Hidalgo Commissioner says she's done nothing wrong

Federal agents raided the offices of Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy on Friday, expanding a months-long investigation into alleged misuse of county funds.

As authorities carried away boxes filled with documents, the longtime elected official denied any wrongdoing.

“I can say without a doubt that I have not been involved in any illegal activity to defraud taxpayers, whom I have dutifully served for the last 10 years,” she said in a written statement.

For months, investigators have scrutinized business practices at Handy’s Precinct 1 office after a county-wide audit uncovered evidence that someone there may have used taxpayer funds to pay a personal assistant.

I don't think they have personal assistents in jail.

Going all out to save a Willacy County wildlife sanctuary

Efforts by Willacy County to seize 1,500 acres on South Padre Island in order to build a ferry landing have come to an end following the land's donation to the federal government, a conservation group said Thursday. The Nature Conservancy announced it has donated its 1,500-acre preserve on Padre Island to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Willacy County had wanted to seize the preserve, on the northern end of South Padre Island adjacent to the Mansfield Channel, through eminent domain so it could build a ferry landing and bring in tourists to the island.

See previous post.

Is there more to the arrest of the Cameron County auditor?

Cameron County auditor, Mark Yates, was indicted for renewing a million dollar insurance contract without going through the bidding process. Bloggin' all things Brownsville smells something fishy in the Yates case.

The orange jump suit and handcuffs say it all. Former DA Yolanda DeLeon zeroed on it what they signified – an “obscene misuse of power and authority.”

Even hardened criminals – including former Sheriff Conrado Cantu – have been extended the courtesy of turning themselves in.

Yates' case will be handled in nearby Hidalgo County by District Judge Mario E. Ramirez Jr. who was assigned to the case by Nueces County Judge J. Manuel Bañales.

Yates is not suspected of personally benefiting from the unauthorized renewal.

Yates was arrested at his office earlier this week where he was handcuffed and transported by sheriff’s deputies to the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito. He was arraigned on the charge and later released on a $2,500 personal recognizance bond.

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Exactly who initiated the investigation is still in question. Villalobos said the request was made by the county’s legal division, while Richard Burst, the county’s legal counsel, denies the claim.

Instead, Burst said that Remi Garza, former administrative assistant for ex-County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa, turned over a packet of documents pertaining to the insurance contract to the district attorney’s office. Garza denied the claim and maintains that Hinojosa directed the county’s civil division turn over the documents to the district attorney’s office for review.

Juveniles still kept in lock up past release date

As of June 13, 503 were still incarcerated, including five youths who were supposed to have been released in 2005, according to a Youth Commission internal report. After Madden and other lawmakers raised questions, 19 of those 503 were paroled and three were discharged within a week.

What is wrong with these people? Oh, yeah. I forgot. Neither competence or nor compassion is expected in a Republican administration.

Do not tell your secrets to a Texas preacher

Ruling that courts should stay out of most church matters, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit against a Fort Worth pastor who had disclosed a member's extramarital affair to the congregation.

The church member, Peggy Lee Penley, claimed the pastor learned of her affair during their private counseling sessions. As a licensed professional counselor, the Christian pastor had a duty to keep such details confidential, Penley claimed.

A unanimous Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that a pastor's First Amendment religious freedom outweighs his secular obligations.

Does the Supreme Court ruling just cover preachers or any counselor who claims religious beliefs require disclosure?

Representative Puente (D-Craddick) whines he is misunderstood

State Rep. Robert Puente said Friday he made a mistake by joining a real estate venture with a longtime friend and lobbyist who pushed legislation that came before Puente's committee.

"I made a choice to get into an investment that I should not have gotten into," Puente said. "My business relationship has left a perception, totally unfounded and untrue, that that was clouding my ability to represent my constituents."

The San Antonio Democrat said he has quit his business dealings with lobbyist Marc A. Rodriguez "so that the cloud that this somehow impacts how I vote or how I file or handle a bill will begin to be cleared away."

Puente, an attorney, said he also has stopped representing Rodriguez in legal matters "so as to eliminate any further conjecture. ... Marc fully understands why I now feel I should not represent him."

What on earth is all that 'clouding' supposed to mean? He tried to cloud his dealings, but it was exposed anyway? Is Puente trying to revirginize?

"What I did was totally legal, totally ethical, but looking back on it, I never should have done it. That was the mistake I made," Puente said.

That's the worst non-apology apology I ever heard!

Mitt Romney lashed his dog's carrier to the top of his car for a 12 hour trip

What a prince of a guy.

When Romney's eldest son, Tagg, and his four brothers complained about the brown runoff down the back windshield, their father quietly pulled the car over, borrowed a gas station hose and sprayed down both the dog and the kennel before returning to the road.

"Massachusetts animal cruelty laws specifically prohibit anyone from carrying an animal `in or upon a vehicle, or otherwise, in an unnecessarily cruel or inhuman manner or in a way and manner which might endanger the animal carried thereon,'" wrote Steve Benen in a post on the blog "Crooks and Liars."

Raid on Hidalgo County Commissioner's office

FBI agents are raiding the office of Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy this morning.

...

Last month, the Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino said he had evidence a county official was paying a phantom employee $18,000 to $20,000 a year to run personal errands such as dry-cleaning.

Perry supports TEA official suspected of crony dealings

The governor's office expressed full confidence Thursday in Robert Scott, who is in line to head the Texas Education Agency and was accused of violating contracting rules in an investigation report released this week.

Mr. Scott has disputed the allegations in the report, which indicated that he and others improperly influenced no-bid contracts that were awarded to their friends and former colleagues.

He is the second-in-command at the TEA and will probably become acting director next week. Mr. Scott is also believed to be a possible permanent successor to his boss, Shirley Neeley, who leaves office today after not being reappointed by Gov. Rick Perry.

For Republican James 'Rick' Perry, uh, what's the big deal?

Texas college fund deficit

The Texas Tomorrow Fund's financial hole is getting deeper.

A special House committee was told Thursday that the cost of easing the projected deficit in the state's prepaid college tuition plan is growing because the Legislature failed to act on the problem in regular session this year.

Mark Hurley, a Dallas-based financial consultant who leads the state comptroller's advisory board on the fund, said the cost of keeping the program solvent will only increase as tuition rates continue to climb and the fund's investments fail to return the desired income to keep up.

Why are the tuition rates climbing? Could it be that pesky tuition deregulation coupled with defunding? Texas Republicans don't support public education.

Texas Republicans honoring our vets? Not so much.

Especially if the troops in question are immigrants.

Two Gulf War veterans sued the state Thursday, claiming that a law blocking veterans from qualifying for free tuition benefits if they were not U.S. citizens when they joined the military is a violation of their civil rights.

Known as the Hazlewood Exemption, the benefit waives tuition and fees at Texas public universities for veterans who have used up federal GI Bill benefits, but still want to further their education.

The waiver doesn't apply to veterans like plaintiff Raul Dominguez, who was a legal resident, not a citizen, when he joined the Army in 1990. Dominguez served as an ammunitions specialist in the Gulf War, and became a U.S. citizen in 1994.

La Feria mayoral election challenged

It has become mayor versus mayor six weeks after the city election.
City officials will ask the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office to investigate allegations of election fraud after former mayor Lalo Sosa sued newly elected Mayor Steve Brewer, City Manager Sunny Philip said Thursday.

Officials want the District Attorney’s Office to determine whether the city’s actions may have led to election fraud in the election in which Brewer defeated Sosa by 11 votes.

...

The lawsuit, which requests the election be declared void, charges Police Chief Don Garcia and police officers stood at polling sites to discourage residents from voting.
In the lawsuit, Sosa charges the city’s small polling place did not “allow voters to vote in secret.”

A nuclear power plant for South Texas

Benzene from the refineries isn't enough of a handicap for South Texas kids. We need to make them radioactive.

A Chicago-based energy company announced it plans to build a nuclear power plant in Matagorda or Victoria counties, less than 100 miles from Corpus Christi.

Exelon (NYSE: EXC) plans to file an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2008 for an 1,100-megawatt nuclear power plant capable of providing electricity to more than 1 million homes through the Texas electric grid.

Its primary site is in Matagorda County on 1,250 acres about 10 miles south of Collegeport across the Tres Palacios Bay from the town of Palacios. Its secondary site, should the first site not work out, is in Victoria County on 11,500 acres about 20 miles south of Victoria off Route 77 South.

See map. The Gulf of Mexico needs the water warmer?

Matagorda’s water supply pushes it ahead of Victoria, [Craig Nesbit of Exelon Nuclear] said, as plants require millions of gallons a day to operate. The Matagorda plant would use water from the Gulf of Mexico.

“There’s plenty of it down in Matagorda County,” Nesbit said. “In Victoria County we’d have to create a lake. That’s doable – it’s done all the time – but given the option this makes more sense.”

What about the used fuel?

Spent fuel from any nuclear plant would have to be temporarily stored at the plant even after the federal government decides on a permanent repository for the highly radioactive material.

"That's just a given," said Craig Nesbit with Exelon Nuclear. "You can't take it out of the reactor and just ship it off. That's just not possible."

Q&A from the Victoria Advocate.

Citgo has a lot of gall!

Criminal liability for pollution and other corporate wrong doing that harms or can harm the citizens is a great idea. Fines just hit the bottom line. Fines are just a blip. But, jail time? Just ask Paris.

A day after obtaining the nation's first criminal conviction of a refinery, federal prosecutors weren't interested in a company offer to plead guilty to remaining charges in exchange for clearing a refinery manager.

The U.S. Department of Justice's case against Citgo Petroleum Corp. continued in federal court Thursday as lawyers from both sides filed motions before federal district Judge John Rainey in the case charging Citgo with violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The company operates two refineries in Corpus Christi.

Hey! HEY!! Listen up!! The Valley does NOT want a fence!

Community leaders attacked the proposed border fence set to be built in the Rio Grande Valley on humanitarian, economic, environmental and even religious grounds at a panel discussion Thursday night, arguing the plan is not a realistic way to address immigration.

More than 100 people attended the forum, which was at the Cine el Rey theater in downtown McAllen.

Though McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez emphasized the need for a “healthy debate” on the fence issue, all of the event’s panelists opposed the current plans for a fence. When a moderator asked audience members who supported the plans, just one of the audience members raised her hand.

Lady Bird out of the hospital

Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson was released from an Austin hospital Thursday afternoon and is resting comfortably at her home.

Glad she's back home!

New TYC Ombudsman screws up

In a harshly worded letter, legislative leaders on Wednesday ordered the new ombudsman at the scandal-racked Texas Youth Commission to rewrite his proposed operations plan to put staff in the field working with troubled young Texans in custody, not sitting in an Austin office.

TEA officials accused of steering contracts

Is that still 'illegal' when Republicans are in charge?

An internal investigation has found that top officials at the Texas Education Agency improperly steered state work to their friends.

The report from the agency's inspector general says that the problems lead all the way up to TEA's deputy commissioner, Robert Scott, the likely choice to succeed Shirley Neeley as education commissioner.

James 'Rick' Perry doesn't seem to mind. Halliburton's still getting big goodies from the Bush administration.

Houston-based KBR will share in a new, 10-year military contract valued at up to $150 billion, the U.S. Army said Wednesday.

Plantiffs' attorney indicted in kickback scheme

A Houston plaintiff attorney and two insurance company employees were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday in connection with an alleged kickback scheme that involved millions of dollars in settlement proceeds from silicosis cases.

Warren Todd Hoeffner, 42, and two claims managers for The Hartford, a Connecticut insurance giant, were charged with 14 counts of conspiracy, mail and wire fraud and money laundering. The U.S. Attorney's Office also is seeking forfeiture of more than $8 million in fees and bribes allegedly collected by the trio.

Citgo guilty!

Citgo was found guilty today on two of four counts of violating the U.S. Clean Air Act of 1970 in the first case of a refiner to go to trial on criminal charges. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 18 in federal district Judge John Rainey's courtroom.

The jury found Citgo Petroleum Corp. and its subsidiary, Citgo Refining and Chemicals Co., guilty of operating Tanks 116 and 117 between 1993 and 2004 as oil/water separators without roofs, required by federal regulations to limit the amount of air pollution.

The companies were found not guilty of knowingly exceeding the 6 megagram level of benzene, a cancer-causing compound involved in processing crude oil, in 2001 and 2002. Other refiners have been brought on criminal charges, but have settled before facing a jury.

The law needs to change. 'Not knowing' is not a valid excuse, even if it was true.

Court won't reinstate conspiracy charge against DeLay

You'd think conspiracy would be the easiest charge to prove.

The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday refused to reinstate a dropped conspiracy charge against former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

Two charges — money laundering and conspiring to launder money — remain against the former congressman. He resigned last year amid allegations that he violated campaign finance laws to funnel $190,000 in corporate contributions to Republicans in the state's 2002 legislative elections.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled 5-4 against reinstating a count of conspiracy to violate the state's election code.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Enough said. At least it was close.

Cameron County Auditor put on leave

Cameron County Auditor Mark Yates has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending an investigation into an allegation he violated the competitive bidding process for renewing an insurance contract without approval from Commissioners Court.

The county’s state district judges met on Tuesday afternoon and made the decision after talking to Yates, County Judge Carlos H. Cascos said.

Bexar County DA's office finds itself innocent in Cantu's execution

The DA's office investigated itself. We're supposed to take their word for it?

An investigation by the Bexar County district attorney into claims that Ruben Cantu was wrongly executed in 1993 found no credible evidence to support assertions of his innocence.

The report from District Attorney Susan Reed charges that statements from three witnesses who have professed Cantu's innocence were inconsistent, unfounded or tainted by a private investigator who was working on behalf of death penalty opponents.

Crony prison contract deal in Bexar County?

Bexar County prosecutors say a Louisiana private prison company that was awarded a lucrative deal to run the jail commissary gave $27,500 to apparent "shells" and "fronts" controlled by the longtime campaign manager, political aide and friend to Sheriff Ralph Lopez, according to a court document filed this week.

Citgo jurors having trouble in pollution case

Citgo was indicted in August on two counts of violating the national emissions standards for benzene, a cancer-causing compound involved in processing crude oil, and two counts of operating oil/water separators without roofs, as required by federal regulations, between 1993 and 2004.

The indictment against Citgo also contends that its environmental manager Philip Vrazel failed to identify all the points in the refinery wastewater system where benzene was generated in 2000.

Citgo Refining and Chemicals Co. and Vrazel also face five counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in connection with accusations that officials illegally took protected birds that were found coated with oil as a result of landing in the open-top tanks. That trial is scheduled to begin July 9 in federal court.

Sounds pretty straight forward to me.

Lady Bird Johnson still in the hospital

Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson remained in a hospital Tuesday undergoing medical tests for a fifth day, a family spokeswoman said.

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There were no major changes in her condition Tuesday, said spokeswoman Elizabeth Christian. She gave no details.

Judge Susan Criss for Texas Supreme Court Place 8

This message was passed to me regarding Judge Criss:

I am running for Place 8 on the Texas Supreme Court.

