ultimate Texan. It’s the story of “Mr. Fort Worth” — Amon Carter who owned the newspaper, radio station AND TV station and ran the town for 50 years.
Dave’s play of the same name debuted at Artisan Center Theater in Hurst, Texas in May 2019. It was an immediate hit, with 16 sell-out performances. The play is now on hiatus as producers plan to bring the play to Fort Worth. Learn more at AmonPlay.com.
Looking for a fun speaker for your group? Dave’s motivational, inspirational and delightful talks always bring results and smiles to conference planners and audiences.
Dave Lieber’s Watchdog Nation works to change the mindset of Americans about how easy it is to fight back and win.
The way to do this is with stories that show how others have achieved victory against corporate thugs and scammers.
Watch this funny TED talk video and learn how Dave Lieber, The Watchdog columnist for The Dallas Morning News, tells stories that move people to action and change.
See how Dave Lieber’s “Magic V-Shaped Storytelling Formula” helps others in this testimonial.
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More Watchdog Nation News:
Watchdog Nation Partners with Mike Holmes
America meets Watchdog Nation/Listen to Fun Radio Interview
Watchdog Nation Debuts New e-Book and Multi-CD Audio Book
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun website: DaveLieber.org
I love the Texas Legislature.
You don’t hear those words very often. But ever since I visited for the first time, in 1995, and watched then-Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock work his magic over everyone, I see the lege for the good it does. Who says that these days?
#txlege — and that’s actually the official hashtag — is a vehicle for change, for improvement. The Watchdog receives several thousand emails and letters each year from Texans who gripe about their biggest problems. It’s easy for me to detect patterns and point out which areas of consumer life need fixing.
What I don’t like is how hard it is to get our points across. The problem is the lobbyists, who swarm like fire ants. They are everywhere, on their phones, standing in the back of hearings, earning their fat salaries — many times more than a legislator makes. They have steakhouse expense accounts and big budgets for campaign donations. As you can imagine, lobbyists are incredibly charming.
Lobbyists and other interested parties attend committee meetings for bills in Austin. But most people who have opinions on pending matters don’t attend. They’re at work.(Dave Lieber/Staff)
To counter that, I have a Watchdog Nation strategy. It’s old-fashioned people power. You and me. We get in there and dust it up. As I did two years ago, today I reveal the top five Watchdog laws I’d like to see passed in 2017. We even have a logo.
We’ll follow their progress and show you how to lobby lawmakers to protect your interests.
This is how we did it together two years ago. Three of our five suggested consumer fixes actually became law. We created a Watchdog Hall of Fame for lawmakers who picked up the baton and crossed the finish line. Let’s do it again.
If you want to get involved in any of these battles, send an email to me at watchdog@dallasnews.com and I’ll make sure you’re in the loop. Which lawmakers should you write to? Where is a bill stuck? Who are the heroes and villains?
Battle No. 1: Deceptive electricity shopping must stop.
Who is going to stand up to the marketing deceptions that some electricity companies use to sign up customers? Because of these, many Texans overpay for electricity and don’t even know it.
After I showed how companies used phony 1-cent rates to beat search engines and come out first in search results, the state took action to stop that. But it’s only a start.
Public Utility Commission Chairman Donna Nelson said last year that some electricity companies “always find a way” around the PUC’s best efforts to keep the marketplace honest and transparent.
She said, in words that confirm my reporting over the past decade, “Whatever practice we put in place to try and end the confusion, then they find a way around that.”
I have suggested four points of improvement. I’m proud that The Dallas Morning News editorial board supports these points, as does the leading electricity consumer group Texas ROSE. More important, I have email addresses of several hundred of you who want to help.
The four points of what I’d call the “Retail Electricity Reform Act of 2017” include:
1) Compare apples to apples. Force every company to list offered rates, with the distribution charge included. (Many hide that.)
2) Ban deceptive language. Don’t let confusing teaser rates and technical language disguise the real cost of service. Regulate those tricky and often-lying door-to-door salesmen.
3) End minimum-usage deals. Making people pay more if they use less power doesn’t encourage conservation.
4) Warn copycat sites. Demand that companies using “power to choose” language on their websites (that’s the name of the state’s shopping site) announce they are not the state website.
Some electricity companies use keywords “power to choose” because that’s also the name of the state-sponsored site.
Some electricity companies use keywords “power to choose” because that’s also the name of the state-sponsored site.
Battle No. 2: Make the property tax system fair.
I get that #txlege won’t pass an income tax. OK, but our biggest government money grab could at least be set up so it’s based on fairness, rather than whim. Because sale prices are kept secret, tax bills, I believe, are based on guesswork, more than science.
I showed last year how local governments pretend they aren’t raising taxes even if they are. I also showed what an unfair advantage I had in 2016 when I hired the state’s best known tax protest company and shaved my tax bill down. My neighbors didn’t. Sorry for them, but is that fair?
Battle No. 3: Don’t let insurance companies strip us of our rights to protect our family.
