NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
NYT-1201: STATE OF THE ART A Thermostat That's Clever, Not ...
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Ms. Grimmer grew up in Montana and had been living<br />
in Ohio in 2005 when she divorced her husband and<br />
the children’s father, Dale R. Grimmer. By 2010 s<br />
he had moved to Texas, and in recent months she an<br />
d her children seemed to have no permanent address.<br />
In September 2010, the family was staying in a ten<br />
t on a beach on the South Texas coast. In Laredo,<br />
they lived at a mobile home park in a small traile<br />
r with a cracked wall. Neighbors and park workers<br />
would help them with groceries and cash. Ms. Grimm<br />
er sold her truck, forcing the family to walk long<br />
distances around town.<br />
Janie Rodriguez, the manager of Towne North Mobile<br />
Home and RV Park, said that Ms. Grimmer often tol<br />
d her she was frustrated by the state’s refusal to<br />
give her benefits and that, one day weeks ago, sh<br />
e showed her a fax receipt for documents she had s<br />
ent the social services office. “I do blame the st<br />
ate,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “She was a very intellig<br />
ent person and a very wonderful person, a very goo<br />
d mother. She was not mentally ill. The state neve<br />
r came to see how she was living.”<br />
The children were not enrolled in local schools, b<br />
ut were being home-schooled. The state’s child wel<br />
fare agency, the Department of Family and Protecti<br />
ve Services, had come in contact with the family a<br />
t least twice before.<br />
After receiving a report of possible neglect, inve<br />
stigators from the agency checked on the family in<br />
September 2010, when they were living on the beac<br />
h. But the children appeared to be taken care of,<br />
and Ms. Grimmer had food and money, so the case wa<br />
s closed, a department spokesman said. In June, Ms<br />
. Grimmer told the police in Corpus Christi that s<br />
he had been a victim of domestic violence. The age<br />
ncy checked on her and the children but had no con<br />
cerns, said the spokesman, Patrick Crimmins.