The person currently holding that position is Phillip Johnson, a former justice on the Amarillo Court of Appeals appointed to the Texas Supreme Court two years ago by Gov. Perry.

I can win this race, but I need your help.

June 30 is a reporting deadline for contributions. We are trying to raise as much early money as we can by that deadline.

There are many exciting things happening in my campaign now. You will be hearing more about them soon.

My new campaign web site will be launched next month, but for now I can accept campaign contributions at www.judgecriss.com. You can contribute online with a credit card or download a form and mail it in. Contributions of all amounts are appreciated.

Legal information:
Please include employer info and spouse name, occupation and law firm if applicable. Texas law requires candidates report such information.

Contribution limits on statewide judicial races are $5000 per individual or law firm with a maximum of $30,000 total from the attorneys of any one law firm, including any contribution from the firm.

I do not have to give up my district court bench for this campaign.

Thanks!!!

Judge Criss is both a great judge and a great Democrat. Heaven knows we could use somebody on the Texas Supreme Court who's looking out for the people of this state instead of the corporations. I'll be sending my donation today.

James 'Rick' Perry. Lying Sack of Sh*t!

Perry's flack, Black, is out pushing the propaganda on Governor 39%'s funding cut to community colleges.

Perry called on community colleges to stop using state money to pay health insurance to locally-paid teachers in his 2003 State of the State address, [Robert] Black said. The Budget Board then warned community colleges of the problem in its report in 2005 to the Legislature.

“The governor’s actions should not come as a surprise to anyone,” Black said.

Here's what Perry said in his 2003 SOS address:

By estimating higher education income better, reducing special item projects, and asking community colleges to pay a proportionate share of insurance costs, we could net $1.1 billion in savings and recovered costs.

Is that a big warning? Perry said, in that same SOS, education was the first of his top three priorities. I don't believe that for a second.

Newspaper editors around the state are still seething over that veto.

Perry's record of partisan bluster and short-sighted leadership has long served only to reinforce my wishes that the chads had fallen a different way in November 2000.

Perry's most recent actions have only renewed my sense of wonder at the fact that he was able to garner even a measly 39 percent of the votes in last November's election.

...

As we said in our editorial last week, if Perry seriously believes that Texas community colleges have been lying to the state to get health care coverage for employees who are not eligible for state funding, he should turn the evidence over to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. As some other critics said, if he seriously believes that college districts have been lying, then he should have vetoed the funding for both years of the coming binennium.

And,

It’s been a week since Gov. Rick Perry vetoed $154 million in community college funding and the ripple effects from the stroke of the governor’s pen is still reverberating across Texas.

Texas Community College Chancellor Dr. James R. Anderson’s desk is piled with clippings and emails calling the cut a “devastating surprise.”

And this,

Community colleges around the state — including Lee College — got a surprise when Gov. Rick Perry vetoed about $154 million in health benefits for faculty, staff and counselors.

The news came as a shock, and rightfully so, to Lee College administrators and regents, as well as others around the state. The governor used his line-item veto power to cut the benefits from the state’s $152 billion two-year budget. And since the Texas Legislature, which drafted the budget, is no longer in session, it’s a done deal.

Senator Lucio looks for community college funds

What meanness of James 'Rick' Perry's part caused him to take away community college funding?

Brownsville Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. is asking Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to start the process to find extra money for community colleges to compensate for $154 million Gov. Rick Perry vetoed from their budgets.

South Texas College leaders said they would lose $4 million because of Perry’s June 15 veto that the Legislature designated to pay for health benefits of community college professors in 2009.

John Cornyn exposed himself on the border

It seemed so simple back in 2006. Pass a symbolic bill to show you're tough on illegal immigration and pro-active on security. Provide your base an image of a concrete barrier protecting the pristine culture of America.

So simple. And, if people on the border noticed there might be a problem with a real fence, just wink. Tell them the fence will never be built. How could it be? A real fence makes no sense.

Ooops. John Cornyn's winky wink exposed the cynical Republican PR machine for what it is: Red meat thrown with disdain at the bigoted base. Policy created to generate PR and not solutions to problems.

What's worse? The Republicans, including John Cornyn, find they have nothing of substance to offer the base they riled up. A border fence, solving no problems while generating many new ones, is the best they can do.

Hold onto your wallets. AG Abbott is looking into pubic pensions.

Lets get this straight, first. A pension is a contract for deferred compensation. In other words, a pension is money that has already been earned by the worker. You don't hear mortgage companies or credit card companies saying that you really don't have to pay them, do you?

At least 82 of 96 government-related pension funds examined by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott face unfunded liabilities that could exceed $23 billion, the state's chief law-enforcement officer said Monday.

He also said that 17 of the government pension funds are considered "at risk," and he recommended policy changes that he said could help protect beneficiaries and taxpayers.

Abbott points to cronies.

Abbott said factors beyond investment shortfalls can contribute to the gap, including board members' conflict of interests that can "impair decision-making" about investments and unrealistic actuarial assumptions.

For example, Abbott said, he had been given information about investment firms that had offered jobs to pension fund board members, which could affect their judgment about where to invest the funds' money.

In other cases, he said, boards had adopted unrealistic assumptions about the return the fund could make on investments in order to justify raising benefits. When the actual return was lower, the fund faced a bigger unfunded liability.

Is your pension on the list?

Wind power bringing more money to Texas

Ingelside gets a boost.

The federal government has named Ingleside home to a $20 million wind turbine and blade-testing facility -- a welcome shot of economic adrenaline for a community losing a major Navy base.

Ingleside will be one of two sites announced by Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman as receiving $2 million apiece to develop the next generation of wind turbines. The other testing facility will be at the Boston Autoport in Boston Harbor. Both facilities are estimated at $20 million.

Texas has a chance to shine.

Texas strengthened its position as the nation's No. 1 wind-energy state Monday when the U.S. Department of Energy selected a site near Corpus Christi for one of two $20 million research centers for next-generation wind-turbine blades.

The Lone Star Wind Alliance, which includes universities in Texas and other states as well as state agencies, has pledged $18 million to design, build and operate the research center on 22 acres in Ingleside donated by BP. The Energy Department will contribute $2 million in test equipment.

Auditor arrested for no-bid contract

A million dollar crony deal?

[Cameron] County Auditor Mark Yates was charged Monday with violating the competitive bidding process by renewing an insurance contract without approval from Commissioners Court.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Yates at his office shortly before 4 p.m., leading him out of the Dancy Building in handcuffs.

The longtime county auditor “is the last person on Earth that I would hear that is happening to,” a surprised Commissioner Edna Tamayo said.

Time to for Texans should step up and provide services to colonias

How could it happen? Shouldn't every American home have clean water and sewage facilities? Apparently, not in South Texas. But, we have a chance to change our ways this November.

Voters will also decide whether to fund another $250 million to pay for water and wastewater improvements in colonias and other areas without the amenities.

It’s round two of a program that dedicated $250 million in the 1990s to the same cause. The Texas Water Development Board is in the process of distributing the last of the earlier batch of money.

Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, said if voters approve another $250 million, counties beyond the border will more easily be able to tap into the money if they have colonia-like developments. The change comes from new rules the Legislature wrote defining who’s eligible for the money.

Less arsenic in your drinking water

If you get your water from Military Highway Water Supply Corp., you might have a few questions: Why is there any arsenic in my drinking water? Why were unsafe levels of arsenic in my drinking water?

Public meetings were held and a lawsuit filed by customers in April after a warning was issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that arsenic readings during the last quarter of 2006 were unsafe.

Although arsenic levels dropped at the Las Rusias water treatment plant and the water quality improved in the first quarter of 2007, state officials will continue monitoring MHWSC efforts to reduce arsenic levels, a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokeswoman said.

Although the arsenic readings from water samples dropped from 0.017 milligrams per liter for the last quarter of 2006 to 0.007 milligrams per liter for the first three months of 2007, the running annual average is still 0.11, down from 0.012 for the past quarter.

...

“The water provided is yellow, smells foul and tastes bad,” the lawsuit states.

Here's a tip: Don't drink yellow water.

Lady Bird's fever broke

Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson remained in an Austin hospital Monday, but her fever had subsided, a family spokeswoman said.

Johnson, 94, was admitted to Seton Medical Center four days earlier for a low-grade fever that she was treated for throughout the weekend. Her temperature was normal Monday, spokeswoman Elizabeth Christian said.

Texas rep called a chickensh*t thief

"On Thursday, during House votes, a very angry Rep. Heath Shuler (D-N.C.) had some distinctly non-collegial words for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)," Emily Heil reports for Roll Call's "Heard on the Hill." "The words 'gutless,' 'chickens--t' and 'thief' were flung."

...

Late Wednesday night, Gohmert was heading to the House floor to come to the aid of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) as he discussed holding down federal spending. Gohmert, whose office is on the fifth floor of the Cannon House Office Building, passed the door to Shuler’s office, located on the same floor, and apparently decided to make off with the sign perched on an easel outside the office, which was closed for the night.

Gohmert used the sign on the floor and then returned it.

Did you see Rick Noriega this weekend?

I hope you got a chance to see Rick in San Antonio or around South Texas. As Off the Kuff says 'See The Walker Report, Half Empty, and A Capitol Blog for news and photos.'

Why see Rick? It's no secret that many of us progressive bloggers would love to see Rick run against Bush-bot Cornyn in 2008. If you saw Rick, I'll bet you encouraged him to run.

What's Rick got to offer Texas? A sterling record of public service. This week 'Draft Rick Noriega' examines Rick's voting record. Check it out.

During the 80th Legislature, much of Rep. Noriega's attention was focused on education, environmental issues, public safety and veterans' affairs. This, of course, was in addition to his service on the House Appropriations Committees--one of the most sought-after legislative assignments, but also one of the most time-consuming and important in either chamber.

Oh, please! Perry is unhappy with who's work?

Gov. Rick Perry is making his disappointment with lawmakers known.

In a recent fundraising letter to supporters, Perry lashed out at his colleagues in the Texas House and Senate, saying they left loads of "unfinished business" when the legislative session ended last month.Is this just a cover for a 'special' session.

Special, of course, means special interests. Like voter suppression.

Too many birth defects in the valley

A surprising number of Valley families face the heartache of finding out a child has a debilitating birth defect. According to figures from the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Valley has some of the highest rates in Texas of common birth defects like heart conditions, Down syndrome and gastroschisis.

In addition, doctors say they treat many Valley children with unusual birth defects, like genetic malformations that might only run in one family.

“We see a lot of Valley children with malformation syndromes … genetic abnormalities that are new and don’t even have a name,” said Dr. Raymond Lewandowski, a geneticist at Driscoll Children’s Hospital in Corpus Christi. About half of the patients Lewandowski sees are from the Rio Grande Valley, he said.

“We have large numbers of patients referred to us that don’t have a match (for that defect) anywhere else in the world,” he said.

Brownsville Visitor Bureau credit card abuse?

The Brownsville Convention & Visitors Bureau is requesting a ruling from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, seeking to prevent The Brownsville Herald from viewing credit card charges incurred by the taxpayer-funded organization from 2005 to the present.

Call for a new La Joya School board election

Moved polling places, miscounted ballots and dozens of illegally cast votes are among the election day problems two losing La Joya school board candidates are citing in a suit seeking a new election.

Domingo “Mingo” Villarreal and slate-mate Elma Garza filed paperwork Friday against winning candidates Arturo Gonzalez Jr. and Esperanza ”Espie” Ochoa asking a judge to throw out the results of a May 12 vote.

TB of particular concern to South Texas

While the national case rate for tuberculosis is less than five per 100,000 people, the case rate for Texas is about twice that.

And the case rate for South Texas is about one and a half times the state’s because of the region’s growing population and proximity to an international border, according to public health officials.

Poor employers. Cheap labor is sometimes a hassle.

What a headache! All that paperwork and extra fees just to hire a legal guest worker.

After months of paperwork and planning, they had to get through an interview with a consular official who would decide where they would spend the rest of the year. Only two of them got visas — and $7.43-an-hour jobs, good through December. The other three returned to hometowns where they would be lucky to make that much per day.

"It's frustrating," [former San Antonio city councilman Richard] Perez said earlier of the prospect of having an applicant [for his landscaping business] rejected. "There's no appeal process."

Here's a thought. Why not pay a decent wage with benefits and get American citizens to do the job?

The elephant is the symbol of porn

Just how appropriate is that! Did you know that yesterday was National Porn Sunday?

The pachyderm serves as a symbol of pornography in the church, or the “elephant in the pew,” said J.R. Mahon, pastor of XXXChurch.com, which spearheads the National Porn Sunday movement.

Brownsville recount delivers same mayor

The manual recount for the city’s top electoral spot yielded a minute increase in favor of mayoral runner-up Ernie L. Hernandez Jr., but not enough to surpass Mayor-elect Pat M. Ahumada Jr.’s 900-plus vote lead.

In Saturday’s recount, Ahumada garnered 4,208 votes to Hernandez’s 3,272 votes, a difference of 936 votes.

Ahumada gained three votes, while Hernandez gained five, Cameron County Elections Administrator Roger Ortiz said. The manual recount lasted close to four hours.

A total of 7,480 ballots were recounted manually at the Cameron County Courthouse’s Jury Room by three teams of five people each; some ten employees from the elections offices also helped, Ortiz said.

I'll bet the only real 'manual' recount occurred when the absentee ballots were examined. How do you manually recount computer memory? Print out a ballot and have people doing the counting instead of the computer? You can't know if the computer messed up the vote when it was first recorded.

TXU, Deregulation and It's a cronies world

The Dallas Morning News looks into the effects of the TXU buyout.

Electricity customers won't gain if TXU Corp. sells itself to private equity investors, and they could eventually see higher bills, according to an independent study commissioned by The Dallas Morning News.

All those promises that investors Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG touted as benefits to customers – cutting prices until 2008, shelving plans to build polluting coal plants – would have been offered by the old TXU anyhow, the report concludes.

What a surprise!

Lady Bird still at Seton Hospital

"Mrs. Johnson had a good night. She's resting comfortably. No change," family spokeswoman Elizabeth Christian said earlier Saturday. "Everything is good."

Todd Hunter to run against Juan Garcia as a Republican?

Hunter says rumor he'll oppose Rep. Juan Garcia is just talk.

Austin Democratic campaign strategist Kelly Fero e-mailed state Rep. Juan Garcia that former Democratic state Rep. Todd Hunter met with Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick's daughter Christi Craddick last week and has agreed to run against Garcia as a Republican.

...

According to Fero, his sourcing on the rumor is impeccable, and big money Republican campaign donors including school voucher proponent James Leininger reportedly are ready to pony up the cash necessary for Hunter to mount a challenge against Garcia.

Juan is gearing up for his first fundraiser of the season. [Todd Hunter is a former Democratic state representative for District 32, Juan's current district.]

Austin police PR flacks should be fired!

See Grits for Breakfast report on the beating death of the car passenger involved in the car accident: 'Austin Police Flacks Just Make Things Up'

After Austin police claimed 2,000 people stood around watching as a man was beaten to death at a Juneteenth festival, their PR department adjusted their story this week to say just a few people were present and the incident happened blocks away from the festival in a housing project.