Insurance companies are crying that they need help – even though they’ve been making huge profits. I call it an insurance war against consumers.
We must make sure #txlege doesn’t allow companies to block our right to sue. That’s the battlefield. Sometime this session, their attack bill on our legal rights will emerge. The Watchdog will need your help to call it out and knock it down.
Battle No. 4: Taking all 10 fingerprints for a driver’s license is unnecessary.
The Watchdog fears that Texas Department of Public Safety will try to expand the one-thumbprint rule into 10 fingerprints required for a driver’s license. Otherwise, how will everyone’s full fingerprints make it to the federal fingerprint archives that homeland security buffs dream about at night?
Fortunately, we have our first bill of the year to support. State Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano, already a charter member of The Watchdog Hall of Fame, has offered Senate Bill 281, which limits governments from collecting not only fingerprints but blood, skin and hair samples, DNA and body scans. This doesn’t affect police work. The bill bans giving up personal information in exchange for providing a government service, such as a driver’s license.
Watchdog Hall of Fame member and State Sen. Van Taylor, R-Plano, introduced a personal privacy bill for the 2017 session.
Taylor’s “Protect Personal Identifiers Act” has little to do with stopping crime, finding terrorists or border security. This is designed to protect the rest of us law-abiding Texans from 1984-style government.
I see that I’ve run out of room. I saved the most important one for last. In my next column, part two, I’ll show you why we need a license system for roofers and general contractors.
Don’t forget. If you want to get involved, send an email to watchdog@dallasnews.com.
Onward.
You can’t afford to miss The Watchdog. Follow our latest reporting always at The Watchdog page.
Watchdog Dave Lieber of The Dallas Morning News is leader of Watchdog Nation, which shows Americans how to stand up for themselves and become super consumers.
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun website: DaveLieber.org
The other week, I went to small claims court to watch a DeSoto business owner exact revenge on a roofer who relieved him of a $7,700 deposit but provided no roof. The roofer, Lucas Ray Currier, took the deposit money and disappeared.
This story makes me sick. The victim is Bong Huynh, a Vietnamese-American who worked to buy his first American home. After a hail storm, roofers swarmed his neighborhood. He doesn’t speak English, so after the roofer disappeared, a friend of his contacted me on his behalf. I suggested small claims court to get a judgment.
Bong did that. He arrived with a translator whose English wasn’t much better. Roofer Currier no-showed. Bong won. He may never see the money again. But here’s what matters: Roofer Currier can continue to do business in Texas. Who’s going to stop him?
Want to stop him and the hundreds of other unreliable roofers and general contractors who take advantage of storm victims? I have a plan. Pull up a chair.
In my previous Watchdog report, I unveiled four of the five topics on The Watchdog’s 2017 legislative plan. Recapping, they are: reforming retail electricity shopping; protecting insurance customers’ rights; stopping DPS from taking fingerprints and other biometric information from law-abiding Texans; and fixing the unfair state property tax system.
Here’s the fifth and final one: a required license for roofers and general contractors. Not continuing education, and not even enforcement of violators. I am a pragmatist and realize that’s too much to ask of this legislature. All I want is a list kept that we can check before hiring.
If roofer Currier disappears and gets a judgment against him, his name is taken off the list. You, as a consumer, would know to check the license list. If a roofer isn’t on it, you go another way. That’s my dream. (By the way, I tried to contact Currier, but he didn’t respond.)
To battle obstacles, I’m calling on your help for old-fashioned people power. If you want to get involved as a citizen of Watchdog Nation in any of these battles, send an email to me at watchdog@dallasnews.com. I’ll make sure you’re in the loop. Which lawmakers should you write to? Where is a bill stuck? Who are the heroes and villains?
This is how we did it together two years ago when three of five bills we pushed turned into law. I created a Watchdog Hall of Fame to honor legislators that did this great work. This year, we have our own logo.
After the Garland-Rowlett-Sunnyvale tornado attack in December 2015, my colleague Marina Trahan Martinez and I easily found roofers violating rules and state laws. They didn’t care. Then the letters from frustrated customers began piling up. A sampling:
A woman complains the roofer put in vents upside down so water comes into her house. The roofer won’t help.
Another woman tells me her contractor took a down payment, completed one-third of the work, shut down his cell phone and was never heard from again.
A man shows me evidence of 12 leaks in his roof since it was installed in 2014.
Another man lays out the story of how his roofer also refuses to honor the warranty and repair shoddy work.
Yet another man sends me proof of an incomplete roof job. He says he lost $10,000 to a disappearing roofer.
A married couple tells me that after a hailstorm they gave $5,000 for roof and window repairs. “They no longer answer their phone and have not contacted us in two months.”
A man lost $5,000. “They made up excuse after excuse about why they couldn’t deliver my roofing materials.”
How do these roofing outlaws get jobs? Through word of mouth, through door knocking and the latest annoyance, through call centers that violate Do Not Call lists.