The story immediately drew international coverage; the headline in Mexico City's La Reforma had declared, "Hispanic is Lynched in Texas." You can bet the retraction won't get as much attention.

The Austin Police press release made Austin look like a bad version of 1950's New York City. You can't get your reputation back quickly or easily after that kind of publicity.

Red Cross bails on sheltering Hidalgo County during a hurricane

We all saw how great evacuation worked in Houston. The Red Cross says evacuate. We'll help later.

The American Red Cross will no longer set up emergency shelters in Hidalgo County ahead of hurricanes and tropical storms.

“The emphasis now is on getting everyone out in the event of a tropical system,” said Michael Huckabee, executive director of the South Texas chapter.

“We have to be very careful where we open shelters because of the potential risk for flooding. … How are you going to get the people out of there, say, (if) you have a thousand people in a shelter?”

The humanitarian group’s decision was based on the release of an independent floodplain map for Hidalgo County last month, Huckabee said.

Kenedy wind farm fight continues

The storied King and Kenedy ranches, which together cover nearly 1.3 million acres in sparsely populated south Texas, are at odds over plans to erect 240-plus wind-powered turbines on the smaller Kenedy property. The structures and their massive blades can stand 400 feet tall - taller than most 30-story buildings.

The King Ranch, with 825,000 acres near the Texas Gulf Coast, says the turbines will interfere with migratory birds' flight patterns, threaten other wildlife and create an eyesore - though the nearest highway is nearly 20 miles away.

Managers of the charitable trust and foundation that oversee the Kenedy Ranch - a mere 400,000 acres - are resisting a public brawl, but the companies leasing their land for the wind farms say the King Ranch essentially ought to mind its own business. Besides, they say, they've spent two years studying migratory birds' flight patterns and are convinced the environmental impact will be minimal.

Now if you smoke marijuana while a member of the Hidalgo Sheriff's department ...

Two months after Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño decided not to fire a deputy who tested positive for marijuana use, he says he knows when to admit an error in judgment and has taken steps to make sure it never happens again.

“In my 35-year career, I have never made such a big mistake — the biggest mistake, the grand-daddy of mistakes,” he said.

“I will never, never, never make that mistake again.”

A complete revision of the rules that govern deputy conduct, finalized May 30, now includes a zero-tolerance policy of “automatic and mandatory termination” for positive results on drug screenings.

See previous post.

Covering up for the Corpus Christi Police Chief

The Caller Times wants to know what was revealed in the rape investigation of Police Chief Bryan Smith. They say the public has a right to know. Smith's lawyer says no."

The results of the investigation by the Texas Rangers into Smith's conduct are of legitimate concern to the public, because the incident in question has raised questions surrounding Smith's judgment and ability to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the City of Corpus Christi."

Ahem. The incident raises questions about the man who decided to keep Smith, the City Manager, Skip Noe. Using only the information that Smith agrees is true, a City Manager looking out for the interests of the citizens of Corpus Christi would have a new Police Chief. Smith's actions were clearly unbecoming a police officer and indicative of a poor attitude towards women. Noe's actions sets a bad standard for the Corpus Christi police force and reinforces a poor attitude towards women.

Different takes on Citgo pollution trial

The Caller Times' headline is sympathetic to the home town business (who cares about the people living near the refinery?) 'Citgo didn't do wrong knowingly, lawyer says'.

Citgo was indicted in August on two counts of violating the national emissions standards for benzene, a carcinogen compound involved in processing crude oil, and two counts of operating oil/water separators without roofs, as required by federal regulations, between 1993 and 2004. The indictment against Citgo also contends that its environmental manager Philip Vrazel failed to identify all the points in the refinery wastewater system where benzene was generated in 2000.

Citgo's subsidiary, Citgo Refining and Chemicals Co., and Vrazel also face five counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in connection with accusations that officials illegally took protected birds that were found coated with oil as a result of landing in the open-top tanks.

The Houston Chronicle headline is to the point 'Citgo trial on dirty air tests federal law'.

The case specifically involves allegations that open-air storage tanks at Citgo's East Plant refinery emitted illegal amounts of benzene, which research has linked to cancer. More broadly, however, the case tests criminal enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

Although other criminal indictments under the act have resulted in guilty pleas, the Citgo case is the first to go to trial alleging emissions violations, prosecutors said.

"The question is whether companies like Citgo, who blatantly violate the law over a period of time, will be held accountable," said Justice Department lawyer Howard Stewart, lead prosecutor in the case.

The Caller Times takes the defense lawyer's words, the Houston Chronicle takes the prosecutions.

Lady Bird Johnson is in the hospital

A family spokesman says former first lady Lady Bird Johnson has been hospitalized and is undergoing medical tests in Austin.

The 94-year-old is awake and receiving visits from family members and friends.

Here's wishing her a fast recovery!

Update: Lady Bird was hospitalized with a fever.

Former first lady Lady Bird Johnson has been hospitalized at Seton Medical Center downtown since Thursday night but is alert and receiving visits from family members and friends, a spokesman said Friday afternoon.

MSNBC report on political donations effects Fort Worth Star Telegram employees

"The public records search that we did on our entire newsroom staff didn't turn up anything that caused me heartburn, but I think we'll revisit our policy now that this issue has been raised," he said. "The political season is coming up, so it's probably a good time for us to review it. Most of the bigger papers in Texas totally prohibit contributions by any staff member regardless of whether they are in a position to influence anything or not.

"Our credibility is the most important thing to us, and if our current policy means that might be affected in an adverse way then we certainly want to address it. At the same time, I want our staff to enjoy the same rights and privileges that others in our society benefit from, and we want to be smart and fair about how we expect them to behave."

MSNBC missed the point entirely. It's not the nickels and dimes given to campaigns by reporters and staff. It's the fawning, non-critical, stenographic, right wing echo chamber enhancing reporting. There's your problem.

Surprising headline of the day

'EPA proposes cleaner air standards' With Republicans running this country, I would expect this headline: 'EPA gives polluters mink teddy bears and wet kisses'.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, prompted by a court settlement with environmental groups, on Thursday proposed more stringent smog standards for the first time in a decade.

The standards, which may not go into effect for years, have been greeted with guarded enthusiasm by environmental groups, which had hoped for even more stringent standards, and with scorn by manufacturing groups, which say current regulations are working and new ones will be costly.

It's not just Austin.

The proposal, the first new EPA ozone recommendations since 1997, would add at least nine Texas counties to the 23 already not in compliance. If adopted next year, it would change acceptable ozone levels from the current 80 parts per billion to 70 to 75 ppb.

"It's early in the process, but standards at the low end of the ranges the EPA is talking about would throw most, if not all, of Texas' mid-size to major cities into non-attainment," the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality wrote in a prepared statement.

The more you know Omar Guerrero the more ...

Blaming the teenage victim he's accused of harming is just the tip of the iceberg with former Hidalgo County district clerk, Omar Guerrero.

Mexican authorities kicked Omar Guerrero out of the country in February because he offered a $50,000 bribe to a police commander and threatened him by saying he had ties to the Gulf Cartel, an FBI agent said in a pretrial hearing Thursday.

Authorities might want check those ties to the Gulf Cartel.

See previous posts to see more sleaze.

75% of those indicted for felonies don't show up at PSJA board meeting

You'd think it would be 100%.

Three of the four Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district leaders indicted on conspiracy and extortion charges were not present at Thursday’s school board meeting in their official capacity.

The meeting was the board’s first since the indictment was unsealed June 5 and the allegations that they accepted bribes were made public.

Vangie Garcia-De Leon was the only indicted school board member who participated in the meeting. She abstained from a dozen votes, complying with a U.S magistrate’s order barring indicted members from voting on contracts. The votes otherwise passed unanimously.

Why not blame the electronic voting machines?

Mayoral runner-up Ernie L. Hernandez Jr. claims Cameron County’s electronic voting system is flawed, and is asking for a manual recount of Saturday’s election returns.

“My objective is not to take anything away from my opponent, but to determine if a programming error occurred within the system,” Hernandez said in a prepared statement issued Thursday.

Ooops. There's your problem. You can't do a manual recount of computer memory. As for the programming error, that's proprietary code you want to look at and none of your business. Isn't that just dandy?

Texas Republicans honor sex pervert doctor

A Fort Worth-area physician twice recognized by the Texas House of Representatives as its "Doctor of the Day" is a registered sex offender, according to a broadcast report.

"I don't like the idea that I introduced a sex offender," Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KTVT. Berman introduced Dr. Nilon Tallant to the House on Jan. 12.

"He should have told whoever selected him to be the doctor of the day that he is a registered sex offender and not try to appear before the Texas House of Representatives and make himself look legitimate before the entire state," Berman said.

Ahem. Berman, you're the ones honoring him. Twice. What criteria do you use anyway?

Tom Banning, with the physicians academy, said doctors for the program are screened on the Texas Medical Board's Web site.

There's the problem. Bay Area Houston has more.

See previous post on state of healthcare.

San Antonio Current: The Mashup (Watts)

Elaine Wolff had a great article over on the San Antonio Current:

...Rights are not like ballast on a ship, piled in order of lesser necessity. As a woman, I find it particularly alarming when men suggest that a pro-choice platform is expendable in favor of a real alternative-energy policy or, say, someone who’s less fascist. As soon as we set up the discussion in terms of tradeoffs, we’ve already weakened our position as advocates of human rights, whether for Iraqi civilians, uncharged “enemy combatants,” or a pregnant woman who isn’t prepared for parenthood.

I’ve been reassured by some behind-the-scenes folks that Watts “supports 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does,” which is not bad news in and of itself. Ninety percent of PP’s business includes providing reduced-cost medical exams, sex education, and easy access to birth control. But that additional 10 percent is also our right and it’s not negotiable.

...It’s important that Democrats pressure Watts to make clear commitments on these issues early in the campaign. Because of his financial resources and the attention that the national Democratic Senate Campaign Committee is paying to him, his candidacy could discourage other hopefuls from jumping into the race — such as State Representative Rick Noriega of Houston, a favorite of the liberal Texas blogosphere. If Mikal Watts wants to be the candidate for all of Democratic Texas, he can do it by reclaiming the commitment to individual liberty that has been shunned by Republicans as they become the Party of the Police State.

Well said, Elaine.

TDP townhall meeting in the Valley

From a Texas Democratic Party email:

TEXAS DEMOCRATIC PARTY TO HOLD

TOWN HALL MEETING IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY


( Edinburg , TX )—Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie will be holding a Democratic Town Hall Meeting in Edinburg with special guests Sate Representatives Veronica Gonzalez, Eddie Lucio III, and Aaron Pena this Saturday, June 23rd, at 11:00 am with media availability at 10:45 am. The event is part of a series of meetings Chairman Richie is holding across the state to increase communication with area Democrats and work with local activists to move the Democratic Party in Texas forward and prepare for the 2008 elections.


“Texas Democrats accomplished a great deal over the last year, leading to a gain of six seats in the State House, the election of two new Democrats to Congress and a number of victories on the county level,” said Chairman Richie. “However, there is much more to be done. That is why I am traveling to every corner of the state to hear from my fellow Democrats on the ground about how we can continue to build upon our momentum and take the fight statewide.”


WHAT: Texas Democratic Party Town Hall Meeting



WHO: TDP Chair Boyd Richie

State Representative Veronica Gonzalez

State Representative Eddie Lucio III

State Representative Aaron Pena



WHEN: SATURDAY, June 23rd

Media Availability 10:45am

Town Hall Meeting 11:00 am - 1:00pm



WHERE: Student Union Theater

University of Texas Pan Am

1201 W. University

Edinburg, TX 78541

San Antonio Express News pushes the propaganda with WH photo

What a large, lovely photo of Bush hugging a young woman suffering with spina bifida accompanying the page 4a story about Bush vetoing stem cell research. Stem cell technology could help people suffering with spina bifida, but who cares. Bush is compassionate. Isn't he? Just look at the picture. Just look at the picture. Just look ...

What a crock!

Bartender says she was fired for not serving a drunk legislator

A former bartender has sued an Austin bar, saying she was fired for refusing to serve a Texas state senator because she thought he was drunk.

Rebekah L. Lear said she lost her job at the Cloak Room at 1300 Colorado St. in March for refusing to serve a second scotch to Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, according to the lawsuit. He also threatened to have her fired, the lawsuit says.

Perry shows his meannesss by gutting cook's retirement

An 84 year old Texas House cook was forced to retire. Even though she worked for the state more than 30 years, Texas retirement rules counted less than 15. Grateful legislaturors changed that rule for her, Perry vetoed it. How bloody mean is that!

Was it because Rep. Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, carried the bill?

[Former cook, Laura] Medlock nets $787 a month in retirement pay.

Talton said, "My whole attitude was to try to help her."

Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, who carried "Laura's Bill" in the upper chamber, said, "As the son of a yard man and maid, I have a soft spot in my heart for the people who do things some people consider beneath them. . . . If nobody cooks the food so somebody can eat it, the wheels of government fall off pretty quickly."

In keeping with a Capitol tradition of enriching selected loyal employees, though, Ellis also signed off on expanding the proposal to give a few Senate clerks and the Senate parliamentarian, Karina Davis, access to fatter retirement checks.

Later, after the sudden resignations of the House parliamentarian, Denise Davis, and her deputy, Chris Griesel, in the House fracas over Craddick's leadership, Ellis and Talton added language to juice their retirement checks.

Members of the House and Senate signed off nearly unanimously.

Or, was it the money for the House parliamentarians?

Brownsville has never had a female judge

When an opening for a municipal judgeship came up and three of the 5 candidates for the job were female, the city manager choose one of the two men applying.

[former County Court-at-Law Judge Elia] Cornejo-Lopez has filed a [gender discrimination] complaint with the U.S. Department of Employment in San Antonio and sent a separate letter to Brownsville’s Human Resources Department.

The job went to former 138th State District Judge J. Rolando Olvera Jr. who was ap-pointed to the position by City Manager Charlie Cabler last week. The seat was vacated by Arturo McDonald Jr. resigned after being elected Cameron County Court-at-Law judge No. 1 in November 2006.

...

“It was very tough decision to select from (a group) that all had law degrees and all were qualified,” Cabler said. “I try to be as fair as possible with these decisions.”

...

Cornejo-Lopez is looking for an independent third party to review the selection process, which is why she filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Whether or not Cornejo-Lopez has a case, she has a point. Why aren't there and why haven't there been women on the Brownsville municipal bench?

In Texas the poorest students get the shaft

Despite state efforts to ensure students get access to an equal education, the largest school districts in Texas perpetuate a campus-level funding gap that sabotages needy and minority students' chances for success, according to a national study released Wednesday.

The study by Washington-based The Education Trust examined salary differences within the state's 10 largest districts. Within all districts, teachers were paid a lower average salary at the needier schools. The findings show that less experienced teachers are often in charge of students most in need of high-quality teachers.

Fred Thompson is the perfect GOP presidential candiate

All the candidates are trying to play the part of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan played the part of John Wayne. John Wayne played the part of a hero. Sounds like an actor's job to me. All show and no substance. Perfect.

Perry signs CHIP bill

Republicans successfully erected enrollment barriers causing CHIP enrollment to decline drastically and made Texas the worst state in the union with respect to health insurance coverage for children.

According to state figures, CHIP enrollment rates in the Rio Grande Valley have continued to drop since 2003, when the Texas Legislature made sweeping changes to the program because of the state’s budget deficit.
More than 20,000 Valley children have fallen off CHIP’s rolls since 2003 — from 46,000 to just 25,000 as of June. Statewide, more than 206,000 children have left the program in that time period.

About 1.4 million Texas children are uninsured, according to the Children’s Defense Fund of Texas. Of those, about 700,000 are eligible for CHIP.

Advocates and officials have said that several obstacles stop families from enrolling, or re-enrolling, in CHIP: having to re-enroll for coverage every six months, enduring waiting periods before coverage kicks in, navigating cuts in benefits, paying increased premiums and wading through bureaucratic hassles.

Those barriers were deliberately placed by Republicans . I have no doubt that thousands of children suffered as a result of their meanness. The 80th legislature rolled those barriers back and Perry signed the bill. [Say thanks to Solomon Ortiz Jr. and the other Democrats in the legislature.]

Lamar Smith throws the red meat

Smith is joined by perpetual clown Representative Peter King (R-Seaford, N.Y.) in proposing to secure America's borders first. King says he's trying to counter the Senate immigration bill:

To counter this misguided bill, Representative Lamar Smith and I have introduced a workable alternative: the Secure Borders FIRST Act of 2007. Our approach, “Security First,” is based on common-sense principles: no amnesty; mandating operational control of all our borders; actually enforcing our current immigration and worksite laws; mandatory detention of illegal immigrations apprehended along the border; reforming our broken visa system to better enforce our immigration laws and ensure our farmers have the workforce they need; and establishing English as our national language.

While proponents of the Senate bill claim that their proposal includes substantive, new border-security measures, this is untrue. For example, the much-hyped “triggers” in the Senate bill — 370 miles of border fencing and 18,000 Border Patrol agents — don’t even match what is already provided for under current law — 700 miles of fencing as required by the Secure Fence Act of 2006, and 23,000 Border Patrol Agents by 2010 as provided by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Protection Act of 2004.

Images of that d*mn fence dance in their heads. I'm all for securing the border against terrorists and illegal entry. But, while we're at it, can we inspect incoming freight? What about finding poisons in our food before we eat it and die?

Why are Smith in King letting agricultural workers in? Didn't they get the new GOP memo? YaGottaLoveIt tells me that the new Republican plan is to import knowledge workers and let Americans pick the lettuce.

The Valley needs a VA hospital

City commissioners will consider and take action on a resolution that calls for a veterans hospital in the Rio Grande Valley.

Commissioners will meet today for a regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall at 118 E. Tyler Ave.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council has requested Harlingen’s support for the South Texas Veterans Alliance in their initiative for a veterans hospital.
Letters and resolutions of support will be presented to Congress.

Like our Republican Senators Cornyn and Hutchison give a rats a**. I'll bet Senator Rick Noriega would get the job done!

Texas Lottery kickbacks?

The Travis County district attorney's office confirmed Tuesday that it has launched a criminal investigation after an allegation that someone affiliated with the Texas Lottery Commission may have solicited kickbacks from a financial planning firm that helped some Lotto Texas winners manage their money.

Assistant District Attorney Greg Cantwell of the office's public integrity unit said he could not divulge the details of the inquiry but said that the lottery commission was cooperating.

Sounds like the student loan scandal all over again. Crony is as crony does.

Perry doesn't care for public education

Today's Austin American Statesman presents a list of James 'Rick' Perry's cuts to higher education along with Rick Perry's excuses. [Thanks for the stenography or did Rick's press secretary email the list and save you the trouble of copying it down?]

Today's Statesman did note that Austin Community College kids will be paying more in tuition.

Gov. Rick Perry's veto of $154 million for community college health benefits was an ill-advised move that will cost Austin Community College $7.6 million and force it to raise tuition, school officials said Tuesday.

One option for ACC, with about 32,000 students, is to raise tuition to $44 per credit-hour, a $5 increase, which works out to $15 more for a typical three-credit course. Increases could be much larger for students who live outside the district's boundaries. The governor also vetoed $390,000 that had been allocated to help cover the cost of increased enrollment at ACC's new campus in South Austin.

See previous post on Community College hits.

Update: The Galveston Daily News wasn't amused, either.

Gov. Rick Perry’s decision to veto funding for the state’s share of health insurance premiums at community colleges was senseless and irresponsible.

The claim that he saved taxpayers money by cutting $154 million to community colleges is preposterous.

What he did was shift a recurring expense from one level of government to another without warning.

What that means in Austin is that the state’s financial position looks marginally better.

What that means here at home is that the College of the Mainland was blindsided by a $2 million bill the state has traditionally paid. Galveston College is facing an unexpected expense of about $940,000.

Care for Soldiers Struggling With War's Mental Trauma Is Undermined by Doctor Shortages and Unfocused Methods

A heartbreaking article in the Washington Post (Little Relief on Ward 53):

...Calloway felt naked without his M-4, his constant companion during his tour south of Baghdad with the 101st Airborne Division. The year-long deployment claimed the lives of 50 soldiers in his brigade. Two committed suicide. Calloway, blue-eyed and lantern-jawed, lasted nine months -- until the afternoon he watched his sergeant step on a pressure-plate bomb in the road. The young soldier's knees buckled and he vomited in the reeds before he was ordered to help collect body parts. A few days later he was sent to the combat-stress trailers, where he was given antidepressants and rest, but after a week he was still twitching and sleepless. The Army decided that his war was over.

...For amputees, the nation's top Army hospital offers state-of-the-art prosthetics and physical rehab programs, and soon, a new $10 million amputee center with a rappelling wall and virtual reality center.

Nothing so gleaming exists for soldiers with diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder, who in the Army alone outnumber all of the war's amputees by 43 to 1. The Army has no PTSD center at Walter Reed, and its psychiatric treatment is weak compared with the best PTSD programs the government offers....

Yes, was is hell. But occupying a foreign country in the middle of a civil war is a very special kind of hell.

Now, here's an article from the Army Times(Critics: Army holding down disability ratings):

The Army is deliberately shortchanging troops on their disability retirement ratings to hold down costs, according to veterans’ advocates, lawyers and services members...

“These people are being systematically underrated,” said Ron Smith, deputy general counsel for Disabled American Veterans. “It’s a bureaucratic game to preserve the budget, and it’s having an adverse affect on service members.”

The numbers of people approved for permanent or temporary disability retirement in the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force have stayed relatively stable since 2001.

But in the Army — in the midst of a war — the number of soldiers approved for permanent disability retirement has plunged by more than two-thirds, from 642 in 2001 to 209 in 2005, according to a Government Accountability Office report last year. That decline has come even as the war in Iraq has intensified and the total number of soldiers wounded or injured there has soared above 15,000.

...Those who try to navigate the process beyond their initial evaluation — to include hundreds of combat veterans in limbo at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington — face long waits, lost paperwork and months or even years away from home as they try to complete the process. If they receive a rating of above 30 percent, they receive disability retirement pay, medical benefits, and commissary privileges. Those rated under 30 percent receive severance pay and no benefits.

Many eventually give up and take their chances with the Department of Veterans Affairs, which may give a higher rating for the same disability.

But under the separate disability payment systems of the Defense Department and the VA, a higher VA rating does not necessarily translate into more money — and forgoing military disability retirement also means giving up lifetime commissary and exchange privileges, military health care and other benefits...

I strongly recommend reading both articles. There's plenty of money in the budget for Haliburton and other contractors, and lots of money to pay for dividend and capital gains tax cuts for wealthy Republican donors. But the Bush administration insists on squeezing the Army budget and hanging our young disabled veterans out to dry.

Texas Progressive Blogs love Rick Noriega!

Brains and Eggs
Burnt Orange Report
Capitol Annex
Dos Centavos
Eye on Williamson
Feet to the Fire
Half Empty
McBlogger
Off the Kuff
South Texas Chisme
StopCornyn
Wise County Active Democrats

Rick even got a plug on the biggest progressive blog of all - The DailyKos. Check out the Draft Rick site.

PS: Please help us keep the comment sections accurate. For example, check out Democratic Underground, Burnt Orange Report and the Daily Kos.

Will Abbott rule on the Craddick's power binge?

With Republican partisans in public office you know that any decision will be based on what's good for the partisan, i.e. Greg Abbott.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott will investigate whether the position of "absolute authority" adopted by House Speaker Tom Craddick to shut down an effort to unseat him during the session is a constitutional use of his power, officials said Monday.

By investigation, I assume Abbott will determine what's in Abbott's best interests.

Legislating hate in North Texas

English is now the official language of Oak Point, after the City Council narrowly passed a resolution Monday that it wouldn't even consider last month.

The council of the Denton County town approved the measure in a 3-2 vote despite the objections of most of the three dozen people who packed the chambers, as well as the majority of people who e-mailed council members.

The difference this time was additional support from new council member Mark Rakestraw

"I've heard from quite a few neighbors from the positive side," council member Mark Rakestraw said. "They don't want another dime of their tax money spent on" translating government documents into Spanish, he said.

Everybody must be so proud.

What a 'typical' woman needed to get through the 50's

Okay. I confess. While ferreting out 'interesting' political stories for South Texas, I read the junk, too. Like this story about the recently unearthed 1957 Plymouth Belvedere. The car came with memorabilia such as a woman's purse full of typical stuff for the 1950's woman.

Organizers also expected to find the contents of a "typical" women's purse, containing 14 bobby pins, a bottle of tranquilizers and a lipstick, among other items, in the glove box, but what they pulled out looked like a lump of rotted leather.

Did every 50's woman need tranquilizers or just those who lived in Okalahoma?

Perry vetoes funding for South Texas community college

Why do Republicans just hate to fund education in South Texas? Everybody remember the funding fights for the Irma Rangel Pharmacy School , Texas A&M Engineering School, Texas A&M San Antonio, and the El Paso Medical School?

Students at South Texas College or taxpayers in the Hidalgo and Starr counties may have to stomach higher bills in the coming years to make up for community college funding Gov. Rick Perry cut from the state budget on Friday.

Perry signed the $152 billion budget, but he used his line-item veto power to nix $154 million that would have allowed community colleges to pay for faculty health insurance in fiscal year 2009.

Perry’s spokesman said the community colleges have improperly used money to pay for health insurance of employees who were not eligible to be covered by state funds. He left the money intact in 2008 to give the colleges time to adjust their budgets.

About $4 million of the vetoed money would have gone to South Texas College, said college President Shirley Reed. Now, Reed said, the school must find a way to make up for the difference through tax increases, cuts in programs or tuition increases.

Republicans don't like funding public education anywhere. Community colleges are just an easy target. As Republican icon Debbie Riddle said:

"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever?" she demanded in a legislative hearing. "It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell.

More on the pain and bewilderment Perry's veto caused - here.

Cornyn does more useless stuff

What would be helpful to the people of Texas? A VA hospital in the valley to 'support the troops'? Aid for victims of Hurricane Rita? An actual stand against the border fence instead of declaring it prematurely dead?

Those things aren't important when you can kick a murder. That's helpful to maybe one or two people.

So-called "murderabilia" cybermarkets like Bohannon's are under assault from victim-rights advocates, who are rallying behind proposed legislation by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to effectively drive the traders out of business.

I could see blocking murderabilia, but come on, John. Aren't there more important actions you could be performing for your constituents?

I know. You've got to look tough on crime while accomplishing absolutely nothing of consequence.

Consequences are unimportant when PR is king

[Rep. Solomon ]Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi and Rep. Raul Grijalva D-Ariz are co-sponsoring legislation that would protect public and tribal lands and natural resources along the border.

“We have spent millions to protect these lands, from the plants and animals and here comes the federal government thinking it can do anything it wants to do,” Ortiz said. “We don’t need this wall. It’s a waste of money.”

The legislation, called the Borderlands Conservation and Security Act of 2007, calls for dialogue between the Department of Homeland Security and Fish and Wildlife Service to mitigate environmental damage while improving border security.

That, however, runs counter to the Bush administration’s announcement last week that DHS has already sought local input and seeking further dialogue would only impede border security efforts.

Bush and his Republican thugs don't care about facts. It's all about red meat for the base.

Anybody remember Hurricane Rita?

In time for the current hurricane season, the government has finally stepped up to help. When was Rita? Two years ago? That's a Republican government for you.

State officials say more than $500 million for 22 southeast Texas counties is now beginning to make its way to thousands of people 21 months after the storm.

State and federal officials say the delay is partly because of their determination to avoid the waste and fraud that plagued assistance efforts for Louisiana residents after Hurricane Katrina.

Public service - calling Rick Noriega

What does it mean to be a public servant? The words literally mean someone who serves the public. Someone who promotes the general welfare.

What has happened to public service? We have become used to politicians who seek office as a trinket for their resumes and a sop to their egos. We have become used to politicians who feather their own nests while delivering perks to their cronies at taxpayer expense.

The public is hungry for good government again. But, it's going to take hard work and sacrifice to reclaim our government. That's public service and we are all called to do it.

E. J. Dionne wrote about the fight for the soul of the Republican Party after Bush. But, the Democratic Party is fighting for its soul, too. Progressives are working on building a new Democratic Party. A party based on progressive ideals of public service. A party that actually promotes the general welfare.

The race for the 2008 senate seat in Texas should be about building a new Democratic Party. If we want to win at all costs, the price will be our soul. The race for the 2008 senate seat in Texas should be about public service.

Rick Noriega stands out as a man ready for the job. He's already been called to public service as a National Guardsman in Afghanistan and a representative in the house. Rick is called again.

Please put Draft Rick Noriega in your bookmarks.

Birding park for Brownsville

Resaca de la Palma

Resaca de la Palma park is an oasis in a sea of development. That alone is reason enough for Resaca de la Palma State Park to be a special place in the Rio Grande Valley.

But there’s more to this park than that — much more.

Now there will be a birding center.

The $4.5 million addition to the World Birding Center system is on schedule and under budget, according to state officials involved in the project.

Construction at Resaca de la Palma State Park, about four miles west of Brownsville near Military Highway, should be finished by August and is expected to open in the months following, officials said.

It’s not yet clear what kind of budget the park will have to operate, but it is likely Resaca de la Palma will enjoy some of the increases in funding the Legislature approved for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said Russell Fishbeck, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department regional director for South Texas.

It would be nice if all the Texas Parks were fully funded like they're supposed to be!

Craddick Dem, Puente, gets hit for slimey looking deal with lobbyist

A year ago, state Rep. Robert Puente bought a modest house on the Southwest Side on the cheap. Within four months, he sold it to lobbyist Marc A. Rodriguez for a substantial profit.