I get these calls, too. They are liars. They tell me they represent a roofing company in the city in which I live. No such company exists. They tell me they are doing my neighbor’s roofs. They’re not. I previously showed how they use fake Caller ID numbers to make it appear they’re local, when they’re not.
All our surrounding states require licensing or registration for workers who do major work on homes and businesses. Not Texas.
The Watchdog is asking for a simple list, one that we can check before we go out and spend thousands of dollars in one of the most crooked businesses in the great state of Texas.
Enough is enough.
Join me. Write to me at watchdog@dallasnews.com
Read Part One and learn about The Watchdog’s other issues for the 2017 Legislature.
Staff writer Marina Trahan Martinez contributed to this report.
Check out The Watchdog Mondays on NBC5 at 11:20 a.m. talking about matters important to you.
“Your goal is a lofty one and may have challenges in this conservative state. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t give it a good try.” — Robert Curry
“During the time I was a general contractor, there were a number of companies that used the title ‘general contractor’ who were operating out of their pickup trucks, and most had no insurance.” — Bob Travis
“I am an insurance fraud investigator. When a catastrophic event happens, I hear lots of stories about the dishonesty of what I call migrant roofers/contractors.” — Chris Javier
“We should license them like we do plumbers and electrical contractors. It is not a perfect solution, but it is a step in a good direction.” — Bill Lynch
“Unfortunately, those phony contractors flood any market, rarely have an office even in their home state, have no insurance, no employees and no ethics.” — Nelson R. Braddy Jr.
It is absolutely crazy that homeowners have virtually no legal protection against unscrupulous roofers even though the roofers can get a lien placed against the property involved if the homeowner refuses to pay for poor work. — Stephen Lunsford
Sen. Watson fought for insurance protections for Texas consumers.
Rep. Laubenberg proved herself to be one of the state’s top privacy advocates
Rep. Capriglione submitted a bill two years ago to oversee roofers in Texas. It died. But he tried. He also paved a path for no-fingerprinting privacy protections.
Rep. Turner was the number-one advocate for a fair and transparent electricity system. But he’s gone from Austin. He’s the new mayor of Houston. Who will take his place?
Sen. Schwertner led the fight against businesses that improperly added a surcharge when paying with a plastic card. He was also key in fighting fingerprints being taken of all state drivers.
Sen. Taylor worked on stopping Texas DPS from collecting fingerprints of all Texas drivers.
You can’t afford to miss The Watchdog. Follow our latest reporting always at The Watchdog page.
Watchdog Dave Lieber of The Dallas Morning News is leader of Watchdog Nation, which shows Americans how to stand up for themselves and become super consumers.
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun website: DaveLieber.org
Watchdog Nation founder Dave Lieber is taking a stand on behalf of his readers’ number one pet peeve.
His stand is a symbolic run for the U.S. presidency, which he announced Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016 in his Watchdog column in The Dallas Morning News. See it here.
The pet peeve? His readers — citizens of Watchdog Nation, he calls them — are quite surprised when they have phone numbers, email addresses, sometimes even bank account numbers for scammers who try to hurt them. Yet the authorities don’t seem to care.
Dave proposes creating a “junior FBI squad” that would work both here and overseas to take out the thousands of illegal operations that call, mail and email Americans every day with duplicitous schemes.
How can you help? Enjoy the debut campaign video here. And share the link – https://youtu.be/8iKqghi1nzg – with you friends. Let’s have fun.
Read our original story about leaks on Twitter before the official campaign announcement here.
Read Dave Lieber’s Watchdog for President announcement speech here.
KRLD-AM news radio’s Mitch Carr interviews Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber on the surprise news that Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw vows once again to try in 2017 to get all Texas drivers to give full fingerprints for a driver’s license.
Read Tom Benning’s full story www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/h…gerprinting.ece
Here’s the audio interview:
https://soundcloud.com/davelieber/krld-on-fingerprints-coming-back-7-2-15
Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites: DaveLieber.org
On TV: Fighting back the Watchdog Nation way
Thanks to Kristi Nelson and NBC5 for letting me share Watchdog Nation’s ways to fight back every Monday around 11:20 am.
Become a citizen of Watchdog Nation:
Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites: DaveLieber.org
Do you believe insurance companies will actually walk away from a billion dollars in profits if insurance lobbyists fail to get wicked Senate Bill 1628 passed? Dallas Morning News Watchdog Dave Lieber calls them out on this ridiculous claim the industry is using to promote this bill.
Read a news story about this bill: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20150420-texas-home-insurers-see-another-strong-year-but-still-seek-limits-on-lawsuits.ece
Read my opinion column: http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/watchdog/20150409-watchdog-texas-insurance-lobbyists-have-a-plan-you-wont-like.ece
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Still here? Visit Dave Lieber’s other fun websites: DaveLieber.org
DAVE LIEBER - Founder of Watchdog Nation
dave@watchdognation.com - 1-800-557-8166
P.O. Box 123, Keller, TX, 76244
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