Rodriguez, who lives in Hays County and works in Austin, was anything but a random buyer. Apart from his longstanding friendship and a joint real estate venture with Puente, Rodriguez represents several public and private interests that frequently have business in front of the House Natural Resources Committee, where the San Antonio Democrat has served as chairman since 2003.

Open election fraud cases in Hidalgo County

Just three of the 10 election fraud cases stemming from the May 2005 election have been closed, more than a year and a half since those involved were indicted.

The most prominent case, a charge that Othal Eugene Brand Jr. paid for votes, was dismissed last year. Brand is the son of former McAllen mayor Othal Brand Sr. The man accused of aiding Brand Jr., Jose Eliseo Lopez, had one charge against him dropped, too. Lopez pleaded guilty to theft in the amount ranging from $1,500 to $20,000.

Juanita Sabala, the former La Joya city secretary, pleaded guilty in August last year to a lesser charge of signing an application for another’s mail-in ballot.

The remaining cases have been postponed numerous times, many at the request of Hidalgo County district attorney’s office so that they can be reviewed. All the while, accusations of political favoritism have cropped up in how the cases have been prosecuted.

The Beach Access Coalition is just starting to flex its muscles

The BAC, which was formed as a specific-purpose political action committee to fight a pair of votes in 2005 by the City Council that would have kept vehicles off 7,200 feet of beach, now wants a say in waterfront development, what happens to Memorial Coliseum and infrastructure maintenance, among other issues.

This is wonderful news. The new city council with BAC favorites John Marez, Mike McCutchon and Mike Hummell aren't likely to dis the citizens, but a vocal organization focused on keeping Corpus Christi usable for the citizens is still a great idea.

Thanks to John Kelley and all of the BAC activists for your dedication and hard work!

Corpus Christi A&M gives up on acquiring golf course

Residents wonder what's next. Anything else might be way worse.

Texas A&M University officials are opting for less land and more peace of mind.

President Flavius Killebrew said last week that with increasing enrollment and new facilities on the horizon, legal barriers to transfer the ownership of the Oso Beach Municipal Golf Course from the city to the university make it an unattractive option.

Brownsville has a new mayor. Sort of.

Pat M. Ahumada Jr. can take the “former” off his mayor title after recapturing the office Saturday in a runoff for the city’s top post.

More than a month after the municipal election, our city has a new mayor. Only, he’s not so new.

Ahumada, who first held the office from 1990 to 1993, won against former city commissioner Ernie L. Heranandez Jr. with 4.205 votes (56.28 percent) to Hernandez’s 3, 267 (43.72 percent).

Shaking up the Brownsville Independent School District

School board members cited different reasons and explanations for the reassignments — from improving test scores to what Superintendent Hector Gonzalez considers to be a “long, drawn out story,” though he did not elaborate.

Later in the phone call, Gonzalez said that the district’s “intention was to make the best we can with the district and the students of this district.” The reassignments were all “positive ones,” he said.

BISD board member Enrique Escobedo said the reassignments are the district’s way of “focusing on test scores” in order to be recognized by the Texas Education Agency as exemplary.

Aren't TAKS tests fading in importance?

Roseate spoonbills win!

Passers-by can usually count on one hand the number of wade fishermen who dot the banks of the East End lagoon, but most would need a pen and paper to keep track of the number and variety of the area’s winged visitors.

After surviving attempts to develop it as a major resort property, this pristine section of beachfront grassland will stay forever wild, as Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas likes to say.

The U.S. Coast Guard deeded the property to the city as a permanent preserve in 2004, requiring that it remain in its natural condition.

Now conservationists hope to make it one of the state’s most significant environmental education centers.

Congratulations Melissa Noriega!

100% of the precincts reporting - 55.45% to 44.55%!

Houston has a brand new city council woman!

New weather chief chastized for telling us about the faulty weather satellite

Millions for PR. Not a penny for a new weather satellite that could save thousands of lives and millions of dollars.

The new director of the National Hurricane Center, an outspoken critic of his superiors since he took over in January, charged Friday night that they are trying to muzzle him and could be setting him up for termination.

Bill Proenza said the acting director of the National Weather Service, Mary Glackin, visited his office in West Miami-Dade Friday and handed him a three-page letter of reprimand.

...

In recent interviews with The Miami Herald and other media, Proenza has strongly criticized leaders of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for spending millions of dollars on a public-relations campaign while hurricane forecasters deal with budget shortfalls.

One of his main concerns has been the imminent demise of a key weather satellite called QuikScat, launched in 1999 and long past its designed lifetime.

You don't have to live in Houston to help Melissa Noriega win!

Houstonions, check out Hal's post at Half Empty for 10 reasons why its important to vote for Melissa Noriega. Check here for your polling location. Check here for a sample ballot.

Check out KT's post at the Burnt Orange Report to see how you can help, even if you don't live in Houston.

1. Call Voters- The most important way to help is to call voters. Will you pledge to call 25, 50, or 100 voters tomorrow as part of the campaign's Election Day GOTV plan? Email sherry@melissanoriega.com and ask for a list and leave a comment on this post saying how many you've pledged to call.

   This is a low turnout election (maybe 2%) where reminding friendly Democratic voters to get to the polls is about the lowest stress phone banking I can imagine. There's no arm twisting here.

2. Donate- Not in Houston and don't want to call? Then make a last minute contribution to Melissa's campaign to support those that can. Since I fall into this category, I'm putting in another $25 on top of the rest of my previous campaign contributions.

   Click here to donate.

Check here for election results later today.

La Joya may get more local control of its water

The entity that brings water to 13,000 people in western Hidalgo County could soon return to local control with a new name and more money.

The Legislature passed measures to help La Joya Water Supply emerge from court-ordered management. If Gov. Rick Perry approves the measures, La Joya Water Supply will:

• Receive $6.2 million to make improvements
• Change its name to Agua Special Utility District

Need Hurricane evacuation help in Cameron County?

Register with the 211 help line. Do it now. Help your friends who may not know about this service. Do it now.

More than 100,000 Cameron County residents lack the necessary transportation needed to evacuate if a major storm threatens the area.

With Hurricane Season underway, officials report that only a fraction, 560, have signed up with the 211 Texas Information and Referral hotline. It’s “the number to call when you don’t know who to call,” according to the organization’s Web site, 211texas.org.

It connects Texas residents with health and human services outlets in their area, including emergency information and disaster relief.

The possibility of a mass evacuation this season has county officials worried that if a storm strikes, they will be unable to locate some 87,000 to 120,000 individuals who have no way out.

Nueces County steps up to care for indigent poor

The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Hospital District has nearly doubled the enrollment cap of its indigent care program.

The Nueces Aid Program's enrollment cap has been increased to 16,000. The program is the county's insurance program for those who are underinsured or have no insurance. It offers doctor, hospital and prescription coverage for county residents who don't qualify for state or federal medical assistance programs. The county pays 50 percent to 100 percent depending on income and household size. The measure was one of three approved by the Commissioners Court earlier this week amending the indigent care agreement between the hospital district and Christus Spohn Health System, which is the primary provider of indigent care in the county.

Employees associated with the San Antonio DA's office arrested in scam

The Texas Rangers on Friday arrested two former Bexar County employees who were entrusted to safeguard public funds but now stand accused of diverting nearly $30,000 to their own pockets.

One is a former Bexar County auditor of 20 years, Joseph Anthony Morrison, whose job duty was, in part, to ensure the Bexar County district attorney's office properly managed and accounted for its funds.

Also arrested was Laura Ortega, a former supervisor in the district attorney's office who oversaw its "checks" department that Morrison audited.

Among the accounts was one that held unclaimed restitution for hot checks earmarked for defrauded local businesses.

Republican DA Susan Reed objected to the scrutiny of her department. Too bad.

League City says it destroyed its own bridge

City Attorney Dick Gregg said Friday there was no question that the city owned a neighborhood bridge that was demolished after the Texas Department of Transportation deemed the bridge unsafe.

Ownership questions arose after the bridge was demolished. See previous post.

Perry want Houston to breathe polluted air for 9 more years

Texas officially asked the federal government Friday for an extra nine years to meet health standards for ground-level ozone, saying that it would be "practicably impossible" for the eight-county Houston-Galveston region to comply with the law by 2010.

Meaning, we don't want to do it. We don't care about the people of Houston.

Disappointment in Rice's Hispanic Studies

"[Nacogdoches student Oluyinka Omodolapo Sokunb] wasn't so much disappointed as just sort of astonished that Hispanic studies didn't have more classes, more tenured professors and a doctorate program," said Sokunbi, who plans to attend medical school and eventually work in Latin America.

"The administration really should put more energy and resources into the department."

Perry doesn't think the prison system needs help

Where was he during the TYC scandal? MIA, then. MIA for the prison system now.

[James 'Rick' Perry] also vetoed more than $40 million from the prison system, saying it received an "unreasonable" funding increase of 10 percent when the number of inmates and parolees is expected to grow by 5 percent or less.

Mr. Chisum questioned those trims.

Okay. Even Attila the Chisum questioned those trims. How bad is that?

Perry calls education money 'pork'

Gov. Rick Perry lambasted higher education "pet pork" Friday as he slashed $570 million from the state's new two-year budget and criticized lawmakers for not offering a bigger tax break.

A life science institute in San Antonio and a diabetes center in Galveston were hit by Perry's budget ax.

...

Texas A&M University-International in Laredo lost $5 million from Perry's vetoes that had been earmarked for "student success" initiatives to expand doctoral degree programs in business and outreach in math and science.

Does Debbie Riddle have a twin in James 'Rick' Perry?

Ann Richards school's first class

The brand new Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders hosted a summer camp of a different kind for its incoming students.

It wasn't your typical orientation for new students, but more like immersion into a world that school officials say has limitless opportunities.

"This is a school about leadership, about going to college and about being healthy and well," administrator Araceli Ortiz said.

You can help Melissa Noriega get elected

Doesn't matter where you live, you can do it! Check out KT's post at the Burnt Orange Report.

1. Call Voters- The most important way to help is to call voters. Will you pledge to call 25, 50, or 100 voters tomorrow as part of the campaign's Election Day GOTV plan? Email sherry@melissanoriega.com and ask for a list and leave a comment on this post saying how many you've pledged to call.

   This is a low turnout election (maybe 2%) where reminding friendly Democratic voters to get to the polls is about the lowest stress phone banking I can imagine. There's no arm twisting here.

2. Donate- Not in Houston and don't want to call? Then make a last minute contribution to Melissa's campaign to support those that can. Since I fall into this category, I'm putting in another $25 on top of the rest of my previous campaign contributions.

   Click here to donate.

Charter school TAKS cheating

The state's investigation into cheating on the 2005 TAKS test has borne its first fruit.

Theresa B. Lee Academy, a Fort Worth charter school with a long history of problems, improperly tampered with the 2005 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, state officials announced Thursday. As a result, the Texas Education Agency could launch proceedings to close the school permanently.

New BP chief says safety is a concern

Sure. I believe that. Right after profits for his company. His salary. Time off for golf or other perks. I'm bet there's more ahead of worker safety in his priority list.

New BP CEO Tony Hayward asserts that his company shines when it comes to finding oil and gas or amassing an impressive portfolio of energy assets.

Operations are another story. An explosion at its Texas City refinery killed 15 people. A corroded pipeline allowed oil to spill at the nation's largest oil field in Alaska. And design and operational problems have delayed getting key Gulf of Mexico oil platforms up and running.

In his first media interview since taking BP's helm six weeks ago, Hayward said he is committed to improved safety, a culture in which all concerned voices are heard and making good on promises of improved performance.

We'll believe it when we see it.

See previous posts.

It doesn't take a high IQ to see the border fence is bad for the environment

But, Republicans don't care about the effects of their actions. It's all image and red meat for the bigoted base.

Defenders of Wildlife and other environmental groups are hoping the pen is mightier than the fence.

The organizations have sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urging him to consider the environmental impact of constructing a fence on the Texas-Mexico border, and asking the department to consult with environmental and local officials on construction plans.

You can't reason with them.

Judge bars public from Guerrero weasel tactics

For those of you who've forgotten, former Hidalgo District Clerk Omar Guerrero is accused of committing a series of crimes and running away. Guerra, through his lawyer, says sex with an underage girl is okay because Guerrero says she's a slut. See the kind of prince Guerrero is.

The judge in the sexual assault case against former Hidalgo County district clerk Omar Guerrero closed the court on Thursday, barring the public and the press from its proceedings.

State District Court Judge Aida Salinas Flores said she did not want evidence that she may rule inadmissible released to the public in a case she says has already garnered too much attention.

Flores issued a gag order in May that prevents anyone involved in the case from discussing it outside the courtroom.

While it’s unclear what evidence was discussed in the closed hearing, Flores indicated it involved the alleged victim, a 15-year-old Mission girl.

Good for the judge. I'm guessing that Guerrero is being the ultimate slime weasel. If Guerrero is sentenced, I hope he has to pay for years and years of therapy for the victim.

Moritorium on toll roads? Not so much.

Start saving up for that drive around Corpus Christi.

New highway projects and a new Harbor Bridge, long described as area transportation needs, are likely to end up as toll projects because the state won't be able to afford them any other way, local and state transportation officials said Thursday.

At a special meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission Thursday in Austin, the state identified 87 high priority projects with an estimated combined price tag of more than $55 billion that are ready for development and operation as toll projects.

Can't afford them any other way? Rather than ask an obvious question or two, Jaime Powell took notes. If the bosses said it, it must be true.

Meanwhile, the cronies are licking their lips and counting their tips.

The Regional Transportation Council should endorse the Spanish firm Cintra to operate the State Highway 121 toll road project if it wants the best value for North Texas, the Texas Department of Transportation said Thursday.

TxDOT's endorsement of Cintra during a tense five-hour hearing before the regional council represented a setback for the North Texas Tollway Authority's rival bid, and it wasn't the only setback.

The accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers also told the 39-member council, which sets transportation priorities for North Texas, that the NTTA bid is inferior to Cintra's.

Plan on paying for the fast lane on the Gulf Freeway.

The Texas Department of Transportation plans to add what it calls “managed lanes” in both directions on the Gulf Freeway within the next 10 years.

The lanes will be free for transit vehicles, but others will have to pay a fee based on the volume of traffic at the time. During peak hours, it would cost more to drive in the lanes.

Texas, sold to the highest bidders.

Valley Representatives make the news

Rene Oliveria's news is up beat.

Despite undergoing open-heart surgery recently, state Rep. Rene O. Oliveira will run for re-election in 2008.

Oliveira made the announcement Thursday morning at a news conference at his West Price Road law firm of Roerig, Oliveira & Fisher.

For Eddie Lucio Jr the news is bad.Local papers picked up his Burka slam.

Texas Monthly magazine on Thursday named Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. one of the 10 “Worst Leg-islators” of the session that ended in May and gave mention – some good, some bad — to three other Rio Grande Valley lawmakers.

Why was Eddie on the list?

“There is no more unreliable senator than 16-year veteran Eddie Lucio,” Hart writes. “His nicknames say it all: Sucio (‘Dirty’) Lucio and El Resbaloso (‘the Slippery One’).”

Ouch! Kino Flores got slammed for lying.

Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Palmview, is on the Dishonorable Mention list. Burka said Flores “operates in the dark corners of the Legislature.” He cited as evidence a debate on the House floor with Rep. David Leibowitz, D-San Antonio, about a bill to exempt owners of trailers from some taxes, in which Flores accused Leibowitz of interfering with a Valley issue.

During the debate, Flores waved a folder and said he had letters from local communities supporting the measure, but Leibowitz asked to see the letters and didn’t find any. Burka said Flores lied.

Should have gotten slammed for being a Craddick suck up. For Hinojosa, the news is good.

Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, was named to the honorable mention list for his work to “sound the alarm” on the problems facing the Texas Youth Commission, then spearheading the reform, Hart said.

Who's pro-choice in the senate race? Not Watts.

Millionaire San Antonio trial lawyer Mikal Watts, who has created the early political buzz by forming an exploratory committee, told the San Antonio Express-News he is opposed to abortion in most cases.

In most cases, I think Mikal should not have an abortion.

"I personally have the view: I hold the pro-life position with three exceptions: one for rape, one for incest, one for the life of the mother," Watts said. "But I don't claim to the Republican position of slippery slopes that you have to eliminate incredibly important medical research into Alzheimer's and Parkinson's because of the slippery slope argument on stem cells."

Watts said there are "clean stem cells" that can provide a source for medical research. Cornyn voted for legislation that limited stem cell research to existing strains.

If bills came before the Senate to outlaw or restrict abortion, Watts said he would have to look at each on its own merit.

Two more TXU coal plants.

State environmental regulators on Wednesday granted TXU Corp. permission to build two coal-fired power plants in Central Texas, bucking concerns of state hearing officers that the pollution control equipment won't work as promised.

Face it. Texas Republicans could give a rat's a** if the pollution controls work or they don't.

Please let Jan Roe know what you think about these plants.

Robertson County Judge Jan Roe told the commissioners that she and most of the residents in her county support the plant. She said TCEQ staff members had assuaged her concerns about the environmental impact of the plant on the community.

"I can count on two hands how many people have opposed the plant to me," she said.

---

Contact info:

Judge Jan Anderson Roe

P. O. Box 427
Franklin, TX 77856

Phone: 979--828-3542
Fax: 979-828-2944

Perry aide to be new Secretary of State?

Republican Gov. Rick Perry is expected to promote a top aide to succeed Roger Williams as Texas secretary of state. Phil Wilson, Perry's deputy chief of staff, would bring a background in economic development to the job traditionally focused on overseeing state elections.

Perry's office declined to confirm the appointment, which could be announced today. Wilson didn't respond to a request for an interview.

But state Sen. Kirk Watson aired no objections. Watson, D-Austin, reviewed the choice at Perry's request because Wilson lives in Watson's Travis County district.

Thinking back to Perry's former SOS, his close 'friend'. Is this another 'friend'? Wilson over saw the Perry slush fund and says he won't take a position on voter id.

New political rumble in the valley

Harlingen City Commission candidate Humberto Zamora has been sued by former state Rep. Jim Solis, who accuses Zamora of arranging for an illegal 2002 campaign contribution during Zamora’s unsuccessful campaign for the Texas Legislature.

Solis, a Harlingen Democrat and practicing attorney, complains of “illegal conduct by Pinewood Homes Inc. and Humberto Zamora, in violation of basic public integrity laws protecting the Texas electoral system from the corrosive effect of secret corporate campaign cash,” the lawsuit states.

Is Zamora another Tom DeLay Republican caught stuffing his campaign cookie jar?

3 year-old thought to be a terrorist

I've heard that the terrible twos can last into the threes, but still ...

It never occurred to Abdeloihab Boujrad that the U.S. government may be confusing his 3-year-old son with the former leader of an Islamic militant group.

But that's exactly what a civil rights group believes is blocking Boujrad, a U.S. citizen, from bringing the toddler from Morocco to live with him and his wife, a legal permanent resident.

Incompetence, thy name is Bush.

Baptists don't want gay bashing criminalized

The Baptists have come to San Antonio to express their hate for gays. Who said that the "moderates', i.e. people who have read the New Testament, might make a comeback?

The Southern Baptist Convention, which wrapped up its two-day visit to San Antonio on Wednesday, passed a resolution asking the U.S. Senate and President Bush to prevent hate crimes from being prosecutable, saying it would add an extra layer of protection for homosexuality, which they say the Bible denounces.

What if a Baptist wants to stone a gay? That ought to be alright. While we're at it, lets allow honor killings of young women, too.

Update: Apparently, the American Family Association has been sending out erroneous, inflammatory information on the hate crimes bill. Snopes set the record straight (no pun intended.)

More headlines you don't want to see

"Piranha-like fish becoming more common in Valley"

A relative of the piranha, the large tropical fish is becoming more common in Rio Grande Valley waterways as residents who keep them as pets dump them into canals and resacas when the fish grow too big or become a hassle to handle, according to wildlife observers.

I wonder if these fish could eat the alligators people dump.

Bridge demolished THEN ownership is questioned

How did that happen?

[League City] didn’t follow legal procedure when it made a deal with a developer that brought the destruction of a neighborhood bridge it may not have owned, city attorney Dick Gregg told The Daily News.

City officials are now looking for the deed to the bridge, which connected the two sides of the Glen Cove subdivision along Seminole Drive until it was demolished last fall.

The city’s concern centers on whether it owned the bridge and was legally entitled to dispose of it, or whether the state owned it.

Town Hall meeting in Corpus Christi with Solomon Ortiz Jr. and more

From a Nueces County Democrats email:

Join State Representative Solomon Ortiz, Jr.

For A Town Hall Meeting

With Special Guests:

City Council Member Priscilla Leal

County Commissioner Betty Jean Longoria

Thursday, June 14th

Updates on the 80th Legislative Session!

Discussion of City and County Initiatives!

Meet your elected officials!


Light refreshments will be available.

Thursday, June 14, 2007 -- 6:00pm to 7:30pm --

West Oso Elementary School
1526 Cliff Maus Drive
Corpus Christi, TX

For more information, please Call Representative Ortiz, Jr. -
361-991-0047

Mixed bag for Texas wind farms

Wind farm equipment is rolling through the Port of Corpus Christi.

The Port of Corpus Christi is becoming the premier port for wind energy equipment, port Chairman Ruben Bonilla said.

The port awaits Thursday's arrival of the first ship carrying wind turbine equipment for Vestas Group, a Dutch company known as the world's largest supplier of wind power systems. Vestas is the second company in less than a year to send equipment to the port before sending it via trucks and rail throughout the state.

No wind farm for Padre Island.

Plans to build what would have been the nation’s largest offshore wind farm in South Texas have been called off because the multibillion-dollar project didn’t make economic sense, the developer said Monday.

John Calaway, chief development officer for Babcock & Brown Ltd., the Australian investment bank, said the company notified the state a month ago it was giving up its 30-year lease on nearly 40,000 acres in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Padre Island.

Charles Kuffner is disappointed.

The Panhandle will get more.

Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is planning a wind energy production project for the Panhandle that his people say would be the nation's largest.

KVII TV in Amarillo reports Pickens outlined his plans to an invitation-only audience at a close-door meeting Tuesday in Pampa.

Debbie Riddle has a twin in Virginia

You remember Texas Representative Debbie Riddle (R-Middle Ages).

"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever?" she demanded in a legislative hearing. "It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell.

There is, indeed, a Republican movement against public education.

Determined to gain control of their Virginia GOP, fiscal and social conservatives sought revenge in yesterday's primary and unseated two moderate senators.

Sen. Martin E. Williams (R-Newport News) was defeated by conservative Tricia B. Stall, who once signed a petition for "ending government involvement in education."

Attorney General Greg Abbott asks men to be men

Apparently figuring out a new way to be a 'family values' Republican for his next campaign, Greg Abbott asks men to step up for fathers day.

Men need to talk to each other about the importance of being fathers and family role models, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday.

“This Sunday is Father’s Day,” Abbott said. “We want to recognize fathers for all they’ve done for children and for their families.”

Although every child has a biological father, that is not enough, said Abbott, who spoke at the Harlingen Arts & Heritage Museum.

“All children need a dad, all children need a hero,” the attorney general said. “All children need someone they can look up to, someone they can depend on, someone for support, for love, for care.”

Rick Noriega leads border security task force

The Mexican American Legislative Caucus in the Texas House this week formed a border security working group to get started on planning for the next regular session in 2009.

The Border Security Task Force will hold a series of town-hall style meetings in cities along the border and around the state to solicit input of Texans then develop recommendations about border security for the next Legislature, said Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, leader of the task force.

He also wants the task force to keep an eye on how the state spends more than $100 million in border-security funds the Legislature approved, most of which will go to Gov. Rick Perry’s office of Homeland Security.

Rick Noriega steps up.

We want a VA hospital in the valley. Now!

If our Republican Senators, like John Cornyn or Kay Bailey 'all talk' Hutchison really supported our troops, we'd have a hospital in the Valley.

A resolution calling for the building of a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in the Rio Grande Valley was passed Tuesday by Cameron County commissioners, citing the high number of veterans from the World War II era to today’s conflicts in the Middle East who live in South Texas.

“Resolution of Support 2007” is being circulated to local governmental bodies by the Lower Rio Grande Development Council, calling for support of House Resolution 538, introduced by U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, and backed by Reps. Ruben Hinojosa, Henry Cuellar, Lloyd Doggett and Ciro Rodriguez.

TXU continues its PR campaign

Is this too good to be true? Is it all PR with accidental benefits?

TXU Corp. and the private firms working to buy it announced Tuesday that they plan to dramatically reduce the amount of mercury emitted at the Dallas-based utility's nine coal-fired power plants, a move the company says is the nation's largest voluntary pollution-reduction effort.

Doing so could have long-term health benefits in North Texas, although some environmentalists are skeptical that the plan would be as far-reaching as the company says.

We're number 49!

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has an interesting series on how Texas covers up for bad health care practitioners. It's no wonder with Texas Republicans running things that we're 49th in health care.

Texas' healthcare system ranks among the worst in the nation, in large part because so many Texans go without health insurance.

That's a key finding of a "scorecard" released today by researchers at a unit of The Commonwealth Fund who examined each state's performance on 32 separate measures focused on healthcare quality, cost and access to care.

Overall, Texas ranked No. 49 -- third from the bottom -- in the study that included all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Texas was at the absolute bottom of the rankings in access to health care.

Republican incompetence astounds!

An aging weather satellite crucial to accurate predictions on the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any moment and plans to launch a replacement have been pushed back seven years to 2016.

...

Some scientists also complain that the technology planned for the replacement satellite is less precise for hurricane forecasting than what is currently flying.

Headlines you don't want to see

Hernandez returns to helm of Donna school board after indictment

Donna school board president George Hernandez presided over his first meeting Tuesday night since last week’s unsealing of an indictment charging him with 11 counts of conspiracy and extortion in connection with a bribery scandal involving Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school officials.

Hernandez, who owns a roofing business, is charged as a contractor, not in his role as a Donna school board trustee. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Oh, well. That explains it.

Houstonians: Go vote for Melissa Noriega!

Today is the last day for early voting. It is so important to get good people into our government. You know that. Vote!!!

Early voting locations and times - here.

Coastal management policy in Bush's hands

Is that scary or what? Do you really believe that any Republican gives a rat's a** what anybody else thinks or wants or needs?

This month, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Coastal States Organization are hosting nationwide meetings to gather ideas for improving future coastal management plans.

Today, the groups are seeking Galveston’s input.

“This meeting, and one scheduled at the end of the month in Corpus Christi, is the only chance for Texas residents to give input to this federal plan,” said Jim Suydam, spokesman for the Texas General Land Office.

Let's give 'em input anyway.

Brownsville school has 40% drop out before graduation

This has got to change. Our kids need that diploma and more.

Chatter in the stands at Sams Memorial Stadium Wednesday died down as Pat Lehman stepped up to the podium, cleared his throat and began his commencement address with this statistic: Nearly 40 percent of the class that began as freshmen four years ago were not at this graduation ceremony.

...

Of the Brownsville Independent School District’s five high schools, only Hanna High School saw more than half of its 2003 freshmen class cross the 2007 finish line with their classmates when school district and state numbers are compared.

Texas is going to get tough on TAKS cheaters

Next year. Maybe. The kids are going to have to promise not to cheat. That'll help.

Students will be asked to sign honor pledges next year that they will not cheat on the state's high-stakes test, and school districts could suffer lower ratings if cheating is found, education officials said Monday.

Reacting to allegations of widespread cheating and growing pressure on students to pass the standardized tests, state education officials said they will "ramp up" security for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills.

OSHA to protect refinery workers

Color me skeptical. Republicans in Bush's administration doing their actual jobs? Competently?

Nearly 300 federal safety inspectors will fan out to refineries across the country over the next two years as part of a stepped-up enforcement program prompted by the BP Texas City blast and other deadly refinery accidents.

Noting that 52 refinery workers have died and another 250 have been injured over the last 15 years because of accidental hazardous chemical releases, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is training inspectors to examine procedures at 81 different facilities, about half the nation's refineries, federal and industry officials said.

Are the pod people gone from OSHA's management?

Should the lawyers who successfully defended Judge Delgado appear in his court?

Now that the charges against Judge Rudy Delgado have been dropped, he could be up on the bench soon.

And the high-priced lawyers he has hired during the last five years to defend him could very well end up arguing cases before him.

A list of those lawyers reads like a Who’s Who of attorneys in Hidalgo County:

Texas insurrers to share the wealth

Just kidding. You don't think a company operating a regulated public necessity in Texas would share its sky high profits with its customers, do you? Nah.

One of the most profitable years of the decade for insurers has yielded modest reductions in premiums for North Texas homeowners this year, and customers insured by two of the biggest companies aren't getting a break at all.

Home insurance rates in Texas remain the highest in the U.S. by a sizable margin, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

Who will step up for TSU?

State records show that fewer than 50 people applied for spots on the TSU board over the past six years, while twice as many applied for the University of Texas System's governing board in just the past year.

Perry's desire to turn TSU around could hinge on his ability to recruit promising candidates to the governing board, lawmakers and education experts say.

...

But regents generally lack substantial expertise in university issues, such as enrollment, fundraising and shared governance with faculty members. Forty percent of board members said they were "slightly" or "not at all prepared" for the job, according to a recent nationwide survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Pricilla Slade, look what you have done to your school. Was the landscaping worth it?

Your government protects the bad dentists

Why? Because your government is filled with anti-consumer, i.e. crony, Republicans.

One dentist was accused of botching root canals, bridges and crowns and writing 100 prescriptions after his controlled-substances permit had expired.

Another dentist was sentenced to 27 months in prison for overbilling a government program to help the poor. Still another, from Euless, was shot in the chest while breaking into his in-laws' home. He received probation after pleading guilty to criminal trespass and assault charges.

The dentists all have at least two things in common: They're currently licensed to practice in Texas, and the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners only shares details about their past if a request is made in writing -- just don't expect a quick answer.

See previous post.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram asks who's looking out forTexas patients

Not Crony Republicans, you can bet on that!

The commitment was that patients would be more aggressively protected in the wake of new legislation that, in effect, made it more difficult for patients to sue doctors for malpractice. But after the initial push, resources have been cut back, and state data do not indicate that the Legislature has made good on its promises to beef up protections.

Oh, please. Crony is as crony does.

SMU to get Bush library.

Lucky them.

SMU's efforts to land the George W. Bush Presidential Library became all but certain Saturday, when officials from local architectural firms admitted having been approached in recent days about designing the high-profile project on the Park Cities campus.

Will enrollment be adversely effected? The Dallas Morning News had this article Is Dallas losing its livability?, too. Were they being snarky?

What is the most viewed story for the McAllen Monitor this morning?

Surprise."Out in the Valley: Lack of resources frustrating for local gay community"

[This was the top story when I viewed the McAllen Monitor webpage.]

Cornyn and Hutchison exposed for throwing red meat

Hutchison and Cornyn will list a disdain for the amnesty provisions in the bill, a need for greater border security and tougher restrictions on illegal immigrants. But also in the list is the reality of Texas politics.

Cornyn faces re-election in 2008 and Hutchison is considering a possible gubernatorial run in 2010. Each needs the votes of GOP conservatives who still run the state's Republican Party and turn out heavily in the March primaries.

"The immigration bill has a lot of moving parts and as a consequence, politicians are careful, especially those who have an election next season and especially those wanting to come home and run for governor," said Bill Miller, an Austin political consultant.

Republicans still hold every elected office in Texas and the Democratic Party still is rebuilding. Cornyn faces no opposition in the primary, but his general election is attracting the attention of the national Democratic Party, which considers him vulnerable.

What can Texas do about failing charter schools?

Apparently, not much.

State officials say they have plenty of reasons to shut down the American Academy of Excellence charter school, from four consecutive years of low accountability ratings to financial mismanagement.

But two years after the Texas Education Agency announced plans to close it, the downtown Houston school is still issuing diplomas and enrolling students as it appeals the state's decision to an administrative law judge. The process could drag on if school officials take their case to district court.

Closing a charter school is not getting easier any time soon. Two bills that would have closed about two dozen struggling charter schools died in the Texas House of Representatives last month, joining three other proposals that failed in 2005.

Republicans don't care much for accountability. Particularly when taxpayer money to a crony is involved.

The Baptists are coming to San Antonio

The Republican Baptists are in serious need of rebranding. Their new leader, Frank Page, is taking charge of this new PR effort.

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention hopes this year's annual gathering breaks course from the divisive and limited agendas of the past, focusing instead on a broader message of greater evangelistic partnering and compassion for the world's disadvantaged.

Some have figured out that making yourself superior to more and more people reduces the size of the flock you can boss around.

"Enough people saw what was happening and began to speak out," said Wade Burleson, a popular blogger and trustee for SBC's foreign mission board. "More are beginning to see the ultimate end of continuing to narrow the parameters. Pretty soon, they'll be able to get all the people who remain in the SBC in a telephone booth.

But, don't worry. It appears to be sugar coating.

"Evangelicals are perhaps taking a little different turn from the past — not toward liberalism but toward a more socially conscious understanding of today's culture. I hope it's true," [Page] said. "Again I am in no way casting aspersions on our conservative leaders of the past. I love them and know some of them.

My favorite quote from the article:

Already, Page's peacemaking efforts have ruffled some feathers.

What does this mean for our elections? Will Republican Baptists evaluate candidates based on their agendas for the poor instead of their hate for gays? I don't see that happening right away. Will Republican Baptists be confused and stay home? Maybe. It's hard to feel superior when your brand 'Republican' is taking such a beating.

The number of self-identified Republicans are declining. Are some of these defectors Baptists? Somehow I don't think so. I'd like to be wrong.

While were at it, when pollsters say that Bush's support among Republicans is sill high, keep in mind that the pool of people identifying as Republican is declining. A better measure would be support for Bush among those identifying as Republican in 2004.

Hispanic voters increase clout with Democrats

The battle for Hispanic voters is a result of the decision by several states with large Hispanic populations to move their presidential primaries to early 2008, including California, Florida and New York. Roughly two-thirds of the nation’s Hispanic residents live in nine of the states that will hold Democratic primaries or caucuses on or before Feb. 5.

Texas punts.

Texas 'tort reform'. Supreme Court overturns another jury award

I'm sure that business has already taken note of the US Supreme Court and Texas Supreme Courts' new 'buyer beware, who gives a shit about the law or you' rules. So, beware.

Creating a tougher standard for patients who allege asbestos poisoning, the Texas Supreme Court voided a Corpus Christi mechanic's $169,000 damage award Friday, saying he failed to quantify how much asbestos had been inhaled on the job.

During more than 30 years as a mechanic, Arturo Flores ground hundreds of brake pads, each 7 percent to 28 percent asbestos, to reduce brake squealing. The process raised a lot of dust in a small room, and Flores developed breathing problems. He was diagnosed with asbestosis, an incurable, frequently debilitating lung condition. He sued four manufacturers of the brake pads.

Brownsville Police department not concerned about domestic violence

Why was a Brownsville police officer on trial for domestic abuse kept on active duty during the trial? The jury deliberated for 5 hours before acquitting him. He claimed the bruise she got occurred when his hand 'made contact with her face' while he was pushing her away. Oh, and he was at her house to take away the DVD player the kids were using. I'm sure he needed that DVD player more than his own kids did.

He was acquitted. But, why was he still on active duty during the trial? What does that say about the Brownsville police force?

San Antonio Express News posts AP propaganda story

Thinking 'Ethics cloud over California Republicans' could be interesting, I checked it out.

Of 201 House Republicans, at least six are known to have attracted the attention of federal investigators - and four are from California. Their woes come in the wake of the lurid corruption scandal that sent ex-GOP Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham of San Diego to prison last year for taking $2.4 million in bribes.

Although their situations have a few common threads, some analysts attribute the cluster of California cases to coincidence, plus the state's large size and district lines drawn to protect incumbents.

No common thread? Coincidence? Has the term 'culture of corruption' escaped your attention? Have you heard the name Jack Abramoff?

Karl Rove's dream comes true in San Antonio

A Bexar County review that apparently found illegal voting by undocumented immigrants has triggered a county investigation of voter fraud and a federal probe of false citizenship claims.

County and federal officials acknowledged this week that they are looking into whether up to 41 non-citizens voted illegally in San Antonio, some repeatedly, in more than a dozen local, state and federal elections between 2001 and this year.

You know how undocumented workers love to hang around where IDs are checked. Eye on Williamson County has more. Color us all very suspicious about this convenient development for Karl Rove and his voter suppression apparatus.

San Antonio - TDP Town Hall Meeting 10AM Saturday

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie will be in San Antonio Saturday, June 8th, for a Town Hall meeting and fundraiser. Check the Bexar County Democratic Party website at http://bexardemocrats.org or the Texas Democratic Party website at http://www.txdemocrats.org for details.

Mark Your Calendar!
A TDP Town Hall meeting will be held in McAllen (actually Edinburg) on June 23rd, 11am-1pm at the Student Union Theater, University of Texas Pan Am, 1201 W. University.

Calling Rick Noriega

We agree with Boadicea over at Texas Kaos. Senator Noriega sounds very, very nice!

See Draft Rick Noriega for U.S. Senate.

Women Sue San Antonio Police Chief over discrimination

Two high-ranking women within the San Antonio Police Department have sued Police Chief William McManus, the department and the city, alleging sex discrimination.

In separate lawsuits, both filed May 25, Deputy Chief Rose Mary Flammia and Lt. Cozette Fogus accuse McManus of passing them over for promotions in favor of less-experienced men.

"Both of them have spotless records and no, from what I can find, discernible reason that they should not have been promoted over those men," said lawyer Richard Ihfe, who represents both women.

City Attorney Michael Bernard said he's confident the city will prove that McManus did not discriminate against Flammia or Fogus.

More South Texas Criminal Justice News

Or, is it officials gone wild? DA Hissy Fit cries technicality.

Willacy County District Attorney Juan Angel Guerra on Thursday requested that the region’s top state judge dismiss three felony indictments against him.

Guerra requested state District Judge Manuel Bañales, the 5th Judicial District’s administrative judge, dismiss the case because special prosecutor Gus Garza failed to take an oath required by law.

Former Hidalgo District Clerk charged with more crimes than you can imagine puts off justice. For now. "

My understanding is that the defense needed more time to prepare," [Judge] Cantu said.

I'll just bet they do!

Criminal charges dropped against Judge Delgado

What you say? Criminal charges against a judge? Then, dropped? What are the circumstances of this story?

Delgado, who once presided over the 93rd state District Court, was arrested in 2002 after a police officer suspected he was driving while intoxicated. He was charged with DWI and evading arrest. A grand jury dropped the evading arrest charge in 2003.

A visiting judge from Brownsville then dropped the DWI charge in 2005, but Delgado was re-indicted on evading arrest and misuse of information charges later that year.

I guess it pays to be either Paris Hilton or a South Texas judge.

See previous post.

UTPA ranks high in Hispanic Outlook

The University of Texas-Pan American is ranked in the top five of a poll Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine recently released.

The university was ranked second in bachelor’s degrees and fifth in master’s degrees awarded to Hispanics in 2005-06 as part of the publication’s “Top 100 Colleges for Hispanics” listing. The University of Texas at San Antonio and University of Texas at El Paso also made the list.

What now for PSJA?

The next step for the scandal-plagued Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district will be determined by what its indicted superintendent and three board members do.

Federal authorities unsealed an indictment Tuesday against Superintendent Arturo Guajardo and board members Evangelina “Vangie” Garcia-De Leon, Rogelio “Roy” Rodriguez and Raul “Roy” Navarro consisting of 22 counts of conspiracy and extortion.

See previous post.

Watts ponies up the money for his senate race

San Antonio trial lawyer Mikal Watts has launched his bid for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination by donating and loaning his campaign fund a total of $3.8 million — an amount equal to Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn's cash on hand.

"I took John Cornyn's first-quarter report and matched it to the penny," Watts said. "We're going to start with a level playing field and then we're going to start raising money and see what the people of Texas have to say."

The San Antonio Express News invokes Tony Sanchez. Cornyn says Watts is trying to buy his seat, but Democrats won't be fooled. I don't know, John. We elected you, didn't we?

Cornyn is flinging the red meat

How glorious for the Crony GOP Senator. With the narrow defeat of his anti-amnesty (sic) amendment, Cornyn gets credit while business keeps cheap labor.

Sen. John Cornyn's attempt to restrict the number of undocumented immigrants who could receive permanent residence in a sweeping immigration reform proposal was rejected Wednesday in the Senate.

The current plan emphasizes business over family. What else is new? Oh, yeah. They're just more blatant about it.

The controversial Senate measure, which would provide a path to legalization for most of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants, curtails the ability of immigrants to petition for family members.

The change would have a deep impact on the nation's Asian immigrant communities – recipients of the highest number of legal permanent resident visas – and in the Dallas area, where 72 percent of Asians are foreign-born. It would eliminate the immigration categories previously reserved for siblings and adult children of U.S. citizens.

Business interests are fighting amongst themselves.

Industries that need highly skilled, well-educated workers are pitted against those that want lower-wage, minimally skilled employees. All of them are jealously eyeing the agriculture sector, whose powerful lobby secured a separate "AgJobs" bill likely to provide ample numbers of immigrant farm workers for decades to come.

Everybody wants cheap labor. Not just the ag guys. Who's representing the workers?

Another BP worker death

Crony Republicans think workers are expendable.

A contract worker was electrocuted at the BP refinery late Tuesday afternoon and the company said Wednesday it still has room to improve its safety measures.

How's that for an understatement. More here.

OSHA spokeswoman Diana Petterson in Dallas confirmed that the agency is investigating but released no further details. OSHA has six months to investigate and can issue citations if it finds violations of agency standards.

I'm not holding my breath on that one.

See previous posts.

Corpus Christi Police Chief goes back to work after no bill on rape charge

Here's a guy who got drunk and drove (?) to his ex girlfriend's home in the middle of the night to have sex. He was engaged to another woman at the time. Now the Caller Times says Police Chief Bryan Smith has a hard task - regaining credibility. Guess what. He can't.

Bryan Smith, no-billed on charge of rape, now faces the need to regain his credibility, rally shaken department.

What does that conduct say about the way Smith treats women? What does driving drunk say about the way Smith treats the law? What does retaining Smith say about City Manager Skip Noe and the City Council?

I'd say it's Skip Noe and the City Council who have a credibility problem to repair.

Mexican employer speaks out on US Immigration policy

In today's world, every conniving chiseler forms a think tank to push the propaganda. Today's San Antonio Express News article clearly labels the think tank responsible for its story so we can evaluate the source. Thank you.

Increased border security, a temporary worker program and other facets of immigration reform being debated in the U.S. Senate may be smart moves, but national leaders need to think bigger — a true solution starts with helping Mexican workers stay or return home.

That's the $2 million message being launched this week by Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, a San Antonio think tank, in a national ad campaign.

The organization, founded last year by marketing expert Lionel Sosa, plans to expand its existing programs and launch new ones to try to address the root problem driving illegal immigration.

"We're worried about the well-being of both countries," said MATT board chairman Alonso Ancira, who, like many in the group, has dual citizenship and lives and works on both sides of the border.

Judge hurts his own case

Sometimes irony hurts.

The district attorney's office reindicted [Edinburg Judge Rudy] Delgado on evading arrest and misuse of information charges after they discovered information in a lawsuit Delgado filed against the officer who arrested him.

Money, sex and tickets first. Jail maybe next for PSJA officials.

The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District ugliness continues.

Sex, paid vacations and more than $600,000 in monetary gifts are among the many bribes federal authorities say PSJA Superintendent Arturo Guajardo and three school board members accepted in exchange for funneling projects to a preferred group of Valley businessmen

See list of indicted. See previous posts.

Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr. and HB 2622

From Ortiz email:

Rep. Solomon Ortiz, Jr. Statement on HB 2622:

"Today, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Corpus Christi Regional Transportation Authority (CCRTA) wrote me a letter indicating the board will likely withdraw its support for HB 2622. I agreed to file this legislation at the request of the CCRTA, based on the unanimous support of the board. That support is no longer unanimous. Constituents and community leaders have expressed opposition to the bill, and when my constituents speak, I listen. Pending receipt of a resolution from the board, I will formally request that Governor Rick Perry veto HB 2622."

As usual, the Corpus Christi Caller Times gets all snarky on Ortiz. Wasn't that just a little harsh?

More on the Mikal Watts discussion...

Lot's of discussion on Democratic Underground and other places in the blogsphere. Here's my two cents. Let's forget all the stuff about HillCo and donations to Republicans and everything else being tossed around. The average voter (Democrat, Independent, and moderate Republican) isn't going to know about this stuff and probably wouldn't care if they did. Most voters are too busy with their lives to do more than scan the list of candidates before they go vote. (Need I remind everybody of the last Nueces County primary election where Gene Kelley polled higher than Barbara Ann Radnofsky?)

If Mikal Watts is the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate voters are going to see a young, rich, trial lawyer with no public service experience going against an incumbent U.S. Senator who'd previously been on the Texas Supreme Court and had been Texas Attorney General.

Incumbency is powerful, and short of a video showing Cornyn biting the heads off live puppies, we have to give voters a reason to change.

Rick Noriega (HD145) has tons of legislative and public service experience and is a military veteran. Hispanics in south Texas have a long, proud history of service to their country; their families have suffered more than most from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I believe someone like Rick Noriega, or even Juan Garcia (HD32), would have a better chance of motivating these Democrats to go to the polls. They'd also have a better chance of attracting Independents and moderate Republicans.

Hispanic voters aren't stupid -- Tony Sanchez was seen as a rich guy trying to buy the Governor's office and they saw no reason to vote for him. Rick and Juan, on the other hand, are genuine public servants. Money will only get you so far, and Cornyn has lots of it and can get lots more.

More on that damn border fence

University officials protested a federal government plan to build a border fence where it would split the University of Texas at Brownsville campus.

The fence’s schematics show part of the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College’s International, Technology, Education and Commerce Campus on the south side of the fence.

“I don’t think it would be appropriate to fence off the university on the Mexican side of the fence,” Antonio D. Zavaleta, UTB-TSC vice president for external affairs, said he told a government official. “I told him I wanted to go on the record pointing out a couple of things that are important that (he) may not have thought of.”

Like they care.

Former La Feria mayor cries election fraud

Former La Feria Mayor Lalo Sosa wants a do-over of the May 12 election.

Sosa filed a lawsuit against newly elected Mayor Steve Brewer charging election fraud led Brewer to win the election by 11 votes.

The lawsuit requests a trial date and that ballot boxes 24, 26, 55 and 58 be impounded. As alternative, it requests that the election be declared void and another election held.

In the lawsuit filed May 31 in 138th state District Court, Sosa charges non-residents were allowed to vote while qualified voters were not allowed to cast ballots.

Early voting rate high in Brownsville

The first day of early voting in the June 16 run-off election for Brownsville’s mayor and the At-Large A commissioner seat drew almost twice as many voters as on the first day of early voting in May.

On Monday, 610 early votes were cast, compared to 345 on the first day of voting in the May 12 election.

Houston beats Dallas!

In murder rate.

Houston's homicide rate surpassed Dallas' in 2006 for the first time in more than a decade and is now the second-highest among the nation's largest cities, according to figures released Monday by the FBI.

Houstonians were killed at a rate of 18.2 per 100,000 residents last year, a number that had gone unmatched since 1995 when the FBI began posting crime statistics online. Dallas' homicide rate was higher than Houston's in all of the previous 11 years.

Houstonians: Have you voted for Melissa Noriega yet?

Charles Kuffner over at Off the Kuff has the voting locations and more.

Early voting runs from today through next Tuesday, June 12. Times and locations can be found here (PDF).

Juan Garcia explains the new recorded vote system

For the first time in Texas history, every vote on final passage during the 80th Legislative Session of the Texas House of Representatives was recorded. This marks a revolutionary change in the way the Legislature does business, with important policy ramifications. But the movement towards full transparency in government must be solidified, and expanded.

Citizen on Sunset Advisory Commission notices cronyism

"The system is so corrupt that it cannot tolerate someone saying that the emperor has no clothes,"[Sunset Advisory Commission member Howard] Wolf said. "They have been allowed to perpetuate a system that has used government at the expense of consumers."[Welcome to the real world of Republican governance, Howard.]

...

Weeks after Wolf first asked that his criticisms be added to the Sunset report, reporters discovered that political representatives for the wholesale liquor distributors had donated at least $1.38 million to more than 150 state legislators and Gov. Rick Perry. Liquor lobbyists gave Brimer $30,000.

The disclosure of the donations caused the wholesale distributors to drop their effort to change a law that requires restaurants and bars to buy their liquor from retail outlets, a change that would have channeled what amounts to billions of dollars in liquor revenue through the distributors.

The donation embarrassment, Wolf said, was proof of the corruption he had alleged. Wolf went public with his comments, essentially claiming that the Legislature was in the pocket of the liquor lobby.

TAKS cheating worse at charter schools

With little oversight, why not?

Last year, 53 sophomores took the math TAKS test at Houston's Jesse Jackson Academy. Two stood out from the crowd.

They were the only two whose answer sheets don't show evidence of cheating.

Jackson – a Houston charter school with a long record of trouble with authorities – is home to the most extreme cheating in Texas, according to an in-depth analysis of test scores by The Dallas Morning News.

The cheating spans years, grades and subjects, and it's on a scale that shocks even veteran hunters of educational fraud. And its existence is the latest black eye for the state's efforts to regulate its patchwork of charter schools.

Republicans in Texas want to kill public education.

A group of charter schools approved controversially in 1998 are, among all their other problems, a significant source of the state's cheating.

The 100-plus schools were approved at a rambunctious meeting of a State Board of Education committee. That's when board members rejected staff recommendations and decided to give a charter school – and access to state money – to every entity that had applied for one. They were dubbed "Generation Three" schools because they were the third group of charter contracts granted by the state.

A black woman with late stage breast cancer? Too bad.

This just isn't right. We need universal healthcare.

The study by University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center researchers found that while the survival rates of white women with recurrent, late-stage breast cancer increased 35 percent from 1988 to 2003, they didn't change at all for black women.

"That's a pretty substantial disparity," said Dr. Sharon Giordano, a professor in M.D. Anderson's department of breast medical oncology and the study's senior author. "What's of most concern is that it's increasing rather than diminishing over time."

The study contributes to a growing body of research showing racial disparities in breast cancer treatment and survival, because of both socioeconomic factors and tumor biology. But it's the first to find black women aren't deriving a benefit from recent advances in the field and that the disparity is getting worse, not better.

The retrospective study — researchers looked at a database of patient records — didn't address the cause, but Giordano said she thinks it's because of socioeconomic factors. She said she wouldn't expect the biology of the tumor to change over time.

Houston Chronicle notices crony pollution politics

The Legislature made it easier for Texans to recycle their old computers, replace their polluting old clunkers and save money on energy-efficient appliances.

While putting the onus on consumers to improve their state's environment, it was business as usual for the industries that spew toxics into the air.

There was unprecedented momentum going into the session, with proposals for new coal plants stirring citizen concern. Scientific evidence kept mounting of the adverse health effects on those living in toxic hotspots along the Gulf Coast. A record number of bills were filed to address air pollution and global warming concerns, but most of those bills died without getting a legislative hearing.

"The Legislature kept in place the plan to allow for increased emissions from new coal plants and continued releases of toxics from industrial plants," said Cyrus Reed, a lobbyist with the Lone Star Sierra Club.

Toll road moratorium? Perry says no.

Now that legislators have gone home and trumpeted how they passed a bill to freeze private financing of toll roads, the governor's office has some bubble-busting news.

There isn't much of a moratorium in Senate Bill 792.

"Of any kind, that we can tell," said Robert Black, spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry. "Unless there was something screwy that happened."

Sick, sick San Antonio Express News headline

If a man holds a person hostage for two days 'with a gun in her face' don't call him 'lovesick'! Why trivialize the event and at the same time suggest sympathy for the perpetrator?

'Lovesick man holds ex-girlfriend hostage, police say'

The warrant says this is not the first time the victim reported Spencer to police. He has a pending assault bodily injury case involving the victim.

Shame, shame on the editor for that headline!

Galveston indigent healthcare? Not so much.

The University of Texas Medical Branch will likely receive more than $1.1 billion in state and federal funds over the next two years, but it’s still not enough to cover the medical branch’s increasing indigent care expenses, lawmakers representing Galveston County say.

State Rep. Craig Eiland and State Sen. Kyle Janek voted against the state’s $153 billion budget for fiscal 2008 and 2009 after unsuccessfully lobbying for increases for indigent-care funding.

Own land on the border? Have we got a problem for you.

Republicans don't care what effects their policies have. They just need some red meat to wave at their rabid base. Sorry, the fence is the best red meat the Republicans can manufacture.

Like other farmers along the Rio Grande, Tudor Uhlhorn wants to know where federal officials will build a fence that will cut across his family’s land.

“I’d like to know how that fence is going to get across drainage ditches and irrigation canals,” said Uhlhorn, a farmer who owns part of a sprawling industrial park here.

“But they’re going to do what they want anyway,” he said.

Texas Association of Business says workers and their children should just drop dead

That's how I read their position.

"It's not about autism. It's not about brain injuries. It's not about cervical cancer," said the association's Shelton Green. "We want to avoid placing mandates on employers, on their health benefit policies."

..

"We want the free market to work," Green said. "We want to leave the discretion up to the employers and let them decide what health plans (to provide) and not the state."

If some workers die, business will be alright, because other workers will take their places.

Got a high electric bill?

Did you think Republicans would help you?

Do people have to march on Austin with pitchforks and torches to get legislators to act on deregulation?

Texas residents have been crying out about high electric rates for almost two years, and politicians appeared to be listening. Lawmakers held hearings and railed about a broken system that punishes consumers and produces big profits for utilities. Then, in the recent Legislature, the House and Senate approved separate reform bills by a combined vote of 162-1.

The odds looked good for real changes in the electric market, but the rout went the other way: Nothing major happened.

Who would the Texas Republican legislature help? You or their cronies?

At the heart of the problem is the need to fix the wholesale market, said Tim Morstad, lobbyist for AARP. The advocacy group called this week for a special legislative session to address electric deregulation.

"We're calling for real reform to wholesale prices," Morstad said. "Some of the fundamental flaws to the market lie in the wholesale market."

Morstad said owners of coal-fired electric plants can generate electricity for 4 cents per kwH and then sell it for 8 or 9 cents.

"If the wholesale system was reformed, all the retail rates would come down," he said.

Similarly, transmission costs have escalated since deregulation, and the budget of ERCOT, which manages the market for most of the state, has "ballooned" since deregulation, Morstad said. ERCOT's revenue rose to $135.1 million in 2006 from $65.5 million in 2001, while expenses rose to $133.5 million from $55.2 million.

TAKS cheating rampant

The Dallas Morning News is all about TAKS today.

Analysis shows TAKS cheating rampant
How the TAKS scores were analyzed for evidence of cheating
Estimated number of cheaters might be low
Bill would stop cheating by eliminating test

Need windstorm coverage? Too bad.

More than 30,000 Nueces County homeowners have been forced to transfer their windstorm insurance to the state-run Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.

Nationwide also isn't the first to drop policies along the Texas coast. Allstate insurance dropped windstorm coverage for 65,000 policyholders on the Texas coast last year. State Farm also stopped writing policies for customers within 2,500 feet of the coast. Only a handful of other companies are writing or renewing policies.

Take that border fence or else

The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol told angry mayors, businessmen, and environmentalists Friday the 700-mile border fence was law, and if his agency and local officials reach an impasse on where the fence should go, “then it’s up to someone to make a decision.”

Chief David Aguilar’s address to the Texas Border Coalition — which was hastily arranged late Thursday after numerous cancellations by Homeland Security officials — was sprinkled with conciliatory “ifs” and “mays” about the location of the fence. But Aguilar made clear that the federal government would have the final say.

The spin on Mikal Watts

Here's the way the news stories go - " Mikal Watts, a San Antonio lawyer and top contributor to Democratic candidates". What these 'news' stories neglect to mention.

During the 2006 elections, the committee [Good Government PAC used to launder Republican donations] donated $2,500 to Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, an ally of Speaker Tom Craddick who lost re-election to a Democratic challenger.

The committee also donated $1,000 to Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, one of Craddick's staunchest backers. Among the Democrats who supported Craddick for speaker this year Rep. Norma Chavez of El Paso got $10,000 for her campaign; Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston, $10,000; and Rep. Kevin Bailey, $1,000.

The PAC in 2005 gave $15,000 to Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, who earlier this year reported having $5.6 million in his campaign account.

During the 2004 election cycle, Watts personally donated $125,000 to the Good Government PAC, which in turn gave $100,000 of it to the Hillco Pac. Many Democrats view the Hillco Pac as the lobby vehicle that helps keep Craddick in power.

US DOJ to investigate Austin police use of force

City officials said they think the review of the Austin Police Department could take up to three years. City Manager Toby Futrell said in a memo to Mayor Will Wynn and City Council members that the city learned about the investigation Thursday.

Voter fraud action for Starr and Hidalgo Counties

Is it real or is it Memorex the Republican voter suppression machine?

At least four Starr and Hidalgo county political operatives have been indicted on voter fraud charges in what the Texas Attorney General’s Office says was a large-scale effort to submit mail-in ballots for imaginary people in the March 2006 Democratic primary election.

We're number 1! In carbon emissions that is.

Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas' population.

No increase for commerical windstorm coverage

Insurance cronies are better than coastal commercial cronies.

The Texas insurance commissioner late Thursday rejected a measure that would have increased the amount of state windstorm coverage available for commercial and government properties.

Commissioner Mike Geeslin cited ballooning risk exposure in Galveston and Brazoria counties among reasons for not raising the commercial coverage cap from $3.2 million to $5 million.

It was a hard blow to coastal businesses and governments who are finding windstorm insurance scarce and expensive.

Womanizing police chief retained in Corpus Christi

His ex-girlfriend accused him of rape. Smith's Attorney said any sex was consensual. The grand jury didn't indict. But, what about the woman Smith publicly proposed to just a few days prior?

Police Chief Bryan Smith apologized and took responsibility Friday for poor judgment in his personal life, and said he hoped it wouldn't reflect on the police force he will continue to lead.

Actually, it reflects on City Manager Skip Noe who thinks you're just what the city of Corpus Christi needs. And, the city council members who agreed.

"I think that the city manager is correct that (Smith's) not committed a crime and therefore didn't deserve to lose his job," [Bill] Kelly said. "But it is conduct unbecoming of an officer so there is punishment, and as I understand it. It is in line with what would happen to a field officer, so I think it's appropriate."

Shouldn't the police chief be held to a higher standard? Shouldn't he be setting an example for his team? What kind of message does this decision send to the women of Corpus Christi about the kind of respect our officials have for you?

Republicans need a brand new bag

Wedges and fear mongering have worked for years. Occasionally you have to update the wedgees - Irish, Italians, gays, Mexicans. The bogey man changes over time - Communists, Russians, Muslims. We've always had 'family values' campaigns where a less than pristine candidate prances around being holier than thou. Today's 'family values' hypocrites use hyper patriotic emotions.

None of these manipulative techniques appear to be that useful anymore. The immigration wedge issue has the rabid base riled up, but crony businesses wants cheap labor. [PS: We've been blogging about this GOP conflict since February of 2006. Keep up mainstream.]

Does anybody else think it's pathetic to watch Tom DeLay and John Cornyn going around pushing the same tired old buttons? Only the basest of the base believe Bush et al anymore. Have Americans finally wised up? Or, do the Republicans just need a new ad agency?